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]

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[Get your party on before you are all murdered :D]

Go ahead. Try to dress the ghost in proper masquerade attire.

A mage with decent concentration could actually probably manage the right illusion spell, but Giles is damned if he's seeking one out.

...okay. After a fight between a townsman and a shopkeeper that resulted in a bit of extra property damage, particularly to the merchandise, Giles did stumble across what can best be described as the "ghost of a mask". It's insubstantial as he is and will fade by sunrise. But, for now, it suffices.

Not that Giles knows why he's bothering. He's already being given a wide berth, whenever he lets himself be visible, after the poltergeist activity and broken wishes of the day before. Really, Giles isn't entirely certain why he's attending this mess. No one can make him, very few want him, and he'd just as much enjoy his newly obtained freedom from the bottle by sitting outside.

...but, well, the possibility of getting a look at something from the Two Faced Forest that isn't trying to eat someone was a powerful lure. And so Giles can be found standing before the head. He has his journal and a pencil out of his pocket, and has the journal open to a blank page, but is staring fixedly at the paper without making a move with his pen. Given that he's evidently quite distracted and quite visible, he's probably blocking your view.

Otherwise, if you're quick, you might catch Giles around and about, at the buffet table, on the dance hall, by the doors watching people come in. You might be able to see him staring distantly, and a little sadly at the scene that is the subject of his observation. But, unless he's addressed, Giles blinks out of sight shortly after and returns to his place by the head of the great beast.

Aralu, with her usual sense of humor, dressed Faolan as a wolf for the gala, since he had insisted on going to see the severed head. As a hero, albeit a small one, he has been getting more attention than he expected, and has been pulled into at least one dance by a town girl.

When able to break away, he makes a beeline for the head, eyes lighting up on seeing it and the person near it.

"Giles!"

A dance that Giles had watched for a few minutes, with feelings of mingled affection and amusement. Poor kid. It probably wouldn't be the last hopeful girl tonight, or in nights to come.

So he looks up from his journal, where he still hasn't made a mark, when Faolan calls his name. Giles gives the boy a small wave of acknowledgement and a warm smile.

"Hello, Faolan. Come to see the monster?"

"Got everything settled with the curse?" The voice was plesent enough behind the horned and fanged oni-style mask that Bakura had been rather pleased to have found in the pile of feathered and all together far too girly looking masks.

[[Dancing through the crowds is a young woman in bright red silk robes that shimmer and sparkle as she moves. Her mask covers almost her entire face with that of a fire dragon. Even though her eyes cannot be seen, they can be felt as she watches over the party, seeming to vanish into the throng, only to reappear across the room.]]

[[Not too far from the head sits the King's comfy throne, with the King upon it. He's not so much for dancing, but he's expected to show at these things, and hey, he gets first pick of the banquet! He'll be chowing down and gabbing and joking with the locals. If it weren't for that crown on his head, you'd never know he was the king!]]

"Yes!"

Faolan leans up against the table, marveling at the beast that Sif and Alanna brought in. It only makes sense that it would be amazing, since they are.

"What happened to eyes?" he asks after a moment.

[Why hello, embodiment of chaos! Have a small, cute thing that likes to pounce on shiny, moving things.]

[[The robes seem to magically move out of the way just fast enough, a flutter of glitter that seems to fly out like butterflies of flame wafting up as they move.]]

The voice is pleasant enough, but the mask gets a yelp and a sharp step back before Giles realizes just who he's approached him.

"O-Oh," he says, giving his glasses a nervous little adjustment. "Um, y-yes. After...a great deal of idiotic wishing and, um, property damage. Yes."

The bottle is currently in his pocket. Giles is on the lookout for someone who might be willing to smash it for him.

Giles takes a spot next to him, careful not to fall through the table. The notebook and pen are thankfully replaced in his pocket.

