⇨ 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

JASPER, ALSO IN THE MEDICAL TENT, WHICH IS WHERE THE PARTY IS AT

[stompadour]

Jasper would really love to be pacing right now, but unfortunately, her feet are, presently, hands? She tried, a few minutes ago, to shapeshift them into the right kind of extremities, but only succeeded in shapeshifting feet where her actual hands ought to be, as well as further exacerbating the crack that's currently creeping across her gem.

Having presumably been given instructions to not do any more of that to avoid aggravating it any further, she's sat on the edge of a cot in the medical tent with her hands (currently feet) planted either side of her and her jaw clenched as she waits for the supposed solution to her problem to arrive.

She's heard, of course, that Rose Quartz was able to heal cracked gems. It always seemed improbable to her that a quartz --of more or less the same station as herself! -- should have such a phenomenal ability, but then it ought to have been equally improbable that she'd shattered a Diamond, and that had happened. But she doesn't want to have to rely on Rose Quartz -- or whatever Rose Quartz has become, whatever exactly Steven is -- for something of this magnitude. She doesn't want her life to be in Steven's hands, for this to be some leverage he'll be able to use against her in the future. She's worried he'll refuse, but she also kind of hopes that he will, just because that would make more sense to her. And of course, there's the possibility they might not even be able to successfully bring him back at all -- or at least, not before the crack in Jasper's gem breaks her in half, at which point it will all be the same to her one way or the other.

Jasper is a warrior, made to fight and face death without hesitation or distress. Knowing she might die isn't new or frightening to her in the least. But waiting for it, without any ability to affect the outcome one way or the other, is, it turns out, much worse than charging into battle with uncertain odds.

For once, she'll welcome pretty much any kind of distraction.

HELLO JASPER...

[betheman]

Gongenzaka, truthfully, doesn't know Jasper that well. Most of what he knows is in passing- extremely so in fact, with the most recent tidbit of knowledge being that apparently 1 + 1 = Six-armlegged terror thing. Or whatever it was that Amethyst described, at least. He has no doubt that Jasper isn't open or sociable, mind- he's only seen her from a distance, giving a nod of greeting and carrying on his way- but beyond that...

Well, beyond that all he has is their encounter at the ball. And he's fairly certain that must have been different somehow (he, for one, would have been far more anxious about dancing).

As it is, having come in to visit Steven, he sees no reason not to greet another. Not the least because Jasper's current condition is alarming (though he manages to hide his reaction well).

The great 'thing' thus trots over, and gives a steady nod of greeting as he typically would. "...You are..Jasper, correct?" he begins, deciding that to begin with the reason they're in the tent would be fairly rude. "It has been some time since we have spoken." There isn't anything else to that, of course. It's...just been a while.

He's not really sure what else could be said on that. Except... ..Hmm. "It is good that you were able to return." That. That's a good thing, yes?

[stompadour]

Jasper frowns up at him. What's his angle? Is he mocking her?

"... Yes," she says. "It is. What do you want?"

[betheman]

"Simply to greet you, and wish you a swift recovery," Gongenzaka nods, not an ounce of hesitation in his voice. She is, after all, quite in her rights to be irritated as far as he's aware. "When last we spoke after all... ...I, the man Gongenzaka, should think neither of us were quite ourselves, but even so, you are someone whom I would not wish misfortune upon."

[periphrasing]

Peridot is pacing up and down the aisles of cots, for lack of a better activity to put her aimless energy towards. The stress of this whole situation is basically eating her alive, all this bouncing from one crisis to the next with scarcely a moment's peace between them. She'd barely even had any time to savor the victory of their successful rescue operation before the next Big Thing to worry about had cropped up.

There's a lot going through her head, in other words. Jasper being hurt is just the emotionally confused cherry on top of what has been a sundae of an extremely crappy few days, and she's not sure how to reconcile the guilt she feels over basically having caused the damage by throwing that stupid sword with the anger she feels towards the other gem for having gotten herself kidnapped in the first place. And then there's Steven... Still missing, no word from the other rescue team yet. Bringing him back to the carnival was an urgent matter in the first place, and she's extremely frightened for him, and now Jasper's life is dependent on his safe return.

