lostcarnival | ⇨ THE MASQUERADE

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

Who: Everyone! Attendance is mandatory.
When: Late Day 65
Where: The Celebration
What: The Masquerade arrives, and so does the carnival's enemies. For more info, check out the Draculas 101.
Warnings: Further party hell. Also, vampire violence, mind control, etc.

THE HOST & THE HORDE↴

The time of the Masquerade arrives. You've been given free reign of the place up till now, but a few hours before the party commences the Host will inform you that your presence will be required, and will assist you (forcibly, if need be) to sort out any last minute costuming concerns you might have if you've left it until now. When masks and outfits are sorted, you'll be left to your own devices until you are summoned on the evening of Day 65.

The Masquerade will start off normally - relative to everything else in this place, at least. Everyone in the Celebration will be called in for this event, centered in a grand hall with side rooms offered to those that need them for whatever reasons might come up. The food and drink is especially ambrosia-esque this evening, and the music will stir your soul, even if you're not usually a music person. Enjoy it if you can - the peace won't last.

► MASKS: Though the masks seemed only mundane before, once within the Masquerade atmosphere, they will magically begin obscuring people's identities beyond what a normal mask should be able to do. When a person is wearing one, it would be supernaturally difficult to figure out who they are - maybe you forget what their voice should sound like, or maybe the other details escape you. Of course, it's possible to figure out if you look for it, based on general shapes and personality traits, but unless you know someone well it could be a challenge. Of course, you can just take your mask off and remove the enchantment entirely - though the Host will hassle you if they notice you going without. Stop ruining the party!

► TEMPTATION: Though it's felt easy to be whisked away by the draw of pleasure and luxury during the rest of the week, that feeling will seem to come to a head at the actual party. If you are aware of what needs to be resisted then it's possible to fight back and ignore it, but more than ever it feels all too easy to just dance your life away. Nobody seems to be dying from it, at least, or 'burning out' any faster as a result - it's mostly just extremely distracting from other concerns. Like vampires, for instance.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE↴
It's during the latter half of the party that things will start to go bad. Though it will go unseen by the carnival, the Masquerade has gained an additional set of guests - the vampire's of the demon lord that has been chasing them for the last several months. The Host doesn't discriminate, and anyone is welcome to attend the Celebration, provided they don't start a fight.

Right. About that.

► THE KINDRED: The vampires don't like to play fair, which means that they are going to be attacking with stealth and trickery - taking advantage of the way that the party has dulled the alertness of many of the carnival's workers. They'll be using that lack of inhibition to lure individuals into places they can be attacked or turned in private - their primary goals are to capture the Supervisors and to turn as many of the Ringmaster's workers as possible before escaping back to their dimension. Some of their targets will be gone before anyone has a chance to notice.

Remembering that they will be avoiding big public confrontations, so if anyone starts one of those it will probably by the carnival members striking back. This is going to wear on the Host's patience extremely quickly.

► COLD IRON: Oh, right, and they are definitely bringing iron weapons - as pure as they could get. They'll have things like iron collars or shackles to try to trap people with, as well as iron daggers and guns with iron bullets. They'll have to be on the down low with, but they are going to exploit that weakeness as much as possible. Those that have only been in the carnival a few months will mostly just feel discomfort at the touch of it - as if they are touching something that is slightly too hot or too cold. Veterans that have been around for years will find its touch to be burningly cold - the type of temperature that would threaten to destroy flesh after prolonged contact. Those that have been here for up to three years will take it the worst. See the Transformations page for more details!

► TURNING THE TABLES: Being turned is a mixture of pleasure and pain, and is often hard for mortals to mentally reconcile as it happens to them. Being drained by these vampires is simultaneously impossibly satisfying and extremely terrifying - once they've started in on your, the way it overwhelms your mind and body can make it nearly impossible to stop them without help. Once you are dead or dying, they will feed you their blood - at which point your body will go through a painful transformation as the demon spirit takes its place inside of you and your dead body is violently resurrected.

As soon as you wake up, freshly changed, the bloodlust will set it - it will be extremely hard to control, and at first all you will think about is wanting to sate that hunger. Combined with your sire having direct control if your mind through your blood connection, new vampires will be mostly incapable of doing anything but following the whims of the rest of the vampire pack and seeking nourishment. This blood lust will begin to fade after they've fed. Killing isn't necessary to feed, but it can be hard to stop yourself, as a neonate vampire.

► CLOSING TIME: Before the party is officially over, the Host will have had enough. Before you can pursue all of the vampires or take back the people they've stolen, the lot of them will have escaped back to their dimension, and the Host will have kicked the entire carnival out for participating in so much violence. If you want to make any final moves before you go, this is the time.

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before...

