lostcarnival | ⇨ THE MASQUERADE

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

Who: Everyone! Attendance is mandatory.
When: Late Day 65
Where: The Celebration
What: The Masquerade arrives, and so does the carnival's enemies. For more info, check out the Draculas 101.
Warnings: Further party hell. Also, vampire violence, mind control, etc.

THE HOST & THE HORDE↴

The time of the Masquerade arrives. You've been given free reign of the place up till now, but a few hours before the party commences the Host will inform you that your presence will be required, and will assist you (forcibly, if need be) to sort out any last minute costuming concerns you might have if you've left it until now. When masks and outfits are sorted, you'll be left to your own devices until you are summoned on the evening of Day 65.

The Masquerade will start off normally - relative to everything else in this place, at least. Everyone in the Celebration will be called in for this event, centered in a grand hall with side rooms offered to those that need them for whatever reasons might come up. The food and drink is especially ambrosia-esque this evening, and the music will stir your soul, even if you're not usually a music person. Enjoy it if you can - the peace won't last.

► MASKS: Though the masks seemed only mundane before, once within the Masquerade atmosphere, they will magically begin obscuring people's identities beyond what a normal mask should be able to do. When a person is wearing one, it would be supernaturally difficult to figure out who they are - maybe you forget what their voice should sound like, or maybe the other details escape you. Of course, it's possible to figure out if you look for it, based on general shapes and personality traits, but unless you know someone well it could be a challenge. Of course, you can just take your mask off and remove the enchantment entirely - though the Host will hassle you if they notice you going without. Stop ruining the party!

► TEMPTATION: Though it's felt easy to be whisked away by the draw of pleasure and luxury during the rest of the week, that feeling will seem to come to a head at the actual party. If you are aware of what needs to be resisted then it's possible to fight back and ignore it, but more than ever it feels all too easy to just dance your life away. Nobody seems to be dying from it, at least, or 'burning out' any faster as a result - it's mostly just extremely distracting from other concerns. Like vampires, for instance.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE↴
It's during the latter half of the party that things will start to go bad. Though it will go unseen by the carnival, the Masquerade has gained an additional set of guests - the vampire's of the demon lord that has been chasing them for the last several months. The Host doesn't discriminate, and anyone is welcome to attend the Celebration, provided they don't start a fight.

Right. About that.

► THE KINDRED: The vampires don't like to play fair, which means that they are going to be attacking with stealth and trickery - taking advantage of the way that the party has dulled the alertness of many of the carnival's workers. They'll be using that lack of inhibition to lure individuals into places they can be attacked or turned in private - their primary goals are to capture the Supervisors and to turn as many of the Ringmaster's workers as possible before escaping back to their dimension. Some of their targets will be gone before anyone has a chance to notice.

Remembering that they will be avoiding big public confrontations, so if anyone starts one of those it will probably by the carnival members striking back. This is going to wear on the Host's patience extremely quickly.

► COLD IRON: Oh, right, and they are definitely bringing iron weapons - as pure as they could get. They'll have things like iron collars or shackles to try to trap people with, as well as iron daggers and guns with iron bullets. They'll have to be on the down low with, but they are going to exploit that weakeness as much as possible. Those that have only been in the carnival a few months will mostly just feel discomfort at the touch of it - as if they are touching something that is slightly too hot or too cold. Veterans that have been around for years will find its touch to be burningly cold - the type of temperature that would threaten to destroy flesh after prolonged contact. Those that have been here for up to three years will take it the worst. See the Transformations page for more details!

► TURNING THE TABLES: Being turned is a mixture of pleasure and pain, and is often hard for mortals to mentally reconcile as it happens to them. Being drained by these vampires is simultaneously impossibly satisfying and extremely terrifying - once they've started in on your, the way it overwhelms your mind and body can make it nearly impossible to stop them without help. Once you are dead or dying, they will feed you their blood - at which point your body will go through a painful transformation as the demon spirit takes its place inside of you and your dead body is violently resurrected.

