lostcarnival | HELL OF A HANGOVER PT. 1

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HELL OF A HANGOVER PT. 1

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.

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He stays that way, staring back flatly at Sherlock.

"I agree, no, he does not. Had I not needed a vessel here on Earth, he would have lived out his days with his wife and child in mundane happiness instead of leaving behind a corpse and an orphan."

Grasping human problems is a problem Castiel has had in the past and continues to struggle with along with free will.

"You and Jonathan Strange. Both of you threaten me and have no understanding of what I am. Jimmy accepted me willingly. It was his choice. Twice. Don't, Sherlock Holmes. He's stronger than you think he is."

Sherlock, if anything, is practical. He's the kind of person that has no problem from going to point A to point B the fastest, most ruthless way possible. Doing what was necessary, he understood that. But after the 'experiments' with his sister...now that he had emotional context, he was finding it difficult to ignore the human side of things. The collateral damage. His friends had been collateral damage.

Ah. Strange had met him. At least he was in good company.

It wasn't fair. Jimmy probably did it the second time if there wasn't any other choice. He couldn't quite remember if that was part of the story he heard, but it sounded like something he would do.

"And he's done with you, strong or not," Sherlock snapped. Fine, maybe what happened was unavoidable, as horrible as the consequences were. He elected not to think about that at the moment. Now he knew why Jimmy wanted to make that deal. A deal he himself wanted to make to save his own dear friends. "You've already taken so much from him. Spare him this amount of peace."

That flat gaze of an inhuman creature lingers on Sherlock's face before Castiel links and looks away. His full focus is an ugly thing, and Cas knows it. Even the mortals who have been around him for years don't like it

"You don't know what you're asking, Sherlock Holmes, but... I agree."

Jimmy isn't the only living Novak should he need another vessel. Chances of that were slim to none, but as Sherlock had once been, Castiel was a practical creature. Jimmy might feel different if Sherlock ever brought this discussion up to him, but that isn't for Cas to warn him of.

"Jimmy's lucky to have people like you and Jonathan Strange. I'm glad he does." With that, the angel rises to his feet, looking down at the snake-ish Sherlock. The half-full popcorn bag is offered to him. "Should be easy enough on your stomach if you want it?"

Sherlock's unnerved by that look.

It's so not Jimmy it bugs him on a visceral level. It just feels so wrong, the intensity too much.

When he finally looks away, the detective breathes a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding.

There's a wry sort of sad smirk when Castiel says that Jimmy was lucky to have him and Strange around. "You do, really? For someone who just drives Jimmy around, I didn't think you'd care about something like that."

He's quite hungry, and reaches out with a clawed, webbed hand to take it. Practical as ever, despite his feelings on Castiel, he wasn't going to say no to the snack.

On the good side, the popcorn is still weirdly warm as if Castiel got it from the pot a few minutes ago. How it has stayed like that might be best not to ask.

A slow blink answers Sherlock at first, a small frown there and gone. Were he one to show emotion clearly, Castiel would be obviously confused. Instead, he looks more like an uninterested child presented with a Rubix Cube for the first time.

"Jimmy is my true vessel. I have lived within him with his soul for years. I watched him before that, spoke to him before I asked him to accept me in."

Some find it creepy in a way how angels learn about their vessels before asking to be allowed to take over their bodies. It gives them the right buttons to push, levers to pull although Castiel had tried to avoid that as much as his non-existent morals allowed.

"Before the - well, before I understood humanity a little better, I would have said he was only a human and should have felt himself special to be used for a higher cause. He helped prevent the Apocalypse. Saved every human on Earth. I don't know if it was worth it to him."

Sherlock does note the warmth of the popcorn, but he's used to the minor oddities of the Carnival by now, so he just shrugs and tosses a few in his mouth as he regards the other, his own keen eyes studying him.

They were reptilian and cold, but they were just as icy as they would have been were they still human. He was good at keeping his fiery emotions behind them, years of practice trying to deny said feelings. Now, however, he was more willing to display them, to feel them...he knew the value of emotion far more than he used to.

"Yeah, I'm sure that was fun for Jimmy," he muttered under his breath. Someone talking to you for years. No wonder he thought he was crazy.

Sherlock frowned, his facial expressions feeling foreign and odd on such a snake-like face. "Well, his family was his whole world. What does that tell you?" He was starting to understand the way Castiel viewed things. It was unnervingly familiar.

