⇨ 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

[atouts]

"It's in the Mirror," Childermass states what will be obvious to Lambert already, though not everyone here will have the same connection that they do to that particular Miracle. He drops his own field once the magical storm has ebbed away, giving the Winter Queen a far less charitable look than others may offer.

"I suppose she's simply the Maiden again, without the Queen's soul. I wonder if the rest of the Court will realize something is amiss."

[impatientdefense]

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong," Beau says, pushing herself to her feet unsteadily now that the rush of temporary power is fading. It feels as if a lot of the power in the room was pulled along in the wake of the Ringmaster's final attack, there.

"But wasn't that supposed to be... Isn't it a bad thing if there's no Queen soul? No offense," she briefly directs to the recovering Winter... Queen, Maiden, whichever, before turning back to the rest of the ex-Carnival. "Stuck in some phylactery thing isn't the same as being in the reigning Queen, right...?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya stumbles with Gongenzaka, but at least him pulling back gives Yuya a clearer view of everything around them when he's not buried under fur and vines and arms. His gaze drifts first to assure that they're all unharmed, and then to the glow of the Silver Mirror. The Winter Queen (or Maiden) gets his attention last, and she seems... beaten, but more than that. Despondent, full of a realization she didn't want to carry.

He braces himself on Gongenzaka long enough to get steady on his feet, then slowly approaches the Winter Queen. He drops to his knees not far from her, putting him a little more at level.

"... Is everything a little clearer, now?" If The Ringmaster separated the Queen and Maiden's souls, hopefully that means it's a lot less broken.

[lordofthering]

"We still have the old Queen's soul," the Ringmaster says, somewhat reluctantly. "We just have to figure out how to do the ascension properly this time." Having been the one to divide the souls in the first place, she has some deep intuition into what was causing the problems in the first place, and it sort of hurts to think about.

"...I guess Court Fae really aren't made to consume power like that. The Old Queen never really left. They just... became the same person. And with so many conflicting traits, the person they became was fundamentally broken." She can't help but feel guilty. She feels like her own nature had been what inspired the Winter Maiden to try this in the first place.

"When Wyld Fae do it, the energy they consume is purified and integrated into their own essence."

As the Ringmaster explains it, Winter seems to be realizing what happened to her at a similar pace. It's not so simple as everything being back to the way it was before, though. Insanity must have been liberating, if only for a while.

[soft_focus]

Reira watches Yuuya as he comes over the entire time, waiting until he's right next to her. Guiltily, she stares at her feet when he's finally near enough to speak to the Queen directly- whispering softly to him. "...I... ....I was just the mirror," she says quietly- so quietly that the chances are that other than Yuuya only the 'Queen', or those near, will hear. "...I wasn't the one left behind... ...I know it's not the same- it's bigger here, but..."

Slowly, she looks back up to Yuuya- and then up to Winter.

She can't know what it's like. But...

Yuuya can relate, she expects. Even to pieces conflicting into a whole, he could relate. And much like when she was 'the mirror' in the situation, she thinks it's important to offer that hand.

[npcarnival]

"I never meant for this to happen," Winter says, glancing at Yuya briefly but then looking back down to the ground. "I'm sorry."

Though they don't make eye contact, it's clear she's speaking to the Ringmaster. Yet, the Ringmaster doesn't yet respond.

[atouts]

"Sorry doesn't even begin to cover the damage you've done," Childermass says, leaving Lambert's side to step closer to the Winter Maiden, though not too close. Just in case. "There's a Crone still, isn't there? Can't you call her here?"

That said, he glances back the Ringmaster's way, if only to include her in the question.

"Surely she would have some insight to the right way of this."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya does listen to the Ringmaster's explanation. He understands, it was as much her fault as Zarc's second coming was his--swept up in something they never meant to happen, but that still left ruin in their wake even when they came to their senses.

"That's... true, it doesn't. But we came here to do things this way because we thought there was a way to make things right. At least to start." He smiles a little, sympathetically. "She didn't give up on you entirely, so please remember that. It hurts to see what you did, but there's a chance to change that future now."

He doesn't want her to give up, wilting in her guilt.

[anti_nonsense]

"Speaking of broken things..." Rita murmurs, stepping forward - not towards Winter, but to get a look at Frost. He certainly looks like he's on the verge of death, but Rita has a hard time trusting that. True Fae have a tendency to survive things that seem impossible to recover from, after all.

