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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Once again, Cole has absolutely no idea what 9S is saying. Base model? But he's not a model, he's full size. Why would there be a model to begin with? Cole just stares, just as confused by base models as 9S is by families.

Thankfully, the conversation shifts to something Cole can talk about.

"I do!" he answers, with a smile. And then, like a kid listing off his friends, Cole just rattles off a list of people. "The Inquisitor, Varric, the Iron Bull, and Dorian. Cassandra reads me things! There's Leilana, Josephine, and Cullen, but I don't talk to them as much. Sera doesn't like me but I talk to her anyway. Blackwall might be different now, I haven't asked. Vivienne left. Solas left also."

And he can't help but sound a little annoyed as he mentions Solas leaving.

It's almost like talking to one of the child machines. Simple and genuine. Except they, you know, don't really have emotions. They just mimic human expression. Yeah.

Yeah. The machines don't have feelings.

It's good that this guy has so many friends. It must be nice...

But 9S' expression turns serious, sympathetic to the loss. Er, does Cole mean leaving or... Dead? Gently, he asks, "Did Vivienne and Solas say why they left?"

"Vivienne is the new Divine. I...don't really know what that means but she tells people what to do and wears a lovely hat." Cole's grasp on Thedas politics is shaky at best. The Divine is important and a big deal. The previous one is dead, they needed a new one, Vivienne became the new one. So this makes Vivienne important and a big deal?

Politics, man. He just doesn't know.

"Solas didn't say why." Which is something that Cole is entirely too bitter about. Who just leaves? He didn't even know, he couldn't even guess, he had no idea why Solas left and that's annoying him so much.

Kings are supposed to be important with impressive headwear. So... Vivienne is a king?

But regarding Solas, all 9S has to say about that is, "Oh."

Okay he actually has more to say about that.

"Maybe... Solas just needs time to work things out."

Or there's something they don't want Cole to know. Or maybe they're just plain gone. Who knows...

Edited (grips face, pronouns!!) 2017-10-15 04:41 (UTC)

"But he should have told me," Cole pleaded, with a frown. "I could help! He knows I could!"

That's what's bothering Cole most of all. Not that a dear friend left, but that a dear friend left without even telling Cole why it happened. Whatever it is, he could have helped. After all, Cole knew Solas better than most.

Oh man, he is not equipped to deal with this.

He doesn't know this Solas guy at all but he sounds kind of irresponsible. If he was part of YoRHa, he'd probably get reported for desertion and disciplined appropriately. Buuut that's probably not what Cole wants to hear.

The only explanation he can think of for why someone would just straight up and leave their friend is... "Maybe he doesn't want you to help, because helping would put you in danger. Or maybe he thinks knowing where he is and what he's doing would be painful for you."

Ding ding ding, 9S got the answer right with that last guess. It's just a damn pity that Cole doesn't know he got the answer right. Instead, Cole simply frowns. What he's doing would be painful for Cole...if that's the case, then what he would be doing would be painful for everyone. And that can't be right. Right?

"Solas wouldn't hurt people," Cole emphatically states, not really realizing that poor 9S doesn't know how he got 'hurts people' from 'painful for him.' "There must be a different reason."

"No, I mean... It's not hurting people. Not like that."

How can he explain this in a way that Cole will understand?

"Sometimes... people do things, or know about things that would make the ones that care about them sad if they knew."

He thinks of the android who wanted 2B and him to find their missing lover, who had left on a quest for revenge without her knowledge.
...He thinks of the way 2B and 21O quietly and not so subtly try to steer him away from prying into things, because...
Because......

"So they lie to protect the ones they care about. Or they leave, so they don't have to lie."

"But leaving made me sad."

He thinks. Cole still has a bit of trouble grasping onto things like 'explaining your emotions'. But if what Solas was going to do might make Cole sad but Solas leaving definitely made Cole sad, then was there any option in this that ended up with Cole being happy?

He really doesn't like this. Maybe more information might make things easier for 9S.

"He wouldn't let me know. Awake yet alone. He's made mistakes and they hide behind the mirrors. And then I can't see further."

Okay more information might not make it easier for poor 9S.

It takes 9S a little while to pare meaning from those words. He understands the 'awake yet alone' part. He understands it more deeply than he cares to examine. That hollow feeling of having everyone within a transmission away, yet having no one to really talk to.

The rest of it... Yeah he's got nothing.

"Um... what do you mean by hiding behind the mirrors?"

"That's what I mean."

Sorry 9S, were you expecting something more? Because it's not happening. Cole's answering like this is a perfectly good answer and he can't see any reason why 9S should be bugging him for more details and more information.

Uh...

9S frowns. This guy talks in puzzles. "Sorry, I don't understand... But sometimes people don't understand the effect they have on the people around them. If someone has feelings and emotions... they're not always logical. That's what it means to live, I think?"

9S sounds a little uncertain about that.

"Don't uh. Take it personally." That Solas is a butt?

Man, this comforting thing is hard. "Anyway, you still have your other friends, right? I think they still appreciate your company."

Edited 2017-10-18 14:10 (UTC)

Solas is such a butt.

