⇨ THE WINTER COURT

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone willing to come.
When: Day 142
Where: The Winter Palace
What: Whether you've ascended to godhood or been blessed with temporary protections, it's time to confront the Winter Queen.
Warnings: ???

THE BEGINNING AND THE END↴ Once everyone has made their decisions, the Ringmaster will take those that have chosen to ascend to an isolated place within her realm. As it turns out, that end up being the core of the two moons, combined into one impregnable space. This might be a bit explosive, she warns. Can't be too careful. With everyone together, back in her partly humanoid form, she will bring out the Blue Rose and the Silver Mirror - both in their sword and shield forms respectively - and begin her work. Her wings, now feathery and glowing red with power, spread around the group, and they will feel a stirring in their body and soul. The space becomes blinding, like overwhelming light and darkness all at once, burning and freezing all at once. Life and death, all at once. You bleed into the ether, become one with it, and then reform - only you've brought something back with you. The domain of one of the Miracles has bound itself to you, body and soul. Though it is the Miracle's legacy, the power is now yours, to do with what you will. No other force will command you. Once it is done, the moon has become an eclipse, it's corporeal form melting away. You will find yourself floating back down to the surface of the realm, changed but empowered. Your body may appear different than before, or it may be the same - regardless, you are something fully new. You have the same memories, the same desires, the same hopes, but they have come together to create something else. You are born again.

Comments

⇨ THE RINGMASTER

[ringleaders]

Following your ascension, the Ringmaster will be there. She seems to understand that following this transition, there may be a few things you need to figure out. She mostly left people to make their decision on their own, but now that it's been made, she is making herself present to offer what help she can.

Or, alternatively, maybe you didn't take the offer and have something to say to her, anyway. In the few hours following the ascension, she can be found regrowing plants and trees all over the place, growing tired of how drab the realm looks and also not-so-secretly anxious about confronting the Winter Queen.

Maybe you can give her a hand, as practice?

[atouts]

"Lambert would have suggested you begin with the hot springs first," the endlessly unimpressed and gravelly voice of Childermass speaks up from behind the Ringmaster as she goes about regrowing the forest.

Of what has changed about him, that much has most certainly not. The rest, well, he's lost more than he's appeared to gain, to be honest. Metallic silver streaks through black hair are new, but he's since willed his feathers down into feather-like tattoos etched into skin — save for his sideburns, which wouldn't look too great as tattoos, beards considered — and he's lost the talons, happy to settle on nice, normal, if blackened, nails. In any case, with how his sleeves are rolled back, the tattoos, at least, will be a new arrangement since she last saw him an hour or two ago.

But beyond that? Same old grim Englishman in black and white, idly watching her pull plants up out of nothing.

[lordofthering]

"I can do that," she offers, for whatever reason taking him completely seriously. There's a bit of a desperate eagerness to it, like she's willing to do whatever it is they want her to do.

"I'd just... well, trees come so easy. Especially now."

[atouts]

That she's immediately offering to do that over, say, telling him to tell Lambert to make his own damn hot springs is a little worrying. Childermass doesn't reply immediately, considering her in silence for a moment before moving to step closer, inevitably ending up standing next to her.

"You don't have to," he assures her. More importantly, he asks, "How have you been feeling since the Wyldlands? I can't imagine you've had much time to rest, either..."

[periphrasing]

In the wake of her ascension, Peridot has essentially gone full gargoyle, now sporting a pair of ridiculously oversized wings at her back on a full time basis. The good news here is, she's far from a stranger to the essentials of flying. But... each form that she has steers a little bit differently from the others... And she hasn't really gotten the nuance down on this one yet. Makes for some sloppy maneuvers.

She doesn't really crash so much as she just thumps down rather clumsily next to the Ringmaster, wings akimbo, probably squashing a few newly sprouted plants in the process. However, despite her bombastic arrival, she's reserved in her greeting, opting instead to just quietly watch the Ringmaster work until the fae decides it's time to address her. Then again, maybe Peridot is just trying to see if she can learn how this works simply by watching. There is certainly a whole new sense of awe and appreciation in those wondering eyes...

