⇨ THE CELEBRATION

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone, especially YOU.
When: Day 60 - Day 65
Where: The Celebration
What: The carnival workers are invited to spend the week within the realm of the Celebration, the grounds of a party that has been going on for centuries. Accommodations are luxurious, but those with keen instincts might notice something off about this whole arrangement... (Questions can go to the original setting post!)
Warnings: Booze, drugs, sex, and everything in between.

THE CELEBRATION↴ If you observe that the layout of the Celebration grounds seem inconsistent, then you would be correct. In reality, what lies at the end of each corridor depends largely on what the guests of the Celebration want at the time - if a few people find themselves craving a drink, a bar may appear. If a group finds themselves wanting to dance, a club will open up. This goes on at all hours of the night, and given how many dedicated partiers fill the building, the services are well used. It isn't instantaneous, and the Host has to consciously decide to provide that service, but the changes are fast none-the-less. ► ROOMS: Each trailer pair will be assigned a room to themselves - whether or not it has two double beds or a single king sized bed seems essentially random. Hopefully you aren't too sensitive about keeping that space to yourself. The curtains at the far side of the room don't actually lead outside, but instead to a walk-in closet filled with the Host's best guesses at the type of clothing you might like. They may not hit the nail on the head, but at the very least all the clothing will be in your size. The styles could be just about anything, from any universe, but they do tend to average out to clothing that is Earth-ish. Either that, or clothing that looks like they are meant for elves from a high fantasy novel to wear. ► SHOPPING: If none of your pre-picked outfits tickle your fancy, plenty of boutiques and clothing shops can also be found around the grounds - whatever you're thinking of, you'll probably be able to find a shop appropriate for it eventually. Though, maybe it doesn't really count as shopping if you don't have to pay for any of the things you take back to your room with you? Unfortunately, from the sounds of it, you won't be allowed to drag all of your haul back to the carnival with you, so you better enjoy it while you can. ► DINING: There is no daily schedule to follow, after you arrive. You are free to attend the dining room whenever you wish, and will be seated at large round tables with whoever else may be around at the time, and can either order from the menu or most dishes you may think of off the top of your head. If you don't like the fine dining experience, there are also a selection of smaller cafes and eateries that open and close at varying times of day - and, of course, you can always call for room service. ► ENTERTAINMENT: There is plenty of live music around the grounds (not that you can ever seem to remember who the performers were afterwards) whether it comes to harp music while you eat or a full set of DJs in the club you found. If you are inclined to look for them, you may also find some cozy lounges with big screen TVs, and access to a multi-universal quantity of films. What's there or isn't there is unpredictable, but if you come from a standard variety of Earth you probably recognize some of them. ► SUBSTANCES: You don't have to be coy about it - just ask one of your servers, and you'll be able to get whatever kind of vices you might be craving. Drugs, alcohol, ice cream... it's all good. If this sounds like a nightmare for potential addicts, you would be correct. It's not uncommon to see people clearly over-indulging in certain locations, though guests are usually escorted back to their rooms if they take ill - only to see them back at it again the next day. ► SPA DAY: If you'd like to take a swim, pools of various aesthetics are easy to find. So are hot tubs, and saunas, and Host servants who are willing to give you a massage or manicure. If the party crowd isn't your scene, there are plenty of more low-key opportunities to indulge. ► GREENSPACE: There is one park area on the grounds, which appears to be constructed on the rooftops of other parts of the complex. While there are trees and greenery, there is no real sky that you can see - only the illusion of one. It may start to occur to you over time that no window or rooftop actually leads to any kind of outdoors. The Celebration really is there only thing here. These are really just examples, and you can get creative with what kind of services you find offered while here, when it comes to generally mundane comforts. It really feels like the Host wants to win you over, as if you staying just a little longer has some sort of intrinsic appeal.

Comments

Jonathan Strange | open!

[kingsroads]

days 60-62: exploring
The first two days Strange spends exploring. After all, new place! New things to explore and new things to try out! He wants to take in as much of the Celebration as possible, so everything's taken in bite-sized chunks, Strange staying at one place for a few hours or so before boredom or his lack of an attention span draw him somewhere else instead.

