HELL OF A HANGOVER PT. 1

[ringleaders]

Who: The people who escaped!
When: Very early Day 66 to Day 67
Where: The Carnival
What: The Ringmaster brings everyone she can back to the carnival after getting kicked out the Celebration, a bit worse for wear. Those that have resolved their threads at the Masquerade can start trickling over here as they sort things out.
Warnings: Angst, mostly likely, as well as potentially graphic injuries.

RETURNING HOME↴ About 45 minutes after the conflict with the vampires begins, the Ringmaster will finally show her face at the Masquerade - and immediately be mortified by what she sees. Though initially mostly confused by the fact that there's been problems over the week, and characteristically obtuse about what's going on, as soon as she realizes the severity of the threat she will launch into action. If the Host managed to miss the combat already going on, they won't be able to miss the Ringmaster tearing up the joint and looking for her people. She's quick to scoop up those that have managed to gather in the dining hall - but unfortunately her arrival seems to be the vampire's cue to retreat. Her attempt to challenge the Host about this will result in the being finally losing their patience and banishing all the vampires and all of the carnival workers from the premises, forcing them back to the portals they arrived from and launching their remaining belongings out with them. The Ringmaster will be pretty fucking pissed off when they return (once again) and will tell everyone to take the time they need to recover, but to stick together and stay safe for the time being. She has a plan to chase down the carnival members that have been stolen, but it will take time. ► BEER PONG: Apparently the Ringmaster spent the entire week playing a nonstop game of beer pong, against several dozen of the Host's bodies. She hadn't quite won yet when the Masquerade began, so she was late. Whether or not she was caught up in the same spell as everyone else is up to interpretation, but the answer "definitely probably." She won, for the record. ► MISSING: Upon doing headcounts, it will turn out that all the supervisors are missing, as well as several regular workers - a few of which will have been spotted as freshly turned vampires during the fighting. Whether that was the point of the attack or not is unclear, but it's pretty clear that the Ringmaster is a little bit devastated about it - particularly about the supervisors. However, she will refuse to talk to anyone long enough to get into too many details. ► THE PLAN: The Ringmaster will announce that she intends to get everyone back - it's just a matter of figuring out their way back to the dimension they've been stolen off to. She guarantees that she will find it, but that it may take some time. In the end, the workers will have a total of two days to recover and plan - during the evening of Day 67, she will be leading a rescue mission to get them all back. You don't have to come, but lives do depend on its success.

Comments

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Is it? Where I'm from not everyone believes in hells, and you mostly find vampires in seedy backwaters." Certainly the natives of Vampire World kept bringing up damnation.

[small_reservations]

"Where I'm from there are a lot of worlds, and some of them have underworld kinda deals. Not all, though, as far as I know." He shrugs. He's kind of dead, but he still doesn't know a thing about the afterlife.

[stillwinningthehardway]

It's strange coming here and listening to people talk about a world that way. Of course most people in the Carnival don't have hyperspace travel, so it's different for them. "Yeah. Honestly, having something sorting out dead people to send them places as punishment or reward sounds really limited and unpleasant."

[small_reservations]

Axel grins. "Well, technically, I'm sorta dead. ... Did I never tell you that?" It's very complicated, but basically, he's not human anymore and SHOULD by rights be dead. He'll explain more if she questions it.

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Nnnnnno, I don't think you ever mentioned it," she says dryly. He might or might not have said things that hinted that way, but it's been a few years since she was here.

Now that my migraines have left off...

[small_reservations]

He definitely said things that hinted about it. He likes to make jokes about his lack of heart, but... most people assume they're metaphorical.

"Yeah, when you get attacked by a heart devouring monster you usually kinda... yeah. I'm what's left." He's still smiling, hard to say how serious he is.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout pauses, not sure how she should react. Axel's always been the type to like to keep things light and mildly sarcastic.

"That's really unfortunate," she says, her voice pitched so it can be taken as gravely or humorously, either way. "We don't have a lot of things like that where I'm from - heart-eaters, sure, but their victims don't get up and talk afterwards."

A pause. "Except when they're people with multiple redundant hearts, anyway." Aliens can be weird.

[small_reservations]

"It's kinda a metaphysical heart eater. It's weird. Like how they talk about souls and stuff." He shrugs.

Her next statement makes him smile though. "That would have been helpful. No use worrying about it now, though. Not likely to get my heart back anytime soon, so I'll just keep living."