A masquerade party wasn't something Susan had been to before or even considered attending, but if it was happening he wasn't going to miss it. It hadn't taken him long to convince Fluff to wear a mask of her own, and since she was wearing a "human" mask, it didn't take him long to decide to wear a cat mask himself. Finished with a nice, brightly colored tunic and a cape (because it's awesome, okay), and he was ready to go.

He may have started off by staying by Lauren's side, but it didn't take long for him to wander off to see the food, drink, and whatever everyone else is up to. He's still as all over as before, still flitting from place to place as before. He's not dancing, per se, although if someone tried to get him to he would definitely try.

...and after

He didn't know what was going on, but he knew that something was wrong. Lauren was attacked, and even though he'd killed his attacker - burning her to nothing, turning her to ash in what was probably a very obvious display of fire magic - he still was worried; if there was one person attacking, who's to say there aren't more?

His clothes are burnt and tattered from the fireball he accidentally pulled down on himself, his neck has a darkening bruise from where she tried to strangle him, but it doesn't matter to him. He has to find Lauren, make sure he's safe; he has to find the people attacking, so on one else gets hurt. His familiar stays close as he runs through, trying to find someone to help, someone who knows where Lauren is, but everyone has masks and how can he find anyone?

He looks a mess, and his rushing around probably draws a lot of attention, but all that matters is finding his brother.

Even with the identity obscuring magic, Susan is somewhat recognizable. At least, his stature is, and Fluff is a little bit of a tell as well. Which is why, seeing him so frantic, with his clothing all singed, Annabelle reaches out—somewhat thoughtlessly, considering the circumstance, to gently touch his arm.

Annabelle has noticed the change in the energies of the room, being sensitive to its currents as it is given the nature of who and what she is; it's off, and it's tense. She hasn't been around this sort of danger, so she doesn't yet recognize that's what's happening. All the same, she has her own unease.

"Susan? Is that you?" she asks, pushing up her mask to look at him. More to clarify her identity to the young mage, really. "...Are you alright?"

He whirls around at the touch, one hand already raised to grab her back in an attack by the time she says his name. That makes him pause, and as soon as he sees her face he recognizes her, shaking his head at her question, his eyes wild.

"I'm okay, but, Lauren isn't! I don't know what happened but he's hurt and he ran away from me!!"

Annabelle blinks, then furrows her eyebrows. She'd, uh, kinda forgotten about Lauren, even though she had just danced with him a couple of hours ago unknowingly; it just didn't seem like his scene.

So far, Annabelle has the impression these two are always getting away from each other at the worst times. Her eyes scan the crowd, and without thinking, she holds onto Susan's wrist.

"How are you to find him? It's impossible to distinguish individuals at the moment."

He doesn't pull away, honestly happy to have found someone to try and help him, enough that he doesn't think to pull back or leave. At her question he shakes his head again, looking away to scan the crowd himself.

"I'll know him, he's my brother... I know what he's wearing and so, there's no way I'll miss him." He hopes, at least. It's the only lead he has.

Annabelle feels some doubt, but she doesn't know if it's productive to express as much.

"If there's danger, then allow me to accompany you."

Then again, she isn't sure how she can help him look, with this enchantment.

"If you told me how he looks, would I be able to recognize him? Or shall I just follow your lead?"

At that point, it would be less helping Susan look and more being his backup, but it's better than nothing...

"Well... I can tell you, and you can try. He's got a green tunic and a black mask and... And he's acting weird, so I don't know if he'll still be being shy, or if he's doing something else, I don't know..." He pauses as he thinks.

"Fluff can probably still recognize his scent, I think. I don't think I have any magic that can find him, but maybe you do?" He finally looks back at her again, hoping she has something she can do. Because even if he's pretty sure he can recognize Lauren, he'd prefer to find him sooner rather than later.

That doesn't make her feel optimistic, but she's nothing if not recklessly determined.

"None that would help us here," she says. "If I knew him better, or had the appropriate tools, then maybe... But as it stands, I suppose we'll have to do our best without.

"When you say he's acting weird, what do you mean? Perhaps that will highlight his presence in a crowd."

"Um..." He doesn't really want to think about it, but it's important, so he does anyway.

"He was dancing, with a girl, but then she attacked him and then he started screaming and then he growled at me and told me to get away and then he just... Ran away."

Annabelle looks baffled. She doesn't know Lauren well enough to discern anything from that.

"Alright. Aggressive, then, perhaps. Let's stay within one another's sights," she says, prompting the start of their search. "If you lose sight of me, call for me. Loudly. I shall do the same."

It all makes perfect sense to him, so he doesn't think that it might not to someone else. The dancing with someone in the first place was weird enough, but for him to yell at Susan like that? He knows there must just be something wrong with him, but it still hurts.

Still though, he nods at her suggestion. It seems reasonable enough.