The entertainment section is...interesting? Truth be told, everything's a little bit too loud and a little bit too noisy and Strange is a little too old-fashioned for some aspects of the celebration. The most he'll do is play a few rounds of Skee Ball and try to cheat at a few more rounds of Skee Ball. Needless to say, Strange can be found arguing with some poor Host servant at some point because no, he wants to know if there's a library, surely a place this vast and interesting had to have books, right? Needless to say, the gossip magazines that get shoved at him aren't what Strange expects when he thinks of 'reading material', but he'll read Fantasy Cosmo all the same.

He'll try a little bit of everything food, drink, and substance wise, mostly because hey! New experiences! Why not! Just ignore the fact that your drink was supposed to have a pineapple ring in it, huh, where'd that go, Strange certainly has no idea, it's not like he magically made the pineapple vanish because he's ridiculously petty and has got a bit of a thing against the fruit.

days 63-65: here comes the grump police
Strange's absent-mindedness has worked for everybody's benefit during this event. Because whoops, he straight up left that cursed object he bought in Atlantis back at the Carnival. Good news? Of course, that still doesn't change the fact that he's got a nagging little voice in the back of his head telling him hey, might be a good idea to check on that cursed object in the first place except wait a moment, these people won't let him leave the damn Celebration, even for a few moments.

Needless to say, it's been a few days in and Strange is all over the emotional spectrum. The occasional reminders about that blackened ointment act as a cold dash of water to whatever wonderful mood Strange gets in, souring his mood completely. He'll turn on a dime from zero to a hundred back to zero real quick. Right now, he's more on the grumpy end of things. If he could just check on things back in his trailer then surely he would feel better, right? After all, he doesn't want to feel this irritable...does he?

As he spots someone he knows, he waves them over with a frown. "Are you sure there's no way for us to return to the Carnival? It would just be for a moment, I simply need to check on something I left."

wildcard!
come at me y'all, it's a wildcard

you goddamn pineapple thief

[whattaprick]

At this point, Lambert is comfortably boozed, but not so much so that he doesn't notice when something is missing. Like the little yellow ring of ... something that was floating in his violently pink cocktail. He squints at it suspiciously, using the plastic straw to cautiously poke at it (he hadn't used it all night, setting it aside to quaff his girly drink like a grown man).

"Hey," he drawls, using his elbow to nudge Strange roughly. They are, despite the hour, in a remarkably accurate depiction of a tropical beach -- not that Lambert would know what that looks like, never having been to one in his life. Despite the brilliance of the light, he doesn't seem to be developing actual sunburn, possibly because it's coming from a round globe installed in a painted sky overhead. The sound of gently crashing surf is being piped through unseen speakers, and a wave pool is generating remarkably convincing waves.

And yes, he's lost his shirt again.

"Hey," he nudges Strange again, heedless of whether or not he responded the first time. "What happened to my drink?"

it's not HIS fault they're an awful awful fruit

[kingsroads]

They're an odd sight, shirtless Lambert sitting next to fully dressed, super 1800s, these tacky sunglasses are one of the few signs that show I can have fun Jonathan Strange. Because look, the clothing options in both shopping and the rooms show a little bit too much skin for his taste, we're going to be fairly covered up, thank you very much.

He is barefoot though (shock and horror!) mostly because it feels nice to squish the sand beneath his toes. He'll allow himself that little indulgence.

When Lambert nudges him the second time, Strange lowers his sunglasses enough so that he could look at the man eye to eye. "What?" Oh, his drink. Strange can't help but look a little smug as he looks from Lambert to the drink then back to Lambert again. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. Whatever it is, it'll certainly taste better now that the pineapple has gone." The word 'pineapple' is said in the same tone of disgust that most would reserve for something like 'roadkill' or 'politicians.'

[whattaprick]

Wow, that's super reassuring. Lambert's worries are definitely put at rest!

