⇨ 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

[periphrasing]

The gem nods firmly in agreement. "Right! And then maybe he can tell those six moms of his not to murder us all."

Bad joke? Sorry, she's kind of hung up on the six moms thing.

"Nyehhh... In all seriousness though--" She's about to launch into an impassioned speech, but, something makes her pause. "...Uh. Hm. Hold on. He can't hear us in there. Can he?"

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster does a bit of a double take, looking down at her belly. She honestly hadn't spent much time wondering about it.

"Oh... hmm," she says. "I don't imagine so?"

But it's not like she has any practical experience with swallowing herself.

[periphrasing]

Peridot grimaces. She was kind of hoping that RM would have had a more reassuring answer than that.

"Sssspeaking from experience, and knowing what I know about the way in which sound is transmitted... He can probably at least hear you. Uuuunless you have some sort of magically sound-proofed stomach, that is."

This conversation just got so much more awkward.

[lordofthering]

"He might not even be conscious," the Ringmaster says, not that it's a very ironclad explanation. She raises a claw to her muzzle thoughtfully. "At least, I hope he's not. I'm really not trying to be cruel, but he is wreaking havoc on my insides."

[periphrasing]

"Is there some way we can check?" she asks, squinting a little bit. "It could be useful information to have, knowing if he's awake or not. If only for some peace of mind."

[lordofthering]

"Uhm." She looks really confused. After a few moments of thought, she hesitantly twists her neck around and prods her belly with her nose, but there's too much flesh between her scales and her stomach to tell.

"I'm not sure?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot literally would never have come to the following conclusion if she hadn't already been inside a giant monster once today, so. Thanks, Malachite? She guesses?

"I could... Go in very quickly, and try to check. If you wanted," she says hesitantly, after a moment's consideration. It feels like a very strange thing to suggest, but. She's not sure what else they can do, if they want to be certain? Her camera drone isn't exactly built for such a job.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster stares at her.

"That sounds extremely dangerous," she says. She would be super amused if it weren't for the fact that so much has gone wrong today and she doesn't want anybody else getting hurt.

[periphrasing]

"I know that," Peridot huffs, mildly exasperated. "The only other thing I can think of is that I try and use the drones that I built for surveillance back in the Prince's realm, but their cameras might not be able to pick anything up in such a low-light environment."

[lordofthering]

"Peridot, I don't know how much of his power he'll have access to," she says, tilting her head. "Ignatius has extremely destructive fire magic... it's difficult for even me to withstand, and I'm partially made of fire."

She doesn't know anything about the drone, really.

[periphrasing]

That reasoning is enough to get her to drop this rather ridiculous idea, because she is not especially keen on being incinerated... Especially not so soon after being reunited with her missing friends.

She grumbles thoughtfully, conceding that this is probably not the smartest way to go about this, at least not for the amount of risk involved. She's really tired okay, even geniuses are allowed some dumb ideas now and then.

"It would probably be good to know how careful you need to be about what you say while he's in there, is my primary concern," eyeballing her stomach. Stars this is a weird conversation. "Mmmm... OH! Wait wait, I've got it!"

She holds up her gauntlet clad hand and, one by one, pulls out three items out of the gem set within it: the spider drone, a little keychain flashlight, and some duct tape. In seconds, with her INCREDIBLE ENGINEERING POWERS, the keychain is taped to the drone, and she holds her new creation up triumphantly.

"Here, put this in your mouth. But don't swallow it! Just let it climb down your throat."

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster stares at Peridot's device for a bit longer, nervous about it for something differently reasons. Eventually, however, she will lean down her neck and open that great big mouth for Peridot.

"I suppose..." she'll say, still sounding a bit noncommittal. Her breathe smells like Gatorade.

[periphrasing]

Peridot is going to ignore that uncertainty, because she's totally positive that this is going to work. She walks right up to the Ringmaster and gives the little drone an underhand toss; It's four spindly legs deploy before it even hits her tongue, and as soon as it lands, it immediately skitters down the back of her throat.

The gem flops back down on the sand next to Pumpkin and holds up the little remote feed that she has connected to the drone, which appears to be made out of an old, busted digital camera. "The feed isn't great, but it's better than nothing, I guess. Let's see..."

[lordofthering]

The tunnel of her esophagus is oddly tight for her size, given that she is restricting it artificially in an attempt to prevent fire and the swallowed Fae from escaping. The inside of her body is a grey color, and it all starts to blend together as the probe wanders along. Peridot may be wondering when she is finally going to find the stomach, when the lighting in the organ suddenly becomes brighter and-

JUMPSCARE.

