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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In the night, you find you are someone else.

You don't know who you are or where you are, but at first all you see is ice. Endless caverns of it, stretched in all directions. You've been walking for a while now, but you can't find your way.

At one point, you stretch out your hand before you. It's unfamiliar, but it's yours. Your skin is purple and black, burned at the fingertips as if by frostbite. Though the cold doesn't seem to translate fully to the realm of this dream, you know you are cold. You need to get out of this cold soon, or you know it will be too late.

As you continue to walk, you hear a voice, devoid of body or source.

"Are you afraid?"

Edited 2018-06-18 22:54 (UTC)

She tries to remember how she got here, and why she's there, but everything comes up blank. All that she can do is keep moving forward, despite how cold she is. Despite how terrible her hands look. Despite how this doesn't make sense.

But she's determined-- if she knows anything about herself, she knows that much. She'll make it through this, she's been cold before. Somewhere. A long time ago. She thinks... It's hard to focus, no doubt because of the cold.

The voice makes her jump, and she looks wildly around, turning in small circles while keeping her hands to her chest. Her behavior seems to answer the question-- but she steadies herself in the next moment.

"No! I'm just lost. I'll find the way!"

In the night, you find you are someone else.

The first and only thing that comes to mind is that you are uncomfortable. The halls outside of the throne room are quiet, and anticipation gnaws at you. You feel like you aren't dressed right, like you don't know enough for this. You haven't had enough time to prepare.

Yet, you aren't alone. To your sides, there are two others - on one, a fair-skinned fae without hair, and only tattoo-like inscriptions on her bald head. On the other, is a fae with a charcoal complexion and intricate, golden markings. The three of you are waiting for something, but you're not sure if you're the only one feeling the nervous energy.

You want to say something, but you're not sure what.

Edited 2018-06-18 23:20 (UTC)

"Well, come on," the voice says. "We don't have a lot of time left. Remember the plan?"

You don't remember the plan. You don't remember what you were supposed to be accomplishing here. Yet, you see the burn of firelight reflecting off the walls of ice, far up ahead of you.

It calls to you. You feel like you should chase it, but your legs are moving so slow.

Edited 2018-06-18 23:27 (UTC)

"I know we don', I--" She reaches for the plan and, of course, she doesn't remember the plan. She feels a little like an idiot for forgetting, it was clearly very important and now here she is miles into an ice cavern without the plan. "...what was the plan again?" she asks the ceiling, forcing her hands under her armpits in an effort to stay warm.

The flicker of the fire draws her attention, and for a moment the crisis of the plan is forgotten and she starts pushing forward. She's suddenly so tired, despite the promise of warmth ahead of her, but she can't give up now. She wants to live, after all.

"Help!" she calls down the cavern. "Somebody help me!"

Waiting is the worst. It itches in her heels, makes her shift her weight for side to side, curling her fingers into a loose fists at her side. She cuts a glance to the others beside her. What, were they feeling cool about this? Well, good for them. But she doesn't like it, and she doesn't mind opening her mouth to try and distract herself for a moment. Maybe it'd help them, too.

"Ha, it isn't nice to keep us waiting for so long. Wonder if somethin' happened back there?"

It's possible that she should keep quiet. The others are. But who knew how long they were going to be waiting like this?

A wall of ice explodes next to you, fragments clattering to the floor like a mirror. From begin it emerges as silvery fae, with skin and hair that glimmers like metal. Her eyes glow a vibrant orange, is if there is fire inside of her. She's holding a giant metal hammer, and her expression is harsh with the stress of an imminent battle situation.

"What are you thinking, spark?" She shoulders the hammer and grabs you by the shoulder, throwing you down the hall towards the flicker of flames, as if you aren't moving fast enough. "Quest over. Go."

Your legs feel free to move again, but you can't agree with what she's saying.

"I'm trying to find her," you feel yourself saying, trying to explain.

Edited 2018-06-18 23:49 (UTC)

Alright, that's something at least. Maybe not the help she wanted, but at least there's someone who seems to care about what she's doing. She stumbles forwards, very much outmatched in strength by the fae who just smashed a wall and lifts a hammer that looks as heavy as she is like it's nothing. But surely the fae has to understand what she's trying to do...?

Whatever that is.

"Please, it's important, I know I can do it, I just... need to get a little warmer and try again."

She only got a little lost and forgot the plan, but she knows she can succeed.

The fae with the golden markings snorts.

"She's the Queen, she'll do what she will," she says, glancing at you with gleaming eyes. "Didn't you hear? It's our sworn duty to wait on her."

You don't really know how she's so brazen about it, but whatever. You'll deal. The fae at your other side laughs.

"Think it's a test?" she asks. You look at her, and she winks playfully. The Torchbearer, you think, suddenly. The Guiding Light? Titles. None of them feel right yet, but you'll get there.

Edited 2018-06-18 23:58 (UTC)

The interruption has taken some of the wind out of Rita's sails, and she looks back to Strange with a tired, but still decidedly unhappy look, seemingly trying to decide if she wants to get back to arguing again.

