[Sans's voice is deep and rumbly, as it is when he is in his big beast form. Presumably, he is holding the radio carefully between two giant claws.]

So. Some kinda poisonous Wyld Fae got Yuya. Dunno if he's still alive.

I tried to get her away from him but she wasn't having it. Dunno what to do about that. Any suggestions?

[He sounds a bit numb.]

Alright, we got any priests here? Tanyuu says we need one.

[There’s a lot more he could say here, like the fact that they’re specifically looking for a Shinto priest, and that they need one so Reira can experience a proper shichi-go-san festival, and that he suggested that maybe it didn’t really matter since it’s all symbolic anyway, and Tanyuu didn’t seem to like that suggestion.

But none of that has occurred to him, so here we are.]

[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?

[ After the Ringmaster's finished kicking everyone out and the tent arrangements are more or less settled... ]

So, I'm up. [ Short and to the point. ] Heard people were yelling at my nightrunners. You wanna yell about it some more, you can come yell at me.

[ That's it, that's the post. ]

[At first, there's a soft clicking noise occasionally accompanied by small bursts of static and shuffling. In particular, it's the sound of the dial of Yuusei's radio being turned on and off while tuned to the public frequency. The sound of a man who clearly doesn't talk to people enough to be comfortable with asking an entire entourage of folks about some thing he found in a book. It's a lot of hesitation, but eventually the clicking at least stops as he brings the radio closer to him.]

I meant to ask earlier, but there was all of that excitement in the Athenaeum, and I never got the chance...

[There's some movement and what sounds like paper shuffling.]

Does anyone know what the word 'aetheric' means? It's an adjective describing a form of interaction with airship machinery, and while airships admittedly aren't my area of expertise, it's still not a word I've ever heard before. Any ideas?

[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.]

[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!]

Hey, so. I know a lot of you are gunna be busy with research, so I figured I may as well put this out there... if you find anything written in hand-shaped pictographs, could you do me a huge favour and pass 'em my way?

I need them for reasons.

That said, how's it going out there? Any news?

[The radios will light up about an hour after the Ringmaster has pulled everyone off of the space station, signalling one of her broadcasts. She sounds hesitant to speak, in a way she usually doesn’t. After the button is pressed, it takes her a moment to get going, though she makes her voice efficiently authoritative when she does.]

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, and... I have a very important announcement to make.

In the past, I’ve made a practice of punishing those that have cheated or damaged the carnival with a year of service. In better times, many recruited by that method came to like it here, and became faithful members of the carnival family. Right now, though... things are different. They have been for a while.

So it is clear, I am no longer interested in demanding extended service for minor violations during performance weeks. Given the level of danger that has become customary, I can no longer consider those contracts balanced. So, I will be finding more mild ways of punishing infractions instead, that won’t result in any additional contracts.

I know what you may be thinking – but if you already have a contract with me, I cannot break it retroactively. I know that, from time to time, it seems that people leave the carnival without warning, without finishing their contracts, but... that business is out of my control and always has been. All current contracts stand, and I can’t afford to change that.

However... if you feel that your recruitment was particularly unfair, or that you were tricked as opposed to being genuinely caught in a crime against the carnival... speak to me, and I will consider offering you something to make up for it.

...That said, don’t take this as an invitation to try my patience.