eswareinmal | Action: Come one, come all!

Entry tags:

Action: Come one, come all!

Characters: ALL THE PEOPLE
Open? Yes.
Where: The Palace
When: The night of the 3RD
What: A masquerade ball and a very deep sleep.
Warnings: Part of a comm-wide plot!

The Prince Sif has felled an unknown beast, and presented its stuffed head to the King. This would be reason enough for a ball, but there are victories to celebrate. More heroes arrive every day. The kingdom was aptly defended when the forest wall fell. No one has tried to assassinate the king in several days.

All told, a good night for a party. The theme of the ball is a masquerade, and shops in town have been surprisingly (almost suspiciously) able to provide gowns and masks in ready supply.

The palace has been opened to heroes and townspeople alike, provided they can present themselves appropriately. The heroes have been strongly encouraged to attend, and those who do not come voluntarily may well be greeted with royal retainers at their doorstep, outfit and dance card in hand. Expect a very full dance card, heroes.

The banquet table is stacked full of food – roasts and cheeses, summer fruits and vegetables, rivers of wine and more ornate desserts than should be permitted in a time or war. This evening is about success – best to enjoy it.

In the center of the ball sits the beast’s head. A scaly, purple thing. Its eyes have been taken out and replaced with rubies, its mouth twisted in the same sort of anguished look on its face as when Sif killed it. There has never been a beast like this in Schwanheim before – if you like, come closer and take a look. The king is very generous with his gifts.

[ooc: The party is a LIE. Well. No, it isn’t! Enjoy the party. Your characters will be expected to wear full masquerade gear, or they will be shunted aside and dressed properly.

After the attendees go home, they will be plagued with dreams more tangible than they have ever felt. More information here]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's been a strange, strange sort of day, the kind that began with waking up in a strange new place with an unknown man in your room, and ended by being forced off to a masquerade ball. If it weren't for the lack of wings and not a single townsperson knowing anything about Luceti - when they could look at her written questions and weren't trying to stuff her into one dress or another - Ginia might have believed this was a very elaborate sort of experiment or some crazy delusion.

Fortunately, it wasn't a crazy delusion. Unfortunately, it wasn't Luceti or even anywhere remotely related to Earth. Unfortunately, the townspeople weren't taking "no" for an answer as they began to prepare her for the ball. Not wanting to cause any trouble and realizing the many benefits of attending a party for gathering information, Ginia relented and let them dress her in a gown and mask and went off to the castle.

She was thankful Odin had also appeared, the dog hanging closely to her side as she kept against the wall. A small leather pouch hung off her wrist, a leather journal and some sticks of charcoal inside. At least they'd been kind enough to give her writing utensils.

...oh god.

Giles had just been keeping a lookout for the girl in the dragon mask when he catches a glimpse of someone else. Someone with dark hair and a familiar, massive dog at their side.

It can't be right. It can't. He must be seeing things. She's wearing a mask, like all the rest, and large dogs are common enough around the town. But as she moves about the party, Giles finds himself looking towards her more than once, but never closely enough to be certain one way or another. It's maddening and frustrating and he's not sure which possibility he wants.

Even so, not knowing is the worst part, and so he moves towards her. He tries not to walk through people or let people walk through him, and so his progress is slow, but, eventually, Ginia will find her path blocked by an older man wearing a mask in the style of an owl, as he slides around a chattering couple. "E-Excuse me, miss..."

And then, for a second, Giles simply stares at her. The memory of his breathing sounds impossibly loud in the din of the crowd. That close together, he knows.

And then, almost before he knows what he's doing, he closes his eyes and blinks out of sight.

It only takes a few minutes for Ginia to realize she's being watched, and that realization instantly puts her on edge. She knows there could be innocent reasons for it, Odin certainly stands out in the crowd, but it makes her uneasy. It's mostly because it's unknown territory and she's trying to find her bearings without all her usual resources. She's confident enough she'll be able to get resources and figure things out, but it's the sort of thing that takes time.

Ginia glances around, seeing only a sea of unknown faces, and moves on, never quite shaking the feeling as she makes her way around the room. She keeps a hand close to Odin, fingers scratching behind his ears or holding onto his collar. He's calm so far, a good sign, and she'll take her canine companion's lead.

When someone stops in front of her and speaks, Ginia looks at the owl-masked man. In the same second it takes for him to recognize her, she wonders. A taller older man, that familiar English accent and stutter she can pick out even with two words, she wonders and dares to hope even when she knows it's impossible. She's not in Luceti anymore. He's long dead. There are plenty of older, tall Englishmen in the world.

But then he disappears and Ginia wonders if she was hearing or seeing things, if maybe she was tired and the oddity of the day was messing with her mind. Odin sits down and cocks his head to the side, sniffing at the air before he growls, then gives one solid, loud bark.

Oh, right.

Dogs. Very sensitive to the supernatural, dogs.

