lostcarnival | ⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

Who: Everybody!
When: Day 64
Where: The Camping Grounds
What: While the Ringmaster attempts to purge the carnival of magical tracing spells and deal with the angry fire fae in her belly, everyone else is getting sent on an emergency camping trip with some unusual local fauna.
Warnings: Camping.

CRYPTIC CAMPGROUNDS↴

You're given about three hours to prepare, after the Ringmaster tells you her plans for the coming week. There is a vast selection of camping equipment at your disposal, and the means to take along enough food for the length of the stay. The wilderness of the planet you're left on is nearly idyllic, but some people just don't like the great outdoors.

► CRYPTOZOOLOGY: As it turns out, the carnival won't be alone here. There is a varied ecosystem of cryptids to be found as well, living in relative peace and mostly reacting to the newcomers with curiousity. More details can be found on the plotting post. You are free to NPC the cryptids as much as you need to, as long as you stick to the behaviours described.

► DREAMSHARING: There is a player plot going on which will allow characters to share dreams! These are specifically more dreams than nightmares, and the mushi-adept characters will be here to help.

► CHILLAX: There isn't any plot twist for this setting, so this is mostly an opportunity to decompress from the last plot and get ready for the future. The Ringmaster will show up occasionally to help with needed medical treatments and check on things, but won't stick around for long.

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"She'll have more of an idea how to use it than most," Strange explains. After all, it's a fae thing. And, since she's a fae, Strange is banking on the Ringmaster's knowledge of fae things more than either of theirs.

As for the question, Strange does some quick mental math before answering, "Just a few more months, I think. Going home for a while knocked my calendar for a loop." Especially since Strange wasn't entirely sure just how long he had spent in the darkness.

I thought it was nice.

[He says with the most bright facial expression he can muster.]

But, if you want to be out here alone with the monsters lurking in the dark in the middle of the night I can probably find you another tent.

As his fingers pass through Tyki, Strange's expression goes from confused to understanding in the blink of an eye. Well then. This certainly explains a lot. Now the sleeping back to back thing makes more sense.

With the hand that just phased through Tyki, Strange reaches over to take a bottle of juice..and almost physically recoils when he sees that the label says 'pineapple.' Urgh. No thank you. Why does Tyki have this anyway, he thought the man had taste! Instead, Strange grabs a bottle of grape juice.

"For lack of a better term, I thought it was a power to 'not touch.' Turns out it was a power to touch." And now he's got a billion nerdy questions. "Tell me, do you have to consciously think about this while walking? You might pass through the ground otherwise."

The horror does sink in, but it only fuels Rita's anger. She had some notion of the sort of cruelty Steven was subjected to, and hearing it confirmed makes her blood boil. This is exactly why she hates the Summer Court. How can he say all of this in one breath, and defend one of them in the next!?

"He gave you warning," she spits, incredulous. "You think that makes him so different? You think that makes up for kidnapping people, imprisoning them, enslaving them, using them as tools in a war that has nothing to do with them!?" Her voice grows louder and more shrill with each atrocity she lists. As far as she's concerned, Ignatius fits right in with monsters like the Rose Queen and Nightshade.

"You knew him for two days. I--" she stops, her breath catching in her throat. Was the Rita in Portland really the same person as her? Were those years spent as his changeling real? Rita can't come to an immediate answer to that, so she finishes by instead blurting out, "What the hell do you know!?"

"Studying is what I do for fun," Rita replies with all the sternness of someone who is probably not much for fun to begin with. "Organizing notes helps me organize my thoughts. It's relaxing. Like meditation."

Incidentally, relaxing is another thing Rita doesn't seem to do a lot of.

"That, and magic practice," she adds after a moment of consideration. There you go, those are the two things she likes.

Rita meets his gaze with a questioning look, seemingly taking a moment to comprehend the offer. Then, her eyes light up.

"Odd Eyes... the dragon? I can meet him?"

Rita wasn't sure it was possible for anyone but Yuya to really interact with his card spirits. Now, with the possibility in front of her, it's clear that she is in fact extremely interested.

"So long as it isn't so big we can't move it," Rita supposes with a shrug. Any guesses as to how much of a person needs to be reflected in order to measure their soul is pure conjecture at this point.

Rita takes the pages and gives them a glance before pulling out a notebook she kept slung against her lower back, tucking them under the cover, and putting it away. She'll bring it all back, along with the finished compilation, when she's done with it. With this, she has all she needs (except perhaps those jackalope bits), but since she's here, there's an opportunity to ask about something else she's been wondering about for a while.

"Hey... can I ask you something?" She figures his answer will depend on what the question is, so after a pause, she goes ahead and continues. "Why doesn't the Ringmaster have a problem with you carrying iron?"

The problem here is that the annoyance doesn't abate as Steven tries to placate the big ol' bird. It only grows, though not in a violent way, just... mild. It's there, but held close to his feathery chest, very similar to someone else Steven might know. His attention does shift over to Lion and Lil, but only to make sure they aren't also planning a valiant charge, and then it's back to Steven.

