lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 119 - Day 126
Where: The Summerlands
What: Ignatius and Gild portal everyone to the Summerlands, with hopes of appealing to the Summer Maiden for help. Meanwhile, the carnival gets the chance to relax in luxury as only tentatively welcome guests. Here is the location write up from the last time the carnival visited. Since then, of course, some things have changed.
Warnings: Nothing in particular.

THE SUN RISES↴

After taking the time to rest, Ignatius and Gild will be able to pool together their energy to portal the carnival (and the airship) to the Summerlands. Those still in Polaris will be left to their own devices for the moment as Gild intends to ask for the Summerlands aid in relocating them, hopefully as soon as possible. With the effort the carnival put into sorting things out in there, however, they should be fine on their own for a little while, at least.

They will arrive in the flowery fields at the base of the mountains, and soon the Summer Fae will notice their presence. Since the last time they visited, however, the atmosphere has changed.

► YOUR ARRIVAL: As the Summer Fae discover the group's arrival, it will quickly become apparent that there is a tension present that wasn't there any of the other times the carnival has visited. The Summer Maiden comes to greet the group personally, with an entourage of armed Summer Fae. They are not at all aggressive unless provoked, but there is clearly a wariness that is new. They seem uncertain about Ignatius being here, and while Gild will be able to do a lot of the talking and smooth things over, the Summer Maiden will deflect having a serious conversation about affairs until the carnival has taken time to 'rest.' It's more likely that the Maiden needs a moment to think over this new information before dealing with it.

► SUMMER CITY: After the Summer Fae become aware of everyone's presence, and the initial uncertainties are accommodated, they will invite you into their city. There are stairs that lead up the sides of the mountains, but thankfully there are also magical means of getting up there as well. The Summer Fae will be willing to help workers with the injured as needed, offering herbal remedies and healing magic to those that want it. You'll also be invited to join them for dinner, but it feels like more of a formality, and no one is obligated to take them up on it.

► SUMMER PEOPLE: The fae here will do their best to entertain these new visitors - but it doesn't seem that much happens here besides day after day of peaceful meditation and relaxation. It is not uncommon to see Summer Fae spent days doing exactly the same thing, whether that be enjoying the weather, listening to music, or dancing - the day and night periods may be similar to earth, but when you don't need rest it can all blur together just the same. Some of the fae work on feats of agriculture or craftsmanship, and while there is no particularly need to work in this place, they take pride in the fact that they do.

► FAMILIAR FACES: One very different thing about the Summerlands this go around is that there appears to be a small settlement built at the base of the mountains, filled entirely with the former residents of the Manor. Alyss and Reyna will explain that they set up a place to live down there with the Summer Fae's help, and that the fae seems to be trying to remain hands off except when they are needed. The Manor folk overall seem to be doing well, though there is some tension regarding their place in the Summerlands - they are clearly seen as refugees, and while the Summer Fae do their best to help them, the arrival of the carnival and the request for even more help with refugee aid seems to be making things awkward.

► OF THINGS TO COME: The Summer Maiden will remain distant for the first few days, but according to Gild and based on personal observation, it will seem that the news that the Ringmaster has been taken and the idea that even more desperate mortals are requesting to come here are putting her at significant ill ease. She's not rude or dismissive, but she seems reluctant to address the situation head on, though she has said that she will hold a meeting with the carnival later in the week to discuss everything in more detail. None of them seem particularly angry or resentful, but they seem to regard the carnival as an ill portent of things to come.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While she's a bit less overall dead than she was in the immediate aftermath of their fight against the Mother, Peridot's still not quite in tip top shape just yet. It kind of has her wondering if maybe she's hallucinating this ball of fire. She's just chilling by a fountain and staring into space when he comes floating by, though his approach grabs her attention.

"Um..." she says blankly, frowning at the unfamiliar creature. She doesn't like the way it's just sort of staring at her?

"Do you mind? I am trying to relax over here."

Inwardly, Strange is wary as hell about that fountain. He knows this form can be extinguished: he's figured that much out at least. But the idea of bothering Peridot is winning out over the more logical idea of staying away from the water feature.

So, he purposefully floats over towards Peridot, keeping his tiny little eyes on her all the while. Can gems feel heat? Strange honestly isn't sure. But he's going to find out!

Apparently his frame of reference for how animals behave is squarely on the cat side of things, because he just straight up floats towards Peridot's leg and, for lack of a better term, moves up against it. He's not rubbing against her leg or anything, because he has a slight bit of dignity. Strange is just leaning against it in his fire form, waiting to see what Peridot will do next.

Fortunately, he's focusing on tempering his flames somewhat, keeping this down to 'uncomfortably hot' instead of 'third degree burn.' But that sure is a fire elemental attempting to lean up against Peridot's leg.

