Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Official event: Winter Masquerade 2023

"A masquerade Party huh?", She noted to herself. Then it hit her, it was like that visit to the magical lake. They were sent to another dimension to party once again! How sweet, she thought to herself.

She then materialized and wore a fox mask akin to those from Japan. She materialized and gave Ren a bakeneko mask.

"Really?", He said, "Not only do I hate cats, we're just gonna party... again?"

"Mhm!", She giggled at her summoner's complaints

Ollie looks STUNNED and DELIGHTED when this gambit works. He goes frantically gallopping over to Cris, excitedly showing her the critter he caught!

"Indeed, a masquerade party. You're most welcome, friends, though I fear you've caught us at the tail end of the event."

He looks up at Ren unamused.

Cris cheered at the sight of the creative tools. "Now we're talking! Come, Rosy, let's get to work! You're gonna be my little Santa Helper, aren't you?" she chuckled, booping her daughter's nose with her mask and motioning over to the table. She inspected it, then her eyes lit up. Placing Rosy down next to her, she gave her some scraps of paper to play with while she herself got to work on a piece of cardstock. Humming quietly, she cut out a circle, then traced a second, smaller one inside and two straight lines departing - one from the smaller circle, one from the larger one. To an outsider eye it'd make little sense but she seemed quite self-assured in her actions as she collected some glitters, glue and fabrics and began to assemble them according to the bigger picture in her mind. Soon, the fabrics were molded into a pattern similar to.. fae wings?...

The ferret suddenly went limp, pretending to be dead. Na'aiyah didn't bother interferring as she knew it could very well protect itself. Instead she went to look at the stuff on the table, picking up things and trying to figure out what they all were. "Huh.. These are some.. odd items."

"Mhhph mh mh mhhp mh mhp mhpph mhhpp!"

The world seems to gently contract around the gathering. The dark on the outskirts of the glade grows darker, sound muffled by falling snow. But at the center of the glade, where the gathering is still occurring, there is no snow, and the moonlight is still bright and the air curiously warm. The smell of cinnamon and sugar is on the air, especially around the craft table. The Duchess keeps an eye on those making crafts, a soft smile on her face.

"I feel like the party is ending soon... It was fun!"

Deftly and expertly, Cris's fingers adjusted the fabric over the external ring of the cardboard; then she proceeded to carefully cut along the outline of the smaller circle, and folded the external one in a half-cone. This made the smaller circle stand up like a head on a body, with the edges sticking out on each side exactly as the wings of a fae. Now it was time to decorate the dress, and of course, the face. Some plain paper was adjusted - not as complex as an origami - into the guise of snowflakes, and covered in silver glitters. Now she needed some pale blue fabric... and for the hair, hmm. Ah, there - some dark wool, that'd work perfectly! Cris's fingers were nimble as she worked the wool into tresses and curls, then carefully glued it to the head of the cardboard doll-fae that looked... more and more like the Duchess?

It only needed a final touch and Cris carefully cut out the outline of the mask from sleek foil-like sheets, then glued it on, decorated by the snowflakes.

And there she was. A tiny fae doll modeled after their host. Scooping up Rosy in her arms, she left the table and approached the Duchess, with the craftwork dangling from a thin golden string.

"This is to thank you for everything you have done to make this event exceptional", Cris's eyes smiled behind the mask. "A gift in return for the gift of this invitation!"

Finding Cris busy, Ollie instead brings the ferret over to Caecilius and Umbra for the inspection, his eyes half-crazed with delight.

"Hello, Ollie!" Caelus crouched to greet the dog, offering a hand to pet his head. "Who've you got here?"

The dog attempts to explain, but it just comes out muffled through the little ferret's body. He finds he has to put it down - only a little bit more slimey than it was before - at the feet of his friends. "I think it's a kitten!" he borks, beside himself with glee.

Umbra looks at Caecilius' spell. She is enchanted, in part for the beauty of it, but mostly for the technical aspect behind it "such precision..." her eyes are fixated to the small magical bugs, analyzing the flow of magic, the light magic type and small movements they make... but then he fades them away as quickly as he made them. Umbra snaps out of it "that's... highly optimized magic control... you must've put lots of effort into it, didn't you?" she gives him a warm, admiring smile "a type of insect that captures moonlight sounds quite intriguing too- there could be many other applications for that if we manage to study how they capture light and how they work I mean, imagine if we could-" but she's interrupted by a repeated trill, then a small reddish crescent moon shaped object appears close to her ear "sorry just a moment-" Umbra whispers into the little moon "-yes... no?... where am I?... pft cmon Ei!... if it's really that urgent..." the reddish moon fades away as Umbra looks at Caecilius "duty calls dear~ I hope to see you again... in a less anonymous enviroment if possible..." she gives him another playful wink before snapping her fingers, a deep blue portal opening in front of her "everyone- thank you for the wonderful masquerade... it was truly an experience!" she bids farewell to the duchess and all the guests before crossing the portal, that soon closes after.

The Duchess' eyes widen as she is presented with the ornament meant to look like herself. "I... Why, I'm speechless. This is a little work of art. But I think it should go home tonight with Rosie, so that she can remember my gathering even after the dream fades. It can be so hard to remember one's dreams, sometimes."

The gathering dark was intensifying still further, shrinking the world down, and the party itself began to feel faintly translucent, fog-like.

The ferret rolls around, wiggling like a worm, not at all bothered by the saliva. He jumps around excitedly, nibbling at the feet of the dog.

"Farewell you all! I hope to meet you again soon!"