He leans closer, tilting his head to get a good look at what's been done to him. Sure, he's seen him through his shadow crows enough times, as he left them stalking the medical tent. Ever the reminder of the Rose Queen, it would seem, and that thought alone leaves the crow huffing out a breath of hot air at Steven before turning to stomp away back to the spot he'd landed, that mild annoyance from before breaking loose into real agitation.

So you're a scavenger, basically.

I guess I am a little surprised, though. I was starting to think you were a coward.

[Actually, she still isn't convinced otherwise.]

9S nods. "Yeah. I'm not sure how it's going to work on biological beings, but if it's anything like hacking androids, I should be able to observe without any problems. I just need to test it."

Pod 153 flies from side to side at first, before finally letting go of the trout. Francis is a fierce and tenacious predator!!

One of the idiots who has to deal with the other idiots, sadly.

On the bright side, once he's resolved to see what this game is about, Shura won't have to worry about him making up some excuse to leave. That doesn't mean he won't regret it, though. In any case, for now, Childermass reaches over to pick another one of the alien dream date cards up, turning it over to frown at the image and the name.

"Cloregu. I suppose this one at least looks less like he's looking for dinner instead of a date."

"What the hell do you know?!" Strange yells back. The flames in his hair burn brighter and more of Strange's hair starts to set itself on fire as he glares at Rita. He knew this would happen. It's pointless trying to convince her to think any differently because she'd just see all the fae as the same.

"Yes, you know him in Portland, but since we were changed, who's to say he wasn't!" The Jonathan Strange of Portland was not the Jonathan Strange of the carnival. It's entirely possible that the Ignatius that Rita knew was different from this fae.

When Yugo comes around, his eyes catch onto the papers of course- though the topic in particular will be the ones about the Silver Mirror. Hovering about behind him is a tiny predominantly white and blue... dragon with pitch-black leathery skin underneath all the armor-like scales, teal crystals, and yellow eyes. Everything about it strikes familiar design cords with both a few of the obvious carnival changes the teen has- as well as that Portland angel form.

That's assuming Rita notices or cares about his little card summon. He picks up the mirror notes for a closer look. Without asking, because... just because.

"Oh, is this what the Ringmaster's gonna have us go after next?"

"Yeah, you can." Even just a little interest is enough to get Yuya excited, and he scrambles to his feet. "Come on--he's big so let's meet him outside!"

He grabs for Rita's hands (or arm, whatever he can grab) to pull her up, carefully stepping around the blastia with a wide grin. His intention is to drag her right through that door and into the sunlight.

Once he's able to put his own little notebook aside again, it's back to dealing with the jackalope, cutting it apart now into easier to cook portions. Childermass does pause at the question, however, at least taking a moment to think about it, as though the answer isn't readily apparent. He should probably thank Lambert again for bringing iron up so frivolously over the radio... That is, of course, assuming he hadn't outright warned Rita to watch out for it back in Wismuth.

"If you will allow me to answer that question with one of my own, Ms. Mordio," he begins and, naturally, doesn't give her the chance to decline him that right. "If you had iron, would you have used it on Ignatius back there? In the library?"

The effects of the Queen's hold on Steven are much the same as before. His limbs still hold that crystalline appearance, despite an increasingly green-opaque interior that is apparently going to lead to his normal limbs growing back eventually. The cracks covering his body have been on the mend, mostly replaced by normal flesh again.

The saddest looking part is his completely naked wings - growing back as plants instead of crystals, but almost completely lacking petals and leaves, still suffering from the effects of being torn apart. A few tiny buds have started to grow, but at the moment they only seem to emphasize how much of his wings are still missing.

In terms of Childermass's behaviour, it's incredibly confusing for Steven. The note of familiarity is hard to miss, and it draws Steven's attention in a way that's hard to let go. He carefully puts Bud down on Lion's back to let her pull herself together.

He takes a few steps after the bird. He's acting on a hunch, but there's a combination of factors - he hasn't seen or heard of any other creatures like this, and the emotional intensity is not very animal-like to begin with. The agitation is enough to make him worry.

"Um..." he starts, unsure of how to ask. "Are you... with the carnival?"

Shura purses her lips and wrinkles her nose. "Nah, it ain't the right kind. Didn't smell right." And Joker should know that, he came to the store with her! But she accepts the bundle he nudges toward her, taking it from him and carefully examining it.

"This one ain't too bad," she mutters, dropping the bundle in her basket. But just one bundle of herbs isn't enough. This soup required all sorts of herbs. Shura can't quite recall what exactly she had to have, but so long as everything smelled all herb-y, it'd probably work. Right? She reaches for another bundle, takes a quick look, and dumps it in her basket with the other.

"What else do we need? Eggs or somethin'?"

Life Hacking
9S had aquired some magic from the Ringmaster recently. Magic isn't something he can natively use, but really, this was more just a way to convert his usual functions into something that can actually be used on non-mechanical beings. In a way, the magic is merely an extention of what he normally can do.

But seeing the less than thrilled response over the radios about the mind control has him thinking twice about just testing his newfound magic that would allow him to hack non-mechanical living beings. Still, he needs to test it and there's no other way to do so without using his abilities.

