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 Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:44 am
Rodney had taken in the scene with a bit of disbelief. There was a hectic quality to how the mattered was handled, but for as dramatic an issue it had seemed to have a giant hamburger blocking the pathway, it was an easily solved crisis. He had snorted, blocking a small bit of laughter threatening to emerge over the whole ordeal.
But as some stranger had kicked the burger out of the doorway, he had reeled back a number of steps, nearly staggering over his boots. "Ah!" He had yelped, floundering a bit until he had recaptured his balance. He had inhaled a deep breath of relief before setting a hand on the sack, as if to rub where his hair would have been. The obstruction was gone, and the room was free for entry, it appeared - and, as such, Rodney had taken a moment to observe the variety of people there. Masks of all sorts, partial ones, giant hamburgers, unicorn ones. He would be hard-pressed to gather any form of identification from any of them; but that was perfectly fine. He was curious about these masks. Some were rather nice looking, the sort he'd only ever seen in pictures.
Before he could respond to the entry and welcome, the giant hamburger had entered his path. He had stood still, staring at the thing with mild disbelief and wonder. Someone dressing as a giant hamburger. A giant piece of food! It was almost absurd, but he had given them credit --- then it had sank in that a bit of yelling had occurred, and as he heard a seemingly familiar accent, he felt a bridge of certainty.
"Mista Lai-Lai?" He had raised a brow, shaking his head from beneath the sack. That girl. It had to be that girl! But who was on the other side? "You have the wrong person ... Uhm. Es...E." He had ruffled the sack a little, tapping the tip of his toe on the floor in thought. "Estrelas? That's your name, isn't it? Who's on the other side, then?" He had looked at the four legs curiously, taking a step as if to look around.
"God, the two of you must have put a lot of work into this."
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:56 am
Looking to Eknephias, Johannes said "Yes, I would like something to drink. Not too strong, though."
He was about to say something more specific when the feathered woman walked up to him and greeted him.
"Good evening." Johannes bowed a bit before her and asked "How are you?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:09 pm
Something clicked in Estrelas' mind.
"OH! AH KNOW YOU! YOU BOY FROM CANANANANADA!" she yodeled, hopping excitedly and making her half of the hamburger jiggle up and down. "And no. Ah is no Estrelas. Know no Estrelas. Estrelas not here!" she snapped defensively. "No Estrelas."
"Definitely not!" Eponine mumbled half-heartedly. Somehow she knew this was going to happen... But the all-concealing costume gave her a boost of confidence. "And yes, it took weeks to put together!" she admited.
"AH LEARN USE HOT GLUE GUN!"
Eponine winced at the memory. "And band-aids. You learned to use those too."
"AH LEARN TO USE STYFOME!" The left side of the hamburger bounced up and down excitedly while the right side squeaked and attempted to keep its balance.
"Eeek! Es- Err.... You're making us go wobbly!" Eponine took the chance to survey the room- everyone looked so regal and... Elegant. Somehow she felt just a little bit out of place. Oh well! At least no one would recognize them! Boldened by this, she struck out a bit. "You have a very nice costume," she said, her voice barely wavering. "Very... Deconstructionist."
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:13 pm
Eknephias grinned, mimicking the exaggerated one of his mask. "Of course not."
He drained his own glass, and set it down on the smooth, shining surface of the bar, coinciding with the arrival of another glass. Eknephias had gotten it for himself, but he was willing to share.
He slowly pushed the glass full of a milky white substance in Johannes's direction as a woman in feathers approached the other man.
"Quite the gentleman, aren't you?" He murmured to Johannes, leaning in close so that the woman couldn't hear them.
