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.

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Yuya startles with a yelp, scrambling forward and turning around in surprise. He calms down when he sees it's Strange, letting out a breath before that grin grows back on his face.

"You saw it?! That's what I was thinking, it'd be better if I didn't have to find a reflection every time I needed one hand..." He stumbles through his excited rambling, equal parts elated at the praise and at actually succeeding, filling him with energy.

Considering that Strange is no stranger to excited ramblings about magic, he simply nods, giving Yuya a grin as he does so. He will listen to these ramblings all day.

"It could be good for hiding things as well! I can store things in reflections. If there's something that won't fit in my mirrors, you make a reflection, we shove it in there, we cover it with a sheet or something."

This is a prototype plan, alright.

Yuya nods enthusiastically, getting into the possibilities of on demand reflections. His brain takes a second to catch up with what the possibility actually is, and although it doesn't remove the grin from his face it does make him praise in confusion.

"What are we hiding?" Does something need to be hidden??

"We're not hiding anything at the moment," Strange clarifies. "But you never know! The carnival gets into all sorts of scraps: we might need to hide something at some point."

Strange is just brimming with ideas, with all sorts of plans and possibilities that the two of them could work on. Instant storage, possible defenses, an instant reflection prison the way that Childermass stores people in shadows...the possibilities are endless.

"Oh." Well, the possibility is there, so that's something.

"Wait--let me see if I can do it again." Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. He spins around quickly to press his hands to the wall again, closing his eyes to concentrate. It takes a minute, but the surface starts to reflect in those spots as well.

Strange is just waiting impatiently, like a kid about to open a present at Christmas. He knows he should take this slowly and he knows he shouldn't rush Yuya, but he wants to fiddle around and play with this magic!

When the surface starts to reflect, Strange lets out a small noise of happiness. "There! There, you've got the spell working again!"

The reflection slows to a stop at six inches again. Yuya opens an eye to peek at it, furrowing his brow before sucking in a deep breath and trying to push it further. Now that Strange is watching he wants it to be more impressive and usable, and his claws scrape against the wall as he starts getting the reflection to continue to creep along as far as he can take it.

It takes a couple minutes before he gets it stretching about three feet, blending together with the first spot, and then he teeters back and turns to Strange wide eyed and expectant. "There!"

As Yuya continues to work on the spell, Strange just bounces in place a little, obviously very antsy and obviously wanting to see and experiment with the results. Though he does duck away for a moment as Yuya works on the spell, only to return with a moderately sized rock.

When Yuya looks back at him, Strange grins. "Now, give me a moment to try my spell." He awkwardly balances the rock against his side while he places a hand against the reflective surface. Strange quickly murmurs an incantation, then even more awkwardly holds the rock up to the reflection. Carefully, Strange starts to push the rock fully inside the reflection. It looks like the rock's just floating in the middle of Yuya's reflection, but Strange is just grinning like a madman as he looks at the reflection.

"Well, it counts enough for my magic to work with this!"

Edited 2018-12-10 01:15 (UTC)

Yuya stumbles backwards to give Strange room. There's no reason it shouldn't work, but Yuya watches anyway and waits for proof that his reflection behaves like normal.

When the rock is pushed in he scrambles closer, almost nudging Strange out of the way to look at it. He lets out a laugh. "It really works!"

He reaches for the reflection again, curious about grabbing the rock (or at least touching it) while it's inside the mirror. "So we should definitely be able to travel with this..."

As he sees Yuya reaching for the rock, Strange quickly murmurs a few words to keep the reflection open. Yuya's fingers seemingly slip into the mirror itself, as he touches the rock. The void inside of the reflection is noticeably cold to the touch.

Strange keeps holding the reflection open for as long as possible as he talks. "Can you make multiple things reflective at the same time? You could easily make an entrance and exit or an escape route that way. Or if you create something reflective at a safe point, I could use ice or puddles to send people there from the danger."

"Whoa--" Yuya pauses at the chill, wiggling his fingers experimentally in the mirror. This is what the inside of a mirror feels like?

"Uh, I don't know. If you make one side and I make the other, that's probably faster. But can you connect them if you don't know exactly where I am?

Strange shrugs! "I've no idea," he admits. "I've constantly been developing and refining my reflection magic, even before the Mirror changed me. I can try to piece out a spell but honestly, who knows what I can or can't do."

He seems very nonchalant about the idea that he doesn't know the limits of his magic. This isn't bothering Strange in the slightest.

It makes sense, in the sense of always pushing his limits to get further. Isn't that how they grow as people? Strange is powerful, but of course Yuya believes in his ability to take it further.

He pulls his hand out of the mirror. Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't know the limits of his magic, either. Like this spell.

