limacharlie | [PUBLIC CHANNEL] RINGMASTER'S EIGHTH ADDRESS (D30)

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[PUBLIC CHANNEL] RINGMASTER'S EIGHTH ADDRESS (D30)

[Around the start of the new performance week, the Ringmaster will light up everyone's radios with an important message. Or, rather, some important musing.]

Hello, this is the Ringmaster speaking. I say that for the benefit of any new arrivals - everyone else surely recognizes my voice, by now. The rest of this may leave you in the dust as it will be touching on some carnival history, but you can may questions if you want to get up to date.

So, I spent a lot of time thinking when the lot of you were busy with that Pillar drama. As most are aware, a couple months ago we went on a mission to retrieve an extremely powerful artifact called the Blue Rose, which we have been using to defend the carnival from faerie threats. Which, seems successful so far, given that Nightshade didn't dare enter the grounds the entire time we were there! A victory, indeed.

It got me thinking, though... the Blue Rose actually comes as a set. As I've explained to a few of you, the Blue Rose is an organism created by the first Queens of Arcadia. Only three artifacts of its kind exist, as far as I know, and I fairly sure that none of them are actually in faerie hands.

So, I thought... what if we were somehow able to get the other two? Not only would that be enough to ward off the Courts completely, it would go a long way to defending us against any of the other nonsense we come across! Perhaps we could even go back to business as usual, for a while...

Anyway, in an attempt to be more forthcoming, I am presenting this idea to you for general 'work shopping' purposes. I know that the Blue Rose was a big hassle to get, but we know so much more now than we did then! I think it's worth a second look.

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[Yeah, so, cool. Now let's never talk about it again.]

If I had to guess, I'd take a look towards Heaven or Hell. They're the closest thing to peers that Arcadia has, and would have be most to benefit from hiding something like that.

[And speaking of "never talking about this again"-]

Not Hell.

[He's not budging on this one, RM. He's not fucking budging. Joker's voice goes plainly flat with those two words, and then he's moving on as normal.]

We've got a couple of us now that are a bit... divinely inclined, I suppose ya could say. So maybe... [Wait-] Did we ever learn how the Prince found the rose in the first place, actually?

[DON'T BE A BABY.]

The Hell you went to wasn't even the real one.

[But she'll leave it for now.]

At the time, the Courts actually did have possession of the Rose. He has been working for them, and when he decided to betray them, he stole it away as collateral. I could respect his desire for independence, but that's about it.

[HE WILL QUIT THIS JOB, RM, SO HELP HIM]

[He'll also determinedly leave that conversation topic alone for now, now wanting to deal with it at all.]

Ah.... I guess in a way we almost did it the easier way, then. [A couple of them, himself included, just had to... temporarily die... It's fine.] Now we have ta actually do the hard work of searchin' instead of just stumblin' onta things.

So. Goin' ta Heaven or talkin' ta the Summer Maiden, then, huh? [Time to see RM's girlfriend again.]

Yes, I should be checking on the Summer Maiden's kingdom, anyway... see how the Manor folk are coming along. Yet, I'm not certain I'll find much information from her that I didn't already know. Maybe a more accurate retelling of the legend, since stories like that would have fallen within her duties...

The real question is which Heaven. There are as many shades of Heaven as there are of Faeries in the multiverse... the Highest Heaven, the true Source of Angelic Radiance... that would be a difficult target. No better than wandering into Arcadia itself.

[You can hear all those Capital Letters.]

Edited 2018-03-19 19:43 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm sure more than a few folks would be happy about that, too...

I don't suppose there's a Heaven that deals with ancient Fae artifacts of immense power, would there?

Not... specifically...

[She's trying to think, but it's admittedly not her realm of expertise.]

You remember what it was like being an angel, don't you? Portland's Heaven was a fairly close reflection of the Highest, I think. It couldn't have been many steps off.

Heaven is big on things like order, and maintaining a balance in the multiverse. Generally, angels are pretty helpful creatures, but they play by their rules 'religiously'.

Ah.

[Well, he did suggest it and mention himself and others being angels once upon a time...]

Think maybe me and the others who got that sort of thing should have a little chat and see if we can recall anythin' useful...? Speakin' of, when's Sans gonna stop bein' dead?

Soon, I hope! I'll feel much better about all of this once he's back... it could be any day now. It's past the minimum threshold.