At some point she stops in the middle of an aisle mid-circuit, pausing, and then turning on her heel to face the quartz. It's really, really tempting to put the brunt of her stress and anger directly on her. She'd certainly deserve it, in Peridot's opinion... but maybe that's an instinct that needs to be resisted. Peridot is leery of extending an olive branch to the other gem after she has so quickly swatted it away in the past, but, maybe now isn't the time to be holding grudges about that.

"He'll make it back in time. I know he will," she says suddenly, folding her arms and tapping her bare, clawed foot rapidly in lieu of pacing.

[stompadour]

Jasper's feet, the ones she currently has instead of hands, sort of twitch in a way that suggests she is trying to clench her fists.

"I don't want your pity, Peridot," she mutters.

[periphrasing]

Well she should have expected that sort of response. Peridot's face falls into a scowl. So much for that being nice tactic!

"Not all reassurance is pity, you know," she says, twitching her tail.

[stompadour]

What is 'nice'

Is it a weapon


"Well I don't need your reassurance either," Jasper huffs. "Either they'll bring him back or they won't, talking about it doesn't change anything."

She looks askance at Peridot.

"You all defeated that fae while I was destabilised," she says. "How?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot cocks her head slightly and gives her a Look, but decides not to pursue the other topic for the time being.

Technically they didn't really 'defeat' the Lady so much as hold her off long enough to make a hasty escape, but like hell Peridot is going to convey that truth to Jasper.

"We figured out that there's a 'magic' to this realm, which we were able to harness to put us on a more even level from which to combat the fae." And if Jasper wants more details, she's just going to have to ask, because Peridot loves making people ask for a lecture.

[stompadour]

Jasper narrows her eyes a little as that sinks in.

"... That's why we were able to fight her," she says. "Me and Lapis. Right? We couldn't before. Even as Malachite."

[periphrasing]

"...Correct," Peridot confirms, a little annoyed that Jasper didn't take her bait. "Normally it's a feat that would be well beyond our means, but this library has a unique defense system that allows us to use the power of a narrative to boost our own abilities and provide us with resources that we would not normally have access to otherwise."

[stompadour]

Jasper squints a little more. Importantly, this is a disbelieving but curious squint, rather than a thoughtful squint, just one of many in Jasper's expressive repertoire of squints.

"The power of... narrative," she repeats skeptically. "What does that mean?"

[periphrasing]

"...Did you read any of the books out in the athenaeum," she asks flatly, unsure if she can actually properly explain this if she hasn't.

[stompadour]

"... A couple," says Jasper, frowning. 'Read' here means 'flipped through and got bored'. "Why, were we supposed to be reading them?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot drags a hand down the side of her face, groaning.

"Ideally, yes," she huffs. "But that's besides the point. The important thing here is that all of those books had a certain structure and style of writing to them. By mimicking that style through spoken word, the Athenaeum itself would respond by making those words true. That's why we were all speaking our actions out loud like that."

[starseedling]

Even when Steven gets back, it turns out it isn't going to be a quick solution. His body completely ravaged by faerie mutations, he spent most of that first night passed out, only occasionally stirring to talk with visitors. As Jasper has seemed stable for the last little while, the medical tent opts to leave him to it.

It isn't until the next morning that he's told of Jasper's condition - inadvertently, when Herbert asks him to spit into a cup. One question leads to another, and soon he finds himself explaining that he isn't sure if his spit will work when he's not there to do the magic. When he finds out what it's for, he doesn't want to leave it up to chance.

So, he uses his freshly grown toes, still made of crystal and shaped more like roots than he's used to, to walk to the portion of the tent that Jasper is still resting in. His body is unnaturally heavy with its changes, and his wings are still mostly stubs, though the structure is starting to grow back into the right shape. He still feels really crappy, but he can go back to resting after this.

