ph_logs | September Event - Waltz of the Harlequin

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September Event - Waltz of the Harlequin

**Plain text version here.

WALTZ OF THE HARLEQUIN

ACT ONE: MAKE AN ENTRANCE

{ CONTENT WARNINGS: None }

SCENE: Leeds Estate Ballroom, night. Music can be heard from a small string band in the corner. Enter PARTYGOERS, stage right.

The estate is beautifully decorated, as it always is, in vivid blues against dark wood. Flowers made from blue and golden silk adorn the walls and furniture. Candles burn in tasteful centerpieces on the round dining tables. Delicious-looking foods can be seen on the serving tables, ready to be claimed and devoured. A member of DAHLIA’S diligent staff tends an ornate bar near the door and dancers in fine clothes twirl on the dance floor to upbeat string music.

DAHLIA can be seen in the center of the room, wearing a golden gown embroidered with roses and surrounded by her ENTOURAGE, which consists of DAISY, LAIOS, RADAR, and JEFF. All of them wear the colors of House Leeds---- blue and gold. She welcomes the PARTYGOERS warmly.

DAHLIA, going for an appropriate greeting for the person she is speaking to--- a handshake, a hug, a kiss on the cheek.
Welcome. So glad you could make it. You look ravishing. Please help yourself to something to eat, and enjoy your night.

It is a beautiful night. Formal only in appearances, the energy of the Gala is casual and light, if not a bit decadent. All seems well.

ACT TWO: ALL IS REVEALED

{ CONTENT WARNINGS: rotten food, blood, forced body transformation, unreality. }

SCENE: Leeds Estate Ballroom, one hour later. The party is well underway. When the grandfather clock chimes, it sounds strange and distorted.

The sound immediately draws the attention of DAHLIA, who grows concerned. The sour chiming continues. In the center of the ballroom, a plume of sickly yellow smog bursts as if from a smoke bomb, flooding the room and causing PARTYGOERS to stagger and cough. When it fades, the environment has changed.

Enter MENDEL, from the smoke burst.

The decor in the space has changed drastically. Where once the space was deep, cool browns and shades of blue accented with gold, it is now filled with ruddy browns, jaundiced yellows, plummy purples, and searing reds. The bundles of silk flowers are replaced with bouquets of decaying fishing nets, bloody gauze, and rotten fruit which seems to bloom from splitting bruises. Tattered swags in mismatched patterns line the walls, and each PARTYGOER is now in a masquerade mask designed to fit with their outfit.

DAHLIA, lightly panicked.
What are you doing here?

MENDEL, laughing raucously.
Surprise! Oh, I do so hate to cut in, but I simply could not go another year without doing something special for my favorite niece.

He wraps his arms, which look like graying, exposed meat, around DAHLIA.

MENDEL
You see, everyone---- Darling Dahlia here has been lying to you. Her whole life, even! Can you believe it? You see, her father was never Japhet Leeds. The man couldn’t stand her! Jane Leeds was still her mother, oh yes, but her father---

DAHLIA attempts to cut in, but MENDEL grips her tighter, clamping a hand over her mouth as he presents her to the crowd. His claws dig into her arm and her cheek. He continues to snicker as he speaks, and DAHLIA struggles.

MENDEL
Her father is my own baby brother, Prince Aster of the Dark Feast! Isn’t that a funny prank? But I think the joke has overstayed its welcome. It’s time to show your little friends who you really are, isn’t it, princess?

In a swift motion, MENDEL pulls DAHLIA into a twirl, as if dancing, sending her spinning toward the crowd. When it ceases, DAHLIA stands before her gala, changed. Her complexion is blue now, and her hair, raven black. A pair of bat-like wings adorn her back, and a crown of antlers like that of a deer wreath her head.

MENDEL
Ah, no, that’s not quite what I was going for. Let me try again.

With a snap of MENDEL’S fingers, DAHLIA changes again, her body shifting against her will. Her well-kept black locks morph into wiry ashen hair which covers her body. Her face extends into that of a cow-like skull with sharp teeth. Her hands become clawed, and her feet become cloven hooves. Before the crowd now stands THE PINE DEVIL.

MENDEL
There’s our birthday girl!

