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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► One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer

The costume party was the only thing of the future that Papyrus has managed to remember and plan for, possibly because it's important to the Host. Whatever the reason, between his own preparation, suggestions from friends, and forceful assistance from the Host, he arrives in a glowing, skeletal saber-toothed tiger costume that comes together to look something like this. He took artistic liberties with it, and stuck to the short dress so his tail could move freely.

While he's drawn to drink and dance, the influence of the feline mask and the mystery of everyone's identities has him following random people around, half-way to wanting to pounce on them. Papyrus settles on tugging at people's shoulders and laughing, exclaiming "tag" if they say anything, and twirling off into a cluster of dancers. With all those glowing rings on his tail, he's not hard to follow.

► You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

The time after the Foreman's radio announcement is the worst part of the stay. Fights can be very fun, but fights where people are genuinely afraid for their lives, or even more afraid for their minds? Not fun at all.

Papyrus wakes up enough to the situation worry for missing friends and family, then run around the halls in search of them. After all, he's tough and seemingly immune, at least to the vampirism.

Anyone still in the grand hall, or the hallways around it and the dining hall, here's your chance to encounter a loud, leaping skeleton. He waves down everyone he recognizes, running up to them to try to get them to go join the rest of the crew.

If they attack him, well... He is the Warden's brother. It's possible that, by now, he already saw Sans get captured... and it's possible that the older vampires will recognize those attacks.

Edited 2017-02-27 23:07 (UTC)

Viktor is wearing a pretty typical raven mask, the black feathers sticking out in every which direction, decorated by very bright sequins. When he's tagged by Papyrus, he's a bit tipsy, so he naturally plays along. And much like the bird whose mask he is wearing, he caws back at the stranger before following after him, almost tripping on other guests along the way.

You'd think a bird wouldn't chase after a "tiger." Oh well. "Wait, come back! That's not fair!" He's laughing despite it all, trying to "trick" the other person to come back out of fairness.

Papyrus hesitates before one of the crowds, turning to look back. Viktor's good insight, or maybe just good fortune, strikes true; "What's not fair?" he calls out. He's not going to return to his tagging victim's location, but his voice is loud and recognizable, and he's still wearing glowing things.

Although that's the point of the game, to tag someone and then run away, Viktor still views it as unfair in his tipsy state. He tries to follow Papyrus through the mass of bodies, but it's difficult. The glowing does help things, though. "Come back!" he repeats through a laugh.

"That's not an answer!" Papyrus protests, ducking around a column and bypassing a kissing couple in a slightly shadowed area. "I can hear you just fine!"

"But I can't hear you!" Which is a lie because he's responding perfectly. He nearly collides with one of the waiters. "Come closer!"

It's a lie, but Papyrus is drunk and concerned about playing according to the rules. He's actually falling for it, idling in place to think it over. "Are you supposed to hear each other in tag??"

It's been a while since Lambert's encounter with the Warden in the hallways, and the timeless, celebratory atmosphere has certainly soured for him. He's directed as many of the other Carnival members to the dining hall as he can, escorting them forcibly if necessary, but their numbers seem too sparse and they're drawing too much attention.

Case in point: the leaping skeleton that he's somehow missed running into all this time. By now, Lambert's hair is tousled and wild, out of the mask, and he's still nursing a headache thanks to the budding horns that were trapped under the leather. He's liberated an iron epee from one of the vampires -- it's useless for cleaving them in half, but it's certainly effective at stabbing, if the sheen of ichor on it is any indication. The encounter is a temporary respite from the seemingly endless encounters with small and large groups of the vampires prowling the halls, and he'll straighten when Papyrus approaches.

"Where the hell've you been?" Warm as ever.

Edited (IDK WHY I SMALLSED THAT) 2017-03-02 18:33 (UTC)

Papyrus' leaping antics probably haven't done much to help keep him safe; that's made him a difficult target, but not an impossible one. He's managed to get by with only a couple of fights, but mostly thanks to the facts that he's maskless and so obviously completely bloodless, not a supervisor, and not landing any killing blows. The fact that he's paying more attention to his radio thank picking fights might have sold the sense that he's not a threat. Even now it's softly going off, full of unhappy chatter as people report their safe arrivals to the main group and check on those who haven't shown up.

He comes to a graceful enough landing, bouncing a couple times as he slows and stops by Lambert. "Have you been looking for me? I've been, well, everywhere!"

Even having avoided much combat, he's not untouched by the fights; his outfits has a few tears and holes in it,at least one of which a bullet hole that missed thanks to the miracles of skeleton physiology. And despite stopping here to chat, he keeps moving. Tapping a foot, glancing around them, fidgeting his hands into fists.

"No I haven't," Lambert says automatically. It's half a lie; he wouldn't say he's been looking for Papyrus specifically, but he'd be lying if he said his roommate wasn't at least one of the people he thought of first. Now that it's immediately obvious that he's hale and hearty, however, he'll go right back to being annoyed.

And he's fidgety.

"Shouldn't you be in the dining hall with the rest of the others?"

"I already went there!" Papyrus exclaims as if that's enough, as though it's a point off a checklist to complete, rather than a gathering point for safety in numbers. But maybe he does realize that, as he goes on to lower his voice. "I don't have blood, so there's no point in anybody biting me. And... there's still people missing. I don't want anyone else... taken."

... Good point. He hadn't actively considered the advantages being a skeleton might bring.

"Can you fight? A special attack would be a good thing to have on our side right now." It's a weak joke -- but his memory recalls it pretty well, still, the sight of that strange, floating skull.

Tamaki is just going up to get some more food when suddenly he feels someone grab onto his shoulders. He turns, saying, "What?" but the culprit is running off, yelling "Tag!" over his shoulder, and, well.

Tamaki does like games.

He chases after the glowing tail of the perpetrator, but is stopped by the dancers. It's hard to get through them by running, but there is another way.

He begins to dance after Papyrus, sailing around the floor to try to get to him.

Having dodged around the clusters of dancers, Papyrus glances around and sees no sign of anybody beelining towards him as someone playing tag would.

Alas, it seems he's won yet another game of tag by virtue of having surprised the competition too thoroughly! Perhaps they would do better the next time. And, thinking such premature thoughts of victory, he hops a little excited victory dance.

And just as he's started celebrating, Tamaki twirls up behind him, lunging to clap his own hands on Papyrus's shoulders this time.

(He does have to wonder why Papyrus looks so scary, though. He didn't think it was that kind of costume party.)

"Tag!"

"Oh my god!"

Papyrus jumps, and his tail stiffens as if to make up the lack of bristling hair. He twists to look over his shoulder.

"How did you catch me so quickly?"

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

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you can't stay here (no seriously you can't)

(not that you'd want to anymore)

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One last call

Re: One last call

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