lostcarnival | ⇨ WYLD HUNT

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⇨ WYLD HUNT

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 100
Where: Shabondamashii
What: The Wyld Hunt unexpectedly crashes the Shabon's dimension, leaving chaos in its wake. Those that have been with the carnival for a while might recognize it as the personal army of a fae called the Huntsman - also known as one of the Ringmaster's age old rivals, whom she dethroned thousands of years ago. The last we heard of him, he was pursuing the carnival, and it turns out he found them faster than anyone thought.
Warnings: Violence, theoretical cannibalism.

THE AUTUMN MOON↴

There isn't any warning. You might not even notice what's happening at first, with the approach of the threat happening as spontaneously as a zombie uprising. You're minding your own business, enjoying Shabon, when a random alien charges you on foot with sudden and aggressive intent. Whether or not you can throw them off or defeat them, you'll soon find they weren't alone. An entire army is descending upon the city now, and the carnival is the target.

► THEY ARE LEGION: The Wyld Hunt comes in all shapes and sizes, with beasts and men from all kinds of different universes having been caught up in its sway. Those that have been in the Hunt for a long while have more or less completely lost themselves - they now function only as part of a pack, hunting whatever the Huntsman wishes and consuming what their prey leaves behind upon death. Some members of the Hunt are newer and more unsure, but they are all a part of a psychic hive mind that compels them to move as a unit. Everyone in the Wyld Hunt instinctively know what the Huntsman wants them to do, even if they never speak to him.

Their skills, powers, and physicalities are all over the board, but there are a notably large quantity of Wyld Fae among them, often being used as mounts by more powerful humanoids within the Hunt. When NPCing members of the Hunt for threading purposes there is a lot of flexibility to what you face, including entities and beasts from your own worlds - provided they are creatures capable of functioning independently.

► HUNT OR BE HUNTED: When set upon by the Hunt, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Unfortunately, in that situation, the only way to beat them is to join them. Beginning to hunt alongside the others will immediately pacify them against you. As soon as you start to follow, the thrum of the Huntsman's will will start to take over - the more you hunt, the harder it is to turn away from it. If you do stop, or successfully oppose the compulsion, they will be quick to set upon you again. Like the others, you will feel the craving to consume any individuals the Hunt has felled - you must resist this, because once you have eaten the prey of the Hunt, you'll be trapped within it indefinitely.

► WORN OUT WELCOME: The people of Shabon are used to crisis, but this is a bit beyond what even they are prepared to tolerate. The Hunt will be causing collateral, both of the human and the material sort. While the workers in Shabon have very well practiced escape procedures in the event of something like this, the other guests are not as fortunate. Plenty of them are capable of fighting back on their own, but they will not always be capable of avoiding the hordes. The longer this goes on, the worse it will get. Eventually, the Shabon workers will realize who the Hunt is after and start actively trying to turn carnival members over to them in order to make it stop.

► IN TWO PARTS: Tragically, this turn of events and the realization that she's managed to put everyone in danger once again will be what finally causes the Ringmaster to split in two. One side will immediately become disinterested in using violence to counter this problem, while the other will be desperate and reckless. This will also completely screw her ability to get anyone back to the carnival in time. There will be at least one Megathread dealing with her actions during this.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a conflict the carnival is meant to survive, not win. The main point of this is to get the plot rolling in a new direction, so don't worry about figuring out how to defeat the Huntsman, because in this moment it basically won't be possible. Have fun threading out the crisis, and see where it leads. I wanted to be up front about that, as opposed to letting everyone grasp at straws to prevent a result that will be inevitable, even if the details will shift.

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Ignatius gives his word, and Rita hesitates, letting those words sink in. Can she believe him...?

There's no time. She'll have to go with her gut.

"All right, we're doing this!" she calls to the others. As more pursuers move to close in on them, she hurls a burst of fire at them, forcing them to duck and scatter. In the next instant, she turns her attention to Peridot and Shima. "What do we need to do to get that Heart?"

Shima falls back behind the attacks of his fellow carnies, conserving his strength and only sparing enough energy to dodge attacks and put their more active fighters back between himself and any of the hunters.

"--Like Peridot-san said, there's nothing we can do ta give it over ta him right now, it's gonna take deliberation, ya know? The most important thing we're gonna need is the testimony of you 'n maybe Yuya-kun, anybody who witnessed and gets what kinda changes Ignatius-san gone through. After that it's up in the air, unfortunately!"

An idea occurs to him--"Give us a Rita bead 'n we'll see what we can do!" He and Peridot are going to have to split off from the group.

Edited 2018-09-20 06:05 (UTC)

"They're not all beads, you know!" Rita protests, but her concerns over the naming of her ability are cut short when an arrow slices through the smoke left by her last attack, whizzing just by her head.