As soon as you wake up, freshly changed, the bloodlust will set it - it will be extremely hard to control, and at first all you will think about is wanting to sate that hunger. Combined with your sire having direct control if your mind through your blood connection, new vampires will be mostly incapable of doing anything but following the whims of the rest of the vampire pack and seeking nourishment. This blood lust will begin to fade after they've fed. Killing isn't necessary to feed, but it can be hard to stop yourself, as a neonate vampire.

► CLOSING TIME: Before the party is officially over, the Host will have had enough. Before you can pursue all of the vampires or take back the people they've stolen, the lot of them will have escaped back to their dimension, and the Host will have kicked the entire carnival out for participating in so much violence. If you want to make any final moves before you go, this is the time.

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Rin, dressed similarly to Shima and wearing a head-dress like tiger mask, clings to his savior with both arms. Though, one of his hands is holding his sword, Kurikara, unsheathed. So Rin is sporting his demon look, covered in brimstone-blue flames, with longer ears and sharp claws. Wherever they run, Rin leaves a dripping trail of blood droplets that quickly combust in the same blue fire. The source of the blood is his mangled feet, broken out of their sandals with the tabi socks ripped and bloody. The toes that hang out are twisted and bloody, changed by the Carnival's magic and the thrall of the Celebration.

"I'm sorry!! I don't heal as well when I have Kurikara drawn, I don't think... and like hell I'm leaving us unprotected! Just hurry and get us to the meeting point!"

Rin keeps the vampires at a distance by firing off fireballs from his tail, tossing them like rocks from a trebuchet. But his accuracy with this method leaves something to desire, and it's not enough to make them give up.

Then, suddenly, he's on the ground, and Rin is about to yell when he senses the overwhelming presence that Shima is bringing into this plane of existence.

"Ah!! It's Yammytakky! Good! More fire!"

Now that Rin can focus, he combines his flames with Yamantaka's, swirls of blue in the black in a violent and searing conflagration. Hopefully nothing in here is too flammable.

Then, from the other side, another force -- a strong one that sweeps over the vampires like a wave. "Shima! It must be another carnival person!"

"Yammyta— That isn't his name!"

Priorities, Shima, priorities! It's impossible not to look back at Rin and snap that, though, especially since the name he came up with to mispronounce is so ridiculous! It's only a minor distraction, though, and he snaps his attention back to the vampires in front of them. That someone else is coming in swinging is a relief, but the vampires are only down, not out.

"Ah, right! I see 'em! Hang on! Yamantaka, there!" Shima hasn't had a chance to break K'rik, his staff, out just yet, so it's up to the demon to roll forward towards the downed vampires. He lunges, one massive fist from one of his larger arms coming up, then down again, to engulf one of the awful bloodsuckers with the black fire that makes up his whole body, a burst of flame exploding around the fist once it's crashed into the floor. There's one shrill shriek from vampire within, then nothing.

He moves on to a second one, leaving a still and unmoving — though not technically dead dead — body behind. Overall, that doesn't seem to worry Shima. Like, seriously not, since he takes the time to look back at Rin again.

"And if you can't heal with that thing out, put it away! The two of us can handle this!"

Whether he means himself and the mystery carnival man, aka Lambert, or himself and Yamantaka, who even knows.

The voices from beyond the demon are younger than Lambert expected, but he doesn't have a good vantage point to really see what he has to work with. Hell, he'd half-expected to see the other nightrunner, the one with the demon bound to her soul, but apparently this carnival is just shitting people with demonic power.

He can't dwell on it long because the vampires are quick to realize that when there's three on one side -- well, two and a half, with Rin down for the count -- a more expeditious way to proceed would be to wipe out the one who doesn't have backup.

The two that find their feet first bolt towards Lambert, shrieking; these aren't even armed, their overconfidence in dealing with teenagers apparently having led them to approach them with less caution, relying on numbers rather than skill to overwhelm them. Sucks to be them, because Lambert might not have silver, but he doesn't hesitate to jam his axe straight into the face of the first one that approaches and fling its body around to slam into its friend.

"Get their hearts or they'll regenerate!" he snaps, following his own advice by yanking out his knife with his off-hand and planting it in the chest of the nearest vampire.