"Hi Jasper," he says, earnestly but still a bit grumpy with exhaustion and the fact that he feels like he's about to be rebuked by her.

[stompadour]

"You," says Jasper, eyes widening. She drops a foot-ended arm from her face as she straightens up, revealing the crack in her gem -- she's been taking care not to do too much to aggravate it, but it's still spread to become a deep crevice that threatens to split her gem in two.

She looks like she's about to say something else, but she bites it back, looking at Steven uneasily. She's spent hours waiting to find out whether she'll be healed. She doesn't want to be in debt to her enemy, but she doesn't want to lose her chance to live, either.

[starseedling]

"Yeah, it's me," he says, too exhausted and generally sad to get very ruffled about her attitude. It doesn't make a difference anyway. He makes it to the cot next to hers and sits down, curling his legs to the side.

"Herbert told me your gem got hurt, so... I'm here to fix it." He doesn't put much more into his sales pitch than that. He isn't sure what she wants him to do. "If it breaks in half I don't know if I'll be able to heal it anymore."

[stompadour]

She nods slowly. "I don't... owe you for this," she rumbles uncertainly. "I'm not going to join you."

[starseedling]

"I don't care about that right now," he says, too tired and irritated enough that he isn't even going to bother trying to put a positive spin on this. She just treats him like he's trying to abuse her regardless, and he doesn't have it in him to deal with that right now.

[stompadour]

"... Okay," says Jasper, frowning, and carefully gets down off the cot where she's sitting. She kind of stumbles a little because her hands are feet and her feet are hands, and she grunts in annoyed embarrassment. She manages, though, to kneel in front of him, where she watches him anxiously.

[starseedling]

Steven would spit in his palm like he sometimes has, but he doesn't want to risk it interacting with the crystal somehow. So, instead, he gingerly leans forward, putting a glassy hand on Jasper's shoulder. He gives her nose a little lick, like the affectionate gesture of a cat.

His gems will glow pink instead of blue, and the damage will knit itself shut. Soon enough, the gem well be sensitive but whole.

Before Steven can say anything, though, his head is swimming. He tries to brace himself against her shoulder, but instead just slumps forward on top of her as he falls unconscious from sheer strain.

[stompadour]

Jasper isn't sure what exactly she was expecting, but it wasn't this. As Steven leans forward to lick her, she goes extremely tense, and then extremely cross-eyed -- and then the damage to her gem eases away, the unspeakable pain of the crack beginning to subside. Her gem is whole again, and her form shimmers, correcting the errors in her limb orientation. The stability she's been missing since she reformed also allows a couple of new changes to assert themselves, but Jasper doesn't even begin to have time to notice them, because the next thing she knows Steven is collapsing on her. Good thing her hands are in the right place now so she can catch him???

She frowns down at his limp form. It's... surreal. Sure, Steven is inexcusably small and weak, but seeing him this defenseless doesn't feel right. It makes her feel weird and conflicted in a way she can't quite explain and also really doesn't like.

With his unconscious body in her hands, she rises to her feet and scans the room for Herbert. When she spots him she barks, "Hey! You!" because she doesn't remember what his name is.

[scientificist]

"Dr West," is the first thing Herbert responds with, rather tersely, before actually turning to look and hurry over.

"What did--" he starts, and then notices Jasper has a complete nose and normal limbs, and he sighs instead of finishing the accusation. "Overexertion. I suppose it must be related to his willpower or presence after all--a shame." What he could have done with healing fluids personally available to research...but he'll simply have to work on something else himself.

He isn't just standing there as he regrets the loss of this potential research source, though, he's checking Steven's pulse and making sure he's still breathing. "Bring him back over to his cot," he tells Jasper, after these preliminaries.

[starseedling]

Steven is still breathing just fine, thankfully. He's just passed out for the exact reasons Herbert guessed, and he's already dimly stirring as Jasper is directed towards the cot.