Right. Not the time for that.

"Ugh! Fine... Use this!" Rita holds a hand up to her ear and focuses for a few seconds, transferring information about this exchange with Ignatius into her earring. She then removes the accessory and throws it over to Shima. The earring itself appears to be a handmade Shabondamashii souvenir, made to resemble a dangling cherry blossom. "Now hurry and do what you have to do!"

Shima catches the earring, taking a moment to review the contents for the info he cares about--not the deal that Ignatius offered to Rita that she's ultimately willing to take, which he has mixed feelings about, but the reasoning behind it. It's those details that will most inform whether or not it's even safe to return the Heart, no matter what Ignatius' is promising. So he finds those moments: Dark Ignatius' appeal to Rita because she has the most reason to distrust him, his admittance that he wants her to live, the argument he has with himself when Light Ignatius shows up to try to kill him--that they ALL deserve a chance to live...

--Good, it should have everything he needs.

"Thanks Rita-chan ♥ I'll be sure ta keep this safe for ya!" He pockets the earring. "Don't lose your radios! And try not ta lose Iggy-san either, please if ya could."

Then he nods to Peridot, "Ya said ya've got some friends ta find, right? I'm with you."

Edited 2018-09-20 11:11 (UTC)

"We just got him back!" Strange chimes in. His strategy seems to be 'set everything on fire', as his flamethrower spell shifts to target a different group of people. Strange is also way too happy for someone who's given at least two people third degree burns but hey, Ignatius is himself again and not trying to murder himself, that's good.

"I'm not going to let anything like that happen again. Stay safe out there!"

A different person fires an arrow in Strange's direction. Unlike Rita, he only barely dodges it, as the arrow scrapes his shoulder and Strange starts to bleed. This doesn't take him out, though, as he shifts his target to the asshole who shot him.

Yuya glances over his shoulder as he urges Reira along. He's not good at visually navigating a battle scene, but nobody's shrieking in pain whose voice he can recognize, so...

"I'm going to come as soon as I can, but the safest place for you is the carnival." Or so he thinks, if anyone could get to it. Unfortunately, he gave up the radio before he had any chance of hearing that discussed on the public channel. "Listen, there's a mirror... when you walk out of it, go left. You'll be close enough to the portal you can see it. You need to get in there, okay?"

It's a short enough run, he's actually less worried for her going off on her own after that than her staying in the middle of the city while the hunters ravage it. Reira can't fight these people, she's so small.

The reptilian beast returns through the torn up screen, giving Ignatius very little time to collect himself. It bowls him to the ground, trying to utilize its long talons and fangs to tear him apart. Ignatius is tough - as tough as could be expected among the ranks of the carnival - but his loss of power is becoming increasingly obvious.

He doesn't have the raw power needed to put this thing down, and he doesn't have a weapon. It leaves him helpessly grappling with it on the ground as the carves out chunks with its claws. It's not nearly deep enough to kill a True Fae, but Ignatius can't seem to put an end to the struggle either.

If he can't deal with this thing, right now...

"Move!" Ignatius yells. "We can't hold this position.!" The longer this goes on, the more of the Hunt will come.

Normally Reira would agree with Yuuya. The safest place definitely needs to be the Carnival. Except no one trying to help her out before even mentioned going there, and right now if anything, people are preparing to split up and do other things.

Yuuya might be able to defend, and who knows maybe he DID pick up more, but the fact is in her mind, he is still that '.5' of a fighter. Everyone is going to be splitting off somehow here, especially with what Ignatius said- so Reira only latches tighter, cheeks puffed in the pout that's replaced her habit of chewing her lip.

Her shield, thank god, is enough to at least deflect those stray arrows coming their way. ...She supposes she could bite someone worst case, but given Ignatius' words again, that probably isn't a good idea. So.

"Not without you..! He just said we all have to go, so you come too!" The radio crackles, as if to accent the anger-

It only crackles though. Hopefully she didn't break anything while getting tossed around by Joker.

Peridot is about to take Shima up on his suggestion, but that raptor pinning down Ignatius gives her pause.

That that thing is probably not going to love being bowled over by a dragon the size of a Volkswagen Jetta, but that's what's happening now. She charges in and slams into it with her horns, sending it flying.

"Everyone SCATTER!" She yells, adding to Ignatius's command.

He spoke to soon, apparently. Yuya stumbles a little from Reira's weight as Ignatius' order surges more urgency in him.

"Yes, we're all leaving! So I need you to listen, Reira--" She's making it difficult to move. He looks up at the mirror just feet ahead, shoulders tense before he grabs Reira back to roughing haul her along as he speeds up. He can apologize for that later, right now...

