lostcarnival | the gang gets a tent

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renzo shima

the gang gets a tent

Who: The entire Acquisitions team; if you're part of that division, feel free to drop in
When: Before Eden
Where: One of the smaller performance tents (aka not the Big Top)
What: Acquisitions has a bunch of nerds joining them and they need an actual workspace now, so Childermass has acquired them a whole circus tent.

With Acquisitions expanding into research, it wouldn't do to simply leave their team decentralized. It might work for thieves and conmen, who had no use for one central location, as anything they picked up was bound for the carnival's storage and nowhere else, but with people who might actually need to sit down and argue with eachother over notes and books? Less so.

As such, he's put some work into remedying that...

Childermass will have left a note on everyone's pillows (how he got in, people should be able to guess by now, the creep) to drop by the tent off the left-hand side of the Big Top. It's one of the smaller tents, previously for the performances not meant for the big time at the grand tent next door. The center ring has a few tables and a variety of chairs pulled in and there's yet another table pushed off to the side where there's room for a coffee maker, an electric kettle, a few tins of coffee and tea, mugs and cups, though the rest has yet to be altered. The wooden bleachers for the audience remains, circling the center, and there are still chests of magician's props hiding behind the curtains here and there.

[ This is a mingle thread, so feel free to drop in top levels and reply as you like. ]

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Childermass is, of course, seated at one of the tables already. Makes sense. He invited everyone here, so he would have to be around, right? He's brought his own notes, all those little moleskines he's been filling with observations and sketches since the Realm of Dreams. They aren't grand books for research by any means but they are his own humble contribution.

As people arrive, he'll look up from writing in the latest one, raising his eyebrows at them if they pause or hesitate.

"Well?" He asks, voice carrying across the tent easily, seeing how they were already designed for that. "What do you think?"

The new arrival pushing into the tent isn't much to look at, but she freezes mid-step as she's addressed, apparently not having expected to see someone already in here. Silly, of course, since the whole point of coming here was to report to her new supervisor, but, well, she's not sure if this is him.

She puts a hand to the brim of her hat, tugging it idly while she swallows. She's glad her ears are hidden up under it, for once, even if she knows that doesn't hide much of her nerves right now.

"Er, about what, exactly?"

That's... new. As in someone new, entirely, and not at all anyone Childermass had been expecting. He sets his pen down, quiet for a moment as he simply looks at Eruka. Could be a tad bit unnerving, might not be, but he does eventually say, "The tent. I'm moving Acquisitions into it for the time being."

It isn't all that much to look at, honestly.

"Although that doesn't explain you, now does it?"

A tent for Acquisitions? Well, that's new. Still, if he's the one talking about moving it, this must be the man she's looking for. Eruka quells her nerves and forces herself to straighten up. The slightly gelatinous quality of her hair, the strange shadow that doesn't quite match up to her shape, and the faintly glowing spots across the bridge of her nose suggest someone who's already brushed against fae magic.

"You're the new Acquisitioner, aren't you?" she asks, giving him her best (if slightly wobbly) smile. "I'm Eruka Frog, witch and former thief ... though, er, I heard that's not what we're calling it anymore?" That look's a bit unnerving. Maybe it's because she can't shake the sense he might suddenly peck her if she steps out of line.

Edited 2018-07-11 05:05 (UTC)

New? Childermass wouldn't consider himself all that new, although with how Eruka looks, it doesn't take a grand stretch to realize she's already a changeling of some sort. The lack of cohesion in her appearance points readily to the carnival. Of course, then she just says she used to be a thief, so...

"The name of the department has changed but the duties haven't if that's what you're worried about," Childermass answers. Skullduggery isn't the word he would have chosen but eh, it suits them. "Skullduggery." If she really wants to know. Anyway, he waves her closer. "But yes, I'm Childermass, the new Acquisitioner. I wasn't aware of your arrival, Ms. Frog. Was it just today?"

"Skullduggery sounds even shadier, doesn't it?" Eruka asks, a bit bluntly. Did he come up with that himself? Eruka doesn't know this guy, but he doesn't strike her as one for jokes.

At any rate, his question makes her laugh nervously.

"More or less. You know how it is." Well, maybe he doesn't. "I signed for a new contract, but..." She twirls a finger. "Time gets away from you, in that tent." Especially when the Ringmaster gets sidetracked.

"But, that's not a problem! I'm here and ready to work!"

No. Only the Ringmaster has a sense of humor and definitely not Childermass.

"It can do that," he agrees, however, he isn't about to leave it there. Even if Eruka has signed a new contract, he has questions. "Did she inform you of the trouble the carnival has currently found itself in? Before you signed?"

"Er ... I caught some of it, but I don't think I have the whole picture, ribbit." Eruka croaks sheepishly, tugging at her hat.

"The Carnival's being pursued by some of the Ringmaster's old enemies," she starts, slowly. "And you're trying to find something to deal with that. Er, she didn't give too many details, but she was never big on those and it didn't seem like a good time to ask?"

