Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

animal cruelty

The cackling only grew, ringing forth in waves--louder at the injury, and how could the Carny not? It was hilarious! The thunk of bolt into limb, that had to hurt. The stink of blood. The frantic scurry of the Red Mice as they scrambled--knowing what was about to happen--out of the way, fruitlessly clambering against the walls of the booth's display. The-

Balder's final bolt slammed into a living Red Mouse.

There was a thunk of bolt in flesh. A frantic squeaking as the Lesser struggled, pinned, eyes bulging. Blood streaked its flanks, and it flailed and slowly died.

The Carny eyed it for a moment, and then burst into laughter, clapping! A round of applause, please! "WELL done, WELL done, Sam! You've got the hang of it now! And you win a FABULOUS NEEEEEW PRIZE!" A small plush creature--a life-sized stuffed animal, a red mouse made of cotton and fluff--was torn from a shelf. Ahh, what a glorious memento! But the Carny paused, eyeing it, and then snickered. "Let's make this a proper souvenir!" he cried. A claw whipped around, punching a hole through the stuffed animal exactly where Balder had hit himself with the crossbow bolt.

This glorious gift was offered out by its fabric tail, the Carny looking rather proud of himself--but then a glance was cast back at the now-dead mouse. "You want that one, too?" he asked, and licked his lips.

@Balder

Just as Balder thought he was about to drown in that infernal laughter, his bolt finally managed to HIT! The little bugger suffered a slow and violent death, causing Balder's gleaming eyes and furious scowl to turn upwards into a downright evil Cheshire grin.

All that glee momentarily dissipated when the Carny dared threaten Balder's ire yet again, calling him Sam. Sam! As if Balder hadn't already announced his glorious name! But the dolt continued on like a runaway train, giving Balder's immediate impulse to snap a change to simmer. Balder (undoubtedly NOT a Sam, nothing LIKE a Sam, so un-Sam he could be considered a near ANTONYM for a lowly SAM) was all for a FABULOUS NEEEEEW PRIZE, a proper souvenir for this arduous and, in the end, victorious experience...

...and in his bloodlust, Balder almost didn't realize the grave mistake the Carny had just made! Almost!

The Carny had just punched a hole in HIS mouse! Right where HE HAD GOTTEN HIT!!!

There was a moment of silence (probably for the Carny), Balder going bug-eyed and bristling with a vengeful wrath. "My name is Balder." His voice was grating, like nails on a chalkboard. Quickly, Balder would swipe the mouse out of the Carny's hold and onto the floor. Then, as it glanced away for just a moment, Balder would spring for the Carny, claws and wings outstretched, hoping to reach any part of it that would induce unreasonable amounts of pain, possibly even unreasonable amounts of death!

The Carny recoiled backward, crystal-cat-bat attached to his chest, face--claws tearing at skin. More blood--and this was his! Why, that wasn't fair at all!

Laughter turned to alarmed scream--except in nearby booths, where other carnies burst into laughter. This one, this fox-imp, flailed uselessly for a moment before trying to fling Balder away, with a rather impressive grip and throwing arm. There should have been a threat, perhaps--some snarled promise to shove Balder into the cage alongside the red mice, or something equally ominous--but the only thing that came out of the Carny's mouth was a gurgled "BBEEEEAAAAAARH!" as he turned to flee.

The cage of red mice (and one dead one--the rest huddled farther away) and the collection of trinkets and plush toys was ripe for the looting--or the Carny himself was ripe for the chasing, though he seemed perhaps too large for Balder to kill with claws and fangs alone.

@Balder

Hadn't the Carny just whipped out some claws with surprising agility to puncture the mouse plushie? Yes. Wasn't this, then, a really really stupid idea? Oh absolutely NOT!! NO!!! And why not--? IT'S JUSTIFIED VENGEANCE!!!! THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS ON BALDER'S SIDE--

Mid-carn(y)age, Balder was suddenly flung. Impressively hard.

