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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"Huh," grunts Jasper skeptically. "Some other Peridot who doesn't wear her limb enhancers?" She looks Peridot up and down, taking in her assorted weird Carnival changes, and her face wrinkles a little around her nose, the way a normal person's nose would crease up in faint disgust if they had an actual nose with skin on it instead of a rock triangle. "What happened to you?"

Stars sakes. She's been living with these changes for so long now, she'd almost forgotten that they're the sort of thing that most other gems would look down on, or even be repulsed by. Blue Diamond had been her first reminder, and now Jasper.

Her impulse with Blue was to be much more ashamed about it. With Jasper, she's pretty much equal parts ashamed and angry about it. The last thing she needs is to be taking form criticism from her.

"Fae magic," she grunts cryptically, scowling. "I don't expect a clod like you to understand it."

Yup, EVEN WHEN TERRIFIED, she can't help but argue with Jasper. It's just how it is.

"Do you mind putting me down now, please?" the engineer adds, sounding a lot more confident than she feels.

Jasper narrows her eyes. After a moment's consideration, she doesn't put Peridot down.

"Fae magic?" she repeats, frowning. "What in the stars is that? Is it the same thing that happened to those gems on Earth..?"

"Those gems?" Peridot repeats without really thinking. Curious. Does Jasper not remember that it happened to her as well? Or is she just setting herself above everyone else like she always does?

"The ones who'd... changed," she says impatiently. She doesn't remember it happened to her. Or, at least – she didn't, when she'd asked that question, but having to recall it more directly is forcing her to think about that whole situation, which is bringing her last moments on Earth looming out of the fog. She opens her mouth to continue, and then pauses, doubt starting to spread over her face, and looks down at the hand she isn't holding Peridot's shirt with. It's... normal. No claws. No blemishes. But...

...And now, Jasper is staring at her hands like some kind of crazy person, and Peridot has had more than her fill of getting manhandled by weird people this evening. It's not hard to figure out what Jasper is thinking about, in this moment; it motivates Peridot to growl and squirm and kick her little legs out in a brief attempt to wriggle free of the larger gem's grasp, but those big meaty mitts of hers are like a vice.

Maybe she needs to take more drastic action, to convince Jasper to drop her...

Edited 2017-10-17 05:06 (UTC)

Well, that gets Jasper's attention. Her grip tightens on Peridot and her head snaps back up to look at her, scowling, as if her brief confused reverie hadn't happened at all. "Well?" she demands. "Answer the question!"

Remember that time Peridot said something to the effect of how just being on a ship with Jasper was exhausting? This shit right here is a big reason why! There's nothing more panic inducing than having a 9 ft tall quartz demanding barking questions right in your face. Peridot can add all the tricks and magic to her repertoire that she likes, she can train in combat, grow as a person, but no matter what she does, that good old Homeworld style conditioning will always be lurking in some part of her.

At least Jasper's not an agate.

Peridot squeaks and flinches, ducking her head automatically. "No, it's not the same!" And then more angrily: "Do I sound like some kind of drooling idiot monster to you!?"

Jasper's scowl deepens, but she does seem to have relaxed a tiny little bit. "So that... whatever it was... isn't happening to gems here, then? It's just this... fae thing?"

"Affirmative," she replies weakly. There's not much else to say about it. Besides, Jasper isn't someone Peridot is particularly inclined to be free with information towards.

Jasper considers this, eyes still narrowed. "...Good. This fae magic... is it contagious?"

"Only if you hang around fae for a considerable amount of time," Peridot growls, ears flattening. In the back of her head, she's contemplating ways to get away from Jasper, or at least convince her to put her down. Being suspended in the air like this is getting real old, real fast.

"Huh. What exactly is a 'fae', anyway?" She's getting the impression that whatever it is, it has a lot to do with this place, and maybe... why... she is here? It's kind of hard to think too much about that, though.

