⇨ FAERIE TALES

[ringleaders]

Who: Rescue Teams!
When: Day 61
Where: The Athenaeum
What: The carnival goes to get their kidnapped comrades, and use the Athenaeum's magical power of narrative asspulls to guide their way.
Warnings: Two out of three of the fae here are deeply unclean.

TELL YOUR STORY↴ Five of you have been lost, and it's time to get them back. Below, we will be threading the encounter threads one at a time. Put on your best improv hat and feel free to join in.

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[whattaprick]

What did they do to him? Lambert feels his ire rising at the question, and fresh off the memories he just shared, some of that anger is audible in his voice.

"No worse than they've done to us before," he snarls back. What exactly that consists of, he won't bother to detail -- though the Ringmaster's imagination can probably entertainingly fill that in with horrible images before he answers what he guesses is her main concern. "No iron. Just stories, like the Scribe and Curator told us to."

He breathes, and launches into another question. "But it's not enough to kill him. The Summer Court's going to be after our asses no matter what -- you want to leave another fae with a grudge on the loose?"

[npcarnival]

The Ringmaster is just sounding more and more distressed and desperate, yelling into the radio as she is apparently one step away from a mental breakdown.

"What are you suggesting? Lambert?"

Why won't any of them listen to her? This is insane. Why could't they have bound Ignatius and fled, like everyone else did?

[whattaprick]

"Let's take him with us," Lambert says, simply. "Or come here and kill him yourself."

Witchers are supposed to be neutral. Neutrality didn't keep them from getting half wiped out. It obviously isn't enough.

"You said it yourself: they'll never give up chasing you, and now you're sending us after weapons of war. Maybe you should start treating this like one."

[lordofthering]

Lambert better be careful, because he's about to get what he wished for. The Ringmaster can access the Athenaeum too, after all. Combined with her existing power... well, she wouldn't want to be someone on her bad side, she thinks as she narrates herself a short cut straight to the arena.

She appeals as a massive silhouette, her front claws coming to rest on the walls of the structure as if it were a knee-high fence. He feathered wings could blot out the sun as they stretch to her sides, her eyes a cutting orange as she glares down at the assembled carnival workers... and Ignatius. She is in her full dragon form, and yet she's arrived without a sound.

One massive foot settles into the arena, followed by another. She curls her lip, revealing a snarl of sharp teeth, seeing what's going on in the water below. Finally, her eyes settle on Lambert.

Lifting a foot, she swings it towards him and smacks him across the arena.

"Unfortunately," she rumbles in narration before he's managed to hit the ground. "The Nightrider didn't die from his injuries. That would be too easy."

Then, she turns to look at the others.

[whattaprick]

Bye, Lambert. He has just long enough to bare his teeth at the Ringmaster's dragon form before he's torn from Syrlya and punted straight across the Coliseum, into the stands.

Unfortunately, while the Ringmaster might have narrated him out of death, she also hasn't narrated him out of injury or unconsciousness. There's a distinctly unpleasant sound as Lambert's body impacts the stone 'seats,' and then he mercifully blacks out.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's mouth opens when Lambert's sent flying across the arena, but she soon shuts it, instead meeting the Ringmaster's gaze. She's not about to make any excuses; Lambert just about covered it over the radio.

What she will do, however, is deactivate her Guardian powers, beckoning her book back to her and willing it to dissolve into light and return to her chest, causing her clothes to also return to normal. The sword in Ignatius' chest vanishes, the magic composing it dissipating.

"I assume you've got something to say?" she says, regarding the Ringmaster with a wary look. She's never seen her like this before, and while she can make some guesses at why she's so furious, the fact is that she doesn't know enough about the Ringmaster to be sure of what's going on in her head. "Or are you going to smack us around, too?"

[npcarnival]

As the sword disappears, Ignatius chokes out a gasp, his shoulders jerking with the sudden change in sensation. Flickers of flame and heat bleed from the open wound, making the water bubble and sizzle around it. He barely looks like himself, after all of this, with his flames drowned, his body held down in chains.

He doesn't look up from the ground, still bent over his knees. He's pretty sure he knows what's coming next, and he isn't going to fight it. He's done.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya's hand is quickly empty as Lambert is smacked right out of his reach. He just stares at him getting beat across the floor before snapping his attention up to the Ringmaster in anticipation for getting swatted about next.

Rita's antagonism isn't helping, and Syrlya cringes. "If the Ringmaster intends to do either, it is likely best saved after we return to the carnival." With or without Ignatius. Who he spares a look to, glancing over the damage done. It isn't a wound that will kill him like the Prince, but...

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster looks at Rita and Syrlya as they speak, but she doesn't actually say anything in return. Instead, she just stares and bears her teeth more widely, her dragonish face far more difficult to read than her humanoid one. Her eyes are narrowed, like she's thinking.

Then, she takes a step closer to Ignatius, looming over him. Seeing this makes her very uncomfortable, but that doesn't change what she's going to do next.

"Ignatius," she says. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this."

Then, she opens her jaws and grabs him up into her mouth, ripping the chains free from the ground as he goes. She swallows him whole. He doesn't even get the chance to fight back.

She tilts her head back as she makes sure to keep him down, and then lifts her body, looking back to the two of them. She really doesn't seem happy.

"In her haste to flee, the Ringmaster moved the portal to the very edge of the coliseum, bidding her followers to leave while there was still time. They took the Nightrider's unconscious body with them, and made it back to the carnival grounds before she lost her patience."

Then, she growls, speaking plainly.

"If you want to fight this like a war, you should consider what the cost of insubordination is."

She turns and leaps for the newly opened portal, disappearing inside.

[chronosynthesis]

Oh. Syrlya purses his lips, teeth gritting in a barely contained grimace. He doesn't argue with her counter-accusation, only watching her leave before he sheathes his blade and holds his hand out to Rita.

"The bloodstone, please." They're done here, obviously, and right now isn't the time to sit and reconsider what just occurred.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita watches her go silently, then turns to Syrlya. Her hand is already fumbling with one of her pouches when he asks for the stone. She's visibly tired, and her gaze is somewhat unfocused, but she promptly hands over the stone with a vague, "Thanks."

She then makes her way over to Lambert and looks down, considering his wounds.

"Can you carry him?" she asks. Rita doesn't want to admit it, but she's running out of stamina. She can't leave him like this, though... literally, because the narrative now compels her to return with him.

[whattaprick]

On top of the burns, Lambert's bleeding out from where his head cracked against the seats, has at least four broken ribs, and some unknown amount of internal bruising.

He's alive, though. It's just going to suck when he wakes up.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya pockets the stone. He turns his attention to Lambert's beaten form off to the side, and... hm.

"Well, I can drag him at least." No promises it'll be comfortable but he can at least make sure, narrative or not, that Lambert gets back to the carnival.

So he walks over to do just that.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita stays close to Syrlya as they make their way back to the carnival, swaying slightly as she walks. She's quiet all the while, her gaze distant and her expression troubled. There's a lot to think about, but it's getting harder to focus on her thoughts...

She manages to make it all the way to the medical tent before she passes out.