Masquerade [Event Two]

[Alfred F. Jones]

Alfred stared at the invitation card he received on the door to his hotel room, the font golden and royal and elegantly curvy. Flipping it over, he read the details carefully, his cup of coffee balanced in his other hand. It sounded simple - it was a giant dress up affair, in the whole mask and frilly dress type of category. It was most likely the 'Treat everybody the same, as you don't know who the really are behind the disguise' thing, but to him it actually sounded genuinely fun. Trashing his paper cup, he closed the door and wandered over to his suit case that had been dropped two weeks prior and only opened for a change of shirt. "This will rock, I know exactly what to wear!"

He still had two days to plan before it happened, but who cares, more time to make it awesome, am I right?

Event Begin.

*Your choice if you wish to show them before the actual ball or during it, but all posts will eventually move into during it. Have fun!*

[Ebrahim Hanna Bin Abba]

When Hanna first saw the invitation, the first thing he thought was 'Shit.' That was followed by a 'I bet I could do a pretty good job at disguising myself,' which was quickly altered by a 'As a girl, that would be best.' Of course, his brain instantly rebelled against that thought from his subconscious, wondering where the heck that idea came from, before the state realized its merit. If people remembered him, being a small insignificant state, they remembered the way they mistook him as a girl, and how the normally polite nation vehemently denied it. Thus, it would actually grant him a great deal more of security, adding an extra layer to his mask. Hm... Yes, he'd dress up as a girl, no matter how much is mind protested.

But what to wear? No matter how much he did wish to wear one of his Palestinian costumes, those wouldn't do, as they'd most likely give him away... And one of his favorite shades, gray, would look absolutely horrendous on a dress. Perhaps a deep red? Yes, that could work. Pulling out his phone, he began to make arrangements, content in the fact that he would be sufficiently disguised. And that would be the best, for all.

That was what found him, two days later, hesitating to enter the room. He was wearing his dress, with flats, of course, seeing as he could never walk in heels, as well as his mask, which he kept wanting to reach up and adjust, but no, he couldn't. Steeling himself, Hanna walked into the room, immediately making his way to the wall, to gain his bearings. This was rather... intimidating.

[ooc: I swear, all my male characters like crossdressing... Totally unintentional, this time...]

[Lili Aloys]

Lili had woken up two days before the event by a knock on her door. It seemed that whomever had sent out these invites handed hers to her personally. She understood why after watching the invite be delivered to her brother. He refused to go and so now she would go alone. Lili wanted to be girly, really. She disliked being considred 'Switzerland's younger brother', and so would dress in a girly fashion. She picked out a dress from her closet, bought a mask when big brother wasn't watching, and was now walking into the event with her chest pushed out in fake confidence.

As soon as she arrived, she lost that. Thankful that her dress and her mask concealed her identity, she fled to the nearest wall. So many people.... and she knew none of them. She looked up at the woman next to her, wearing a beautiful dress in red as well as a matching mask. Who was she? "H-hello."

[Ebrahim Hanna Bin Abba]

Blinking in surprise as he was addressed, Hanna looked over, to see a girl that was smaller than him. Wait, she was smaller than him? They were practically the same height, but the fourteen-year-old nation internally cheered, glad to have found someone that was just a little bit smaller than him. At the greeting, Hanna nodded solemnly "Yes, hello." He studied the girl for a moment, trying to determine if he had seen her any place. The hair looked familiar... It was like Switzerland's (a nation that scared him, but he would never admit that), but it was definitely not him. Ah, oh well. It did not particularly matter at this moment, he could always find out later.

"I am Ebrahim Hanna," He told her quietly, offering his human name, but getting rid of the 'son of Father' part. After all, he was playing the part of a girl, was he not? "Who might you be, begum?" Hanna asked, giving her the title out of politeness as he spoke in his gentle voice. Even if she gave him her human name, it would be quite easy to find out who she was by asking around later. That is, if he retained his curiosity. For all he knew, she could be quite annoying in there, and he was very much going to leave, if that was the case...

[ooc: I'm afraid the link to the picture of your dress isn't working for me. o: The mask is, though.]

[Luci Bonnefoy]

"A masquerade, huh?" Luci had said earlier in conversation with her brother over tea. "Sounds interesting. Are we going to go?" Her brother had responded with his usual enthusiasm by saying that yes, they would of course attend. He had offered to make her a dress for the event but Luci had explained that she had already picked one out in case they decided to attend. Francis obliged and she'd gone off to get ready.

Luci thought the whole idea of wearing masks so no one would reckognise you was a bit off; personally because her golden pigtails would give her away immediately. There were a couple other people with extremely definitive hairstyles who she could think of on the spot as well, who might have the same problem. But, it would be a fun event to say the least, so why not try? was her thought.