THE PINE DEVIL (DAHLIA) attempts to lunge at MENDEL, but with another snap of his fingers, his streamers and swags lash out at her like vines and lash her tightly.

MENDEL
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some catching up to do with my darling niece. And you all have a party to enjoy! I leave you in the care of my talented assistants.

He starts to turn away, but then holds up a finger to shake and turns back. Oh, one more thing, I almost forgot. I’ve left all of you some party favors in those masks. Have fun!

MENDEL grabs a bound and helpless DAHLIA and disappears once more in another plume of smoke.

Enter BLANCHE and SEEMINGLY (GLEE MASK), opposite sides of the stage. The pair of them meet eyes, and pantomime tugging on an invisible rope in opposite directions, and suddenly the ballroom expands as if unrolled like a scroll, becoming a sprawling labyrinth of tiny ballrooms, winding corridors, and secret alcoves. The PARTYGOERS are separated from one another. At the same time, the magic in their masks activates, inflicting one of the following curses:

Leaky Bucket: deprives the party goer of their short-term memory. They know who they are, and why they're here insofar as understanding it's Dahlia's birthday gala, but all new information tends to leave their mind after a few minutes. (Think Dory from Finding Nemo.)

Amnesiac's Lament: deprives the individual of long-term memory. All new information is retained, but they have no idea who they are or why they're here. How distressing this is can be at the player's discretion. Perhaps they despair at the memory loss and are trying to find a way to escape the ball, perhaps they don't see anything wrong with their lack of context and are just trying to enjoy this weird party.

False Friend: the opposite of Zone of Truth, those with this affliction will be unable to tell the truth and can ONLY tell lies. Any fact from the most mundane to the most complex can only be lied about. Whether or not the person is cognizant of their new habit is the player's choice.

The World Revolving: those afflicted suffer frequent bouts of vertigo which makes the space feel as though it is spinning, sometimes very slowly, sometimes very quickly.

Dirge of Delusion: this particular curse will cause the mask-wearer to struggle to perceive reality correctly. Objects will appear as other objects, people as different people, rooms as some other place, or even the entire ball as somewhere entirely different. These disorienting visions will come and go at times.
Feeling Funny: the wearers of these masks will find that their emotions are completely out of control, sometimes bursting into fits of laughter, tears, or abrupt paranoia, before going completely numb for a while.
All PARTYGOERS will find their masks incapable of being removed. Those with infernal resistance from NEIL or the HOUSE OF CARDS will find their masks are less impactful, but the resistance is imperfect. However, ALICE DYER and SAMAMA KHALID will find that they have absolutely no effect from the masks at all, due to the BOON OF DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY acquired by ALICE.

The party resumes.

ACT THREE: Dance with the Devil

{ CONTENT WARNINGS: rotten food being eaten, imprisonment, impending violence }

SCENE: a distorted Leeds Estate, time unknown. As the party devolves into chaos, a clandestine meeting is arranged to locate the host.

Somewhere in the distorted estate, ALICE locates JEAN. Once she gets the Golden Wolf Mask in their hands, JEAN will be able to remove their current mask to wear the new one, which has a unique effect---- the ability to see the path of MENDEL through its eyes.

JEAN and ALICE, along with anyone they are able to recruit for help, will find MENDEL and DAHLIA on the second floor, which has transformed into a large theater balcony overlooking the party. DAHLIA is caged, and MENDEL seems to be enjoying the view as he eats half-rotten tomatoes as if they are apples.

MENDEL’S assailants choose how to make their approach. When he is destroyed, the party will end.

GRAND FINALE

{ CONTENT WARNINGS: fire }

SCENE: Leeds Estate ballroom, late night. The stage has returned to its prior state, and we are left to the aftermath.

When MENDEL is at last destroyed, the ballroom is restored to its normal size and coloration, as if the events of the night never occurred. Masks fall away, and DAHLIA stands center stage, looking exactly as her friends and neighbors remember her. However, the memory of what has occurred here tonight cannot be wiped away, as evidenced from all the onlookers around her. Are their expressions concerned? Angry? Fearful? Hurt?

Does it matter?

DAHLIA, quietly.
Get out.

There is a moment of stillness and consideration, before she speaks again, louder.

DAHLIA, shouting.
GET. OUT.

