⇨ 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

[starseedling]

By this point, Steven is doing better at generally staying awake when necessary, which means when he stops dozing enough to see who is there his smile appears in record time. He immediately starts pulling himself up, clumsy with unfamiliar weight.

"Lapis!" he says, honestly forgetting her question as he tries to shift over the cot to give her a hug. Those arms a sure a lot less squishy than usual, though. "You're here."

[mirrortide]

"Whoa, careful." She sees you wobbling there, Steven. But, since he is moving to hug her, Lapis moves in too, to both hug and steady him. It's a pretty tight one, all things considered, but hey, they've both been through a lot.

"I'm glad you made it back."

[starseedling]

Steven is heavier than usual, not that it probably matters too much to a gem. He giggles in a tired and wavering kind of way, just so happy to see her. Of course, when he pulls back a little, he sees those ripples travel across her skin.

"Are you okay?" he asks. There's a lot of empathic fuzz going on at the moment, in the medical tent. It's hard to pick out any specifics. It isn't hard to imagine that Lapis would be in rough shape. "I... I tried to find you, when you got stuck in that lake thing, but the shadows appeared and everyone got lost..."

He's just kind of blurting stuff out, too overwhelmed with feels to filter.

[mirrortide]

She's... delighted to hear that Steven cared enough to try and find her, but also, it's her fault that he's here, whether he believes that or not.

She clings to him tighter.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine, it's just stupid fae stuff." She purrs against him, hard. "Next time I go missing, don't look for me, okay?" She doesn't want him getting hurt on her account again. He deserves better than that.

[starseedling]

That feels like it's been the subject of the day - who should be saving who and who deserves saving. He understands why she would feel that way, when he considers it at all. But... it's not right.

He laughs, softly and helplessly, trying to blink some tears out of his eyes.

"Everybody's saying stuff like that right now," he says. "How... they don't want anybody else to get hurt for them. I don't know what to do about it."

He shakes his head a little.

"I know you don't want me to get hurt, but I don't want you to get hurt, either." There's another fragile hiccup of laughter. "What are we supposed to do?"

[mirrortide]

"You're supposed to stay safe. I'm under orders to keep you safe, remember?" Lapis is, of course, referring to what Blue Diamond told her when she was present. Not that Blue Diamond really needed to say that, but it definitely prevents her from running in a few situations she can think of.

Fear of a Diamond is an unfortunately powerful motivator! It's awful. Steven is lucky he has no Diamond to answer too.

[starseedling]

"I'm not special, Lapis," he says, shaking his head some more. "You... You or anybody else getting hurt for me isn't better."

Not to mention Blue Diamond was sort of terrible when she wasn't in an AU universe. There's no reason to listen to her now.

[mirrortide]

"You are though. You're really important, Steven." And not just to Lapis, but to other people? And unfortunately some of those other people are Fae. "Stay safe next time. I'm sure other people can figure out whatever's going on, or save whoever else is in trouble. It doesn't have to always be you."