⇨ NPC MEET & GREET

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 76 - Day 78
Where: The Carnival
What: A gaggle of NPCs have arrived at the carnival to help with the acquisition of the Silver Mirror. There is an investigation thread for casual NPC interactions, and the rest will be handled in expositional megathreads.
Warnings: Nothing in particular!

HERE BEHIND YOU↴ As promised by the Ringmaster, near the end of the week there will be a number of guests arriving. All of them have encountered the carnival before in a variety of ways - you may have met them, or they may have been before your time. Either way, there are here to help. They owe the carnival a favour, after all. They are around for specific reasons, which will be carried out in the form of a couple conversational megathreads, but beyond that you are free to ask them questions in the investigation thread. ► THE DWARF FAMILY: This trio of dwarves (pictures here) are the heart and soul of the Worldwalker Caravan, aka the merchants that came to entertain the carnival during their solstic vacation on the moon. Brunis is a master tinkerer, Brauni is a master blacksmith, and Bal is a master chef. All of them are capable of creating amazing things, and if necessary they may be willing to do a few commissions for the carnival. ► SHIMMER & SCALD: A pair of escaped Winter Court changelings who used to belong to a fae called the Mother of Invention, and are now part of the Worldwalker Caravan. Shimmer is the more vocal of the two, and was apparently one of the Mother's top scientists before she fled. For obvious reasons, neither of them want the Winter Court to win the day. ► RAPH THE NEPHILIM: Mostly known for the fact that she was the brewer of the healing draughts that the carnival bought on mass from the Caravan during solstice. She uses her angelic powers to create and restore angelic artifacts, and knows a bit about angelic history. She's also had more direct experience with the Nephilim lifestyle than most. ► MOSS THE CHANGELING: Another changeling seeking refuge within the Caravan, she mostly gave the impression of being from the Summer Court. Unfortunately, whatever she went through seems to have traumatized her, leaving her so socially anxious that she struggles to carry on normal conversations. For those that met her, seeing her come out to the carnival in such a small group may come as a surprise. ► ALYSS & REYNA: A rabbit girl and a fox girl who were first encountered as starcrossed lovers under the tyrannical rule of the Prince. The efforts of the carnival helped to free them and the rest of the Manor servants, and instead of seeking refuge in the Summerlands, they chose to travel with the Caravan. They are mostly here on a social call, eager to say hello and lend what aid they can to the people who saved their lives. ► PRUDENCE & DAMIEN: The odd ducks out, these two are actually not from the Caravan at all! Instead, they are from Portland, in the version of earth that the carnival was trapped in for a month almost half a year ago. They were allies with the carnival during their efforts to break the barrier trapping them, and now, somehow, they've arrived at the carnival. Prudence is notably another nephilim, and the holder of a powerful angelic artifact called the Hand of God. Damien is her partner in crime and a warlock, or something.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS TO NPCS & INVESTIGATIONS

[ringleaders]

Want to talk to an NPC? Post here to have a summarized interaction with any of the NPCs listed above. Try not to talk to more NPCs than necessary to help avoid mod burnout, but if you just want to note that your character said hi to a particular NPC, feel free!

[betheman]

Most of this is Vague (Except One) so I'm putting it in the same comment- they don't need threads or talks, they're just little 'hi!' moments that are worth noting.

Reira would have greeted the Dwarves, specifically Brauni; during the Solstice she got things like the floating metal bone from her after all, so she'd just want to make sure to say hi! (If she could, she'd ask to take a picture with her though- something to remember her by!)

Gongenzaka likewise would check in with Brunis to comment on how handy the repulsor was. Heck Yeah, blasting the Rose Queen in the face (he is not actually super excited about that and kinda worried about the consequences). He would also want to greet Prudence and Damien. Hopefully they figure out it's him pretty quick when he says hi. (Also good on you getting your sword back Pru, he was wondering if that made it home safe)

LASTLY...the one who I'd be good for a thread with if that's fine?

Carly would quietly find Moss once she knew the changeling was around, if at least to apologize for her, ahem. Outburst while on the moon. She no doubt made things quite embarrassing and anxious, and that wasn't good of her.