It's not as though he even smells the same. Odin has no reason to trust him being anywhere near Ginia...if the dog even remembers him at all. If his mistress even remembers him at all. She didn't seem to, but, then again, the world has taken on that slight edge it does when he's not letting anyone see him, so it's likely his own fault.

...it should be the easiest thing in the world to step back into sight and just let her get a proper look at him, but...then he'll have to explain what he is, and that will hurt them both. Giles almost wishes that Odin would take the choice away from him.

Ginia will hear a soft "snap" in the air just above Odin's nose. And that's because Giles has just snapped his fingers over Odin's nose, trying to get a sense on if the large dog actually recognizes him at all.

Ginia's hand rests on her dog's head as she looks ahead of her. Odin continues to sniff at the air, giving the occasional light growl and tilt of his head. He's confused and unsettled, and that worries Ginia as well, but as he seems determined to hold his ground, she remains at his side. A few of the other party-goers glance at her direction, but she ignores their stares and whispers as she looks around, trying to gather her thoughts. They're thoughts she doesn't like because she knows they're foolish. Once, there was a village where everyone had wings. Once, there was a man in that village she loved very much. Both were things in the past. Why were they coming up now?

At the light snap, Ginia tenses and Odin hops up to his feet and snaps at the air above his nose. He pads forward in a light circle around Giles, sniffing and whining slightly before he ends up where he started and sits back down. His head tilts again before he raises his paw and holds it out, expecting a shake.

Giles can't help it. He laughs. He presses a hand to his mouth to stifle the sound, but he laughs, and in that moment he is revealed. His voice doesn't vanish just because he does, after all.

"Clever boy," he murmurs to Odin. It's the only praise he can give, right now.

It's an almighty effort and it takes all his concentration, but - with one last nervous glance up at Ginia - Giles pushes aside his owl mask and will himself visible again. Visually, it's much like someone tugging aside a blanket painted like the space in front of her, and beneath it is Giles, as though he'd been standing there the entire time.

And so he stands before her, visible and easily identifiable and all the more anxious for it. It's only been a week or so, for him. After speaking with Helios, he has no way of knowing how long it's been for her. But if Odin remembers...

"...h-hello, Ginia."

The sound of his laughter, his laughter, is enough to confirm his identity for Ginia. She pales behind her mask, her eyes grow wide, and she stares because it's not possible. It shouldn't be possible. Yet hadn't Luceti proved even the most impossible things were simply improbable, and hadn't her own career shown nothing was impossible with the right tools and ideas?

Odin gives a disappointed whine when there's no handshake, but he sets his paw down as his tail wags happily, also recognizing Giles' voice. It's different for dogs, different in ways that can't be explained.

When he reveals himself, Ginia gives a small gasp and steps back. She hears him, she sees him, and though she held onto to belief he would come back, though she knows how possible impossible things can be, she can't believe it. It's a new world, a new place, who knows what lies and trickery could be here. Maybe it's a trick of the party, showing her someone she wants to see. But Odin trusts him and the wisdom of animals is something she puts more stock into, even if it's possible he could be made up of falsehoods too.

Her head lowers as her fingers close into tight fists. Ginia takes a few deep inhales and exhales as she tries to clear her mind. When she looks back up, her eyes are hard, her lips a thin line, a cool facade for her own protection. She unclenches her hands and signs at him, carefully choosing her words.

/How do I know this isn't a trick?/

Giles looks back at her, the sound of her fancy, borrowed gown giving her movements away even when his attention is otherwise quite focused on Odin. And then his face falls slightly as she signs at him. "Y-Your necklace..." he begins, finally seeing that she's not wearing it. "Oh, good lord, if they t-took it away because it, it didn't match the dress, or something idiotic like that, I-I'll give the king such a..."

...well, he doesn't know what he'll do. Not much he can do. Maybe just sing rude songs all night and stop him getting any sleep, although he seems the sort of ruler who'd enjoy that.

"I don't know," he says, as he calms down and realizes what she's just said. Her doubt stings him, but he certainly can't begrudge it. An entirely new world, and they two people who have never known one another without wings. And so Giles gives a helpless shrug. "Test me. I, um, I'd say I can, um, probably measure up."

Her hands betray her as her right hand goes up to touch her neck. Gone is the silver cross and the gold necklace she wore for so long in Luceti, replaced by the orb given to her upon her arrival. In truth it'd been over a year since she had that very special necklace. Was it still in Luceti? Oh god, how much time has passed in Luceti? She blanches for a moment as the realization she's left Luceti finally kicks in. She left Helios, Grune, oh god.

And yet, she finds it in her to laugh, the soft huffs of air that were so familiar to her. He knows about the necklace, that is one bit of proof she can hold onto, and she feels she'll owe him an apology in the end. Maybe her paranoia can be forgiven, but she knows how he can be when it comes to doubt and not being remembered.

Ginia pulls herself back toward and takes a small step in toward him. She raises her hands to her face and pulls her mask aside, bearing her face to him. It's only fair. She hasn't changed much at all. A year older, maybe a few new lines forming, but she hasn't changed much at all.

/How did we meet?/

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