⇨ 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]

Scout manages to summon her dæmon and get a clearer head. She was there to question the bunny and bicorn, she knows the Manor is alive, and she's able to sense presences. This leads to ROOF PLAN:

Scout, Joker, Rita, Papyrus, Carly, and Peridot are all going to have Scout's stealth thing cast on them so only others in the group and the Manor itself can detect them (It's a fae glamour so how well that works idk, but that's her intent) before they split up and, after Lambert sets a table on fire, get to the roof via different balconies/ with their different powers. It's been raining for a while by then too, which should help make them harder to notice.

Are there any of those unseen presences on the roof? Failing that, any windows that don't have tangible living people near them? Scout wants to try to make an appeal to the Manor. She's trying to be cautious.

WE GOT THIS...

[soft_focus]

UPDATE (Since Joys is at work); Peridot has left the Roof Team to do other things, but a revised plan has been made as follows; keeping in line with the original comment, Scout has cleared her head by summoning her Daemon, and is using information gathered from the questioning of Bunny and Bicorn in tandem with her ability to sense presences.

Scout will seek assistance in getting to the roof, in order to make an appeal to the manor itself. She will be casting her stealth glamor upon herself, as well as Rita and Joker, all three of whom will be sent to the roof using Papyrus help. The glamor SHOULD hide them from everyone other than themselves, Carly and Papyrus, and the Manor. They will be moving up there once Lambert sets the table on fire and begins fighting Sans.

Details of what all three will do on the roof specifically depend on what happens on the roof once they're there, outside this goal.

While these three are on the roof, Carly and Papyrus will keep watch from the balcony. Carly will alternate between human state, and hummingbird state; while a hummingbird, she will hover just above the balcony cover, keeping watch for the three on the roof, and listening for any information they bring back. She also listens for Papyrus;

Papyrus, taking advantage of his nature, will loudly talk to Carly when anyone-anyone at all-comes near the balcony entrance. The moment she's addressed, Carly will fly back down to the area of the balcony out of sight from the door, turning back into her humanoid state; she will use her fire magic to heat her body until the water of her clothes evaporates, fanning herself and 'continuing' conversation with Papyrus, giving the impression that the two have simply been chatting there for the moment.

In order to keep the illusion strong, she will leave a fire-ball beside Papyrus, out of sight from the door; it should give off enough light to make it seem as though she is already there, and due to its nature, does not smell.

WE DON'T GOT THIS

[spaghettimonster]

Don't climb around on steep fancy manor rooftops during thunderstorms there's a chance of hail and gargoyles

But update, those three had a hell of a time not falling off the roof, and the crazy balcony-shattering dragons & bone wolf fight is enough distraction; Papyrus went on the roof to help keep them up there.

The spirit of the manor was no more accessible from there, so the group continued looking around. Unfortunately, the decorative gargoyles are magic and animated and decided to play tag attempted to capture the group.

Joker heroically martyred himself to try luring them away, splitting three off by flying away and got pinned for his troubles. The others tried to race ahead; Papyrus tried to speed the rest of the group to getting to that high tower and overshot, Rita got grabbed by another gargoyle in the process, and only Scout landed... on the roof of the tower. Papyrus tried to be cool, turning back in midair to dropkick the gargoyle with Rita, and critfailed, so he fell off the manor as the gargoyle flew away with her. Carly is still alive, uncaptured, and clean.

Scout is now on the roof alone, contemplating entry by skylight, despite the additional gargoyles within.