sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

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.

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Wanda's gaze slowly dragged down Dorian's figure. He looked rather dashing in the white suit. If it'd been black, she might have thought that he was a super villain with the way that his mustache curled at its ends. "I am the Wicked Witch of the West. It's a witch from an old story. I'm sure this is our captor's idea of a joke." She had gone by Scarlet Witch on their wrist devices for a month or so now and it felt like that was biting her in the ass.

"Do you know what you're supposed to be?" It's a charming costume but Wanda wasn't able to place it. Not that it was particularly surprising. She was a little behind when it came to pop-culture.

"A joke?" He raised an eyebrow, interested. Witch of the Wilds was a title he was at least marginally familiar with himself and he wondered if the two were similar. "Are you a witch, then?"

He ran a hand over the lapel of his new coat, smoothing down the edges and shaking his head. "Beyond 'rather dashing', I hate no idea, and I accomplish that without the need for magical costumes."

"Some call me that." Wanda had begun to call herself Scarlet Witch as well but it felt like a hallow title in this world. Her powers had been taken away from her and she didn't feel like much of a witch.

She smiled up at him. "Is that so? It's a better look than the scrubs." Everything was better than those horrible scrubs.

"And why would they call you that?" Was she a fellow magic user then, stripped of what makes her special and struggling with identity along with displacement and loneliness? That was probably far too much to hope for.

"Oh, certainly. They are rather plain to spite their color." He pauses for a moment, though, now that it's come to his attention. "Speaking of which, why do they vary?"

Wanda exhaled a breath before speaking. "I had powers before I arrived here." She had retrained them for a short while after she arrived but that feels like so long ago now. "I had many names not all of them meant as compliments." She's gotten over a lot of it but it still stings a little bit, knowing that the world would rather turn its back on her when all she wants to do was help.

"I think the scrubs represent us in a way. I don't know what all the colors mean but there is something similar between them. Mine were light gray before changing to dark green."

"Ah, I see," his expression softens for a moment as something like sympathy passes across his features. He too has been called many things of late, and few of them complimentary, when all he wanted to do was help. He saw that apprehension in her face and nodding. "It would see we have something in common. I too was stripped of my abilities upon my arrival."

As for the clothing, they were...color-coding them? Based on what? "When did they change?"

"When we woke from the simulation and came to this place." Wanda tried to smile but her expression ended up neutral at best. "A lot of people don't have powers here. In the simulation, for a short while, I did and you can obtain other powers here for a short time but I haven't found a pattern in that."

She paused, her fingertip running around her cup.

"Do you know what I mean when I say simulation?"

"I know what it means to simulate, yes, but I've a notion you mean something far more specific."

And that idea was more troubling than he wanted to let on.

She nodded her head in something like a confirmation. "It's a simulated place to live. Much like this village but smaller." It was a little hard to explain despite the fact that Wanda had lived within that simulation for months.

"Everyone and the large animals, came out of the fountain on this side and we found that we were in a simulation that whole time."

"An illusion." It really wasn't that difficult to understand. Other this occurred here as if by magic. It served to reason that did as well.

"As you're certain this is real, and the last place was not?"

"Before there were glitches. I hadn't experienced that here but I don't know." She looked over at Dorian and lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "How can we tell with nothing of our own?"

Her own magic involved mental manipulation and Wanda didn't really want to think that was happening to everyone here.

In context, he presumed a 'glitch' was some sort of error, but he couldn't quite ascertain in what way. Ultimately, though, it didn't matter overmuch.

"Is our flesh not our own?"

"I don't know. I thought it was before but I was wrong. When we woke up it was clear that whatever bodies we were in, were somehow different." Her hair had been longer and her body had aged without the upkeep she'd taken in the simulation.

"There are computers in the bunker but I don't really understand what they did to us." Or if their current reality was real.

At this new knowledge, Dorian clenched his jaw. It was...troubling to say the least. He finished his drink and moved to pour himself another. It was shaping out to be that sort of day.

"Well, then I suppose someone ought to get on figuring that out, shouldn't they?"

"We're trying but survival is more than just searching for answers." They had to also be ready for whatever was going to be thrown at them. Wanda had been here long enough to know that the overseers could literally do anything they wanted.

"Do you think we can?" She asked, watching thoughtfully as he downed his drink. "Find out what's going on." She clarified.

Maybe Wanda had been trapped here for too long but survival felt more important than finding their way back home. If they do escape, then wouldn't more people be pulled in? It'd never end unless they learned more.

"The only things holding us back are our imaginations and forces of will." He made a vague motion with his free hand, indicated all of their surroundings.

"Something is going on. It serves to reason we can discern precisely what that is. It isn't some divine mystery of the cosmos, and even those can be answered if one knows where to look."

Wanda didn't think that it was that simple but she didn't see a point in arguing. They were at a party, even if it was a party forced into them.

"I do agree that whatever this is, it's something we can combat. We just need to figure out who's pulling the strings."

"Whoever gifted us these clothes, I'd wager."

He ran a hand down the fabric.

"I wonder if this is enough of a strand to follow."

"I haven't been able to too." Though she did appropriate the pun. "But if you do. Please let me know."

Wanda inclined her head in a nod. "I should get going. I'll let you know if I do find more."

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[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

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