2019-11-06 - Masquerade: Mad Tea Party

Ignacio is truly having his third worst week of weeks. His live is overwhelming, out of control, and he can't keep the proverbial garage door shut so it's out of the house where the Mentalist won't inflict himself o others and it's... you know what tea in the park Why not. His tablet in his messenger bag comes with so he can finish up his article for the paper before he heads out to NYC for the week.

Tea. Tea is good.

Oh it's themed? The limping author pauses giving a passing doormoue a smile in spite of it all and sends out a short text. He pays for the ticket and takes a quick snap.

Esme was never really big on celebrating much of anything but this masquerade business had been pretty eventful to watch go on so far. She'd on duty, technically. So she isn't elaborately dressed. Instead optining for a pair of black slacks and a bright red silk blouse. Her badge and gun are visible on her belt and in the holster. She does, however, have on a masquerade mask that covers her eyes. Bright red to match her shirt with little hearts dotting it. After all - Queen of Hearts was an Alice in Wonderland thing right? Hopefully there'd be no heads getting cut off. She's keeping closer to the edges of the gathering - not wanting to get in anyone's way.

Having been finishing up the cleardown of the Venetian Gardens, the last of the potted plants and trellis fence panels settled into the back of her truck, Juniper decides on tea before heading back. It's a bit of fun after all, and she has a black domino mask and adds a few 'spades' on each cheek before acquiring her ticket and entering, looking around with open amusement.

The impressive hedge maze has drawn plenty of onlookers and Mercedes is one of them. Currently on her break, she's dressed in fairly normal clothes for the weather, a dark blue sweater with a butterfly designs dotting it, dark jeans, and a pair of ankle boots. The only thing that makes her fit in with the festival is a navy domino mask with a flower piece attached. She slows to a stop outside the path leading into the hedge, taking in in the sight of all the multi-colored bubbles and listening to the accompanying music. "Huh...," She gives it a skeptical look but something about the surreal nature of the place seems to coax her to buy a ticket anyway.

Lyric has cotton candy. But she shoves the last in her mouth and slides the plastic bag into her back pocket, leaving a little lump there from the plastic. For real!? A tea party! Oh she's going even if she has to crash it! A ticket though, that's the answer, and she gets one too. Her mask is a large, cheesy smile that goes with the stripes she wears. No tail though, she'd forgotten it somehow. Or she had forgotten to remember it. "Painting the roses red. Painting the roses red!" Her voice is sing song and she sooo fits this theme. She's the Cheshire cat by the way. One who had lost her tail.

As people begin to filter in the Mad Hatter gets to her feet, arms spreading outwards to encompass the entire area before welcoming everyone, "Sit sit sit!" The accent is British, the voice is fast, words tumbling over each other in effort to get out under the wire. Whatever the time limit is. Is there a time limit?

There are plenty of chairs still available. In fact, most of the chairs are empty. Seems that there wasn't as many people interested in the tea party as some of the other things happening at the festival.

Ignacio looks up and is almost surprised to see Juniper and the smile eases onto his face staving back life's frustrations a bit. He walks that way, right leg pulling the rest of him to catch up, but slow enough to diminish it into a stroll. "Heeey, I remember you. Friend of August? Care to join?" He pulls out a sea and sits down looking at the spread with a sigh. Find a happy place, man. Right. Another pic is taken with his phone so he can blog on that later and it goes away. "I got your adverts done by the by."

Esme looks a little amused, watching people filter in and taking in their various masks and costume ideas. She does move a little closer to the table, though doesn't sit down yet. After all, she isn't here to partake in tea! Even if she really wants to. Silly being responsibile while on the job.

Mercedes allows herself a small smile as she marvels at the costumed attendants that flit about the tea party, clearly appreciative of the work put into the detail of their outfits. Her expression dims a bit as the Mad Hatter hurriedly commands them to sit but that's likely just instinctual rebellion. She understands that their host is just playing the role. Regardless, she moves over to take a seat at the table before taking a moment to look around at the others that have joined the party.

A bright smile dawns as Iggy greets Juniper, and the spade-masked woman heads over to settle down next to him. "Hey honey," she greets, nodding as he mentions adverts. "Perfect thanks, how much do I owe you?" she enquires, before looking towards the Mad Hatter, curious about what will happen at this mad tea party.

Lyric slips into one of the seats, happy as you please, as shown by her wide smile on her mask. She places her paws, that are really just striped fingernails on the table top. "We're late, for a very important date!" Just whispering the words mostly to herself.

