⇨ 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]

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?"

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster makes the oddly human gesture of lifting a paw to her chin contemplatively. She glances off to the side conspiratorily.

"...I'm not sure I want to explain until I've seen if it works or not," she says. "It's a bit... intimate. And will probably make things worse before they get better."

Which is one of the most worrying things she could say but alright.

[periphrasing]

Peridot opens her mouth to ask probably a thousand more questions, but quickly thinks better of it. She is so curious, and a little bit worried? But. The important thing here is that the Ringmaster seems to be feeling more lively now, which is a marked improvement over where they were at when this conversation started.

"Well. Whatever it is, if you require any assistance? You know how to reach me."

[lordofthering]

"I will remember that," she says gently, leaning down to place her snout within Peridot's reach. It's at close as she can get to an affectionate gesture at this size.

[periphrasing]

She hesitates, just for a second, wondering just what an appropriate response to that gesture might be. Just reaching out and putting her hand on her nose feels kind of weird?

A moment's consideration, and she changes shape briefly into her dragon form: one comparatively tiny, bright green dragon reaching up to boop her nose against the gigantic black one. When that's done, she settles back on her haunches and just does some... Gay... awkward but ultimately pleased snickering.