Edited 2018-07-18 05:33 (UTC)

"The Faerie Courts," Childermass states that first and foremost, idly folding his hands on the tabletop as he prepares for, he assumes, too many questions that the Ringmaster should be answering. "The carnival is being pursued by the Winter and Summer Courts. Winter, in particular, because she ate their former Queen."

That is certainly not information Eruka was prepared for, and she gapes at Childermass.

“Wh-when did she do that?!” Does Eruka have much of a clue what a Faerie Court is? Not really, but she knows what a witch’s court is like and what the Ringmaster is like, so imagining a whole host of beings with that power... two of them? The thought makes her feel faint enough that she drops into a seat with a thump, wringing the hem of her hat between her fingers.

“Do they know where we are right now?” she wails. As the urge to disappear rises, her hair peculiarly begins to become strangely translucent and liquid, writhing in the air.

Edited 2018-08-06 15:48 (UTC)

"Before she ever created the carnival," Childermass answers way too calmly for dropping that kind of info. Like hey, surprise, literal god-like armies are after us. He finds it a little tiring that the Ringmaster would fail the mention that somewhat important point but that's about it.

As for if they know... That gets a shrug. How reassuring.

"Doubtful," he adds, "She took this place apart to get rid of any tracking or trick the courts may have placed. Whether that means we aren't being tracked, however, I cannot be certain. We've put at least one world behind us with no faerie encounters, so it's possible."

The lack of reassurance isn't lost on Eruka, who gulps, though she does her best to look at least not outright petrified. Her hair settles down, too, though she still looks a little see-through, and about to be sick.

"I see," she croaks unhappily, before she forces herself to shrug it off and straightens. She's signed the contract; there's no turning back now, and gnashing her teeth about it isn't all that productive.

"Is there, um, anything else I need to know?" Might as well get all the bad news out of the way so she can have a good cry about it in private later.

What else to know... He's covered the Courts chasing them. He supposes he should add, "We're currently searching for the Miracles as a way to defend ourselves. Those are three powerful faerie artifacts from somewhere back near the beginning of time or some thereabouts."

He's incredibly mortal. It may as well be that long ago.

"We've already obtained one." And it's troublesome. "And we're en route to where the second one is, we hope, being kept."

"Oh hey, there's even furniture!"

Gonna find the comfiest looking chair available to flop into.

"Could use a snack cabinet or a games table or something~?"

"Of what furniture could be found," Childermass says with a shrug. He did what he could, short of looting the abyss that happens to be the Ringmaster's vast collection of... who even knows what. Stuff. She sure has enough of it.

"Though I'm not sure why you'd need a cabinet solely dedicated to food. The cookhouse isn't too far." He's not sure how much non-perishable stuff they have, either, but that's him being serious as always. "A games table, however."

And he'll look at the tables already in there. There's several, so.

"Is that different from a normal table, Mr. Shima?"

Surprise, this asshole's doing magic. Strange has taken charge of one of the wooden sets of bleachers and is currently working on magically transforming it into a bookshelf. He's gotten the bleachers in the shape of a bookshelf, but he's currently trying to debate how high the shelves as well as the bookshelf itself should be.

He mutters as he works, as one of the shelves inside the bookshelf itself raises and lowers itself a few inches. There's a large stack of books on the floor next to Strange. A few of them are obtained from places the carnival's traveled to, but a few of them are very dense and very important looking books about English magic.

As he hears someone approach, Strange starts conversation. "Do you think the shelves are too far apart? I can always make them closer, but a few of my books are oversized."

Shima cheerfully picks up the thread, stopping to consider the shelf like it's not weird to see the pieces floating and moving around on their own.

"If you're gonna magic it anyway, couldn't ya just change it later if ya need to? I guess ya could make a couple of 'em different sizes, or cut a shelf in half so you can make one side taller... Like.." He tries to illustrate this on the dusty floor but it might not really get his mental image across.

Edited 2018-07-12 07:10 (UTC)

Strange thinks he gets Shima's image. He reaches a hand out towards the bookshelf and mutters an incantation. One of the shelves bisects itself in half: one of the halves raises itself up a few inches.

Of course, the problem now is that there's a few inches tall gap where the shelf halves were broken. "I'll need to fix that," Strange says, as he points to the gap, "but that's doable. Are you talking about something like this?"

There's a frog in the acquisitions tent.

It wouldn't be too remarkable, really -- easy to dismiss as another offshoot of magic gone wrong, as is par for the course for everything here -- if it wasn't for what it was doing. Namely? Perusing some book or notes that someone has left behind, occasionally reaching out with a webbed hand to turn the page. Maybe those notes are yours? Someone else's?

At any rate, as soon as it becomes aware it's being observed, it freezes and looks up, blinking rapidly.

That frog is trying to read his notes. Normally, Strange would just assume that oh, it's just a frog, you're thinking things over too much. But one of his friends can turn into a bird and another can turn into a dragon. This frog might be a person.

