lordofthering | IC SUGGESTION BOX

"Aww. Damn. Well... I guess that makes sense."

But he was looking forward to recovering some of his lost energy by eating Strange! Oh well. His next stop will be Gon's tent, to grab one of his candies.

The worm mouth opens up and everts itself, puking up a human-shaped glob of slimy flesh and tattered Roman warrior garb. Bones are visible under digested skin in some places, and hair hasn't really been touched. Strange's mirrored parts are blackened and tarnished by acid, but largely undigested. The stab wound through the heart is big and obvious. It's a gross mess, but serviceable if all she needs is some DNA and a scaffold. He looks at his would-be meal sadly for just a moment before his arm snaps back to being a normal appendage and not a hellmouth.

He rubs his newly reformed arm before thinking how to answer the other question.

"... I don't know."

Not a lie!

"Our plan to make Ignatius duel us for Strange didn't work-- the bait wasn't sweet enough. So we had to... improvise."

The Ringmaster only flinches a little bit before kneeling down to start working with the corpse. Though, her patience is rapidly growing thin with Zangetsu's inability to give a straight answer.

"Zangetsu," she says, stiffly. "What. Happened. Explain. If they aren't safe yet, there is no time to waste."

Meanwhile, it looks like Strange's red cape survived intact. She looks at it curiously, and then pulls it off and puts it to the side. It's still slimy, though.

He flinches a bit. He hates being scolded, but they need more time.

"They're safe! I promise you, they're safe. I wouldn't have left them if they didn't have it under control." He sighs. "Ignatius refused the duel. So we started using the Athanaeum's magic, like, hard core. Rita turned into a guardian, we trapped him, and I flooded the arena with something from my memories. Last I saw, Lambert had called on the Earth Spirit to chain him underwater, and they were tryin' to exchange his freedom for Strange. Wouldn't give him up though, and Strange was close to killing Lambert. That's when I made the call to cut and run."

Haha. More like stab and run.

Her eyes widen a little bit, mostly with sheer disbelief. She knew that the narrative abilities of the Athenaeum was going to make the rescue possible, but she'd never imagined it would be that effective. It's kind of disturbing.

"Of course he wouldn't," she says, simply, after taking a moment to think about it. "He's one of the Summer Queen's personal guard. Going back on anything he did would surely be some kind of sin, in his view."

Her tone is somewhat conversational, so she isn't that alarmed yet. It's hard to take in, though. She works through cutting the remaining armor off of Strange's body with her claws, throwing the pieces into a pile on the ground.

"But we've got Strange now. Why haven't they come back yet?"

It is! But also kind of a power trip.

Zangetsu crouches down to assist, using his own claws to get through the clothing.

... And potentially keeping any shiny bits he finds for himself, of course.

"It's a shame. Ignatius doesn't seem that bad. Just a little blinded by his loyalty," he says, almost sadly. But then another question, and this time, he really doesn't have the answer. He scratches his head a bit. "That, I actually don't know. I figured as soon as they knew I had Strange, they'd leave, too."

He has the passing thought that maybe they got a little drunk on the Athanaeum's power. He had felt it, of course; the urge to get even. To show a High Fae what for. But he had been able to overcome it thanks to a very specific order.

Her lips twist into a worried grimace at that. There are a few different scenarios she's imagining, and none of them are particularly good.

"There are certainly worse fae," she admits, though her voice is showing her concern. With Zangetsu's help, most of the disrobing is already done, and he can keep whatever little shiny bits he likes as far as she's concerned. God, this corpse looks awful. What little resemblance it has to Strange's usually cute face just comes across as unfortunate.

"I'm going to radio Lambert and see what's going on. I'd really rather just get the carnival out of here, and they are the last team to return."

She takes out her personal radio, briefly turning her back to Zangetsu and the body so that she can speak. She dials in Lambert's personal frequency.

"Lambert, where are you? Zangetsu returned with Strange and we need to leave immediately."

She sounds more than a little impatient.

Alas, Strange's poor face. You know that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Yeah. It's a bit like that.

Zangetsu searches through the scraps and finds the brilliant sun emblem clasp and pockets that. Yoink.

He also isn't sure there isn't any place that's safer for the Carnival than here, except maybe the Summerlands, but he's not going to question that decision.

No, he was running on fumes at this point. He needed a ~~scooby snack~~ soul candy, stat.

GOOD LUCK, LAMBERT.

The conversation will play out with her back turned to them, as if its creating some semblance of privacy. It's really not.

"Are the rest back already?" Lambert finally responds, after an annoying long pause.

"Yes," the Ringmaster answers tersely, mostly because she was left hanging there for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"We've captured Ignatius. He said ... he said Frost's been tracking the Carnival for a while, and that's how they knew how to find us. He might know more, but he's unconscious now."

Her eyes bulge, flames licking at her lips as she breathes in. Her immediate panic is obvious.

"You WHAT? What did you do to him?! I swear to the Void, Lambert... if you've ignored everything I told you..."

"No worse than they've done to us before. No iron. Just stories, like the Scribe and Curator told us to. But it's not enough to kill him. The Summer Court's going to be after our asses no matter what -- you want to leave another fae with a grudge on the loose?"

She's starting to pace, forgetting about Zangetsu's presence entirely. She doesn't understand how this is happening.

"What are you suggesting? Lambert?" she asks, and there's something pleading to it, like she's begging him not to do something.

"Let's take him with us," Lambert says on the other side of the radio. "Or come here and kill him yourself. You said it yourself: they'll never give up chasing you, and now you're sending us after weapons of war. Maybe you should start treating this like one."

She crushes her radio in her hand.

Her entire body has gone rigid, like she's been physically struck. Finally, her other hand goes up to her mouth, and she's left blinking away tears in her eyes. She drops the shattered radio to the ground.

"I have to go," she says to Zangetsu, the strain in her voice obvious. "Watch over his body for me."

Well, he was going to leave. But then the conversation gets juicy. Captured? Unconscious?! Holy shit. Holy shit.

Then the radio is crushed and the boss... is she crying? He's never seen the Ringmaster cry. Or even thought her capable of it. Too be honest, he's too awestruck to do anything other than nod his head and give a weak "Uh... s-sure."

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