[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

[demonbloodblade]

[The hand is accepted, and she is pulled in. There is blinking. And mild confusion. And then.]

Yes. Yes, I will.

[And she begins to dance with Simmaeri.]

[allsongs]

[pleased, Simmaeri draws her along, eventually giving the girl her own pace if she so wished, simply content to move with the flow of others and the sound enveloping the room.

in this enamored, dreamlike way, it takes her time to even think to consider, let alone recognize who she's just carried off with her, and there's just the faintest notion of delighted surprise when the thought does strike:]

Meliantha. [the child of monsters. she remembers. well!]

[demonbloodblade]

[Both of them seem to be almost caught in a dream.

Meliantha is perhaps, not the best dancer (having only be taught recently), but she tries, and something about the situation seems to make her... not softer, but not so much a creature of edges. She's... relaxed.]

Yes. And you are... Simmaeri? I tried to remember. You worked to understand what I meant.

[allsongs]

Yes. You remember. [her replies are gentle, coaxing, though still a little absent, attention still given to the music.] I remember you.

[demonbloodblade]

[She nods, a bit entranced by the whole situation.]

I expected you to be here. The music, and all. It suits you.

[allsongs]

It is my happiness. [no mistake there. her smile broadens once more, simply saying so, and lets her eyes close, trusting herself to follow along both in step and song, catching some of the words she'd heard repeated before. foreign still to her, but pleasing to repeat.]

[demonbloodblade]

I am... still learning about it. [And she keeps dancing with Simmaeri, leading, keeping the other woman from hitting anything. Not controlling - just careful movement.

And... she smiles. Not very broadly, but more than she has. She's enjoying herself. And she forgets - no, not forgets, she allows herself not to be wary, not to be defensive, as they dance.]

[allsongs]

[Simmaeri catches the smile and offers one in return, quite pleased to have this so-named child of monsters one more beautiful and content piece of this new music's tapestry. she revels in times like these.

she releases herself partway, enough to turn and extend the distance between them while hand-in-hand, one of those showy-offy kind of finishes as she hears the song end. she bows her head as her knees dip her into a bit of a curtsey, grateful for the little moment they had with that melody.]

Learn more, Meliantha. [it's an encouraging tone, releasing her other hand.] Find a happiness for you.

[she is practically a vanishing wisp of cloud at that, turning and drifting through still-moving bodies, wrapping herself up in the next tune with hands and feet poised to capture their next partner in all of this.]

[demonbloodblade]

[Meliantha smiles, returning the reverence, then turns, almost floating herself.

Some - even a part of her - would expect some kind of depression at rejection, but more of her realizes that it wasn't rejection, it was... release, to find a next step in the dance that she had never realized she could really be part of.]