I think the clock says it’s one o’clock… in the afternoon… I’m pretty sure it was around one-thirty when I crashed… gods, I somehow slept for a whole day.

And of course, I don’t feel well at all. A dull headache starts everything off along with many smaller aches and pains. But the hollow feeling in my chest was what hurts the most.

Not just physically though, on top of that they're the mental part telling me that I have no access to any of my magic.

Eventually, I managed to get up and get moving, my stomach being the main motivator as I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday morning. A set of toaster waffles made their way into the toaster, and another inconvenience was added to my day when I burnt my tongue trying to eat them too quickly.

Speaking of inconveniences, my magic was going a bit haywire. Since I overdid it yesterday I now had three different magics going unchecked in my body.

The worst one is the space magic, as it just reaches out and randomly hardens small spots around me before instantly letting them go. The only reason I wasn’t running into them constantly was because of the effect the show magic was having. The little specks of hardened space were made to look like little embers floating about, giving me some clue as to how to not injure myself even more.

The one I still have yet to see any consequences from was the transformation magic. Up until I went to scratch and itch.

I was sitting next to the little island in the kitchen when I shot up to my feet, the feeling of blood trickling down from my lower back onto the rabbit’s tail. At the tip of my fingers were a set of claws, sharp enough to cut apparently. And what I thought were my normal calluses were in fact the paw pads I had grown used to in my other forms.

A quick run to the bathroom mirror revealed a bit more. My teeth for instance were a lot more pointed in the front than normal, and running down my chest, arms, and legs were markings from the tiger. The more concerning part, however, was the almost bone-like plating running from my elbows up to my shoulders and down the top of my back.

It looked like my hair was all around a bit longer than normal and my eyes were completely blanked out. I honestly don’t know how I’m still able to see… But there was one more bit that… I don’t understand.

Starting around my eyes and brows then running down my cheeks to my jaw was one giant, nasty, multicolored bruise. Nothing was badly swollen or anything, but after poking it for a moment I knew that I wasn’t using the masks anytime soon.

Unfortunately, it was just something I was going to have to deal with for a bit. After all, if my final move actually worked it’ll all be worth the pain.

I should probably look and see what the news is saying. I know for a fact that Carnival is going to become… Very controversial now that they know a bit more about what I can do.

A few moments later I was soon set up on my “couch” with my laptop and a tall can of iced tea. From there all I had to do was click on the HNN site and…

“BREAKING! WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE THEATER ATTACK AND THE NEW DANGEROUS SUPERVILLAIN.”

Hey… I’m not that dangerous, am I?

Okay… the article starts off with details about Firework’s initial attack and fight with Iron Magnum, celebrating the hero’s victory over the wild villain and complaining about how they failed to bring him in.

From there it went on at length about the monster, the only real damage it did was absolutely obliterate the top three stories of the target building. Turns out that from the whole ordeal, there were no reported casualties, as long as you don’t count what was left MucleHead’s dignity, nice.

But yeah, investigations are still out as to why the target was targeted. So far all they’ve found out is that the building happened to belong to some super rich and shady science dude…

Aww… the monster was finally destroyed by Lazar just after it hit the building… wait… why Lazar?

I jumped around for a bit trying to find what happened to Iron Magnum… OH, GODS! They were stuck for two hours! Two Whole Hours! YES!

Despite the pain I was in I still did a little dance at the news. My very first real fight as a villain and I end it in a powerhouse move with a real big impact.

Don’t know if the pain I’m in is still worth it though…

Now for the rest of the article… Only about a third of it is actually about the kaiju and the attack. Another quarter is testimonies from the heroes and authorities… The rest is about Carnival.

I was hesitant, to say the least. I’m… Big on history, and if even a high school class has a unit on the media's effect on heroes and villains and how bad it can get… I’m half tempted not to read anything just for my own mental health. I press on regardless.

To give the short version, it boils down to what in the thirteen hells is Carnival? The long version starts with the theft of the mask a few days before, how no clan had come forward to identify him, and the hero’s concerns about the theater connections.

It then moves on to when Deus Ex pinged the three villains somehow appearing on top of the building he was in…

What, the actual fu…

He… was recording everything from the beginning. Had our every action watched from just after Firework started his onslaught, giving the heroes a ton of information to go off of. In fact, the reason a response took so long to get to us was that they were hoping a surprise attack from BlueBlur would work. Problem was that he made the mistake of talking to us, letting Carnival and Firework combo him into oblivion.