"Eyes, um, don't tend to keep terribly well. Besides, um, once whatever they were, were attached to has died, um, they...tend not to look much like eyes anymore, in any case. Especially in the case of animals or, um, or monsters. I suppose someone thought this would look more realistic, or fearsome, or...something to that effect."

[ She hadn't intended on attending.

Welp.

The last (and first) time she'd gone to a masquerade, she'd 'dueled' over the last piece of cake and the host of the party had been murdered. She'd been dressed as a unicorn that time, ha ha, unaware that she was actually one, but here? Not so.

She'd gotten as simple a mask as the townsgirls would let her, gibbering on about heroes and having to look the part. They'd conveniently ignored her comment that not looking the part was the point of a masquerade, or so she had thought. What she absolutely would not back down on was a dress she could actually move in, that didn't trail on the ground lest she have a repeat of Myron's ball. Eventually, they let her go in a very simple gold and white dress.

Right now, she's more or less parked near the banquet table, her small plate filled with nothing but fruits and vegetables. She looks to the stuffed head, then moves her gaze elsewhere. Don't want to lose her appetite... ]

[Even Giles is having some difficulty keeping track of this one. He's met people who are deft in a crowd before...and then there's this lady. Honestly, he's almost starting to wonder if she's a ghost herself. It would be nice...

So, the girl in the dragon mask might feel a slight chill along one arm from just behind, although the source of it is likely not immediately visible, as sneaking up behind someone to check their tangibility is something that warrants invisibility.]

I, um, I take it that you didn't appear for a better look at the thing, then.

[Said as Giles flashes into sight next to her. Her plate gets a glance, a slightly sad glance, and then Giles' gaze ticks back up towards Olindra's face, hidden as it is behind her glittering mask. His own is a wooden mask, done up to resemble a brown owl, although it's as ghostly as he is.]

[ She jumps (just a bit!) when he flashes in. ]

Oh. Ah...

There are ghost masks, too?

[ MANNERS??? ]

[She asks about the nature of being a ghost, he goes invisible and reappears without warning. It balances out.]

I, um, I think it might be more accurate to call them, um, "ghosts of masks". But, um, yes. A few got destroyed in a shop brawl and, um, I managed to pull this one out of the rubble.

[He gestures at the rest of his outfit, which is the same as its always been.]

Thought I, um, m-might as well make what effort I could.

... Non-living items have ghosts?

[ Whoa. Whooaaa.

She looks at her carrot stick, then at Giles. ]

This, too?

[Giles looks down at her carrot stick, and then back at Olindra.]

What?

[Back down at the vegetable, and then he gets it.]

What, the, um...the carrot? Possibly. But it would, um, probably be located inside your stomach, i-if it was anywhere.

Oh. Yes.

So you cannot eat anything, then?

"Not a thing."

He could taste, though, if he were possessing someone, but without the threat of death or injury over their head, Giles feels that it's probably impolite to mention as much, especially when Olindra is his only current alternative to Helios. A hasty subject change follows:

"To be honest, I-I'm, um, not entirely certain how the mask turned up at all. That's, um, just my theory. Perhaps this place simply...well, provided."

Faolan considers while looking at the head this way and that.

"But don't look like eyes. How can be fierce?"

[Faolan is delighted, as are a few of the younger children (who should have been left home, but where are you going to find a babysitter tonight?). The group laughs and chases after the butterflies.]

"Sometimes, um, craftsmen will use glass. Those, um, can look startlingly like genuine eyes. As for these..." He peers a little more closely at the gem stones. "Well. Fancy. Ornate. Suitable for a ball, I suppose."

Whoops. With a bit of a sheepish smile, Bakura lifts the mask up to rest on top of his hair with a small "Sorry."

"That's great to hear! Aaa-- not about the damage, I mean," he corrected with another small smile. "Sorry I wasn't able to be of more help..."

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Action: Come one, come all!

Party Here~

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...dude, that is not a simple mask. Olindra got ripped off.

yes 8')

Mwahaha. Poor girl.

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sorry, giles

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