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

[cellphoneangel]

"Magicians usually pull rabbits out of hats with false bottoms or make balloon animals at children's birthday parties. You also do not have a scantily dressed female assistant to distract the crowds."

He looks left, right and then back to Strange to confirm for himself that no such 'assistant' existed. Nope. Not a one in sight. Decent humans? Well, Castiel hadn't gotten much of a chance to interact with them much.

"I can summon fire or light if we need it," he said thoughtfully, looking at Strange still but more through him than seeing him. "I hadn't considered either that the Ringmaster might have taken on the contracts of dark creatures or evil people. I could inadvertently hurt them." Not the best belated thought on Castiel's part. "I should have asked her when I had the chance. Are there many here of that sort?"

It's an old behaviour of Castiel's... ask questions and find out what he needs much like he would if he had taken possession of another meatsuit. Just without the horrible being taken over by an angel after-effects.

[kingsroads]

"Why would someone pull a rabbit out of a hat?" he asks, absolutely confused, momentarily distracted from the vampire problem. Surely there were more impressive ways to show off one's skills. Still, something like that should be fairly easy. A spell of concealment could easily hide the rabbit, or perhaps he could hide a mirror at the bottom of the hat and pull a rabbit out that way.

Strange is distracted for a moment, thinking about rabbits and hats and apparently ignoring the part about the false bottoms. Balloon animals would be easy though, he could easily cast a spell to make the balloon form an animal.

But oh, wait, Castiel's talking, time to pay more attention. "There's only a few people like that here, I believe." And he's not naming names. Carly had such a mixed relationship with her demon in the first place, he's not going to tell this boring angel about her.

"Really, the easiest thing to be would be to not summon fire around the carnival members in the first place."

[cellphoneangel]

"I don't know, but that is what they do. Nothing up their sleeve. They sometimes pull colourful scarves from their mouths or buttonholes too. It makes small children laugh."

Sorry, Strange, this is a case of the clueless leading the, uh, real magician on. He shakes his head with a small shrug showing his own lack of understanding why humans do the things they do. If a witch like Strange can't explain it, neither can he.

With how he thinks, multiple tracks of thought aren't unusual with Castiel. He's used to Dean or Sam making him focus on just one instead of jumping all over the place in a single conversation. For as long as Strange (or others) let him do it, he'll keep doing it. Sarcasm zooms over his head with a sonic boom.

"I hadn't planned on summoning fire or light without reason." But 'reason' to an angel and the average person could be two different things. "But -"

He cuts himself off there and shakes his head. It isn't something to discuss with a witch. For what isn't the first time, he misses the Winchesters. Them he could ask.

"Good luck with your tracking."

[kingsroads]

Castiel's multiple tracks of thought are a perfect fit to Strange's multiple tracks of thought. Ever since his madness, he's found it hard to think straight. He follows Castiel's scattered conversations with ease.

"We'll need to talk more about your world's magicians later," he mutters, seemingly forgetting the fact that this whole conversation started with Strange threatening Castiel. What possible use could a colorful scarf be?

At that 'but', Strange raises an eyebrow, as if expecting more story. When he realizes he isn't getting more story to begin with, he sighs and frowns. Well fine he supposes he can wait. He'll just poke around later.

"Thank you," Strange responds, with a nod. "Good luck with...well, whatever it is you'll be doing to help."

[cellphoneangel]

They do often say in Castiel's world that the mad are closer to the divine than the average person. Maybe Strange has a leg up of sorts in that area.

"I would like that." He thinks. One of the reasons he's never stayed long with the Carnival is that he's not good with humans. It took a long time for him and the Winchesters to come to an understanding. "You as well, Jonathan Strange."

He's there and then not, only a distant wingflap sound marking his departure. Can't just use a door like a normal person.