My night proper begins in the Opulence tent, and I make small chat with a few of the Elites, but there’s one in particular I want to talk to. I make my way over to Lazarus and introduce myself, we talk for a bit, and he lets me know that he wants to talk to me later, once I leave the tent. When it comes time for toasts, I ask if he’ll share his milk with me, and he’s glad to do so, which seems to establish some kind of bond between us. We chat a bit more during my time in the tent, and he doesn’t seem to have the same vibe as the other Elites. He participates in what’s going on in the tent, but is also kind of apart from it all, as if he’s more dedicated to a larger mission.
After the tent was the trail, and then out into the carnival. I head towards Hesta and start chatting with her, and she’s kind of the best? We shoot the shit, she tells me she broke the cotton candy machine because she used too many ingredients, but won’t say what the other ingredients were. Any time I talk to her, she introduces me to other Redcurves as “my friend from the internet!” Absolutely delightful.
I run into Charlie Redcurve. He tells me Irish magic helps the Redcurves, he says his horse was a Selkie, and that the phrase knock on wood is an Irish one. He has me knock on a tree with my left hand (“the right hand is the hand of doom”), and when I don’t see any spirits he makes me hug the tree and sing it a song.
INTERLUDE: CHAT WITH LAZARUS
I had two short conversations with Lazarus, but I’ll lump them both together.
I know what he wants to talk about, and he knows what I want to talk about. I immediately inquire about bringing opulens back, and he responds that “Sometimes things happen for a reason and a time.” Maybe not what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear because it immediately casts my conversations with opulens in a new light. They might be over now, but his words help me appreciate them more.
He does mention that there are other vessels, but won’t say who they are. He also mentions that something happened a year ago, but that that story is for another time. (Spoilers: I never find out what happened a year ago.)
NIGHT ONE CONTINUED
I run into Buck who showed me his bookmark and read from a filthy Anne Rice book. Hesta wanders by and says it's good he didn't make me his pet, and cracks a joke about "nether lips."
Then I went to find Dorothea, who greeted me by once again mangling my last name. A few handlers near him picked up on variations of it, and I protested. But Dorothea said he only gives nicknames to people he really likes. We chat a bit, and I ask about Charlie's Irish magic bit, Dorothea dismisses it. He offers to tell me his story about why the area is called the Crooked Rose Woods. We went into the forest and he told the tale. It was genuinely moving and helps explain who he is and why he’s such a mixture of love and anger, tenderness and rage. Somewhere in there, he notes that the Redcurves are doing all of this to get the money they need for the land that the Elites had purchased. The Elites are getting energy and emotion out of the deal.
Before we part ways, Dorothea told me to come find him the next night so we could perform a ritual for the Earth Mother. He said to bring something about my past, something I regret, and something I feel guilty about, so we could let go of it. Over the next day, I spent a lot of time thinking about those things because I had every intention of returning to him.
Stephanie is standing near Hesta’s stand, so I go over to chat with her and mention that she looks familiar. She references one thing in a meta way and I say that’s not even where I know her from. She responds that that makes sense as well. I leave the conversation confused.
I hung around the carnival the rest of the night with Blondie, Campbell, and Pia, and despite the cold, there was so much warmth from the Redcurves as they stopped to chat with us. A few of them would like me a lot less the next night though.
NIGHT ONE TL;DR
- opulens is gone and not coming back, he was here for a reason and a time
- There are other vessels
- Something happened to Lazarus a year ago but he’s very cagey about it
- Redcurves are working with the Elites to get the money for their land
- Hesta broke the cotton candy machine because she used too many ingredients