"I don't know if this is permanent." He points at the reflection. Are they going to be mad if it is? "What happens to stuff you put in a reflection if it breaks or disappears?"

And once again, Strange shrugs. "I assume that the item disappears until I repair the mirror. I've reworked some of the theory of Childermass's shadow spell for this magic and, as far as I can tell, items hidden inside his shadow stay in the shadow even when he doesn't have one."

Though if the reflection wasn't stable and simply vanished due to magic...hmm. Strange doesn't know how that would work. He looks over at Yuya's reflection with a critical eye, as if staring at it will somehow help him figure out how it works.

Yuya watches Strange, expectant. The mirror is already starting to fade, if too slowly for their eyes to see it happen gradually. It won't tell them what's going to happen to the rock when it disappears, though.

"When would he never have a shadow...?" Does light work that way? He's not sure it works that way.

"I turn into smoke and Miss Akaba can turn into mist," Strange responds, with a little shrug. "I try not to take things we thought as truth as actual truth."

But that's just semantics. Strange looks at the mirror, watching it expectantly for any sort of change in the reflection.

"How long did you say you could hold these reflections?"

Using magic to turn into other forms isn't even remotely the same thing, but Yuya doesn't contest it.

"I don't know. This is my first time making it happen." He squints at the mirror, like he's somehow going to be able to see what Strange sees. "I could see if I can make it go away...?"

"That's a good idea," Strange responds, with a little nod. See if it vanishes or see if surprise, Yuya's mirror making magic is now permanent.

"It's always good to have a vague idea of your limitations before you decide to break them."

Yuya nods, approaching the reflection and hovering his hands over the reflection. He's a little uncertain since he only just got the first part of this down from enough fooling around, so he doesn't really know how to make is disappear. Maybe focus on it shrinking? Turning back into a normal wall?

He closes his eyes and scrunches his face, more to make it look like he's actually doing something when... absolutely nothing on the reflection changes.

He slowly looks at Strange over his shoulder with an anxious, sheepish expression. "I, uh, can't make it go away."

He just fucked up the wall (for five minutes).

Strange gives Yuya a big, happy, 'you can do it' encouraging sort of smile...which just kind of lingers on his face for a moment as absolutely nothing on the reflection changes. Well, that's to be expected. He did just piece out the spell, after all.

"In that case, I suggest you continue to practice making reflections on inanimate objects—preferably no city buildings or places of importance, of course."

He doesn't even know if the Summerlands has anything resembling a government, but better safe than sorry.

"Y... yeah." Yuya looks nervously at the reflection, with a rock in it, again. Someone can probably fix this? Probably.

"I'll do that! But let's go somewhere else." He spins on his heels, absently reaching for Strange's wrist to give it a tug to get him moving, honestly, anywhere else but next to the wall he just screwed up.

"Anyway, what's up? I don't think I asked how you're doing..."

Yuya succeeds in grabbing Strange's wrist. He's yanked a little to the side, but gets the memo and starts to follow Yuya towards...wherever the hell they're going next. Not here.

As for the question, Strange pauses a little before answering. Normally, he wouldn't be so hesitant about this but he's still got the memory of pretty much breaking down after Polaris at the top of his mind. Strange is acutely aware of his words and actions at the moment.

"Better than before," he admits, "though I've mostly been throwing myself into my magic. Have I shown you the shield spell I pieced out yet?"

Yuya picks a path completely at random, not knowing where the hell he's going either. He'd figure it out, but he ends up focusing more on what Strange says. His breakdown is on Yuya's mind, too, so he's not just asking to be polite.

"No, but you did say you were working on your magic..." He scratches his cheek, worrying over his lip as he carefully considers how he wants to phrase himself.

"You're not just... distracting yourself with magic, are you?" Instead of actually trying to cope with the trauma and loneliness.

Strange shakes his head. "I've had a few conversations that I needed to have." One with Peridot. One with Ignatius. Sooner or later, he'll have one with Lambert.

"But working on my magic feels good. And Lord knows that after a few of those conversations, I need to focus on something that makes me happy and relaxes me."

Fun fact: talking about your feelings sucks.

That explanation eases Yuya, and his shoulders relax as he smiles. "I'm glad you're talking to people."

Yuya, of course, sounds completely genuine about that. Not just because he's learned that talking about your feelings is ultimately healthier and more productive, but because he knows part of what's been troubling Strange has been rooted in loneliness and, frankly, trying to do too much by himself.

"As long as you're not bottling everything up, I think taking time to make happy memories makes it easier to get through things that are hard. Because we can hold onto them then."

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time to play fast and loose with thread timelines.

That's how we do it