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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Susan was escaping out here to get some fresh air, to actually be outside instead of inside cooped up, and when he sees Strange he heads over towards him. He should be good for conversation, to keep his mind off of other parties and being attacked.

The question makes him pause though and he looks up to the sky.

"Maybe they are real, and he was just hiding them before?"

You know, that does make a lot more sense than the Prince creating stars out of nothing. Little pokes in the twilight, letting the stars shine through. But at the same time, it's risky. Why would he poke a hole in a relatively good barrier to begin with?

Strange frowns to look up at the sky himself, as if staring at it will somehow tell him where the stars came from.

"Truth be told, I hope it's your theory over mine. After all, if he's hiding them, then that gives us multiple options. Either the Prince is relaxing his magical hold on the place or he's opening holes in the twilight itself. Either option gives us more to work with."

Susan nods, thinking about that as he looks up at the stars. They aren't right, anyway, real or not; even the ones at the Carnival aren't the right stars. Still, though, stars are nice, a sign that he's actually outside, a connection to nature. It's silly, but with how uncomfortable he was inside, remembering the Celebration... Well, this is a nice reprieve.

"If he's doing that... Then that means there's something out there for him to relax or open, right? Do you think... Do you think it could be broken?" He's not sure yet if he wants to do that, not sure if it's better to just wait for this to come to its end or if they'll have to stop it themselves, but at least that way he can have options.

"I'm certain it could be broken," Strange remarks, with conviction. After all, a few of the Prince's enchantments have been broken before. But honestly, Strange has no idea how he'd even go about breaking this one.

And wait a moment. How did he know some of the Prince's enchantments had been broken before? When did that even happen? A brief look of confusion flits across Strange's face. It lingers for a moment or so as he continues talking.

"We just need to find the right catalyst to remove the spell. The death of the enchanter is one method, but I highly doubt we'll be able to pull that off. True fae, and all that."

"Maybe if we surprise him, it would break his concentration...?" It's a long-shot, though, and Susan knows it.

"Although maybe breaking it wouldn't do anything, we would still be in... Whatever world this is. Not the Carnival."

Which means that altogether he's not sure what to do. He's not really even sure what's going on, past that something is obviously off and he's wary of another attack.

"Maybe we should just be on guard, instead. I don't know." He's not the best at planning ahead, either, or thinking things through. If he had a goal though, he could probably do something...

Strange isn't the best at thinking things through either. Any sort of plan he's come up with has been entirely too haphazard and at the last minute, or something born out of sheer desperation. But he's the adult in this situation so he feel he must come up with something.

"We should definitely be on guard. Something's wrong here, I simply don't know what it is." People are acting odd and what Strange thought was just simple forgetfulness, he's not entirely sure what it is. "Once we figure out what it is, then we can work from there."

"Yeah... Okay, that sounds good. I can do that." He thinks about it for a minute before continuing.

"I don't know what could be wrong though. Except that everything is wrong. Maybe I just have to look again... I want to fix it, whatever it is. So things can be right again."

Strange can't help but give Susan a gentle smile. For one person being a grown adult and the other being a child, he and Susan shared the same thoughts more often than not. Because he's right: whatever this is, it desperately needs to be fixed. And he's right in another manner too: everything is wrong and he has no idea what could be wrong either.

"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way. If everything is wrong, then maybe we should look for the things that are right."

Find what feels good, what feels normal, and work their way up from there? It's a terrible suggestion, but Strange has nothing but terrible suggestions at the moment.

Susan nods slowly as he thinks that over. It does sound like a roundabout way of doing things, but maybe that's what they needed when dealing with charms or whatever this was. At least when he's in there the music doesn't seem to get to him as much as some of the other people, so maybe he can help that way.

"That could work... It at least gives us a place to start, maybe."

"And really, just a place to start is better than nothing." Because yeah, Strange has absolutely no idea where to go from here and how to even break this enchantment. There's just faint suggestions and what-ifs in the back of his head that he doesn't even know how to act on.

"Be careful, though," he can't help but warn. "There's...something here that's dangerous. The nightrunners were trying to figure it out before this happened."

