lostcarnival | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Chiaki jolts out of her state of half-sleep at the noise, her ears swiveling to catch who it is. For a moment her heart leaps as she thinks it's-- but it isn't.

She curls tighter around the plushie she's holding, a big dog with a smile dumbly plastered on its face.

The voice belongs to a friend, at least. Somebody who wasn't taken.

"Y-yeah?" Her voice cracks from lack of use.

Even though he knew from the headcount that she was there, Mitsuki still sighs with relief to hear a voice answer from inside. He knows, too, that her trailermate isn't; that's part of why he's here.

"Can I come in? Or do you need anything?"

The second question seems almost laughable. She briefly considers saying that she's fine, that Mitsuki doesn't need to worry about her, but then she looks back down at the plushie and has to swallow the anxiety building in her throat again.

"...You can come in." She struggles to prop herself up against the pile of soft toys on the lower bunk -- she's a mess, and hasn't really cleaned up since returning home except for throwing on some pajamas. She turns her solid black eyes towards the door and rubs them, trying not to look like she's been crying on and off all morning.

Mitsuki only showered as a means of waking up; his hair's still damp and totally unstyled, he threw on the first thing he could lay hands on that didn't look like too much effort to wear. He waits for a reply, telling himself he'll respect her answer either way while hoping she'll at least let him check on her. He's relieved again when she says yes, opening the door slowly and only as far as he has to in order to get inside. He knows Chiaki's too young to drink on Earth but that place wasn't Earth and really, he's happier if it's darker so it's not entirely altruistic.

Once he's in he looks around a little before determining she's in her bunk, then he carefully makes his way over, hovering a short distance away. "Hey... sorry for the intrusion. I just wanted to see if you were all right." He remembers how frantic and powerless he felt when Tamaki got taken, after all. Nobody should have to deal with that alone if they don't want to.

"It's okay." She rubs her eyes again. The trailer is dark and the blinds are drawn. She tries to think of how she can even answer that question, and the emptiness of the bed just hits her. She curls reflexively around the plushie while staying upright as much as possible.

"Um... is Tamaki-chan still here?..." She doesn't know what she'll do if she finds out more of her friends are gone, but if he's gone again-- that'll have hit Mitsuki even harder, won't it?

Mitsuki sees how she clings to the toy and that's all the answer he needs. She's not OK, not really, and he can't blame her. He's also not sure how to help her, so he tackles the easier thing first.

"Mmhmm, yeah. He's still sleeping, I think he did more fighting than I did and he's still not totally over what happened in the Matrix. But..."

He gets a bit closer and drops until he's kneeling near her bed in a way that still lets him see her, his feet tucked neatly underneath him. Tamaki might be a good way to talk about this. "Back then, we got everybody back, and we will this time too. Tamaki's proof of that."

There's a visible release of tension in her body when she hears both the idols are okay -- just a little tension, anyway. But she shudders and glances down at Mitsuki before looking away.

"You didn't... see him." Visions of sharp teeth tearing through flesh and blood flash through her mind again and she shudders. "It was horrible..."

It's good to see that he helped even just a little, but he knows it won't last so when she's unable to keep looking at him, it's no surprise. Until Yuugi's back, there won't be a proper kind of comfort.

"No, but I saw Tamaki. He was... he was wrong, when he first came back, but he's gotten better." He's trying to sound optimistic but getting turned into a vampire seems different than what Tamaki went through, and not in a good way.

"I'm really glad you're safe, though. Would you want to talk about what happened?"

He's glad she's safe. The words echo hollowly in her mind, and she thinks dully about all of the people who've been worried about her in their expense in the past few hours -- Psii, Yuugi, everyone. She can't even do her job anymore, of protecting the people close to her, no matter how hard she tries. She's just poison.

"It doesn't matter." She leans back against the pillows, sighing heavily. "It doesn't matter... the Ringmaster wants us, right? To fulfill our contracts... I don't think she'd just let someone go without finishing... Maybe she'll fix it..."

She attempts a smile for Mitsuki, and it's hollow. "Sorry for worrying you, Mitsuki-chan... everything will be okay, right? I shouldn't worry."

The tendrils of despair tug at Chiaki's heart and soul, and maybe right now, for her, that's what's best.

HELL OF A HANGOVER PT. 1

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