WHEEEEEEEEEEE-- thud.

Balder was a little dazed for a second there, having landed square on her tuckus some distance away from the booth. Head just kinda... bobbing for a bit. Then she remembered how aBSOLUTELY OUTRAGED SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!!! And within less than a minute she was back on her paws and hobbling (speedily) over to the red mouse booth!

Only to find that the obstreperous little clown had fled. Had that scream been its? H. Holy crap. Holy crap!

Balder's cackling would join that of the rest of the Carnies', bold and boisterous and ridiculously smug. "THAT'S RIGHT YOU INFERIOR COCKROACH! RUN AWAY AND COWER, JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE DENIZENS OF YOUR TERRIBLE LITTLE GAME HERE!!" Speaking of those denizens... man, they were unprotected now, weren't they? It wouldn't really be worth going after that idiot, would it... not when Balder could just steal its meals and livelihood and then disappear into the stands, right? Balder could imagine the pain of coming back to a looted, destroyed, just absolutely miserable little remnant of a booth.

...Oh yes, she liked that a lot...

And better yet, she didn't even have to run away! Balder was not a coward like her victim was, clearly she could fend off any punishment that might be after her.

So Balder would get to work with looting and destroying as much as she could while the coward was gone.

Ahh, what loot there was-!

Free to steal, or take, or kill, or destroy--whatever Balder wished to do.

There were the red mice in their cage. Seven left alive; and one pinned to the back wall, bleeding, dead.

There were the prizes hung along the both: more plush red mice and rats, of varying sizes (some twenty in total). A number of trinkets hung a little higher: a string of pearls, five or six gemstones glittering on different shelves, three large, wilted flowers, two chipped bones (one a large rat's skull, the other some unidentifiable little rib or the like)... A tarnished silver ring, a shiny but rather nondescript smooth stone, a large, bright brown feather, a broken little ceramic jar, a piece of worn-smooth green glass. These were all the little things that had been taken from the Red Mice nests along with the live-captured mice themselves, no doubt. If any of it held magic, it wasn't immediately clear.

And beyond that, there were the mechanics of the Booth itself. A few more wooden crossbows, and all their bolts. The shiny, detailed signs depicting the game and its prizes--the booth and tent covering. And all of it was--or seemed to be, at least--free for the taking or destroying, for now.

@Balder

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

unsanitary

animal cruelty

Balder's choices might adumbrate the figure of another...

Gosh, the freedom of it all was intoxicating. To destroy, to take, to leave behind, to keep a linear order or go absolutely buck wild... the fate of this booth was in Balder's malevolent, powerful claws. First thing's first, she'd uncover the work that was about to be done. Let this terrible act be a warning to any onlooker: King Balder gets what she wants, end of story. Using wings and claws, Balder would rip hideous gashes into the tent covering, taking a particularly large stretch of cloth for herself to lay on the floor in front of the booth. In this torn shroud she would wrap her rightfully won mouse plushie, along with a big rat plushie, the pearls on a string, two of the 5 or 6 gemstones on the shelves, the chipped rat's skull (that'd be a fun toy for later), the tarnished ring (of course), and the shiny smooth stone (of course!!). The rest she would tear and and (in a fashion befitting of an angry cat) knock off their pedestals of safety, down to the floor where they belonged. Ah, the crashing, the shuffling... yes, the perfect calamity to revel in... except for the feather which refused to dramatically crash in a satisfying way. Balder would just add it to the Take pile instead.

But she wasn't done yet! There was also FOOD to take, and Balder was on a "roll", or shall I say a "murderous rampage". FIVE poor little red mice would lose their lives to the gargoyle today, along with the one she had already shot. She'd stuff a fresher kill her mouth to gnaw on contemptuously later, and the rest would get crammed in with the shinies and pretties (...eugh).

