lostcarnival | ⇨ END OF EVENT LOG

Who: Everyone participating in the Prince's challenge.
When: Day 178, Afternoon
Where: A Conjured Forest
What: The Carnival takes to the Hunt again, but this time, with the intention to win.
Warnings: Violence and death.

SACRIFICES↴
THE GANG DOES A (LOT OF) MURDER

In a bid to definitively settle a victor and reclaim the captured carnival workers, the Ringmaster has challenged the Prince to another hunt. If the Prince wins this challenge, he can claim the Blue Rose the Carnival stole; if the Carnival wins, the Ringmaster will be allowed to claim one True Name in the Prince's possession.

With the Manor reshaped as it is, there's no longer a courtyard to transform into a suitable hunting ground. Instead, the Prince's magic has turned one of the floating islands between the fortress and the Carnival into an overgrown forest.

Being a fae contest, of course, each side's idea of victory is not as straightforward as it would appear, but for those participating in the hunt, there is only one objective that matters: to kill their prey in the time they're given.

The captives who have been transformed into beasts will have little of their human sentience remaining, and will be set loose to wander the forest freely. Instinct will compel them to conceal themselves or attack hunters, depending on their individual disposition. Upon death, the beasts will remain in their bestial forms.

IN HOT PURSUIT↴
To win this challenge, the hunters must bring all of the beasts down with weapons or innate strength within the time limit: an hour and one minute.

No magic may be used to take any of the beasts down -- any use of supernatural or magical abilities to trap, track, or kill the creatures will result in a forfeit to the Prince, and this will be made explicitly clear to the hunters before the contest begins. Hunters are allowed to bring their own weapons and mounts, provided they are non-magical in nature (or their magical abilities are not being actively used). If they do not have their own, ordinary ones of any variety will be provided to them.

To expedite the proceedings, rather than dragging the bodies back individually, each hunter will receive a token from the Prince: an enameled blue rose. To formally claim a kill, they must place the rose on the dead beast (ideally, in their mouth, though as long as it's touching it it will do) and activate the spell by reciting the following words:

"I claim this life for thy Master's game."
"A life surrendered to claim my prize."

Using the rose in this way will cause its petals to instantly wilt and magically bring the dead beast, and any hunters touching it, back to the Prince. So, don't touch it if you want to stay in the forest for more hunting.

A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE↴
The Prince and the Ringmaster will be waiting for the results of the hunt in a roughly-constructed marble amphitheatre on another floating bit of rock. Those whose stomachs are too weak to take up even just the appearance of hunting can stay at the Carnival or hang out in the amphitheater, with the caveat that any attempt to attack the Prince or use magic to aid the captured prey will instantly default the win to the Prince.

Should they want something to do other than twiddle their thumbs, the non-fighting carnival workers can peer into the hand mirrors left on the seats, smaller versions of what the Prince is watching the hunt through. They will be unable to control what images are brought up in the mirror, and it essentially only shows whatever the Prince is looking at himself. There's no sound, but the images are in full color (all the better to see blood with).

This is also the area that the hunters and prey will be brought to when the spell is activated (or when every creature has been hunted). So, expect for a pile of corpses to end up there.

[ OOC: This log wraps up the end of the Heartstone Manor plot! It is up to hunters and prey to create their own toplevels and sort out who will be delivering the finishing blow (feel free to use the OOC post about this event to coordinate that), but OOCly, it's set that the Carnival will win the Prince's challenge. The hunt's conclusion will be posted as a separate comment for characters to respond to.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fire! Yuya's attempt to attack is disrupted before it starts, and as she dives toward Yuya he drops his arrow and scrambles to the side.

He's going to have to try shooting while he moves, and he fumbles with the positioning of the bow as he tries to keep sidestepping the phoenix. He just--just has to not think about who this is. He has no proof, it could be anyone, it's just a phoenix.

(But Rita, she was proud of the fire she could wield.)

He notches a new arrow and fires it quickly, blindly, only hoping for it to land.

After passing by Yuya in a blaze, burning anything her wings so much as brush along the way, the phoenix returns to her physical form; it seems she can't stay in that fiery state for long.

But before she can turn around and make another swoop at him, the phoenix is struck with a piercing pain as Yuya's arrow embeds itself in her back. Flinching in the air, she lets out a shrill cry... then drops down to the ground feet-first, twisting around to face the boy.