"Is it really okay to leave the freak like this?"

[npcarnival]

"You're fools," Frost rasps from where he's been not-so-quietly dying, apparently not wanting to be ignored. "You could have... ended it all. The Court's smug... idiotic rule... you could have erased it all from existence..."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya tilts his head, leaning against his sword hilt as the tip digs into the floor. "Perhaps the Ringmaster should look at swallowing him, too. Just to be sure."

[fortuneglass]

The Queen. Maiden. Soon to be Queen again anyway, well, is getting plenty of attention.

But off to the side someone else isn't, and Carly quietly finds herself floating toward where the dying Frost lies. She stares the fae down- fingers flickering with golden fire occasionally, but ultimately fizzling out.

As Rita asks her question, Carly is staring him down, her scowl only deepening as Frost speaks. "...But we can't," she insists to him, the scowl easing. "...There has to be a Winter and a Summer- there has to be a balance," she continues, stooping down and letting her hand light with healing fire of all things.

She holds it up- but doesn't bring it forward. "...The courts will sort themselves properly this time. ...The question is if you just want to die whining about it, or live to see it happen." And... Her expression grows dry. "...or if you care, I guess."

Hard to tell.

[npcarnival]

"Do it, then," Frost rasps at Carly, the only one to pay him much heed. "Heal me." There is not an ounce of hesitation.

[moonfang]

Zangetsu snarls at Carly, grabbing her arm.

“Don’t you DARE heal him. Not everyone is deservin’ of mercy. Some things are better off dead n’ buried.”

[spaghettimonster]

In the aftermath of all that high stakes tension, with things calming down and people starting to talk for the first time in thousands of years... Papyrus feels a little worn out. It's a struggle to think optimistically about this nearly unknown foe, to hope he can play nice with others or even care about him. It's easier to think some thoughts... that he'd rather not voice.

That laughter is part of it. Talking about how someone should have died, the notion that destroying terrible things is worth hurting and killing uncountable people over the years...

Well, that's not so unfamiliar. Maybe Frost has some terrible tragic backstory, maybe he's the equivalent of a Harbinger who's been broken in some way and can't believe the best in people. Papyrus doesn't know. He's not about to stop Carly, or tell her not to - but he is going to ping the fae's soul blue, hoping it'll keep him from teleporting away, whatever they do.

"It's not... a mercy. Killing him would be a mercy, he would get to escape knowing how much he did wrong. He should help put things right, even if it's painful." Papyrus squints at the rasping fae. "Maybe especially since it's painful."

[whattaprick]

"Can't say I like the Courts, but I like the idea of being erased from existence even less." Having exhausted his only real efforts at diplomatic relations talking with the Summer Maiden, Lambert's not going to get into the weeds about balance and all the rest here, either.

That Frost's still talking is an irritation, though, and at the discussion about mercy, remorse, redemption ... who the hell gives a fuck about Frost? It's clearly going to be more of a pain in the ass for whoever has to deal with him, not for the pixie himself. Who wants to put up with someone who's schemed so much for his own ends? Considering he didn't get his shot at the little bastard earlier -- twice now -- the witcher still has plenty of venom to burn off. His face pinches slightly and he turns, flicking a hand impatiently in a sharp, cutting motion. A sword of light forms in response to his will, flashing forward through the air to impale itself in Frost's chest.

"Shove it, you frozen piss puddle."

[starseedling]

Steven doesn't know at all what to do. His thoughts have mostly been with the Queen, with an empathic sense of the brutal regret she's just woken up into, but when people start discussing Frost it's hard to ignore. Steven doesn't want to think about Frost right now, but this discussion is important - the idea of just letting someone die when they could stop it goes against everything he believes.

Yet, after all Frost has done... can he really make that choice for anyone else? He moves forward slowly, feeling like he should say something...

But then it comes to a head and Lambert throws a sword. Steven clasps his hands over his eyes, flinching.

[periphrasing]

In the aftermath of the storm, there isn't much Peridot can immediately contribute to the situation. She has mostly just been staring at the Queen, kind of dumbfounded that her snarky one-off comment about the old queen being the source of all her problems turned out to be accurate?

