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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"He did it to himself," Sherlock said, keen eyes attempting to deduce...

Oh blast. Another one.

He'd have to talk his way out of this one, he had a chance now that the kid was down and out.

"Look, I'm sure you're not interested in me. He can just sleep it off, or whatever you vampires do."

Sherlock finished wrapping up his wrist, pretending not to care about Jamie, and tried to walk away, out of the alcove.

"Don't be so down on yourself," Irvine says amiably. His own eyes narrow thoughtfully as he takes in Sherlock's physical features. "I happen to think you're very interesting."

With his mind he reaches out to investigate Sherlock's, trying to see if those bestial changes are more than skin deep. If they are, Irvine will be able to halt Sherlock in his tracks - more than that, the snakeman will follow his every command.

Sherlock's keeping all his bestial instincts locked up in his mind. He'd been changed into a chameleon awhile back and the instincts were quite frankly, something he never wanted to experience again. The more snake-like he'd become, the stronger they grew, but locked up, he was able to repress and ignore them. At this point he hardly gave it a thought.

"I'm really not."

"Sure you are." Irvine comes a few steps closer, hands folded behind his back, to nudge Jamie with his foot. The boy groans weakly in response. "Probably a lot more interesting than this brat."

He looks up at Sherlock, probing more deeply, more insistently, to see what kind of instincts lie inside that scaly head and draw them out. "I mean, it's true you're not gonna win any beauty contests," he says diplomatically. "But you and I know that it's what's inside that counts."

Inside his Mind Palace, inside those locked doors, was a giant, coiled up snake. It was dormant for now, but wary, its suspicion and territorialness ready to strike at any threat. He was hungry too, desperate for meat, Sherlock had not been eating properly this week. The snake was only too eager to hunt, and carve out a nice sunny spot to rest in.

"Please," Sherlock scoffed, narrowing his reptilian eyes. "I'm ordinary, after all. Just an addict."

It was best not to get on their radar. He wanted them to think he was just a trashed junkie.

A twinge in his mind as the doors started to unlock. The snake was on the move. It slid through the doors.

What...? His forked tongue flicked out, as he tried to figure out what was going on.

"Well well well," Irvine murmurs, canting his head to the side with a lazy smile. "There you are, champ. C'mon out here, come to papa..."

His voice fades and there's nothing but his mental suggestion, a psychic beacon to draw Sherlock's inner snake to the fore. Now that he's homed in on it, Irvine is dogged, coaxing and commanding until Sherlock's buried reptile instincts are an indomitable presence in his head.

You understand now, don't you? It's a thought formed not of words, but of emotion, implication. You know what I saw in you. So much more than a drugged-out shell.

This little pep talk might be kind of nice, if it wasn't being given by a vampire looking for another thrall. Now that he has the snake's attention, all that remains is to bring it to heel.

Come over here. Still Irvine doesn't say a word, standing silently by Jamie's twitching body, eyes intent as he watches Sherlock.

It's fast. One minute, he's trying to figure out what the vampire was talking about. The next, the snake was everywhere in his mind. Just like when he'd been a chameleon. No, no--he fought to stuff it back in its room, but it was too late. It was merging with his primary thoughts, melting like hot butter into the control panel of his mind. He couldn't separate it any longer.

He WAS the snake.

Sherlock was bewildered. What triggered this!? How did it happen!? He hissed, clearly not shy about using his forked tongue to scent the air anymore. The vampire was another predator, and Sherlock Did Not Like. He snarled, his posture going on the defensive, when...

Huh. The emotion...

He stopped, confused and slightly calmed. The suggestion hits him and he indeed, walks over.

Edited 2017-02-28 06:03 (UTC)

Irvine smiles. It's actually a very nice, genuine smile, as though the vampire is pleased to have Sherlock's company. Which isn't untrue.

"There you go," he says lightly, looking Sherlock up and down. "That wasn't so scary, was it?"

He turns his attention briefly away from his newest toy to kneel beside Jamie, who's still making feeble attempts to pull himself together in the presence of his sire. "Up we go, kiddo," Irvine says, and with no effort at all hauls Jamie to his feet, supporting him with an arm around his shoulders and issuing Sherlock a silent command to support Jamie's other side. Once this is done, he leads slowly toward the main part of the ballroom.

"You see, buddy," he says to Sherlock in a conversational tone, "you haven't been taking very good care of yourself. You're a mess. I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about the snake guy that tasted like backstage at a Doors concert, but I mean, look what you did to my other guy. I just turned him, man, he was brand new and now he's all messed up.

"Anyway, you're kinda useless like this, so I thought maybe we'd just take you back to our place, let you sober up, have fun with you later." This is all said in the light conversational tone of just another guy having some friends crash on his couch after they've partied too much, and not a vicious predator planning to murder another living being.

"You're not gonna disappoint me, are you?" He looks over at Sherlock, flashing him another smile. The grip of his mind on Sherlock's is like an iron fist.

Yeah. It wasn't so scary.

Actually it was terrifying, but the suggestion that it wasn't made the fear dissipate.

Sherlock listened to him speak, even laughing a little, mixed with the occasional hiss and tongue flick. This fellow was surprisingly amiable. Sherlock wanted to like him. He even helped shoulder the kid, the suggestion entering his mind. Why not?

Something was wrong. He did not actually want to do any of this. This was a vampire, why was he agreeing with him? Nodding? Doing something he didn't exactly want to do!?

