[This message will go out about fifteen minutes after arriving in the carnival, while everyone is still waking up and recovering. The Ringmaster sounds far more subdued than normal - like maybe she's tired, or sick, or perhaps just sad.]

That... wasn't what I expected to happen.

[There is a long pause, and then she sighs.]

I imagine you all have some questions. I don't have time to address all of them now, but I can attempt the most important one. Who you were there isn't who you are now. It isn't a creature entirely separate from you, either. They are a reflection of your identity - they are who you could be. Who you could have been. The reality of circumstance and choice is too complex to figure out all the factors that changed you, but in the end, it doesn't really matter.

Use these memories to guide you, not to demean you. Allow them to inform your future, but not rule it. You are, as ever, all of what you choose to be.


Please be polite to our hosts. She didn't know know I was coming. Bye for now.

[Frankly, Ginko would like nothing more than to pass the fuck out for a few hours or days, but. He has work to do.

In fact, seeing as how the menagerie is empty, and he’s already retrieved a dwarf wyrm from the top of a trailer and hauled Lamar the headcrab out of a trash can, that work is apparently going to start with getting the animals back where they belong.]

Hey, so-- sorry to ask this right after… all that, but if anyone sees any of the menagerie animals around, would you mind telling me? Or… you know, bringing them to the menagerie if you can. Maybe don’t try to capture the big ones on your own, though.

If there are any supervisors still awake and standing, would you please make your way to the Big Top? The Ringmaster appears to have died.

[ —and turned into an egg, which is something he should really include, but he's tired. Sounds it, too, although what he isn't sounding on top of that is worried, since this is all said in a very matter-of-fact way. ]