lostcarnival | ⇨ FOURTH WALL EVENT! (OPEN TO ALL)

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⇨ FOURTH WALL EVENT! (OPEN TO ALL)

Who: Everyone and the 4th Wall Visitors!
When: Day 175
Where: Heartstone Manor
What: THE 4TH WALL BALL BEGINS! This is where unapped visitors can post and roleplay. Please read the rules and setting info below. For more information and visuals refs, read this. Questions can be asked over here.
Warnings: Individually marked! Could be a lot of things.

THE GRAND BALL↴

Heartstone Manor is a giant, spooky castle floating in the middle of a twilight filled void. It is the home of a Wyld Fae calling himself The Prince - and despite his name, he is a bestial creature crammed into a gentleman's clothing, completely obsessed with replicating the ideals of old timey human society, much like the 1800's. The Prince and his many servants all dress in a manner appropriate to to the 1500's - 1800's, and decorum and beauty are held sacred above all else. All the workers of the carnival are currently staying there, in the hope of enabling a successful diplomatic venture between the Ringmaster and the Prince. The Grand Ball is being thrown by the Prince to honour these guests, but his manner of doing this is going to come as a bit of a surprise.

THE RULES↴

Powers are all partially nerfed for 4th Wallers. They can be used in small to moderate ways for the sake of RP and narrative flavour, but 4th Wallers shouldn’t generally be using any powers in a super disruptive manner. No using powers for fighting with NPCs (yet), causing general chaos, or otherwise making your character a burden to the Prince. If they try, they’ll find themselves unable to do so.
Your character isn’t sure how they got here but they think they’re okay with it. Your character won’t remember how they were captured by the Prince at the start of the ball. They’re just kind of here and in formal wear, and something tells them it’s probably fine to just enjoy the ball. They are wrong.
In-game characters won’t initially remember how they all ended up at the ball either thanks to a temporary amnesia effect, but they will be able to be concerned about the fact that other people (possibly people they know) have shown up, and the fact that those other people are probably the Prince’s captives. Weren’t they doing something else at the castle before this, though? It’s hard to remember. This is all very confusing.
4th Wall character who aren’t apping in were possibly never the real deal in the first place. There are a mixture of genuine captives and spooky replications created with magic – this is to provide some flexibility regarding 4th wall character’s states in game, as well to allow more than one of each character to be played. If there are multiple people playing the same character, then whichever one has an app accepted will have been the real one.
No doubles of in game characters. (Taken list here.) No AUs, no CRAUs, and nothing else besides characters that have full source canons or are original characters/fandom OCs with no bearing on the canon plot. If you tag in with a character who breaks these rules we reserve the right to remove them.

THE SETUP: 4TH WALLERS↴

With incredibly foggy memories of their recent past, your character will find themselves at a grand ballroom dance, filled with a mixture of normal humans and odd looking humanoids that have strange features like wings, horns, tails, fur, and the like. They have vague memories of being dressed for the occasion, but are not sure by who or why. Most disturbingly, they will find that, at first at least, they don’t really care about the details. It seems like a pleasant event, doesn’t it? Why not enjoy it.
This effect is definitely some kind of mind control, so you can feel free to have your characters be a bit confused and conflicted about it. Ultimately, they have been charmed to participate in the dance, so they will feel like riding the wave is the best thing to do even if that wouldn’t normally be their cup of tea. If your character has resistances to some forms of mind control, they are still overruled in this circumstance.
They may discover people they recognize (castmates) or even duplicates of themselves (somehow?), and these can all be treated as canonly occurring and played out as such. This event is canon for Lost Carnival, so it should be played seriously and respectfully – not that silly shenanigans aren’t also bound to happen.
All characters are required to dress in formal attire appropriate to a period area – specifically anywhere from the 1500s to 1800s. The Prince prefers if people are heteronormative in their clothing choices, but if you want you can probably get away with your ladies wearing suits or men wearing dresses as long as they look presentable otherwise.