[npcarnival]

The other greetings will go well enough. Brauni will remember Reira and ruffle heir hair, while Brunis will remember Gongenzaka as that incredibly indecisive customer and will be relieved to hear that he ended up happy with what he got (if only so he doesn't ask about any modifications.) Pru will have no idea who he is until he says he was the vampire, at which point she will definitely remember... and be pretty baffled by how he normally looks.

What may be surprising is that Moss doesn't immediately flee when she sees Carly. She seems to be forcing herself to stay put with sheer willpower, but she will nod in response to Carly's apologies with relative calmness and accept them.

She'll say that it wasn't really her fault, this kind of thing is just difficult for Moss to manage. But, she intends to do better this time.

Pru and Damien

[hippocarnival]

Yuya makes a eager beeline to Pru and Damien to say hi and ask how everything's going back in Portland. He'll mention which Fae from there seem to have left to tail the carnival instead and just look for the rundown how everyone's handling the Severing being broken.

[npcarnival]

Both Pru and Damien will be relieved to see Yuya in one piece - after all, they never got the chance to see the aftermath of the ritual stabbing. They'll explain that they've actually had a very hectic few months, but not necessarily because of the Fae. A lot of them have left the planet, probably eager to be free of the barrier, but that they expect this is only the calm before a storm of them returning.

Which means they've been focusing on getting things on the Angel and Demon sides under control. If they are going to defend the planet, the war between them will only prove detrimental. So, on account of some personal business, the two of them recently made a trip all the way to Hell - something that Damien seems particularly awkward about.

Thankfully, Pru will make sure to point out, it was overall a success. As a result, they have some findings that they want to share with the carnival as a thank you, since the Ringmaster reached out to them.

[kingsroads]

Strange is going to seek out Shimmer. Mostly, this is an offer for them to get fucked up: he'll offer the most potent liquor that he can steal from the kitchens and ask Shimmer hey, I had like the world's shittiest past few weeks, want to get wasted. He might press for a bit of gossip depending on her answer, but priority #1 is getting hammered with his drinking buddy.

As a general note, Strange is avoiding the hell out of Pru & Damien, to the point where if they're in the same area as he is, he'll try and go elsewhere. Someone doesn't want to deal with all that "heeeey so last time we met, I was brainwashed and tried to murder you" baggage.

[npcarnival]

Lucky for Strange, Pru and Damien will not even try to seek him out, or pay him much attention. That whole business is incredibly far from their minds at this point.

Shimmer, however, will greet Strange with open arms - coming up to hug him, in fact. If he tries to ask about getting wasted while Scald is around, she will pointedly try to cover the fact that he said it at all, and instead suggest he mention it while they are alone.

She says she does have some heavy exposition to give to the carnival, but it's not exactly lighthearted fair. All she'll say at first is that it involves her old fae keeper.

[periphrasing]

Peridot will excitedly seek Brauni out to greet her and hopefully catch up a bit! She probably brings Fleshy along as well, just to say hello, since the caravan was kind of her home before Peridot bought her.

She also has a favor to ask: With the engineering department's shift towards supplying and maintaining the carnival's armory, Peridot has found herself with some team members who have no idea how to work a forge or make weapons of any sort. She'd like to enlist Brauni's help in teaching the lot of them some weaponsmithing basics, since Peridot's not much of a teacher and Brauni is a master at this stuff.

Given the chance, she'd also like to chat Brunis up as well and kind of pick his brain for ideas about enchantments and gadgets that he think might prove useful in, say... fighting magic plants, or breaking through magic ice.

[npcarnival]

Brauni will give Peridot a big dwarf hug upon seeing her, the kind that would be a little bit rib cracking if gems weren't made of such sturdy stuff. She's happy to see her, needless to say.

She'll contemplate the idea of teaching and say that she could give it a try, but she doesn't know how much she could teach in only a couple days. She doubts most of the other carnival people will be as naturally talented as Peridot, after all, who is clearly as handy with a forge as she'd expect a young dwarf to be.

BAL

[flashover]

Rin is absolutely seeking out Bal to be his own version of Chef Ramsay. It may not be crucial to the mission at hand, but he still wants to learn everything he can about the art of food. He'll mention that, specifically, he's not the best at the time management aspect of the whole thing. He also wants to know more about bulk cooking techniques. And... well, everything, really. TEACH HIM, SENPAI.

