⇨ CONFLAGRATION

[ringleaders]

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."

Comments

[npcarnival]

"Do you actually?" he asks, already sounding like he doesn't believe her, or at least like he's a bit bitter. "Because the others seemed to prefer implying I was an ignorant hypocrite whilst being too ensorcelled to defend myself."

[periphrasing]

"Yeah. I do, actually." She sounds a little bit snide but, only to the barest degree in direct response to his skepticism. "For one thing, I've never really talked to another high fae besides the Ringmaster before. And for another..."

The gem trails off, making a slightly annoyed sound. She's not sure how wise it is for her to really bare her soul here, so to speak. "...Let's just say I can relate somewhat to your predicament."

[npcarnival]

"How is that?" he asks, and it sounds like an earnest question. He can't really get where she's coming from without context.

[periphrasing]

"Being captured by the enemy and trapped somewhere alien and far away from home, all while feeling like you've failed at the one job you were made to do for the leader you were created to serve? Been there, done that."

[npcarnival]

It's not really clear how surprised her is, or whether that admission catches him off guard. He's been scrutinizing her doubtfully, and he continues to do that. There's some time to hesitate before he responds, though.

"Then, perhaps you do understand," he says, cautiously. "But then, my reaction should be self explanatory. What else are you hoping to see?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot pauses and looks thoughtful, fidgeting with her tail by curling and uncurling it slowly. She's making an extra effort to actually pick her words carefully, for once.

"I guess I'm not really hoping or expecting anything different, really. I just wanted to offer my advice, knowing what worked for me." And then she adds dryly: "Which, yeah, having said that out loud now, probably sounds incredibly stupid to you, coming from some random wyld changeling who you've only ever encountered a handful of brief times before. But... No one in this carnival wants to make your stay here any more needlessly miserable than it probably already is. I suppose I just wanted to make that clear."

[npcarnival]

He stares at her, processing what she's said. It a takes a while, but eventually something in him seems to give way, and he sighs, seating himself on the boulder he'd been using as a work area. He takes the sword he'd been working on and stabs it into the ground next to him.

"As sympathetic as they may be, I can't afford to prioritize this place's struggles. Either most of the people here really do mean no ill or they are very determined liars, but I find it ends up mattering little."

He gestures vaguely with his hand.

"There are things that Arcadia needs to do in order to maintain the balance of the multiverse, and those things will not always appeal to the needs and sensibilities of those within it. You may have our understanding but our mercy is harder to offer."

[periphrasing]

Peridot plops her butt down at the edge of the trailer wreckage after he sits, and cocks her head at him while he speaks.

"Can I be honest with you? I feel like I understand absolutely nothing about Arcadia's purpose, or what it's goals are. From a non-fae perspective it seems like you guys just hop around from universe to universe colonizing places without any real explanation as to why, but you talk about this 'balance' like you have some sacred responsibility to uphold."

[npcarnival]

"That's because it is," he says, though a more specific explanation is a bit harder for him. "We were the first beings spawned by Creation, at the beginning of this reality. The worlds that came next are reflections of our essence, made in our image. Of course it's our responsibility to oversee the worlds we first inspired."

He makes some more vague gestures as he talks.

"The elements of the Fae are the building blocks of the entire universe. Were the Courts out of balance, it would undoubtedly throw the rest of creation into chaos."

[periphrasing]

That all sounds super arrogant to her, claiming that the fae are naturally meant to be in charge of everything just because they supposedly came first, but she's not going to get into that argument with him right now. She has more burning questions to ask.

"But what does that mean exactly? To be out of balance?" She's leaning forward a bit, ears perked forward with interest. "Obviously there's the whole issue with the Winter Court being janked because of what the Ringmaster did. But you say you have to do things that other beings don't like or understand to maintain order. What does that entail? Is that why you colonize different worlds, like Portland?"

It does not occur to her that 'Portland' is probably not the actual name of the realm or what Ignatius would necessarily call it.

[npcarnival]

"It means to have one Court have more power and sway over the multiverse than the other. Colonizing a world means that it will begin to bear the properties of the Court that rules it. If one Court held more sway than the other, it would shift the rule of the elements in turn."

He crosses his arms over his chest. This is obviously something he's heart many times in his life.

"There's also the issue of contending with the unsavory realms at the edges of the multiverse, where the laws of physics and magic alike become hostile an unfamiliar. Without us, those forces would be encroaching on more territory than they already have."

