⇨ 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

[hippocarnival]

"Don't try to twist things!" Yuya snaps up at Frost. "We're trying to talk because we don't want to kill her or take her off the throne! We want to talk because the Ringmaster and the Summer Maiden still believe in her. Her soul is hurt, isn't it?"

He looks to the Winter Queen, pursing his lips. "It's painful, isn't it?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert’s head snaps up as soon as he catches sight of Frost, his lips curling back on a snarl.

“Can’t we just destroy that little shit instead?”

Sure, they might have agreed to try not to kill the Winter Queen, but this guy’s been the biggest pain in their collective ass.

[atouts]

"Would that we could," Childermass mutters, shooting an unimpressed look Frost's way. "But she may take it as an act of aggression, even if he is a treacherous little insect."

[periphrasing]

"Counter-point: An "act of aggression" is absolutely warranted wherever he's involved," Peridot growls, electricity crackling ominously between the new spikes running down her back and tail. With her new power, she could easily take Frost now, she's convinced of it. It's extremely tempting to make a go at him.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's own anger seems to ebb away upon seeing the effect of her words on Ignatius.

That calm is gone in an instant when Frost rears his head, however. "You...!" she hisses, hands balled into fists and rage flickering in her eyes. She's tempted to attack right then and there, but with her own words from moments ago still fresh in her mind, she can't bring herself to do something so blatantly hypocritical. So she grits her teeth and stays where she is.

[npcarnival]

Frost doesn't seem to be listening to them. Instead, his attention is completely on the Winter Queen herself, his fangs showing as he eggs her on.

"Fine, then!" he says. "If you can't protect yourself, I'll do it for you." Before the Queen really has a chance to react, Frost is revealing more of the very same black ice shards he used to nearly kill everyone not long ago. He whips them towards the group with the same level of precision as before, but of course, this time circumstances have changed.

The Winter Queen seems stunned, looking towards the carnival while not quite knowing how to react.

[flashover]

Sorry Frost, not this time.

Pulling on the power of the Blue Rose now dwelling inside him, Rin throws up a huge conflagration, a wall of searing blue flame that fills the throne room. They come so easily, and burn with such intensity, it's a little frightening! The flame dances around the Queen and the Carnival, bringing only a comforting warmth. But for Frost's shards, it's a different story.

"Ok, I think it's time we shut that little pixie up for good."

[insidescoop]

HIII-H!!

[Carly's immediate action, go figure, is to try and defend. Specifically she does this by thrusting up a wall of flames as best she can muster, silently loading it with as much light and heat as her very magic can draw from. Whether she alone could possibly pull that off is certainly questionable- but she isn't alone, and she's far from the only one who can make a fire wall. So...

Hopefully the others react similarly? At the very least, Rin seems to have shared her thoughts on this though.]

[betheman]

[Gongenzaka gives a half snarled roar not unlike when he was imprisoned in the Manor, as the incoming attack materializes and is launched.] NO-!

[Yuuya still stands somewhat ahead- and without thinking he rushes to curl around the other, willing his vines around them both as a make shift cocoon. That alone no doubt would mean little to the ice...but then again, he does have the power of growth with him now, and the fire from the others is no doubt intended to protect them as well.]

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya twists, his form shattering as the ice hits a clone left in his place and he stands a couple feet to the side.

There are others focused on defense, so Syrlya makes a move to neutralize the threat. He drops to one knee, hand to the ground with focus.

Crystalline vines grow from the point, rolling along the ground before many of them shoot up quickly in an attempt to capture Frost and render him unable to attack or flee again.

[anti_nonsense]

There goes Rita's restraint. The sight of those black shards spurs her to action.

"Not again... You won't get away this time, you freak!"

Through the wall of blue flames conjured by Rin, an elemental made of white fire bursts forth and flies at Frost, fire whipping around her vaguely humanoid figure. In this form, Rita holds out a fist, charging it with more of that magical fire, and aims to slam it all into the pixie as she launches herself at him.

[periphrasing]

Despite her eagerness to put the hurt on Frost, Peridot sticks to the defensive this time, adding a crackling barrier of electricity to Rin and Carly's fire wall. Branches of lighting sheer off and target any wayward icicles that they can reach, hopefully destroying them before they do anyone any harm.

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys shrieks and covers her head as Frost attacks, but when she doesn't immediately die, she looks up to see everyone else throwing up shields.

"Ohhhhh my god-" She breathes a sigh of relief before realizing oh wait she can do this too. Holding up her staff, she summons up her new powers. "Mew Mew... MAGIC SHIELD!"

...Yes, she's going to give all of her new tricks anime attack names. Her contribution to the shield looks like floating bits of glitter dispersed in between the electricity and the flames.

[spaghettimonster]

Him again. Those again. Last time, the icicles tore through everyone's defenses, and proved really deadly - if it weren't for the Ringmaster's power restoring them. The change most of them have gone through just might make the difference, there...

But in this split second to decide, he isn't certain enough. The surest approach is to dodge the attacks, and keep Frost from making more.

So Papyrus shoots into the air, spreading crystal wings to hold him aloft above the icicles - freeing up his blue magic to grab for friends who haven't acted yet. The new dimension to his magic splits his focus, and for once he feels multiple souls at once. He reaches for people who haven't moved yet, ready to ping them blue and pull them out of harm's way.