Edited 2017-10-18 02:24 (UTC)

"They're magical entities? Organics, I guess?" she sounds super annoyed now, not really giving the answer much consideration, and-- yeah she can't deal with this anymore. The tech squirms and thrashes her tail, pushing at Jasper's hand. "Listen, if you don't put me down RIGHT NOW, in about 5 seconds I am going to bite you SO HARD--"

Edited 2017-10-18 02:36 (UTC)

"What? I'm not hurting you," Jasper scoffs. She feels like, she doesn't want to... make a scene, though...? She rolls her eyes and lets go of Peridot.

Well she's hurting her now. Slightly. In the pride. Thanks for dropping her on the floor, loser. She lands with a grunt, and promptly picks herself back up, dusting herself off.

"Well this exchange has been every bit as unpleasant as I imagined," Peridot growls.

This, of course, is a false statement. She was imagining it going much, much worse.

"Tch," Jasper snorts through her teeth. "Maybe if you weren't a lying traitor I would have put you down sooner." She seems kind of subdued about it, though? Like, she clearly isn't being pleasant, but she also doesn't look like she's about to grab Peridot again, or threaten her, or hit her.

"Maybe if you weren't such a CLOD I wouldn't lie to you!" Peridot snaps, volume rising.

Jasper folds her arms, shifting her weight under the mountainous layers of her dress.

"I doubt it. Why should I trust someone who betrayed her own Diamond?"

For a split second, Peridot has a bit of a panic wondering how the heck Jasper could possibly know about the very direct way in which she had betrayed Yellow Diamond. It's only after she thinks on it for a moment longer that she rationalizes that Jasper couldn't possibly be in the loop on that... The quartz must be referring to Peridot's announcement back in the kindergarten, about how she now counts herself as one of the Crystal Gems. Latent guilt had been the only thing to make Peridot assume otherwise.

Anger surges through her at the mere thought, retaliatory and defiant. Fortunately, there's someone else here she can redirect that hostile energy towards.

"Yellow Diamond is a fraud and I'm glad I'm not working for her anymore," Peridot declares, standing on her tip toes to put herself a little closer to barking in Jasper's face. "But if you're so honest, why don't you tell me what in gems'sake you're doing here!? You changed, you... you were corrupted! And now you're just... Here? Dancing?"

"A fraud," she starts incredulously, but when Peridot ploughs on what she says stops Jasper in her tracks. One of her hands starts to curl closed, reassuring herself with blunt clawless fingers brushing her palm -- but there's a reason that feeling is reassuring, and it's that what Peridot's saying is right. She did change. She doesn't like looking directly at the thought, but -- she changed, Earth changed her like it did those other gems, she was becoming a monster, a beast --

"That doesn't--" Her voice is rough and confrontational, but her expression is haunted. "It doesn't matter. I can dance if I want to."

???????

LIKE.

SHE GUESSES? SHE CAN DANCE IF SHE WANTS TO? She's not wrong about that. But Peridot just looks baffled-- outraged, even-- and cocks her head at the larger gem, scowling incredulously. Something is incredibly wrong here, as she's begun to expect with all the other ball guests as well... and she doesn't like it one bit. Peridot may have an intense dislike for Jasper, but she hates the Prince even more. And even Jasper doesn't deserve to have her head messed with by some fae's magic.

"Jasper you clod," she snarls, lowering herself back onto the flats of her feet. "Listen: I'm going to ask you something incredibly important, because I feel sorry for you, and I need you to think VERY hard about your answer." She pauses a second for dramatic effect. "When have you EVER. Wanted to dance for fun before now?"

Jasper's brow furrows.

"I..." That closed hand presses into a hard fist. "What's that got to do with..."

No, okay, she's starting to realise how that does in fact have plenty to do with what Peridot's saying. But...

"Well," she says stubbornly, "I'd never tried it before."

She stares... and throws her hands up in exasperation.

"WHEN HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO TRY NEW THINGS BEFORE?!!"

The last time Peridot tried to convince you that trying new things was fun you went on a monologue about how Earth was a prison!

Jasper opens her mouth.

Jasper closes her mouth.

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