Who were the others? Yugo, I think... Julien?

Yeah, me and Julien have talked angels before. There's also... Zan, wasn't that right? I remember him at a meeting for that lot.

Possibly. Regrettably, I didn't pay much attention to any of those business until afterwards.

I haven't sensed any angelic nature from Zangetsu, though. With you, Sans, Yugo, and Julien, however, the influence is obvious.

Is that because one of my wings turned white afterwards....

No, it's a bit more metaphysical than that. You are genuinely part angel, which is mostly a spiritual thing, in this case.

Well ain't that an unfunny joke...

I guess it might work out in our favor if we went investigatin' Heaven 'tho, right?

[This news isn't hugely surprising to Julien, but despite highly mixed feelings he's kind of happy to hear it.]

There was that nephilim on the moon who saw me and immediately thought I was another nephilim. I'm sure there are Heavens where that's a bad thing, you know, the mortal and the divine mingling, some major divide transgression. But this stuff happens whether or not it's forbidden. Probably the part-angel communities at least would be willing to listen.

They should look on the bright side- at least we weren't made this way be two folks trin' ta, ha, get quite biblical with one another.

[Reality just crashed and merged and fucked up and here they are]

That whole interbreeding story isn't true for the most part, anyway. Nephilim are by no means encouraged, but... the major point of contention is that nephilim are able to do things that a regular angel couldn't. Angels are bound by rules and hierarchies that halfblood children aren't.

So, less powerful, but more of a wild card in the long run. Sometimes they are seen as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, other times as unnecessary troublemakers.

It's against angelic nature to exterminate outliers, though, so you wouldn't have to worry about that.

Well, that's a positive, then. [So long as they don't piss off any divine bodies...]

So I guess it's just a matter of findin' a good way ta spin our interest in askin' about fae artifccts then, innit? Even just for the information, not even if they actually have it or not.

[Get information, gauge the risks, and decide if they want to act, all that.]

[Dryly:] I feel like it'd be kind of on the nose to say 'oh thank God' to that.

I seem to remember that some mortals could be lifted up to be angels, I was - the other me knew more about that process. So I guess there's some boundary-crossing anyway...

They might not want to help but they might also take a warning about someone else going for whatever they have.

I've been tryin' ta avoid evokin' the Lord's name in vain for the same reason~.

[Ha ha.]

But yeah, that's a good point. We could play this as us bein' concerned about other parties attackin' them, or similar. I mean, we've already had bad run ins with them... Heaven's adversary in particular.

[Fuck Hell, in particular.]

Lead onta us bein' a good neutral party better suited ta protectin' it, too.

As long as this doesn't lead into deciding to steal whatever-it-is anyway, because that's a good way to get a whole nother faction of enemies and even with two artifacts that seems pretty iffy.

If the carnival's enemies blunt their teeth on Heaven or Hell - I mean, I guess Hell could be warned too, preferably from a good distance - and make enemies there that's. Probably okay?

[Joker is half a second away from repeating his refrain of never dealing with Hell, when something suddenly hits him.]

....Do ya think we could spread false rumors? Like- Heaven and Hell go at it so much, one or the other would probably know if the other party had somethin' powerful on their side, right? So if Heaven maybe was able ta confirm for us for sure that Hell doesn't have anythin'... We could spread a rumor ta Hell does, and have whoever would be a problem go fling themselves at Hell instead?

That make sense, Jules?

Uh. Hm. It makes sense but that'd be lying and I'm not confident on people not being able to tell. Also Hell might find out and be mad at us, but from what I hear they're already unfriendly in our direction soooo maybe that's not that big a deal.

I guess like anything else whether it's a good idea or even really possible can't really be determined without knowing more.

Also this is conjuring vivid pictures of going to Heaven to chat and then demons show up to be awful.

Well, I'll plainly admit that I already hate Hell, so, you've got me there.

[Salt Hell, is what he's saying.]

But ya have a point. As things are now, all we can do is muse over 'maybe's. And hey, Jules, mind if I get ya on a private channel really quick?

I... yeah, I can't say I go as far as that but the idea of dealing directly with it is kinda viscerally unpleasant, so let's please not!

Sure, sure. You can imagine I'm making a joke about getting me alone here. Oops. Guess it doesn't take that much imagination.

[And, privately:]

What's up?

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