Still, for all of 9S's confusion about comforting, it seems to have worked. Cole brightens up a little at the mention of his other friends, nodding slightly. Because he does! He does have friends and they do appreciate his company.

"They do. Strange boy, odd, why him. But also friend, family, my weird kid, thank you Cole, that was a very good thing you did."

His friends still thought him odd. But they also thought him useful and, most importantly, thought him friends.

Are those the things Cole's friends say about him, parrotted back?

"See? That's great!"

Too be they're not here, though. He'd love to get their thoughts on this guy... possibly in a more understandable format.

9S finally takes a tiny sip of the wine, before making a face. Wow. Humans used to drink this? 9S puts the glass down... somewhere. Someone else can have it. Or one of the servants can clear it away.

"So, Cole. What are you gonna do for the rest of the night?" 9S casts his gaze across the dance floor. "Are you gonna dance with anyone?"

:3c??

Cole shakes his head at 9S's question. "It...would be better if I didn't."

Not just because he looks like a terrible dance partner, all limbs and elbows and awkwardness. But also because he doesn't know how to dance to begin with. People deserved someone to dance with who made them happy and who made things easy. That wasn't Cole.

"I'll watch."

"Aw, come on! You only live once!"

Er. Except for YoRHa androids. But most biological things only live once! So it's still apt!

9S sidles up to Cole to playfully elbow him. "You should give it a go!"

"But I'm not alive."

Is he? The real Cole wasn't alive, Cole knows that even if he doesn't feel it anymore. But him, the this Cole...he just doesn't know. Are spirits alive? Not like humans, certainly not like dwarves, but he's still there, still around, still speaking. What is alive, anyway?

9S blinks.

"You're here, aren't you? Speaking to me."

Even if his way of speaking and his thought processes are kind of weird, Cole still has sapience.

"Why wouldn't you be alive?"

Who's ready for contemplating the nature of morality at a party? 9S better be cause that's what's happening.

"Is that all that counts for alive? Speaking?"

It's a genuine question. This is something that Cole hasn't really thought over before, that pesky 'am I alive or not' conundrum. He's a spirit. He just existed. But was he alive? And did it matter if he was alive to begin with?

"Doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't sleep. Alive things do those but I don't."

Buddy. Existential crises and 9S go together like tea and crumpets. This is practically business as usual.

"No, not speaking."

Otherwise, he'd have to consider those machines as 'alive'. Because they're not. Alive, that is. Heck, they can't even be really killed! They're just endlessly replaced by interchangeable copies.

"You think I'm alive, right?" He hopes Cole does, otherwise this conversation is gonna get awkward. "But I'm an android, so I don't do most of those things, too. I can eat, but it's not necessary. Sleeping's nice, but I can remain functional without it. All I need to keep running is a little water and I'm good. Knowing that, would I be 'not alive' too?"

Edited 2017-10-21 14:22 (UTC)

At 9S's question, Cole nods. He still doesn't really know what alive is, but 9S definitely is it. They can talk, he can listen, he can help and hurt. And if 9S doesn't eat or drink or sleep but he's alive...then that makes Cole alive too?

This is confusing.

"You're alive," he says definitively, looking over at 9S. And Cole just stares at 9S a bit longer as if that would somehow make him figure out what makes him alive the same way that Solas is alive the same way that lizards, the people here, and maybe Cole are alive. A few moments later, he comes upon something. "You hurt. Maybe hurting means you're alive."

Geez, way to make things a bit morbid there, buddy.

Good. For some reason, the confirmation that he's alive, even from a total stranger, meant more to him than logic would dictate. But at the mention of hurt, 9S mentally stutters.

"I..."

The pieces click together. The way Cole seemed to know when he had been thinking about 2B. The way Cole seems to be able to poke past his behaviour and pick at what's underneath, just like Reira.

A pause, before he says with a frown, "You're getting into my head and reading me, aren't you?"

Must be something about kids or kid-like people that lets them do this. 9S is a little upset, he doesn't particularly like having people root around in his head, but Reira had been unable to control it. But he sounds more annoyed than genuinely hurt from the realisation.

"Can't you turn that off?"

"Can't you turn off thinking?"

That's a no, 9S. Reaching in and finding thoughts and spotting the hurts is something as intuitive for Cole as thinking is for 9S. He just can't stop doing it. It's part of his nature. (Though he does feel a bit guilty about the way 9S looks at him, the way he frowns. But this isn't his fault.)

Well actually....

"Actually, I'm mechanical, so... yes." Technically, they could... but that would involve ripping out out a lot of their personality... "But I guess it's different for you, huh?"

9S lets out a sigh.

"It's fine." It's not really, but if Cole can't control it, there's nothing to be done. It's just too bad he can't peek into Cole's head in return... "You hurt, too, right?"

That's what the whole thing about Solas leaving was about, wasn't it?

Cole nods. It is different. And he does hurt. But unlike 9S, Cole knows that he can't just reach into his own mind and make himself forget. That wouldn't solve this problem.

"I miss him." It's said as if it's the simplest thing in the world as Cole looks down at the floor, not meeting 9S's eyes.

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