He makes no comment about how he's supposed to pronounce Yamantaka's name. You really expect him to be able to say something so complicated?! Why did Buddhist demons have such hard names?!

Rin doesn't like it, but if he can't walk to get away, he's just going to put his friends in more danger. (And yes Lambert, you are now a friend). He groans reluctantly, but gives in. He sheathes Kurikara and most of the blue flames ebb away. Rin does not notice, but his black claws stay firmly in place on his fingertips, and as the flames recede they leave... weird blue markings behind on his skin. Neither of these things are as painful as his twisted feet and therefore escape his notice. Even with his sword sheathed, he's not helpless, and he surrounds the three of them in a ring of blue flames. It may not do much damage, but it may still act as a deterrent to any new vampires joining the fray.

"Their hearts...? Crap! Shima, do you have your staff?! Yamantakky, do these things even have souls to toast? Crap.... I knew there was something weird about this stupid place!"

Meanwhile, back in the crowd, yet more vampires (and partygoers, for that matter) go flying. There's something else coming, and it seems to be very big. A huge black shape leaps over Shima, his familiar, and Lambert, and lands next to Rin. It's none other than Kuro, the twin-tailed cat demon, in his giant form. He seems unsteady on his feet and he smells a bit of alcohol, but adrenaline is a hell of a drug. In telepathy that only Rin and Yamantaka (and hey, maybe the vampires' Beasts as well) can hear, he cries out.

Rin!! We have to get out of here! I'll protect you!

"Kuro! You gotta get their hearts, ok? Rip 'em out! But don't swallow any of that blood!"

"Yes!

"Yamantakky isn't his name, either!

Shima clearly isn't letting this go, as futile as it is. Oh well. He drops into a crouch where he stands, breaking the sign he'd been making with his hands to shove one under his coat. The answer to Rin's question about his staff is there, where he's kept the various pieces of K'rik hidden away in their usual holster. As odd as it is to have a holster for a khakkhara, of all things, it is absolutely useful when that same khakkhara happens to come apart. Now that they have a respite from being directly attacked, he can take a few seconds to put it back together.

"And I don't know? They gotta have somethin', if they're staying down after he rolls them," he makes an educated guess rather than pestering his demon in the midst of a fight. "Oh, right... Hey! Dude! Over there! Don't touch the black fire, all right?!"

Like, he doesn't need Lambert KO'ing himself! Although now that Kuro is crashing onto the scene, it'd be simple enough to drape, like, five unconscious people over him or something.

And speaking of Yamantaka, Lambert's about to have a close call when the demon lunges straight over him in a flicker of flame, but none of it's aimed for the witcher. It's another vampire, having tried to sneak up from the shadows, that gets smacked away like a surprised fly.

The blue flames mostly ebb away when the sword is sheathed -- although Lambert won't yet realize that's the cause -- but its practical effect is to make it easier to see what he's dealing with and take stock of the situation. Rings of flame remains, like a Yrden ward stamped on the ground, and apparently both that and the black flame that makes his skin crawl when he looks at it are both more effective than his own magic.

When a dark shape bounds over him, he tenses, fully expecting a monster attack -- who the hell knows what these vampires have on their side? But no, it heads straight for the boy with the tail and with the current mobility issues, so it's apparently on their side.

In a blur of black flame, the first demon -- the one whose ruckus had caught his attention in the first place -- roars towards him, and he instinctively ducks and rolls away, even if it's not meant for him. It's only when he straightens that he realizes what the attack was for.

Are these really kids...?

He shakes it off when he catches sight of a handful of vampires material approaching with raised guns, ready to fire. Apparently, all subtlety's gone out the window, so they're aiming for the easiest target -- the one on the ground.

"WHATEVER SHIMA!!! Can't we talk about this later?!" PRIORITIES!

Now that Rin has a moment to actually sit... he starts peeling away the bloody remains of his socks and sandals, which were just getting in the way of healing. It seems his toes have fused together, forming three larger ones. The skin has taken on a blue hue, and his ankles are way higher up than they were before, and his foot in general was so much longer. He even had weird little pads on the bottom! "How the heck am I supposed to walk?! Am I supposed to hop like a kangaroo?! ARGH!"