And if they are a person, the least they can do is ask to borrow what he's reading when he's finished. Really, don't be rude Eruka.

So like an asshole, Strange starts to mutter under his breath, trying to dispell whatever magic is keeping this person as a frog. It would work better with smooches but even Strange knows that kissing a frog back into a person is cliche.

Eruka doesn't really have a sense of her coworkers, much less their abilities. But she does know what magic tends to look like, and muttering is a bad sign, in any case.

Deciding escape is the better part of valor before she can find out what that spell is supposed to do, Eruka starts to hop off the table to make a quick exit right past Strange. This guy looks slow, he's probably not going to be fast enough to catch her, right?

Only even if Strange isn't fast enough, his magic is. Mid-air, the frog suddenly poofs into a girl -- a girl still sailing through the air, no less. Eruka shrieks in surprise, limbs flailing out on instinct to catch herself, but it mostly just ends in her pinwheeling straight towards Strange.

Strange isn't fast enough to catch a hopping frog. Thankfully, magic is. There's a brief look of smug triumph on his face as Eruka turns into a girl, only for that look to almost instantly shift to a look of 'oh crap' as Eruka hurtles towards him.

He doesn't have enough time or enough skill to dodge so smack, Eruka whams into Strange and they both fall backwards, falling to the floor.

Fortunately, Eruka's not particularly heavy -- but she is squirmy, frantically kicking out with her feet as she struggles to disentangle herself from Strange and comes dangerously close to just kicking him in the head once or twice.

"What is wrong with you, ribbit?!"

"What is wrong with you?" Strange snaps, as he tries to wriggle out from under Eruka. It's the second time her foot comes dangerously close to his head that Strange decides fuck it. He poofs into smoke, quickly floats out from underneath her, and not even five seconds later, reassembles into a full, yelling person.

"Do you not have any manners? Most people ask before reading over someone's shoulder, not loiter around and try to read it as a frog!"

With Strange disappearing like that, Eruka ends up dumped on the ground with a small 'oof,' all the jostling ending up with her hat knocked off her head, revealing long, lapine ears. She sits there, a little bit stunned, until she starts getting yelled at -- and she yells back on instinct.

"Wh -- are you even part of this department?! Sneaking around is part of the job!"

Congrats Eruka, you've unintentionally hit on a sore spot for Strange. Because she's right: he shouldn't be in this department. And yet the Ringmaster shoved him here because she felt he shouldn't be a soldier.

Ridiculous. As long as they were fighting for their lives against the Courts, of course he'd be a soldier.

He scowls, making it plain to Eruka that Strange is not a fan of this line of questioning. "I suspect I'm here because the Ringmaster doesn't trust me in other places. But the answer on paper is that when she reorganized the departments and jobs, Acquisitions gained a new section called 'Research.' That's where I work." And he still kind of hates it.

W-what is he glaring at her for?! Despite herself, past her initial surprise, Eruka can’t really feel afraid of Strange for long. Her ears twitch as she squints at him, before she picks herself up, dusting her dress off.

“I heard about that, but I didn’t realize it was true. About Research getting put into Acquisitions, I mean...” It’s weird to think of the department of shady questionable types doing anything of the sort, but she supposes times change.

“You seem like you’re good at it? Your notes are pretty thorough.” It’s the best she can offer about something he’s obviously unhappy about, but it’s true that it’s what attracted her curiosity in the first place. “Are you a warlock?”

Edited 2018-08-06 15:26 (UTC)

A warlock? Well, that's a new one. He's gotten magician, mage, and wizard before but not warlock. His grumpiness fades a bit as he gives Eruka a little shrug.

"I suppose that all depends on what you think warlocks do. I would call myself a magician or a wizard, but it's entirely possible I'm a warlock as well."

"Well ... manipulating magic is the biggest part of it. They can be called sorcerers or wizards too, depending on where you are, but the idea's the same."

Though his apparent confusion over the term is a confirmation he's not from her world, in any case.

"They're not that common," she adds, rubbing one hand at her arm absently, where she'd bumped it on the ground earlier. "But they're usually pretty powerful."

This guy super doesn't look like much, but then again, Free hadn't looked like he had magic at his disposal, either. Eruka knows better than to judge by appearances ... and at any rate, Free's also proof that you can be a powerful magic user and a complete moron at the same time, which can be a good thing or a bad one at once.

Edited 2018-08-13 21:45 (UTC)

The more Eruka describes warlocks, the more Strange's confusion shifts to a smug little grin. Manipulating magic? Check. Not that common? Well, kind of a check, hopefully magicians will become more common in his world as time goes on. Usually pretty powerful? Big fuckin' check.

"With that definition, I am a warlock. My specialty is reflections and elemental work, though I'm skilled in a few other subsets as well."

Just not useful stuff like 'healing' or 'shields.'

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the gang gets a tent

childermass, ota

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Jonathan Strange | ota!

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Eruka, OTA

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