Interestingly, the little boy had started off the conversation with one of the two fragments of Korean she did know. As he continued on, saying something she assumed was a continuation of the previous sentence, she divulged the other of the two Korean phrases she'd learned--
<"I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean. I'm from Japan.">
She hazarded a guess that he didn't know anything but Korean. That could become problematic. She did feel sorry for the poor thing, thinking that he probably wasn't going to have much fun if he couldn't actually talk to anyone. An idea struck her, and she quickly gestured to the boy to stay where he was, putting both palms in front of her and pushing slightly. She quickly grabbed a chair from the row of them lining the wall behind them, and indicated for him to sit down on it. It would make it much easier if he didn't wander around while she was gone. Without a glance backwards, she turned and ran out of the ballroom, making a beeline for the library. Wraith's ridiculous book-hoarding habit was actually coming in handy.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:26 pm
Archer walked into the spacious ballroom, feeling awkward.
It looked like he was late.
Then again, it also looked like he was an assassinated nobleman. When he had heard about the masquerade, he had thought of the fancy sort of balls that were in stories, the kind where people dressed up and ate cheese off of toothpicks and lost slippers.
But when he had dressed up it had just seemed too much like him. So he ended up going as someone who would go to that sort of party only dead. He felt rather improper, like he was being disrespectful to someone. But he WAS well disguised. He was wearing a mask, he had made sure to put stage makeup on all his skin so it was bluey-pale and quite deceased looking, and he had put a fake knife in his back. The clothes had been difficult to get ahold of, and they were a bit cheap looking, but all together, he looked like a dead aristocrat.
If you squinted, anyway.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:28 pm
 <"I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean. I'm from Japan."> ...well, that's it for his hopes. He -did- heard of Japan, though the name was the only thing he heard. So the woman wasn't a demon? But then where did the hair come from? Do all japanese have pink hair..? That might be it. After all, they're foreigners, and foreigners are supposed to be weird and unnatural. And then she gave him something... He didn't really know what it was, but when he looked around, people were sitting on those items. Does she expect him to sit too? He slowly sat down, and looked again at the woman, checking if he did what she expected him to. But she was already on the run. <"...okay. What do I do now?">
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 8:58 pm
The voice sounded familiar but she couldn't place it and she shrugged it off. "So far it is going well- though if this is how the evening starts I am a bit wary to see how it ends."
Mokoyis smiled at the bartender and odered a glass of water. Alcohol did funny things to her head and she didn't like the results the next morning. Who knew whose bed she'd wake up in- maybe they wouldn't even hold her hair while she threw up.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:24 pm
"ah...ha ha ha" chuckled Embarassingly the pink blushed (not shown so much thanks to the beard) Johannes as he looked at the milk white drink and pondered on what it was.
As he shook it a bit to get the smell of it, Johannes grinned and let out a little laugh at Mokoyis' answer. "yes, well this is LOTUS." "This is seemingly normal around here, like always." "At least people seem to be entertained, which is good."
As mokoyis ordered her drink, Johannes decided to ask a natural question. " So what is your costume exactly?" "It's...a bird of sorts?" He tried not to sound condescending, and hoped that would be the understood action.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:49 pm
Mokoyis chuckled and smiled at Johannes as she sipped from her glass. "I'm a crane." She gestured at the feathered gown. "It is a marsh bird from...back home" she paused about to say where home was, but stopped in time so not to give herself away. "And you are?"
She shot Eknephias a piercing glance and wondered what the man had said to make her new friend laugh like that.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:59 pm
"Ah, I see." "Very interesting", said Johannes as he looked at the woman again from head to toe. "It must be a very comfortable environment, your home."
Having sipped a bit of his drink, Johannes wondered about what exactly it was. It had a bittersweet taste and at some point was burning...maybe he should have just ordered rum, for the sake of it.
"I am a Spa-- an explorer," Johannes said quickly as he realized that saying the nationality of his costume would give away his identity. "I am an explorer looking for that which is unattainable." "He is an important figure in history, perhaps more in other countries than one's own."
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Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:29 am
Mokoyis voiced a rather unladylike snort in reaction to Johannes explaination of his costume, "Explorers herald upheaval and destruction, but I suppose there is bad important as well as good important." She spoke with a colonial bitterness. "My home was comfortable until it was 'discovered'. Now we are confined to small pieces of bad land and unable to practice our ways by law."
The elite withdrew into a frosty silence. Apparently he had touched upon a delicate subject.