THE SETUP: MANOR GUESTS↴

You find yourself at the Grand Ball without really remembering how you got here. The last few days are a foggy blur, and though you can remember some of the important stuff you were dealing with, it will feel less important right at the start. Of course, as the night goes on, memories of how the carnival reached this event will become more and more clear – as well as the inevitable worry and stress that comes with it.
For most people, there will have absolutely no memory of anything that happened after the morning of Day 175. Did the boating trip ever happen? Possibly not. Even as the night progresses, they will still have no recollection of how most of Day 175 went, which is probably disturbing. The Mod has contacted those that are exceptions to this privately to tell them what they will remember.
The people lost to the Manor’s security earlier in the week will be here too, but not as guests. In fact, all of them will be dressed in the black attire of a Heartstone Manor servant and will seem pretty okay with that fact. There are parts of them that look changed – and their dispositions are definitely one of them. How else could they possibly be working for the Prince now?
Updates to the event situation will be posted down in this section below. People can react to these posts as the circumstances change, and may new top levels based on them. It is possible to try to sneak away from the ball, but Manor Security will be trying to hunt you down. There is no mandatory outcome planed to this event, so character decisions can and will have a major effect in where the plot goes from here.

THE ACCOMODATIONS↴

MUSIC AND DANCING: There will be music playing the whole night, and most of it is so good you feel practically compelled to dance to it. It's possible to resist, but why would you want to do that, you party pooper?
FOOD AND DRINK: There are circle tables set up with fine silverware, and upon sitting down you will soon have a waiter come back to ask for an order. You can request basically any European cusine and it will be made for you. You will also be given drinks, most of which are alcohol, no matter your age. Fae don't care about children.
BALCONY STARGAZING: There are balconies that are connected to the ballroom in multiple locations that you can step out onto to get some fresh air. You'll see the courtyard of the Manor down below you, but everything beyond that is black, as if the castle is floating within a twilight void. (Because it is.) One small change is that there are stars out tonight, probably added to the sky for the occasion.
ALL NIGHT LONG: The ball will go on far into the early morning. Or, at least, until everyone fucks it up.

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Oh thank God, that's Julien.

...

Wait a moment, that's Julien! The fog still hovers over Strange's memories but he remembers fragments: going missing in the night, a conversation with the Ringmaster, working with the rest of the nightrunners. Did something happen to Julien? Why is he so relieved just to see him?

"I haven't, no," Strange responds, looking over Julien with a confused frown. Perhaps if they keep talking, he'll figure out just why he's so relieved. "Would you mind fetching me one? Vanilla preferably, chocolate's far too sweet and I dislike some fruit flavors." Wait, why did he ask that?

Julien smiles, but it doesn't touch his eyes like it normally does, and his palps tuck tight into his sideburns. He's much too professional to show malice, not so quickly like this. Having the carnies around... it's annoying, actually. How are they so dense? Why doesn't someone who ought to be pretty smart know the score by now?

Whatever. He's worked the service industry, he knows how this goes. At least when you have a master that means the customers, as it were, aren't always right.

"Of course. They're all excellent, naturally." He's gone - and back again, that didn't take long. Must have relieved another server of a tray. "How does this assortment strike you?"

Those precious few moments that Julien's gone are spent with Strange trying to push through his own confusion at the situation. He's relieved to see him. Why on Earth is he relieved to see someone? Well, the answer there is that he hasn't seen them in a while. But when was 'a while' in the first place?

"Thank you Julien," Strange idly mutters as he takes a petit-four and starts to eat it. He takes a small bite, chewing and swallowing, before he asks what's on his mind.

"How long has it been?" Strange asks, more for his own benefit than Julien's. "Since we last talked, that is."

"Surely not more than a few weeks, sir." Greysol. Julie, and that seal. Hah, and right, a magician thinking spectral eyes were repellent. "I believe you mean the last time we were in the same vicinity, and that was more recent."

How long had he been down there? No idea. His memory of it isn't fogged at all, but there was no schedule to measure time with. No light. No air. The smell and the sound of it.

His palps are twitching and extend to move to lay across his lips. This is better. This is better. Anyway, Strange was up here the whole time. "Why, sir, would you not know?"

