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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Hawke has a talent for talking and talking and it really does all connect eventually. Most people are uncomfortable with small talk, but not her. She could do it all day. Plus she really did feel bad for hitting him. It's not that she could have known he's blind and all, but she's supposed to be less violent to others around here. She got the sense most of them didn't play as hard as she and her mates did.

She's completely confused, eyebrows furrowing. "What kind of parties?" She's been to masquerades before, so yeah, that sounds about right. Does that mean something else to him? "Costume party? Cause yeah. But people're in all kinds of things." Hawke glances around. "Someone's in this insane monster looking thing, head's covered, some lucky bloody people get robes and shite. I wonder who I pissed off to end up in this." She doesn't understand his distress, he looks perfectly normal!

Luckily, Matt hadn't explained what he meant by 'one of those parties' or she might slap him on his other cheek as well. He'd just thought that with what she was wearing, this was a more... adult? Affair, but clearly that wasn't the case. His cheeks are hot, tinged a deep shade and he scratches under his eye awkwardly, trying to backpedal out of this.

There's not even a way to compliment her that wouldn't come across as Matt unintentionally being a creep, so he bites his lip.

"Would you like to change into something else? We could. Ask around." Or she could go back to her place, or. Whatever.

Few things amused Hawke more than a blusher, and if he was anyone else, if she knew him even a little, she'd tease him about it just to see if he blushed more. She loves teasing others, but it's typically a move of affection, and she's learned to avoid it with strangers. It's adorable though, and she grins at him. It's too bad he can't see it, and she's not dealt with the blind frequently. She doubts saying out loud 'grin!' would be helpful.

"If you only know how difficult it is for me not to crack a joke about you trying to get my clothes off, mate. But you seem flustered, I'd hate to make it worse." Damn, she didn't resist, but she hopes that's a reasonable level of teasing. Explaining it instead of simply joking about the changing her clothes is probably more helpful. A lot of humor is in visuals for her, like the twinkle in her eye or a smile.

"What's your name? I'm Hawke."

He might not be the greatest lady-killer around these parts but he's usually a little more composed than this. It's a combination of many things not going right that's left him rather defenseless standing in front of her looking the awkward side of blank staring right through her.

"Matthew." He doesn't go for handshakes or anything, even more so now that he can't sense extended hands.

"I was just- I thought you might be uncomfortable." A small shrug. She might not know him but more often than not Matt could simply be passed off as a concerned third party.

"Nice to meet you, Matthew, unfair slapping in the face notwithstanding." Hawke considers taking his hand for a shake, but it seems better not to startle him at the moment. And she's learned to respect other people's physical space after too many snarls from Fenris over the years.

"I know, I'm sorry, you're very sweet, and I have this constant urge to tease people. My friend Aveline often introduces me to new people with the caveat that I'll grow on them eventually." Hawke likes people. She's very social, but has been deprived of social contact for months before getting here. She at least has the good sense to be sheepish about her lack of social graces. "Let's spin this around, love, can I get you a drink? More to eat? It's the least I can do."

"...yeah. Sure. I'd love a drink." Maybe three, if he's going to get through tonight somehow. Maybe there'll be less awkwardness when he's not frustrating himself over all the social cues he's missing out on. He's probably coming across as a lot more uptight than he is normally. (Not that he'd ever describe himself as uptight, despite what others might think of him)

"Thank you." He's not sure what they have here so he'll take anything she's willing to get for him.

"Brilliant! Hold on, I think they might have ...." Hawke sniffs around and brightens, getting a glass for herself and for him. It isn't even her birthday. "Rum! It's not even that terrible liquor they apparently make in bathrooms here. It smells like something that'll poison your insides. It tasted worse." So she drank that despite the smell, but this at least is divine in comparison. She's going to drink her weight in it tonight, probably. Waste not, want not.

"Here. It'll be good for you." She puts the cup in his hand carefully. "They might have wine if you'd prefer that, I can look around." Wine's too light for her, it'd just make her sleepy. "You seem a bit like a wine person." She's not saying he's uptight, she's just thinking it.

He was half-expecting water or juice or something so rum takes him by surprise. His eyebrows rise and his lips part to start to say something, but then she's putting a glass in his hand and he just breaks out a smile. Matt doesn't even want to ask about what who is distilling where in whose bathroom, that just sounds disgusting.

"Cheers," he says softly before taking a small sip. He's a bit of a lightweight and being blind is disorienting enough without being drunk on top of that.

"It's alright, I can drink this." He is a wine person, how did she guess? He used to have stronger preferences for things when he could taste all the different flavours. Now he's just content with everything being bland.

"...did you say someone is making moonshine in the bathroom?"

Hawke smiles warmly because she's always glad when she rights an awkward situation. Also she has a habit of adopting people as her friends whether they like it or not. Slapping someone is not the worst start to a friendship she has. Several of her friends tried to kill her first! "I'm glad you like it."

Hawke looks over her shoulder at the food table. "I don't know if we'll be able to take all of this with us. We should at least try that. Liquor's so rare that they have to make it in disgusting ways, which means ... yeah I think that's what they were doing. Desperate times and desperate measures." She really would rather not go back to that when she's now enjoying something much more her speed. If she closes her eyes she can imagine she's at the Hanged Man. This party is more like that than the village is.

"So, love, which of the worlds are you from? Or are you from a brand new one?"

