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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"Any attempt at an explanation is a good start," Strange explains. Now that Susan is a human again and not a large animal, Strange sits up. He doesn't fully get up from the ground yet, but he gives Susan a little smile to show that everything's all right.

"Besides, I'm certain you'll do a good job at it. No one knows your magic better than yourself."

Susan figured that Strange was okay, but seeing the man sit up and smile is definitely a relief still. It's good to know he didn't accidentally scratch him or anything of the sort.

He still isn't sure he can give a good explanation, but he nods anyway.

"I just don't really know how it works, though. I sort of just... Make it happen? It's different from most magic in our world."

Strange has a new least favorite thing: people for whom magic 'just happens.' This happened with Steven as well and that irritated Strange to no end. These things don't 'just happen.' There has to be some sort of rule or pattern or something behind Susan's magic to make it work.

"Well then, how exactly is it different?"

"Um..." He has to think about that one for a long moment. It would help if he had a better understanding of how others on his world do magic, but he did go to magic school for a whole week so he definitely knows a little bit.

"So, there's just magic everywhere, in our world. And anyone can use it to do things if they learn the way to do it, but they have to learn how because I guess, they can't just like... Feel it? So they have to memorize it or pray or something." It's sort of a disjointed explanation, and he knows it, but he only has a vague grasp on how magic is supposed to work, so it's the best he can do.

"But I can just make it do what I want. Ever since I was a baby, I could do it."

"Interesting," Strange answers, with a little nod. "The magic in my world's a bit like that. It's always easiest if you have a spell or have something memorized. But I've managed to make my own spells before."

After all, there have been plenty of times when Strange didn't have any books and had to cobble together a spell based on what he remembered and what fragments he had, tying it all together with the feeling he got whenever he cast a spell.

"In my world, praying doesn't enter into it. Can all religious people do magic where you're from or only a select few?"

He knows that it's probably a dumb idea asking Susan this but hey, Strange is curious.

"I still have to have a spell, but... I guess it's just a spell I'm making up, instead of one someone else did. I can just figure out how to make it on my own."

But the religion question gives him pause, and he has to think about it for a moment before nodding.

"I think they all can! They just might not be very good at it, unless they're like a priest or something special like that. Mostly they do healing magic though I think... Or stuff about whatever their god is?" He doesn't honestly know a lot about religion, though, so he ends up shrugging.

"Druids just pray to nature though or something. I don't really know."

Fun fact: Strange's brother in law is a pastor. He's trying real hard to imagine his brother in law doing magic but honestly can't put together that mental image right now. Would England eventually be the same? Probably not: Susan did mention 'stuff about whatever their god is' and if the Christian god wanted people to have magic, he'd have done something about that now.

"Does any of your magic happen instinctively? My English magic doesn't, but some of the fae magic I've picked up here can happen without me realizing it."

The magic that happens instinctively is currently the fire Strange produces now. He's certain he'll get a handle on it eventually—after all, he did so with the smoke. But he's also heard stories of Susan accidentally burning down things with his magic and wants to figure out how that works into the grand scheme of things.

Susan frowns when he thinks about it before shrugging.

"I don't know, really. It's... I sort of make it happen, but on accident? That's the only kind that happens without realizing. But I've done some of it for so long that I can do it without really thinking, I just sort of do it. Like walking."

"And it's the magic that you do without really thinking that leads you to burn down a building?" Strange quickly continues talking before Susan can make any interjections.

"Which I'm not judging you for, by the way. Lord knows I've had things accidentally go wrong with my magic before. I'm simply trying to figure out the basics of how your magic works."

Surprise, Lauren gossipped about Susan a bit.

He actually shakes his head at that.

"No, the magic I don't really think about is stuff that always works, actually. I can show you some of it. But the stuff that burns down buildings, and stuff, is like..." He thinks for a second before thinking of how to explain it.

"It's like, I make the magic work, by... Pulling the right parts, sort of? But sometimes other stuff comes with it. It's like when you're tying a knot, but sometimes the rest of the rope tangles up or knots too." It's the best he can come up with, so he hopes it makes sense.

Thankfully for Susan, that metaphor makes sense. Strange's magic runs on bullshit, he's much more approving of explaining magic through metaphors than explaining magic through precise explanations. When Susan casts a spell, sometimes he occasionally casts more than he plans. It's simple enough.

"Mine's like a song," Strange explains, with a smile. "It's like I can hear a song in my head and the magic is how I finish it."