When Firework then continued to attack even after he fought a hero, the others were able to realize that they needed to prepare for something greater. So they were somewhat prepared for the monster showing up… Then things started to go wrong when Carnival dived off the building and sent a giant flaming tiger at all of the heroes.

Like, apparently the show magic made my opener look extremely awesome. I didn’t do it on purpose or anything, but the photos that people got look really cool.

They actually used a photo of the attack for the article cover instead of the kaiju. I took a moment to look up the lady that took the photo, she was one of the people in the helicopter at the time. From the reception she got for it, she’s already considering submitting it to competitions and everything.

At least she’s happy.

From there there’s a brief mention about the fight with Lazar and HunterBlack. But the next few paragraphs are spent on what was driving everyone crazy, my shift to the rabbit.

The article reports that the “experts” believe that Carnival has an extra powerful and experimental version of Theater Tech. Which he uses to change how he looks to help focus his spatial powers. The apparent fire illusions he uses help the other theater members know what he’s doing and stay on theme.

It then goes on to explain in an almost hysterical fashion how much more dangerous the theater is going to be. Possibly just as dangerous as the Assembly of Superiors, Reckoning’s army, or even the rumored Organization of Shadows. There was a big call to any heroes reading to do their best to take the theater out.

I shuddered at the thought of being compared to those organizations, but I can sorta see why. From the perspective of someone who’s mortal, even a random encounter with one villain can spell doom.

When I clicked off the article I was somewhat happy with what I saw. They didn’t bother going at me per se, a few of the heroes did get absolutely roasted over small mistakes. A few more were made to sound like you should worship the ground they flew over.

As soon as I opened the first forum board I began to laugh. Some P.H.D. with too much time went ahead and broke down the entire article from HNN, even proposing his own theory about Carnival’s powers.

“When Robertson’s work proposes an explanation as to how Carnival’s transformations take place, it seems to purposefully ignore the actions the villain takes and the video evidence we have of how Carnival chooses to move his body. According to the study on beastman biology conducted by Doctor Chun Huang and Andrew (Lion) Peters, ‘How a beastman subconsciously uses their own tail while performing in acrobatics and martial arts, is exactly the same as to how an animal will use their own tail to keep their balance.’ (p22, 2016)

It can be obviously seen how Carnival moves when in combat, he primarily fights like how a cat-like beastman will choose to move. He even relied on his tail for balance when catching Requiem from her fall, and the subsequent disorientation when MuscleHead shattered the spatial construct.

This can even be seen in the prior fight with Basalt at the Central Museum. Particularly in how he falls from the ceiling after the hero in training dislodged his escape route.

Now you may be asking, what does this have to do with the transformation not being a result of Theater Tech? It is simply shown in how the villain chooses to transform.

Now, it is an accepted fact that all of the flames Carnival produced were a part of The Threater’s known proclivity for the use of illusions. For example, every ‘fireball’ he used was simply a chunk of hardened space shrouded in the illusion. Seen in how it didn’t set the hero MuscleHead on fire, instead just impacting him like it was a baseball. The illusion can also be seen in the iconic ‘flaming tiger’ moment, seen in how the attack didn’t set anything on fire, including Carnival.

So what compels the villain to set himself on fire during both seen transformations? So far, it is agreed upon in general discourse that Carnival’s first known weakness is how expressive he is. With the first transformation, it took what is guessed to be prompting from Requiem for him to take on the rabbit beastman form, which he seemed unwilling to do. The second transformation was performed under duress while facing down Deus Ex and Iron Magnum.

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Now why does he ‘set’ himself on fire. In what is my educated guess, if the ability to shapeshift is Carnival’s power, he probably views the process as either private or uncomfortable to view.

If this is the case, what about the spatial abilities? This is most likely where Theater Tech comes into play. Other members of The Theater are known to show abilities beyond what they should be capable of.

Bouquet, for instance, is known to have the ability to heal others by having them consume the fruit she grows. Another example is Actress who was shown to control suits of armor instead of just fabric. Finally, there is Emcee, who is known to have a myriad of minor tricks beyond his vocal abilities.

