lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMER COURT

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⇨ THE SUMMER COURT

Who: Everyone in the Summer Maiden's entourage.
When: Day 129 - Day 131 (Subjectively experienced as only one day.)
Where: The Summer Court
What: The Summer Maiden returns to the Summer Court for the first time in eons, leading a posse of carnival workers and Summer Fae. The Summer Queen has initiated a peaceful Elysium for discussions to take place, with dozens of the Court in attendance, but the true tone of the negotiations has yet to be unearthed.
Warnings: Fae being bitches.

SUNSET OF AN ERA↴

The phase shift takes few minutes to complete, when it's time. The Summer Maiden gathers everyone together - her guard of Summerland Fae, and her carnival wards - and activates the spell to bring them to the Summer Court. It's been planned with the Summer Queen, she says, and they should have her cooperation. Nothing has been settled in terms of negotiations, but at the very least, the Queen was not willing to shut down the opportunity to see her daughter for the first time eons, along with her lesser children, Ignatius and Gild.

The Summer Maiden has recommended that everyone dress formally and conduct themselves with respect, but she is not forcing anyone to do so. It simply seems like the best way to make an impression.

When they arrive in the Summer Court, they are in a courtyard. The Maiden's light magic fades and they will see themselves in a garden of alien trees, with golden towers rising up around them in all directions. Two Summer Court fae are waiting for them at an ornate gate, but it isn't until the Summer Maiden has claimed her role as an adjudicator or the present Elysium that she breaks the barrier surrounding her party. She tells everyone that it is safe to go forth but to be cautious. There is no way of knowing what direction negotiations will take.

The guard leads them in, and they will find themselves in a spacious and life-filled throne room, with massive trees that function and supporting pillars and the throne itself. A variety of True Fae that the carnival has never seen before are scattered around the room, waiting with a thick air of tension. As the Summer Maiden leads them in, she will announce herself to the Queen, and claim all those present as under her protection.

The introductions are brief, and after the Maiden is done, the Queen will ask to speak with her privately. There is a clear nervousness beneath the Queen's veneer of control. As the Maiden joins her at the throne to speak about personal matters, everyone else is free to explore the throne room and mingle - if they dare.

► STICKING OUT: There are some notable reactions going on as the Maiden's entourage arrives. In general, the Court Fae respond strongly to Ignatius's presence - both the fact that he's turned up as an ally to the Maiden, and his curious magical transformation. Ignatius, for his part, holds back and tries to keep to himself, looking like he's trying to hide a significant amount of stress. To the Gilded Mark, there is a particular note of resentment, which she mostly seems to ignore and focuses on staying close to the carnival folk. The Starlight, the Whirling Rainbow, and a few other Summerland Fae have come along, and they all hold back as the Summer Maiden discusses things with the Queen privately. In general, the Court Fae eye the carnival with a mixture of curiousity and disgust.

► TOUGH CROWD: There are dozens of Summer Court Fae here that no one will have seen before. They mill about the room as if this is an uncomfortable formal engagement, eyeing up the Maiden's entourage an gossiping with one another. The opinions they hold of the situation vary wildly - some seem more of the attitude that the Court would be better off if the Summer Maiden were to die and be replaced, where others are openly optimistic and excited about the potential of reparations being made. You are free to make up/NPC any of these fae as long as they aren't doing anything radical, like trying to break the Elysium. Some of them will treat the visitors as threats, while others may even attempt to ask them questions about the situation.

► ACCOMMODATIONS: There is food and drink provided while negotiations endure. Normally you may want to be cautious about accepting this kind of thing, but given that it's part of Elysium, they are obligated to not harm any of those present. So, if you want, you will be able to enjoy faerie ales and other luxury foods that have the capability of being distractingly tantalizing to mortals with low self control. If you need some space, you are free to go back out to the courtyard where you arrived. There are few fae out there, but it is still covered by the Elysium. Take some time to settle in - this could take a while, and there's sure to be drama before it's over. Later on, there will be public discussion.

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“It’s quite nice, actually,” Lambert answers mildly, glancing over at Strange and nodding at the Rose Queen. “There’s plenty if you change your mind.”