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster stares back at her for a while, like she is also waiting for Peridot to start. Eventually, she looks uncertain, and frowns.

"...Do you need help?" she asks. At the moment it's hard to be sure it's wonder and not something less flattering.

⇨ THE WINTER QUEEN

[ringleaders]

Breaking into the Winter Palace is... weird.

First off, for the first time, you'll find yourself basking in the full glory of the Winter Court. The palace and heart of its realm is breathtaking - giant spires of glassy ice and snow. The Ringmaster brings everyone in close to avoid getting into too much trouble, but you still get your chance to see it. Luckily, the Ringmaster knows exactly where the throne room is. She's obviously been there before.

The Ringmaster had asked around for opinions earlier, about what should be done. She didn't seem to know what to do, herself. Should they treat the Winter Queen as an enemy, or someone to be reasoned with? The answers swayed to wards helping, but even more so, there were plenty who thought that the Ringmaster herself should be the one to make the decision.

With that bolstering her confidence, she spends some time in deep consideration. In the end, though, she thinks she knows. She always has.

She has to at least try to fix this. After all, she helped break it.

With the Red Beast carrying the Blue Rose and the Silver Mirror, it turns out there isn't much to get into their way - never mind with a small army of brand new Miracles at their side. There is some combat initially, with Winter Fae trying to keep them out, but it doesn't last long. Even so new to their power, the carnival is a formidable force, and the deeper they get the more the guards and other patrons of the palace just seem to stand aside, as if this isn't any of their business.

It's on that note that everyone ends up outside the throne room doors only a bit worse for wear. It seems like the Queen is probably in there, just as suspected, but everyone's avoidant behaviour makes it a bit uncomfortable to say the least. The Ringmaster seems especially unsure.

"...They're not even trying," she remarks, the Rose and Mirror in hand, her eyes on the closed gateway to the throne room.

[chronosynthesis]

"Well, you are quite the imposing figure right now."

Syrlya's stuck to the front of this endeavor with his own sword and shield in hand. He'd honestly been prepared for more of a fight himself, so the way it petters out the closer they get, the more notable it is.

"But you really wonder why they do so little to defend their Queen, don't you?"

Like she inspires no loyalty in them.

[whattaprick]

"Not much to wonder there," Lambert murmurs. His ascension has given him a few new changes, most notably a re-fleshed tail now covered in a mix of black and gold scales and edged with luxuriant fur that seems to glow with the same light as the sword he's currently gripping. Before, bending light into the shape he needed it seemed an impossible struggle, but now it seems as easy as breathing.

"Frost's probably already come back here crying, so I can't imagine they're surprised." Lambert knows better than to assume that little shit had the grace to die in the Wyldlands. However, there's something else troubling him.

"The Queen's never come after you directly before," he looks to the Ringmaster, as if she needs the reminder. "We don't really know what she's capable of in person." The intermediaries with Frost and the Huntsman sure were bad enough.

Closed to Ignatius

[hippocarnival]

Yuya didn't choose to ascend, so while many in the carnival, including Gongenzaka, leave with the Ringmaster to acquire their new power... Yuya seeks out Ignatius.

So much has happened since their time in Shabondamashii. The attack by the hunt, Polaris. Ignatius' change by Creation. And then the need to appeal to the Summer Maiden and Queen to save the Ringmaster and put an end to the Huntsman's actions. His mind has been elsewhere, but being faced with the Winter Queen reminds him of something, before this chaos.

He thinks he should check up on Ignatius. So he circles around the remains of the carnival until he finds him, raising a hand in greeting. "Hey."

[npcarnival]

Ignatius has been around. Him and the Ringmaster disappeared together for a few hours earlier, but now he's back, and regarding the moon where the main event is supposedly happening with a mild bit of skepticism. He arms are crossed over his chest.

He grunts in acknowledgement to Yuya.

"Not interested in godliness?" he comments, noting that Yuya is still here while most people are being teleported up into the moon.

[hippocarnival]

"No," Yuya replies with a wry expression. For a lot of reasons, but he has to admit seeing how many people took it that he probably looks out of place.

He stops beside Ignatius and looks up at the moon with him. "But I get it. And I'll do my best not to hold things down just with my own power."