"What's a p-- p--" He pauses, squints to reorient himself, and focuses. "A pineapple?" How did Strange know imwhat it was, and more importantly, why did he fail to mention this to him? What an asshole. Anyway, it sounds exotic and exciting, and he's definitely even more disappointed he didn't get to have it now.

"It's the principle of the thing. I was saving that," he complains at no one in particular. frowning sadly into his now-emptied glass. And he perks up. "Hey, I can just get another one!" He starts to scramble to his feet, shedding sand everywhere.

[kingsroads]

"A pineapple," Strange responds, adjusting his sunglasses somewhat as he squishes some more sand between his toes. "It's a fruit from my world and it's absolutely horrid." Or, at least, in Strange's eyes it's absolutely horrid. When you hallucinate fruits during a spell of madness, you end up actively hating them.

As Lambert gets to his feet, Strange can't help but sigh dramatically, getting to his feet as well for...some reason. Sitting around on the beach is nice, but honestly, it can be a little bit boring. If Lambert's going to explore some different aspect of the Celebration then Strange might as well tag along. Besides, he needs to keep the other man from making bad drink decisions.

"Can't you get something else instead?" Strange complains. Apparently it hasn't entered his mind that just because he tremendously dislikes something, that doesn't mean that everybody else dislikes it as well.

[whattaprick]

"Wow, what did pineapple ever do to you? Seduce your wife?" Lambert rolls his eyes, setting his hands to his bare hips, and purses his lips as he considers the beach. He's still not great at this, but he's starting to get the hang of how the celebration changes to suit their moods and desires.

He glances over at Strange and grins, suddenly. "You know, I still haven't actually seen your magic." Because spying on people doesn't really count as sorcery, in his opinion, that's just being a creep.

He gestures down at the 'beach' beneath them. "There's plenty of sand here."

You're ruining the cheating for the rest of us

[thevictoriandetective]

The detective stumbled over to that section of the arcade, putting out his cigarette on top of a nearby Mortal Kombat game plucked fresh out of the early 1990's. He looked different--not because of his scales, mind, but his attitude. He was either mad or on several mind-altering substances. Probably both.

"Hey! Stop that!"

Sherlock scowled and threw a skee ball towards the man next to him who was obviously cheating at the game. He didn't even look to see who it was. It was hard enough with these stupid claws and webbed fingers. He was entitled to cheat, himself.

[kingsroads]

Look, there's nothing in the game rules that say you can't use magic to make the skee ball land exactly where you want it. In Strange's eyes, he's simply testing the limitations of the game. If they didn't want people to use magic, then they should have made it more explicit that he shouldn't use magic!

Needless to say, he's not expecting Sherlock and certainly isn't expecting that skee ball to connect with his shoulder with a audible thump. Strange turned around, mirrored eyes glinting due to all the arcade lights as he came face to face with Sherlock.

"Oh good Lord."

It was this guy.

"I hope you weren't the one who threw that ball. I don't know what this celebration does to punish troublemakers and I doubt any of us want to find out."

[thevictoriandetective]

"I was totally the one who threw the ball," Sherlock held another in his claws, rolling his eyes, his normally posh accent clipped and juvenile. He smirked though, tossing the ball up and down. "Whatcha gonna do about it?" He grinned like a petulant child.

Besides, there were tickets to be had and stupid prizes to win. Not that he cared about teddy bears but it seemed like the prizes shifted to what he wanted the next time he looked at the counter. Clothes his size, a few books on crime, a glass display of dead butterflies, a bison skull...

[kingsroads]

What is he going to do about it. Now there's a question. Because again, he doesn't want to test the limits of this place. But wow is Sherlock so many different kinds of annoying.

So what he's going to do about it is apparently be equally petty. He has the incantation at the ready, after all. With a gesture of his hand, Strange called forth a small gust of wind directed at Sherlock...or more specifically, that ball he's tossing up and down, intent on magically knocking it out of his hand.

[thevictoriandetective]

The ball is knocked from his hand and goes flying back at the game, bouncing off the side and rolling away.

"H...hey, you did that on purpose!"

One of his finest deductions.