What we are seeing with Carnival is most likely an extension of this often brushed-over phenomenon. While the ability to shapeshift can be powerful at the right times, it does not guarantee the ability to go up against powerhouses like BlueBlur or MuscleHead. So, Carnival has opted to utilize Theater Tech in a way that makes its usage more obvious than the other members of The Theater.”

…

I like this guy. Dude went ahead and wrote an entire thesis basically complaining about the author of the HNN article. He even went ahead and broke down how Firework and Requiem probably knew Carnival for a while, considering how they interacted. And the citations, the dude actually cited his sources.

And sure, I’m not too happy that I’m already known for having a weakness when it isn’t even a weakness at all… That and it took me weeks to ingrain the ability to properly emote in a beastman body. I’m quite proud of how I act when not human, I don’t even have to purposefully move my ears and tail anymore.

Also, BlueBlur is counted as a powerhouse… That one made me feel a bit better, after all, they say laughter is the best medicine.

The comments on the post seemed to be mostly positive about the takes taken, but I was still somehow caught off guard by the people wishing to date or more… Requiem or the other female members of the theater… that thread was very quickly going off the rails, but when it got to idiots wanting to… “study” Carnival’s anatomy closer I promptly reported a lot of that.

It won’t help all that much, but some form of justice had to be taken for my sanity.

Ooh! I guess the attack has the rumor mill going again for Power Hour.

Okay, even if it is a cartoon about a bunch of heroes I’m still a big anime nerd, so sue me. But, one of the creators randomly posted a lineup of some concepts of the theater villains a while back, making people guess that they were probably gonna be the big bad for the next season. After yesterday, she posted two more designs of Carnival both in tiger form and rabbit form.

I don’t know if I like them or not but I am extremely flattered.

This got people riled up because now that there are now ten known theater members, that matches perfectly against the ten heroes licensed in the show…

As long as they’re able to rescue Penultimate from his evil sister before the end of this season. Which I really hope happens as he’s my favorite character.

I can see the possibilities now, MasterHero facing off against Firework, and Beowolf would work amazingly against either Fiesta or Emcee… ooh, Actress could work as well.

The amount of time spent fangirling over the possibilities with others online will not be commented on.

Yup...

Albeit I was a bit sad that if it does happen I can’t be a part of the process. Turns out a few decades back a villain sued over their portrayal in some late-night sketch, only for the U.S. government to decide that villains weren't allowed to hold the rights to their public appearances while they were considered actively wanted or at large. So that gave a bunch of leeway for movies and shows to do whatever.

Actually, a few members of the theater have already made movie appearances. Bouquet and Choir were seen as projections in the movie about Lady Liberation during the final act. When we found out about that one we raided the Doc’s place and turned his biggest monitor into a showing. Once he started complaining it only made our decision seem more correct.

The film itself was actually pretty bad, and the appearances were only a few seconds long as well as being barely recognizable. But even Taylor was happy with what we got…

Even if the next few days were spent listening to her complaints about the contrived plot, horrible set design, and bad casting. Especially so since Lady Liberation had been retired for a decade before Firework's first appearance, and the “Misogynistic Mechanic” was set in the wrong decade for more than half of the villainesses he copied to show up even if he was real.

Hmm?.. What’s this?

I was deeper into a sub-tread where people were trying to guess what other forms Carnival could take when I saw a phrase that kinda scared me.

M0nster33: Ya know, he’s probably a Rathmurden. It would explain away a lot of the b******* that he pulls off.

xXxLIKLEYxXx: F*** off there are only two of those f****** left

Justifier200: YO! If I can get it through the overheads I could try to see if Cos’liix could recognize anything. could even say its a national security thing since carnival is a villain

ben_dover: WAIT ITS YOU! wouldnt it be easier to ask PrincessShifter? the like actually hero

Justifier200: Not really she’s in space rn. that and she didnt know who Cos’liix was until after his final rampage started. doubt she’d know if another of her race are still alive

xXxLIKLEYxXx: [user comment has been removed]

That one got me thinking, if there are people out there expecting me to be an alien race capable of so much more than what I can actually do, even with magic… especially a Rathmurden…

Gods, having PrincessShifter coming after the theater would be a nightmare. We would just have to hope that she’s too much of a good guy to try and take on BloodMerchant’s tactics.