As she speaks the second word, a massive burst of blue flame erupts behind her. Glass breaks. Tables topple. DAHLIA’s hair flutters in the force of the blast. She stands stiffly, unafraid as the hot, raging blue flames consume her ballroom, peeling the wallpaper and cracking the wood. She means to chase everyone out, even if it means bringing the room down upon herself.

When everyone is gone, the flames seem to retreat, as if sucked up into their original blast point. DAHLIA, spent, collapses to her knees in the burnt shell of her own birthday party, and sobs.

Blackout. Curtains fall.

After the event ends, Dahlia will be absent from town and her home only open to close CR until further notice. She will not be answering her sending stone or her phone calls.

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"Well, don't get used to it. This is a rental," she lies, disguised as yet another joke. At least, she thinks it's a lie; for all she knows Aster will reclaim it, but she doubts it. What she'll do with the thing after this evening is said and done... she really doesn't know.

She dares to let herself enjoy the rest of his awestruck staring before he finally looks away, at which point it's hard to deny that she deflates a little. "Oh, yeah, it's kinda a lot. I know Dahlia's posh and everything but wow. Bridgerton's got nothing on this."

To be fair, he is definitely still a bit flushed. The only reason he's looking anywhere but Alice is because he's trying to not look like a fool in front of her more than he already does.

"Yeah I thought so too, it's like some high fantasy masquerade or something."

He can't look anywhere but at her forever and eventually his eyes are back on Alice, still seemingly at least a little awestruck.

"Right? All we're actually missing's the masks, but I always thought seeing through those things looked like a nightmare. Especially the fancy-fancy ones." Idle statements loaded with dramatic irony for 500...

Oh god he's looking at her again. She can't keep doing this.

"Honestly feels like the kinda shindig where you're really meant to be up dancing, but even if anyone asked I'm not sure I could do anything in this thing but sway without falling on my arse."

"If you had to wear one of those with that dress, you might trip yourself." He chuckled and shook his head.

And here he had been thinking about asking her to dance, but then he is terrible at dancing and he would feel awkward trying to lead. Maybe later in the night, after he's had time to process everything and get used to how his heart keeps picking up.

Damn it.

"Probably won't see me out there, we both know I might as well have two left feet."

Why does she feel weirdly let down that he didn't ask her? She's the one who just cut herself off at the knees by joking about how she couldn't, and why would he ask her anyway? Except in a silly, friendly way.

God, get it together, Dyer.

"Oh, yeah, you'd go careening into the buffet tables after you tripped over your partner's legs," she jokes instead. "I guess you could stand on someone's feet. Probably easier than trying to lead with your noodle arms."

"Ouch," Sam grins a bit, a small flicker of hurt passing over his expression so fast it's almost not even there. "Way to build a guys confidence."

Well, maybe he wasn't going to ask her to dance after all. Even if she was joking the last thing he wanted was for her to be right. He'd hate to ruin her dress and their night because he got so nervous he tripped on her gown and sent himself or both of them into who knows what.

Yeah she gets the feeling that one didn't land so well. Fuck, this should not be this awkward. Maybe she should've worn a different dress, screw Aster's 'present' (no, she'd be far too scared to risk that). Maybe she should've hidden better in a corner and just rode out the evening until the shitshow begins where he couldn't even see her. Maybe— ugh, maybe a lot of things but they're here now.

She's quiet a bit too long this time, weighing up whether to double down, pull back into a different joke, or a secret third option as of yet undefined.

I mean maybe you've gotten better since we last hit the club is right there ready to fire when she takes a sudden swerve down that unidentified road and just says, "...hey, Sam?"

It might not have landed well but at least Sam is used to it and seems to recover. He's a resilient little man, thank you very much.

Then there's that tone, Alice sounds like she's hesitating and Sam can't help but force himself to breath.

"Yeah? What's up Alice?"

Her tongue gets tied around itself. Usually she can just say whatever, follow the impulsive pull to some new gag or deflection or snark, but that fails her when it comes to something less... artificial. She stares at Sam for a long moment, before she looks aside and starts fiddling with a strand of her hair.

"You know—" what? He knows what? That she's not over him? That he's still one of her best friends even after everything? "—you know I'm not actually serious when I prod at you, right? Like— I know you know what I'm like, in general, obviously, but you know— you know I'm only messing 'cause I—" do not say love him, do not say love him— "like you so much, right?"

