Closed Masque Carnivalia

The brief pause the Trick Room gave her let her form a plan. Yes, Annie had a very naughty little plan. The walls vanished as quickly as they had risen, and she found Logan doubled over and breathing heavy, Connor still looking pathetic, Celest surprisingly looked a little better, and the stranger just looked pissed. It was Logan's pain, though, that set her off, because he was her boyfriend, and nobody had her permission to smack him around. And here she had been planning on going easy on the man.

She threw the thought of sleep at him like a cannon, and could actually feel her influence worming into the man's mind, forcing his eyelids to grow heavy and his mind to numb. And she stayed within his mind, feasting on the images his brain produced, on his dreams. She had plans for later and would need all the energy she could get.

She ate away at his brain, almost savagely, even laughing to herself a little as she did. She watched his body twitch at the discomfort, felt his mind begin to deteriorate from the relentless feasting. It was beyond the devouring of dreams. She ate away at every scrap of information she could find. His mind was dissolving, starting with useless things like memories and things learned about money, psychology, fighting, and other human interests. And then she began eating at his mind's more sensitive pieces. The motor skills, the deductive reasoning, all of it.

His body began writhing, and he was screaming involuntarily, his arms slamming the ground in pain. And she began digging deeper, into the very core of his nervous system. She resolved, in the back of her mind, to never take a Dream Eater attack this far. It was an ugly business that started with superfluous information, and if unchecked would cause permanent brain damage.

Or in this case, she thought as the body ceased its quivering, death.

She had absorbed none of his knowledge. That wasn't how it worked. It had all been converted to energy. Her body was practically humming with it. And it was so she could try to heal her friends, if they'd even let her near them now.

((The problem is resolved. INSERT THIS MUSIC NOW. And now I'll stop with that. Until next time anyway.))

Connor stared at the limp body on the ground. Then at Annie. Then back at the body. To Celest, he whispered, "That was freaky." He nudged the thing's hand with his foot, and it didn't move. It really was... Dead. Gone. Forever. Connor certainly hated this thing for hurting Celest, for breaking his arm, and attacking them all. But he couldn't help but think... How was it before he was turned into a Carnie? How long was he like this? He must have been just like them, lost and confused in a strange place. How long ago could that have been?

He sighed. His arm had calmed down and was just a dull throbbing now. Unless he moved, it felt alright. He wasn't looking forward to setting the bone. That would probably be more painful than the actual breaking of it. "You think the rest of them will come?" He asked everyone at once, wiping a bit more blood from his face.

He glanced at Logan and Annie. Neither had gotten hurt very bad. Logan had gotten a pretty good knock in the gut, maybe even fractured a rib or two, but he'd be alright. He and Celest, on the other hand, had a chance to die of their injuries if they went untreated. Infection was the main thing for him.

He examined Celest closer. While Logan and Annie seemed to have washed up a bit for their date, Connor could see where Celest's tears had carved their way through the dirt and blood caked on her face. No doubt Connor looked just as bad. He looked at his arm. Awfully pale for an orange man. He laughed a little, wincing as his arm told him to stop. "I need a vacation." He slumped to the ground with a grin. "Annie, if you can heal anybody, now might be a time to do it. Start on Celest, though. Ladies first."

Celest stared at the fallen lump of fabric and muscle, her eyes staring blankly as she actually felt no sympathy for the Throh morph whatsoever. Sure, she guessed that he was like them once, back when he was first morphed: scared. Hurt. Scarred. But he had also hurt people. He made her friends be in pain. And that left his well-being out of her mind and concern.

... But... was Annie really to be considered her friend? Celest felt herself frown at the thought. The Psychic Carnie had made a first impression of the worst kind, and even though the two were on seemingly good terms, but after seeing Annie kill this man so cruelly, so easily, her perspectives were changing. She started questioning herself on the matter of Annie's mental stability.

She looked over at Connor as he whispered his simple thought on the matter, and truth be told she didn't blame him. Annie just ate her way through the cloaked man's mind, and he probably died because he forgot how to even breathe or something like that. The thought was horrific at best, and not particularly the best way to die out of many.

Celest closed her eyes a moment, letting her aura vision set in, and poked around the carnival, looking for any more traces of life she didn't recognize. Fortunately, it seemed as though the Throh morph came alone, but her relief was short-lived. If he came to kill them, there was no doubt that another would be sent in his place. Maybe even two others.

"I can't sense anybody else," Celest answered, her voice small and fragile, as she opened her eyes again, looking back at Connor. "But... I have a feeling that more will come." She looked back at the man, her arms wrapping around her waist. "And I don't think they want us here anymore, if I were to guess."

Annie sighed. At Connor's request, she approached Celest first. "Alright, I've never done any healing before, so... If you don't mind." She didn't exactly leave Celest time to answer. It was almost like the Hypnosis. But rather than going into Celest's brain, she just went into the damaged nerves and tissue.

Under normal circimstances, Healing Wish may have put Annie out. But this was why she had chosen Dream Eater. She watched at the damaged tissue, particularly around her stomach, flitted about, expanding and multiplying. And the wound began to close. Annie sat back and examined her work. So she couldn't help but leave a scar. "I hope you don't mind dealing with the little bruises and cuts. I can't really waste energy on them before I've checked the other two."