Regardless... Lambert seems to have found himself allied with some weird, but strong kids. Better than dead weight, right?

Oh, shit. Those vampires have guns. And they are definitely aimed right at Rin. But Kuro has taken notice as well, and he plows into the group of gun-toting vampires from the side, tossing them into the air with powerful swipes of his huge paws. The remaining vampires take aim at the giant cat and fire.

"If I started calling you Rambo or Oakagami or somethin' you sure wouldn't want to talk about it later!"

He can argue and fight! He's proven this! The absolutely crucial ability to carry a conversation while in the middle of a fight is probably on the exorcist exam! But actually, scratch all of that. Just as Shima snaps the last part of K'rik into place, he looks back and can't help but freeze for a few seconds and stare.

"...what... the... What the hell?! Is that some kind of weird demon thing?!" Yes, let's blame it on demons. Makes sense. Though it was true that now really, really isn't the time to talk about all of this. Shima shakes his head and turns back to watch Lambert and the demons and the vampires. "Ugh, damn it, fine, fine, talk about it later."

What a mess, but what else can he do? Staff back in one piece, Shima surges back to his feet and gives it a whirl, the rings at the top of it chiming wildly when he stops it so he's holding it sideways, straight across and in front of him.

"Time to stop making us such an obvious target. Yamantaka! Into the staff! Daiitoku fun'nu youketsu!"

Shima doesn't necessarily need to call the massive demon back for any of his little hellfire tricks, but he does have a point. Yamantaka is like a giant arrow pointing to where they are. On command, the demon does shrink back, physical form falling apart into smaller and smaller flames. Those end up gathering around the end of the staff, suddenly reforming as something sharp and viciously pointed: a black-flame spearhead.

That's when Shima will leap into the fray himself, ducking under a swing of a younger vampire who had tried rushing up in Yamantaka's retreating wake and putting the spear point through their back as he gets around them. The vampire gives a startled jerk and, like the ones the demon made of black flame had dealt with previously, crumples to the ground, but Shima's already moving on, straight into the vampires wasting their time taking potshots at Kuro.

Putting the demon back into the staff is a neat trick, and despite his misgivings Lambert can certainly appreciate that it's on his side, or appears to be. Seeing the vampires crumple at a touch is more than enough reason to heed the warning to stay well away from its edge, but ...

He crouches and swings his arm wide, the same blast of force from before to knock the vampires off their feet as they aim at the monster and the pink-haired kid now preparing to leap into them. The shots go wild and hit the walls of the corridor, shattering a vase and pockmarking a wall, but he won't check to see if his ally's taken advantage of the opportunity to stab more vampires or not, but glance over at the other one on the floor and call out over the fray.

"You! That beast of yours -- can you ride it?"

For despite the demon slipping into the staff, Shima's right -- they've drawn too much attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the Host's servants wavering at the fringes, observing, but what they're thinking is anyone's guess.

"I think it would be COOL if you called me Rambo, HE'S AWESOME AND BADASS!! And it's not just some demon thing I don't think! WHATEVER!!"

Well, in the end, if you don't have time for pointless banter during a life-threatening battle, then what kind of ~~anime character~~ true warrior are you?

The bullets are wild and the few that do manage to hit the moving target that is Kuro seem to bounce off. Some of them manage to nick his fur and skin, but they seem largely ineffective. Kuro corners one of the vampires and crushes his chest with his huge paws. If he didn't have any way to pierce their hearts, well... he'd just make the vampires' own ribs do it for him.

Rin, meanwhile, couldn't be more frustrated with this situation. He's not used to being protected, dammit! He's the strong one! Ah, but their ally... he has a good point!

"Huh...? Oh! Yeah! Kuro can carry me to the meeting point! KURO! C'mere!!"

The giant cat takes a moment to slam a vampire into another of its kind in a weird game of bloodsucker billiards before running back to Rin. He grabs Rin by the back of his shirt and tosses him up onto his back. Rin holds on for dear life to his familiar's fur.

