⇨ FOURTH WALL EVENT! (OPEN TO ALL)

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Of course I am! Do not sabotage me by pretending to be a slow learner, Lambert. Unlike life it's easier to lead so I'll let you try that." For now, he shouldn't put his hands anywhere. She demonstrates four steps - two long forwards, then two short side. "This is the basic unit here. Long long, short short. You do that, I'll match and move with you, then we can start getting interesting."

Now she just grabs at his arms. You don't need to have body contact with the basic foxtrot. Making a frame with your arms is fine. Scout really just wants to be moving.

[whattaprick]

The smirk stays on Lambert's face while Scout demonstrates the steps for him, but she's not wrong -- even with feet instead of hooves, he can match the motion easily enough, memorizing the cadence and matching it to the music playing through the room. He doesn't get a chance to demonstrate before she's pulling at him, and he laughs, settling his arms into a mirror of hers and nodding.

"All right. Let's see how we do." With that, they're off across the floor, the witcher a little clumsy to start as he figures out the rhythm his feet need to move to match her stride, then smoother as he settles into it. It's a little wilder than the waltz, but it suits the mood of the night, and he's laughing halfway through, clearly having a good time of it. It's a striking difference from the last time Scout hung onto him, when he was dead weight; in full health, he has little hesitation using his above-human strength to lead and tug her around.

"Bet I could lift you," he says. Is it part of the dance? Probably not, but he's being a cocky asshole right now.

[stillwinningthehardway]

It's plain that Scout sees a lot of things that aren't quite right with this particular foxtrot, but she keeps most of it to herself and even seems to be enjoying the faster, more urgent pace. She's a little too agitated to laugh - she'd be faking it if she did, it would be really obvious - but she does smile here and there.

Good to see Lambert back to form. He's clearly got more-than-baseline-human strength and vigor; she wonders sometimes what being a 'witcher' means relating to that. Mercenary stuff probably. In the galaxy far from here career fighters will do a lot to get and keep an edge.

"Ugh, really? We're doing this?" Preventing him is too much effort and would amuse him more than going with it. She can at least keep it from being too random or graceless. "All right, on the spin, and hands on my waist, not my hips."

[whattaprick]

"Why not?" Lambert grins. Scout's absolutely right; one way or another, he'd have lifted her anyway, just to see if he could. With her cooperation, though, they have some chance at pulling this off.

So he moves into the spin as he's told, letting his weight fall forward as he takes her by the waist, then shifting it back so he can use the momentum to drive her up instead. He won't actually throw her up (though that would be easier than holding -- catch and release!) but congratulations, Scout now has an excellent view of the dance floor!

[stillwinningthehardway]

Under the absurdly long skirt Scout's leg jerks, through the wrong, cloudy feeling, her training says kick, hard and she overrides it with stop that well before it could get in a proper swing, though she doesn't stop herself from grabbing his wrists in a way she could change to use if she has to. She doesn't think anything of it; combat reflexes save her all the time, and she's managed not to use them inappropriately so far.

Scout's lips compress because she certainly did get a feeling there that Lambert either was going to throw her or thought of it, but he doesn't, and being spun this high up in the air actually startles a laugh out of her, bright and loud and unladylike. It's a crowded couple of seconds.

Okay, yes, he's very strong. She's not a small or light person. Maybe Scout could do this, but only if she used the Force, and that's a trivial use of sacred knowledge if she's ever heard of one. "All right, since it'll make you happy if I say it: you're ridiculous."