Masquerade! Paper faces on parade

[god_damned]

WHO: OPEN. Anyone who wants to attend can arrive!
WHERE: A dreamscape created by Mordin experimenting with Minako's powers.
WHEN: Tonight.
WARNINGS: Will edit if necessary? I can't expect anything horrific occuring.
SUMMARY: When your character goes to bed, they will all experience a shared dream! This is the result of Mordin messing with Minako's powers, causing a manifestation of a masquerade ball! details here.
FORMAT: Tagger's choice!


The last thing you remember is your head hitting the pillow.

Is this really a dream? The scene before you is vivid and alive. You are hosted inside a grand mansion, with its ballroom as the center stage. There are many doors, leading to winding hallways and spacious rooms, but none seem to lead outside, no matter what path you choose. This place seems inescapable, and so does the music which carries through the walls. It's beautiful, like a whole orchestra is housed in this place, but none of the rooms seem to contain a single musician, nor a speaker for the broadcast.

There is a comfort: you're not alone. However, you are not sure exactly who it is you're with. Everyone around you is hidden behind a mask, though you're sure there is something familiar about a few of them. There's only one way to find out if they're a friend or foe. Don't be shy; go introduce yourself.

Oh wait, you can't. Something stalls the words in your throat, and another name comes out instead: one from the history books, or far off fantasy.

That's when you realize: this mask on your face, and how you're dressed... you've been given a role to play – you all have – and it's so powerful that it's usurped your own name.

It's natural for a Hero to have a mask and a costume, but isn't this a bit far?

Comments

Kanaya Maryam as Artemis, open

[glowsferatu]

[ something about this atmosphere is stifling. kanaya finds herself feeling confined by the indoors, feeling as though they only interrupted her hunt. why exactly she's so anxious to return to it, she isn't sure. was it something she was dreaming before? she's relatively certain she's still asleep, these things tend to be obvious.

the outfit was certainly different, a white chiton going down to her knees and leather sandals. her pale grey skin looks almost porcelain now, and if she could see her mask she'd know that it matches. the bow and quiver are new, and she honestly doesn't know what she's expected to do with them.

this whole scenario is a bit much for her, gathered in a room with unrecognizable strangers. she wants out, she wants to resume the hunt instead. so, she calls out to anyone who may be listening. ]

Could anyone perhaps direct me to the exit?

[glowsferatu]

[ there's something vaguely familiar in renee's mask. the scales. they remind kanaya of a friend, gone though she might be. she frowns under her own, but her mask hides any change to her expression. ]

So, just what are we expected to do, then?

[glowsferatu]

[ the expressionless mask stares grimly over the banquet hall. she sees deities mingling, partying, making the best of things. somehow, she doesn't see the point in it. she's had enough of being trapped where she doesn't want to be. ]

I suppose there's something typical in that. We're likely meant to be grateful that the conditions are more hospitable than our most recent forays, but I doubt I could really muster it.

[glowsferatu]

[ under her mask, she purses her lips. ]

And how easy would it be to hunt that person out? To all indications, those we see here are under the very same spell we are.

[xxii_thefool]

Unfortunately, it isn't going to be that easy.

[The smooth, clean lines of the pale mask are Grecian... the rest of the costume, not so much. But the long thread that she holds drawn out between her hands, looped loosely over her forearms and trailing to the floor with no end in sight, may give some clue as to who she's supposed to be.]

[glowsferatu]

It never really tends to be, does it?

[ and as she says it, she gives the costume an appraising eye. unfortunately, kanaya's knowledge of human mythology doesn't extend to the namesake of their interdimensional jailer. ]

Who is it you're meant to be?

[xxii_thefool]

Why, Lachesis, of course. [She holds up her hands, stretching the thread between as though in illustration.] The apportioner of fate.

It's just a costume, of course. I have others if you'd prefer.

