[The radios will glow green as the Ringmaster begins a broadcast.]

Welcome back to the carnival, everyone. Things may look the same as before, but I assure you, there is no stone that has been left unturned or tree that hasn't been uprooted. We'll have no more stalkers from here on out.

There are a few things of relevance that I have to tell you about. Firstly, Ignatius is no longer in the moon. Instead, he's been relocated to a small island in the middle of the lake. He can't leave it, and you aren't allowed to visit it without my permission. If you do, and he wounds you, you can consider it your own fault.

In a related matter, I've decided to invest my magical energies into granting each of you a ressurection egg, as we clearly can't anticipate any peaceful resolutions from this. If you don't know what that means, it's essentially a ritual spell I'll need your help in completing - once it's done, it will bring you back to life if you happen to perish, but only once. Also, you will have to be in the egg long enough to regrow and hatch. This is no small favour on my part, and it won't work unless your soul can make it back to the egg.

Thirdly, after calling in several favours, I think the location of Eden is almost within view. A few allies will be joining us over the next week and giving us more information. Until then, carry on about your business, as there are some new things you'll have to get used to.

We're going to be organizing the Supervisor guided departments differently from now on. I have explained the details to the Supervisors, and they can fill you in on what will be expected of you. There will not be only six categories: Militia, Acquisitions, Engineering, Management, Administration, and Medical.

Supervisors, feel free to sound off with what group you are leading and what it is for.

She said I'm supposed to be patrol... So if you're in charge of patrol let me know what I should actually be doing.

[You know, besides setting up a tent, because that's not going to happen. The voice has a slight lisp, the speaker unknown as he doesn't bother to introduce himself.]

Also, why are we here?

[ By the time the radio turns on it’s about an hour after Lambert’s group has returned and reported their findings to the Ringmaster. Now it’s just a matter of letting everyone else know. It’s Syrlya who speaks first. ]

As most of you are aware, the Summer and Winter Courts have pursued the carnival into the Athenaeum and taken some of our people hostage.

[ “Hostage" is a nice way to say permanent enslavement.] According to the Scribe and Curator, the lifelike and antagonistic nature of the books found here is the library’s defense against intruders, and it is under our control.

And has been under our control this entire time. [Tyki’s voice chimes in, at this point. To which he’s not bitter at all about it. This entire mess could’ve possibly been avoided.] Our will has been controlling the stories to a certain victory each time we have been swallowed up by one. It should be comforting to know that they cannot use the stories against us. They have not been given these defenses.

If we cast the Fae into our own narrative, the magic should be strong enough to combat them. We will be bound to the same story, so we cannot allow them to turn its favor or-- [And this he sounds less certain about.] --break the confines of the story ourselves.

It should be noted as well that the story cannot be entirely unbelievable. To play the part, it must seem plausible. One cannot just snap their fingers and a fae is weakened, for example. Something like that will allow them to break the story. The narrative must be consistent and convincing.

[ The Nightrider finally speaks. There’s an edge of tension to his voice, but otherwise, he’s pretty composed. ]

The good news is, this means you don't have to be a fighter to help. Bad news is, we still have to figure out how we're going to do it, who's going or staying, and if we're dealing with the Courts together or one at at time. We need to come up with something fast -- I don’t want them to give time to figure out their own plans. Catching them by surprise is the best chance we’ve got, so working together in groups makes the most sense.

If you have any useful ideas, now’s the time to share them.

[ And 9S chimes in: ] If anyone wants to hear the exact exchange we had with the Scribe and Curator, I can provide a recording for your viewing.

I said useful ideas.

[ ooc: this is mainly an ic planning post! ooc plotting post to follow to organize things more formally, but feel free to threadjack each other, form up groups of your own, all that good stuff to work out where your character will be. ]

[The moment the shadows begin to clear enough that it affects where Gongenzaka and a few others are, an announcement comes blasting through on the public channel-]

The shadows around myself, and those with me, are now clearing! [he shouts, voice strong and clear.] If it is the same for others outside of the carnival, then heed my words- we return to the Carnival Grounds at once! The sooner we are within our own 'home ground', the safer!