She shifted over to Connor. "This might sting just a bit more than hers did." She noted. He entered the nerves, and began working her way around his arm. The bone very quickly (and probably very painfully) snapped back into place, and began to mend itself at increased speed. She made sure to close everything else first, though. When she stopped, she was almost numb. She ached all over. "You.... You need a splint, I think, but if you don't put more than a couple pounds on it, it'll be fine..." She wiped her forehead. If Logan had anything wrong with him, it couldn't be too bad. She wanted to check, but another Healing Wish would wipe her out, and she'd probably be out cold if she did.

Connor moved as soon as Annie approached him. He grabbed at a dowel from the nearest stall. He put it in his mouth. Annie started doing her thing. Cedrick bit down on the dowel when his arm snapped back into place. He gave a muffled scream, and his eyes teared up a little. As his skin began to work itself together, he felt a painful tingling in the wounded areas. It was almost like his skin was being welded together.

He made a mental note not to get hurt, because getting unhurt was even more painful. When she was done, the burning sensation went away, but there was still terrible throbbing pain. Probably because his arm was still technically broken. More acurately, fractured. He released the dowel from his mouth. One of the t-shirts used as a prize was mostly rotted, so tore easily enough. He wrapped the dowel around his arm. When he was finished, he had a crude splint for his now minor arm break.

He grinned at Celest. He didn't want to stand up. But he also wanted to celebrate their survival. Shame that the booze were disposed of. "Guess we make a hell of a team, huh, Cel?" He laughed. Well, they clearly could manage without the lessons, but he figured he'd still ask for them, just as a sort of therapy thing.

Kiara couldn't take much more of being in this wretched place. Kiara felt weak and useless, and she couldn't take it.

She managed to stammer something, hoping the others would hear. "I...I-I want to go home...I want to leave this place....Please...just find a way for us to get home..." she stuttered to no one in paticular.

Logan stood up with some difficulty, and wiped the blood from his lip. His breath was still a bit labored, but he was certain he could sleep it off. That actually sounded really good right now, sleep. Tons of it, too. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he was suddenly extremely tired. He was famished, too, but this was because he hadn't eaten since the day before. He didn't have anything for breakfast or lunch, and he had been running around all day. "So," he finally croaked, "Connor." He looked at Connor, and took a pause to catch his breath. "I don't know about any of you guys, but I could go for some food. I personally haven't eaten all day. Perhaps it's a bit morbid at this point, but I really do need some fuel." He took a tentative step forward, and didn't fall. Somehow, though, the single step he took really knocked the wind out of him, and he stopped, gasping. He coughed a bit, but nothing came out and it was a dry cough, so Logan didn't think anything would come up, whether it was saliva or blood, or something else. He did swoon a bit though, and staggered to the side a little, catching himself after a few steps. "Wow," he said, "That's going to be counter productive. Would someone mind finding me a stick of some sort, or perhaps a shoulder? It seems I cannot walk on my own."

Annie sighed. "Yeah... I'm dying here." She laughed weakly at her dumb joke. "Connor, you and Celest can help each other, get food ready and stuff. I'll get Logan." She had heard Kiara as well, and planned on getting her up. If this thing was fighting type, then it was a bet that one of the others was a fire type like Connor, and they had no adequate defense against that. She'd have to get Kiara moving again.

As she went to Logan's side, she put enough psychic power into him to lighten the load on herself a bit. Even if she was a crutch, and he was still doing a lot of work, he was much bigger and heavier than her. She began wondering if he might have some type of internal damage. Should she have helped him instead of one of the other two? She didn't know. Everything was so complicated, so desperate. Everyone was hurt, now, except for her, and she was ready to collapse from trying to heal them all.

"Logan," She said. "Let's go into the tent. You and Kiara need a lot of help, still." A small chuckle escaped her, a faint, apologetic smile touching her lips. "Sorry about the date. Maybe we can try again some other time."

Kiara stated her revised plan... And more. "At least now you two can make out in peace." Celest's face colored a bright red as she glanced nervously at Conner. Make out with Conner? The man she met not even an hour ago? She would never exchange slob with anyone, let alone someone she just met. The thought was out of the question and made butterflies flutter around in Celest's stomach.

When Conner changed the subject, Celest decided she needed some alone time. Without answering, she stood up, brushed off her clothes and turned on her heel, her face still burning as she bowed her head. She quickly but silently stalked over to her tent from earlier in the day and tied the ropes on the flaps of the tent together. Somewhat surprised that the lightbulbs of the old theatre mirror were still dimly alight, she stepped in front of the mirror and blinked at her shattered reflection.

Turning away, her red eyes glazed over a large wooden crate. Curling up beside it, Celest released a deep breath of air, closing her eyes.

"You know, it's extremely rude to walk away from a conversation without so much as a 'maybe later' to the other person." To be perfectly honest, Connor was unsure if he should trust Celest on her own, with her palms being... Well, bloody. If she asked, he'd leave, but until then it was war. He tried to push himself a little further into the tent, so he might be able to rest his chin on his arms, but found he was effectively immobile.