not_a_goddamn_princess | MASQUERADE PARTY, 33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday Evening

Party night. The best of nights. An ornate sign on 33 Apocalypse’s door invited all to knock and make themselves known.

The space inside was bigger than it looked from the outside, stretched and displaced by magic. The wallpaper was green and textured, hinting at the English countryside. On one side of the room sat a significant bar offering food and drinks, while the other gave ample space to sit. A large Jenga tower held prominence in a corner.

It was easy to miss it, though, in favor of the little streams of water that ran across furniture and floor. Tiny glass gondolas, animated by magic, made their way back and forth across each stream. The gondolas were real, though the water itself was an illusion. It called attention to the ceiling, doubly enchanted: both to draw all cigarette smoke to itself so it wouldn’t blow in anyone’s face, but also to mimic the starry sky above Venice.

You could watch the stars twinkle, or see the occasional cloud go by. Magical fireflies added to the illusion, dancing through the air like tiny lights. If you listened closely, you could hear the sea rolling in across an invisible beach. Even the air smelled faintly of it: the sea, warm food and good wine.

Welcome to Eliot and Margo’s pad, people. They’d make damn sure you had a good time.

[ocd up, come party!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know what had been an absolute adventure? Finding a mask that would work on a Zora, especially one with as unique as a headshape as Sidon's! But Sidon had managed to pull something together after all, although it absolutely had to be custom-made and described because there was surely nothing like it anywhere else! In the same colors of aquamarine blue and shocking yellow as the ridges of his gils, the mask fit snuggly under the ridge of his headfin, his bright yellow eyes peeking out with excitement over the shape of it as it hugged the smooth planes of his cheeks. Little curls like waves, or perhaps pearlescent seashells framed his mouth, though it left plenty of room for his bright and toothy smile. All of it trimmed with the same silver of the jewelry he wore.

Jewelry, and little else, except for his belt and his cravaet and a slightly more celemonial sash across his chest for the occasion. He had to admit, the ease he had in picking an outfit definitely counterbalanced the difficulty in obtaining a mask for the event!

And he sure hope they had high ceiling here, or else he was going to be feeling this terribly in his back from all the stooping come tomorrow!

The ceiling was high. He could thank the fancy magic that made the place bigger on the inside and turned the ceiling into a dome with a magical projection of Venetian skies.

Not that Margo was thinking about that. She was looking up. And up. And up.

“Huh,” she said. “Dig the mask.”

"Why, thank you!" said Sidon, beaming down (and down. and down) at Margo with a pleased, proud grin. "I must say, yours is quite spectacular as well! Although I'm afraid that, despite the artisan's best efforts, I don't believe such a mask, as exquisite as it may be, will do much to help me blend in with the crowd!"

The grin brightened with the sheer glee that could come from telling such a clearly wonderful joke.

"I am Sidon, by the way!" he added, far too eager to get to an introduction when one could be had, as he was quite certain he had not met this lovely young woman before. "The Zora Prince! Am I to assume you are one of the hosts of this magnificent soiree?"

“I am,” Margo said, bright and not about to be intimidated by a giant fish guy. “I’m High Queen Margo the Destroyer, but Margo’ll do.”

She just wanted everybody to know her title.

“This place belongs to me and my best friend, High King Eliot.”

"Ah, marvelous!" Sidon gushed, after offering a small bow of his head and shoulders in reverence to the title, one royal to another. "It is so excellent to meet you, Margo! And I have met your best friend and High King Eliot! I'm sure it is a wonderful a place as he is! Have you two been friends for long?"

“Feels like it’s been our entire lives,” Margo said. “And that’s what matters, right?”

She’d grown up in LA, he’d grown up in Indiana, they’d met as adults in New York. But that was the boring version of the story.

"Even if it's just the smallest blip in time," said Sidon, with a sort of fond rememberance of such deep connections of his own, "the merest blink of an eye, there are certain some people who have and will be with us until the very end of time, and we can only be grateful for the fact that we've managed to somehow find each other through it all."

“Exactly.” Margo smiled. “And for me, that’s Eliot.”

She’d arm-wrestle gods just to make it true.

"Then I am very glad," said Sidon, the sincerity practically coming off of him in waves, "the two of you have each other! And that you can come together and invite us all to this stupendous party!"

"Your highness!" Eliot greeted with a low, sweeping bow. "Thank you for coming! Love the mask."

"Ah!" Sidon beamed down toward Eliot for a moment before returning the bow himself, perhaps not quite as low, by default, but certainly no less sweeping. "Your Majesty! It is an honor to be here, I assure you! And thank you! It was quite the adventure to procure it, but now that I have, surely, I shall be able to blend in with my fellow bemasked party-goers to full effect!"

Yes, Sidon thought this joke was incredible, thank you.

Eliot gave it an approving chuckle. And not just because Sidon had some very sharp teeth beneath that mask.

"Don't blend in too much, now. I would hate for our other guests to miss your splendor. Do you, uh. . . . Drink? Alcohol?"

How much of Eliot's stash would it take to get a dude that size drunk?"

Quite possibly all of it! Sidon had certainly attempted to see how much alocohol it took before it began to have an effect on him, and had yet to find even the hint of a cap.

"I do drink alcohol!" Sidon assured him. "And I rather enjoy it, too, although I find it's something I mostly partake of when socializing here. That then makes it doubly enjoyable, then, you know! Because then one does not only have a refreshing beverage, but also the good company of excellent people!"

"Very wise indeed, your highness," Eliot agreed with a smile. "Well, we have a wide assortment for you to choose from, then, some with a few, ah, magical enhancements which may increase your enjoyment of them even more."

Luck and hallucination spells didn't tend to dilute quite the same way that alcohol did, in larger individuals.

And Sidon was no stranger to magical enhancements via food, at least! Half the food in Hyrule was guaranteed to give you at least some sort of boost or bonus.

"Well, I'm sure they would be quite enjoyable even without the enhancements!" he decided with certainty. "But that does sound most intriguing! Are these enhancements common where you are from?"

"Oh, extremely."

If you counted Brakebills as "where Eliot was from". Pretty much everyone there was self-medicating somehow.

"I didn't want to overwhelm the town with anything too spectacular, but the Mati will give you just a slight boost in luck, and anyone who likes can enjoy some mild hallucinations with their Death in the Afternoon."

MASQUERADE PARTY, 33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday Evening

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi

Re: Arrive and Say Hi