Posted by Kim on December 16, 2023, 12:00pm
The Winter Masquerade is starting NOW! The RP chat will be open for 6 hours to ensure that all time zones are able to pop in for at least a moment or two. We hope to see a variety of characters, an inclusive atmosphere, and an ever-changing cast to interact with.
We strongly encourage you to make a new, anonymous character to attend with! The setting is a masked moonlit gala in winter; the setting for this first masquerade will be high-fantasy renaissance, but time travelers are welcome.
You may attend with any of your existing characters if you really want to -- All characters will be required to wear a mask, but that is the only restriction - bring me your dragons, your halflings, your vampires! All characters are welcome, provided they don't destroy the venue.When the masquerade is over, the masks come off! Everybody can announce who they played after the masquerade ends, so that you can connect with your newfound friends and disappear down the plot bunny's tunnel to make new stories.
For most of the year, there is nothing on the bluffs overlooking the Bay of Ice. But by now, some knew the secret, and it wasn't as much of a surprise when the gold-embossed invitations began to appear on bedside tables, on trays of morning correspondence, in the pockets of pajamas, and tucked all manner of places where they might be "coincidentally" discovered by the brush of a finger while groping for some other lost item.
Your Presence is Humbly Requested for
a Winter Masquerade
A Magical Evening of Revelry
Mysteries and Competitions
Masks Required
Come if You Dare!
- La grande-duchesse de L'hiver
a Winter Masquerade
A Magical Evening of Revelry
Mysteries and Competitions
Masks Required
Come if You Dare!
- La grande-duchesse de L'hiver
There is no address, but those who receive the invitation feel they know how to get there, even if the instruction in their heart is as nonsensical as "close your eyes and step through the wardrobe" or "turn left instead of right on your walk back home tonight." These knowings are fortified with the surety of dream logic, true as the foundation of the Earth and needing no justification.
And for those that follow these directions on the appointed evening, they find themselves in a field amid the pine trees. A wooden dance floor has been laid down in the center of the open space, and surrounded by laden banquet tables, seats, and cloth tents embroidered with holly. A band plays beside the dance floor, their music intermingling with the sound of crashing waves far below. The whole is bathed in the hushed blue light of a full moon. This year, the manor house has not appeared, but that too seems easily accepted as a normal thing to happen.
In the midst of it all is the Grand Duchess de L'hiver, a coy smile on her lips below her elegant mask. Before her, she gently holds aloft a white rose.She proceeds to a small table to the left of the dance floor, and gently places the rose into the air above it -- it hangs there, suspended by some invisible force, and then there is a shimmer and a glass dome has formed over the rose, and a crisp white light begins to emanate from each of the petals.
Her voice rings out clear, heard by the potential guests even though they have yet to arrive, might be hours distant. "Welcome, one and all! So long as this rose remains in bloom, this glade is enchanted to attract the best of everything one could want at a party -- the best interlocuters, the best dancers, the best comedians, musicians, chefs, wits, beauties, sweethearts -- They will come from all over, perhaps even from other planes, to bask in the light of our little winter masquerade! But be warned - this enchantment is powerful, and there may be other forces attracted to it with less noble aims. If you wish the party to continue, make sure our rose remains until its bloom is spent!"
With that, she claps her hands, the band strikes up an energetic waltz, and a sudden warmth descends on the bluffs despite the biting winter wind that flows from the ocean below. She turns, her smile growing to a grin, as she waits to greet the first arrivals.
Dawnia
December 16, 2023
6:07pm