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

WHOOPS sorry for the wait.

[detonarrator]

[All of that earns him a +1 in Sophie's book. Swords aren't really her wheelhouse, concealable weapons are more useful for an assassin of her ilk, but she definitely appreciates the implication that he just keeps himself armed at all times. Might not be totally true given the circumstances, but whatever.

The scar too indicates someone used to combat, and likely from a world without Bullshit Magical Healing. (Which to Sophie is a very different category from 'normal magical healing'.) She's got her own scars, only two are visible at the moment, but their placement and severity tell a pretty alarming story, and the red/brown fae marks that outline them make them easy to spot. One, not quite covered by her bangs is an irregular but thick and sort of circular scar right where your metaphysical third eye is supposed to go. She caught a bullet with her forehead once. The other is a long, deep slice along the left side of her neck. It blatantly goes across her jugular, and extends just a bit onto the end of her jaw bone. There's a sort of artistic swooped curve to the fae mark there that extends a little further onto her cheek.

She looks over the ones she's got. Sure some of the spear/pike sized ones were a little impractical, but the carnival occasionally had Extra Big employees, she just wanted to cover her bases.

She grabs a completed knife sized one, and points it at him. Not a threat, an offer.]

Small then. You can find a belt or a pocket or something to keep it out of the way until you need it. But you WILL need it probably, whenever we go get back our own.

[Yes they are. Granted, they're of the shorter/slimmer variety from one of the smallest food tents, but yup. That is where they're from. Sophie's nothing if not resourceful.]

NOT A PROBLEM

[whattaprick]

[ Most Magical Bullshit Healing Lambert has is mostly due to Magical Bullshit Changes to his physiology, and his feelings on the matter aren't too different from Sophie's -- or so he'd be able to commiserate, if he could read minds. For better or worse, he does not, but he does take his time looking her over now that they're apparently engaged in actual conversation. Those are some nasty scars, and of the kind that look like they've got a story to tell too, but that's not something to prod at right now.

When she points the stake at him while he's ruminating, he blinks, instinctively tensing up, before he recognizes the offer for what it is. After a moment's pause, he shrugs and reaches out to take it. ]

Thanks? [ As it happens, he does have a belt pouch with some space on it a stake could go, though he'll have to be careful not to accidentally jam into his own thigh. ]

Take it that means you're coming on the rescue mission.

Re: NOT A PROBLEM

[detonarrator]

[Oh, that's good. Confirmation that there actually was going to be an organized effort. Honestly, backup or no, Sophie would've barreled head first into the vampire home world at the first given opportunity.]

Yeah, 'course. I lost a lot of friends to the first attack, and didn't even know it. Now they've taken just about everybody else I care about around here, so I've got two times the reason to want to crack some vampire skull.

Actually more like three times, I hate vampires in general, so this is really salt on the wound.

[She'd gone back to whittling down annother end rather aggressively while she talked, and unsurprisingly the tip winds up breaking and she grumbles. She re-adjusts her grip and starts again further up, putting a little less oomf in each slice this time.]

[whattaprick]

[ Jumping between worlds might have been a bit of a logistical effort there. Luckily, it seems, the Ringmaster's taking care of that part. ]

Doubt you'd find a lot of vampire-lovers around here anyway. [ Not after that last stunt. But she says 'first attack,' which is much more immediately interesting. ]

You were around the first time they showed up, too? [ This has got to be the third person he's met since all this shit went down. Coincidence? Not damn likely. ]

[detonarrator]

Nah. [The end on this one is pretty sharp. She tests it with a finger and grunts in approval before setting it aside.] My first contract ended long before then, and for a while I went back home.

[She does a quick count of how many of each type she has. Mmmm, time for another medium. She starts on the next tent pole. She stands up, steps deliberately where she wants the pole to break, then grabs the end and pulls it back. As tent poles they're designed to handle quite a bit of stress, but her foot creates a fulcrum that even the bendier ones can't handle.]

So a bunch of the people I knew from then, like the real staff, ones who didn't plan on leaving, they were all just gone when I came back a few months ago.