"Uh..." He's not really sure what the correct answer is to that. Earth? The Solar System? Does it have a scientific name or numeric designation? He wouldn't know it. This is a good distraction from the toilet moonshine even if he doesn't really know the answer.

So he just defaults to what he does know. "...my city's called New York." He's from the same place as Tony, Bruce, Karen, Elektra, Frank, Danny, and no doubt more people he has yet to meet. "It's uh... different. Noisier. Tall buildings. Traffic. Construction. Very commercial."

Hawke waits and considers a moment. "There's a lot of you from there, yeah? That's the world? I know there's one that has cities like that and some magical folks." She grimaces. "Sorry, you don't call it magic, if I remember right. Some other word that basically means the same thing, being able to do extraordinary things other people can't." It's not that she minds the lingo is different, it's just that hearing magic seems to confuse some people, when they were on some bizarre island in the middle of no where. That's a bit odder than magic.

"My sister's a mage. I, alas, am but a humble human." With advanced fighting skills and extraordinary marskmanship. She's been trying very hard not to bring up killing things with strangers. Not everyone's as comfortable with the violent stories as she is. "What about you, Matthew? Any magic or ... whatever you lot call it?"

"It's a fairly busy city, yeah." He's not sure about 'magic' but. Close enough. He knows a few gifted people even if he's hesitant to call himself one. Their lives were often complicated enough with said 'gifts'.

"No. I'm pretty boring," he adds with a self-depreciating smile. His life had been anything but before he came here, but now that he's here and has time for a breather... he doesn't have any gifts or magic to speak of, either.

"What do you do, as a magician? Just-... travel?" He's thinking kid's birthday parties or some kind of show in Vegas, but he didn't want to offend in case she only means 'magic' as in special abilities.

"You're not boring. You don't need powers to be interesting. Some people with powers are the least interesting folks I know." Most of the time they were flat out dickheads, but she doesn't need to get into that. Hawke's spent too much time with them, to be honest. It's refreshing to have 'normal' people around, although many of them only are because they lost abilities. Hawke pats him on the shoulder in a friendly light way. He isn't boring! He's put up with a lot of her already tonight, and that takes a great deal of patience.

"Travel?" She's puzzled. "Yeah, we travel and all, but I mean as in magic. Spells and the like. My sister can control the elements and heal, she's still learning some other things." Hawke's proud of her. The whole situation with the circle was a nightmare of hers, but Bethany did get to bond with other mages and that's something. "She never got to learn much about how to do things, she was tiny when our father died, and he was the only mage in the family, so until recently it was a lot of guess work."

Well, he thinks he's boring in other ways too, but he doesn't go into it, flashing her a slow-forming smile. He's not sure what to make about spells like... fireballs or whatever that entails, so he just nods as she talks and hopes he doesn't look too confused.

"I'm sorry to hear that, about your father."

"It was a long time ago. He was a good man and did his best by us, while he could." Hawke remembers him fondly. It wasn't the best situation, being a child of an apostate mage, and having one of their own, but it's not as if she can be sorry that her sister was born. She didn't think of him much now outside of some affection, because death was such a major part of her life. The deaths that stuck with her were the ones that she caused.

"What about your family? You got one that'll worry about you back home?"

"...yeah." He tilts his head and nods, giving her a tight-lipped smile that reaches his eyes. He's... made his peace with that.

"I never knew my mother. Until recently." They can never catch up on lost time, but he had been planning on reconnecting. Now that they're here though, he's not sure if she's waiting for him. If she even notices or if he's not himself or in two places at once somehow or... however this works.

"Was hoping to get to know her, actually. And then this happened."

Hawke listens, her eyes sympathetic. While her father died some time ago, her mother's death was still very fresh. As much as it pains her to think of her, she still wouldn't change having her around. Even if sometimes she had wished she'd stay out of her personal life a bit more! Ah, mothers.

"I'm sorry, love. I don't entirely know how all of this works, but I've heard in some cases people merely go back without missing any time at all. Don't know if they have any memories or not when they do, and it might not be all cases, but still. There's that option." The problem is there's no way to force it to happen. Otherwise some of them might have already.

"Sorry if this is personal, you can tell me fuck off Hawke, but we're having drinks and sometimes people talk over drinks. How'd you get to your age without knowing her?" He's no spring chicken after all.

Matt doesn't know how all this works either. He only just got here and he doesn't feel qualified to speculate. Not that he'd rather talk about his mother, but at least he doesn't feel so out of his depth when the topic changes.

"She left when I was very young." He can say it with a degree of impartiality now that there's been some time and distance. He wouldn't say he's not angry about it anymore, but it is years of wondering and feeling vex and unsettled finally resolved.

"It was an... awkward. Reunion." If he could fix it, he would, but. Here they are.

"Sorry. Don't want to dampen the mood."

Hawke listened and nodded her head. The fact that he even tried to explain instead of told her to fuck off says a lot about him being a good bloke, to be honest. "Well I hope you get a reunion with her for real, love. There's no mood to dampen, this has been an odd enough night. Let's just eat and drink and toast to a better and less bizarre tomorrow."

[ooc: cool to wrap? it was such an awesome thread tho would love more]

Somehow Matt manages a brave smile. He will have plenty of time to lament over all the things he's lost by being brought here later, on a less... festive occasion. "Yeah. Yeah I think I can drink to that."

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[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

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Sounds good :D