And finally, destroying the mechanisms... well, Balder would do her best, but they were pretty messed up already. She would certainly fiddle around with the crossbows, trying to keep from getting herself shot. As for the signs? Simple: she'd pee on 'em. She'd also attempt to ram headfirst into a few of 'em -- before or after claiming territory, that's up for you to decide -- and overall? Balder would accomplish... a pretty decent amount!!!

Honestly, she could do so much more, if only she didn't have to store the loot before returning.

Balder would take her nasty little sack and fly off, ignoring the difficulty her maw was having in keeping the whole thing together. She'd make it out, make multiple trips if she had to, and stash the total pile elsewhere...

...and then return, the glee painted on her face with copious amounts of red mouse blood.

Balder took: [+1 tent covering shroud] [+1 punctured mouse plushie] [+1 BIG RAT plushie] [+1 pearls on a string] [+2 gemstones] [+1 chipped rat's skull] [+1 tarnished silver ring] [+1 shiny smooth stone] [+1 big, brown feather]

Balder's rampage was quite successful. By the time she returned, the mouse cage--still hanging open--would be empty; the final two survivors scurried off to save their own hides.

The booth lay in ruins, half-shredded, and the other Carnies had done nothing to defend it. But... they were no longer off laughing, either, or still running their own booths.

Now, they stood in a loose, wide ring some thirty feet around the booth, staring in completely motionless, unblinking silence.

Weird.

@Balder

To Balder's surprise, there was a whole audience huddled around her display of destruction, and yet not one among their numbers appeared to be her target buffoon! These had to be admirers, right? Those who had run the other booths, enjoyed the destruction as much as she had -- Balder was certain they'd been laughing along with him!

So then.

"HEY THERE, FREAKISH INFERIORS!"

What was the deal...

"'TIS I, BALDER, COme bAck tO sEe..."

...with...

"...Yo-you.... all.... w-w..."

...the silence?

"wha...?" Almost a whisper.

Wings folded slowly, chest seemed to deflate... Balder was simply left there, in a sort of eerie apprehension mixed with... awe? She was just close enough to the swarm to prickle at uncomfortability.

Were she a braver man, she'd've kept waltzing right up without a second thought. Were she a smarter lass, she would've thought to start snatching goodies from the now-unattended booths. But right now, all Balder could manage to be was just... a confused little beast, entirely unsure of what the next move should be.

Weird indeed.

All heads slowly turned as one to regard Balder in that swelling silence.

And then--one by one--they started to smile: a gradual shift in expression, and this not unified, but it didn't seem to reach their eyes. Just a slow upturn of this set of lips, and then that, until all smiled at her from their motionless ring.

At last one spoke: in a voice almost tentative, and shy: "Hello. Would you like to join us?"

If Balder had any instinct or sense whatsoever, there would seem to be something distinctly unsettling about this.

@Balder

They... were asking.... for her to join???

Balder did have, if you looked under the best of microscopes, just the tiniest lick of sense. All that was required to at least get a very unsettling vibe from this scene. I mean, it's not like she was oblivious to danger -- she actively sought out danger, that was her... hamartia, perhaps, was the term. No- it wasn't. Regardless, she was now, um, here.

"Hello. Would you like to join us?"

Geez.

"Hello. Would you like to join us?"

GEEZ.

Their eyes looked distinctly separate from their smiles, all of which were trained on her. Gosh darn it Balder. "Hello. Would you like to join us?" Wh..."NO! WhY would I--?!? You creeps can't take a- a-" What could this be called? A... "-a joke?" Balder turned away and spread out her wings, getting ready to fly off.

She was trying to keep her cool about this, pretend like this wasn't affecting her like it was, but- but in all seriousness, what were they even doing?! Staring in a circle? Looking... not-happy-but-with-all-the-happy-expressions??!??!! Balder wanted no part. Absolutely none. She had to get out fast, lest coming back ended up backfiring on her-

- attempted exit -