Because he's a mortal with maybe some protection to Not Die, but it also seems like they want to talk to the Winter Queen and not murder her, anyway.

He glances sideways to Ignatius, pausing. "You've been to the Winter Court before, right?"

OTA

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya is, despite what he'll say, a little apprehensive. When faced with the Miracles, it's no surprise that the Blue Rose continues to resonate with him, and he senses the connection grow stronger as everything in him seems to change. When they're left to face their new reality, Syrlya is briefly stunned with looking over himself--like he expected more change.

He doesn't, so much, but somehow he has a sense that his form is his again. That he's no longer being overridden by Fae or a flower.

He leaves a pile of feather-like leaves behind as he sheds the tail as a test, before he, too, works with shaping fire and ice in his hands to test the ease that he can control them now.

[whattaprick]

Lambert, like most of the Carnival that's taken on the power of a Miracle, has changed -- the sharp edges of his tail's bones covered by black and gold scales, the jagged edges of his horns smoothed and blunted into something more organic than before. Otherwise, there isn't anything else drastic ... not anything that can be seen with clothes, in any case.

When he spots Syrlya, the witcher can't help but smirk, strolling over with his thumbs hooked into his belt.

"You're going to have quite the story going home, aren't you?"

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya looks up at Lambert, his expression twisting wryly. "Won't you as well?"

He can't think that many of them come from worlds where all of this won't be at least a little shocking. Even Tyria, he knows he'll have a lot to explain.

He flexes his hand absently. "But... hopefully, after that, we will be able to put our dragon problem to rest."

OTA

[spaghettimonster]

► PRE ASCENSION
It's been a busy year. It's been a busy week, for that matter. They've traveled through a war zone - only mostly avoiding conflict - and incidentally met one of the Ringmaster's parents. They've discovered her secret origins - so secret they'd been secret even from her - and ultimately rescued her. The Huntsman, after instigating so much trouble, fell quickly to the restored Red Beast. The biggest danger remaining is the question of the Winter Queen.

And now, they've been given hardly a day or two to decide if they want to become... godlike.

Godlike is a familiar idea - the power of a monster absorbing a human soul was supposed to be something awesome and terrible. The power of the miracles, these things that practically made the multiverse, has to be much, much more powerful. And so much more responsibility, whether or not they live up to it.

For Papyrus, coming to the carnival was about running away from that kind of choice and responsibility, albeit in the most responsible way he could find - asking someone else for help. Making a deal with the Ringmaster to do it was his out from needing to murder anyone, and he clung to the duties of his janitorial position with such desperate relief that he didn't do all he could have.

Now, he's lived through fragments of other lives. A human isolating himself from family to pursue power, struggling through the consequences thereof. A harbinger of doom, nihilistic and hopeless in the face of destroying his only (remaining) family. The squirming shame of seeing the parts of himself he dislikes, and simultaneously seeing how the things he likes about himself can still hurt people when untempered. All these painful facets of Papyrus, and... he's still going forward.

Somehow, the scariest challenges they face aren't so terrible, and can be overcome, when they've got each other. He's said as much for years, sincerely meaning it as he talks himself and others up with whatever positivity comes to mind. But maybe now he believes it, a little more. That people aren't always who they think they are, but with hard work and help from others, they can become really great versions of themselves.

"I can do this," he tells himself, for probably the fifth time today.

► POST ASCENSION
After the ascension ritual, Papyrus floats down from the disappeared moon gently, and it feels both natural and strange. It's not the familiar momentum manipulation of blue magic toying with his personal gravity, but something far deeper and greater - a well of power he doesn't yet understand, but harmonized with his soul in some way.

That, and the big honking wings of large crystal fragments spreading out behind him might have something to do with the floating down.

But as he lands, glancing back at them and worrying how to walk in a crowd with them sticking out, they conveniently vanish and he's himself again. A skeleton with long feet and tail, with crystals growing out - but only his crown, tailtip, and that injury on his hip remain visible, the rest subsumed by the metal coating him or maybe just melted away in that moment of unphysicality. The metal's gone a little simpler, now more a coating on his bones than the intricate system of small coverings over joints (allowing for full movement) that the technicians had encased him in. And his cuspids feel a little longer, he discovers as he prods his mouth. But all in all, he looks very similar to how he did before - the real differences are in how he feels.