[npcarnival]

If Rin wants to get bullied by a dwarf kitchen overlord, this is certainly his opportunity. Bal will agree to teach him, but only if he swears to follow his instructions to the letter. This means that Rin can expect a lot of "wax on wax off" style drudgery in the name of improving his time management skills, forcing him to work fast under stress situations. Which Bal is mostly intentionally setting up to be stressful so that Rin can experience CHARACTER GROWTH.

alyss & reyna

[atouts]

While Childermass will inevitably set shadow crows out to keep an eye on all their visitors (because he's a little creepy like that), Alyss and Reyna are the lucky pair who gets a real crow hanging out nearby, trying to figure out why they would ever come back to the carnival in the first place. That they consider people here to be friends doesn't really cut it.

He'll cut the weird bird act eventually, however, and actually approach them (as a normal Childermass) to ask them just that. Did they just tag along with the other Caravan folk? The carnival isn't exactly the most fun of places to visit right now.

[npcarnival]

Alyss and Reyna are both a bit spooked by Childermass for obvious reasons, but they still manage to react to him fondly when he reveals himself. Alyss will point out that they've already lived most of their lives in one of the most un-fun places imaginable, so anywhere is an upgrade, as far as they are concerned.

So, mostly, they would have wanted to just tag along regardless. As it happens, however, they did end up with a few letters from the Starlight that they are supposed to deliver while they are there.

She gave them to them the last time they visited the Summerlands and insisted they not go out of their way to deliver them. The next time they met those the letters are for would be fine, and the correct time for them to receive them.

Raph

[anti_nonsense]

After asking some of the caravanners about nephilim, Rita ends up being pointed to Raph as a potential source of expertise.

So the angelic goods at the caravan were her work...? Rita decides to start by asking about her craft. Did she learn from someone?

This will, unsurprisingly, turn out to be a segue into asking about angelic society and how Raph (and by extension, nephilim in general) fit into the picture... or don’t, as Rita’s heard they’re not the most welcome in Heaven.

[npcarnival]

Raph will shrug and say that some of it came naturally, some of it she learned from other nephilim. Nephilim usually have some sort of angelic gifts, and hers just happened to be a knack for imbuing objects with holy powers.

She'll go on to say that its complicated - they generally aren't allowed in the Highest Heavens outside of special circumstances. The angels generally don't want to risk outside influences contaminating the system, especially since mortals don't tend to follow the rules as expected. Their human parts are generally seen as just that - a contaminant.

It's not that angels hate mortals, but they don't see them as fit to serve the purpose of Heaven unless they give up their mortal half entirely and become a full angel. Even then, that kind of ascension would only be offered to the worthy.

Raph, Pru, Manor Furries

[espigeon]

Julien would like to chat with Raph, who he met, at least. Will having some nephilim in the carnival make angels more kindly inclined to it, or less? Any faux pas related to approaching angels? He's got a kind of distorted view of heavenly authority and would rather not just assume based on it.

He'd want to handwavily ask Pru about some Portland folks and how they've been doing, and might confuse her because Julien doesn't much resemble Iuliael. But if Pru and Raph have different opinions on angelic higher-ups and how to approach and talk to them, that'd be worth knowing too! They seem to have pretty different backgrounds.

Even more handwavily he'd want to tell Alyss and Reyna they're looking happy, inquire after what they've been doing, ask if they'd pass on well-wishes to others from the Manor next time they see them, but that's really just saying hi.

[npcarnival]

Raph will tell him that Angels seriously don't function by human standards a lot of the time, at least at the higher levels. Whatever heaven Julien has experience with seems to be a lesser division of the Heaven she's familiar with, at least according to Pru, whom she's spoken with already. The angels in Portland were created by the Highest Heavens, but the rules for them were perhaps less strict over all? Or, perhaps they were just less alien.

Angels value community and harmony above all, which means they work kind of like a hive. They all have roles and they fulfill them without question, because that's all they want to do. It seems like the lower Heavens are more mixed that way.

As for the Nephilim issue, Heaven is in two minds about that.

[bananaspeedrider]

Eyyyyy guess who's also coming around to greet Pru and Damien?

Though it might be weird for them to see the Guardian that briefly trained under their wing not... very... angel-ish at all (aside from the angelic aspect within his soul) these days, one would still sense it's the same guy.

Yugo just wants to make sure there aren't any hard feelings about accidentally taking the Hand of God with him before the Ringmaster managed to sent it back.... And if the apology note that went along with it didn't get lost in the "mail".