But what was dangerous in the first place? This is a ball, there's nothing dangerous about a ball. Is there?

"Something dangerous... Do you know what?" Even if he knows, he might not tell him, since it's not really Susan's job, but he wants to know. If he knows, then he can help, and if he can help then everyone will be safe.

But since he can't even remember what happened before, he doesn't know that Strange will, either, which is sort of the problem isn't it? Maybe they need a healer, instead, to see if they can get rid of whatever magic is making them forget.

"I don't remember," Strange admits. Sorry Susan! But the more he thinks, the more Strange is able to scrounge together a few pieces. It involved the...servants somehow? Which is ridiculous, none of the servants were dangerous. But something about the servants was dangerous. Maybe it was something that happened to the servants?

This really is annoying.

"Just be careful," he repeats, pointing out the obvious. "And I know you will, but try to be nice to the Prince's servants. I think they're as stuck as we are."

He was afraid of that, and although he frowns, he nods too. That makes things even harder, not actually knowing what danger he's supposed to be avoiding, but he can at least do his best... He should cast some protection magic, too, just in case something happens. He files that away to do later.

"If they're stuck too, but they're here... Maybe they know what's going on...?" He's thinking out loud, mostly, but if there's some way he can get information out of them, maybe that could help. Talking to people is the thing he's best at, after all.

"They might," Strange admits, with a little frown. Although, the more that he thinks about this and puzzles out the obvious, Strange is willing to shift 'they might' to 'they probably do.' The servants have to know what's going on.

"After all, you and I can't remember much but the servants helped set all of this up," said with a gesture to the food and the tables. "It would be damned inconvenient if they forgot what was on the menu. It's just catching them in a quiet moment that might be the problem."

"I can do it. I'm really good at talking to people, and I have some magic that can help. I can talk to one of the servants and see if I can find anything out that could help!" It's probably a foolish plan, but it's something he can do - talking to people really is one of his best skills, and if the servants know something, anything, then maybe they can use that information to put all of this together!

Not that he still knows exactly what they're fixing, but... There has to be something wrong, with how fuzzy their memories are.

It definitely is a foolish plan, and the little bit of Strange's mind that isn't fuzzy with the memory loss is pointing out that it might be a bad idea to give the literal child an a-okay to mindwhammy one of the servants. But really, what else do they have? Strange is just coming up blank for any sort of plan or idea to clear the fog surrounding their memories.

"It might be a good idea to tell someone what you're doing first," Strange explains, frowning still. "Or at least find back-up. In case I forget, someone else needs to know what you're doing."

As, unfortunately, Strange forgetting seems to be a pretty plausible thing that might happen.

He nods, even though he's not fond of plans that involve telling people things or planning ahead. It makes the most sense, and maybe this time he needs to be more careful...

"I'll tell Lauren. He'll want to know what I'm doing anyway... He'll watch out for me."

But of course the most important question is -

"But what should I ask? I don't know what we're looking for... I don't know how many answers I can get, even with my magic. The forgetting is the most important, right?" If they can do that, then they'll remember what was dangerous, and the night runners can remember whatever they were doing.

"The forgetting is the most important." But they don't want to give away that they have forgotten. Unless the servants know that they've forgotten in the first place? But why would they know?

"Maybe you could just talk around it? Something like oh, I'm not feeling well and neither is one of my friends, do you have any idea why that might be. You could use the food or the wine as a convenient excuse if they start getting suspicious."

"Yeah, I can figure that part out as I go. If I find something out I'll tell you, okay?"

Unless he just ends up trying to do it on his own which, you know. Is a definite possibility. But back-up is always good so he'll try to tell him, it helps to have someone to bounce ideas off of (even if those ideas are terrible.)

"Thank you," Strange responds, giving Susan a little nod. "I've got a few things I wish to try as well and I'll keep you informed of how those turn out."

Likewise, Strange's ideas are also terrible. But hey, any port in a storm.

"And Susan? Best of luck."

"Yeah, you too! Don't do anything too dangerous." He says it with a smile though, knowing that if Strange is anything like himself (which he seems to be), that it's a pointless warning, but still.

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⇨ FOURTH WALL EVENT! (OPEN TO ALL)

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