She's not immediately sure what to do about Frost, though. She cautiously walks halfway over to him when Rita first mentions him, ears pricked forward, eyes narrowed suspiciously, still not trusting that this isn't some sort of trick to get the carnival's guard down before he reveals that he's faking it and tries to murder them all again. Of course, he doesn't do anything of the sort; he's just laying there dying slowly, and speaking bitterly about the courts, how they've ruined everything.

It's a particular sentiment that strikes an uncomfortable chord with her, having wondered herself in the past whether there might any way to just abolish the courts without jeopardizing everything else. It raises all kinds of questions about his true motivations, questions that make her feel kind of sick to even contemplate examining.

On the other hand, she's no different than most of the other members of the carnival in her hatred for the little pixie, and she's been longing for her own chance to beat the stuffing out of him ever since the Athenaeum. The idea of kicking him while he's down doesn't exactly make her feel super great and it seems like simply ignoring him until he fades away on his own is probably the just and sensible thing to do here. She's sort of content with just letting that happen, she decides... And then a whole bunch of shit happens.

Carly seems to be moving to heal him, which earns a bit of a shocked and judgmental sneer from Peridot. But there isn't much time between that and the moment that the witcher takes decisive action. If she'd been standing near Lambert, she might've tried to interfere on instinct; maybe moved to grab his arm or something, do that cliche thing where she reminds him that Frost isn't worth the effort because really, he isn't.

She isn't standing near him though. The sword whizzing past shocks her out of this state of deep contemplation that she's been in, and she flinches back away from it's trajectory, even though it doesn't even come close to hitting her. After that, all she can do is just watch on in low-key horror.

[fortuneglass]

Carly's arm is grabbed, and she immediately whirls with her free hand to strike across Zangetsu's face. "Don't! Touch me," she snaps with a snarl. "You might not think there's any point...But I'm not here to have things end in death just because we can! Especially not after he says-"

While she's talking, Papyrus speaks as well. But while she's still talking, something slices through the air and Carly shouts.

Ripping her arm from Zangetsu's grasp- transforming into a bird and then back if that's what it takes to do so- she hurriedly brings healing flame around the wound with a cry. "No..! No, aaaaahhh..." She already knew her fire was going to be a shot in the dark. But with this?

"Why is this the answer!" she shouts. "I know we have the upper hand- You know it too...So why is this the answer?" Her hands are shaking, and she pours as much as she has- but what she has amount to illusions, not 'growth'. "What does this gain for anyone except a flash of 'success' for us? We didn't come here to KILL!"

She doesn't stop pouring energy into the magic- but it's hard to feel like it will work, even as she sits there. "We..." Carly sniffs, wings spread around her like a shield, as she grimaces. "What even made you do this to begin with..?" she manages quietly, speaking now to Frost. "All of this..." He spoke of the courts instead of the queen any would have thought their focus on.

She just wanted to know why.

[scientificist]

"We didn't not, come here to kill," says Herbert quietly and unhelpfully from near the back of the group.

[npcarnival]

Carly's hysterics more or less fill up the room for any ominous last words Frost might have had. He was pretty much all talked out anyway. What a stupid waste of time.

Oh well. It was fun while it's lasted.

"Heh heh," he snickers one last time, the moment after the blade slams through his chest, and his already fragmented body turns to mist. Only a shred of regret shows. "You stupid... bitch..."

Finally, his form gives way, releasing his magic to the ether.

[scientificist]

With a bit of disappointment, Herbert tucks the filled syringe back into his labcoat pocket.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya, meanwhile, leans over in Lambert's direction with one hand on his hip. "Nice shot," he murmurs as an aside.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita jerks forward with her hands clenched, ready to intervene should Frost recover enough strength to try to take someone out with him... but in the end, it looks like that wasn't happening. She lets out a heavy sigh, part relief, part annoyance at his parting words, and turns her attention back to Childermass and Ringmaster.

"...Right, so," she begins, "we were talking about the Crone?"

[moonfang]

Zangetsu is smacked, and he's too stunned by the notion to make a move. By the time he recovers, Carly is sobbing about some stupid nonsense and Frost has bid them a final "fuck you" of a goodbye.

Welp, that was that, then. He folds his arms into his sleeves, giving Carly the most disdainful look he can muster.

"Well. I sure hope that was worth it for ya. And if you ever slap me again? It'll be the last thing you do in one piece."

Zangetsu spits on Frost's fading remains before walking back to the main group.