[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

[fortissimos]

[ Normally, Kyouko is one of the most obvious people she knows, but tonight is apparently different. It helps that Sayaka only catches a glimpse of her from behind, at first; resulting in the impression of someone just browsing the tables, not blatantly stuffing their face.

The combination of flattering dress and freshly brushed hair help to obscure her identity - so much so that Sayaka finds herself wondering just how she's never seen this girl around before. She's hardly the type to avoid conversation with someone, even a stranger, but instead she gets a little too caught up in her staring, not realizing that the crowd between them is far less thick than it was a moment ago. ]

[invocation]

[Kyouko is fairly observant when she wants to be, and by the time she's made a significant dent in the hors d'oeuvres, she gets the tingling feeling on the back of her neck that signals she's being watched. There are few things Kyouko dislikes more than that, and she stiffens up, turns around and prepares to give the poor soul unfortunate enough to be staring at her the chewing out of their lives.

When she realizes who it is, she freezes, appears to consider something (perhaps an attempt at friendliness), and then throws that out the window. She feels suddenly very self-conscious, and feeling self-conscious makes her annoyed.]

Hey, weirdo. What are you staring at?

[Her tone is a little more high-pitched than she intends for it to be, teetering on the edge of defensive. It's bad enough to be dressed like this anyway, and then Sayaka had to show up and gawk at her like she was some sort of circus sideshow.]

[fortissimos]

[ Christ, her life. If the surprise on her face wasn't clear enough, the tone of her voice certainly is. ]

—Kyouko? [ She has an apology half formed, but Kyouko's reaction makes Sayaka feel defensive. Somehow the fact this is her makes things a thousand times more awkward. ] H, how was I supposed to know it was you? You've never worn anything like that before!

[ Not that staring at a stranger would be any less weird, but apparently she doesn't realize that. ]

[invocation]

So you thought you were staring at someone you didn't know? [The face Kyouko is giving Sayaka says pretty much everything she wants to say about that.]

[And there was nothing wrong with what she was wearing, she thinks, in a brief but startling rush of sullen anger. It wasn't like she picked this dumb dress anyway, or even wanted to be here. It was just that Madoka had wanted her to, and being unreasonably snappish with Madoka was akin to kicking a puppy, and she liked Madoka, despite herself. That was all.]

And I didn't decide to wear this dumb thing anyway. It was your friend's idea.

[fortissimos]

Exactly! [ Sayaka... ] It's not like it's weird or anything, I was just—

[ Wait, Madoka's idea? That makes... a surprising amount of sense, actually, because if anyone could con Kyouko into this it would be Madoka. She rubs the back of her head, frowning. ]

... Anyway, you shouldn't call it dumb. Maybe you don't like dressing up so much, but I think it looks nice. [ She sure wasn't staring because she thought it looked stupid, okay. ] You should wear that kinda stuff more often.

[invocation]

Wha- [Sayaka was so weird. And confusing. Kyouko, to her horror and shock, can feel warmth and color rise in her cheeks, and has to glance back toward the food. She suddenly wishes she was wearing the stupid mask.] Tch. Like I'd be caught dead wearing something like this again. It's just for today.

[fortissimos]

Geez, I was just saying! You don't have to wear anything that fancy, but you could at least make some kind of effort.

[ Well, this didn't take long to end in raised voices. Sayaka sighs, glancing away to try and calm her own defensiveness. ]

... Anyway, it's good that you're here. I was gonna try and find you later, but... [ She... wasn't really sure how that would go. Hopefully in a much less awkward way than this has so far, but that ship has sailed. ]

SUP ALSO OOC;

[invocation]

continuing here!