[PUBLIC CHANNEL] RINGMASTER'S TENTH ADDRESS (LATE D60)

[lordofthering]

[The Ringmaster is here to give you some information.]

It seems useful for everyone to know that the Blue Rose is currently trying to escape its container. It's not succeeding... but it is certainly trying. I'm keeping an eye on it for now, but my current assumption is that our assailants are somehow responsible.

Comments

[lordofthering]

On the moon, you dumbass!

[SHE KNOWS FULL WELL WHAT YOU DID YOU LITTLE SHIT.]

[whattaprick]

[ Well if she's going to be that way about it... ]

Hm. Guess someone coming up there is out of the question in the first place, then.

[lordofthering]

[She's that way because you stole iron from Childermass while he was unconscious!]

I can come down if you really must.

[atouts]

If you'd rather I dealt with this, I can.

[ Yeah, he's a lot more conscious now, but she already knew that, too. ]

[lordofthering]

That would be helpful.

[She exhales, attempting to calm herself.]

It's mostly that I would like to be kept in the loop about where restricted resources are, given the situation.

[whattaprick]

[ He's right here, you know. But given Childermass is putting on his parent pants to yell at him and the Ringmaster is obviously marshaling her temper, he'll try to keep a lid on his own. ]

I didn't know that. [ No shit. ] Since you let me use it before, I didn't think it was a problem now.

[ Back when Lambert could still actually wield significant amounts of iron and not get sick from using it. ]

Believe me, I'm just as interested in keeping track of where it is, considering I got stabbed with it once already. [ He exhales. ] I’ll remember next time.

[atouts]

[ Childermass is always wearing his parent pants, let's be real here, but he's less going to yell at Lambert than he is just going to track him down and ask for the knives back. Simple enough. Although, since Lambert already brought up the possibility... ]

If she does decide she wants help with the vines, [ And he's trying really hard not to sound reluctant as hell here. ] I should be able to. No need to involve anyone else.

[lordofthering]

Childermass, no.

Those knives are way too dinky to deal with what's going on in here.

[whattaprick]

[ Lambert can't -- or won't -- hide the sharp spike of terror in his voice, though it comes out as a snarl. ]

Good, because he shouldn't be anywhere near that thing. Not with the Rose Queen involved.

[ Who knows? She can manipulate it with its connection to a dreamwalking child; she can manipulate a connection with a changeling she's cursed. That's as much a reason to keep Childermass away from it as any. ]

[atouts]

[ Neither of them will hear any protest from Childermass. ]

Fine. I'll just have to find something else to do from within the carnival.

[lordofthering]

If you can, try to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Anything that looks like an attempt at a forced entry.

I have my focus on the Blue Rose, so having someone watching the gate would be helpful.

[atouts]

That much I can do, Ringmaster.

[ And that's about it for his interruption. ]

[whattaprick]

We'll sort it out.

[ For someone about to engage in a battle of ~imagination~ Lambert sounds grim as hell. ]

[lordofthering]

Lambert, I understand that I allowed you to use something like that in the past.

But that was never against the Courts. Things are different, now.

[whattaprick]

Yeah, I think I figured that much out.

Once things stop actually being on fire, can you tell us what the rules are? Because if we're still looking for the Miracles, after all this ... that seems like that'd matter.

[ Not that he had the impression that there were rules when it came to war, but what does he know? ]

[lordofthering]

Don't use iron. Ever.

That's the rule.


[The United Nations would disagree.]

[whattaprick]

Great. Can we count on the Courts actually following that too?

[ Frowning, frowning. ]

Because even if I got a promotion out of it, I'd like something like Hell to never--

[ He breaks off there. Frowns, even if she can't see it. ]

... wait. I told you back then, the Morningstar's people said they had help. Is that something they'd do?

[lordofthering]

Uuuhhm.

[Well that came out of nowhere. Silence.]

And... we have no proof of it, besides hearsay. You see how this works...?

[whattaprick]

Yeah, I do.

[ Sigh. Politics are too hard to wrap around his head around. Does it even matter in the end if they did have proof. ]

If the Courts are so dead set against using iron, how does the Mother of Invention get away with fucking around with it? Does it not count if you're using it against your own?

[ Assuming she knows about the whole Mother of Invention thing, at any rate. He tends to assume her knowledge is broader than his own. ]

[lordofthering]

There's difference between using it for war and using it for research. The Mother of Invention is apparently trying to defend against iron, not weaponize it.

All the same, she isn't allowed to do that within Arcadia's realm. She has to do her iron based research out in the colonies.

[whattaprick]

Good to know they have some standards.

[ Yeah, it's probably not a good time to be sarcastic, but when has that ever stopped Lambert? ]

If there was proof the Winter Queen isn't above indirectly attacking her enemies with iron, what would that even do?

[lordofthering]

Nobody would like it. If she could do it to me, she could do it to them.

I don't know if it would be enough to do anything about it, though. She's the Winter Queen, and there's no Winter Maiden. It would definitely breed discontent, but to what end...?

[whattaprick]

Don't rulers usually want to make sure they've got an heir?

[ Considering how the Winter Maiden (possibly) got to where she is, maybe not so much. ]

Considering this all happened a while ago, you can't say she hasn't had the time to make one.

[lordofthering]

It's complicated.

It takes a lot for them to create a new Maiden, and usually the ascension is a collaboration. The Queen becomes the Crone, the old Crone donates their energy towards making a new Maiden. Yet, because the Queen died, there was no ascension to Crone, so the old Crone is still here.

Ascending to Queen in the first place would have taken a lot of power, so without the Crone's help, it is possible she doesn't have the expendable strength to do it, yet.

[whattaprick]

Huh. Is the Summer Court in the same bind, with the Summer Maiden not in Arcadia? Guess the Rose could help them with that problem.

[ Though in his opinion, the aggressiveness strikes him more as Winter wanting to bury the bodies. It pre-dated ever getting the Rose, after all. He's also not sure what the implications of having an incomplete set of three really are, but doesn't take a genius to know a less than full set of anything is a bad thing, magically speaking. ]