More recent is still damnably vague. But it had to have been some time, hadn't it? Because, after all, he's relieved to see him.

Without thinking about it, Strange answers Julien's question. He's always been an open sort, even crazy fae memory manipulation won't change that. "It's the oddest thing," Strange muses. "It feels like there's a fog over my mind. I can't remember certain things, though I know I should remember them in the first place and I think I want to remember them to begin with. All in all, it feels slightly like Portland."

Strange and his wide, mirror-covered eyes. Julien could almost believe the man is glad to see him, or thinks he is. That must mean he just has no idea what Julien did. His palps wipe his lips and withdraw so he can speak more easily.

"And there were fae in Portland, too, as I recall," he says, with no more than an edge of condescension. Julien has been good at this in the past, he wants to be good at it now. Things are better if he can be useful, and part of that means civility and good, even service. "Some things are better lost."

There were. Oh, he can remember the Portland fae perfectly well. The Rose Queen, Ignatius, that damned Nightshade, reaching into his head and twisting it around like that—

Now hang on a moment. Strange is still having a hard time putting together the pieces, so fogged up by the magic of this place. But the fae could do that. If Nightshade could go through his head and change himself so much, then wouldn't it be easy for a fae to go through his head and muddle things up? But which one would do that?

It's a bit sad. He's got the pieces but the mental haze of the event is just preventing Strange from connecting everything. Still, there's at least one part of this he knows he can comment on. "Better lost than destroyed. After all, lost things can be found again."

Those fae, Julien recalls, had been heavy on various forms of torture and on inflicting pain. Not carrot, just the stick. Whereas the Prince... hmm, okay, the carrot is rather small, but the stick isn't as big. No torture, or not that he's seen. There are other ways to hurt people and punish them for disobedience.

The point is that it's better to serve the Prince and live in Heartstone Manor then it is to not, and that's all there is to it.

Julien shakes his head, smiling thinly. "Perhaps! Forgive me, I believe I wandered on to the wrong conversational track. I'm glad to see you enjoying yourself."

For all Julien talking about how Portland was the wrong conversational track, it's still the thing that's giving Strange the most ideas, so he's still dwelling on it. This has to be one of the fae. Nobody else could go in and meddle with his memories so precisely. But which one? The only thing Strange can say for certain is it's not Nightshade, as the pit of loathing he has for that particular fae still burns hot in his stomach.

He's overlooking something obvious, he knows he is, but what—and then, as Strange looks Julien over once again, he realizes one of the obvious things he's looking over.

"Mister Delacroix. Why are you wearing that outfit?"

Ah. Kind of surprising it's taken this long, he thinks.

Julien lets his smile fade, and for Julien, a neutral face with tension around the eyes is basically a hostile expression. He's inherently a friendly person who wants to get along with others, avoiding and dissembling more readily than arguing and confronting. That hasn't changed. Passive aggression from him is about the same as insults and dirty looks from a lot of people.

And he's being passively aggressive here. "Haven't you figured it out, Monsieur Strange, sir? I would have thought it would be obvious. I mean, you did it, even if it didn't stick." He smiles again, sort of. His palps, previously wiping at his face, bend and literally move the corners of his mouth. "I got a new patron!"

"It's not my fault it won't stick," Strange complains, trying to hide the worry in his thoughts. New patron? He must be talking about the Prince. But why on Earth would Julien join with the Prince? That fiend must have kidnapped them when they vanished, you don't willingly join up with someone who kidnaps you!

Something else sticks.

"Ah," Strange remarks, looking over Julien, with a frown. It's easier to remember the further back Strange thinks, instead of just thinking back to the past few days. You don't willingly join up with someone who kidnaps you. Unwillingly is different. And having been the victim of fae brainwashing himself, Strange knows just how easy it is for their magic to take hold.

"Tell me," Strange continues, voice dropping to a quieter level, growing aggravation with this situation audible in his tone. "What do you think of your new patron? What would you do if he asked?"

