The Carnival! (DAY ONE)

[friedeverything]

[Around 11:00am, the rides and vendors and stands suddenly appear, bustling with sounds and movements as the carnival spins to life. Throughout the day, all kinds of foods, rides, and games are available, but around the carnival signs are posted about a raffle that evening, with the items listed. Wait, did that belong to you? Well now it's up for raffle! Come buy tickets from any of the ghosts with said tickets slung across their shoulders like a sash.]

(ooc: There will be one section for the actual raffle - an ooc post will be up in a couple moments to claim the items- but other than that, go wild!)

Comments

[bustered]

Don't even try to tell me that you don't have something equally as funny in your own world. [Griiiiin.

Though the expression fades a moment later.] Seriously?!? That's...

Ugh, why do I get the feeling that the only way to get it back is winning that raffle?

[heal_theworld]

[She thinks about it. And then suddenly she has her answer.] Gnome.

Because it is, probably. Or at least getting someone you know with a winning ticket. I managed to find him and point him in the right direction. [She sighs.] I hope he bought enough tickets. I bought some too, just in case.

[bustered]

Oh? Is it on the table? [Zack wants a visual!]

Yeah, I don't think I want to know what would happen if we tried to steal it back from the castle without entering the raffle. [Tempting fate like that, and against Paradisa itself? No thanks.] I'll head over and get some as well. It's... he's got to be pissed that it got taken from him.

[heal_theworld]

No, but that would be a good cute prize. What with his spinning ribbon thingy. Him in person is very annoying. He hits people with his shovel.

It would probably stop you, in some sort of of amusing or painful way. Possibly both. [Pause.] He seemed all right when I talked to him, but who knows by now.

[bustered]

He sounds... interesting. [Your world Martel, what even. Not that Zack can talk.]

It would probably get some sort of amusement from my pain. [Peering at her sideways. Well, if she's not concerned, then Zack can probably spare a little time instead of running off right away.] I'll check on him a bit later then. For now... I kinda want to win you that chocobo.

[heal_theworld]

He's a summon spirit. They generally are.

[She peers at him sideways right back.] Well, who am I to stop you from winning me one? [And then something on the table catches her eye. It can't be...] Is that...a bush baby? [And yes, it is. Martel drops the rest of her stuffed animals and hops into line.]

[bustered]

We had a few summons back home. Yeah, interesting seems about on par for them.

I'd hope you wouldn't stop me. [And a grin, because what even are they. So mature, clearly; Martel's excitement easily wears into Zack, and he's happy to join her in line.] What's a bush baby? Teeth and claws and bad temper?

[heal_theworld]

Hm? You have summon spirits? [She thought that was an Aselia only thing.]

No, they're the guardians of Torent Forest, the secret forest of the elves, where Origin, the Summon Spirit of Space and Time, King of All Things lives. [...And that was so specific, Martel.]

[bustered]

Yup. Ifrit and Bahamut and... and Odin. I can't reach them here. Or they can't reach me, I'm not sure exactly how it is.

[Okay so...] Okay, so they guard the place where the summon who's not the shovel summon lives? And he does some kind of spacey-timey thing?

[heal_theworld]

Who knows how anything works here?

...Well, they don't exactly guard it. They lead people through the forest to Origin's altar. Well, if you know to follow them. And Origin can do space-timey things, I suppose. He made the Eternal Sword.

[bustered]

The castle. But it's not exactly talking to us, is it?

So they kind of guard it, but not everyone knows to follow them? [Because what else are they going to talk about while standing in line?] Mmm. That's the sword that your brother used, right? [He remembers that part of the story.]

[heal_theworld]

It does sometimes, I think. Maybe.

No, they don't. I used to play with them when I was younger. [She pauses.] Yes, yes it was. My brother was a summoner, which meant that he could makes pacts with all the summon spirits. He asked Origin to make the blade.

[bustered]

Maybe we just have to learn how to listen?

You're not exactly old, you know. [Griiiin. Also, it's almost their turns at the game, yay!] And Origin did, obviously. But if it was a pact, what was your brother's part of it?

[heal_theworld]

Or maybe it just chooses who it talks to.

Technically, I am. [She's ready to win that bush baby.] The way pacts work is that the summoner swears an oath, and to determine if the summoner is worthy the summon spirit fights them. If the summoner wins, then the pact is made and the summoner can borrow the power of the spirit. If the pact is broken by the summoner not doing what he swore, then the summon spirit is freed from the summoner's control. [She pauses again, thinking.]