If you're a Nightrunner or someone who has been mind-controlled in recent memory, then 9S will be approaching with a, "Hey, do you have a moment?"

Unless your name is Strange. Then he's just trying to find the best way to sneak up on the guy.

[ooc: tl;dr this is a prompt for testing his mindhacking powers. Details here]

Wildcard
[ooc: Want to do something else? Drop me a line at

jesii! Aside from what's mentioned above, 9S will be fishing (the android way, which is mostly sitting and making his box bot fish for him) and sharing a tent with Rita and just generally poking around the campgrounds. As an android, he won't be dreaming.]

As it turns out? It's damn easy to sneak up on Strange. He's sitting in front of the lake, deep in thought, not really looking at anything. A family of Loch Ness Monsters frolic in a way that would be absolutely adorable if Strange was paying them the slightest bit of attention. But he's lost in thought, looking vaguely off to the edge of the lake as he thinks about something.

Occasionally he's making scratches in the earth with a stick. It looks vaguely like a football plan, with lots of x's and a large o. But there's also a few spirals and stars, like Strange was doing the drawing in the dirt equivalent of doodling.

Unless 9S completely bungles his stealth, it's pretty easy to sneak up on him.

"You can observe it, huh..." Rita scratches her cheek idly, feeling a little bit nervous about that for a number of reasons. Hacking the human mind? He hasn't tested it yet? And... her dreams? An unpredictable jumble of thoughts, a manifestation of what she knows, what she loves, and what she fears... That's intimate stuff.

But... maybe they should be more intimate?

"What else can you use it for?" she decides to ask while mulling over some of the other questions in her head.

Francis, delighted in his victory, grabs the trout's tail with his teeth and drags the fish out of the tent, presumably to someplace where he can chomp on it in privacy.

Yuya nods. A few months, huh... Yuya must be down to around five as well. So much time has passed, and yet he doesn't feel any closer to it being over.

"I guess you didn't find anything in the Athenaeum that'd help?" Maybe he'd be more confident he could manage it in a few months if he did. Of course, they were all so busy looking for the miracles maybe he didn't have the chance among everything else.

Rita considers that for a moment. It's true that she hates Ignatius... and it's also true that she heard the Ringmaster reiterate the rule about iron being forbidden just the day before the confrontation. With both of those things in mind...

"No," she says, with an odd intonation suggesting she only just realized so herself. "You might not believe me, but I wouldn't have. We had other options, and besides, if I really wanted to, I probably could have used the Athenaeum to simulate iron."

Instead, she chose other, riskier methods. Because she respected the Ringmaster's wishes...? Rita wonders if that's it.

[A: Hellbats for Rent]
[As Rin promised over the radio, he has all his demonic, fiery bats in all colors of the rainbow with him. There has to be at least 20, and some look significantly smaller than the others. Rin has strung up some metal cable through the trees near his tent, giving the creatures a safe place to roost. They yawn, stretch, and chitter amongst themselves. Almost like normal bats! Except for the way their eyes move around their heads and bodies like balls in water. Sometimes, the eyes even pop like bubbles, only to reappear again elsewhere in their plasma bodies.

Rin definitely knows which ones have good control and which ones should probably stay outside… so if you want to borrow one of these guys, it’s probably best to ask him!]

[B: Cooking in the Great Outdoors!]
[Maybe you need some cooking utensils, or maybe you need some food to take back to your part of the camp, maybe you need to know which berries are edible and which will give you horrible hives, or hell, maybe you need help figuring out how to use an open fire to cook your food! Never fear, the cookhouse crew is here!

Well, Rin is, anyway. Hinawa is probably around somewhere, too.

The large tent near the center of camp doesn’t have anyone staying in it — it’s just full of supplies. Pots, pans, cups, utensils, knives, small grills, chopped wood and charcoal, plus food and baskets of wild fruit and berries! There’s even some smoked trout (skinned, no fur here!) and some cooked jackalope. It’s not quite glamping, but no one should go hungry!]

[C: Cryptid Protection Squad]
[All that food and all those shiny forks in one place make for a tempting target for the local wildlife, especially at night. Rin’s familiar and pokémon take turns guarding the stash. Depending on when you arrive, you may be greeted by a large bug-dragon or perhaps a small black cat with twin tails. ]

C-1: [ One night in particular, there’s a loud scuffle going on, with enough screeching and roaring to wake anyone nearby. What on earth could it be?!]

[WILDCARD]
[HIT ME UPPPPP]

Fortunately, 9S is at least somewhat competent at sneaking. Especially since Strange is hardly paying any attention to his surroundings. This will be too easy!

Grinning from his place behind a tree, 9S reaches out with his hand, a faintly glowing ring of light encircling his wrist, before what appears to be a beam of energy gets fired at Strange.

He knows that a forced entry like this -- even when caught unawares -- will typically result in a glimpse of the things currently bothering the target. He won't do anything that will make apparent his intrusion just yet; he just wants to observe the shape of his hacking will take; he doesn't know how well the conversation from hacking mechanical to organic will work, but here goes nothing!!

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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