Ignacio looks to Juniper and shakes his head, "Honestly my week is such shit right now I just... need to do something nice for someone. So, a very merry un-birthday to you, Juniper." He looks up to the very real doormouse and murmurs a gracias picking up one of the confections. "Awww I dunno what this is but it's adorable." Sure, more incentive to figuring out baking. "Seriously, if August didn't help me out at one point I dunno where I'd be so, really, I don't mind helping a friend out. It was a fun project." Looking over to Esme, Lyric, and Mercedes' plates and then his own he murmurs something and takes his tea.

Esme definitely had to give props to whoever did that turtle costume. Very awesome. She watches the turkish delights and tea get set out. Well...one little sweet and a cup of tea wouldn't hurt right? It's not like she couldn't just drop it immediately if something were to go wrong. No one seemed hostile or like they were going to cause trouble in the next five minutes. Hopefully. So she finally claimed an empty chair and waited until everything had been passed out before lifting hers. "I don't know if I've had one of these before." She muses.

Mercedes considers the costumes again as the Dormouse picks up plates and the attendants hand out tea cups for all the guests. A lot of work must have gone into those getups to make them look so realistic and it's got her curious. Her eyes narrow behind her mask as she attempts to examine them a bit closer for things like seams and zippers. Something to break the illusion. As a costume designer herself, there's usually some small detail that stands out. She is shaken from her inspection by the clatter of plates and tea cups in front of her, however. "I guess there's not point in coming if I'm not gonna try the tea," She decides, taking a sip from her cup and popping one of those blue turkish delights into her mouth. "Same here," She comments in reply to Esme.

"Aw, thank you honey," comes the reply to Iggy's generosity, that smile lingering before she looks down to the table. And, you might think Juniper would've learned her lesson, having been tricked with magic candy only a few days ago - but no. She's more than happy to indulge, smiling at the turtle with a slightly puzzled expression, then taking up one of the turkish delights placed in front of her, popping it into her mouth and chewing. "Mm!" She seems to approve of the taste.

The turkish delight looked perfect and she sample is and the tea after adding sugar cubes. Everyone had been served now! It was safe. THe turtle was adorable and everything, so she finds herself staring a time or two. Omnomnom, eating the entire little cake.

Ignacio manages to smile, if a bit more genuinely. He drinks his tea and pops the desert into his mouth. "I wonder if they got that super French sounding place to make these. I should bring one back for Finch. She's... been having a rough go of this week. I won't get into it but like... lemme tell you life's a roller coaster. how's the landscaping coming out?"

Esme popped the treat into her mouth, savoring the flavor to test it out before following up with a sip of tea. "Mm I'll have to find more of these." She laughed. "Not too bad."

Mercedes chews on her confection at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sweet treat as she looks about at the other party guests. "Nice costume, kitty cat," She comments to Lyric, speaking around a mouthful of turkish delight. She casts a glance to the head of the table, perhaps hoping to see how the Mad Hatter is taking the proceedings.

"Pretty good actually! August kept passing my name around as the person who designed and built the Venetian Gardens, so I've had a few jobs following that," Juniper muses to Ignacio, her smile remaining in place, though fading as she notices the strangely misty quality of the air, and the strange smile hanging in nothingness, talking to the Mad Hatter. She tries to tune in to that conversation, to hear what they're saying, brows furrowing a bit above her mask.

Another cheshire cat! But the real one? Lyric laughs and watches the Mad Hatter talking to the cat, tilting her head and being curious as a cat herself. The candies come, she eats more of them. It's Halloween, lots of candy was being given out and eaten. Lyric minds her own business for now, stuffing her face. Once you've gone hungry in life, you never passed up free food. Her tea is had, nothing unusual at all!

Mercedes doesn't indulge as much in eating the food when more of it comes out beyond sampling a few, satisfied with the sugary cake for now. She pauses in drinking her third cup of tea and stares at the curious sight of a smile hanging in mid-air with nothing attached to it. It just gets curioser as the Mad Hatter engages in a conversation with the impossible thing like it's entirely normal. She hasn't entirely noticed the change in scenery as that haze of steam envelops the hedge yet.

Ignacio lets his focus turn that way. There's a hanging smile in the air. He pauses, blinks, NOpe, still there. He blinks again. Fuck it he's hungry. Somewhere he can feel work having a small fit, but right now he's on his time and he picks the pink one off the plate ans sets it aside in favour of eating the purple one right now. "You know, holidays are coming up. You staying in town for turkey day or heading out? " Yup, business causal!

"Hanging around here, got nowhere better to be," Juniper replies slightly distractedly. She glances towards Lyric and Mercedes, as if to silently check whether they are seeing this strangeness too, before she startles up out of her chair when she catches those few words. "Watch yourselves!" she voices to the people here who she believes to be human, since they have that glimmery air about them, sounding concerned.

Oblivious to cards and whispers, Lyric is having a grand old time enjoying her candies. Turkish Delights indeed! She's just eating and eating and drinking her tea. Barely do the words get heard and acknowledged as she picks up her food off hers and shoves it in her mouth as she moves along.

