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

[kingwithnocrown]

This is the part of Izaya's life that he liked to refer to as the Unpredictable Part. Also known as the force that is Shizuo. He could feel the wind knocked right out of him as he was brought down by the monster and he felt a flickering moment of runrunrunfuckingRUN but it was far too late to flee from this. He was trapped and it was by far the most horrifying predicament he'd ever found himself in. He laid flat on his back and almost tried to lay flatter- like maybe it would finally allow him to sink through the ground and deep into the earth. That, of course, did not happen.

Instead, he could only stare up at Shizuo, his eyes wide as Shizuo pulled out another blade and started to talk. He flinched as his clothes were torn and he listened- oh did he listen. His teeth were grounded together, like a feral animal trying to defend itself but knowing that it's already losing ground. Just like that, the white king had made his move and declared the ultimate check mate. And Izaya was fucked.

The knife in his hand was useless. It wasn't his knife. It wasn't the situation he had created. This was all unpredicted. It was out of his control. And for once in his life- Izaya was rendered speechless. The knife in his hand trembled, the tip bumping harmlessly against Shizuo's revealed chest.

"I'm not worthless," he said coolly, his grip tightening and becoming firm as he finally found his footing. "And I'm not a coward. I'm not anything you think I am. You don't know me whatsoever," he said and he pulled his hand back and then plunged it out, driving the dagger straight into Shizuo- all the way inside of him.

Except. It was right through his chest. Just one inch away from where his heart actually was.

"I don't want your heart," he spat, using the knife as leverage to lift himself off of the ground, using his elbow in support as he crashed their foreheads together. He twisted the knife in Shizuo's body.

"Not like this."

And then pulled the knife out. He lowered himself back away from Shizuo, a spiteful look on his face as he glared at the one man who knew just how to destroy everything about him.

[a_violent_end]

Shizuo was close to being physically indestructible, but he was not. In fact, he was a lot further from it than people seemed to think. There was a difference between hardly feeling pain, having extremely sturdy bones and actually being invincible. He could bleed. Being shot by those punks had been enough to render him useless, if only for a few brief moments before he woke up in Vatheon. Shizuo could be hurt. He could black out. He just usually wasn't, usually didn't, because he was pretty damn strong.

His eyes communicated some surprise at being stabbed, but his grin didn't falther - not as Izaya used it as leverage to lift himself up, not as Izaya twisted it. Only when Izaya pulled it out did Shizuo have an oh shit moment where his hand went to his chest and was instantly soaked with blood. He coughed and tasted blood, too. It was a damn shame Izaya hadn't actually hit his heart - but then again, neither of them could ever deliver that final blow. They had determined that weeks ago.

"Ahha," Shizuo half-laughed. "This actually hurts a little," and there was hint of admiration, there. Izaya had made him feel something. Izaya always managed to make him feel things.

He forced himself to stand and - ah. He legs were weak. He hadn't felt like this since - since getting shot and waking up in Vatheon. Yeah, he could walk, and yeah, he'd live, but it was interesting to be rendered weaker. Not too far off from being run over by a truck, he supposed.

"You've rejected me twice. Maybe I don't know you." He patted his outfit trying to find his cigarettes, but they weren't there. "I'm pretty oblivious to a lot of things, right? I am an idiot." He had owned up to that before, more than once. "But. Now I have your heart and you don't have mine."

A pause.

"I don't know Russian, but I saw the way you looked. You won't take what I have, so I have more than you." Of course he knew. It had been obvious, even to an idiot like him. That smile. The one that made him promise himself to make Izaya smile like that again. It was laughable now, a sick joke. All of it.

He shrugged then. "I'd hit you with a street sign if I could, but there aren't any here and I'm bleeding." He touched the wound again and held it out to Izaya. "You remember what you did, when you bled?" He moved forward and took Izaya's hand, pressing his thumb against his palm.

"Only I'm out of promises."

He wasn't sure he was making sense. His hands were shaking, again, and he wondered if it was because of how he felt or if the stab wound was losing too much blood. The ability to quickly replace lost blood wasn't one he had. He'd have to get to Shinra or the clinic or. Zelda. Zelda could heal. He'd find her, because she'd understand - she always did.

But Zelda couldn't heal emotional wounds.

"Nnn. I don't remember what I was saying. But I still think you're a coward, even if you say you aren't." He started walking, albeit slowly, toward the dining area, where Zelda had gone some time before.