⇨ 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

[anti_nonsense]

Not the warmest welcome, but it's about what Rita expected after what happened. She'll get to the point.

"I want to know--" she begins, then stops, the steam seemingly distracting her. She momentarily forgets her intended question and instead asks, bewildered, "Are you... digesting him?"

Look, she doesn't know how this fae-eating-fae business works.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster is quiet for several seconds. It's almost impossible to read her face when she's like this.

"It's... complicated," she says, her eyes half lidded. "I don't want to talk about it."

[anti_nonsense]

That just leaves it to Rita's imagination to try and guess at what the hell is happening here, but she'll try not to push her luck with her questions, for once.

"Fine. I don't need details," she concedes, "but... is he dead?"

The Ringmaster's eaten their enemies before, though this was Rita's first time seeing it up close. Is it usually like this, she wonders?

[lordofthering]

She is quiet for another long period, letting herself sink deeper into the water. She wants to dismiss the question, but she can't. Rita of all people deserves to know.

"...No," she admits, finally.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's face twists in a pained look as several emotions run through her mind at once, some of them contradictory.

She can't help but think it would be better if he was dead. He deserves it. They'd be safer. It might even be a mercy. But she can't bring herself to say those things now.

"What's going to happen to him?" she asks, her gaze pointed elsewhere.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster swallows and then burps. Give her a second. She dunks her head underwater and then re-emerges.

"That's where we run into the 'it's complicated' and 'I don't want to talk about it' parts," she manages. She falls quiet again, concentrating on trying not to die.

"I understand it probably upsets you, but I couldn't kill him."

[anti_nonsense]

"That's not..." Rita starts, then stops herself and scoffs. She hasn't really had a chance to work out her feelings over this, and she's not sure what's upsetting her most right now. Maybe that's part of it. There's a lot.

Shaking her head, as if to dismiss that thought, she moves on. "The rest of the carnival should know what happened. You don't have a problem with that, right?"

[lordofthering]

That's not it? What is it then? Never having had a fae master, she isn't sure how to interpret Rita's feeling. She turns to look at her more directly, her mane of feathery scales dragging through the water.

"What exactly would you tell them?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita straightens, content to talk about this and not her feelings. "First of all... what happened to Strange. His revival spell's been activated, right?" Zangetsu did get back to the Carnival awfully quick. Rita would think that part went smoothly.

"Then... the fact that we captured Ignatius, what we learned from questioning him, and that he was eaten and he's here now... in some form." Rita gives the Ringmaster's belly an uncertain look.

[lordofthering]

"Yes," the Ringmaster says, calmly at first. "Zangetsu brought back his soul and his body, and I..."

She... Wait.

"Oh, fuck," she says, standing up abruptly enough to send waves rolling across the lake. Of course, doing so immediately sends her reeling over with terrible gut pain.

"Oh fuck! What did I do...?"

[anti_nonsense]

"What..." Rita's eyes widen in alarm. That's not the reaction she expected. It's very much not what she wants to hear when asking about her dead friend.

"What do you mean, what did you do? What did you do!?"

[lordofthering]

She puts a paw to her muzzle, exasperated.

"...I had to leave to find your team, but when I came back I was so distracted by this business that I didn't recycle his body into the egg." Her tail thumps up and down in agitation. "Now I'm not even going to be able to fit over there..."

She exhales bubbles into the water.

"It's not especially time sensitive, but... ugh. The body is still laying there, and it was quite the mess... unless Zangetsu moves it somewhere else..."

[anti_nonsense]

At first, Rita's completely speechless. It takes a few seconds for her to react.

When she does, she just groans, "I can't believe this," as she runs a hand over her face.

She really doesn't want to picture what that looks like. Also, who the hell misplaces a dead body!?

"Can we do something about it? I mean, we can't just wait until you..." she gestures vaguely, because she doesn't know what she's doing and she won't say.

[lordofthering]

"Well, if someone could bring me the body and the grayish blue egg from my tent... I could probably do it here," she says. She sinks back into the water. "It was... very unpleasant to look at, though. So I would advise someone with a strong stomach."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita grimaces at the mental image, then sighs. "I'll call Zangetsu."

She doesn't know him that well, but he's the one who brought the body back in the first place. Shouldn't be that hard for him to transport it a little farther. She steps away, takes out her radio, and does just that. She stays on the radio and talks a bit, then puts it away and turns her attention back to the Ringmaster.

"It's on the way," she informs her. There's a pause then, as there were some other things she was considering asking... but maybe it should wait. "I'd better go find Syrlya and talk to him about making that announcement," she says instead.

[lordofthering]

"Good," she says, obviously relieved, exhaling steam from her nostrils. "I can fertilize the egg here, and then it can be cared for elsewhere. Having so much of his body returned will speed his growth considerably."

[anti_nonsense]

Fertilize it...? Rita makes a distinctly weird face at that choice of words, but it's probably best not to get into it. If it means he'll revive sooner, then... "Good," she settles on saying.

"I'll be going, then." She could wait to make sure the egg and body make it, but the longer she lingers around here, the more awkward it'll probably get. Zangetsu should be able to handle it, anyway. So with that said, she spreads out her wings and takes off, flying back towards the carnival tents.