As soon as he gets beside the mirror he shakes an arm free, pressing his hand to the surface and focusing on opening the pathway for Reira. It's going to have to be one at a time, but if they can be quick enough.

"Go. Just touch the mirror." He looks back to the others. "I can take people through the mirror!"

It's gotta be better than just running straight and hoping they lose them, right? This is a hunt.

While the others shout, Rita's busy chanting a spell. Dark magic gathers around her, arranging itself in a magic circle at her feet. That lizard freak's even stronger than she thought... With that realization, she decides to target it with her spell.

"Bloody Howling!"

Wherever Peridot's charge leaves the raptor-like creature, the ground beneath it glows with a dark light, then erupts with black flames. There's no heat to them, however, as they're of a spiritual nature, but the pain they inflict should be no different from that of being caught in an inferno. Fortunately for Ignatius and Peridot, Rita's formulated the spell so that it has no effect on them should they be caught in its path. To them, the dark fire is as harmless as a mere illusion.

"I'm sticking with these idiots," she calls to the others, already preparing another spell as she speaks. By these idiots, she seems to mean Strange and Ignatius. "The rest of you, get moving already!"

To nobody's surprise, Strange isn't leaving Ignatius unless he absolutely has to. While Rita, Ignatius, and Peridot grapple with the raptor lizard thing, Strange changes tactics and focuses on the rest of the hunting party. Bending to the ground, he places his hands on the floor and mutters a spell. Pillars of earth spike up from the ground seemingly at random, breaking through building floors in some cases. It might not be super effective as a barrier wall, but it's at least inconveniencing the hell out of the rest of the hunting party and making them swap tactics.

Unfortunately, one of them's pretty good with his arrows and Strange can't do shields. He's too busy focusing on casting the spell and just generally fucking up the terrain to notice someone drawing back his bow until it's too late. An arrow shoots through the air and pierces Strange in the upper arm.

That really hurts and Strange can't help but let out a yelp of pain. He's still focusing on the spell, though, sending pillars of earth up in random directions as a half-assed barrier and a not at all assed distraction.

Well. This is great.

Ignatius is staying (probably not by choice, she will admit). Peridot is either staying, or leaving some other way she's pretty sure, since that sounded like the plan. Rita, is staying. Strange is staying.

The girl shakes, still clinging to Yuuya rather tightly and maybe painfully as he tries to shove her at a mirror, her shield still standing between him and the occasional bit of battle coming their way.

Finally with a clenched jaw she hisses- "...If you don't come right after me," she warns- knowing quite well that there's a bigger chance of him staying behind pointlessly instead, "...Even after I call," Reira adds darkly, radio crackling at her side and yet unused 'horn' dangling with it, "...I... ...I won't forgive you!"

She doesn't even let Yuuya push her in at that point. She turns and hops through herself, dispelling the shield while making a sound that seems quite close to a choke, a snarl, and a sniff in one go.

The magician's yelp of pain catches Peridot's attention, and she turns her long dragon neck around to see what the damage is. These idiots... why do they feel the need to stay and fight these guys!? Why can't they just listen and run? Ignatius is basically directing them to do it!

This right here. This is why, sometimes? She hates having friends. Friends complicate things, muddy up what should be an easy call with complicated emotions. She should be able to just leave and go do what she needs to do for the good of the whole carnival, because logically, that's what should take precedent. But no! She had to go and make friends and then be worried about them when they get hurt!

Everyone's in danger.

Peridot snarls in frustration. She knows she needs to go, but that doesn't mean she's okay with it.

"If you clods get yourselves killed I will literally never forgive you!" she snaps at them. "Shima!"

The dragon bounds over and lowers her neck so Shima can grab on. Assuming he does, she'll leap them both up onto the nearest roof and clear of the crowds so they can abscond.

Peridot knocks the lizard off of him, which seems fortunate as Rita sets it ablaze not long after. Ignatius is quick to recover, slipping into a crouch and then springing away from it as it writhes, in pain but not really taking significant damage. Yikes.

He hates this, because he knows this fight probably wouldn't be a problem if he was himself - but he's not. The tinges of resentment from his Light side are back, but tempered with a sense of grim acknowledgment that this situation couldn't be avoided at this point.

The very least he can do, he decides, is use some fire - as stunted as it may be. He unleashes a few molten bolts to contrast Rita's dark ones. In the meantime, Strange seems to have taken an arrow.

Ignatius hisses, backing towards Strange's position as the pillars of stone shoot up all over the place. He grabs Strange around the side, using his strength to haul him with trivial effort as he moves towards the mirror everybody seems to be talking about.

"Go through the mirror, wizard," he snaps impatiently. "You're too frail for this."