Also he'll inquire if his warlock, that one girl he granted Guardian power to, ended up alright (she was probably fine).

[sunflowerfields]

Hinawa has two people she wants to find. First she seeks out Bal and asks if he wants to swap recipes! She collected quite a few new ones from the Athenaeum, would he be interested in checking them out?

She also looks for Raph and asks her if she has any tips for making healing draughts. Hinawa doubts her attempts will be anywhere near as good as a nephilim's, but she wants to try anyway.

Brauni

[whattaprick]

While he didn’t have much of an opportunity to interact with Brauni on the Caravan’s last visit for his own needs, Lambert will seek her out to ask about the possibility of getting his silver sword from the Summerlands enchanted. After letting her look over it, he’ll explain that with them up against fae and using iron obviously out of the question, he’s been trying to figure out alternatives. However, he admits, it’s hard to imagine any enchantments that would effective against them.

The best he could come up with is enchanting his sword to have enchantment-breaking properties or something like that. Is that something possible? Or does she and the Caravan have better ideas from their years of traversing the universe?

[alphudo]

Yuusei wasn't around during the carnival's encounters with most of these folks, so he doesn't particularly know who is whom or what any of them do; but upon Gon mentioning that he's going to greet the guy who made his really cool arm, he would love to seek Brunis out and will attempt to approach him if he doesn't seem busy. He'll ask about what all Brunis can craft as well as how his inventions work, if Brunis has the time for it. A mechanic himself having joined the carnival to increase the scope of his abilities, he would be delighted to learn about the vast wonders and possibilities of the tinkering world.

⇨ ANGELIC EXPOSITION MEGATHREAD (DAY 77)

[npcarnival]

The day after the visitors arrive, Pru, Damien, and Raph will get everyone who wants to listen together into the Big Top to have a discussion about what they've found out. Everyone will be offered seats in the stands, and there is a white board set up in the ring for some reason, ostensibly so the presenters can take notes or maybe draw helpful diagrams.

Meanwhile, Damien is drawing fluffy clouds up on the top of the whiteboard and labeling it 'HEAVEN', while drawing flames at the bottom and labeling it 'HELL'. The two women mostly ignore him doing this.

Pru starts the discussion.

"The Ringmaster has asked us to explain what we know about Eden and the Angelic and Demonic hierarchies. More specifically, what we know about Lilith, Eden's creator," she says. "Many of you probably come from a world where 'Eden' is an existing concept - the presumed birthplace of mankind and creation's first beasts, where they all initially existed in harmony. While versions of Eden like that do exist, the one you're trying to go to is probably the first of its kind."

"Yep," Raph says, cutting in. "And it's not run by God, because spoilers, God doesn't exist. Not for the whole multiverse, anyway."

[pipers_son]

"'ello, Pru!" calls a certain familiar redhead from the stands, because he's sure she has good memories of the jackass who dragged in his ward and a bloody demon (in more ways than one) to a very important angel meeting. And he'd made a half decent impression before then, too...

Don't mind him if he feels just a little vindicated about that god bit. Score one for his bitter childhood self forced to sit through Sundays.

Still, while he does play around a little, he does want to know more about what they're actually doing, so he'll help nudge this presentation along. "Anyway, so even if it's not God, this Lilith must be pretty powerful anyway, right? Or do ya think it's just the mirror?"

⇨ FAERIE EXPOSITION MEGATHREAD (DAY 77)

[npcarnival]

It takes them a while to work up to it, but eventually the changelings of the Caravan will come forward with some information. It isn't the public affair that the angelic conversation, was - it's unofficial, spontaneous. The three of them will enter the Cookhouse during supper and speak up, calling for the attention of anyone nearby.

"I... need to tell you something," Moss begins, but her voice is too quiet, so Shimmer clears her throat loudly. "It's about... the fae."

[insidescoop]

Carly is listening intently, and despite her wild appetite, stops chewing her food immediately to carefully focus on the changelings- though she doesn't push, or speak at all. She gives a rather encouraging nod to Moss- patient, and hoping that whatever it is Moss has to say isn't...

Well. TOO horrible.

She doesn't like her chances, admittedly.

But for Moss, Carly gives a small smile- you've got this, Moss...You were brave enough to get this far, after all..!