⇨ 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]

What the fuck Lambert. Peridot continues to stare for a moment, mouth slightly agape. Confusion is turning into concern.

"...What the heck is wrong with you? Did getting knocked unconscious damage your human brain meats or something?" Like, it's not out of character for Lambert to be so crass, but. He seems off.

[whattaprick]

Lambert keeps grinning at Peridot, his ears doing a dopey little waggle against the pillow.

"The Ringmaster hits hard."

[periphrasing]

"The Ringmaster did this to you!?" Peridot repeats unnecessarily, looking incredulous. The shock gives way to weariness quickly. "Ugh. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, considering how upset she was with you when I talked to her last."

[whattaprick]

"I'm an upsetting guy." Lambert isn't going to bother denying it. It'd probably ring false if he tried, anyway.

"You talked to her?"

[periphrasing]

"Yesterday," Peridot clarifies. "She was in pretty bad shape, but we chatted for a bit." She cocks her head. "I got her side of the story, it'd be nice to hear yours."

[whattaprick]

'Bad shape?' Lambert looks perplexed and faintly concerned, then immediately annoyed at both reactions. Neither of them are immediately useful feelings for the present moment, and obviously she's in fine if the Carnival isn't coming down around their ears, so there's not much point worrying about it, for now.

"What's there to talk about?" the witcher asks, instead. It's not entirely a disingenuous question -- he's pretty used to people assuming things are his fault and not bothering to look beyond that, and for the most part, he tends to agree with that assessment.

[periphrasing]

"Oh I don't know, knowing what you all did to Ignatius would be a pretty good start," the gem says dryly, rolling her eyes. It doesn't seem like she's being particularly accusatory yet, at least. "The Ringmaster was fairly light on the details, but. I caught a glimpse of him. I've never seen a fae that injured before."

Granted that's not a tall order since, seeing fae injured in the first place is pretty rare sight, but.

[whattaprick]

"I asked the Earth Spirit to hold him, while I went after Strange, and Rita stabbed him with her Guardian powers," Lambert answers, simply. "It wasn't enough to kill him, though. What do you mean you saw him?"

[periphrasing]

"Through one of my camera drones," Peridot clarifies, waving a hand dismissively. She's assuming Lambert has already heard about the part where he'd been eaten by the Ringmaster. "And that's NOT what I'm talking about. The Ringmaster said you tortured him, and there's been mutterings about it all over the carnival. Now, I don't care so much about the torture part... But I need to know exactly what your thought process was behind doing that to him, so I can figure out if I'm MAD at you or not, because we very probably have six more SUPER ANGRY FAE on our enemy list now!"

[whattaprick]

Nobody has told Lambert the Ringmaster literally ate their problem yet. Somehow, it’s just a detail nobody wants to dwell on! He also gets a perplexed expression on his face as Peridot goes on because how does she know it’s exactly six? What exactly happened there?

“The Winter and Summer Courts already hate us,” he says slowly, the words coming out with some difficulty as it’s more talking than he was expecting to do. “The Winter Queen wants to pretend the Beast doesn’t exist. The Summer Queen blames the Ringmaster for killing the Winter Queen and losing the Summer Maiden. Both courts believe we’re warmongers because we took one Miracle and saw us looking through the library for more. They already think we’re monsters.”

A breath. “We keep getting people taken and getting their minds dug through because they don’t care. It thought we could do the same ... for once. Might as well be monsters with information.”

[periphrasing]

Peridot grumbles wordlessly at that answer. It's a bit difficult to pin down how she feels about this; she can't exactly say she disagrees with the sentiment at it's face value, since, after all, she's had her fair share of daydreams about getting violent payback against the fae. It's only because she's seen how much Lambert's actions upset the Ringmaster in the aftermath that she really has any problem with it. Maybe that's really what's bugging her. The admission that she might have done more or less the same thing, or at least had the idea cross her mind, if she were in his position.

