⇨ 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

[atouts]

And it's about that time, as Zangetsu finishes telling his story about Strange's untimely demise, that a crow comes hurtling down out of the sky and lands by the group. It's no shadow crow, like the ones Childermass has had scattered about, but a real one which means in a flicker of shadows and motion, it becomes the man himself. Obviously, the first thing he's going to look at is the corpse.

Even a man as stoic as Childermass can't help but grimace at the sight, though he will, thankfully, not go the same route as Yuya had. There's only so much vomit anyone needs to involve in this mess, okay?

"Good God, man, you can't just leave him laying out here like this," he exclaims, turning to look directly at Zangetsu as if this is all somehow also his responsibility. In truth, it should have been the Ringmaster's, but she's apparently a dragon in a lake right now. "Please tell me you at least brought his soul back with that."

Yeah, he missed the part where Zan had literally just said he did that. Sorry, my good soul-devouring monstrosity, you're going to have to repeat yourself.

[betheman]

No need to repeat- Gongenzaka has that covered. "The soul has already been delivered," Gongenzaka confirms, ears pulling back as he looks back to the corpse. "....Typically, the Ringmaster would require this, but..." He looks to Zangetsu. "...I, the man Gongenzaka, assume that for the same reason your 'team' is in trouble, she has yet to return for his body..." Between the vague knowledge of how this all works, and the fact that he's pouring a good chunk of focus into both consoling Yuuya and keeping his nose clear of the scent, he's doing a fairly good job at remaining composed.

As much as he has the look of someone who's found out they stepped on a bug unintentionally, anyway.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya chokes a little, squeezing his eyes shut around tears as he tries to listen to everyone more clearly. Maybe he shouldn't have asked for the details right now, as he swallows down another wave of nausea. He was trying to kill Lambert--he was brainwashed again, just like with Nightshade.

Yuya's talked to him about that. He knows how afraid Strange was at the idea of being enthralled to hurt his friends again. He asked Lambert to do what he had to--was this what Strange meant the whole time? For Lambert to kill him before he did the same to someone else? Was he expecting to die the minute he sacrificed himself to Ignatius?

He spits, trying and failing to clear the vile taste in his mouth. Finally he turns his head up, but his gaze doesn't focus on the body. "R... require it?" Not cremate it?

[moonfang]

Oh no, Childermass is here, now. He senses his boss's icy, feathery presence before the crow ever assumes his normal shape. NOW he worries he's going to be in trouble.

... But that's stupid! Because he did everything like he was supposed to! Even sitting here with his thumb up his ass! Just as told.

"Him? This thing isn't Strange, ya know. Strange is safe and sound in the tent. This? This is just meat. I kept him safe, as promised."

He doesn't mean it to be crude, or crass. It's just how he, as a soul himself, sees things.

"But if you wanna got get a tarp or something, I ain't gonna stop ya. It is kind of ugly."

He then turns to Yuya and gives a nod. "Yeah, I didn't know this either, but apparently the Ringmaster can do the whole egg thing faster if she has the body. I guess it makes sense, I just never thought about it. And god, yeah..." he says, looking at Gon now. "I wonder what she did with Ignatius... did they just leave him there?"

[atouts]

Childermass's attention snaps over to Gongenzaka when he answers and to that, he does give the briefest of nods. He'll skip back over Yuya for now, as for as far as being comforting goes, he's of little use there. Even if he could try, now isn't the time, not yet.

"It was still him, not long ago," he does chide Zangetsu over that but, no, he isn't in trouble. Even if Childermass looks back down at the body and shakes his head at it, he can't find cause to rail at someone for doing their job. So, no, instead he offers, "But thank you, Zangetsu. I am glad to have sent you along."

And then he goes about pulling his coat off, the long blue pirate-style one that, hilariously enough, Strange had helped pick out way, way back on the moon. Lacking a proper sheet to throw over a corpse, this will just have to do.

"And we can only hope they left him behind. We don't need more fae in the damn carnival." But yeah, spreading that coat out over half-digested, super dead Strange down there. "Now... why is Gongenzaka saying your team was in 'trouble'?"

me, belatedly: 'oh gon would be using mr for him huh...'

[betheman]

"Considering what Zangetsu was able to tell me..." Well, Gongenzaka cannot speak more than that save to perhaps say 'ask Zangetsu', which Childermass has frankly already done. So instead, he spares a vine or two to make certain the coat has everything covered after Childermass is done, resting a hand on Yuuya's shoulder.