With his hand on Yuya’s shoulder, he steers the boy around so he’s facing the throne room, then gives him a little push. There’s a slight edge to his voice, though it remains friendly. “Why don’t you go ahead and announce us, eh?”

He releases him then, swapping his wineglass to that hand, and holds his hand back out to the Rose Queen. He’s presumptuous, but he’s not presumptuous enough to touch her without asking.

“Shall we, then?” Whether she takes his hand or not, he’ll fall into step beside her as she advances forward.

Yuya looks at Strange only briefly, before locking his attention on the Rose Queen.

Until Lambert nudges him, and he looks up as he guides him along. There's a pause before he nods, giving the Rise Queen one last glance before he heads for the throne room. He won't rush ahead, though, so that he reaches the entryway only shortly before them.

"Everyone!" He calls out, looking around the room. "The Rose Queen has arrived at the Elysium."

To his credit, his announcement is steady as he steps sideways and gestures with a flourishing bow for her entrance.

Gongenzaka naturally, being by the door, gets to see and watch that with a raised brow. Marishi to her credit, simply shrugs.

He does lean down to whisper however, a motion that can easily be mistaken for simply leaning down to offer some reassurance to the boy-

"...He knows she is here," he whispers softly, before moving back up and holding a hand gently on the other's shoulder. It is firm- but unlike with Lambert earlier, Yuuya can easily move from it if he likes.

Either way, he stays at the boy's side to watch the Queen come in.

Herbert, bored out of his mind by another long bout of Socialisation, looks up with brief interest towards the door to the Courtyard before remembering who the Rose Queen is and rolling his eyes.

"Who invited her?" he remarks cattily to no-one in particular.

She likes to invite herself places is what Childermass would have answered if he weren't keeping his damn mouth shut. As soon as he got the message from Lambert, he made his way across the room to stand next to Gild. Out of the two siblings, she's the less likely to draw the Rose Queen's attention, even if the ward placed on him from the Starlight should be safety enough for him. Provided he doesn't draw attention to himself, that is, and right now, he'd rather not.

Edited 2019-01-02 23:48 (UTC)

The Rose Queen would like to avoid having any of these people touch her, so she definitely does not accept anyone's hand. Still, she will allow them to walk at her sides as she enters the Throne Room, gazing haughtily upon the rest of the congregation. Her eyes travel around the room, clearly looking for something. She seems agitated when she doesn't find it.

As Yuya calls out her arrival, the Summer Queen actually looks away from her conversation with the Maiden long enough to observe it happening with an expression of unconcealed weariness. It reads very much like 'oh goddamnit not this again.'

She doesn't see Steven, because Steven is wisely hiding among the foliage of one of the enormous pillar trees lining the room. He scampered over to hide behind it as soon as Peridot arrived and told him she was coming.

His mind is racing, still overwhelmed from the conversation he'd just been having with Amethyst. Nothing feels like it makes any sense right now, and all he can do is race for cover. This is all so much.

To anyone looking for him, Steven can be seen leaning back beside the trunk of the tree, looking absolutely shell shocked.

Lambert just lifts the rejected wine glass to his lips and takes a long sip, looking over the edge of the glass as he takes in the reaction of the room to the Rose Queen’s presence — both Carnival members and fae alike. He’ll make eye contact with Rita and Childermass if he can, nodding at them both in faint approval, before he sets the glass down on a table as they pass it, leaving his hands free as he strolls beside the Queen. It’s subtle, and he can’t really do a good job of it since she’s probably able to peer right over him, but he’s tracking her gaze and always a half-step in and out of her line of sight when it’s on his side, keeping her from getting the clearest view.

The Summer Queen’s reaction is interesting, though. Not someone she’s happy to see, then. Which makes Lambert wonder: just how under control does the Summer Queen have her, anyway? The Rose Queen must be balls old, if she was taking care of the Rose all that time ago...

Steven’s not in his line of sight, which is good. Remembering that Steven isn’t the only Rose-touched changeling in the room, he keeps an eye out for Syrlya, too.

Once he's certain the Rose Queen's attention is...well, on basically whatever she can do to find Steven (and thus not him), he'll try sending some reassurance over a soul-chat to Steven. He'd contacted him earlier obviously (and gotten a fairly panicked equivalent of what he could at best interpret as YEAH, I KNOW)- but he suspects any encouragement the boy can get will help him hold out.