More importantly, the easier it will be to help in the recovery of those taken! [For after all, they know damn well that the Ringmaster won't just leave anyone behind. So.]

We move! Now!

If I, the man Gongenzaka, encounter any others on the path back, I shall be making certain you come with for that matter!

[NO BUTS.]

[He really didn't want this to happen, but...]

I think it's time we start keeping a list of those who's disappeared, been taken, or is otherwise indisposed.

I'll start.

Lauren has been buried in the ground, somewhere, and Steven Universe has been taken by the Rose Queen.

[He says all of this blankly, matter of factly, and there's only the sound of a shaky breath at the very end.]

Nightshade is here.

[Gongenzaka's message is short-but more curiously, he doesn't actually release the transmit button-and the sounds of Nightshade and Frost arguing can be mutely heard, potentially.]

I, the man Gongenzaka, will be holding this line 'open'...

[...And so he is. Which makes it a bit hard to actually answer him, but at least all of Security knows something's going down.]

==========================

[AFTER THE CHAOS]

[The message doesn't take long to come in, but It Sure Does.] ...As those listening have no doubt realized at this point; Nightshade is not the only one here. Fae from both courts are present-including 'Frost', as well as at least one crow.

Both were fighting over a book. The book no longer exists...Unless any among our number can salvage text from melted material...

...More importantly, Yuuya and myself are uninjured- Peridot is...

Slightly. [Comes Marishi's somewhat muffled voice. Slightly injured. But at least people can finally shout at them now.]

[The announcement is made around lunch hour, so you better be awake.]

Alright guys, listen up. We got some news yesterday, and it heavily implied that we have a crew of Summer Court fae tailing us as we speak. We're scheduled to be here for another six days... so, in the meantime, we gotta stop things up a bit.

First up, no more solo research. If you're going to be away from the carnival grounds, make sure you're in pairs - or even better, groups of three or four. I know Psi always tells everybody to do this, but this time it's for real. I don't want anybody wandering out there by themselves.

Lets try to work it so that every group has at least one person with a quick travel ability. That means people who can teleport, travel through shadows, fly really fast, or whatever. The faster everyone can collect back at the carnival, the faster we can get out of here if something goes wrong.

On that note, leave your radios on. Radios are not optional.

Gongenzaka, Syrlya, Amethyst, Shura, Zangetsu. Spread out between any groups forming so that I can have a point of contact. It's your job to make sure that people get moving as soon as an evacuation is called. Prioritize running over fighting. There's no point in dealing with these guys if we don't have to.



...Lastly, is anybody compiling these stories? If you haven't made a copy of any relevant stories you found, do that now. If you don't know how, get somebody else to do it for you. We should get them all into a binder or something.

Anyway, that's it. Oh, uh... if you have quick travel abilities, maybe speak up here? I've got teleportation available for any group that needs it. I'm not picky.

[Feel free to mingle/hijack threads as necessary.]

[Having kept an idle ear on the public channel for the last week and gotten a better idea of what to actually look for, Shima chimes in again today after coming across a rolled up scrap of scroll among the Scribe's writings.]

Hey guys, more news for ya. Maybe bad news? Unless RM-san's got some kind of amnesia thing going on and just doesn't remember being the last piece, [--that's a joke, mostly--] sounds like our last Miracle can run from us.

"The third, a Beast with a coat and blood of Red, with thoughts and dreams to match its will. As a being of Birth and Decay, its life was its own. It could not be held by the hands of its creator, and fled to the wild, seeking the freedom it was denied."

Looks like it escaped on its own.

[Usually when Peridot speaks up on the network, she's pretty perky and authoritative. NOT THIS TIME. HAHA.]

Ssssso... I don't want to cause a panic or anything, but there's not exactly an easy way for me to break this news to everyone, so I'm just going to come right out and say it:

I may have kind of, sort of... absolutely found proof in the Scribe's collections that the Summer Court is tracking us. And by the Summer Court, I mean specifically the Rose Queen and Ignatius and all their cronies from Portland are tracking us. And they know we have the Blue Rose.

....

Sorry.

...This is Peridot, by the way.

-----

[Mingle and threadjack as you please!]

[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.