...It's quite fuzzy because I have no memories of him, but I believe he swore that he would protect the world and end the war.

[bustered]

Could be a little of both.

Physical age is just a number, you know. Look at both of us: we're in line for a carnival game. I think that says more about our age than the actual years.

[But have an avid listener, Martel! Because Zack really does enjoy her stories, and the fact that she listens to his.] It's a bit like that at home too. The fighting the summon part, I mean. I didn't have to make any sort of a pact with them, but I had to defeat them before I could call on their help.

...I guess what happened could be a loose interpretation of that pact...

[heal_theworld]

It depends on who you're talking to, with age.

Well, I'm pretty sure they're different, your summons and my summon spirits. [Oh, it's Martel's turn. She steps up and takes the heavy mallet about the size of her, swinging it up and supporting it on her shoulder like it weighs nothing, judging the distance and how hard she could hit it before it broke and keeps talking.]

People in our world revere them as gods, you know. Or at least something like it. They represent different elements, in conjunction with the different types of elemental mana. [She sizes it up, puts both hands on the mallet and swings it down, hard. The bell rings at the very top and she smiles, pulling the mallet back and picking up her bush baby. She breezes past him, smiling.] Your turn!

[...Does your masculinity feel threatened yet, Zack?]

[bustered]

Well, tell me when you're too old to be hanging out with me.

[It's a tease you know, even as he's both listening to her story and admiring the way she swings that hammer up onto a shoulder.] I'm sure they are. Still, it's weird how similar our homes seem to be, at least in little parts.

[And what even, Martel. Don't be all innocent smiling, Zack has a feeling that you knew exactly what you were doing. Still, he takes the mallet next, hefting its weight and sizing up the target himself.] Thanks.

[Hmmm... A calculated swing, and the bell rings one more time. The stuffed chocobo has a happy owner for a few minutes, an owner who asks the ghost minding the table for a little slip of paper on which to write a note. It's tucked into the plush's wing, and Zack's at Martel's side once more, holding it out to her:] To Martel, from Zack

[Nope. But he's not going to put on a dress to threaten Martel's femininity either!]

[heal_theworld]

That seems to be a common theme between any world. Did you know my last name is the name of a mythical world tree in a mythology on Earth? [And she becomes the new spirit of a world tree...which is named after her and her brother.]

Thank you for the overgrown yellow chicken, Zack. [She smiles and takes the chocobo, sitting it with her bush baby.] Well, that bush baby takes me back...

[She's way prettier than you in drag, Zack.]

[bustered]

Is it? Huh... maybe we're all more connected than this place would suggest. Or something like that...

[Hey, he said he'd win it for her and he did! And really, it had been kind of fun.] There a story in there? 'Cause I can give you a short one about a chocobo that'll probably make you laugh.

[Yeah, he knows. Sephiroth might give her a run for her money though.]

[heal_theworld]

I used to go into Torent Forest and play with the bush babies when I was little and still lived in Heimdall, the village of the elves. There weren't very many playmates for me, because elves don't have a lot of children and well...those that did wouldn't play with me. So i ran around and climbed trees and played with the bush babies. [...This is not a happy story, Zack.]

[bustered]

It's their loss. [Touching her hand just briefly, for support. It's a gesture he's become more than comfortable doing with her.] They don't know what they were missing, what kind of a friend they were missing.

[heal_theworld]

[She smiles briefly, giving his hand a little squeeze back.] It didn't matter in the end. I was exiled when I was older anyway.

[bustered]

Mmm. Half elf, right? [It's just so cruel, he thinks, though racism hadn't been unusual in his own world either.] But the bush babies didn't mind that, did they?

[heal_theworld]

Yes. Half-elves weren't welcome very many places. [They still aren't, and nothing has changed. Her brother made it worse.] Of course not. They once led my to Origin's clearing, you know. I left him flowers, because I thought he was going to strike me down and kill me for setting foot there and not being a summoner.

[bustered]

Well, you're always welcome wherever I am. [He kind of understands the feeling, at least in part. A lot of people hadn't liked SOLDIER either, but the difference is that they'd never act out in that way.]

I bet many people didn't bring him flowers, so he must've liked that. I would, if I was him.