Here's hoping the Rose Queen is too dignified to search the foliage... (Hang in there buddy, they've got you covered. Mostly. ~~By the seat of their pants.~~)

Suffice to say it honestly hasn't occurred to him to warn Syrlya.

Strange lingers behind a bit as they enter to scan the room. Spotting Childermass and Ignatius, he gives each of them in turn his best, brief 'trust me, I know what I'm doing' sort of smile, despite the fact that he only has the faintest idea what he's doing in the first place. But, the mood's gotten a little tense and he suspects he knows what the Rose Queen's looking for.

So, Strange decides to deploy one of his many talents in an attempt to distract her at least a little bit: being obnoxious as hell.

"Well, if nobody else is going to start conversation, then I shall," Strange pipes up, a little on the loud side, completely ignoring the fact that the Rose Queen probably doesn't want to have conversation with him to begin with. He picks up the pace a little, matching Lambert and the Rose Queen's pace as they walk. "I realize it's out of place for me to ask, but it's better to spare any potential embarrassment: have you been brought up to date on why this Elysium is happening?"

Syrlya's attention is drawn up and straight to the door whem he gets the announcement. This is his first time actually seeing the Rose Queen and... she's kind of exactly what he'd expect now that he sees her.

He looks over to Ignatius, then meets Lambert's gaze, then watches the Summer Queen and Maiden to see what they plan to do about this.

Steven gets a comforting pat on the shoulder and some whispers from a friend.

"Yooo!" Rin says, quietly, but smiling in a way he hopes is reassuring. "I'll keep watch for you, ok? If she gets close I'll try and stall her!"

He isn't sure it will work, and he hopes that Steven's clever hiding place will work. He gives a thumbs up and goes to stand on the opposite side of the tree, his eyes on the Rose Queen.

Rita's eyes narrow as the Rose Queen enters, not so much at her but more at the two idiots at her side. She doesn't say anything, however, at least not to the Rose Queen herself. She opts to remain standing near Ignatius, arms folded as she watches their latest visitor with a wary look.

"...She changed her hair," she comments, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Peridot is a bat at the moment, latched onto the tree trunk that Steven's hiding behind... Which, shapeshifting is maaaaybe not polite court behavior, now that she thinks about it? But whatever! She can eavesdrop more easily at a distance this way.

She glances down at Steven, and then at Rin. Having someone who can keep eyes on the queen is certainly helpful. "I have some reservations about the security of this hiding spot," she groans quietly.

Milling about in the throne room, between attempts of talking politely to make friends with some of the Summer fae, Papyrus hears a commotion at the door and turns to see what's happening.

He didn't meet the Rose Queen very many times - not really more than the once, when Steven was taken and Lauren was buried - but the meeting sure left an impression. If this isn't her it's someone who sure looks a lot like her, and given the reactions of everyone else walking in with her or behind her...

Well.

"I hope she'll listen to the Summer Queen and Summer Maiden," he mutters to any of the carnival nearby, because she looks... very stubbornly unfriendly right now. Even more than any of the more judging fae here. That might be a little too much friendship-inspiring even for him to help with.

There's a lot of details about all this that Beau didn't catch, didn't hear, or doesn't remember... but part of it's obvious. They all know each other, it's not on good terms, the Rose Queen is seething about needing to play nice... and she feels entitled to Steven, for reasons that might have to do with all those roses they both have. The Mother, the Ringmaster, and Ignatius apparently aren't the only ones who've kidnapped people from this group.

But the best place to learn more is up in the thick of it, so Beau trails along with the Rose Queen's makeshift entourage, watching and listening for signs that the whole nonviolence agreement's about to fall through.

"It's fine," Amethyst whispers from further up in the foliage, where she is currently twined around the trunk of the tree as a snake with hair. She doesn't look especially like she thinks it's fine; she looks like she's about to vibrate out of her currently-scaly skin with nerves. But she insists, "You just gotta... keep moving around the side if she comes this way. That's all."