"Oh, hey! There we go. I was hoping I wouldn't have to spell it out too clearly!" And here's a more genuine smile, he's way too cheerful about this. "We're enemies now! Please not the fighting kind of enemies, though, this body's completely useless in a fight. Or any kind of trying to hurt each other enemy, for that matter. The civilized, trading barbs kind?"

Julien is really bad at malice. Look at him, he's gone off on a tangent, though he reels himself back in at least.

"Well! He's difficult, sure. Just because my loyalty's changed doesn't mean my judgement has! He can't stand people going against his word, you know? But oh, the rewards of service!" Those pedipalps are really moving.

"That's good, I suppose," Strange remarks, looking over at Julien with a quizzical frown. And this punctures a slight hole in his theory. Because admitting the Prince is difficult? Actually admitting one of his faults? That's...unexpected.

"What are some of the rewards—aside from the face things, that is." Strange doesn't know the technical term for 'pedipalps.' He continues, trying to meet the man's eyes and not stare at those...whatever they are. "I'm afraid I've no basis for comparison. The last time my loyalty changed, the reward was not dying."

If Julien's so talkative, then that means Strange might as well pry for answers (and then completely forget them when goes back inside and oooh, dancing!)

"Oh, these? These are just the kind of thing that happens when you disobey! They're not too bad, really. Perspective! I've seen what happens when you make my master really mad." It's sort of like he has a pair of long fuzzy fingers, one on either side of his face. They seem to move whenever he says something like this.

He's being really sunny and that's happiness in his voice and face that doesn't look or sound clearly forced, that twitching or cleaning motion aside. Julien acts like he's not aware of it.

"Anyway, your master was all stick, no carrot. You know what I mean, punishment versus reward? Yeah. The Prince has plenty of carrots! You get to live up here, in the light! You get to..." For the first time he falters, his eyes glazing, and his palps are laying across his mouth again, as if to hush him. "You... get to earn your name back, you get to live... past your normal lifespan?"

He had that option already, didn't he? As a Champion he could live a very long time indeed, if he survived the invaders and wanted it enough. That's. Hm.

"Funny. You say it was all stick, no carrot, and yet when I served Nightshade, I would have argued that there were plenty of rewards." Unfortunately for him, Strange had all his memories back at that point, so that was the one part of Portland that he could easily remember. Under her thrall, he would have happily argued that service itself would be a reward.

This is definitely different, though. It's less blind devotion, Strange could tell that already. And, no matter what the Prince may think, his mental control didn't run as deep and as thoroughly as Nightshade's did. After all, Julien's hesitating.

"Live up here, in the light? A bit of an odd thing to say considering that the entire realm's shrouded in darkness."

Julien comes out of that pause and adjusts his hair. He has to try and look strong here, make a good showing.

"Well, that's because you were, forgive me for saying, completely deluded! That kind of thing just goes and fucks up your head. Me, though, I'm not brainwashed." He's not, really, it hasn't gone as far as that. Not yet. It is different.

Now he shakes his head. "Oh, no, this? This is such a lot of light. Twilight and darkness are worlds away. There are, trust me here, there are so many worse places to be. I mean, the decor alone!"

"That sounds like something a brainwashed person would say," Strange can't help but tease, though there is a bit of worry in his tone. After all, he spent his entire tenure under the Summer Fae claiming that he was doing this of his own free will. Who knows just what level of control Julien has over his own actions?

Though, Julien's words start to trigger a few memories. Strange was privy to the massive nightrunner infodump. Darkness, worse places to be, and Julien's mention of up...add them all together with a hazy memory and Strange is starting to get something. Maybe.

"Odd question, but were you under the house?"

"Ouch. Yeah, that's fair, but honestly, a brainwashed person could say anything. You've noticed I do know the problem here. The Prince is not-" Julien's palps twitch and curl up tight at the sides of his face as sweat forms on his temples. He tries again. "He's demanding, and the price for failure is a little steep!"

There. It's true, he's able to think it, it's just that the reasons why he switched are really hard to put into words. Besides that the Carnival people are his enemies now, and after he screwed up as badly as he did he can't go back.