"You remind me of my brother," he grumbled.

Edited 2017-03-05 10:12 (UTC)

He'd be right in the matter of the popcorn. At least the bag keeps the food within warm for a little while. Out of Castiel's hands, it will start to cool in about fifteen minutes.

Sherlock's eyes don't cause Castiel much distress or change his opinion of the human. It's actually easier for him. Sherlock doesn't put off a hundred tiny cues that he should pick up on that denote anger or sadness or disagreement. He doesn't have to try to guess what Sherlock means.

"I don't know. I didn't have much time to talk to him with the oncoming Apocalypse. After my first death, he stopped answering me."

Angels also don't get sarcasm much. Sorry. Dean had been trying to work on that with Castiel, but even he couldn't succeed where Meg failed.

"It tells me that he may be very upset with you later, Sherlock Holmes. His bloodline can hold my Grace, and he has a daughter. You asked that I stay away from him. I can do that. Should the vessel I'm in become too damaged to continue, I can return to Claire. I told you Jimmy was my vessel twice. The second time he agreed to allow me back in so I would leave his daughter."

His head tilts a little, about the most he can or does show to indicate further confusion. Soon enough, Sherlock might be able to read an angel with the best of them.

"Why would I remind you of your brother? Is he one of us?"

Edited 2017-03-05 10:37 (UTC)

...right. Sherlock pauses in his scarfing on the popcorn to sort of just...blank out at the sheer absurdity of that statement. He shook his head, but it seemed depressing in hindsight. Jimmy stopped answering him...

He narrowed his eyes at what was said next. He knew how fiercely Jimmy had tried to protect his family, and--

"No, that's not what I meant at--you need to leave them all alone. Surely there's someone else you can puppet. Someone who doesn't have family!" Blast, he didn't meant to direct him back towards Jimmy's daughter.

The detective was starting to pick up on the subtle clues. It was difficult, but it was also his job to be able to read people. Or in the Carnival's case, whatever creatures he happened to come across.

"No..." there's a snort. "Definitely not. But he's...got a similar attitude. He's the British government, basically. The kind of person that would do anything to get from Point A to Point B for the greater good. Sacrificing whatever's necessary, even if it's not good...for an ordinary man." Ever since the whole thing with his sister...Sherlock's been struggling with his feelings about being gaslighted his whole life. He was resentful, of course, but Mycroft had...really just been doing his best. Doing what he could do. And that 'best' had terrible collateral damage.

Edited 2017-03-05 11:14 (UTC)

Castiel hadn't realised that Jimmy might be dead and gone to Heaven with the death of his human body. He didn't understand that with said body being brought back that Jimmy might still be there. He didn't know and didn't care when it came down to the wire. Cas had been fighting a war and one human hadn't meant a whole lot.

"But you said to leave him be, and I agreed to that. Your terms have been met. You didn't mention her or anyone else of the Novak line."

For Castiel, it was all logic. Sherlock might be one of the few who could pick up on or understand that. His expression rarely changed but his way of thinking remained the same. Knowing how Mycroft Holmes might react gave Sherlock a bonus in a strange way.

"Humans rarely know what is for the greater good, theirs or for the universe to keep on. They only think they do."

Sherlock didn't want to say he forgot, because he did, he had been so focused on saving Jimmy that he didn't realize that he should have.

"Well, add her to the terms then. I'm mentioning her now."

After what had happened with 'Redbeard', he'd done his best to suppress his emotions, thinking they would ruin his rational thinking and logic. It was only in recent years that he started accepting that part of him. And, this was also thanks to Mycroft's doing. So he gets it, he gets that cold reasoning, it's not unlike how he would react a few years ago. Now he has emotional context though, now he has friends.

"I'm sure," that was true on a daily basis, people couldn't even handle crossing the street properly. "But all we have to go on is what we know. And do our best."

That was...oddly sentimental, for someone like him. But seeing how broken Mycroft was after the experiment with Eurus, realizing that as awful as the consequences had been, he'd been doing it with the best of intentions...so he certainly knew what it was like when someone tried their best and still failed. He was living proof of that.

"I can't and won't agree to that. I did try to warn you that he might be upset with you later. I'm sorry. I agreed to the terms you had already laid out."

