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

[whattaprick]

Lambert can't actually disagree with that. He's been here for less than two weeks and the capriciousness of their fae mistress has left him seriously wondering how the next three hundred-odd days are going to pass. Especially if he ends up looking like Sherlock, which. Ugh.

"Can't run much of a carnival if your people are missing," he pointed out instead, even if it seemed like Sherlock wasn't really looking for comment on that particular remark. "And its pretty obvious they're counting on her to come after them. Smart thing to do would be not to go."

That's all delivered with a plain matter-of-factness, the unspoken assumption underlying it being that the Ringmaster will in fact go fetch her people, one way or another. Lambert has no real moral stake in the rescue save that he hates being out maneuvered or caught helpless, and the most cathartic way to address that would be to kill some damn vampires. Rescues are almost incidental.

"But, she said she was working on something and wasn't inclined to say what. Until she lets us know what we're doing, I'm making sure we aren't caught with our asses hanging out."

[thevictoriandetective]

Sherlock gives a shrug at that, Lambert was only reaffirming the hypotheses he had swirling around in his admittedly-tired-but-still-quite-active-mind. Balance of probability spoke that indeed, there would be a rescue.

He appreciated the matter-of-factness, at least. Subconsciously a reassuring tone also helped to quell the threads of wild imagination that sometimes let his mind run away with the most ridiculous of suppositions.

"Oh?"

Well, that was news. And confirmation.

A smirk. "Is that all we have then, for an offense?" He waves a clawed hand at what Lambert's doing.

[whattaprick]

"We'll also have me, and this time I'll have a real sword and not be nursing a hangover." Lambert smirks right back, before he continues. "She said she'd look into getting silver weapons, so those will give us an edge."

A beat. "Are you volunteering? Somehow I don't think your sword skills have improved since the last time I saw you."

[thevictoriandetective]

"Silver weapons...wish we had those when this first started," he said, though he seemed he was still nursing that endless self-loathing from his bender and not being able to save those who were taken.

His brows went up, and a half shrug. He looked away.

"I want to, blast," he hissed, his forked tongue flicking out in frustration. "I should be there. I need to be."

Obviously, with the way he was talking, he couldn't. He held his side subconsciously, his injuries and withdrawal, and not eating properly for a week, and being drained of about two liters of blood would ensure he would probably die in the first five seconds of the rescue mission.

[whattaprick]

"It's a carnival, not a bunch of mercenaries," Lambert shrugs, repeating the same answer he'd given Greg. It's obvious the guy's got some hangups now that whatever he'd had at the Celebration had worn off, but there's not much Lambert can offer there. Yeah it was pretty dumb, yeah they should have known better, but it's all water under the bridge and any regrets are just pissing into it.

"You'd just be vampire fodder if you tagged along," he adds, critically, sizing him up. "Not even much of a meat shield, either."

[thevictoriandetective]

"Pity that, maybe the Ringmaster should have hired some professionals, if there was a risk of this happening," he muttered. He rolled his eyes, his opinion of her was not being helped all that much by what happened.

He gets what Lambert's pointing out and he looks at him dryly, at least as dryly as a man with a face that looked more like a snake than a man could look.

"Thanks."

Well, it was true though, on all accounts.

[whattaprick]

"Sounds mostly like she thought she could handle it," Lambert responds, which is probably the case. Incredibly powerful, dimension-hopping beings probably are arrogant enough to think they can protect all in their care, though she'd certainly had quite the oversight on this one this time ... and before, from what others have told him.

And the snake-like face lends itself to dryness very well, or at least a deadpan expression, given Lambert's not well-versed in interpreting what those features might be attempting to communicate.

"Any time. I call it like I see it." And back he goes to work, tinkering... though eventually, he volunteers a question. "So if you're not a fighter, what do you actually do here?"