At any rate, Lambert's clearly having difficulty getting his thoughts together, and he's still pretty injured to boot. Peridot at least knows enough about human health to have an inkling while watching his behavior that, maybe right now isn't the best time to be grilling him like this. It's extra frustrating, having so many questions and having the guy with the answers be in no fit shape to give them. She really hopes this effect will wear off quickly.

"Fair enough. At least for now." The gem narrows her eyes. "But I still want to talk more about this when you're less... broken."

[whattaprick]

Lambert doesn’t really get the problem here, but he’ll nod nonetheless. Talking so much has brought something else to mind, though...

“You’ve lived ... for thousands of years, haven’t you?” He cocks his head, looking preoccupied. “What’s that like?”

[periphrasing]

That question catches her rather off guard. She cocks her head and frowns, scratching inside an ear with one claw. "Where'd that question come from all of a sudden?" It's not like she's opposed to answering, but...

[whattaprick]

"Ignatius said he knew nothing but the life he'd been given," Lambert says, his gaze rolling up to the ceiling. "I can't understand ... how someone can live that long without wanting to change that."

He frowns. "How can you have all that time ... and waste it?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot watches him for a long moment, her hands falling slowly back down to her lap. She stares at them, tensing and relaxing her fingers, choosing her words carefully.

"...It's easy, when you don't have anyone around to challenge your perspective of the world," she murmurs sullenly after a moment, ears drooping sadly. "Or.. when the people you answer to take great pains to constantly remind you that you're only ever good for the position you were born into."

[whattaprick]

Lambert cocks his head a little, frowning as he thinks it over. He doesn't quite realize yet, in this moment, just how personal the response is for Peridot -- his mind still on Ignatius and the Fae. It's a bit relatable. It's the sort of reasoning behind why he gave up on being anything but a witcher, too.

It still doesn't make him feel sorry for Ignatius, though.

"Or when you don't see people as people," he says, at last, his lip curling. But he'll pick up the thread here, since he wasn't quite done with the story. "We tried to change that ... but I don't know if it worked."

[periphrasing]

For half a second, she thinks he's accusing her of not seeing humans people, just because she's projecting so hard on the situation. Which, she DID used to think like that, which makes it all the more embarrassing when it sinks in, even after she realizes that's not his point.

"Tried to change it?" Peridot repeats, looking back up at him, shoving those unpleasant thoughts under the metaphorical rug. "Change it how? You can't possibly just force someone to learn something like that..."

[whattaprick]

"No," Lambert agrees, frowning. "But with the Athenaeum... we could make him feel it. What it's like when the fae hurt us, and we can't do anything about it."

Lambert wouldn't consider it torture. Only justice. If perspective is what Ignatius lacks, now he should have plenty.

"Rita's book ... could share memories. I couldn't think of anything else."

[periphrasing]

"So, what, you narrated that he could feel what it was like then?" Peridot asks, leaning forward with interest. "How did he react?"

She and Lambert may be on the same page here, regarding it being torture or not. That just sounds like a sensible solution to her, depending on how they phrased it.

[whattaprick]

“We did. It looked like it hurt,” Lambert looks satisfied... then faintly annoyed all over again.

“Didn’t exactly get to talk after that. The Ringmaster showed up.”

[periphrasing]

Well the satisfaction from hearing that sure is short lived.

"And then presumably after that is when she knocked you unconscious, and then ate him, leading us into our current predicament." She says with a sigh, leaning back in her chair again and looking vexed. "Wow. I still can't decide if I'm impressed or annoyed with you."

[whattaprick]

Lambert stares at Peridot, blankly.

"She ate him?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot stares equally blankly.

"Does that really surprise you?"

[whattaprick]

"You said you saw Ignatius." Lambert is looking a little perturbed. "So what, she shat him out?"

[periphrasing]

She pulls a face. Thanks Lambert! She really didn't need that mental image!

"Stars no," Peridot squawks, recoiling slightly. "She was just kind of... Holding him, in her stomach?"

Look, don't ask her how the hell that's supposed to work. She doesn't even HAVE a stomach most of the time.