"He can carry all three of us if we need to!!"

Another neonate or two go down with Shima weaving in and out of their grasps and swings, even in spite of how much quicker they are. They'd gotten lucky before when he was weighed down by Rin, but now that he's free to move on his own and armed?

Man, he just hopes none of them decide to shoot at him! Not that is sounds like they'll get a chance to!

"Does that mean we're making our grand exit already?" Shima calls back to the other two once Lambert asks about Kuro and Rin confirms. "'cause, I don't know about you two, but drowning in bloodsuckers? Not how I want to go out!"

The vampires certainly make the attempt to shoot, but four bodies -- even if one of them is now hanging onto another -- is a bit hard to keep track of, especially when they're attacking so chaotically, building off each other's actions more on instinct than with actual planning.

After kicking another vampire down, Lambert wrenches its epee from its hand and slides it through its heart. With a sharp pull, he frees the blade from its chest, and nods sharply at the other two.

"No point in sticking around this party!" And so he'll run towards the boy and his familiar, blade still extended to cut down vampires in his way, though he doesn't stop to check if they stay down. "Get to the dining hall!"

"Yep, I think it's time to get out of here!" Even Rin could tell when they're hideously outnumbered, and he's not in top fighting shape anyway. "Kuro, come on!"

The cat yowls loudly and runs towards Lambert and Shima. Shima is closer, and Rin reaches down and yanks him up onto Kuro's back. Lambert is next, and a few stubborn neonates try and stop the pickup. Kuro swipes one aside and Rin hits another in the head using his sheathed sword with enough force to crack the vampire's skull. Kuro snatches up Lambert and tosses him on his back as well.

"Hold on tight! Kuro! Go!!"

With a snarl, the cat switches from attacking to fleeing, jumping deftly over the heads of the vampires, using their shoulders as springboards. More bullets whizz by like metal insects, and a few of them embed themselves in Rin's back and Kuro's flank. But they have to just keep running.

"That's where we were tryin' for in the first p— whoa!" Shima was about to say trying to get there wasn't actually as simple as it seemed, but he's abruptly interrupted by being yanked up onto a giant demon cat. From there, he'll have to scramble to get ahold of something (either Kuro's fur or Rin himself), a little startled.

He really should have expected this, but...!

"A little more warning next time, huh?! Don't just grab!"

Of all the things Lambert was expecting tonight, getting grabbed by a giant cat like a kitten and thrown onto its back? Not one of them. He'll yell in protest, but there isn't really much he can do about it except grimly hang on.

Instead, as they're charging away and bullets whizz around them, he'll move one hand out of Kuro's fur and concentrate on calling up a shield instead. It's a translucent orange bubble that wraps around the cat as he runs, catching most of the next salvo of bullets.

"Go left and up the stairs!" he'll snap next. Of course, with this place's shifting geography, the dining hall could be anywhere... but first they'll need to lose their tail.

Hanging on for dear life seems to be the plan from here on out! That and keeping the hellfire spear blade that Yamantaka has made out and away from, say, Kuro, for example. He really doesn't want to fry their ride, okay?

"Yeah, go that way! What he said!" Shima's just going to trust him on that because he has no clue anymore. This place was too weird to try and navigate normally but in a rush?! Though he does toss a glance back the witcher's way. "Uh, you are sure of that, right?"

Rin holds on tight to Kuro's collar. Shima will probably have more luck holding on to Rin than to Kuro. Lambert is getting one of Kuro's two tails wrapped around his waist to make sure he's all strapped in.

"You can chew us out for it later. For now, let's just get out of here!"

Thank God for that shield, because now that Kuro is focused on running away, he's not focused on dodging at all. But it helps that he's fast, really fast, and nimble enough to weave his way through the throngs. He dashes to the left, spotting the stairs Lambert mentioned. He springs up onto them and continues running full-tilt.

"Wait... don't we need to just find a door? If we all want to go to the dining hall, any door should take us there, right?!"

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

IT'LL BE FINE!!

EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE, THIS IS FINE

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