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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To be honest, Strange was hoping for 'a square' or 'a tree'. Going right for a lion? He mutters something under his breath before he starts gesturing towards the fire, moving his hands in the air like the fire is clay and he can shape it from afar.

"You have to understand that this is equal parts my control over magic and my artistic ability. And while I like to think I'm fine at drawing buildings, animals have always been a bit of a challenge for me."

Which is the pompous Jonathan Strange way of saying he sucks at drawing. As he finishes casting the spell, Strange moves his hands closer to his body as he looks over at what passes for a lion. It is the derpiest looking lion known to man. But hey, it's an awful looking lion made entirely out of fire. Points for effort?

It's like when you constantly inflate your abilities, gullible people just assume you're exactly as hot shit as you say. Also, he made a water otter.

Yuya watches eagerly as the flames rise up, leaning back once the heat feels a little too strong as Strange tries to mold a fire lion. The result causes his childish grin to freeze on place as he stares.

"It's--" He crushes his fist to his mouth, trying really hard not to laugh at the awkward shape of the lion's face. He squeaks. "Really cool Mr. Strange!"

Really trying not to laugh.

Nobody had a lion for a daemon! The last time he's seen a lion in person had to be literal years ago! That is Strange's excuse and he is sticking with it. Thankfully, he knows his lion looks absolutely horrible. So, with a wave of his hand, it vanishes, turning back into a blob of fire.

"It's terrible, I know." But Strange has a small little smile on his face as he looks back at the flames, thinking of what to mold next. "But in my defense, I haven't seen a lion in a while."

He places his hands in front of him and the shape of the fire starts shifting again. This time it shifts into a polecat: specifically, Celandine, Lambert's daemon. It's a halfway decent likeness, though there are definitely a few wonky looking bits here or there. "That's better," Strange remarks, with a little nod.

Yuya coughs a little as he pounds his chest to suppress his laugh completely.

"I don't have any good pictures of lions." Seeing as all his duel monster cards are extremely cartoonish and Yuya also can't really draw.

Even a slightly wonky fire polecat is enough to be recognizable, at least,and he smiles more kindly. "Celandine, right?"

He shifts his stick out of the way before drawing it closer and testing the marshmallows before he takes a huge bite. "You should do this kind of stuff when you go back to England. After you break your curse."

"That's correct. I've seen Celandine enough that I think I make a halfway passable imitation." Strange gestures towards the polecat. It still stays close to the fire, not moving away from the radius of the pit, but the fire polecat starts to walk around, roll over, and do all sorts of adorable little polecat things.

He's prepared to go on a very nerdy magical rant about the importance of names and the symbolic properties of the source's location, and hypotheses of why he can make a damn good otter and seal but fail miserably at a lion, but Yuya's question stops any sort of ranting.

Right. When he goes back to England. At this point, now that he's talked with the Ringmaster, Strange isn't entirely sure when or if he'll ever see England again. He's not telling Yuya that though, instead forcing a smile on his face as he explains. "I might. My former mentor, a man named Gilbert Norrell, he wanted to make English magic respectable. For a while, I helped him. Perhaps if I do this sort of magic more often, I can start to undo the damage we did."

Because English magic shouldn't be respectable it should be full of life and joy, it should be something that is celebrated, not stuffed up with everything interesting removed. Strange pauses for just a moment, before he admits to Yuya. "As for my curse, if I don't break it myself within the next few months, I'm thinking of taking on another contract to ask the Ringmaster to break it for me."

Yuya watches the polecat roll around with a smile, absently listening to Strange until he gets to the curse.

Well that's surprising. Yuya's openly surprised at Strange's admission of another contract, especially for the curse, and he mentally clears right past the topic of English magic to focus on that. Strange was determined to do it on his own and not ask for her help last time, although that was weeks ago.

"Wait, really? What made you change your mind?" He's genuinely curious.

