[open] welcome to the masquerade

[implying]

Date & Time: Friday the 7th, 4pm to midnight.
Location: Palace of Versailles, France, 1772.
Characters: anyone! Even characters not yet accepted as of when this log goes up. 8)
Summary: It's just some fancy masquerade dance with spiked punch.
Warnings: here be pictures, slow connections beware.


Welcome to Versailles.

The decorations are arranged, the food is prepared and laid out, the music has been rehearsed, and... most people have their costumes and masks ready. At precisely 1600, the Transporter machine activates, and a full room of people and all of their decorations, food, musical instruments, and costumes are sent back to 1772. The Palace of Versailles is in the height of its splendor, the weather is perfect and cloudless, and the gardens are in full bloom for the spring.

➣ Explore the Palace

Holy shit look at this, you have the chance to get your grubby little fingers all over history before it even becomes properly history. Do you know how many famous butts sat in all these plush velvet chairs? Or are going to sit in these plush velvet chairs? And they were all probably just talking the hell out of French, too. Wow. Go invade some bedrooms, poke your head into the kitchens (but no more than that, or territorial cooking elves might take offense), just. Touch everything. Everything. Just know that where ever you are, there's no escaping that beautiful music your fellow Transports are inflicting on you, that shit's just echoing all over the place tonight.

➣ Admire the Gardens

Jeez look at this, these people just had way too much money. But you get to benefit from it! You can basically just get yourself lost for hours here, so try not to starve or anything. Meet all the statues, go streaking through the fountains (please don't, no one wants to see that), get lost and desperately burst through cute little trees in your increasingly frantic attempts to find the exit. There's all sorts of fun you can have!

Just don't wander too close to the edge of the grounds, or you'll encounter (run into?) the invisible forcefield set up to keep wandering guests from utterly ruining history. That's probably a good way to get yourself a bloody nose.

➣ Enjoy the Banquet

There's tables and tables of this finger-licking good finery here, and it's all for you. And can you believe how fancy it is? Oh my god, those sausages have adorable little spears through them. And those spoons gently cradling their cheesy goodness? Yeah. They're made of crackers. And don't even get me started on these desserts. This is amazing. You've never eaten this good. And naturally, each drink (some of which are spiked, you're welcome) has adorable little frozen flowers in the ice cubes. Who even comes up with this stuff? Elves, that's who.

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Comments

[hostage]

Nope. No. What? I'm just kidding.

Wow.

[payback]

All right, turn out your pockets.

[hostage]

[He takes a swift step awaaaaay from Rin.]

What?

[bittertears]

Ah, greetings Miss Kanaya. You look lovely today.

[Yeah, Kanaya was pretty easy to recognize, but that's okay! Alice was hoping she'd run into her, and she too has some serious color coordination going on.]

I trust you're finding the festivities to your liking?

[payback]

Are you going to do it? [No moves yet -]

[hostage]

[He keeps backing up slowly.]

No.

[painfeels]

[Painwheel's just sort of hanging out outside, having had enough of everything that was going on withing the Palace proper. Her dress doesn't go along with her mask at all but she doesn't care, she doesn't like being out in the open like this where everyone can see her.

What do you think, Kanaya. Feel like attempting to make Painwheel feel less miserable?

Even if this is the first time you'd meet face-to-face.]

[payback]

[She lunges.]

[hostage]

[He yelps. And starts running.]

[payback]

[OH NO JESSE. She's pretty fast! Beating down the path after him.]

[bittertears]

[Alice recognizes her easily, but holds no expectations of she herself being difficult to spot, even with the mask on.

She's doing pretty much the same. Walking around and just satisfying her curiosity.]

It's all rather astounding, wouldn't you agree?

[hostage]

[She's catching up to him easily. He's not used to running in dress shoes. Hell, he's not used to wearing dress shoes.]

[painfeels]

[Unfortunately, Painwheel isn't watching where she's going. She just wants to be somewhere with less people. Anywhere.]

Sorry... about that.

[Woah. Painwheel turns her head up and... wow you're tall.]

