IC CONTACT for lostcarnival

[whattaprick]

✆CHANNEL FREQUENCY: 843.77425 (personal);
DESCRIPTION: Half the time he forgets this thing even exists, or how to turn it on and off.

✉MAIL BOX LOCATION: Next to trailer steps.
DESCRIPTION: The concept of a mailbox is rather foreign to Lambert, who's not exactly what you'd call big on personal correspondence. But there's a wooden crate you can probably drop shit into ???

BUG LAMBERT TO MAKE YOU SHIT: Given time and the right ingredients (which he'll usually ask people to provide) he can make potions (with potential side effects), oils, and bombs. You can bother him more about that in person.

Comments

[atouts]

Mm. [ And he'll automatically fetch the chamomile, plunking that one down into one mug and peppermint down into another. ] The lucky few? Are there not that many witchers around?

[ What a terrible world if their choice if Lambert or death, assuming a different Wolf isn't about. Not that he'll say as much out loud, not even in jest. Too much like kicking a man while he's half rock. ]

[whattaprick]

[ Lambert shrugs. ]

Considering three in ten ever survive the trial in the first place, half of those die in their first decade out of Kaer Morhen, and nobody's made any new witchers in decades? Yeah. Not a lot of us.

[ He offers Childermass a sardonic grin, all cynical humor, like he can guess at what the magician's thinking even if he doesn't say it out loud. Or possibly just because he's tired, and being an ass and prodding Childermass for any sort of reaction is the best entertainment he has at this time of the night. ]

[atouts]

[ Only there isn't much of a reaction to prod out of him. He just shrugs and pours hot water, making tea in the most boring of fashions as humanly possible. ]

I see... [ Dull answer, yes, he knows, but what the hell else do you say to that? It's not even comparable to losing magicians, since they just got way too many back in, like, a single day. ] I have to admit that that sounds god awful, actually.

[ There we go. That's what you say to that. Yeah, let's go with awful. ]

[whattaprick]

It was shit. [ Lambert says, simply. ] But whatever. Not like I can change what happened.

[ Although one can probably directly trace his winning personality to that experience. Speaking of not being able to change the past, though... ]

Oh yeah. I guess I meant to ask you something. [ He pushes himself away from the counter towards Childermass, though it's only to pick up his mug, though he doesn't step back away again. ]

You knew about the Blue Rose and the Prince wanting the Ringmaster from the start, right? Why didn't you say anything sooner?

[ At the time, it hadn't seemed like something there was any point in getting angry over; they had two servants hiding in Childermass's shadow, worried about missing people, and all the rest. There's only that same light rancor in Lambert's voice and expression, a bitter humor at a joke he isn't sharing. ]

[atouts]

[ And it still isn't, Childermass would argue, considering how it all played out. Still, he shrugs again and picks his own mug up, stepping a little to the side of the stove so he can lean against a part of the kitchen that isn't still way too hot. ]

I did and I don't think telling you earlier would have changed much. I would have still not found a way through the castle until the Hunt, we would have still lost all the wanderers. [ Because people would have still been stupid about it, information or not. ] Everyone else would have still been poisoned at breakfast. It's a miracle in itself that Syrlya could shake himself free enough to help in the end.

[whattaprick]

Maybe. Maybe not. [ Lambert says, with a shrug. His fingers curl around the mug, his claws tapping ceramic. He doesn't know if there's any use believing in alternate possibilities ]

All I know is I told you I was counting on you to tell me if you knew anything. [ His mouth twists, that strange humorless expression again. ] You had access to every resource I had, but you seriously didn't think that was worth sharing? 'Hey, I'm looking for something that's a lot of fucking magic, let me know if you run into anything like that.'

[ His voice rises at the end of that, and he ends up exhaling and putting his mug up to his lips, struggling to rein his temper back in before he continues, cranky: ]

I'm still pissed the Ringmaster told you and not the rest of us, but did she ever say you couldn't say anything? Anything?

[ Sorry, Childermass. Come bust in on Lambert without warning and you're apparently in for an earful. ]

[atouts]

She told me to use my best judgment.

[ That's what Childermass answers with after a moment to just watch Lambert struggling with his temper. A stark opposite of the magician, who's fallen back into his usual bored indifference in the face of his anger. If he wants an argument,
he'll find it one-sided. ]

And she told me because she knew it would be hidden and that we likely had to steal it. You learned everything I knew once I had something solid. [ Or someone, more like. Even without the bicorn, they would have had the rabbit. ] And considering one of your nightrunners pulled together an awful plan with that information, could be I should have been even pickier with who got to know.

[whattaprick]

And she still got to the Prince's tower before you did. [ Lambert snaps back. It is a one-sided argument, and he knows it, but he isn't so much interested in blaming Childermass for it as he is ... something. He doesn't know. Trying to put words around a feeling that's been nagging at him, something that's at the heart of this frustration. ]

If she had more time and better resources, she could have done more. You only get to say it was awful because it didn't work. Besides, if we're talking about awful plans, aren't you going to make fun of 'turning into a dragon to distract the Prince' too? [ His hands curl tighter on the mug, resisting the urge to smash it over something, like preferably Childermass's stupid head, and his lips press together tightly for a few minutes before he turns away, eyes shutting as he brings up a hand to rub at his forehead. ]

I trusted you, dammit. [ He says, tiredly. He's too worn out to keep up yelling at Childermass. ] Guess I should start being pickier too.

[atouts]

With no way to get in save for help from below.

[ The roof was a miserable plan. Yes, Scout would have done better had she known more or what he was going to do, but so much of what he did that day were all snap judgments, decisions made in a split second. Escaping, saving who he could, putting Lambert in danger, taking the risk to trust the butler, to disappear from the ball—

He won't say as much.

Wouldn't it just come off as complaining or bragging or trying to make up excuses? Though it's the last part that actually makes him frown, breaking through the bored look. It's like a thorn, an insult, that he isn't trustworthy, that Lambert is actually blaming him for his capture (or so he has to assume, from a comment like the dragon one). ]

Ah, but you're right. [ Only he agrees with Lambert, doesn't refute, and sets his mug of tea aside, untouched. He hasn't even had a chance to try it. ] You shouldn't trust a shady bastard. Now you know better.

[ And with that, he pushes away from the spot he'd been leaning. ]

If you require further help with anything, I suggest you ask Strange.

[ Then he's gone, two steps away and into the nearest shadow. ]

[whattaprick]

[ And he leaves before Lambert can even finish the thought: I wanted you to trust me, too.

He'll spend a few more minutes there in silence, watching the shadow Childermass has disappeared into, shoulders heaving and chest aching, before he picks up his mug and heads back to the workbench. He's not going to get any sleep for a while. He might as well take advantage of it. ]