Ignacio has a hard time with this part . There's confusion and one hand goes out to Juniper's shoulder to catch himself as he tries to move with people bustling. Who bustles!? Man, like Baymax he is not fast. He's also not an idiot, "Jun', what's up?" he does grab that bit of candy from his plate and holds it in hand first. Move down, right.

Mercedes is oblivious to the actual conversation itself, so distracted by the mere sight of it. "Did the theatre set this up?," She muses to herself mostly. It's only when Juniper suddenly jumps up and calls out to the group that she's snapped back to her senses. She tenses and pushes herself up from her seat, only to pause in moving away from the table as the Mad Hatter calls out for seats to change.

"They said something about 'grab them'," Juniper voices, loud enough to be heard but not shouting. She does move seats, because that's the thing to be doing, taking her as-yet-unsipped-from teacup with her, body language decidedly uneasy.

"Grab who?" Lyric looks over at Juniper, just a little confused but not real concerned. She switched places though, like she was told to do. And she sips her tea and has more candies. She'd never really been to a tea party, this was fun!

Ignacio looks to Juniper and tilts his head, "Like more teapots? More sammiches? Fly away napkins?" Hey he comes from restaurant folk. These are real grabby things! Also it's easy to pick him out as not-local by the accent and the face he doesn't jump to the worse conclusion. he's been eating the food and seems not worse for wear.

Mercedes is shuffled along with everyone else as they scramble to rearrange themselves around the table. She gives up on finding her way out of the chaos as she's nudged and pushed along to take a new seat. She's seated close enough to hear Juniper's words through the commotion, however. "What? It's not just part of the show?" While skeptical, she notices those playing card soldiers were not among the costumed attendants before. "Wait, when did they come in?" Her frown turns tense as she considers taking Juniper's warning more seriously.

Despite being prepared for something like this, at least mentally, Juniper is caught up by the two guards coming for her, struggling without success. "Let go, assholes!" she demands, refusing to go quietly.

Ignacio listens to this happen and since he can't get out of the way fast enough (read: at all) he pulls out his phone to try to get come vid but has his arms snatches his hands "Uhhhh Excuse me??" He looks around trying to reason out what's up. "We going to play croquet because I'm allergic to flamingos." It's as valid question as any and no he is not! "Juuuun... I think we're on our own. Uhhhh everyone jsut... stay calm there's what? A game? It's all stage right?"

But now the cards aren't letting Lyric eat her candies and she can't even struggle free! "Hey, let me go!" She tries to twist left and right and to get away. It's not workingggg! She looks at the others and she does try and stay calm, but.. yeah was it a game?

Mercedes can almost feel that moment of tension before something happens. It's not enough to save her from the guards through. She jumps up, only to find herself being grabbed and held on both sides. "Hands off!" She bites out, struggling in vain to get out of their grip. A part of her wants to believe along with Ignacio and Lyric that it's all just a show but this is starting to be worryingly familiar in a bad way for her. Everything is decidedly not fine.

Still struggling, Juniper makes lots of noise and motion, to perhaps detract from the way her hands are moving in circles, summoning up power - yes it could make things worse, but she's not going through that goddamned door! The glimmer aura around her flexes, stretches, and two balls of fire get flicked from her fingertips, one to each guard trying to muscle her out of the garden.

It was weird. Lyric was in a weird place here. She was being taken captive but it was Alice in Wonderland. She just wasn't scared for some reason. So she lets them take her, just to see if they were going to go paint the roses red. Now, if the queen is back there shouting off with their head, then things may get a little more alarming. For now, she goes along with it, like it's some kind of ride at a theme park.

Mercedes stiffens, her eyes widening in fear as she's forcibly escorted toward the gate looming in the back of the hedge. She snaps out of it when that surge of power from Juniper lights up the world around them though. There's a tinge of desperation to her renewed struggling now. She attempts to lash out at the guards as something about the entire scenario sparks a feral anger in her. "No...!" She grits her teeth and kicks at the playing card guards in hopes of knocking them off balance.

Lyric is just having fun with it, thinking it's all part of the show because to think otherwise would freak her out a little. Or even a lot. She's not fighting it so the guards could even walk her around the flaming ones. She idly watches the others while riding her sugar high, giggling at the fires and everything.