[payback]

[She puts on a burst of speed. Trying to tackle him to the ground here.]

[ex_cashcow493]

[ Thanks to the special bond between Master and Servant, it doesn't take long for Saber to reunite with him. Even if she wears a cheaper mask than the rest of her outfit. In fact the suit she wears looks too rich to be borrowed or rented. Her hair's down partially, but not nearly enough to appear the maiden he needs her to be. Instead it's just a ponytail, a look she's never worn before him. ]

Shirou, are you well?

[hostage]

[Aaaand he's down. It's sad how easy that was.]

[payback]

[It's so sad. Jesse, you would not last back home.

She scrambles up over him and promptly - well. Sits on his lower back to try and immobilize him. Deft hands, digging for his pockets -]

miles edgeworth | everywhere | open

[bratworth]

[ When this masquerade had first been announced, Edgeworth hadn't planned on attending. While he certainly wasn't opposed to cozy sit-down dinners between individual who already knew and tolerated one another, huge parties such as this one where anybody could attend made him uncomfortable. He had no love of being pressed against a crowd of many anonymous strangers, gathered together for no particular purpose other than general merriment. Given what Edgeworth knew and expected of people, it was practically a recipe for disaster.

However, with some nagging from a certain someone, he'd begrudgingly agreed to come -- someone needed to keep an eye on teenagers like her, didn't they? It was nice, too, to have a reminder that there would be people that he thought fondly of here as well, to have a chance to observe their happiness, even if it could not rub off at him, not at this time of year.

Then the location had been announced and Edgeworth found himself reconsidering his previous opposition to happiness-- although he still felt weighed down by his memories, his own inadequacies, he had found himself actively counting down the days to the masquerade. He'd not really had time to prepare a costume, not really caring for themed parties anyway -- he could only just hope his suit was formal enough. At least this time, he's allowed to wear his cravat.

They're going to the Palace of Versailles, for goodness's sake, and now... now they're here. Edgeworth can't content himself with just being a wallflower. No, he's not being as actively social as some of the other people present, but he's actively exploring, wandering the palace and gardens, taking in the sights with his eyes.

All the unusual things he's seen and experienced as part of his time in Exsilium so far had mostly unsettled him, made him question what he was doing, his purpose in this reality, this life, so removed from the career he had been preparing for back home.

It's nice, sometimes, to think that the Initiative's technology, which is responsible for so many arguable terrible things, can instead be used for something beautiful. ]

[hostage]

[Jesse could throw her off at this point but he's not about to wrestle with a girl in formalwear. That isn't his style. He does, however, squirm and reach blindly to try to stop her hands from going wherever they're going.]

Don't. Don't, don't, don't.

[payback]

[He sounds too guilty to be spared. Rin slaps briskly at his hands and digs around to plunder his pockets, relentless. When her fingers touch something a little crinkly and plastic-feeling she goes to jerk it free. Yoink.]

Hey, what's this?

[hostage]

[Fuck.]

I dunno what you're talking about.

[Yeah, that's a convincing story.]

[bittertears]

[Alice can't help but wonder what she's even talking about.]

Is the lack of those two items really of such importance?

[emptysword]

Ah, Sab-

[His greeting was cut short when his eyes met her emerald ones, obscured by the mask as it was- It was as if he was quite surprised by his partner's ensemble; of course, who wouldn't when their female date showed in all but a gentleman's suit to a masquerade party.

Coughing into his hands to regain his composure, he gave a lopsided smile to greet her.]

Saber, I'm doing as well as I can be, I guess.

[payback]

[She's still just sitting on him. And, at least, doesn't sound immediately condemning as she examines the baggie full of... meth... She's just curious.

What a good girl. She stayed out of this scene even in the Port.]

... Umm. [She is actually going to - yes, open the bag and sneak out one of the crystals. She really has no idea what she's doing.]

No, really. What is this?

[bittertears]

[In between explorations, Alice notices that this one seems to be particularly impressed with what's going on around her.]

It's a magnificent sight, I'm inclined to agree.