[periphrasing]

A gentle frown creases Peridot's features. "But... why do you need to colonize at all? If it's a matter of one court having more influence than the other, why don't you just agree to stick to an even number of colonies each and leave it at that? Does your civilization require resources that can only be obtained by conquering worlds that meet certain parameters? Does it have something to do with these 'unsavory realms' you're talking about?"

[npcarnival]

"It would be difficult to collaborate over such an endeavor when the Winter Court often refuses to work with us at all," he says, obviously bitter. "When the Winter Court decides to take more than it has, our only option is to respond in kind. At least Summer is a more hospitable host."

He pauses, and then adds:

"But we do gain resources from our colonies. Some are worth more to us than others. All contribute to the strength and prosperity of Arcadia, which then is reflected in the worlds under our sway."

[periphrasing]

The frown deepens.

"But..." She's having some trouble grappling with this information? She was hoping they'd at least have more reasonable justification behind doing something so destructive. Some kind of easy math that, when viewed on paper, at least made sense from a cold numbers perspective. Like, 'for every one world we colonize, two more are spared cosmic annihilation'. Or something absurdly specific such as, 'we need to colonize worlds to harvest universe juice to keep our race alive because the very fabric of the multiverse would literally be torn apart without the fae around to hold it together'. What he's telling her is just...

"That's it? That's why the courts ruin people's lives, destroy entire ecosystems and planets and whole realities? How is any of that to the benefit of the multiverse as a whole?!"

[npcarnival]

He looks offended.

"Destroy? We don't destroy anything! I don't know what it is you've come to believe about us, but a colony is not destruction."

[periphrasing]

She seems to simmer down a little bit at that. But only a little. "Alright, fine. Perhaps I've been misinformed. Walk me through it then: What, exactly, does a fae colonization effort entail?"

[npcarnival]

"What does colonization usually entail? You take over a world, make yourselves the rulers, and then take part of it what it creates as your own in exchange for its defense." He doesn't sound totally enamored with the reality of it, but it ostensibly seems like the best option regardless.

"The specifics of how things are harvested from worlds is a magical process I was never trained to understand. There are better minds for those tasks, but I can easily tell you that most of a world remains intact when Summer rules it. Certainly more than in a Winter colony."

[periphrasing]

"...Okay, so that's not quite as bad as I was envisioning, I'll grant you that," Peridot concedes. "But what the heck gives you guys the right to take over other people's lives like that?! Seniority? You get to boss other people around just because you happened to be the ones who got made first?"

'Better than what gems do to planets' is a pretty low bar to clear. The engineer is showing remarkable restraint while discussing this, compared to the way that she usually shouts and gnashes her teeth at people, but she's still pretty noticeably ruffled by all this!

[npcarnival]

His arms remain crossed as he shrugs with one shoulder.

"We didn't 'just happen' to be anything. The rest of the multiverse came into being very specifically because of our presence."

He rolls his eyes.

"And of course you'd take issue with that. Nobody wants to be under the control of another, whether it's justified or not."

[periphrasing]

Peridot stares flatly at him. "Okay. I'm trying really hard to understand your perspective, but so far all I'm really hearing as far as an explanation goes is, 'we get to be in charge because we say so'. Which is super cruddy in my extremely important opinion, because the freedom to choose your own path-- to experience life, and learn about yourself through all your successes AND your failures-- is universally one of the most inspiring things that I've discovered in my thousands of years of life. It's what makes the multiverse so amazing and diverse and just. Beautiful! Taking that away, enforcing this homogeneous lifestyle-- it's just about as bad as outright destroying the world and everything in it."

She huffs and glances away, folding her arms at her chest. "I know. I'm being dramatic, and this probably sounds ridiculous to you, you being made to conquer or... whatever."

[npcarnival]

"You're idealistic," he says, simply. "Perhaps inexperienced. True freedom can't exist, because when allowed to do what they will, some, many, will always choose to rule over others. To take what you need from others is one of the most basic impulses of life. Animals feed on smaller animals. The powerful and canny will rise up and shape the world to their desires, unless there are restrictions and laws to stop them."

"You can talk all you want about the beauty of diversity and choice, but that will only stay beautiful to you as long you aren't subjected to those whose choices you dislike. True freedom will always allow the unlucky or unworthy to the slip through the cracks."

[periphrasing]

"So: I'm an idealist, just because I think there's got to be a better way for you fae to do your balance maintaining that doesn't involve conquering worlds and enslaving all of their inhabitants," says the gem, resting her chin on one palm and leaning on it, looking unimpressed. "Noted. Of course I understand that there's always going to be people who want to take from and control others! But that should be each world's own responsibility to work out for itself. Not the court's."