imaginist: (⚛️ mask)
dr. enoch waldinger ([personal profile] imaginist) wrote in [community profile] enodia_ic2023-10-27 02:50 pm

Halloween Masquerade

HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE
After more than a week of tight-lipped workers going in and out of the Rec Centre, Hall A finally opens its doors for the Halloween Masquerade. Everyone is permitted to attend as long as they're wearing a mask and following the dress code, and attendees all step into a lush shadowy space seemingly lit only by candlelight.

Black velvet-flocked damask wallpaper covers the walls, with heavy crimson silk draperies and candlelit wall sconces interspersed every few feet to bring a gothic warmth to the proceedings. (The Waldingers promise to restore everything back to normal later.) Gold-edged antique mirrors are hung at random, reflecting the unrecognizable faces and fantastical costumes. Candelabras and vases full of dark red roses adorn every table. As promised, there's food, an open bar, music and dancing. Enjoy yourselves.
PLAYLIST
MENU
SPECIALTY DRINKS
BLACK WIDOW MARTINI - Dark rum, dry vermouth and lime, rimmed with sugar and garnished with blackberries. An elegant choice.
EYEBALL SANGRIA - Red wine, brandy and pomegranate juice, with eyeballs made of lychee and frozen blueberries. Fun!
THE BLOOD BANK - A half-dozen plastic syringes filled with Bloody Mary, served on ice. Are you injecting these shots yourself, or will you share with a friend?
THE MINTY PAYNE - Sparkling rosé wine, blackcurrant liqueur and rose syrup, garnished with roses. Every time you order this, you must loudly wish Minty a happy birthday first.
FOOD
Silver trays of hors d'oeuvres are arranged on the buffet table, featuring a variety of tea sandwiches, canapés, crudités and desserts. Seasonally appropriate offerings include: pumpkin & brie crostini with candied nuts, ghostly apple blackberry hand pies, monstrous fried chicken sliders, and spider-webbed deviled eggs.
VOLUNTEERS
[Volunteer A] gets turned away at the door and is forced to rethink their entire costume, and also maybe their life. They're allowed back in the second time, even if they did nothing to change their outfit. Are the bouncers just rejecting people for fun?

[Volunteer B] thinks they see Director Riddle in a particularly scandalous getup, but it’s really [Volunteer C]. Too bad [Volunteer B] already told all their friends that their employer was definitely dressed as a [insert costume here].

Every time Linus Lowe looks into one of the party's many mirrors, they see a glowing entity lingering in the background—but no one's ever there.

The illusion emitter in [Volunteer E]'s mask starts malfunctioning, and they sidle up to [Volunteer F] without realizing that their identity is no longer obscured. Oops! Someone eventually comes by to give them a replacement mask, and an apology voucher for a free drink at the bar. (Wait, isn't it an open bar anyway?)

[Volunteer G] chugs their Eyeball Sangria too fast, and chokes on a lychee eyeball. Help! Luckily, [Volunteer H] steps in and performs the Heimlich maneuver to save them. Do they reveal their identity, or slip back into the party as an anonymous Good Samaritan?

Vidalia LaRoux accidentally knocks a candelabra off a table, right onto Maximilian Hart. Their clothing catches on fire, but only for about a minute. Turns out all those flames were illusions, and their clothes are totally unsinged. Whew!

[Volunteer K] swears that someone dressed up as a creepy Victorian child ghost keeps following them around the party. They point the semi-translucent ghost out to [Volunteer L], who says they don't see anyone. Wait, what? The ghost flees any attempt to approach them.

Okay, these illusions are excessive. Knowing that Enoch Waldinger's illusions disappear if you refuse to believe in them, Rufus Kearney concentrates hard on being a huge killjoy. For an instant, they see all of the illusions flicker out of existence, but the illusory costumes quickly reassert themselves once they're no longer concentrating.

[Volunteer N] and [Volunteer O] run into each other a record five times in the half hour they’re stuck in the hedge maze, like they’re old classmates at a grocery store. They decide to just embrace it, team up, and actually find their way out!
CLAIM A SPOT
mxpotatohead: (🛠️ 270)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] mxpotatohead 2023-10-28 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Vidalia doesn't drink a whole lot, but bloody mary syringes are super fun and they just keep squirting them back without really counting how many they've had and things are getting
a little
wobbly.

It's maybe time to sit. They shove a chicken slider in their mouth and grab a couple more to go, making their way toward the tables with an impressive weave that sends them stumbling directly into a table.

"OH NO I—" they shout, slamming into the table even harder in apology.
buffdebuff: (Default)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] buffdebuff 2023-10-28 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Max is already starting to mumble 'it's okay' assurances when he notices that the glow isn't ambient lighting, it's FIRE on his COAT. His words morph into a high pitched shriek halfway through.
mxpotatohead: (🛠️ 127)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] mxpotatohead 2023-10-29 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
The shriek gets Vidalia shrieking and they look around for a glass or bottle or vase or something to throw on the problem. Except everything is probably alcoholic and this guy is burning up and is it stop, drop and roll or is that just if you're being mugged and????

In a blind panic attempt to smother the flames, they grab a plate of deviled eggs from the table and throw it at the burn victim.
buffdebuff: (Default)

Re: Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] buffdebuff 2023-10-29 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
Max isn't even sure what happened. Something, or somethings, smack his face. He continues shrieking in an undignified way.
mxpotatohead: (🛠️ 235)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] mxpotatohead 2023-10-29 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
"GET DOWN!" Vidalia yells and starts smacking at the burning coat with an empty plate. Also the guy wearing it, but that's the price to pay for his life.
buffdebuff: (Default)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] buffdebuff 2023-10-29 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
The fire isn't real. It's just another of Enoch's illusions. But that doesn't mean that Max isn't in any danger. The plate, at least, is real. "Would- would you- STOP!"
mxpotatohead: (🛠️ 106)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] mxpotatohead 2023-10-29 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Vidalia continues to swing the plate, because the idea of these flames not being real is just not something they have or ever would have considered. "I'M-" They smack at his chest. "HELPING!"

With a clunk-clunk, both their mechanical arms thump to the floor with the plate.
buffdebuff: (175)

Startin' Fires with Max & Vidalia

[personal profile] buffdebuff 2023-10-30 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Fully realizing that the flames are an illusion has less to do with Max's observation skills and more to do with the fact that he has to just freeze and take in all of this. They've stopped hitting him, at least. "The fire is an illusion," he states with the slow, irritated calm of a stressed math teacher.