bluh bluh huge ball

[thalassino]

Characters: Vatheon
Location: That Castle
Time: Evening, on Sunday
Style: Any
Status: OPEN. Threadjack, threadhop, spam away!

[ Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen of Vatheon— whatever your newfound stature may be, Prince, Princess, Knight, or Peasant, you will all receive a message on your SFC on the eve of Saturday regardless:

You are cordially invited to the castle for this evening's ball. In addition, you are all welcome to try and solve the riddle if it fancies you. It just may break the curse!

The invitation is unsigned, but its intentions are clear. Maybe you hadn't quite noticed the sizeable castle in the distance of the city that had sprung up, but this message would surely garner your attention toward it now.

Should you arrive at the castle, plenty of attractions await you:

Ballroom ❧ A very large and beautiful ballroom is lighted up, complete with a playing violin orchestra. While the curtains will be drawn during this event, there is a windowed view and exit on one side of the ballroom that leads to:

Smee's Rose Garden ❧ A broad and colorful spanse of a garden, complete with many paths and turns. Plenty of roses are arranged in great arches, which provide perfect little places should you need some privacy with your sweetheart. Anyone familiar will even tell you that the garden was purposefully designed for just that sort of thing.

The Riddle ❧ There is an inscription located on a noticeable plaque set in one of the garden's benches. It reads:

Two are necessary to break this curse
Riled up, upset, what kind of love?
Only this kiss will stop it from getting worse.
Look for a winged one is push comes to shove,
Look for a glance slightly dark,
Search for a pair in reluctant love.
One answers a call; that's your mark;
One longs for patria though adverse.

Dining Hall ❧ Connected to the ballroom is an extremely long hall that stretches as far as the eye can see, elegantly arranged as the dining area. Expensive and exquisite cuisine seem to be on the menu— try something new? Chances are you won't be eating from a selection such as this again anytime soon!

Dais ❧ There is a noticeable raised dais that is easily visible via any area within the ballroom. It's locked off from guests, though— what is it for...?

Do enjoy. ]

Comments

[unshelledbullet]

[Squall cared little for balls. Such events were just for formality and he. But he went anyway for a variety of reasons. One was that if something should happen, he should be there to do something about it. Another was because he just felt like it. And the third was the riddle. Being a were-lion wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, but he would very much like this curse to be over now.

He had looked at the riddle several times, but Squall wasn't a very creative person when it came to literature. So he had taken a break and when he came back, found that someone else was puzzling over it.]

You think so too?

[What a stupid riddle.]

[closedcircuit]

[Ky's used to balls, from his former life -- if not to the specifics he'd certainly gone to a great deal of formal affairs before. But now those don't feel quite real, if nothing else his awkwardness at this place is genuine now.]

I suppose we could start with seeing if anyone has wings.

But I'm not sure that I feel comfortable making people kiss if they don't wish to otherwise.

[unshelledbullet]

[The last ball Squall had gone to was his graduation ball and he tries to pretend he doesn't remember what happened at it.]

I've seen lots of people with wings. It's probably a waste of time to hunt down every single person with them.

[He's seen dragons, fairies, even a giant peacock on one occasion. He agrees on the not making people kiss thing though.]

Maybe one of the other lines can give us a better idea. What's this "glance slightly dark" thing?

[Why can't these things just say what they mean. Seriously.]

[closedcircuit]

Perhaps dark brown eyes? Or it could refer to a psychological state.

[That doesn't seem like it would be any more helpful.]

If we could figure out what kind of call was necessary, then this would be more straightforward.

[unshelledbullet]

[Since figuring out the meaning of lines is getting them nowhere fast, Squall tries looking at the structure of the riddle instead.]

Everything rhymes except for the last word in the last line. But I don't see how that's important.

[closedcircuit]

It rhymes with 'curse' again, I guess.

But I don't see what a longing for patria really means in this context. Don't most people here long for the place they came from, for one reason or another?

[unshelledbullet]

[The more they look at it, the more it seems like this could be referring to...well, anybody.]

Maybe this thing isn't solvable right now. We might have to wait for that call. Whatever it is.

[closedcircuit]

[A frustrated sigh.]

What's the point of giving us a riddle if the answer is just to wait around for more information?

[unshelledbullet]

I think a better question is what's the point of doing any of this? This curse, curses in general. All of it.

[A quiet growl.]

[closedcircuit]

Being here at all is a bit of an issue, to be honest.

[Ky has work to do at home, but he's found himself work to do here as well.]

But there's nothing to do but push forward and do what we can. Right now the answer is to work through the curse, and that's what the point is.

[unshelledbullet]

[Don't we all have things to do at home? But at present, there isn't any way to get there, so Squall has been telling himself to focus on here. But now that he's got his frustration out, he feels a little better.]

All right then.

"Riled up and upset," huh? Does that mean two people who fight a lot?>

[closedcircuit]

Yes, but they're also in love with each other, I would presume. I'm not sure if they're both aware of the other's feelings or if they're deep in denial.

[A sigh.]

And we're back to matchmaking.

[unshelledbullet]

[Squall doesn't respond. First he crosses his arms, then places his palm on his forehead.]

...there's no avoiding it, is there?

[closedcircuit]

There is, it just looks like if this doesn't happen we might well be stuck like this forever.