lostcarnival | ⇨ CONFLAGRATION

Entry tags:

⇨ CONFLAGRATION

Who: The Ringmaster, Peridot, Amethyst, Shima, Tyki, Childermass and Ignatius.
When: Day 68
Where: THE CENTER OF THE (OTHER) MOON.
What: The Ringmaster has recruited the help of a not-so-elite group of carnival members to help her deal with the imprisoned Ignatius.
Warnings: Weird egg stuff.

THE FIERY ONE↴
When you meet up with the Ringmaster at the portal she's in her humanoid form, but that doesn't last long. After a brief period of waiting, she will take you back to the carnival grounds, still fresh and partially undefined from her rebuilding. It's familiar, but as if details have been left out - like a painting that's not finished yet. The sky isn't right, and and the forests are oddly barren.

She'll assure you she simply isn't finished with it yet, but that this has taken precedence. Soon, she'll be turning into her dragon form and whisking you all away, up into the second moon. The flight happens almost instantaneously - first you see the carnival grounds, then the sandy oceans of the moon - then, you see nothing.

It doesn't last for long, though. A ring of glowing stones light up the new space you're filling - a cavern carved out of the center of the moon itself. Unlike the moon with the Blue Rose, however, it isn't perfectly spherical, and gravity goes straight down. There is a rough, uneven floor you can walk on steadily, with boulders and rocks scattered about. The Ringmaster's current dragon form fills about half of it.

In the center of the room there are two man-sized eggs. One glows brightly with an inner light, radiating heat. The other does as well, but less so. There's an impromptu nest of rocks around them, preventing them from falling over.

The Ringmaster seems unsure of how to start.

"So," she begins, uncertainly. She is till hunched over in dragon form. "This... is a bit complicated."

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Well that's a hell of a thing to walk in on. Especially considering she's already feeling kind of jumpy about the whole situation.

Peridot stops and watches him work for a moment, equal parts because she's not sure how to break the silence, and because watching him forge is downright fascinating. She's not exactly an expert smith herself, but she did pick up a few tricks from her lessons with Brauni over solstice break.

And another thing she's wondering... should she take those away from him? He's making weapons. That doesn't seem like a good thing for someone who's basically prisoner to have? But she also doesn't want to risk provoking him?

After a few moments of internal debate, she decides to just wing it and awkwardly clears her throat to get his attention.

"Yes?"

It's asked simply, and without much emotion behind it, besides perhaps very mild impatience. How quickly he responds, and with how little upstart there is, it seems that he probably knew she was here already.

He doesn't stop working, either.

This is becoming more and more unbearably awkward for her by the moment. She should have asked the Ringmaster for some tips before coming in here, like how the heck she's supposed to address this guy when he's a high fae, but also he's at their mercy.

Ugh.

What's worse, each time he bangs that hammer down, she flinches ever so slightly and her ears twitch back at the noise. It's making it even harder for her to focus, and try as she might, she can't get the words out:

"Umm... I need to--" Flinch. "I was just--" Flinch. "I wanted to ask--" Flinch. Peridot pauses and grits her teeth, continuing to suffer through the sounds of hammer against metal until...

"COULD YOU PUT THAT STUPID HAMMER DOWN FOR A CLODDING MINUTE PLEASE, I AM TRYING TO TALK TO YOU!" she yowls suddenly, her patience and the conversational ice broken at the same time.

Very slowly and leisurely, the hammering stops. Then, just as slowly, he sets down the hammer and the piece of metal he was working on.

He turns to her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Then speak," he says, his voice just as flat.

"Thank you," Peridot grumbles, though she would have appreciated if he'd done that with a bit more speed.

"...Wwwwhy are you making a bunch of weapons, anyway?" she asks, eyeballing the items in question warily. She should probably just cut to the chase and ask what she came here to ask, but her curiosity has the better of her.

He looks around the cavern serving as his prison, and then spreads his arms, looking back at her. It seems to indicate the complete lack of material he has to work with.

"What else would you propose I do?" he asks, as if he's soliciting an order.

"...Alright, fair enough," she concedes. She'll grant you that one, punk. Peridot thumps her tail thoughtfully, considering for a moment, and then adds: "Do you... Mind if I take a closer look?"

She's curious about his handiwork, so sue her.

Edited 2018-06-18 04:35 (UTC)

"I am in no position to stop you," he says, remaining where he is.

If she does take a closer look, she will see what appears to be a mastery of the craft - or at least the best one can expect from recycled trailer parts. In gem terms, she could expect this quality from a gem that was made for the purpose.

Peridot sticks a hand up and calls one of the swords over to her with her metal powers, rather than walking over to pick it up like a normal person might. Just because she can, and also she's leery of putting herself too close to him. Not that he's giving off much of a vibe of wanting to Commit a Violence, but... better safe than sorry, in her opinion

Looking at the weapon more closely now, she makes a soft sound of surprise, her ears pricked forward with interest. "This is impressive, considering all you have to work with for materials is that hunk of junk," the gem admits, jerking her head lightly to indicate the smoldering remains of the trailer. "I thought you were supposed to be some kind of general. Is part of your job making your own weapons, too?"

He would probably actively withhold information, were he any less bored. As it is, idle chatter about swords will have to cut it, even if he still doesn't sound particularly excited.

"No, there are better smiths for that," he says. "But I was taught by one of my progenitors... the skill is part of her Domain."

Must be one of those six moms that the Ringmaster mentioned.