... It's probably not worth it. And it's hard to muster up that level of anger against someone who looks this pathetic.

"You're hopeless," Rita mutters after a delay, settling back into her chair and tugging it a little closer to the cot. She squints at his hand, then raises her gaze to him. "It's not a spell, so I'm not sure I can help, but... I'll try."

She holds out her hands, one above his burning hand, and one below. Using her fire magic, she tries to exert her will over the flames, effectively suffocating them. But the technique definitely won't work if he's still stressing out and generating more fire, so...

"Close your eyes," she tells him.

"No," the silvery fae says, with more force this time. "You don't hunt, you survive. That's an order."

With that, she turns from you and slams the hammer into the floor, sending a fiery eruption down the hall you came from, shattering it in a cascade of falling snow and shrapnel. The only way to go is forward.

You begin to run in the direction away from her, towards that distant light. Yet, as you get closer, a pathway opens to the left - a separate, darker path. Yet, at the far end of the tunnel, you think you see a silhouette of a person. Is it her?

You can't decide if you should go to the light or to the shadow.

Edited 2018-06-19 00:09 (UTC)

Titles, not the often derogatory nicknames she usually came up with. Did she usually come up with those? Damn, she felt a little off today. It's not quite a relief to hear that the other two fae aren't bothered, but it's just soothing enough to get her to unfurl her fists, crossing her arms over her chest.

"A test?" She echoes, letting out a snort of her own. "What, testing our patience? She really must be bored if this is how she's gettin' her fun out of us."

So maybe there was nothing to worry about. But still... "Hope she isn't having too much fun with it. I wanna get a drink tonight."

Yuya blinks slowly as all these people are present in front of him. He definitely only recognizes Lauren of the group. Maybe that's his family?

He glances around, not necessarily wanting to interrupt their moment butat yet. Instead he's taking in the scenery, gauging where he is.

"I guess so?" He probably wasn't going to come just to look at it. He doesn't feel worried enough to need to sit and think, so staying still doesn't seem like him.

"Or maybe I'll go shake around the walk. I bet the vendors are out."

He doesn't as impressed with the ocean itself.

"Nyeheh, gives new meanin' to a dinner date, doesn't it?" It's probably almost a miracle no one was eaten back there. Even under the banner of friendly competition, there was always a degree of risk when running around places like that. Or so Shura thinks. It's be that way at Demon Olympics, at least.

"I'll take the first clue, okay~?" You know, just because she was the one who set up the stupid game. Of course, the robotic message she gets is not terribly helpful, and Shura pulls it away from her ear, staring at the device with a perplexed expression.

"The heck is a Baloral ridge?" Sagittal crest she could guess, but Baloral ridge? She's pretty confident that that is not something she would encounter back home on any demon.

"Why don't you try to find some out here?" the Torchbearer asks, laughing. "First time meeting the Summer Queen, you better drink first."

"You'll do no such thing," a new arrival says - it's a shorter fae with hair and eyes that seem to glow with a brilliant inner light. She is dressed in a deep red robe that hangs from one shoulder, and is carrying a tray with several bottles on top of it, as well as a few pieces of jewelry. Her voice is calm and soothing in nature, and your heart feels fond just looking at her.

"She's waiting for you now," she adds as she gets close, setting the tray on a nearby table. Which confuses you because... you were pretty sure you were waiting for her. Shit, are you late? Wait, you just remembered - you're missing your medallion! They won't let you in without it.

CAN'T FORCE IT Scout's vaguely aware that things have happened, but she's been entirely preoccupied by things she found in that library. While she'd gone in looking for items of interest to the Carnival, she'd only wound up finding writing that hit closer to home. A lot closer. At some point she'd given in and let herself collect and collate it, copied the shorter things and traded for the longer ones.

Some of her findings are like a punch to the stomach. If not for the fact that she knows full well that there's nothing on Kyrimourut for her but condescension and despair she'd ask to go 'home' for a while. There's half a year left on this contract and it feels like an eternity. Oh, yes, she knows very well that she's not missing anything by being here, that she could serve ten years and become entirely unrecognizable and things would be exactly unchanged when she stepped back in.

She wants to go home. There's no home left to return to, so she wants to help her people, she wants to be there. Scout keeps to herself out in the woods, by herself or with her togetic, who doesn't understand a thing about her change in attitude.

After the first couple of days she doesn't bother keeping herself cloaked all the time. She raids the camp for things she can eat without preparation and lives off them, off by herself, getting increasingly disheveled and upset looking as she pores over things repeatedly.

NOT ALLOWED: The local mothmen and bigfeet are curious about the young woman who's so preoccupied she doesn't seem to notice them. Black shapes swoop low overhead, and great apes take turns finding long twigs and prodding her, then rustle away like mischievous kids. It's not a threat, so she doesn't pay attention after the first couple of encounters.

Her togetic Thranta, on the other hand, does. Its angry chirping and trilling sound in the woods for a fair distance as it chases the cryptids, scolding, and returns to perch on Scout's shoulders, clucking and tugging at her hair.