Shelrock must retaliate. The detective scrunched up his face and sent his chameleon-like forked tongue flying at one of the balls in Strange's game, in an attempt to grab it and yank it back over to his own.

beep beep grump olice

[pipers_son]

It feels.... a little strange to see, well, Strange in such a mood, and that would have Joker venture on over even if the magician hadn't waved him down. There's not even a chance for him to ask what the problem is before he's being told, and he raises an eyebrow up.

For some reason, he has a really bad feeling about this.... No wonder Childermass is like he is.

"Not until the Ringmaster say we're done here," he answers, giving a small 'what can you do?' sort of shrug. "I could always try and find her, 'course, but what's got ya all worked up, exactly?"

[kingsroads]

He can't help it: as soon as Joker mentions that they can't leave until the Ringmaster says so, Strange lets out an annoyed sigh of irritation. Great. How wonderful, just what he needed to hear. All he wanted to do was just see that ointment, to make certain that it was okay, just to look at it for a moment or two and then he'd be fine.

"I left something back at the Carnival," Strange explains, still fairly grumpy. "It's nothing life-threatening, I simply want to make certain it's still there."

[pipers_son]

...Is it drugs? Joker really hopes it’s not drugs. Zecora doesn’t need this kind of thing to stress over; he has a feeling she’s not happy about this place to start with.

“Well, if it’s in the carnival, then it’s likely there ain’t much that’s gonna bother it or steal anythin’,” he says, which is mostly true. With how the Ringmaster banished all of those Agents from the Matrix, it shouldn’t be too hard to believe that. “No need ta worry, right?”

[kingsroads]

"Logically, I see your point." After all, what could get in the Carnival without the Ringmaster knowing? No, the ointment was probably going to just stay there, sitting on the floor of his bedroom where he left it. But what if it wasn't? After all, he bought that with money earned fair and square but it obviously had some sort of magical power. Maybe the Ringmaster would want it for herself! No, it would be safer if it was here with Strange, in the Celebration, away from prying eyes but dammit, he can't go back and get there in the first place.

Strange let out an aggravated sigh, the sigh of a man who has obviously just ran through scenario after scenario in his mind and come up with nothing satisfying.

"Emotionally though, I'd feel much more comfortable were the item in question here with me."

[pipers_son]

Curiously, Joker watches Strange get all the more worked up, although in a quiet muffled sort of way. “Just what’s got you of all people fussin’ about it?” he asked, unable to help himself. In a way, he supposed it was his business, as Strange’s immediate boss, but mostly the stage manager was just curious.

time for the weirdest role reversal......... call it day 64?

[mossbuds]

Lars lifts his mask a little to peek at Strange when he notices someone waving him over. Shockingly, Lars's face actually lights up—he hasn't seen Strange the whole Celebration, so far! And it's been days, probably.

He walks over to Strange a little unsteadily, bumping into a couple people on the way, and he slides his mask up, boggling at Strange inquisitively—after all, it had looked like Strange had something to tell him.

Lars pauses after Strange asks his question, then laughs in his face with a shrill guffaw. He recovers, still rattling off a few dorky giggles. "Who cares! Wouldya just friggin' relax? It'sa party, man. Y'creepy magic stuff ain't goin' nowhere."

they'll just look back at this like "yeah that was weird"

[kingsroads]

Strange just responds to Lars's laughing by silent fuming. 'Friggen relax', well he really wants to, okay? And the fact that he's trying (and failing!) to relax is irritating him about as much as the fact that he left the cursed ointment back at the carnival. Because hoo boy does he want to relax. This entire place is telling him to relax and yet that constant nagging reminder of how he wants to just check on the ointment isn't helping.

"I'm trying," he grumbles, glaring at Lars. "And if people let me leave for just a moment, I'm certain I actually could relax." But wait a moment, creepy? He looks genuinely annoyed for a second before the grumbly frown reappears.

"And my 'magic stuff' is hardly creepy," he says, knowing full well that he's talking about a cursed item. Jonathan Strange = big hypocrite!

like i said.....lars is retconning this whole event when its over...

