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
rainbowfish: (86)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] rainbowfish 2023-10-29 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Crysta is the first person who has asked him this question tonight, and the thought that she might be the very person who forbade him from dressing up as a pun does not even cross his mind.

"It's peacock-tail attire," he says, not quite smugly, but probably still too proud of himself for his own good. (Raine, like every other person on the planet, abhors puns. He does, however, get a small amount of enjoyment out of watching other people groan at them.)
beautyfull: (✂️026)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] beautyfull 2023-10-29 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, she absolutely called it. Crysta holds in all the anger she would absolutely love to let out at the fact that he went against half her entire rules to him. But she plays it dumb, and doesn't crack a smile, like her stupid anonymous counterpart might now. "I don't get it." She monotones, so that now he will have to explain this reasoning out loud.
rainbowfish: (284)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] rainbowfish 2023-10-30 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Crysta may ultimately be disappointed in the results this tactic yields, because all Raine says, with very little shame or self awareness, is: "It's a bird pun."
beautyfull: (Default)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] beautyfull 2023-10-30 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
"It's stupid." She comes back with immediately, patience fully gone.
rainbowfish: (pic#16465784)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] rainbowfish 2023-10-30 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
“I think it’s kind of funny,” Raine does not apologize.
beautyfull: (✂️149)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] beautyfull 2023-10-30 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
"It's not, though." She counters, immediately. Because it's truly not. Still. It's a costume, and it isn't just a paper bag or stupid shirt that he decided to call the missing muppet or margaritaville parrot 3, or whatever. So she tilts her head and concedes, "The suit's not bad."
rainbowfish: (47)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] rainbowfish 2023-10-30 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Raine considers his own outfit, like he's seeing it for the first time. The illusion mask hasn't dramatically changed the suit, although the coat jacket glistens in the light like it's made of metallic threads, an embellishment on reality for sure.

"Yeah. It's not good for much besides Halloween," he reflects.
beautyfull: (✂️051)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] beautyfull 2023-10-30 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Crysta momentarily forgets that she's been mortally offended by the pun, and instead leans into the role of being Raine's Fashion Angel, descending from on high to pass out advice that he would just directly oppose if he knew this was her. Maybe he does, but he hasn't said anything yet.

"I think it's definitely something you could bring to every day fancier occasions? Like dates. The trick is to pair it with something sleek and simple to make it pop." She almost says and fix your hair but that would perhaps be counterproductive to anonymity.
rainbowfish: (90)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] rainbowfish 2023-10-30 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Raine stares at this person for a moment as he tries to gauge whether or not this is genuine fashion advice. It doesn't seem like the craziest suggestion in the world, but he has a strong inkling that he's being made fun of.

"I usually go a little more understated for dates," he says at length (not a straight up lie, but definitely not quite true either).
beautyfull: (✂️192)

REFRESHMENTS: Crysta and Raine

[personal profile] beautyfull 2023-10-31 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
She does not press further. Crysta knows this anonymity is temporary; all he'll have to do is mention a weirdo in a gold dress once to Enoch and he'll know exactly who she is. So this has to be at least mostly civil. She shrugs, like a stranger would. Not her problem. "It'd be funnier if you at least like, carry around a martini. I think it'd get the pun across more."