DREAMSHARING:

"Relax, you must!"

A classroom for young children, all soft edges and large, simple writing and bright colors and scaled down furniture. The windows are open and the room is warm and sunlit. On an assortment of mats there are a variety of children, some human, around five years old, eyes closed, mostly quiet but giggling and whispering when the teacher's eye is elsewhere. The teacher himself isn't any larger than they are, and smaller than some, green-skinned and large-eared and clearly as fond of the students as they are relaxed around him.

"A child full of the Force like a cloud carrying lightning is. Let the charge run through you to the ground, to the ground."

Scout is there and not as a child, a touch of heaviness to her but peaceful in a way she rarely is while awake.

"A game," Shura replies, not bothering to look at Shima properly. She can recognize his voice easily enough, no need to look up from the card in her hand before she sets it aside and motions for him to sit and join her.

"You've been busy with all the stuff happening at that library, haven't you? C'mon, let's find out if this is worth keepin' or not." Is this Shura trying to make sure that Shima isn't getting too stressed from the work he's been doing? Maybe. She could also just want a sucker willing to fool around for a bit.

In the night, you find you are someone else.

You are somewhere you shouldn't be. You feel too big for the stone corridors you fill, your wings awkwardly brushing up against the ceiling and your tail making it difficult to conceal yourself from guards. This seems like an unideal situation, but you can't leave yet.

All the same, you hear footsteps in the near distance. Maybe if you close your eyes, you won't be seen.

An utterly unideal situation, with little choice of what he can do.... So all he can do is keep moving forward, isn't that right? It feels too nerve-wracking to close his eyes, as nice as the idea sounds...

...Although trying to go backwards is also an option with about as much naivety to it. Sorry, did he say the only choice was moving forward? That was a lie. He might try to see if he can move backwards, although he suspects the tail won't do him much favors there.

Even here she has to endure this. No hunting, surviving. Stay back, stay safe, don't get hurt, don't try to help, don't even concern yourself. It's infuriating. But with no other way to go but forward, she runs towards where it's surely warmer. Her mind wanders, because she doesn't understand that fleeting thought about where else she's been treated this way. Is it important?

No-- because there's someone else there.

She tilts her head, taking a tentative step forward. But the fae told her to go the other way-- that it was an order.

She wrinkles her nose and holds her head up in defiance. She can do more than just survive, she can be useful, she can hunt. She's more capable than anybody thinks by just looking at her, that's for sure. After taking another look over her shoulder and making sure that other fae wasn't looking, she takes a tentative step towards the shadow.

"H-h'llo?"

It crosses her mind for just a bare second that the Torchbearer may not be the sort of friend who kept her best intentions in mind. But really, a little bit of alcohol could only help, and the thought is sorely tempting. If she was quick--

She's not quick enough, her plans interrupted by the arrival of the new fae. For a moment, she feels at a loss for words. Not just because she was denied the safety and comfort a little booze could provide in these conditions, but also because she almost felt bad for wanting it when there was someone like this woman coming to take her to the Summer Queen. Some who was being so nice to her when--wait, crap, that's why she didn't feel right. That medallion! Her hand flies to the spot she knows the medallion should have been kept on her. How could she forget?

"Ah, wait--I must have laid it somewhere..." There's just a bit of panic rising. First she was waiting on the Summer Queen, now the Summer Queen was waiting on her and she neither had the right amount of booze or the right accessories to see her. Shit!

You have no choice, after all. If they don't succeed, it could be the end of everything you know.

As you begin to enter the shadowy tunnel of ice, a shimmery trail of light will come to greet you. It's leading a path into the dark - ahead, and then curving around a corner and out of sight. This is her light. You'd recognize it anywhere.

So, where did she go? She was only supposed to be gone for a minute.

You follow the path of light, but it doesn't do much to lessen the darkness closing in around you. Occasionally, you catch a glimpse of shadowy figures inside the ice - things that look like faces. Hands. People? Are there people, in there?

Somehow, you know that's the case, but you keep going. You turn a corner, and then a few others, and you lose track. Then, the light ends. All that's left is a dead end, a dim ambient glow being the only thing you can see by. The faces and bodies in the ice are worse, here. You can almost reach out and touch them - and then you see it.

A hand is sticking out of the ice in front of you, with blackened tips, just like yours.

"Is there something wrong?" asks the fae with the inner light. You know her title - the Incandescence. It's because she's incandescent, right? She looks up at you with patient eyes.

Meanwhile, the Gilded Mark is snickering at you.

[ why could you be so intimidating even when you were being nice, tyki?! HOW DID YOU DO THAT? ]

So, you're staying?

[ rhys hopes you don't want cuddles, tyki. ]

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

DREAMS | CLOSED TO DOLL (DAY 68-69, AT NIGHT)

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DREAMS | CLOSED TO SHURA (DAY 68-69, AT NIGHT)

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Scout | OTA

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DREAMS | CLOSED TO JOKER (DAY 68-69, AT NIGHT)

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