There’s a reason he’s imprisoned twenty miles below the surface of the earth. Hopefully, if knowledge of my existence does get to him he doesn’t take interest in me.

Should I tell the others that this is a possibility? Wait, I should probably tell them that I’m alive first. Here I am worrying about my mental health when the others are probably worrying themselves into knots.

I finally get out from my ‘couch’ after what feels like a while, going slowly to get my costume off of the floor where I left it yesterday. It took more effort than I’d like to rip the pocket out of the pants pocket. Fishing around for my phone seemed to become an ordeal as well.

The battery's dead…

I stumbled my way over to my real still unmade bed and collapsed onto it. Then the next few seconds were spent fishing for a cord, and I once again lamented that I still had yet to get one long enough.

Being forced to hold the device in the air next to your bed when all you want to do is lay on your other side is only made more annoying when your arms hurt… Wow, that's a lot of messages… and a few different people have called once an hour for the past ten or so…

I started with the group chat, hoping I could get an idea of what was going on.

Choir: - Sable I just saw the news what happened?

- Sable?

- @Requiem hello?

Actress: - sorry she’s busy rn

- she had to put Reed under

- we think concussion

Choir: - I’ll ‘port in as soon as I can I just have to give Dr. Yancy a good excuse.

Fiesta: - is Archer there?

Choir: - Just don’t move Reed too much if you can.

Fiesta: - @Carnival u good?

- that last thing with IM looked so cool

Actress: - hes not answering my calls

- Archer’s tracker is at his place tho

Record: - Wait…

- why didn’t he port back?

Fiesta: - yeah why did he use his mini portal?

- looked like he struggled to open it too

- like

- it was v last second

Choir: - Just what in the thirteen hells happened!?!

- Is Archer injured too?

- @Actress I’m here

Actress: - upstairs in Reed’s room

Choir: - omw

- Where’s Doc?

- The basement is still set up.

Fiesta: - just checked Archer’s place

- his security is up

- we srsly need to figure out how to break in

That’s about where I got to when I was practically jump scared by a phone call from Taylor, I very begrudgingly answered.

“Oh thank you!” was the first thing I heard when I hit accept. “Would it have killed you to answer any earlier?”

“Um… Yes?” It was the first time I spoke since waking up, and a surprising amount of grogginess was present. But…

“Wow, what’s with your voice? Is that what you really sound like?” I was sort of caught off guard by that. But the resulting panic from Taylor was enough to lighten my mood. “It’s good, it's good! I really like the deeper double voice thing… even though you sound sick.”

“Nah I’m not sick ey. Just haven’t talked all day.” I let out a small quiet chuckle, “That and I overdid it…”

“Oh yeah, speaking of which, Faye is gonna want to look you over” Taylor cut herself off, leaving a pregnant pause, “... well, if you can manage something… it’s just… It would help Sable a lot to see you… at least okay…”

I let things hang for a moment. Thinking over whether I wanted to go over to Doc’s place. I could really use the help to get my magic back under control… It’s just that none of them have ever seen me look even remotely human before…

“Alright… I’ll be right over…” I said while cringing inwardly. From there I said goodbye to the other villain. Then quickly got ready to leave.

A nice short shower, and some time spent tying my hair back made me feel almost normal for a moment. A black and blue long-sleeve paired with my gray sweats and white sneakers helped cover up most of what was wrong. Some time spent stretching and gathering my stuff made me think that I could actually manage this for a bit.

I grabbed my pocket and stuffed it into my pocket, my masks going in as well even though I couldn’t wear them right now. Finally grabbing my phone with a pair of earbuds and I’m off.

Well… Once I clear off my notifications from my… notes… app… what? Why the hells would my notes app be giving me something like this? I don’t even use the thing…

So of course the new document stood out…

Via Oracle

Dear Carnival

I have been watching your progress for a while, ever since your little caper in Scotland. It has come to the point where I believe that it is beneficial to reach out and give you an important lead.

In the Royal Institute of Specialized Learning north of London there lies an artifact of great power that belongs to me. I want it back, and I am willing to pay you for this service, as well as assist you in offloading any other treasures you may procure.

I also believe that there happens to be a specific mask stored there as well. One much closer to manifestation than the one you stole during your last burglary at the museum.

I look forward to your expected response.

-GMLW

What the fu-