Papyrus examines himself for a minute, then spends the next few minutes after their ascension - and descension - looking around all the others around him and grinning if they look back.

They're all friends and acquaintances, and now they're looking at a maybe-eternity with a newly formed kinship. It's about the most opposite of lonely as it gets, and he hopes that the Ringmaster realizes she's a lot less alone now, too.

POST ASCENSION

[osteothropy]

It's an odd sequence of things to go through. Sans comes out the other side with his wings already extended, his angelic energy mingling perfectly with this new... something. Lift and Death, it feels like - like he met with the force inside the moon and then it left with him. It's the Ringmaster's element, and he feels comfortable with that.

What's also curious is that a lot of people look different, to varying degrees. While they are still busy floating downward, Sans is trying to look himself over, and ends up grasping the end of his own tail with raw enthusiasm when he sees that the scorpion tail is gone. So are the fae marks, and the spines that would flare up against his will - everything that made him marked by someone else is no longer there.

Sans laughs obnoxiously on the latter half of the journey downward. He knows they aren't quite done struggling yet, but he's just so goddamn relieved he can't help it. He catches Papyrus's grin and grins right back, reaching an arm over to wrap it around his brother's shoulders in a side hug - and thus having to remain hovering after they've landed, due to height differences.

"Hey, we actually did it," he says. Up till it was done he was worried that something would go wrong with this offer, that they'd be different in a bad way. But they aren't. They found the Ringmaster, they won, and now it's time for their victory lap.

[spaghettimonster]

For all that his brother's flying under his own power, Papyrus lends an arm in a helpful sidehug right back, just in case he needs the support. And for the sake of the hug, because this is a good time for embraces.

"We did it!" He agrees, pretty amped up himself, and gives the rest of the group another glance before studying what his brother looks like. It's still recognizably him, in these changed ways, with all those watchful eyes that make it hard to know where to look. Or maybe just underlining the challenge of knowing where to look, what with his brother's old habit of pranking.

"I didn't expect everyone would change like this... Do you feel okay?"

He expects a positive reply - that's too bright and broad and sincere a grin that Sans is sporting. The question's just an invitation to celebrate.

Pre-anime

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys is... waffling, like she does with every decision she's ever made. Granted, this is a little more important than choosing what flavor packet to use on her instant noodles.

Like Papyrus, Alphys ran away and joined the circus as a means to escape her responsibilities. Unlike him, however, her problems were all of her own making, and they only got worse the longer she avoided them. She hadn't even asked for help when she signed on- she could have asked the Ringmaster to fix everything, but she was too much of a coward to admit what she'd done even to a stranger.

To stave off her guilt, she kept telling herself she could always make another contract. She could collaborate with Sans and figure out the best way to unfuck their dimension, since it turned out things were even more screwed up than she knew. But the longer she traveled with the carnival, the more enticing it became to just leave it all behind. She could keep running forever if she wanted to. No one had to know.

Except now, she's being offered the chance to fix things. Godlike power- a miracle- would be enough to fix the amalgamates, the Underground, everything. If she went through with this. If she stopped running away and faced all of her failures.

She's still deep in thought when Papyrus speaks, and she looks up in surprise. "Y-you're gonna go through with it?"

anime intensfies

[spaghettimonster]

"Uh," Papyrus startles at Alphys' question, having not noticed she was there, when he started talking to himself.

That's getting to be a bad habit, this is something like the third time in a month. It's one thing to practice monologues, to have something easy to say for any scenario... but kind of another to ignore or miss the people around him, preoccupied with whatever's on his own mind.

"After much deliberation," he says, shaking the distraction off. "Yes, I am! I... don't want to be left out of trying to help the Ringmaster's old friend, and, well... I don't think I'm ever really going... home. I might as well embrace being a new me!"

OTA

[dontpokethat]

A

It’s comforting, having the Ringmaster back; they’re that much closer to safety, with that much less to be afraid of… theoretically.

