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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Yuya's gaze blurs with tears when he realizes he's been left alone with the Fae again. Not out of abandonment--or at least, that's not the feeling that fills him woth the most pain. It's the sense that this really is the end, that he's going to die right here because of his own weakness. So stupid.

He's not ready. He's scared, but his muscles won't respond. There's nothing he can do but hope he won't feel it.

Once Sans has left, the unicorn remains poised over him in her bestial form, tail still lashing. Once it's clear the skeleton isn't returning, however, her posture relaxes (only marginally) and she turns back to her captive, form shimmering back into the beautiful, poisonous girl from before. She sniffs the air when she catches the scent of salt, looking at Yuya curiously.

She's never really understood tears.

Lithe-limbed, she steps over to Yuya. Tufted ears hidden in the wavy mass of her hair before prick up now, listening for... something. She shivers, something rippling over her skin, then as easily as a child lifting a toy, she bends to hoist Yuya over her shoulder and runs along Shabon's streets.

She's moderated her touch this time, so it doesn't burn -- but where she contacts with bare skin, her touch leaves welts on flesh. If he weren't paralyzed, Yuya could probably feel the sensation of needles being driven under his skin. It's only when she's skipped a few blocks away that she darts into another alley and sets him down on the ground.

He's not sure he wants to know where she's taking him. Everything blurs as he runs, surprisingly fast, and he's at her mercy. At least, numb as he is, he can't feel the damage being done--but even then, she's being more careful than he expects.

He keeps trying to move, to flex his fingers, not nothing really responds. Even breathing is harder, but at least he can breath and he struggles to speak through his chest and throat.

"What..." It comes out hisses through his teeth, his jaw not moving like he'd want it to. He doesn't even know what he wants to say, just that he doesn't want to be so stiff.

Dispassionately, back to crouching on the ground with her arms hugging her legs, the Fae watches him struggle to breathe, and speak. Now that she's secured him somewhere she feels relatively sure they won't be bothered -- not by the other members of the Hunt, not by anymore skeletons -- she seems more docile. The Huntsman's will thrums at the back of her mind like a song of death and blood, to rend and tear, but with her quarry secure, she can afford to be more complacent, even curious.

Then she seems to realize the problem he's having, and she cocks her head, considering.

"Don't be noisy," she warns Yuya, sternly. Never mind that he can't technically be noisy right now -- she doesn't seem to consider it an issue.

And then she leans forward to kiss him. It's chaste, for a moment, and then tiny fangs promptly sink into his lower lip, drawing blood to fill his mouth with the taste of iron. But the relief is instant: the muscles of Yuya's jaw and chest stop convulsing, and he can breathe again.

Unfortunately, he still can't move. She leans back with a satisfied expression on her face, and watches him expectantly.

It catches Yuya by surprise, and at first he fails to respond to the kiss not just because his body is locked tight, because he wasn't anticipating it at all--and then there's a bite, like it's a little deeper and as his muscles relax his eyes widen and a sound of pain and alarm strangles in his throat.

When she pulls away he spits weakly, trying to get the awful taste out of his mouth. He sucks in a sharp breath and tests his limbs, finding them just as unresponsive. Talking, though, that's a little easier, although she did just tell him not to be noisy...

"S--stop looking at me like that." His words don't come out sounding as powerful as he means them to. They drip with uncertainty and barely concealed fear.

Now she's just going to keep staring at him, delicately licking the blood away from her lips before she responds.

"Don't have to listen to you." Although he does get his wish... after a fashion. At this point, she's going to take a moment to prod him all over. Deft fingers slip into his pockets and turn them inside out for any objects, lifting cloth and looking underneath, plucking away anything loose that she can find.

Given he's wearing a yukata, there's no pockets and not much in the way of hiding things except in his sleeves, the only really loose fabric. Needless to stay, Yuuya doesn't appreciate that.

"H-hey!" His eyes widen as he flusters, hair standing on the back of his neck. "Stop that!"

She also won't find much to loot, unfortunately. He has Odd-Eyes tucked tightly beneath his obi. But tied to the belt is his little satchel, with the remaining allowance from the Ringmaster and some wrapped candies.

Unsurprisingly, the fae completely ignores him, upending the contents of the satchel on the ground to paw through. The currency gets a disinterested look and is discarded-- though not before her touch leaves a noticeable tarnish on the metal.

The candies, though, are another matter. Sniffing them curiously, she takes a tentative lick... and after a small, surprised noise of pleasure, she pops them all into her mouth and starts chomping away. It's an unpleasant, gritty sound, not that that seems to bother her much at all.

She largely seems to be content sitting on her haunches while she does that, scanning the sky.

If she fills herself up on candy, does that mean she won't eat him?

Somehow, the silence of being ignored makes it all worse. He watches her as well as he can, warily, and as the moment seems to stretch on forever he starts to become more agitated. What does he have to look forward to, like this?

"Please let me go." He breaks the silence first after what feels like forever, his voice coming out weaker.

The fae turns to him, as though she'd forgotten he could speak at all, and laughs. It's not an unkind sound, the genuine amusement of someone who's just been told a very funny joke.

"I can't let you go, silly. I hunted you. You're mine, now."