The feeling he gets from this discussion isn't a comfortable one. Demons made deals, not angels except for Balthazar. It didn't sit well with the tiny moral part of him that he'd known the stakes in this and Sherlock hadn't. That said, nothing would shake him loose from the Novak line if he needed a new vessel.

"You did do your best, and I've given you my word that I won't take Jimmy if my current vessel becomes too damaged or I'm forced out. The Jimmy you know is safe from being my vessel again."

The first emotion he's really shown in Sherlock's presence is regret, bitter but there. He couldn't let Claire go no matter what if he were denied Jimmy, especially with what might be coming.

"I'm sorry. You should sleep. Everyone in here smells sick in some way."

That's...probably not good.

Sherlock frowns, realizing that his staunch refusal to even learn about how magic worked around here was starting to become a serious liability. He would have to remedy that, before he made more mistakes.

"But his daughter!"

He felt cold in the pit of his stomach, and that wasn't from his cold-bloodedness. Did he just do something bad?

Jimmy and Sherlock will have lots to talk about. Look at it that way.

In response to Sherlock's upset, Castiel remains expressionless except for that regret. Yet he continues on despite or because of that.

"Yes. His daughter. You made your deal with me and gained my agreement. That's more than what most humans gain from us."

On this, Castiel looks to be unmoving.

"In time, she might have children. That would expand the line. He might not be as attached to his grandchildren."

That makes it better, right?

Well.

Sherlock's face, as snake-like as it was, looks stricken and astounded.

Ironically, he may have made such a cold statement a few years ago himself. But that was then, he was...he had more emotional context, now. Thanks to John, and...well, all that he'd learned recently.

"Yeah. Sure. That makes everything better now, doesn't it?" he felt like he was channeling John Watson here, and his trademark sarcasm.

"If you would like to break our agreement, we can. You might want to talk to Jimmy first. It seems to matter to you what he thinks."

Despite his cold words, there is an air of regret to Castiel on the whole matter. It's easy to believe he sacrificed Jimmy for a greater good, and he did. The destruction of humanity and the return to Paradise had been for the best. He'd lost too much to believe otherwise. But he'd never had to face Jimmy's friends or those who cared for him, only what he'd seen in the short time he'd been given permission to be in Jimmy's daughter.

That had been painful, as much as this is on an angel's sketchy morals and ethics.

"I gave you what you wanted. But, I also need to mention that I am already in Jimmy. The body that I'm wearing is that of Jimmy Novak. I have no reason to hurt or use the Jimmy you know. I don't need a second vessel, and I can repair most any damage my current vessel takes," he says with a sigh. "Jimmy has won the peace he has here. I see no reason to interrupt it."

Sherlock paused for an inordinately long time, trying to figure that one out. Two Jimmys...was the one who was currently trapped just as disturbed and anxious as the Jimmy he knew? That didn't seem fair. But cold logic dictated that well, one free Jimmy was better than none.

The detective rubbed his forehead. This was starting to feel like one of those ridiculous, bad science-fiction shows on the Telly that John would try and force him to watch. Luckily Sherlock pointed all the discrepancies and inconsistencies out so well that John would kick him out of the area just to shut him up so he could enjoy them.

"Well..." Sherlock finally said. He'd have to get Jimmy's opinion on this, even though part of him was hoping he wouldn't have to, in case he had made some terrible mistake. He put the popcorn on the nearby side table and sank down in his covers.

"We'll see."

And with that, he fell silent, either as a hint for Castiel to leave so he could think, or he needed to sort through his Mind Palace and figure this all out.

Castiel lets Sherlock have his time. An angel has nothing but time. He's watched humanity for two thousand years while not having contact with a single one. Distress is something of their trait. Nothing is ever easy for them. Maybe that's why they're so enduring. Trials and tribulations only bring out their inventive side that no angel could possess.

"Sherlock Holmes..." he begins and then stops himself, looking troubled by something. The dark blue eyes that look him over reflect that same regret that Castiel had when addressing the subject of Jimmy. "You humans. So enduring."

To say he could smell Sherlock's sickness might be disturbing. Upsetting. But he can. A single whiff of a person's area and Castiel can say what is wrong with them down to a molecular level. If he were to be honest, Sherlock smells of sour chemical, spoiled and gone rotten in a meatsuit.

"Be careful. Poison isn't your friend."

The sound of flapping wings filled the room for a second as Castiel vanished. At least Sherlock had his peace.

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HELL OF A HANGOVER PT. 1

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