"But again, rewards of service. Aside from everything else, it is its own reward! To join your life to a greater cause? I've done that before, this isn't so different." There's all kinds of mouth-wiping here. His pedipalps know what's up.

"It's called the underbelly, actually!" There's a glassy, brittle aspect to his expression, and he keeps glancing away. "And do forgive me, please, but I don't think we're close enough that I should just go on about it."

"On the contrary, I feel that if anyone should know about it, it should be me!" said with typical Jonathan Strange arrogance. However, he's trying his hardest to keep the worry out of his tone as he looks over at Julien and watches those things on his face continue to move. Because as much as Julien tries to say that he's fine, he likes serving the prince, and so on and so forth, those pedipalps are giving the game away.

"At the very least, I could empathize. I know more about the darkness than most would suspect." Stop being a cryptic motherfucker and actually tell Julien what you're thinking.

Julien laughs brightly. "Even so! It's not very interesting, and anyway, we're not friends. We've barely interacted and you think I'm creepy."

He goes ahead and manifests some eyes, floating around within arm's reach. The ones pointed in Strange's direction are the only ones clearly visible; the others aren't, but the rings of dim light around them are.

Julien's usually worried about people not liking this particular change but it's been useful at the party, and anyway, he's supposed to make carnies uncomfortable, which he hasn't been making enough of an effort at. His nature is friendly and personable but he should do something. "If you could recontextualize this whole conversation as being full of sarcasm and disturbing in general, that'd probably be good for my career, actually."

Nailed it.

Well, he's not wrong. As Julien manifests some eyes, Strange can't help it: he gives the other man a slightly disgusted look. Those things still gave him the creeps.

Though at Julien's request, Strange can't help but raise an eyebrow. Sarcasm and disturbing? What the hell did he mean by that? And good for his career...did the Prince want the captured carnival members to try and scare those who aren't captured?

"I'm afraid not," Strange remarks, with a simple shrug. "I'll simply have to tell the Prince that you've been nothing but cordial and helpful to me during our conversation."

There we go! Julien's very inclined to like people, given the slightest provocation. It's harder to focus on things to dislike. He'll do it for the Prince, though. Of course.

He smiles anyway. "Aww, no! You, sir, are no gentleman. But I suppose it's to be expected, I'm not so good as a servant."

The future is really, really not worth considering. He knows it's going to get so much worse and soon.

"I suppose I'm not," Strange simply responds, with a shrug. Because...he really isn't, is he. One can hardly call a mad magician who's serving a fairy a 'gentleman' anymore, as much as Strange still pretends at the part.

"But like I said, I do wish you'd tell me what you know. I know you might not wish to be saved yourself, but I can at least attempt to help others. The children, perhaps."

Because you bet he's seen Reira, Sora, and Rin wandering around, wearing the servant's attire. Julien might want to claim he wants to stay with the Prince all he wants, but dragging the children into this still seems cruel.

Julien lets out a breath and looks away, with his human eyes if not the spectral ones. They don't, can't move except to close and disappear.

Yeah, like Strange would help them any, would he? Claiming he would isn't the same thing. But Julien can think around that thought, a little bit, and can bring himself to at least believe the man thinks he would.

His palps, white and blue as his bird body's feathers, lay across his mouth and cover it, hiding his lips. Julien speaks quietly, letting them muffle his voice. After all it's easier to say things he probably shouldn't if he's not doing it too openly.

"I regret that they're involved, I really do. They don't deserve this. Especially Reira. But it's not like I know anything that would be useful. Submission is the only way to survive."

Damn. Well, it was worth a shot. But if Julien says that he doesn't know anything, then Strange has to take him at his word. After all, he doesn't know any magic that could help him out otherwise (and even if he did, the thought of prying answers from Julien's head makes his stomach sink).

"Well, if you learn anything tell me. I am a nightrunner, you know. Otherwise..." and here Strange trails off, with a frown. "Otherwise I should let you get back to your work."

After all, what else could he do?

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espigeon - 2017-10-25 04:05 (UTC) - Expand

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