[soft_focus]

Is Reira's shield going to do diddly? No, but it was better than sitting and gawking and in a weird way felt better than just standing about. When she feels herself ping blue however, she finds her current shield position a bit silly- what with now launching up to wherever Papyrus feels is Safest. "Oh-!"

.... "...ok..." Her shield is still up, mostly because she has quietly entered a strange foggy state of shock as she floats about.

[whattaprick]

While others put up shields and launch attacks of their own against the pixie, Lambert has ideas of his own, slower to react as he is. It's impulsiveness that drives it, really -- he steps forward and his form blurs to light, though instead of launching himself after Frost, he's going for popping up beside the Winter Queen's throne, tail glowing with light and waving agitatedly. It may put him out of the immediate defensive range of the Carnival, but he's confident, now, that things are different.

The Queen's evident surprise that things have taken this turn doesn't bode well. Provided he actually makes it there, he'll flank the Queen, though his eyes are fixed on Frost, watching the fae with bared teeth.

"Still sure he's on your side, your majesty?" he quips.

[moonfang]

"Alright, that's enough of that fuckin' little bastard!"

Through the wall of flames and glitter and electricity, Zangetsu blasts toward the pixie. His hands are talons and wreathed in life-enhanced energy, and he swats the black ice intended for him out of the air.

He dashes to Frost's other side, across from Rita. Both his arms bubble and boil and shift into giant mouths with gnashing, shark-like, obsidian-black teeth.

[osteothropy]

This time is different.

It isn't some outside force coming at him - this is something he understands. It's Death, and that's one of his things now. Fortunately for him, Life is too.

Instead of even trying to stop the shards, he instead reaches out to the Death magic within them, and pulls. He'll take that for himself, please and thank you - and with any luck, that will make it easier for the others to destroy the weapons they were being transmitted in.

[starseedling]

In the immediate moments after Frost attacks, it also seems like they are well protected. As horrifying as the last encounter with Frost was, this one is in an entirely different context for Steven. For once, he isn't afraid of not being strong enough. He projects the new kind of barrier he's been figuring out without really thinking of it - a wall of crystal that's facetted like jewels. Most people seem to be taking care of themselves.

But then he sees some of them lunging for Frost, and everything in his gut is screaming that they shouldn't. No matter how much he hates fae like him.

"Wait - don't!" he cries out, but it's too late to stop anything.

[fourthscribe]

Chaos, threats, action--Tanyuu has enough time to bring up protective brambles and woody vines around those within the circle of flames, very alive and ready to snare any pieces of ice that get past--or any enemies that might slip inside as well.

But just like Steven, she's too late to stop the rush against Frost and can only shout in dismay.

[atouts]

All the while, Childermass just stands back and watches this giant, hideous disaster unfold with a slightly higher degree of judgment than usual.

[npcarnival]

The Winter Queen's attention goes to Lambert for a split few seconds, during which her expression turns absolutely furious. All of these people, trying to play with her mind! They've never take her.

And then her gaze goes to Frost. He doesn't even try to escape the grasp of Syrlya, or Rita and Zangetsu's strikes. Instead, they'll find their mark, fire and fangs marring him and all he does is laugh. At her. She knows it's at her.

"That's ENOUGH!" she screams, and a wind kicks up inside the closed room. All of Rin's fire extinguishes at once, somehow paradoxically freezing into fire-shaped ice, and light begins to vanish. Like the Queen's soul itself, her magic is a maelstrom of the Winter elements. Ice, Darkness, Death. It rises up like a storm, and the force of it is overwhelming.

Like a localized doomsday device, it puts even Ignatius's explosive might to shame. Raw magical power tears through the throne room, and it's enough that it could stand the chance to strike a fatal blow against even a fae - and that includes the carnival members themselves. That is, unless they stand together.

Otherwise, the power of the Queen shows no mercy.

[fortuneglass]

"FOCUS ON PROTECTION!" Carly screams, when the force comes to plow across the existing flames. Rin's is extinguished, but somehow she still has some left- and with wide eyes she looks to those nearest. "WE CAN'T BACK DOWN...AND WE WON'T!" she emphasizes, fueling everything she has into her wall. Already she has some of the others helping her after all- but if all of them can put some power into it..!

From on the ground, coiled in vines, Gongenzaka is already attempting to fuel the defenses himself- through mostly spirit, using the basis of what healing magic he had in order to bolster things. One hand parts through the vines to slam upon the ground as he reaches with his spirit, and Gongenzaka's jaw tightens as he focuses.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya can hardly see what's happening from around Gongenzaka, but he hears the laughing, the crack of ice, the Queen's fury.

His fingers dig into Gongenzaka, and he closes his eyes and focuses on the glow of Creation flowing his energy to Gongenzaka, to bolster him--and his shield, because it won't do much but maybe it will ease the blow just enough for everyone else.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya leaves Frost trapped in those vines as he pulls back. Frost doesn't dodge, and Syrlya wonders if they aren't both inclined to die in their own disaster.

He centers himself to the group, and aims tontake advantage of his new raw power to cast a large area around the group, warped with purple'tinged magic that allows the carnival and everything they do to move faster, though they don't feel the burst of speed--instead, it's more like everything around them has slowed down.

"Shields up!" He calls out, echoing Carly as he waves his hand to create another area painted by a magic clock that settles a sort of magic barrier over the carnival members caught in it