Heat yes, cold no. Fortunately, Peridot's a fair bit more heat resistant than some people, thanks to all her faerie mutations. It's sort of like trying to burn a dragon? You can do it, but it takes some extra effort.

It's still enough to annoy her and cause some discomfort though, like a particularly itchy bug bite. She growls and pulls her feet up off the ground, shifting onto all fours and backing up along the fountain's edge like an ornery cat.

Oh man, he's already annoying Peridot. This is so easy! Strange quickly decides that he should do one of the things that he does best: continue to be an annoying pest.

So, he floats up again, and once again tries to rest near her feet. Although this time, it's less 'near' and more 'on top of.'

"Nggh-- HEY!" Peridot yelps, outraged. Strange better watch out, because she is about to make an attempt at swatting/kicking him right into that fountain.

Nope nope nope, Strange thankfully manages to float out of the way of Peridot's swatting/kicking, floating a few feet in the air instead of in the fountain. Logically speaking, he should leave well enough alone, accept his losses, and give up the game. But instead, he's going to continue to pester Peridot.

This time, he decides to float riiiiight up close to her shoulder.

Okay, that tears it. She's not having any of this. With a frustrated yell, Peridot turns into a bat and flies up to roost on one of the upper tiers of the fountain, sitting directly underneath a cascade of falling water.

"HA! Try pestering me NOW, you flaming CLOD!" sneers the bat. The triumph of this clever move is somewhat undercut by the way that water is exposing just how much of the bat's typically round silhouette is apparently just filled out by fluff? It looks like when you dunk a pomeranian into a bath.

"You cheater!" Strange's voice emanates weirdly from the fireball. Still, this is definitely a win in his book: might as well give up the game. He floats back, a foot or so away from the fountain, before shifting back into his human form.

It's relatively instataneous, as the now-human Strange looks up at the now-bat Peridot...and bites down on the inside of his cheek to keep from blatantly laughing at how drenched she is.

Edited 2018-11-28 18:18 (UTC)

Peridot makes an altogether indignant and outraged yell when Strange changes back. "Strange?!" she snaps, stepping out from under the immediate cascade of water and perching on the edge of the tier instead. Unsurprisingly, she does not look at all amused, ears pinned back against her head in such a way that, combined with her drench fur, makes her look tinier than ever. She feels so betrayed!?

Ah. Even on a bat, he knows that face. That's a 'you had better start explaining yourself in order to try and save face' sort of face. Strange looks up at Peridot, thankfully manages to school his expression away from any potential laughing (she looks so tiny) and instead fixes Peridot with a decidedly neutral frown.

"Honestly, I was planning just to linger around, turn into human form behind you, say 'boo' or something like that, give you a bit of a fright, then we'd all laugh about this later while you inevitably tried to think of a way to scare me back. I didn't know fountains would be involved."

She doesn't look entirely appeased by this explanation, even though Strange is telling the truth, meeting that frown with a sour look of her own. Peridot glides off the upper fountain tier and lands back on the wall she was resting on, changing back into her normal self. She's still dripping wet, but at least looks a little bit less pathetic for it.

"Hmph. Since when have you been capable of performing that kind of magic?" she says grumpily, casting him a suspicious look.

"I've been able to turn into smoke for months now," Strange responds, in a sort of 'duh' tone of voice. This fire magic might be new, but at least there's precedence for Strange turning his entire body into weird elemental shit.

"As for the fire form, that's the Mother of Invention's handiwork. I don't think I mind, though I certainly need more time to work out what all I can do with it."

"Someone actually viewing the changes the Mother wrought on them in a positive light? That might be a first," Peridot snorts. That comment aside, she hops right back on her bullshit. She pushes a hand through her dampened hair, trying to smooth it back up.

"I can't believe you would harass me like this, I am trying to recover from extensive soul damage!" she whines.

"You've damaged your soul again?" Strange incredulously responds. Granted, he's only aware of two times that Peridot's damaged her soul: serving as a vessel for the Earth Spirit in Portland and now. Still, that's two times more than most carnival members.

"Good God, you're more reckless than I am! Haven't you heard of trying to be safe?"

Edited 2018-11-30 02:39 (UTC)

She crosses her arms and scowls, hunching up like a surly child. "It's not like I wanted to rub my soul up against a true fae's, but I was kind of preoccupied with not getting shattered by all the giant, flailing mechanical arms?! Besides, I dealt the death blow! I'd say that securing an escape from Polaris and taking that garbage heap down for good is an acceptable exchange for a bit of soul damage!"