"I don't want to!" Is the only pitiful refute he has to that, emotion rising back in his voice. There's a rush of panic at the implication of that, making him all the more desperate for escape. He remembers what Moss said.

"Please, don't! Just let me go!" What else can he do but beg and hope for mercy? He's powerless.

"Please..."

Now what did she say about not being noisy?

"Shhh," she says, pressing a finger to Yuya's lips. There's a faint tingle, but there's no numbing poison with it ... yet. It's a clear warning, in any case.

"Other hunters are hungry too," she explains, patiently, as though she's speaking to a particularly slow child. "We have to wait for Feathers."

There's a pit that sinks in his stomach, the prickly warning enough to silence him for now. He blinks rapidly, and a rush of tears start falling from his eyes. He doesn't want to die. Not like this.

"I... I won't taste good," he mumbles with a wavering, pathetic tone.

The fae pauses her lips, looking him over. She doesn't care about his taste, but there is one thing bugging her.

"You're small," she says, decisively, prodding and poking at him now that she's pulled her hand away from his mouth. "Little beast, little beast, why so far from home? Are you all small like you where you come from?"

Yuya doesn't really want to converse with the person planning to eat him, here (with Feathers). But he can't run, and maybe appealing to sympathy is his only chance at survival. Or just seeming unappetizing.

"To save someone." He takes a shaky breath, to force the words out. It's the fear that's stiffing him, and it's hard to push through. "I signed a contract to save someone. I have to finish it."

No comments about his size, though. He's still growing!

The fae titters again, genuinely amused. "But how can you save someone? You can't even save yourself!"

Though thinking about it now, she ponders, hand to her chin.

"Was it here to save you? That little beast from before?"

He really can't, and that cuts through Yuya like a knife. He was tricked and overpowered, and now he's going to die.

As he starts to panic about that reality again, it takes him a minute to comprehend what the fae is saying next. His eyes widen as his gaze floats just enough to stare at her.

"He--he'll probably come back with more! If you let me go, they won't hurt you!"

These are extremely bold words that Yuya can't actually stand behind, but his defenses are limited as it is.

Pain is such a different concept for a fae, but the only word that really registers in all that Yuya says is--

More.

The fae's eyes come alight with giddy delight. She'd done well enough capturing one of these for herself, she thinks, such scurrying rats they are, but Feathers will be prouder of her if she comes back with more, won't he? Reaching out, she pushes cloth aside so she can rest her hand over his throat. This time her touch carries with it a slight, numbing tingle.

"Let them come," she says, recklessly. "Call them if you want." The prickling turns to a hot, burning sensation quickly, but with where she's holding out of sight, there's no telling how much of that is whatever he's done fooling his senses or his skin actually beginning to sear.

Edited 2018-10-09 08:44 (UTC)

Yuya sucks in a sharp breath as her hand touches his throat, eyes wide in horror. He chokes on a scream of pain, trying desperately to fight with his limbs to move again. He doesn't want to die here.

"Not like that," she chides him. Yuya's limbs, unfortunately, are as unresponsive as ever, the paralytic she shot him up with to keep him fresh preventing his brain's desperate signals from reaching his muscles.

"Do it like I did. Ask for help."

"Help--" Yuya breathes in a ragged gasp as his voice is stripped from him, and his body acts beyond his will. There's an even stronger surge of panic within him--what's she doing? Is she controlling him? Is she going to brainwash him, like Nightshade? The Prince?

He tries to fight his flat cry, but he can't seem to say anything of his own accord anymore. The sense of his body is slipping away, but the paralytic keeps him down.

It's enough for the fae to work with. Once the word spills off his lips, her fingers tighten and squeeze around his throat, a choking sensation that locks the muscle memory of that cry in place. Yuya will find that he keeps babbling, out of his control now, a steady litany of helphelphelphelp.

Too suspicious. Her fingers drag away from his throat and go to the nape of his neck instead, feeling out the line of his spine. There's a sharp and terrible sensation of being punctured at the base of his skull -- it quickly goes numb, but it's high enough that whatever is numbing the pain in the rest of his body isn't preventing him from feeling the initial pain -- and her mouth covers Yuya's, bleeding away one poison even as she works another kind in.

The sensation begins to come back into his limbs, but it feels like a severe case of pins and needles, leaden and still out of his control. As she pulls back and drags him back to standing with her, surprisingly, he'll find he can stay upright just fine on his own.

For a given definition of 'just fine,' at any rate. The frenzied chanting has stopped, too -- now only an occasional involuntary, piteous 'help' slips past his lips.

Edited 2018-10-09 18:29 (UTC)

Yuya sputters increasingly urgent cries at the pace of his breathing. He wants to cry, but somehow the tears aren't coming anymore. He's afraid, though, and what little control he has left tenses through his expression.

And then it hurts, but he can't react, and then her lips are on his again and he's silenced as his mind goes blank for a second.

And then everything goes slack in his expression and his voice. It takes him a moment to bring his thoughts back around, and by then she has him at his feet while something tingles through his skin. He still can't move, but... his body is moving for him. He feels weirdly distant, locked up in something that's no longer his.

"Help..."

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⇨ WYLD HUNT

Following the above

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cw from this point onwards for general mindfuckery and kisses of the dubious variety

Thanks he hates it

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