That smile.

"Course I won't," the words tumbled out of his mouth and he smiled back.

What...? He found his will was suddenly quite useless. He wanted this vampire to like him very much. He wanted to do anything he asked.

N...no!?

Edited 2017-02-28 06:58 (UTC)

"I know." Irvine looks away, maneuvering their group of three smoothly into the noise and whirl of the ballroom, but his mental reassurances - affirmations of his grip on Sherlock's snake brain - never let up. See how good you are. How special. Such an interesting person. So much more than you let on.

"You got a coworker that you hate, buddy?" Irvine asks him. "Someone you really wouldn't mind seeing their throat get torn out while they scream for mercy?"

We're never letting you go. We'll keep you forever.

That dug deep. Sherlock actually had very poor self esteem. He constantly berated himself, and here was a voice telling him that he was special, that he was good...oh, it was so easy to just let go and follow that. He felt happier than he did all week, and that was saying a lot, considering the poisonous, fake happiness that was swirling through his system. This was better than any drug.

Warning. Warning, that sentence was Definitely Not Good.

"Oh, there's no one I particularly hate." Strange had luckily just fallen into the territory of acceptable ally.

Except the Ringmaster. He loathed her, but he needed her. He needed to make a deal, so he refrained from calling her out. Plus he didn't have any reason to actually want her brutally killed. So.

Forever? That sounded really nice. Especially when he was being told he was so good and special.

The part that was fighting back was starting to weaken.

"Fair enough. Anyone you really like? 'Cause we'd be more than happy to arrange for you to have a friend for the next...eternity, or however long you survive. I mean I got this guy," he indicates Jamie, "but maybe there's someone you'd like better."

Irvine can sense how pliable and accommodating Sherlock's snake brain is being while under his control, and he keeps up his constant stream of calm reassurance as he leads away from the main press of the masquerade into a wide corridor leading away from the ballroom. No one is giving the three of them a second glance, and it's not even due to any influence of Irvine's; the sight of two partygoers supporting a third who apparently has partied too hard isn't unusual here, and no one pays much attention to details like the bite marks and blood spatters marring Sherlock's skin and clothes.

"Jimmy," Sherlock said, feeling a pang of 'hey maybe this isn't so good', but unable to pinpoint why. "And Gongenzaka."

By this point Gon was already a vampire anyway. And he hadn't seen Jimmy at all during the party. He kind of just looks vaguely over at Jamie and ignores him.

He continues to help prop Jamie up with Irvine however, a glazed look on his reptilian face, the constant, calming reassurances in his mind quelling the occasional bout of doubt. His mind was trying to fight back, somewhere in there, but it was losing. The snake part of him was telling the rational par of him to shut up and just go with it, quit being so lame.

Irvine smiles over at Sherlock again. "Well, no promises, but I'll see what we can do. You deserve to have a friend, where you're going." Don't you? Of course you do. Someone as special as you, as fascinating as you, deserves the very best we can get.

He falls silent for a little while, easily maintaining his mental hold on Sherlock while they walk down the wide thoroughfare with Jamie slung between them. The neonate mumbles under his breath, occasionally looks up at one of the other two to slur out some incomprehensible comment or other, but is otherwise inert and complacent.

The noise and bustle of the masquerade are soon behind them and they're making their way down a smaller, less heavily populated corridor. Here Irvine finally breaks the silence. "So why don't you tell me about what's going on in that head of yours," he suggests. "You know, the whole snake thing. I can tell from a little poking around up there that you weren't born a lizard man."

Those constant reassurances were just so nice, weren't they? He had trouble making friends, had trouble with it his whole life, and here someone was offering to make sure he had one. He did deserve the very best, didn't he? He was special!

Sherlock just sort of exists silently until Irvine asks the question. His eyes focus a little, the glassiness fading as he tried to think. No, of course he wasn't born a lizard, but he was one now. There was a reason for that, certainly, if he could just think--oh!

"Of course, the Carnival did this to me," he flicked his forked tongue out in distaste. "I am a consulting detective. The only one in the world. My world, at least. I ended up earning a debt--" He was a bit to embarrassed to say he'd been tricked. "--and now I'm with the Carnival for some time." How much longer, he wasn't sure. He had deals to make, to bargain for, to unravel mistakes made.

"Hmmm." Irvine hums under his breath, with just the faintest trace of amusement. "So that Ringmaster did all this, huh?"

They turn a corner into an even more out-of-the-way corridor. "She just can't stop causing trouble, can she."

That trace of humor is replaced now with something much darker. Clearly Irvine isn't the Ringmaster's biggest fan, either.

"Yes, it's terrible, I think if she was running any sort of decent operation she'd be able to get workers on the Carnival's own merits. But noooo, they have to have all sorts of ways to trick people, it's definitely not fair, and quite stupid if you ask me. And then we ended up in the ocean. Can you believe it? The ocean! We were fish people! Mermaids! Whatever! It was completely ridiculous and don't even get me started on how all this possibly happens, it's an offense to science--"

Sherlock was...a talkative person once he felt like going on a rant.

And he definitely felt like going on a rant.

"And then we come here, what is this place? Some kind of dimension? It's like some completely inane Star Trek thing. Oh, I have seen Star Trek, John thinks I haven't but I have, and I could tell you--"

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⇨ THE MASQUERADE

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