"...It is as Zangetsu claimed, Yuuya- while indeed, it took remarkably long for I, the man Gongenzaka, to recover with this method, if there had been no body, it would have taken far longer. Zangetsu returning even this much, in this state, is for Mr. Strange's sake..!"

[hippocarnival]

The coat is a little bit of a relief--both for the respect to Strange and so Yuya doesn't have to keep catching his mangled body out the corner of his eye. He takes another couple shaking breaths, anchoring himself in Gongenzaka's hand.

"For his sake..." it's a little croaked coming out, but Yuya can accept that. "Then why is he out here?"

Did something else happen? Nobody's said that anyone else who went after Strange came back. Suddenly he's worried all over again.

I forgot he's been talking this whole time with two jawbreaker-sized candies in his cheeks

[moonfang]

Zangetsu just shrugs his shoulders and extends his hands, palms up. He's still learning about humans and how they react to stuff. But he does smile and feel good about himself when he gets some praise. He doesn't get that very often and he appreciates it.

"Well, Tyki radio'd be earlier and said she was sittin' in the lake, steamin'. I thought maybe she ate him, but... maybe that's just something she does? I sure hope I'm not right. Anyway... they're in trouble, because... well, I ain't precisely sure WHAT went down after I left, but I heard a bit of her conversation with Lambert on the radio. They had Ignatius on the ropes thanks to the library magic, but it sounds like they may have taken it too far..." he pauses, then frowns (which looks ridiculous with his puffed out cheeks), "... She was really upset when she left. She was cryin'."

Which was not something Zangetsu thought she was capable of, to be honest. It segues well into Yuya's question.

"-- Ah, because she asked me to watch him. She was preparing to do his egg thing when I told her about the rest of the team and she radio'd Lambert. Then, like I said, she left in a hurry. Aaaand I'd been waitin' for about an hour sooo I radio'd Gon to bring me a snack."

[atouts]

"Crying?"

Strange (or the body formerly known as Strange, whatever) properly covered for now, Childermass is free to actually look up in mild surprise. While he doesn't think it as impossible that the Ringmaster could cry, he can't fathom what Lambert could have done to cause it. And yes, he is assuming the cause is Lambert. It makes the most sense, knowing the witcher well enough.

"What has he done now..."

It's less a question, more a statement.

[betheman]

"Crying!?" Gongenzaka repeats, sharing that shock. That's, mmm. Not a very Ringmaster Thing after all, so if she's crying... "...I, the man Gongenzaka, did not think she was intending to kill any of the fae in the first place, for that matter...though if he was bound in the library as you say," he mutters somewhat, crossing his arms in thought, "...Hmnn... ...those actions may have forced her hand, then..."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya is the only one not surprised about her crying--she's not heartless (like some of the other Fae). He's more concerned about what Lambert said or did to hurt her so much. But he's not here to ask, so Yuya pushes the thought down for now.

Finally Yuya moves to get to his feet, spitting and wiping his mouth before his legs shake a little and he braces himself against Gonenzaka. "So they're still out there?"

[moonfang]

"I dunno. But it must have been something serious," he shrugs and shifts the candies around in his mouth. "But he's gonna be in deep shit, I know that much."

Zangetsu relaxes into a more comfortable sitting position and looks at Yuya.

"I doubt it. The Ringmaster left in a hurry, and came back in a hurry. She wouldn't leave them out there even if they WERE total idiots."

[atouts]

Childermass breathes out a sigh and glances back over towards Yuya and Gon.

"Zangetsu is correct. If they were still in danger, she would not have returned already," he can attest to that much. Even if the Ringmaster was pissed at them for only God knows what reason, she didn't leave people behind lightly. At least, he really hoped so.

[betheman]

Gongenzaka, who has been nodding since Zangetsu's own point, adds a third to the number of votes-of-confidence. "The Ringmaster herself passed overhead- this at least, we witnessed, so it is doubtful that if the others are in such....trouble," he coughs, "That she would have left them, for that matter. Either way..."

He stares at...the covered corpse. "...it would be best to get this to her sooner, rather than later..."

He doesn't give the obvious (decomposing) reason why.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods slowly, his gaze drifting to the coat and then back away. That sounds like she's not coming back, but surely... "But the Ringmaster didn't forget him, right? She'll be back."

He hopes.

[moonfang]

"She probably forgot. Y'all know she's got attention span problems at the best'a times."

Zangetsu shrugs nonchalantly. It's at that moment his radio hisses with static and a voice cuts in.

One quick conversation later, and--

"Hey! Gon! Can you carry one of those eggs?"