That's barely better than saying love. Fuck.

Shit, and then Alice is there doing the real emotions thing and Sam can't help the sort of awkward shuffle of his feet as he musses up his own hair a bit.

"Yeah, no...I mean. I get it. I know you don't really mean anything, Alice." He shakes his head. "It's just how we are, right? We've...we've been close for a long time. I think I'd be more worried if you weren't ragging on me." He doesn't want to think too much about what Alice means when she says she 'likes him so much'. It sounds way too close to something else.

Something that feels dangerous considering where they are and everything that had been happening with himself and Celia before they got here.

"I care a lot about you, Alice." He sighs, hand dropping so that they are both in his pockets. "I mean I wouldn't have been so worried about you avoiding me if I didn't."

She's kicking herself before he's even finished speaking, and it's not even his fault. There's nothing he says that she hasn't set herself up to deal with, nothing he's thinking that she isn't. When she thinks, stupid Alice, it's all her, wondering why she keeps putting herself in this position.

Because you're this much of a fucking masochist, apparently!

"I'll, uh— I promise I'll stop doing that so much after tonight. The avoiding thing." He can read into that, if he wants. He'd probably come to something close to the right conclusion. Whatever her deal has been, the biggest piece will blow over after the gala's said and done. "I uh..."

She tugs at the strand of hair and chews at the inside of her lip. "Honestly I was kinda surprised you went for it? When I chased you up after your vagues got— y'know, kinda concerning." What a far cry from describing it as 'the most pathetic vague post she'd ever seen', huh. "Bit of a jump from exchanging memes occasionally to 'hey, come be stuck in a basement with me all night every night', y'know? Kinda expected you to thank me for the offer but blow it off, all polite like. Maybe we'd go back to talking a bit more... and I dunno. That'd be fine. But— I like having you back around. I— I missed you."

Fuck. Yeah. Total fucking masochist.

"Hey, I get it." Sam starts, sighing a bit as he looks around, making sure no one was listening to them or taking any special interest in them. "You have whatever it is you have going on right now. I don't like it but, I'm just gonna have to deal with that."

And then she brings up their time apart and what had her messaging him with the new job offer. Yeah, he had been vague posting, something he hated to see but felt...almost compelled to do. Because Sam wasn't allowed to ask for help, his parents wouldn't have helped...hell they would have hounded him for losing a nice set job in a lawfirm. But in the end Alice had been the one to reach out and offer him a lifeline, even if in the end it ended up like this.

"I missed you too," He offers with a soft smile before sighing. "I was so in over my head and I didn't really feel like....like I could talk to anyone. And then you reached out and...it was nice. It's kinda been a little like back in Uni, just with more spooky shit and apparently all this." He motions his hands to the beautifully decorated room they're in with people in extravagant clothes and then to Alice herself. "Honestly? If I was sent back to the day I opened my dms and saw your message, with all the knowledge I have now, I'd have the same answer."

Alice's face lights up almost against her will with a genuine, lopsided smile—and even then she can't seem to let herself just have this, the cynic in her torturing her with the thought and how much of that is knowing you'd meet Celia, too?

And then there's the part of her that still feels like offering him the job got him killed, and—

God, stop it. This is pathetic even by her standards. They're friends first and he's being sweet, stop being a cynical bitch.

"...y'always did hold yourself to some nuts standards, babe. Kinda figured you were still doing it and the only way you were gonna get any help was making the first move." She twirls her hair around her finger a few more times; it's pulled pretty tight around it, by now. "You were there for me after... y'know, and having you made being Out at uni way less freaking terrifying, and—" She breathes out through her nose, looks at him instead of the rest of the room at last. Nudges him with her elbow. Tries to joke again, but it's a little too real anyway, "Jokes on you if you thought breaking up was enough to get rid of me for long."

Sure, Celia was something nice that he would have to look forward to but at the same time it just wouldn't be the same without Alice. He knew that. Even if he blamed himself for getting Alice killed, but tonight wasn't about that. Tonight is about a party and...apparently seeing Alice looking almost the most stunning he had ever seen her, almost. There was something to be said about waking up next to the sleeping face of someone you loved that couldn't be topped by any amount of fancy dresses or pretty make up.

