⇨ 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

NO, I LOVE IT

[starseedling]

Steven is sort of delirious when he wakes up, so for a hot half a minute he has no idea where this cat came from, until he thinks about how she's purple and what that means. He has to look around the medical tent several times before it really sinks it. Then, he laughs at himself with soft, fragile chuckles, the mystery having abruptly solving itself.

He reaches out to touch her with a finger before realizing that most of his fingers aren't the right shape or length, but they are closer than they were before. Even better, they aren't full of weird Blue Rose magic that hurts people when he touches them.

He tentatively touches a crystallized finger to the fur beneath her ear.

[drrdrrdrr]

I mean, it could be worse... at least his fingers aren't cats

Amethyst squints sleepily, does a huge cat yawn -- and then tries to stop partway through as she realises Steven is awake and very slightly prodding her in the cheek. Trying to clamp down on the yawn so that she can excitedly say something about this situation is kind of a disaster, and she ends up giving up and trying again.

"Steven," she manages, propping herself up against his chest with her front legs, her tail lashing excitedly. "Steven, you're up! How are you feelin'?"

[starseedling]

Steven smiles more widely when Amethyst wakes up, with that sleepy sort of relief and contentedness that isn't very critical of the surrounding context of a situation. It's just really nice to see her there.

"Kind of... sparkly?" he says, mostly because he just kind of noticed how much his hand was glinting in the light. It distracts him from saying anything more poignant. He has to stop to consider. "But less... Um. Bad."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Whoof," says Amethyst, flopping over him in relief. Good thing she's still a cat right now, honestly. "Man, I was so worried... guess I care about you or something."

[starseedling]

Steven laughs, rolling over a little to accommodate her flopping onto him. He still feels really nervous about touching things, but he's also feeling naturally drunk off of diminished hysteria and incredulous relief.

"You're a cat," he laughs, kind of absurdly, "not a dog."

This is absolutely one of those things that sounds incredibly funny to him in the moment but probably no one else.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst blinks in confusion for a second -- and then, getting it, she guffaws loudly. "You dweeb," she says, and then shapeshifts into a slightly scaly purple Dogcopter without missing a beat. "How about now, huh?"

[starseedling]

Steven is still laughing in a way that is just faintly hysterical, like the physical outlet by which tension is escaping.

"Oh man," he says, "I should have... looked for the new Dogcopter book when I was in the library..."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Wait, there's books too?" Amethyst, who's been hovering since midair since she shapeshifted, settles back on Steven's chest and cocks her weird purple dog head.

[starseedling]

"Yeah," he says kind of airily, comfortable with Amethyst sitting there, but mentally just whoooosh. "Connie said the movies were... were a valid film interpretation, but that... she liked the books the most."

His energy trails off as he says that, looking up at the roof of the tent.

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeah..." Amethyst resumes her usual shape now, sitting on the edge of the bed with her tail draped over Steven's blanketed legs. "That sounds like the kinda thing she'd say."

She gives Steven a little nudge.

"Hey... you did real good, Ste-man."

[starseedling]

It's really hard to imagine what he could have possibly done to earn that assertion. He feels like he messed things up, and that he got himself messed up in the process. He wasn't supposed to do that anymore. He'd promised Connie he wouldn't.

(But what would have happened if he hadn't stopped the Rose Queen?)

"I dunno..." he says. "I think I just... made everything worse for myself."

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst straightens up a bit, surprised. "Are you kidding me, dude? I thought we were all gonna die! She had, like, some gross fae thrall on you and you were like, no way--! It was awesome!"

[starseedling]

Oh.

He's barely been thinking of it. It hasn't necessarily felt like a victory on his part, so much as making up for his own mistakes. Something he had to do. Maybe that way of thinking is part of his problem. He tentatively smiles a little, though his lip is a big wiggly as he does. True or not, he feels better from her saying so.

"I barely remember what happened," he says with a helpless little laugh. "I just... heard what you guys said, and I had to."

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst scoops him up in a big hug. After everything that's just happened, it's impossible not to react that way to a wobbly Steven smile.

"Yeah, well, I had to try and come and get you, but that doesn't mean we were gonna be able to, ya know? Just own up to being badass, Steven."

[starseedling]

He laughs softly and then laughs more loudly, tears in his eyes and he holds her tight. The crystal feels weird to touch other people with, but he can't help it. He's wanted to hug her again so bad.

"Okay," he says, holding her tight. He somehow manages to feel relieved and devastated all at once. Either way, though, it feels like release.