Yuya's relieved as Reira pulls herself through the mirror, but he doesn't get the chance to reassure her from over his shoulder as his gaze is drawn to Strange as he screams. Even if he can't tell everything going on, that was pain wasn't it?

"Mr. Strange!" His voice pitches up with worry and as Reira's weight leaves him, and he turns to run back to them to offer a shield--thankfully, he doesn't get far before Igantius is guiding them back. Or forcibly hauling Strange as the case may be.

He's still for a second before he reels back and starts preparing the spell for the next person. "Hurry!"

Shima is perfectly happy to get out of dodge and appreciates that Peridot takes the initiative after the possibility of getting wounded becomes much more present. It takes him a second to figure where even to hang on to--probably he just ends up bumping across her shoulders as she takes flight, clinging to her mane and trying to figure out where to put his feet.

He'll take a last glance as they hit the roofs to make sure the others aren't wasting their time by getting killed before he fumbles for his radio to see if he can get in contact with any of the other Egg-bearers.

Don't mind Strange, just doing a bit of internal bleeding here and in a lot more pain than he's actually showing. Strange is about to protest that no, he isn't too frail, but then remembers that he's got a whole bunch of fucking mirrors under his skin now so alright, he might be that frail. As such, it's easy as hell for Ignatius to move him over towards the mirror.

"Yes sir," he says through gritted teeth. There's some part of Strange's brain in all of this that recognizes he's in a battlefield, Ignatius is the commander, and so he'll obey his commander. He poofs into smoke (leaving behind one arrow and a few mirror shards that fall to the ground from where his body was), floats out of Ignatius's grasp, and reforms a few steps away from the mirror.

Thanks to the pain and the chaos, he doesn't realize that Yuya's casting a spell. He reaches his hand out, casts his own spell, and vanishes into the mirror. Unfortunately, the mixture of his magic and Yuya's magic means that Strange ends up in a completely different destination than where Reira is. At least he'll find Syrlya to eventually keep his fragile self alive.

With Ignatius dragging Strange to the mirror, Rita's forced to back up towards the others to ensure she doesn't end up surrounded. Unfortunately, her yukata turns out to be somewhat restrictive, and as one of the attackers breaks into a run, charging with a spear in hand, she stumbles backwards and trips, falling to the floor.

Twisting around, she manages to hold out a palm and conjure a blast of fire. It hits the attacker and bursts, knocking him away and leaving him on fire. The proximity leaves Rita's clothes singed, but she scrambles back to her feet and hurries to join Ignatius and Yuya at the mirror.

"...We'd better follow them," she says as soon as she catches her breath.

Yuya's whole posture tenses when Rita trips, going through a similar cycle of panic until she's back to scrambling their way.

As soon as she's within a few feet, Yuya sucks in a sharp breath and projects his shield, domed around the three of them.

"Okay--" He starts, voice strained. "They're going to a mirror close to the carnival's portal. Rita, I'm going to open it for you now. And then Ignatius, and then I'll go."

It's a little hard to focus between the chaos and keeping his shield up, but Yuya presses his hand to the glass to open the doorway for Rita, aiming for the same mirror Reira passed through. "Okay, go!"

Rita hesitates for just a moment, looking up at Ignatius... but there's no time to waste, and with Yuya's urging, she steps through the mirror and vanishes. She can deal with her clothing once she's on the other side.

Yuya watches her go, until something crashes against his shield (the raptor? Probably) and he flinches, pouring more focus into maintaining it agaisnt the pressure.

He stalls for a second, then puts his hand back on the mirror to open the doorway for Ignatius next. He glances up at him, a little strained by pushing the magic so far.

"Okay, your turn. I'll be right behind you."

Well, Strange and Rita are gone, so he may as well go, too. As wary as he is of walking through any mirror based portals after everything they saw in Eden... well, there aren't a lot of options.

He gives Yuya a little not of acknowledgment and steps through the portal without much more hesitation. As much as he hated the idea of reforming, he's feeling a lot more rational right now. Just goes to show, huh?

Ignatius disappears through the mirror, mostly thinking about how he needs a better weapon.

That's all of them, mostly. Yuya's shoulders sink a little in relief as Igantius disappears next.

And then there's a harder force slammed against his shield, and it starts to crumble. Yuya's attention snaps over to catch the hunters attempting to force their way to him. He doesn't have time to spare, so with a sharp breath he throws himself to the mirror to dive into it.

Unfortunately, in his panicked rush, he focuses on the wrong reflection and ends up... well, not where anyone else is. Another part of Shabon, with no time to get his bearings and catch up before the hunt descends on him again.

They know where to go, so he's just going to have to believe that they'll make it.

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⇨ WYLD HUNT

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