"I don't know," Strange quickly retorts, as he looks over at Peridot with an expression that's equal parts incredulous and sarcastic. "Does Steven think it's an acceptable exchange?"

Playing the Steven card is definitely playing dirty. But after having seen what happened to Childermass when he received what might be soul damage, Strange is playing as dirty as possible.

Fortunately she hasn't experienced any memory loss issues from her spiritual wounds; the worst of her symptoms have been extreme exhaustion and weakness. Nor is she aware that memory loss is even a risk at all. If she did, she'd be thanking her lucky stars a lot more ardently right now.

Peridot doesn't seem to concerned about what Steven thinks, though. Her expression darkens, the crease in her brow deepening. "So you're saying you would rather I didn't use my incredible metallokinesis abilities to put down the fae who was keeping us all prisoner and torturing us?" she growls.

"I'm saying I'd rather you think before you do something rash and get your soul damaged again. I'm certain you've already forgotten something, Lord only knows what the state of your memory will be if you keep getting yourself hurt like this."

It's worrying disguised as Strange being an arrogant shit and bossing Peridot around. Because she's got to be more fucked up than she's letting on. It's soul damage. That's not something most people just sleep off and call it a day.

"What are you talking about? My memory is fine. And I don't appreciate you implying that I didn't think before acting this time!" she snaps. Worried or not, Peridot's not really picking up on anything Strange is putting down other than a general annoyance that she's being lectured for contributing to the fight. "It wasn't exactly the sort of situation that I had the luxury of sitting out on. Syrlya was busy getting crushed half to death, and I didn't see anyone else jumping to levitate a tiny iron knife inside of the single minuscule hole we managed to make in that stupid thing's armor!"

All this arguing is making her feel woozy. Mid retort, she slides down off of her seat to sit on the ground, so she can lean back against the retaining wall of the fountain instead of having to hold herself upright.

There's a whole bunch of things he could pick at with regards to that statement (levitating the tiny iron knife wasn't required, if she failed then there were probably a hundred other ways they could take down the Mother of Invention, why not just make the hole bigger), but he's focusing on the big obvious point in his mind: Peridot's memory probably isn't fine.

"I know two people who've gotten soul damage who've had memory problems as a result! If you think your memory is fine, then you must not realize you've forgotten something in the first place."

Maybe she should be a lot more worried than she is, given what Strange is implying here, but his insistence on making this a thing has her digging her heels in even hard to prove that there's not actually anything wrong with her.

"It's been several days since we fought the Mother, and you are hardly the first person that I've talked to since then. Don't you think that if I was having issues with my memory, someone would have noticed by now?" Peridot snaps. Her eyelids are starting to droop; getting riled is making her feel more tired, like she's trying to draw on a source that's tapped out, but that isn't stopping her from continuing on.

"I killed a high faerie. I did a good job! Now if we could talk about something else, that would be nice, because I don't exactly have an excess of energy that I can waste on arguing with you right now!"

Edited 2018-12-01 17:52 (UTC)

"You helped with killing a high faerie. Lord knows we all would still be in Polaris if it weren't for the actions of Ignatius."

Sorry Peridot, but in Strange's mind, Ignatius is firmly the mvp. Peridot's maybe like, third place. But he'll at least acquiesce to her wanting to drop the matter and talk about something else. Unfortunately, the something else is just how tired poor Peridot is.

"You look like you're about to fall asleep. If you're that tired, shouldn't you be resting?"

It's absolutely true that she was just one team player acting out a part in the huge group effort that was that fight. However, Peridot very much resents being told as much, if the way her expression darkens upon hearing Strange's opinion is any indication. If she had the energy to spare she'd be giving him a good zap right about now, just out of spite. She is trying to feel empowered and good about what she did as a method for coping with her injury, jackass!

"I was resting, before you showed up as a tiny flaming clod and started pestering me," she says with a scowl. "And Ignatius wouldn't even have been in fighting shape if it weren't for my considerable efforts! So you could at least give me SOME credit!"

So much for changing the subject. Gotta try and get that last word in.

This is new. Strange looks more confused than accusatory as Peridot mentions her 'considerable efforts.' Because to his knowledge...what considerable efforts. Aside from levitating that knife, he can't think of any.

"What considerable efforts?" He's honestly confused here, not trying to start shit. "Ignatius recovered thanks to Creation, not—" aaaaaand then he puts two and two together. "Did you have a boon?"

"Yes, I did," she replies, still scowling. "There's that, and I was also a part of the team that rescued him from being tormented by the Mother of Invention. So even if you're right that we wouldn't have gotten out without Ignatius's efforts? Ignatius wouldn't have succeeded without me."

Flameo bc Peridot doesn't really do dinner.

she tried eating once. it was awful

It really was tho.

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