It hurts. He did it. She'll kill him. Make him stop. Eat him.

Extending her neck as she lashes out, the phoenix viciously snaps her beak at him.

He watches her crash to the ground, reaching behind him for another arrow. But the fire dissipates and she's on the ground, snapping at him a few feet away, and... in pain.

He tips forward when a wave of nausea overcomes him. He shot it, whoever this is. He should end it now, but he hesitates, swallowing back bile in his throat as he fumbles for the next arrow. He's moving far too slow to end things.

Yuya's hesitation is her opportunity. The phoenix stomps closer, pecking at him. If she draws blood, perfect. Failing that, she'll grab his clothes with her beak and thrash her head about to throw the boy, hoping to injure him that way.

Yuya snaps back to awareness as the phoenix closes him, his bow lowering as he jerks back. This close, he can see how big she is, and he's about to throw himself sideways when she snaps the back of his shirt in her beak and pulls.

He grabs out, trying to grip feathers around her neck tightly as she jerks him. He doesn't have any strategy for survival except not to let her overpower him.

Beak still clenched over Yuya's shirt, the phoenix shakes her head, but there's a pinching, stinging feeling in her neck, where he's grabbed her feathers. It's irritating. She needs to make him go away.

So with the next shake of her head, she lets go, sending Yuya flying towards a tree. The action causes him to rip some of the feathers right out of her neck, however, and she screeches with pain and continues to thrash about, even after ridding herself of the boy.

Feathers, as it turns out, are a horrible grip considering how much easier they are to remove from the body. He overestimates his hold, and when they tear free he's throwing aside before he can find his bearings.

His back hits the tree with a hard thud and he topples over to the ground with a ragged, pained gasp. He feels around blindly for his bow, slowly pushing himself up on one arm against the pain as he blinks rapidly through his daze.

He... he can't win this alone. He's no hunter, and certainly not equipped to kill a huge flaming bird by himself. He needs to get away. Find help.

Seemingly getting over the pain, the phoenix turns her head to once again focus on Yuya. He's on the ground. Hurt. Maybe more than she is.

Good. Now she can eat. He's technically still alive, but that hardly matters if she's standing and he's on the ground. With a beat of her wings, she hops and glides over to him. Then, she brings her beak down hard in a peck, nipping at his clothes or any exposed flesh, hoping to tear away anything standing between her and the taste of blood and meat.

He hears her before he sees her, his fingers gripping the bow tightly before he pushes up--

And then her beak stabs down and Yuya feels sharp pain in his shoulder. And then again, and again, and his weight gives in as he falls back forward with a scream, trying to duck the next strike. In just his usual clothes with his arms exposed he has nothing to protect himself, but it's all behind him he can't even register what she's doing except--except she might be trying to kill him.

He squirms against the ground, yanking an arrow from the quiver with his undamaged arm. He thrusts it blindly, trying to spear the phoenix with it every time it tries to dig into his flesh again.

She tastes blood.

At last. Food. The sensation of something edible on her tongue is so maddeningly delightful that she can hardly think of anything else. So what if her prey is still squirming around? He can't do anything.

But when she leans down for another bite, she meets instead with a piercing pain as Yuya's arrow impales her cheek. Startled, the phoenix snaps her head up and backs away, shrieking in pain. She thrashes her head about, but that only jostles the embedded arrow and worsens the pain.

It's off of him.

Yuya's mind is left swimming, dizzy with relief and then urgency. He has to get away, he has to get away.

He pushes himself up with energy he didn't have before, his heart pounding as the instinct to survive takes hold of every muscle in his body. The pain doesn't matter, the fear doesn't matter, nothing matters but to live. So he bolts, sudden, hard as he runs between the trees as fast as he can. When he crashes into one he only rebounds, quickly, and keeps running.

In the shadows of the trees there's a large bush growing between two of them, and Yuya almost dives for it. He scrambles underneath, his bow smacking the ground as he hunches over, retching.

It's a place to hide, in case she follows, in case she's flying overhead looking for him. His heart is pounding in his head and he hopes she won't find him here.

While Yuya hides, he'll hear the phoenix screech and stomp around in rage. She searches for him, but fails to locate his hiding place.

After a few minutes, she gives up. The next things Yuya will hear are the crackling of flames and the beating of wings, loud at first, but rapidly growing distant as she takes off and flies away.

⇨ END OF EVENT LOG

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