⇨ THE EPILOGUE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 61
Where: The Carnival
What: After all the rescues team return, it will be matter of tending to the wounded and getting the hell out of dodge. The Ringmaster can handle the fleeing part, but someone will need to look after those in the medical tent. Or, maybe, you just want to show up and ask what the hell happened.
Warnings: Some messed up consequences of faerie fuckery.

IN REPAIR↴ As the minutes tick past, all four rescue groups will eventually return. Everyone in the carnival is encouraged to help out, ensuring that the rescues and victims both are taken care of after the fact. You can tag in here as rescuers taking care of business around the carnival, victims recovering, or other workers checking in to see what's going on. This log is for general aftermath threads, made by anyone.

Comments

HERBERT WEST | MEDICAL TENT

[scientificist]

Herbert, wisely, put a spare set of clothing in the medical tent, so by the time other groups start arriving, he's mostly dry, rebandaged, and wearing his labcoat with his wet clothing hung up to start dripping dry in his office. His wings are still charred down to the skin in some places, but otherwise, he looks as put together as can be expected, what with having been on fire recently.

For once, he's not working on animal anatomy study or paperwork in his office while Yukio does personable checkups, he's out in the main area, checking on patients, working on something at a chemistry set at the side of the tent, or else just standing in the middle of the room, wings spread, trying to stretch out his lower back.

HELLO...

[soft_focus]

Reira was done corresponding the moment the radio became nothing but Water sounds. Once it became Water sounds, she sort of wondered if something was wrong, in fact.

And then all that water came (literally) flying past the front gates, confirming that everyone had indeed somehow succeeded. Probably.

As such, she makes her best effort to lend a Small hand. She knows they'll probably be busy at first. People were fighting faeries, so people are probably hurt. Which is why she takes that time to gather some things from the cookhouse instead, and only shows up a little bit after the tent appears to have settled down.

She's even patient enough to wait until Herbert doesn't seem to be doing anything important...which is to say, when he's stretching.

At which point, small bundle of pastries in hand, she comes over and beams. "...You did it-!"

CONGRATULATIONS

[scientificist]

"Mm?" goes Herbert, and looks down. ...of course, it's Reira. He fumbles for a moment about what to say to this small, smiling child who is...oddly invested in helping him? and slips his hands into the pockets of his labcoat.

"Y-es," he says, and looks like a confused bird for a moment before adding, "theeee. Help. Was appreciated?" It's only fair to give her a bit of credit, of course. He always works better with an enthusiastic audience.

And, well. He did take some of her advice.

[soft_focus]

Of course it's Reira. And Reira, of course, is holding out the cookies. Sir. Sir. "I got you these," she insists, not saying anything in reply to the thanks beyond a nod and a sound of acknowledgement. "...Since everyone was working hard, but probably got tired and hungry too," the girl insists. Cookies! Sugar and energy, that's what's important right?

More importantly. "...You gave the sword a name..!" She sounds especially thrilled by that. "...I didn't even have to say that swords with names are stronger in books..." So smart, Doctor Herbert!!

[scientificist]

Herbert is almost embarrassingly receptive to praise, and as Reira is a kid, none of it even comes off as patronising. His eyebrows go up and she receives an actual, genuine smile. It's brief, yes, but it does happen. Sometimes.

"It's easier to improvise when you know the Library is on your side and your, personal abilities won't work against you," he explains, and takes the cookies. "Did you....make these or--" He blinks, and looks like he's having to think fairly hard about this. "--it's a. Nice. Gesture."

[soft_focus]

That makes sense, Reira decides with a small nod. If you already know how much can and will move in your favor, it's easier to believe in it. And if it's easier to believe, then it's easier to make it real. That much, she's fairly certain, is how a bunch of the magic Foster had been teaching her works.

Magic aside, she looks somewhat embarrassed about the cookies as she shakes her head. "Mnh- I'm not supposed to cook alone...so they're just from the cookhouse," she admits. "But, they're still good!" Reira quickly adds, sounding quite certain about it.

[scientificist]

"That's...wise, yes," he says, and clears his throat. This is awkward? He still doesn't know how to talk to kids and he especially doesn't know how to respond to friendly gestures, and Reira is a source of both, constantly. "Iiii...wouldn't have gone there on my own--I don't have the time..."

[soft_focus]

"Yeah. Because people who got taken were hurt, and other people got hurt, right?" That's the obvious guess as to why he'd be busy anyway, but belatedly she gives a bashful sort of smile.

'Wise', huh? "....thanks." It's quite a lot like dealing with her brother, she's finding. The awkwardness of dealing with other people anyway. "...Do you think everyone else should have cookies?" she wonders, peering around.

[scientificist]

"Yes, exactly," he says, and tucks the bundle of cookies into one of the pockets of his labcoat so he can stand there with his hands comfortably in the pockets of his suit jacket rather than holding them. "It. Could be a nice gesture--even those who, shouldn't right now could always have them later, I suppose."

[soft_focus]

"Hmn...." She gives that some thought. "....It's probably messy if I do that though," she mutters. Granted, it's already messy, but...

"...Should I wrap them in things before bringing them here, so that it's easier to clean?"

Cleanliness seems Important, at least in this tent.

[scientificist]

"That seems ideal," he agrees. Honestly, he's appreciative of how quiet and thoughtful Reira is. The best possible version of a child, probably. Not that he has much exposure to children but he's led to believe they're noisy messes usually. "Less work for us."