Ignacio tries to kick his legs but he only has the one good one. He's a writer and a lover not a fighter. He is suddenly super glad he sent his column off already to meet his deadline. Think think think he looks to Juniper and his eyes widen, and his intent focuses on need, "Juniper. It's Ignacio. Run. Tell Roen or Finch! Vamos!" He tries to flail and get his feet under him and is really glad he's got that candy in hand. Not taking chances he floats it to tuck in his pocket and takes a deep breath. "Can we stop? I have to go to the bathroom> I think it says prisonrs get a potty break. No... right. Doooo we get to know why we're being escorted?" *dragdragdrag

"No, we are not going through that door," Juniper calls to Ignacio aloud, turning to try and shove one of the merrily-burning guards towards the nearest not-burning one. fire spreads after all! Unfortunately, she is just not as strong as he is, even if he is alight. "Everyone fight, this is real!"

"How do you know it's real? How do you know what's on the other side of the gate?" Lyric questions. "What do you think is back there? Or through there?" For her own amusement though, she decides to go and check on her own terms. So with a physical blast, she gives it a shot, using her powers to try and force them off of her so she can go see what's there.

Mercedes lets out a frustrated noise when her guard manages to hold on but she's not about to give up. "Real enough for me!" She practically snarls as she uses both of her feet to kick into one of the bent guards this time, pushing off it to slam into the one on her opposite side. It's not pretty but it seems to get the job done. She scrambles to her feet and fully takes in the scene of the burning playing guards. Then she notices Ignacio being carried toward the gate. "Shit..."

"What's in there?" Lyric doesn't fight again. Truth be told the last fight was half hearted anyway. Mercedes was feaking out though and that rubbed off on her a little. Not enough to make her freak out herself though. "What's through the gate?" She waits expectantly.

Ignacio is dragged and calling out loudly, and irately, "I wanna talk to my rules lawyer!" HE's still struggling to, what? Reason with them? He's a word guy, not a 'fite' guy, see paper for details. At Lyric's question he calls from over the hedge "I AM!" His hands try to spark and that... doesn't get him far as the cards are no metal. Well... He tries to lash out ans seize control of the cards which does not work. Stay calmStaycalmStaycalm but the rage from the week is just at an edge. "June, burn the hedge!"

No, Juniper is not going to burn the hedge. But she is going to fling fireballs at the two guards hauling Iggy off. There is absolutely no hiding that this is what she's doing, but her aim is good and she's determined that these 300gsm assholes are going down. "I don't know, honey, but it's not gonna be good," she finally tells Lyric. "Grow a sense of self-preservation, goddamnit!"

"Don't Tell ME WHAT TO DO!" Each word getting louder the more she talks. Lyric gets irate, sure. But for all the wrong reasons. Both hands are thrust out and there's heat in her ice blue eyes as she attempts to slam the cards away from her so she can . She can fight back when she wants to, she just has to really want to. "I can take care of myself! I always do!" Probably every local in town knew her story. She doesn't tell it now except that. Marching over, she looks to be going to help Iggy too, or maybe just seeing for herself what's through the gate.

"Who gives a shit?!" Mercedes calls out desperately to Lyric when she expresses interest in what's behind the door. Something about this situation is clearly getting to her. Wanting to do something, she tries to tap into her own power in her anxious state. In contrast to Juniper and Ignacio's fine control, Mercedes' use of glimmer is wild and unfocused as it takes hold of various tea cups, pots, and plates. Her hands tremble as she haphazardly sends them hurtling around the room to pelt in the direction of the remaining guards outside the gate. It's not much of an /attack/, serving more as a potential distraction for the group to take advantage of the chaos and possibly help get everyone free.

Ignacio is out of site surrounded by plants and cardboard men that might threaten him with death by papercut. Who knows. pulling his arms closer together he tries to tuck his legs in to make himself heavier and more unweildly for a moment. Yes?! No! Blast! There's some angry fucking Spanish ! His feet hit down trying to either pull them down or himself up and it works long enough to get one leg under him only to be dragged again. It hurts. His limbs are strained and the neuropathy in his leg is now formally filing a complaint with him.

Pulling in a deep breath with gritted teeth he says "Take me to your leader." There's a pause, "No I don't have an ppoint- take me to the people to make an appointment then!" The words are distant.

With the guards scattering, having taken their prisoner, Juniper sighs and takes her phone out. Looks up a number. Calls it. "Yeah, hey August.."

Her goal all along had been seeing through the gates. Well that hadn't happened. Everything was gone or on fire, so Lyric goes back to the table and gathers candies, lots of little candies and cakes, and a cup of tea before finding herself a nice place for a solo picnic. And maybe she'd find some spray paint on the way home and paint some roses red.

Mercedes scowls as she looks around the burning scenery and sees that Ignacio is no longer anywhere in sight. "It's too late..." She's not heartless but years of hard living have taught her to prioritize self-preservation above most things. "I'm sorry about your friend," She calls out to Juniper in a resigned tone and makes off toward the side exit of the hedge. This wouldn't be the first time she made a break for it when things were falling apart. It was unlikely to be the last.