"I'm not the only person trapped in the curse," Strange explains. He doesn't really remember how much he's told Yuya about the curse. Does he know Norrell's trapped there as well? Strange isn't entirely sure. Still, he doesn't mind explaining if needed.

"I don't know if I'll be able to break my curse on my own or if I'll see the Court Fae again once I've left the carnival. But I'm not going to put someone in danger because of my own actions. If they come after me, then they just come after me."

Only after Ignatius did Strange have this metaphorical come to Jesus moment. Strange already accidentally yanked Norrell into the curse by his own actions, he doesn't want to see the other man hurt or wounded due to his other actions with the various fae they've encountered.

Yuya remembers Mr. Norrell being trapped in the curse as well, though he assumed he was as much a target as Strange. Still, Strange sounded so confident about his ability to break the curse before. It isn't like him to get so demotivated about his own abilities.

"You think they're going to try and take you back, right? Ignatius and Nightshade." That's what the Ringmaster does after all. Fae debts have to be paid. "But you have that ward so Nightshade can't find you. We have to be able to do the same thing for Ignatius if he won't break your contract."

Because Strange can't spend eternal service with a Fae, he's got a wife to get back to and magic to pioneer.

"It'll be hard to do anything while Ignatius is under the carnival's roof," Strange points out. Something that he's still a little bitter and angry at Lambert for. "And that ward came from the Summerlands: I doubt the carnival will stop there any time soon." The Ringmaster can only be in the Summer Maiden's good graces for so long and Strange would guess that after this nonsense, she might not want to deal with the Ringmaster.

"That's not to say that either of these things won't happen. It's just that I need a better plan than throwing magic at the curse and hoping for the best." The concept of Strange planning things is a little bit laughable, but he's describing and pointing out this plan like it's something that's going to happen.

"So we'll find a better plan." As if Yuya's any better at planning, but Strange is his friend. He wants to do everything in his power to--oh.

"Maybe we don't have to go to the Summerlands for it." He leans over, putting a hand to his chest. "When I met the Summer Maiden, she thanked me, but she didn't give me anything right then. I think I could ask her for a favor."

At least, that's what the library book implied and all his knowledge of Fae. They worked around deals and exchanges, not platitudes. She's still a powerful Fae, right? Maybe there's something she can do.

Edited 2018-06-17 21:14 (UTC)

"Absolutely not," Strange responds, cutting off whatever Yuya's going to say. First Childermass gives up his cards for Strange's protection, then Lambert says he'll take on a contract to break Strange's curse, why are there so many people that Strange knows who are willing to do things for him, despite the fact that (in Strange's mind), he's done absolutely nothing in return?

"If you're going to ask her for a favor, use it to protect yourself or Gongenzaka. Besides, there's no use getting a ward like that considering that again, Ignatius is stuck at the carnival."

There's a whole potential multiverse between Strange and Nightshade. It's a bit hard to hide from someone when they metaphorically live in the same house as you.

Whereas Yuya thinks he has a lot to thank Strange for, and honestly likes the guy. Probably more than most of the carnival.

"So we do it at the end of your contract, or maybe she has a better idea." He puffs his cheeks in stubborn insistence. Hey, maybe she's powerful enough to null the agreement, can they know until they ask? "Isn't that fine?"

Strange still isn't a big fan of this. Wasn't Yuya just talking about how he was worried about Gongenzaka? Use the favor for that! He gives Yuya a look that pretty much implies he's not too fond of that idea. Still...it's a decent compromise.

Of course, this means he'll just have to find a way to break the curse before his contract is up, so Yuya can use that favor to benefit himself.

"I suppose that's fine," he begrudgingly remarks. "Though again, I've no idea when, if ever, we'll stop at the Summerlands again."

Gongenzaka doesn't have Fae contacts inhibiting his ability to go home.

It's enough of a compromise for Yuya, and he leans back satisfied with a smile.