There’s no ignoring how incredibly wrong this whole thing could go, how much they have to lose, and on top of that… he knows how vital it will likely be to have just a few more people on their side who can measure up to their opponents. But that isn’t really enough to settle his unrest at the thought of what this is going to mean for those taking the Ringmaster up on it - what it’s going to mean for Tanyuu. Maybe he should have agreed, too, made himself more useful, helped their chances that much more… but he can’t. He absolutely can’t imagine taking an offer like that, and he doesn’t know how much of that hesitation is reasonable and how much is sheer, selfish fear.

Trying to hide his unease is probably pretty pointless by now, but that doesn’t stop him. Sure, most people in the carnival know him far too well to be convinced, and even those who don’t may pick up on the way he’s stepped aside, not quite isolating himself but certainly not making any effort to engage with his coworkers. Instead, he’s just sitting with his animals, idly running his fingers through Miu’s fluff, while Antlers very helpfully shoves his head under Ginko’s arm, leaning against him until he threatens to tip him over.

B

Fortunately, having the menagerie's animals just fucking wandering around freely does act as a pretty good way to distract himself, so he doesn't just have to rely on clinging to his pets forever.

So, of course, it's time for him to go right back to... basically doing the closest he can to his previous job, under the circumstances. He makes his way through the wandering animals, checking up on each of them in turn, dragging Barfy away from picking a fight with Rex, making sure they're free of injuries, keeping Barfy from hassling the flying fish, and so on. There's a lot of Barfy-wrangling involved, it kind of makes keeping track of the better-behaved animals difficult. Maybe he could use a hand.

(( OOC: Both of these prompts apply before and after ascension, as he will basically be panicking right up until it's mission time, so go wild ))

B PRE

[lmpatientdefense]

Whatever Beau expected at the end of the whole rescue mission, an open invitation to basically become gods wasn't it. And accepting wasn't in the cards, not with the warning that they'd find it difficult to avoid certain sorts of notice for the rest of their lives. Sure, they'd have the power to take it, which sounds appealing... but sometimes a girl wants to go to a bar, be this anonymous hot stranger, and drink and flirt. Being a god, not exactly anonymous.

Well, except for 'the Traveler', apparently, because nobody ever seemed to know who that was. Or see him, except for Jester. And if the only way to be an anonymous god was to be basically constantly invisible, count her out.

Other unexpected things: finding Ginko in this absolute mess of animals, trying to pull to slobbering snapping creatures apart - is that one a rodent with multiple heads?

"Where the fuck did all of these animals come from," Beau asks as she walks over, looking around at their surroundings. "Were these always here?"

She didn't really explore the carnival, after the rescue from Eden. Shabon was a more enjoyable venue for spending their time - before getting kidnapped again.

[dontpokethat]

"Uh-- kind of." He hauls Barfy over his shoulder, where the over-sized rodent gnaws angrily at the thick scales on the back of his neck.

"Back when things started to... fall apart, and we had to be ready for more trouble, the Ringmaster had them put in stasis, for their safety. But--" He scritches one of Rex's more insistent heads before another shoves in on the attention, and Ginko snorts quietly. "But, before then, some of 'em were used in performances. Others were attractions on their own."

oh right i was gonna do this huh

[fourthscribe]

The return trip from the moons is...odd, to say the least. It's not just power, but an awareness, a deep sense for the ebb and flow of cycles that she's always known surrounded her but previously could only guess at. Her entire being is thrumming with that energy, and it's almost overwhelming...almost.

The initial shock has mostly worn off by the time they're close enough for the Ringmaster to allow the new Miracles to make their own way to the ground, and the beat of her own wings at her back is a strange feeling in an entirely different sense. She feels lighter than she should, at least until she touches down near Ginko and--

...promptly falls flat on her face.

Can one have buyer's remorse for godhood?

[dontpokethat]

It's a lot to get used to at once. Seeing Tanyuu again, looking so different, knowing what those differences mean for her and how she's been changed--

And then the fact that she's just fuckin' beefed it right in front of him. Ginko bolts to check on her, dropping down on one knee. "Are you alright?"