[mossbuds]

"S'hardly not creepy," Lars corrects smugly, lifting his eyebrows as he smiles with his teeth. "Anyway, y'can't go back fer now. Jya leave the stove on'r somethin'?" Lars is joking, of course, to be an asshole. "S'fine, dude. Or at least... haha, there's nothin' y'can do, so y'might as well enjoy it. Y'know. At least..." a slight slur there, and Lars straightens up as if it's an issue of posture. "—from the good ol'—magical, scientific standpoint, right?"

Lars elbows Strange in the arm, very deliberately making a point. There's been so many times Lars has been imploding from stress of the supernatural variety while Strange was barely reigning in his poetic waxings of the freaky shit that was going down. Feels good to have that perspective at the moment, Lars decides.

"Loosen up, buddy."

forgetting things is an a+ method of coping

[kingsroads]

Part of Strange is aware of how surreal this situation is, that his teenage trailermate is the one telling him to loosen up and enjoy this place. He just wants to glare at Lars and tell him that he keeps trying to enjoy the place, that he desperately wants to enjoy this world, but every time he does, some new thought creeps in to squash that happiness.

"You seem to be fairly loosened up as is," he remarks, as if that's a good enough answer to Lars's question. Because hoo boy, he can smell the alcohol on Lars's breath plain as day. "Whatever you've been drinking, I hope it was at least good."

Since being in the Carnival, Strange has learned that the future has some weird beverages. Whipped cream flavored vodka currently ranks highest on the 'oh god this is an abomination who came up with this shit' scale.

YEA

[mossbuds]

"It was a lot of stuff," Lars says matter-of-factly, thankfully very easily and immediately derailed due to said inebriation. "And it was all delicious."

He narrows an eye suspiciously, crossing his arms with a little sway.

"C'mon, how is it I'm havin' fun and y'ain't havin' fun?" Lars gestures grandly to the festivities, almost hitting a passer-by in the beak of their mask. He doesn't notice. "This place is fuggin' lit!!"

Skee ball antics :V

[musicinmotion]

This place was rather fascinating in both a good way and a bad way. There was an energy in the air that was intoxicating even if Yuuri couldn't really put a name to it but, at the same time, it was a bit..unsettling being here. In the first two days alone he'd been offered a lot of questionable things that he had politely waved off, doing his best to just get a feel for the layout of the place and sticking close to Victor when he could.

It was towards the end of the second day that he found himself in the entertainment areas, specifically one that was full of all sorts of games and he ended up stumbling upon someone he'd only gotten a chance to speak to over the network--

Someone that was obviously trying to cheat which had Yuuri muffling a laugh.

"I'm not really sure that's how you're suppose to play."

[kingsroads]

Considering that Strange had been levitating one of the skee balls precisely so that it would land in the highest point value hole, it is definitely not how you're supposed to play. With a flick of his wrist, the ball lands precisely in the small 50 point hole as he turns to Yuuri with a triumphant little smile.

"Whether it's how you're supposed to play or not, it's how I've decided to play. After all, if they didn't want me to play this way, they would have designed the game better." That little smile makes it perfectly apparent that Strange knows he's cheating and knows that he's being difficult for the sake of being difficult.

[musicinmotion]

Yuuri grins, arms coming up so he can cross them.

"Considering it was designed by people without the ability to do what you can do..." He's not chastising the other. Hell, if anything he just sounds extremely amused about the entire situation. And looks it.

"How many tickets do you have now?" A pause before he gives the game a curious look. "Or does it not give tickets out? I haven't tried any of the games yet so I'm not sure how they work here."

[kingsroads]

"Truth be told, I've only been playing this one. A lot of these games I've no idea how they would work to begin with." The hunting games seem easy: aim at the screen and fire. But the racing games, the rhythm games, as well as any sort of touchscreen based Fruit Ninja style games, Strange has just been keeping away from. He wants to have fun and, at least with this, the fun games are the games he understands how they work. At least with skee ball, the objective is fairly simple and fairly obvious.

"But it does give out tickets—which you can apparently use to buy prizes?" Something that Strange is definitely interested in. "Is that true for all sorts of arcades or just the one here?"