[soft_focus]

"Ok! I'll make sure the next ones are wrapped up then," she determines, apparently quite pleased with the fact that she's doing good.

"Umnnhh... ...how many people will need them though?"

She's heard that some of the people here don't eat. Say it ain't so Herb, say it ain't so-

[scientificist]

Somehow, he's ended up in charge of this whole situation, when he barely understands gifting to begin with.

"I...couldn't say--I'm. Sure they'll say if they don't want them? Nooot...Jasper." That seems like a safe analysis.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst has no intention of leaving the medical tent before Steven wakes up again, but now that he's resting and stable she's gotten antsy, unable to sleep herself for now because she's too worried, and so she's gotten up to stretch her legs a little instead of sitting vigil at his side.

She moseys up to Herbert while he's busy with his chemistry set, her arms folded behind her head in a slightly forced show of casualness.

"Yo, what's up, doc? Doin' science over here?"

[scientificist]

Right in middle of carefully pouring a measurement of some chemical or magical whatever, Herbert frowns slightly at the interruption and finishes that before setting the beaker down and setting it up to slowly feed across into another mixture. That done, he pulls his wings in tightly to his back to avoid sweeping everything off the table, and turns to face Amethyst.

"Yes, I'm attempting to reverse the effects oooof...whatever it is the Rose Queen did to Steven." He took a couple samples. Steven seemed pretty wrecked up already, so he doubts it will have much effect on the recovery he saw beginning to happen. "It may turn out this is simply another of the, changes we experience here--but it does seem actively harmful, in comparison." He hasn't actually really met Amethyst before, and since he's now waiting on a scientific process to take place... "Yooou're...another one of the gems?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeah, I'm Amethyst," she says, leaning on the table to get a better look at what he's doing. She frowns, her tongue poking out of her mouth a little bit as she peers at the beakers and stuff. Then she glances up at Herbert. "You uh... you think he's gonna be OK?"

[scientificist]

"Physically, he seems to be making a swift recovery," he says. The chemistry set is honestly probably kind of fun to watch, there are those swirly tubes, and things dripping through to various places, and little fires and different colours. Prime movie chemistry. "The...crystal may be an issue but I've dealt with petrification before. And his limbs are, certainly regrowing."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Okay. Okay, cool."

She slumps against the table in relief and watches the chemistry take place for a bit. It's pleasantly distracting.

"Thanks, doc."

[scientificist]

He nods in initial response, and then looks like he's thinking for a moment before he adds. "You're...welcome. It's. What I'm here to do..." It trails off because he feels weird about it. He's trying, but being a polite, public relations type of person just doesn't come naturally to him.

"There is something you can help me with," he says abruptly, "while you're here. What's the...progression. Of cracked gems. Should I be looking out for something, are you aware?"

[drrdrrdrr]

She perks up a little, clearly glad for the distraction. "Oh, I know all about this stuff, I been cracked before." She pushes a beaker aside a little so she can hop up onto the table. Hopefully that wasn't anything important! "Lemme see, she's just got some weird stuff goin' on with her legs right now, right?" She glances over at Jasper on the other side of the tent, who glares at her. "Pfft, well, if she keeps takin' it easy she'll probably just stay like that, but when I got cracked we had to trek out to Rose's -- uh, to this magic fountain, to get it healed, and it got pretty bad..."

[scientificist]

Herbert actually pushes the beaker a little further away, to be certain she doesn't knock it off moving around. Supplies are finite.

"It's exertion-based?" Reaching sideways, he pulls over a notebook and flips it open. "How bad can it get?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Uhh, kinda? I think so. I think the way it works is like... when it's broken, it's tougher for your gem to hold your body together, right? So if you make your body do a bunch of stuff... it just messes it up faster. The worst it gets is your gem gets shattered, which is, uh, pretty much the same as dying? 'Cause the crack just gets bigger'n bigger until the whole thing just--" She holds her closed hands together and then draws them apart, spreading her fingers.

[scientificist]

After writing all of this down neatly in shortform, Herbert looks thoughtfully into the middle distance for a moment.

"Is there anything preventing Steven using his saliva on, completely broken gems? Or do they shatter into a fine powder?" This is probably upsetting but Herbert has trouble being thoughtful about death at the best of times, let alone when it involves rock people. "I'm...trying to determine what sort of. Time Jasper might have."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Oh," says Amethyst, and winces. "Yeah, naw, that kinda thing doesn't work if you're straight up shattered. Gem shards are uhh..." She pulls a face. "They're not totally dead the way humans get but they're not really... y'know... You can't bring 'em back."

She looks at Jasper again, considering her limb situation. "She'll prolly be OK for a while, though. I held out a pretty long time last time it happened to me and I was like--" She makes an extravagant waggling gesture with bother arms. Good thing Herbert moved that beaker. "Everything was just all over the place, I couldn't even talk right."

[scientificist]

Herbert nods, and doesn't say anything. He's writing down 'not dead' in his notebook and hoping that eventually, he has some reason to explore this further. Sorry about any future gem mutants, Amethyst. Maybe some sort of....reagent epoxy...

"Then if Steven personally heals as quickly as his saliva allows for in others Jasper should be fine." Which is relieving. He doesn't particularly want anyone to die when they're personally in his care. Though. "What does..." He does a slightly less extravagant version of the gesture. "...mean. Is it actively dangerous to anyone else around the, gem in question?"