But that wasn't what Sam should be thinking about. Not now, and honestly probably not really ever. Alice is his friend.

"Heh, yeah well I'm glad. I don't think there's anyone in the world I'd rather be stuck with."

He's trying to kill her. That's clearly the only thing that would make this amount of flattering sentiments and emotional whammies in one conversation make sense. Somehow he knows and he's trying to take her out via power of word alone.

Except of course that's not true, even if it would be easier for her to process than the alternatives. This is just Sam being Sam. This is just a genuinely heartfelt moment that makes Alice feel a little better despite herself.

Which, of course, also means it cannot be allowed to stand in the eyes of the universe. And when Alice opens her mouth to say:

"...really? You mean—"

All hell breaks loose. The clock chiming, the sickly smoke that begets the transformation of the room, Mendel's arrival and everything that will soon entail—it's time.

And Alice, though clearly panicked, really does not look surprised.

It's probably better then that she doesn't know what he had been thinking about. Better she didn't know he had been reminiscing in his own thoughts. They weren't together, hadn't been for a while, and besides...he had a possible thing going on with Celia now...right? Or he had back home. This isn't there.

Of course her words and his thoughts are interrupted and Sam is on edge, frantically looking around before looking to Alice and...he sees her panic but there is no confusion to color it.

"What the hell is going on?" It's not accusatory, not yet at least.

Mendel, doing his big display. Dahlia's secret being revealed to the whole town at once. Gasps and chatter in reaction. Masquerade masks appearing on all their faces. All of this little but background noise in Alice's head, because now the consequences of her choices are really about to start catching up with her.

"Mendel's big play," she says, like that really explains anything, like it explains why she seems to already know this was coming. All hushed whisper-shouting over the noise. "Look. You remember I asked you to trust me, before? Well this is when I really need you to trust me on this. Shit is about to get really, really weird for everyone, but we should be— we should be fine. Mostly fine. Whatever's going to happen to everyone else, it won't touch you or me."

"Wha-Alice....Alice what do you mean it won't touch us? Wait-is...is this why you've been so dodgy?" He wants to trust her, this is Alice. His best friend and someone he cares about more than anyone. But damn it, he hates when he doesn't know what's going on. He hates being in the dark.

"I trust you...but you have so much explaining to do later."

"I know, I know," god does she know, "I swear if I coulda told you before I would've," probably, maybe, "but I really couldn't. Really, really couldn't. Turns out infernal bosses are real serious about their employment contracts, who'd've thunk it, huh?"

A terrible, strained, nervous joke that doesn't crack the tension at all but is the closest she can get to saying hi, Sam, I made a deal with a fucking demon without cracking and not being able to get this job done.

"But we're safe. That's— that's the point. So long as you don't piss off any of the freaky goons or anything, you'll be fine. Okay? I'll— I'll find you after I've done what I need to. I promise."

The joke does nothing to help Sam's worry or confusion. Alright maybe a little with the confusion but not so much the worry or the creeping anger. This was why she had been avoiding him, because she had made a deal with a demon basically? The anger turns to something a bit harder to process and deal with, disappointment.

Come on Alice, you should know better than to deal with demons.

"Fine. Damn it, after this you have no room to be mad at me for lookin' into the Magnus Institute. This is so much worse." Maybe not but it's what he feels in the moment.

"It's not that—" she starts, only to break off with a frustrated sound as words fail her. After all, is he really wrong? Some nosing around under the government's skirts hardly holds a candle to dealing with a demon, but— but she was just trying to—

"—look you can judge me later! Just— just don't get killed before this is over."

She hoiks up the heavy layers of her dress so that she can move easier but pauses one more time to say:

"I'm sorry," before turning away to finish her part of the bargain.

There's a lot Sam wants to say but also a lot that he doesn't feel needs it. Alice knows what she's doing and all Sam can do is trust her. She's usually the smarter one of the two when it comes to shit like this, even he has to admit he understands why she hated him looking into the place. He just has to trust her.

The fact she apologizes of course doesn't help, mostly because that tells him she knows what she's done isn't exactly right. Maybe not wrong but they'd just have to wait and see.

"I'll duck out, just do what you need to and we can argue about it later."

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September Event - Waltz of the Harlequin

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/peeks in almost 2 months later

o7 worth the wait

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