"She does that," Ignatius will say to Rita dryly as the Rose Queen makes her conclusions about what she's seeing. She looks at Strange and scowls, apparently not appreciating his presence. Something about him is off-putting. He keeps dropping in and out of her senses based on whether or not he's directly speaking to her.

She looks Strange over, and then she huffs, stomping deeper into the Throne Room regardless of what anyone else is doing. Her attention gravitates towards the Starlight.

"What are you hiding from me?" she snaps at the other fae, moving towards her. "I can feel your presence here, but I can't feel his."

"Perhaps they have chosen to remain unseen by those that would harm them," Starlight says coolly. "It is a shame that you choose to burn so many bridges, Rose Queen."

The Rose Queen honestly looks like she might strike the Starlight for a moment, but she ends up thinking better of it - mostly because she sees something else far more alarming. It's Syrlya.

"This..." she starts, stunned and then furious. "This creature! What have you done?!" She starts marching in Syrlya's direction, like a flower she's bound and determined to pluck from the ground.

Syrlya's expression as the Rose Queen approaches drops into absolute weariness. Sure, she's mad, they're doing this, it isn't like this whole affliction isn't already needlessly inconvenient.

"It was what the Mother of Invention saw fit to do, actually." Just in case it hasn't been established how much Syrlya doesn't actually want his telepathic rose connection. "And you may call me Syrlya."

Is this really different than what she did to Steven?

Lambert doesn’t look alarmed by the development — if anything, it’s encouraging. She can be distracted by someone else with an affinity for the Rose. It puts Syrlya at risk, but the Mesmer doesn’t have the trauma and personal attachments to the Queen Steven does — Lambert trusts him to handle the situation, or at least not escalate it.

“She was experimenting with the Rose under Winter’s prerogative,” Lambert intones. He looks over at Strange, cocking his head and raising his brows at the magician, as though silently asking him what he plans to do next. He has a slight idea he can guess what offends her so terribly about it, but he’s not sure they can lead her to a conclusion that would benefit them ... but it was Strange who’d brought up the idea of directing her ire before. Not, unfortunately, that he’s having much luck bringing her attention to the present moment.

“Turns out all it takes to tap into the power of an ancient fae artifact is a little trial and error. Who’d have guessed, huh?”

Edited 2019-01-03 05:23 (UTC)

Aaah shit. Ginko edges a little further back, slightly behind Herbert now. He doesn't know if she'll particularly care if she notices him, but he doesn't really want to find out, and only looks away from the Rose Queen long enough to glance around the room and try to get an idea of who's where. Just in case everything goes to shit, you know how it is.

"How long d'you think we have before this falls apart," he mutters. Can't do much right now, might as well make snide comments under his breath.

"Not long," says Herbert, who is, himself, standing behind a refreshments table. He doesn't make any particular effort to speak in a hushed tone. "I...begin to doubt the, efficacy of the Elysium, at least, when this individual is present. Do. You think we count enough to break it if she attacks Syr or is it like smashing a glass?"

Steven is visibly shaking, his claws dug into the bark of the tree he's hiding beside. It really does help that Amethyst, Peridot, and Rin are waiting there with him, but watching his so-called 'mother' marching around and threatening people as she looks for him is a lot to bear.

Yet, with what he knows now, it also seems oddly familiar. To be born half of something... to have a mother that is powerful and of noble birth, made as part of an empire that has spent eons harming others.

No wonder he ended up with her, he thinks. The inevitability of it all makes him feel sick.

"This isn't how I wanted this to be," he whispers.

Edited 2019-01-03 06:24 (UTC)

Tanyuu comes around behind Ginko and Herbert both at that point, one set of eyes locked nervously onto the Rose Queen's parade of pique. This does not bode well at all, especially given the instability of the fae in question.

"In theory it should, but it's our word against the rest of the Court's. No one really wants to admit to having earned the bite after kicking a pet dog." She puts a steadying hand on Ginko's shoulder, for her sake as much as his.

"The Rose," she hisses at Lambert, "is mine." She turns back to Syrlya, not reaching to touch or strike him but looking like she's really like to. "This changeling is mine! The Winter Court has taken what was mine and turned it into... this!"

She gestures at all of Syrlya in disgust.

"I can sense my power within it, even now... I demand to take back what is mine!"

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