"Huh," is all she'll say to that. Intrigued, but not enough to pursue further details. It's tempting to keep questioning him about this stuff, but Peridot is kind of aware that she's dallying quite a bit already, so she feels like she might be pushing her luck there.

With that, she floats the sword back over for him to catch, and finally gets down to the point.

"I need to know why you were looking for Lapis Lazuli back in the Athenaeum. Some of my associates who were present that day said that you mentioned her by name. Why?"

Edited 2018-06-18 05:27 (UTC)

He catches the sword and swirls it around once before stabbing it into the ground.

"The Nightshade spoke to her, and told me Lazuli was interested in betraying the Ringmaster in exchange for her personal freedom. I was supposed to see if I could make a contract with her, to that effect."

So pretty much exactly as Peridot had guessed. She's undecided, for now, about whether she's happy to be right, or if she's just even more worried.

"So that was the real Nightshade she talked to," the gem half-mutters to herself, scowling and thumping one fist into her open palm. On one hand, vindication! She wasn't totally crazy to suspect the fae might try something that sneaky. And then on the other hand... The fact that the pixie was able to get that close to Lapis at all in the first place is deeply unsettling, and Peridot doesn't like it one bit. "I'm surprised Nightshade didn't want to immediately jump on making a contract like that herself. Why did she escalate the issue to you?"

"She claimed it was because I was her superior," he says, his distaste for Nightshade obvious. "Yet, I know the creature well enough to think that it's simply because she didn't want to be responsible for the outcome. Or, perhaps, because it was more likely that she would be recognized by others in the carnival."

"I was not particularly interested in recruiting someone who was already a traitor." It had gone out of sheer obligation to follow through on a lead.

Peridot, being no fan of Nightshade herself, isn't about to jump to the pixie's defense.

"Lapis isn't a traitor," the engineer growls, scowling at Ignatius. "She has her issues with the Ringmaster but that's just because she didn't choose to be here like some of us did."

"She is," Ignatius replies. "And if it is as you say, then you were the one betrayed most of all. You have no small investment in this place, don't you? Yet, she would hand over everything you hold dear just to save herself a measly few months of service."

That assertion might have been more upsetting coming from someone else, but Ignatius is just an enemy fae who doesn't even know what Lapis looks like, much less how she really is. It's easy for Peridot to deny what he's saying on the basis of convincing herself that this is just tactic to get under her skin.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," she snaps, pinning her ears back. "I talked to her after the fact and she may have started exploring her options, but that's just because she doesn't know how to deal with you fae like I do. Even if you had found her, she wouldn't have agreed to anything."

Even as the words leave her mouth, she wishes she could sound a bit more confident and a bit less defensive in that assertion.

"Suit yourself," is all he says, and he doesn't look particularly invested in Lapis's future, or in getting under Peridot's skin. "It won't be my concern if she betrays the Beast's interests. In fact, I could stand to benefit from it."

He starts to turn like he's going to go back to hammering.

"Wait, what?" Peridot growls. Is he seriously trying to end this conversation right there? Like, yes, he answered her questions promptly and in their entirety, but, she hardly feels like they're done here.

She dares to move a bit closer, stepping around to remain in his line of sight even if he attempts to pick up the damn hammer again. "How is that possibly to your benefit? The other day you were telling us we should have killed you, now you're hoping you'll escape somehow? I thought you were concerned about going home with those new beast features of yours."

He doesn't get back to hammering quite yet, at least.

"You've already said you aren't going to kill me," he says, with some degree of forced patience. "And that if I want that to happen, I'll have to do it myself. Sadly, that isn't going to happen."

He won't get into why.

"What hope do I have left? As I see it, my only option is to be rid of this place and face my humiliation in Arcadia, or to live in this purgatory indefinitely."

"Well that's a pathetically defeatist way of looking at things," Peridot says flatly, relaxing her posture a bit now that the topic of conversation is moving away from Lapis. "Not that I'm trying to imply that you're pathetic. I just expected more zeal than that, I guess."

She keeps talking as she meanders over to the wreckage of the trailer to take a closer look. "Between you and me, I don't think the Ringmaster intends to keep you up here in this chamber indefinitely. So hey, that's already an improvement right there. Not quite as hopeless as you thought, right?"

Unless he means that the carnival itself is the purgatory, of course. In that case he is probably SOL.

He does pretty much mean that the entire carnival is a purgatory, but he isn't going to quibble over it. Instead, he focuses on what he considers to be more immediately irritating.

"More zeal, hm? And what alternative do you propose I'm missing? The one where I suddenly decide your Ringmaster is correct, and that I'd rather forsake everything I've lived for till now to follow her lead? Hah, it would be familiar, at least."

Peridot watches him with brows slightly raised, a flat expression on her face.

"I mean, I guess that is a third potential option," she says, shrugging lightly. "Though it doesn't sound like a particularly realistic one. What I was actually going to suggest is that you take the time to observe and learn what you can. Maybe you come around to our side, maybe you don't... Either way, you experience something different, and that makes it worthwhile."

She levitates a piece of scrap metal up to her hand and gives it a tap with her claws, testing the give of it. "Of course, I was created to be an engineer, not a soldier, so. That might not hold the same appeal to you as it did for me."

Ignatius doesn't know anything about gems, but still, that statements doesn't strike him as particularly odd. He knows there are species out there that behave more like fae.

"Are you suggesting you were captured by the Ringmaster as well?" he asks. That seems like the most straightforward explanation.

"No?" Pause. "Well. Actually... Yes, I was at the start, technically. But I willingly signed up to stay for longer after my first contract was satisfied."

She doesn't see any harm in telling him that much.

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