A glowing red hand grabs the front of the drone, momentarily blocking the feed. There is a faint grunt of exertion, and the sounds of wet flesh shifting.

[periphrasing]

Peridot is startled badly enough that she fumbles the monitor, which falls from her hands and onto the sand. She stares at it for a second before snatching it back up, and then looks sheepishly up at the Ringmaster.

"...Yes. He's awake," she reports unhappily. Now she's extra glad that she didn't go in there herself? And she's not going to get that drone back, is she.

[npcarnival]

Peridot's reaction causes a bit of a chain reaction, as it startles the Ringmaster enough that she clenches her insides tighter, which apparently jerks Ignatius's hand away from the drone. He almost loses grip before managing to catch one of the legs. It shifts the view of the camera, showing the fiery glow of the fae's body reflecting against the interior of the Ringmaster's digestive system.

Instead of just a grunt, though, there's a choked off cry of pain this time. Finally, she'll be able to catch sight of the top of his head and one shoulder, the rest of his body squeezed between the walls of her stomach and lost from sight, like someone trapped in a terrible spelunking accidents. Liquid fire pours from the wounds still visible in his chest and back.

His movements are clumsy, and seem like he must be delirious and only barely clinging to consciousness. She'll hear another miserable sound as he tries to get a better grip on the probe and absolutely fails.

[periphrasing]

Rather suddenly, Peridot is starting to feel pretty nauseous. She looks pale, and gently places the monitor face down on the lake shore so she doesn't have to look at it anymore.

"...I know you're already well aware of this, but. I would highly recommend removing him from there as soon as you are possibly able to," is all she says, sounding somewhat faint, a vaguely haunted expression on her face. Good golly was that disturbing to see!

[lordofthering]

Despite the relatively stoic expressions of her dragon body, you can easily see the way she sinks at Peridot's report. She only just heard some of what was going on inside of her, and Peridot's face is telling.

She gingerly crawls towards to end of the water, bending down as if to smell the drone in front of her. She exhales sadly, and it's enough that it will actually ruffle Peridot's hair a bit.

"I shouldn't feel this way," she says, curling up her forelegs in the sand.

[periphrasing]

Pumpkin immediately seizes the opportunity to whine loudly and march close enough to lick the RM's dragon wrist. It's kind of slimy. Sorry about that.

Peridot, on the other hand, just feels bad. She was really hoping that maybe she could at least give the Ringmaster some good news, but in her determination to be helpful, she just made things worse.

"Shouldn't feel what way?" she asks, not wanting to make any assumptions.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster looks at Pumpkin curiously but otherwise doesn't remark on its doggy kiss.

"I've happily slain many enemies in the past... and I feel that I would again, in the same situations. Isn't it hypocritical to be so concerned with this one particular instance, when I'm sure he's done many things mortals would consider worthy of death?"

[periphrasing]

The gem tilts her head slightly, considering the question carefully. These kinds of moral quandaries aren't exactly her specialty.

"It's hard for me to answer that, truthfully. But... I assume that in the past when you've 'slain' people, it was generally a lot more quick and decisive than this. You wouldn't have been striking him down in a fair fight."

She really doesn't feel good about that answer, but what else can she do?

"I think if Steven were here, he'd probably say something like... it's never a bad thing to show empathy, no matter how hypocritical it may make you." She taps her claws on the ground thoughtfully for a moment. "...Even though I could also probably come up with several highly specific scenarios where it WOULD be a bad thing, given enough time and the motivation to prove him wrong, but. I don't think this is one of them."

[lordofthering]

"Hmm," is all Peridot will get as a response to that, though it seems it's because the Ringmaster is really and truly considering it. She looks off to the horizon for a while, and then eventually back to Peridot. She tilts her head.

"Is it really that bad down there?" she asks, though from her tone it sounds like she already mostly believes it.

[periphrasing]

Should she sugarcoat this? Probably not, but.

"He definitely doesn't seem comfortable," is the best Peridot can do for an explanation, without getting too gross about it. "It's uh... Pretty cramped. And it looked like he might be bleeding fire...?"

[lordofthering]

"Damn it," she says, starting to sit up. Even stomach pains aside, this isn't tenable. "I thought he would be able to heal by now... I can't keep delaying this decision."

It looks like she's getting up to go, but she pauses.

"Can you... still retrieve your drone? Or is it best to forget about it?"

[periphrasing]

"Ummm..."

Gingerly, Peridot picks up the monitor for the drone, and glances at it. The feed is completely dead.

"...I think he broke it," she says, sounding mildly annoyed. "Ugh. It's fine, I think I have the parts to build another one." She looks back up at the Ringmaster after a tick, frowning slightly. "What are you going to do?"