Luci pulled out the outfit from her expansive closet which was ridiculously full. Tomboy though she was she did own quite a few dresses and had many that would look somewhat "okay" in such an occasion. After all, she was French. Fashion was definitely her thing. After putting on her dress and mask, she was ready to go, and proved it by practically waltzing herself in a surprisingly graceful manner out into the hallway.

[Katyusha Braginskaya]

Katyusha was happy to see such an event where she could get away from everything, and ultimately, not taken for her face value of weak and helpless. The note had made her feel included, instead of being usually left out like it occurred when others took her brother and sister also into consideration. Not having many outfits to start with, it took her a bit to acquire a dress that would fit her assets - the reason why she really didn't have one prior, and careful crafting from the supply closet to make her mask. The idea was fun and cute, and ultimately, she was enjoying the ball well before it started.

While the point was pretty and frilly dresses, Ukraine knew what she liked and honestly, she couldn't picture her self wearing any of the fancy and expensive dresses. Going simple and traditional to the base of her country, she decided with an older style in hopes at least she would stand out and be remembered. The mask was a bit upstaging, the vivid red pulling from the threading, but she at least though it all fit well. Carefully pinning her hair flat and sticking show feathers under the bobbies, Katyusha was set to mingle with the rest of the nations.

Her shoes clicked on the steps, not the usual boots she wore from Christmas, instead red flats. The hallway already had a few other nations, and from the looks of it, was the rest of the female class. Walking carefully up to the girl in the soft pink dress, she clutched her fan tight against her chest, smiling beneath the mask. "Hallo," Ukraine greeted, laughing a bit in enjoyment.

[Heracles M. Karupsi]

Knock at the door? What knock?

When Heracles rolled off the hammock (more like falling actually...a cat's whiskers had tickled his nose and it jarred him enough he jumped...and in a hammock that means falling onto the floor) he was greeted by the mewling of a dozen or so of his favourite cats, all wanting something to eat. While most of them had already pushed through the walls of the hotel and were out, fending for themselves, the most loyal ones still needed to be properly taken care for. The others either went home or would come back in the evening.

So he sluggishly went to feed the cats when he noticed a pair of them playing in a stack of papers near the door. "oh?"

Pulling the papers away he flopped onto the actual hotel bed to sort through them.

Hm...junk...junk...not worth opening...feed to cat...OPENING DAY CELEBRATION...Oh that may have been important...junk...junk...ju-was that rococo? He pulled back the thick paper from the cat he had just handed it to. ...Masquerade....Should it not be Venetian instead?

Heracles sat up and rubbed his eyes, turning on a light as to see better. He ran his tumb across the intricate design on the front of the invitation. suppose it is close...

Flipping open the invite he scanned over the times. Might as well go...he had missed the opening day celebration afterall. And anything with a semblance of Art History was his forte. (especially if it was Grecian...)

His current problem: He owned barely anything but khakis and t-shirts in the means of clothing. Perhaps he could borrow some replicas from the nearby Art institute. This was held in Rome afterall. That would work. Countries always got special privlages, especially with his Art Historical know how.
~~~

Him show up late? Never. He was right (roughly) on time. There were people coming in later. Hopefully...at least he hadn't missed the event entirely. And there wasn't a single strand of cat hair on him, he anaged to get someone to take care of them for the night...and with him garefully avoiding an outfit that resembled his normal clothes (green gold and white, with hints of purple) and a bit more toned down than he'd prefer it to be, as to keep the suspicion away that he knew how these things were meant to be. Though, he had to have a gold mask...he just couldn't bear to have a different color than that...

...well. At least he wasn't too fancy...not many feathers and shine/sequin-like things off. He made a mental note never to let the Italians design him nice clothes. Hopefully nobody noticed he was in his normal boots....Now just to find something to keep his attention moving so he didn't feel like napping...that would be a beautiful giveaway...

[Luci Bonnefoy]

Luci was just wondering when something interesting would happen, for she was easily bored and had the attention span of a squirrel, when someone walked up to speak with her. She reckognised the accent, but having such a bad memory, didn't remember who it was that was speaking. Dammit, she thought, I know who this is... I think. But maybe it's a good thing I can't tell. Maybe that means no one will know who I am either! grinning at the thought of being secretive of her identity, for it sounded much like a fun and amusing secret agent game of sorts, Luci replied happily to Katyusha,

"Hello! What a nice dress! It's so exciting to have such nice events, don't you think?"

And truly, it was. Luci thought it was wonderful to have an exciting event every once in a while, more often than not preferably. It helped keep life interesting. And she got to know all the other countries better, which was a plus. After all, this 'little france' was very friendly and surprisingly very resilient. She loved meeting new people and learning new things, and what was a better way to do so than a big dance? Unfortunately the masquerade end of it made it harder to know who you met, but no matter. It was too much fun for her to want to complain.