"Okay... I can do that. Oh, and make sure to look out for bad guys too! If there's one, there might be others! Although that one's dead now..."

Annnabelle blinks, sort of startled by this information.

"Hold on a moment," she insists, sliding her mask back down. She leans forward, peering at Susan. "Bad guys? The woman? She's dead?"

Now it was looking more like there were possibly several assaults... Also, did one of the two brothers just fucking murder somebody? What?

"She wouldn't attack him if she wasn't a bad guy! And I had to kill her, she hurt Lauren and she was hurting me!" The fact that she stopped by that point doesn't matter, he had to stop her so she couldn't keep hurting people. Anything otherwise doesn't even occur to him.

Annabelle takes his wrists softly, shushing him gently. She understands his urgency, but doesn't want to draw undue attention if there's indeed some sort of violent conspiracy. ...Also, you know, yelling about how you killed someone generally does not go over well. She's surprised to learn it's Susan who did it, as well.

"I'm not saying you were wrong, Susan," she says evenly. "Without these details, I was misunderstanding the severity of the situation. Alright?"

She stands up straight, releasing one of his wrists.

"Let's find that poor dull brother of yours, then."

He does calm when she takes his wrists, looking down at the ground as the anger and upset fades again into worry and fear. He only nods at her words, taking a moment to look back up at her after she's done.

"...Okay. Let's go."

She's relieved when he seems to simmer down, and she mirrors his nod, giving him a small, encouraging touch on his back, right behind his shoulder.

She stays close with Susan, at first, feeling more than a little anxiety. And maybe a little excitement, as inappropriate as that was—there was a stimulating thrill to the danger, but the unease was definitely just as present, and largely so.

She sifts through people, slipping between and around them with ease despite being usually rather ungraceful, and she keeps her eyes on Susan the best she can all the while. It's difficult, though; almost dizzying, looking for his brother. The attendees are almost indiscernible.

And unfortunately, Annabelle is looking rather distracted.

His wing twitches under his shirt when she brushes against it, but he doesn't say anything. Honestly without Lauren here it's nice to have a bit of comfort like that.

Normally Susan would be distracted, too, but his brother takes priority over everything else, his desire to make sure he's safe helping him to stay focused and not get swayed by the magic of the place. He doesn't even really notice Annabelle getting distracted, either, too focused on what he's doing... But that doesn't mean Fluff doesn't notice, and the cat stays close to her instead of to Susan, brushing against her leg to try and get her attention back. She isn't very helpful for finding people, so she'll do what she can by helping the person helping Susan.

"Oh!" Annabelle jumps when she feels Fluff brush against her leg, and she lifts her hands. "The cat."

Having been brought back to her immediate surroundings, rather than looking all about the distance, a figure recedes through the folds of the crowd. Annabelle doesn't notice.

As she continues to search, a few people compliment her dress—a beautiful woman touches and lifts her jaw, in passing, and she feels for a moment, somewhat intoxicated by the touch and the attention... But she continues onward. Even when strangers stroke her wrists for dances, and Annabelle feels a strange pull; she's fortunate they aren't sinking their hooks in very deep, their efforts very shallow, but she does notice it's strange. She's never felt enticement with that sort of thing, before. The reaction feels very unnatural to her.

At some point, she incidentally reconverges with Susan.

"Have you had any luck?" She looks uncomfortable for a moment, resting a hand on her own shoulder. "Strangers won't stop fondling me for dances." People were kind of touchy-feely at the celebration, sure, but she never felt such strange responses; she'd been as unaffected by it as a passing breeze, before. "Irritating."

After a bit Fluff walks off to try and search on her own, leaving Annabelle to her own devices. She isn't any more successful than Annabelle or Susan, though; Susan, for his part, is good at focusing and not getting distracted, but he's too short to easily see through the crowd, and not strong enough to push his way through easily, and so finding his brother proves to be an impossibility.

By the time he runs into her again, he's looking more upset than before, and he shakes his head a little.

"I don't know, I can't find him... What if something's happened to him?"

Something had already happened to him. But Annabelle, again, doesn't point this out—even she has a modicum of social awareness in these situations, especially around a child.

"We haven't been searching for very long," Annabelle reassures Susan. "I understand why your head is going there, but try not to think about that. Try not to think that way."

Her gears are turning, trying to think of a different way to do this. A different way to find Lauren. There has to be something more productive than trying to move through this nebulous wave of grabbing hands and murmuring laughs, faces and voices all indistinct and useless.

He nods, but it's probably obvious he's still worried, even if he doesn't voice his concerns. Still though he glances around the room while he tries to see again if he can find him. It's still hopeless, though, and he stops after a moment.

"Lauren's strong... I'm sure he can take care of himself." He doesn't really sound too sure about it, but it's all he can think of right now.

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

susan \\ ota

after

Re: after

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that icon is painful, how dare you

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