Susan smiles at the explanation, nodding as he thinks about it.

"That makes sense! That's way more interesting than the other magic I know about." Mostly because it seems all like... Memorization and reading. Which are both boring.

Memorization is indeed pretty boring, but Strange would make a case that some forms of reading aren't boring. Strange is entirely in his element right now and will pretty much ramble on about magic until Susan wants the conversation to end. This man can talk for hours.

"Is Lauren's magic the same as yours? I've never seen him do any fire or transform himself into an animal the way you have."

He shakes his head immediately.

"No, his is totally different. He couldn't use magic until we were older. He has a teacher, back home, an old druid who taught him how to do magic and live in the forest and stuff." Of course he can't give a good explanation of that magic, but he would try if Strange asked.

"Interesting," Strange muses. He puts his hand to his chin in thought as he frowns a little. "My magic's more like yours, I suppose. I had a teacher eventually, but I discovered it on my own. However, I didn't discover my magic until I was much older than either you or Lauren."

Like late twenties older. Still, currently mid thirties Strange mentally thinks of Lauren and Susan as younger than they actually are.

"I think that's how it is for a lot of people. You don't really need to learn magic when you're young, most of the time, even Lauren wouldn't have if we didn't have to live by ourselves." His own magic doesn't count, of course, since he's just always had it. Even at home he's a bit of an anomaly, since so many magic users do have to study or something to learn magic.

"How old were you?" Now he's curious.

There's a brief period where Strange frowns and tries to remember the specific year. His internal clock is all messed up thanks to various curses, stays in faerie, and the one time he went home for a bit and that's unfortunately messed up some of Strange's perception of time in the past.

"Twenty eight or so," Strange answers. "But the main difference is that my world only had a handful of magicians to begin with. I didn't know that doing magic was even possible until I cast my first spell."

Twenty eight? That's definitely older than they were. Neither of them is even that old yet. It's strange to think about, but he remembers enough of what Strange said before about his world that he supposes it makes sense.

"That's so hard to imagine. There's magic everywhere, in our world. For someone to be able to do it but not know... That's just so strange to think about."

"It was even stranger when it happened," Strange remarks, with a wry little smile. "A man sold me my first two spells and told me I was a magician. I cast the first one as a dare to my wife to prove I could. Truth be told, I didn't expect it to work at all!"

Casting his first spell was Strange mostly humoring Arabella, a little bit of levity to make fun of the fact that this odd homeless man told him he was a magician. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect the spell to actually work.

Sold him spells? So like wizard spells, he figures, something written down you could do if you read it. It's still funny to think about, just accidentally casting magic without even knowing magic existed or that you could, and he laughs at the idea.

"That must have been really funny! You never even saw magic before, and then you just did it all on your own? Was everyone really surprised?"

"They were!" he laughs. "Of course, my first spell was something understated. They'd have been more surprised if I suddenly shot sparks from my fingers or made it snow in the room."

Still, understated spell or not, doing magic when he didn't think he could and also doing magic in a world that barely had any magic to begin with was something to be proud of. Strange won't entirely disparage his first few spells.

"That would have been a lot cooler! I guess it might have been more dangerous, though. Or even a little scary?" Since no one knew magic was real, that definitely could have been scary for people to see.

"It's still cool, though, that way. You must be really good at it to be able to do it without even knowing you could." He's seen him do it, after all, but there's still got to be some sort of natural talent if he can do it so easily.

Strange looks a little proud of himself. A more modest man would point out the many factors that lead to Strange becoming a magician, starting with 'it might be part of a prophecy' and ending with 'no seriously, I've no idea why I suddenly could do magic in my late twenties.' Strange is not modest. So Strange is going to gloat a little.

"Well I did do magic for the King of England." Just because there were only two magicians in England. And the magic didn't really do anything. But he's gloating and preening right now so those things don't matter! "I suppose that makes me 'really good' by default."

Of course Susan has no idea what England is, but he knows what a king is and so he still lights up at the idea, thinking of how cool that would be to show off for a king.

"You really did? What did you do for him? Did he want something really boring or was it something really important?"

"It was supposed to be something really important. The king was sick and my mentor and I were charged to help him." There's a brief pause. It would be so easy for Strange to continue talking himself up and talking up his magic. But, he's not one to lie to begin with and he's certainly not one to lie to Susan.

"Unfortunately, we weren't of any use. Magic cannot cure madness."

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