⇨ THE MASQUERADE

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

a. tuned in

[forkedroad]

Annabelle's been having a marvelous time all week. She's all sobered up by the time the masquerade comes around, and she's happy to have her wits about her. People are more engaging due to the set up of the party, and it's a more coherent opportunity for people watching.

She sees someone standing off to the side—he isn't the only wall flower she's seen this night, but there aren't a lot. She's had a few brief twirls with some strangers, which made her feel amused, embarrassed and giddy all at the same time, but now she's ready to stick by the wall again. So, she slinks through the crowd with purpose, then, losing all of her previous grace, she bumps her back against the wall where Lauren is. She cracks a smile at him, visible beneath the beak of her mask.

"With a mask and set like that, you nearly blend in with the wall. You do know the theme is anonymity, correct? Not invisibility," she teases. It sounds mean, sure, but her voice is bubbly with warm laughter that isn't malicious.

[mylastchance]

He's more amused than he is offended honestly. If he thought about it, she was right. His clothes, while fine, were particularly plain and there certainly wasn't any beak to be found on his own mask. The girl in front of him however, was a sight in a dress you could practically see through and a dark looking raven mask obscuring her face.

"Well my invisibility costume must not be working very well if it's caught your attention." It's a rude thing to say, perhaps not as rude as Annabelle's comment, but likewise he looks amused more than he does malicious, even if beneath his mask he's still blushing because of her outfit.

[forkedroad]

Annabelle has seen all sorts of varied nudity by now that her own partial nudity doesn't really register (not that she needed much encouragement in the first place); while plenty of her flesh is visible beneath the lace, it's harder to make out anything more sordid than that. Like many of the other attendees, Annabelle seems completely natural comfortable despite her attire, even if for her, it's not because of the graces of anonymity.

She smiles, then laughs jovially, her shoulders hiking a little. "You're right. Strange, isn't it?" She tilts her head, still grinning toothily. "Your plainness caught my eye, because it makes you stand out in a place like this. Not terribly corvine of me, I suppose."

[mylastchance]

He laughs at that, surprised by the joke. Most of the people he'd run into here hadn't seemed terribly witty, they'd mostly just seemed tired. Then again, he hadn't given anyone much chance to crack jokes with him either.

"I think they'll forgive you that one Miss Crow."

[forkedroad]

"Well, thank goodness for that," she says dramatically, steepling her fingertips together as she tilts her head back, kind of bumping her head on the wall with an exaggerated sigh of relief. She then looks pointedly at Lauren.

"What am I to call you, then? You're more like a shadow, but that seems as contrite as it does apt."

[mylastchance]

He looks away, feeling nervous, but he knows even if he does make a fool of himself to this crow tonight she'll have no way of knowing it's him in the future. If they even ever meet again. So instead of allowing himself to feel nervous he smiles.

"You'd rather I choose? I'm not sure that's a wise idea when you already dislike my choice of dress."

[forkedroad]

"I never said I disliked your choice of dress," Annabelle points out, lifting a finger. "Nor do I want you to choose. I was thinking out loud."

She tilts her head, pausing as she holds her chin while appraising Lauren. She laughs when she gets an idea. "Erysimum."

[mylastchance]

He laughs, apparently she was a rather bossy crow. He didn't mind it though. The name means nothing to him, but at least it isn't Sarah or something else obnoxious. He bow's as though in greeting.

"Then Erysimum it is." and he stands again, "It's a pleasure to meet a fine bird such as yourself."

[forkedroad]

Oh! Right, fancy customs and whatever. Annabelle laughs, especially with the perhaps unintended (and vanilla) double entendre, and she mirrors his bow with a curtsy, somehow managing the proper posture. She used to be sort of taught that kind of thing, when her parents were trying to pretend she wasn't a mess. Honestly, she thinks all that stuff is dumb and confusing, but right now it's silly and fun. It's like playing a role.

"Likewise," she retorts, unable to help another little laugh, because the whole thing feels so dumb. "So what's keeping your roots to the wall, then?" She asks, flattening her palm against it.

[mylastchance]

He smiles, feeling happy for having made her laugh, even if it was with something so silly. In answer to her question he shrugs.

"Here seemed as good a place as any." He looks around at the people all around him. "I like watching the dance."

As ubiquitous as it was, it's normally not the kind of thing he would actually say. He'd worry about how she might perceive the fact that he preferred watching to acting. He'd worry she'd think him dumb for standing back. Right now though, he couldn't care less.

[forkedroad]

"Mm." Annabelle nods, long, thin fingers curling just below her chin as she watches the crowd. She smiles again. "I do too. I don't really know how to dance, so I prefer to watch those who do." Her smile softens away. "People are so interesting to watch."

She'd never had opportunities for this, until she joined the carnival.

[mylastchance]

She's cute, he decides in that moment. Of course her features are obscured, and her dress impossible for him to look at without blushing, but there was something very charming about the way she curled her fingers under her chin as she watch the others in the crowd. Despite her words, he has the momentary desire to ask her to dance, and since this place is making him feel so relaxed, he does. He offers her his hand.

"I can't believe you're that bad." he comments, waiting for her to either accept his challenge or turn him down flat.

[forkedroad]

She looks at his hand—it's not so unexpected. She figures this is what people do in these things; everyone asks everyone to dance. And she's had plenty strangers ask to dance with her already, even if she did indeed turn down a few of them for no other reason than she didn't feel like it.

She looks up at him, then, and grins mischievously, grasping his hand in acceptance. In these circumstances, it's proper for the person in Annabelle's position to simply...lay their hand on top of the propositioner's, but how in Heaven's name would she know?

"And you are entitled to your beliefs. I suppose I shall prove it to you, then."

[mylastchance]

Her grasp doesn't bother him in the slightest, though it's a bit startling since it's not what he was expecting. He laughs, wondering if she was perhaps being obtuse on purpose to exemplify how wrong his thinking really was as far as her grace was concerned. He supposed crows weren't know for their grace anyway, but rather their cunning. Perhaps he should be wary for her tricks then, rather than her missteps.

"May the worst dancer win." he says with a soft smile as they move towards the dance floor. He knows the starting position well enough, somehow it's the same as many of the dances from his own world, though the steps are different. He may not be capable of much, but he can do a simple box step at least. His hand is on her waist, his other clasping her arm in traditional ballroom style.

"And stepping purposely on any's feet is instant disqualification."

[forkedroad]

And Annabelle knows how to position herself in a dance to be led, but that's mostly where her understanding ends. Her intuition is nonexistent when it comes to reading dance. As such, she moves into the box step easily enough, and she's grateful that for now, it's only that much.

She laughs, then squints at him through her mask with a trouble maker's smile. "I would never do such a thing," she says, feigning incredulousness. She glances down, then, watching Lauren's feet, trying to keep some focus on the dance.

"That's far too predictable."