[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Corn field next to the inn
WHEN: 31 October, all day and night
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn as appropriate in your subject lines
NOTES: Please make sure you have read and understand the event details! If you have questions, drop them here. RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED: Put your SCRUBS COLOR in your OTA subject line for folks doing bingo. Time your OTA for the harvest feast, the masquerade, or both. Costume matches and details for folks who did not get matched are here.

---

This morning, our intrepid villagers awoke to a surprise of the nicer kind: A bundle of clothing left at the foot of their bed, tied with a bow. There is also a note: Put on your new outfit and join the festivities in the corn field next to the inn.

You may be thinking, what corn field next to the inn? The one that sprung up fully-mature overnight, of course.

In the middle of the field, villagers will find an autumn feast: Tables piled with harvest time food and drink, warm and rustic decorations, the day's sunshine fending off any chill in the air.

Tuck in and enjoy, villagers, but take note: Things often look different in the dark, and you might be one of them.

Comments

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Also plausible." It's- nothing Tony's heard or understood before but having magic framed in a way that seems even a little scientific certainly helps him absorb it. Bullshit or not. Probably not, considering the sudden corn growth. And time travel. And the wizards back home.

"What, no. You're a riot." Tony snorts, shaking his head. "You're not the first nerd I've met at a party."

[cryptoherpetology]

"I'm mostly used to parties where everyone is a nerd. Or at least employed in the field I excel at being a nerd for," Alex makes sure to adjust his glasses before talking about just how much of a nerd he is. There is some self-awareness here.

"I work at a zoo," he explains. "In the reptile house." Pause. "Worked, I guess." Looks like the Columbus Zoo is down one visiting researcher-slash-unofficial-department-head (official would have meant a much better pay check than the zoo was willing to give him). There's a resigned, sad acceptance to the loss of his old life that most people don't reach until much more time here.

But most people weren't raised on dimension-hopping stories from their age-rewinding grandmother while being drilled on wilderness survival. While there may be a huge difference between intellectually and emotionally prepared for this sort of thing, having the former taken care of does speed up the acclimation process of cross-reality kidnapping.

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Time's fluid here. People have gone home, come back further along in their timeline or further back in it. No idea how or why but-" He shrugs. "Everything's fluid and relative and trying to pin any of it down is asking for a migraine."

Which isn't to say he hasn't- he's just been careful to not focus on that for too long since, well. Migraine. He gets enough of those on his own without courting them with impossible science.

[cryptoherpetology]

"That makes sense," says Alex. "My grandmother's been crossing dimensions willingly for decades, and looks younger than me."

For the most part, he says this casually, as if dimension-hopping grandmas who look like Veronica Mars circa Season 3 are perfectly normal things. This kind of weird is his normal. There's still slight hesitation when he talks about this sort of thing though- pauses as if he's checking to see if anyone else is listening to them.

Being able to talk openly about his life and family is probably the most novel thing about this place to him on some level. No paranoia, no second life, no lying to the love of your life for the first few months of your relationship.

[nonstopnarcissist]

"...I don't have a right to complain about my aunt being here and being young enough to be my daughter anymore, do I?" He's just going to take that as a no and move right along. Time travel is- well. It should be impossible.

And yet-

"Is it just dimensions that your family does, or are there some semi-stable time loops in your background." Since Constantine vanished he's been scrambling to find another source of information on that particular line of questioning. No Strange here, which is strange, but maybe not all that much.

[cryptoherpetology]

Alex smirks a little. "I have two aunts who've looked like teenage girls since the days they died. Ghosts, both of them- and this sort of thing is the reason I never had friends over as a kid," he points out. "Or dated in high school," he adds with more than a touch of self-deprecation.

"But as for time loops- you'd really have to ask Grandma Alice. That's pretty far out of my wheelhouse. My expertise tends to lie more in the squishy side of even fringe science, even if I've had to pick up a few skills most normal herpetologists probably wouldn't."

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Well when I find weird animals I'll bring you in- considering how many there are on this island? It won't take long." Especially if he wants to find any kind of beast of burden for powering tools in the forge. Bigger projects that'll have to wait until he gets some kind of stable built for whatever he finds.

Still.

"Enjoy the feast. If I feel anything weird I'll drop you a line."