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Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:54 am
Johannes was taken aback by Mokoyis' statement. He did not think that explorers were bad people. After all, how else would new worlds be discovered? But apparently there was more to the discovering than he had been taught. Or so it seemed indicated by her comment.
"I...." gulped Johannes nervously.
There was an awkward silence between them. He certainly did not mean disrespect towards anyone.
"I'm sorry." Johannes bowed his head a bit, like a child does when found guilty. "I...do not know about a situation like that." "Perhaps you can elaborate more on it?"
"I'm truly sorry." "I...did not mean to make you angry."
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Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:56 pm
.... so cute.
"I suppose I'm doing good, finally taking the time to stop being a hermit and actually get out of the library or my room. I forgot that a human needs contact with others in order to actually learn more than a book can tell. Pretty sad, yeah?"
He adjusted the cuff of his outfit slightly as he thought of what else he could speak over, his mind recalling that in this event they had to stay hidden in terms of their identities from the others. that wasn't hard for him to do, he'd learned how to protect himself years ago, but around Lai he wasn't sure how long he could control himself.
"And how are you doing? You look a little tired, not been sleeping well?"
Was this really a good conversation? If he couldn't find anything better to say shorted Einar was pretty sure it would be best for him to walk off and harass someone else for a while.
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Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:43 pm
"It is good to hear you are back out. And no, not sad at all." He shook his head when he said 'no' and shrugged before continuing. "I understand. We all need time away from others for awhile sometimes, but you decided to stop being a hermit, came here tonight, and are socializing, so it is alright."
As Einar adjusted his cuff, Lai tugged his jacket back into place. Just a bit askew from when he held his arms out to the sides before. While doing that he wondered who was behind the mask. Given what his counterpart said about being a hermit and away from others for an extended period of time, plus the blond hair, Lai suspected Einar, but he knew he could be wrong. Still, it could be the man he cared about and in his own way he hoped it was; Lai was missing the Norwegian. At the questions he nodded once again.
"I am fine, though worried over a certain person I have not seen for a great while." He gave a weary smile. "You are very observant sir and no, I have not been sleeping well as of late. Tossing and turning mostly but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and just stay awake for a time. I am sure it is just some passing thing though. At least, I hope so."
Lai hoped he wasn't boring the other man; talking about one's sleeping problem would make for dry and boring conversation. Of course, having everyone masked was sure to make for awkward and dry conversations; people would be afraid to say the wrong thing to a person they thought was someone but was really a different someone entirely. Maybe once people were able to find out who was under what mask everything would be a whole lot less troublesome.
The Russian was about to say something more to the masked Einar when a new voice drifted over to the two men. He turned to the owner, Thasios in his light blue silk-looking clothing, and noted he had a strange hint of an accent to his voice. Raising his hand in greeting Lai answered the newcomer's query.
"Oh yes, quite enjoyable so far co--Sir." Another almost slip up. Dammit, he would have to stop almost saying 'comrade'. "And yourself?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:03 pm
Mokoyis looked at the explorer man carefully. Was he actually interested? Perhaps the topic of conversation was not exactly masquerade appropriate, but no one had ever asked for her side of the story before. She felt her dislike begin to melt away.
She liked individual white people, but as a race they set her teeth on edge, and tonight was focused on people not being individuals. At least not ones you could recognize. She wasn't sure if that made her more shy or bold. Of course the story would likely give her away, but some things were more important.
"The Americas were 'discovered' in 1492. As though before white contact they didn't even exist, though there is documented proof that there were civilizations there that were eons beyond the conditions of European cities of the time. Entire libraries existed, and some had running water. But the white men brought disease that wipped out more than seventy percent of the population.
"Once the people had been destroyed by disease the 'explorers' took their land by killing in cold blood. Obviously these 'savages' had no souls, so they were little better than animals wasting the land." Mokoyis paused a moment and took a deep breath to keep her voice level and dispassionate.
"Once they stole the land and shunted us off to the corners of civilization they took away our rights to practice our cultures in hopes of making us into white people." She gave Johannes a wry smile, "It isn't working though."
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