"If I explain it to the Ringnaster, she'll find a way. Maybe I should ask her how I'm supposed to use it..." Because he has no idea, maybe just calling her is enough? He rubs his chin thoughtfully.

"How much longer do you have with your contract?"

Edited 2018-06-17 22:11 (UTC)

"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.

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.

"Most of what I found that I thought would help other people thought would be a terrible idea." Strange is trying to sound nonchalant and sound like this doesn't bother him, but in reality? It still kind of does.

"The Silver Mirror can remove darkness from people's hearts. Considering that my curse is a curse of eternal darkness, I thought it would be worth it to try and use the mirror to lift my curse."

But then everybody yelled at him the moment he vocalized that idea.

So... that's a no.

Yuya pulls his stick back and eats a marshmallow whole, taking the time to remember everything he heard about the mirror on the radio.

"We knows it messes with souls, but... nothing else." He rests his chin on his hand, thoughtful. "It might work, but we should learn more about what it does before trying, right?"

That seems reasonable, understand the dangerous magical artifact before you experiment with it. "Lilith probably knows more, if they'll talk to us."

"Her subjects might know more as well," Strange points out. "Since I suspect we'll be going to Eden, I'll find a way to talk with them." After all, there was that whole realm of beasts thing. And considering that gossip and getting information is apparently the main thing the carnival considers Strange good for, might as well learn about it that way.

He's heard a lot more 'you idiot, now the fae know everything you know' compared to 'you're a stupid op magician, don't give them your power' or 'I missed you, you moron' in the past few days.

"No matter what, I want to study it," he points out, still sticking to his guns on that one. "I've been developing my reflection magic to greater heights. I could figure this thing out easier than anyone else."

"That's probably right." Yuya won't disagree it falls into Strange's expertise. Her subjects will likely be easier to talk to... well, he hopes they will be anyway. He'd rather not come to discover it's another Manor.

"Could you teach it to me? The scrying, and walking and talking through mirrors. I think I want to learn it."

Maybe there's ways he can apply it with his other spells to protect his friends. And it is Strange's expertise, so he knows that kind of magic the best.

"You're my apprentice," Strange responds, as if it's obvious. Of course he'd teach Yuya scrying or talking through mirrors. Yuya was smart, Yuya was talented, and most importantly, Yuya was willing to put in the effort and the practice to learn something thoroughly.

Strange gives Yuya a little grin before continuing. "I'll teach you whatever you want. Now, what shall we start with?"

Yuya grins wider at that. He's not lacking for good adult figures willing to help and teach him, but having another still warms his heart.

"Maybe talking through mirrors? Especially if we're going to find a way to make it work across the universe, I should learn how it works now." He nods, apparently confident in his decision about which one to start with.

And then he remembers what Lambert mentioned about scrying before, and his expression slips a little. "Uh, but, wait--I have a question."

He holds up his finger for emphasis. "Lambert said you use your scrying to spy on him."

That's not a question.

Strange beams. He's about to start talking up a lesson plan, start explaining the use of mirrors and how they'll best start Yuya off...when Yuya asks what Strange interprets as an intensely dumb question. Of course he uses his scrying to spy on Lambert. Why wouldn't he?

"I scry for everybody."

Is this a problem? How is this a problem, Strange doesn't see anything wrong with this.

Edited 2018-06-19 02:43 (UTC)

"But to spy on him." Yuya emphasizes, leaning forward. "Not when everyone's in trouble, but when he's just hanging out or doing other things!"

Like the moon sleepovers.

"... Do you spy on me?"

Strange is still confused as to why Yuya has a problem with this. It's just spying. What's the harm?

"Not as much as I spy on Lambert," Strange admits. "I can't spy on Childermass whenever he's in the shadows. I spy on Rita plenty." And Strange has some good Rita gossip: he gives Yuya this big, awful, I've got a secret sort of grin. "And I know which member of the carnival she's dating."

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