[glowsferatu]

[ the mask's grim face shows no change, but her shoulders tense at the name. the apportioner of fate? ]

I suppose the name isn't inapt, then. Or the occasion, given its confining qualities.

[ she moves her fingers against the edge of her mask, but doesn't feel the seam. just as she feared. ] You're capable of changing?

[xxii_thefool]

It's what I do.

[For illustration, she lifts a hand to her face, thread trailing between her fingers. The mask lifts away easily; underneath it is revealed another mask. And then another.

The discarded masks drop from her hands as cards that dissolve in flickers of blue flame before they touch the floor. She considers Artemis for a moment longer before reaching up once more to remove her mask, exchanging the dark form of Atropos for a different appearance altogether, one with a grandeur somewhat more suitable to the occasion.]

For the record, I had nothing to do with this situation. [A momentary pause.] That I know of.

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya looks down, watching the masks as they fall. more and more, her body language disagrees with her mask's expression, arms wrapped about her in a way that's clearly a bit unsettled. ]

Yet you're still able to manipulate it to your own ends. That's...a rather singular phenomenon, from what I've yet seen.

[xxii_thefool]

Hmmm, maybe. [She considers for a moment.] But I don't think it's really as big a deal as you might suppose.

[glowsferatu]

[ her arms slide into a crossed position, swinging her hips to one side. ] I should think that mine being sealed to my face would make a sudden exception quite a big deal, actually!

[xxii_thefool]

Either way, we're both still wearing masks. I just have a few more.

[glowsferatu]

What has me curious is attempting to determine what might give cause to a phenomenon like that. How deep your masks may go, and if that's intended to mean something.

[ but that sounds too much like psychoanalysis for kanaya to make heads or tails of it. she wishes rose were here, she might have better luck at sussing it out. ]

this time in the correct thread WHOOPS

[xxii_thefool]

Well... I suppose I could put it this way.

If you could take your mask off, would you say that there's a "real you" underneath it?

well you caught it before i noticed c:

[glowsferatu]

[ there would be quite a bit in the face she makes at that to read an answer in, if you could see it. the pause isn't much less telling. ]

I suppose that depends on the strict realness of you, whether it be a complication in concept of reality, or of one's self. [ which is to say that ] I don't know.

[xxii_thefool]

It's a tricky question, isn't it?

If I had to guess, that might be the difference.

[glowsferatu]

I think the problem may perhaps be in the nature of where we are, and the somewhat troubled relationship between dreams and reality. Sometimes they are a reflection of each other, but there are many unexpected ways a skew can occur in that image.

That being said, I think there is at least whatever we define as ourselves residing in its core. The problem is how different that definition may be from what is, I suppose.

[xxii_thefool]

[She laughs, a pleased if slightly embarrassed sound.]

I think you went a bit over my head there... but I get the gist of it, at least.

...a core self, huh? But I don't think I have something like that.

[glowsferatu]

I was talking more about a sort of self-definition than anything necessarily objective. [ because objective concepts of self are really fucking complicated, especially when you've seen it cast in as many lights as kanaya has. ] Do you not have any real idea as to your own identity? Is that why you can change between the masks?

What will await you underneath once the last has been removed?

[gandere]

Why would you want to leave so soon?

[ The mask hardly fits the garb she's wearing, but that's just Rin. Even in a dream, she has to maintain some sense of originality. A mixture of a modern wardrobe and Egyptian references along her mask make her quite the difficult one to figure out.

Leave it to Rin to be a special snowflake in her dreams. ]

The party has only just started and we have the whole night.

[glowsferatu]

[ artemis actually pauses to appraise the outfit, tilting her head to the side and tapping a finger against her marble chin. it's not a bad outfit, certainly more elaborate than her own. she turns her attention to her own, which feels a bit inadequate in comparison.

she could do something with this later, but it's a bit short and plain for her tastes right now. ]

My inclinations weren't especially toward a party tonight. It's something of an interruption on my previously held plans.