bsumone | ❝ Masquerade ❞

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❝ Masquerade ❞

{ seething shadows breathing lies }

Traditional thing that Iseul is, he made a point of sending out invitations to every monster and supernatural being with whom he's acquainted the day after telling Damian of his masked ball. Each is written in a large, looping hand and reads:

My Dear Friend,

You are cordially invited to a most exclusive masquerade ball to be held at my estate on the next new moon. The attire is formal with a theme of silver and gold. My doors will open promptly at 8:00pm. Dinner will be served with music, dance, and festivities to follow.

I do so look forward to your attendance.

Kindest Regards,
Your Host

Iseul's calling card is included for those who may not recognize his handwriting. It also happens to have his address on it, as well.

Guests will find the house dark and sprawling, positively goth in decor and style. For those who know or know of Iseul, this won't be a surprise. There's a running joke in the community that the Fae is truly meant to be a vampire... more so than his long-standing vampire rival. Those in attendance will be shown to the parlor, the pocket doors thrown wide to the adjoining suite to make it something of a small ballroom. Musicians sit off to the corner playing with few breaks throughout the night.

The dining room boasts a long table with a veritable banquet. Though, one must be careful about eating Faerie food. Never fear, dear guests, for none of this food was prepared or even harvested by Fae hands. Outside, the grounds are covered with sprawling flower gardens, topiaries, and even a small maze of hedges. Lanterns light the paths since there's no moon for light. Both in and out, the house has many dark nooks and crannies and unoccupied to rooms to disappear into. All guests are welcome to stay if, for any reason, they are unable to leave at first light.

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Oh, this wolf wouldn’t cause him any trouble. Iseul didn’t tolerate trouble, especially in his home. His judgment is swift and decisive. But he doesn’t worry about what may be. Iseul’s guests behave themselves or they’re never his guests again, end of story.

And this one doesn’t seem like the sort to start trouble. Finish it, perhaps, but not a troublemaker himself.

“The Howling Moon,” he repeated. “I shall definitely call on you there.” Though, Iseul doesn’t drink alcohol. He won’t be rude. Sam met him in his domain, he can do him the same honor.

“Do keep an eye on the demon. That one is trouble.”

The prince and his guard dogs, rather. Kellan won't be watching out for his sister alone. There's little that he has to do alone. Even as Kellan tries throughout the night to keep them separate from her, they will keep as watchful an eye over her and their prince. Even poor Sumin who is too often very easily exhausted by her.

When Kellan sets his glass and plate down on the table, Suho steals back one of the delicious looking fruits with a grin. He reaches over for his brother's glass of wine to set down on the table along with his own, then grabs his hand, just as Sumin is about to take a seat next to their beautiful fae. "You can here with our seats while Min and I get us all some food okay?"

Sumin glowers at his brothers as he tries to pull his hand free, then he glances down toward the prince, his eyes pleading behind the mask. Help him. "Suho, you can at least let go of my hand. I'll come with you."

"No~" Suho chirps as he tugs his brother closer. "Wait here for us. We'll be right back."

Suho tugs Sumin along with him, not releasing his grip on his brother until he's reached some food that caught his eye. They grab two plates eat and grab a little bit of everything that looks particularly good. For their own plates, repetition isn't a concern, but of their secondary plates, they're careful not to choose the same food. A wide variety of choices for their Kellan. Meats and cheese, breads, vegetables, more fruits, each appetizing little morsel finding a home on one plate or another until all four of them are full (though not heaping. They don't want to chance wasting food!).

Upon their return, each twin sets down their own plate and then another in front of Kellan before they take their seats on either side of him.

"I hope you like what we brought for you."

"There's plenty more that we didn't manage to get to if you'd prefer something else."

Kellan’s never alone, not when his beloved twins are near. He knows they’ll look after Yileana, even without anyone asking them to do so. They’re so loyal to their Prince, and thus, the Court. And Kellan is so very loyal to them. He’ll have no others, now or ever.

He flashes Suho a small grin when he snatches the piece of fruit. It fades quickly as the Prince pretends to give him a chastising look. He truly doesn’t mind. What’s his also belongs to these two. He’ll deny them nothing. Even before Suho suggests it, he’s sure his moon is about to drag his sun away with him.

Poor Sumin. These social events always drain him. But Kellan won’t deny the brothers their time together.

The Fae’s eyes never leave them as they fill up several plates. For themselves, of course, and also for him. Once they’re seated, Kellan reaches out a hand to each of them, sharing a fond smile at each twin. “You brought my favorites,” he mused warmly. “And delicious food, as well. Thank you.”

Snake wasn’t sure how he ended up with an invitation to Iseul’s masquerade, but he wasn’t going to miss the chance to see who (or what) might show up. He didn’t know anyone there personally, and Iseul only through reputation and speculation. Maybe he was just a very eccentric human guy. The only way to find out was to go to his party.

The invitation was definitely meant for whoever lived in the apartment before him. But, since it had no name on it, Snake wasn’t turned away despite – very technically – having someone else’s invitation.

It was obvious in every important way that he was just a human. He looked and smelled like one. He gave off no aura or energy that indicated anything but a regular, run of the mill human. One who was trying very hard not to walk up to every single attendee and ask them what exactly they are.

Loitering near the drinks proved a good way to strike up conversation. After a time, he could be found in the gardens (though by this point anyone with a keen sense of smell could scent a powerful creature had marked him). There’s a tiredness to him later in the evening that does little to dampen his enthusiasm to chat with anyone and everyone who comes near enough.

Suddenly his own wanderings about the Fae's home aren't quite so interesting anymore. The beautiful interior has all but lost Nam's attention when he spots the human. Even from across the room, it's not hard to tell what Snake is. His appearance, alone, is almost a dead giveaway, despite everyone else here having a human appearance, or at least a human form they can take. There's something very normal about his appearance. There's a certain quality about the way everyone else here carries themselves that Snake doesn't quite possess. Not to mention the only energy he gives off is excitement.

Nam sidles up to the human just before he has a chance to reach his drink destination and cants his head first to one side, then the other as he looks him over. He makes no secret of the way he scrutinizes the human man. "You seem to have lost your way and ended up where you don't belong."

Felix was relatively new to town; he only moved there in the last four months. So, he’s surprised to have received an invitation to a party! Someone’s keeping tabs on their neighborhood! Well, he’s definitely going to show up in a cream colored button-up and slacks, an outfit to match his cat mask.

Once he’s close enough, he can smell the Fae and… a lot of other creatures, too! So this is a supernatural soirée. Felix wiggled his fingers in excitement. Being new to town, he really didn’t know any of his fellow creatures yet. What better place to meet on equal ground than a Fae party. They’re such stickers about manners.

Felix made his way to the back of the house first, slipping out to enjoy the fragrant gardens. After a time, he wandered back in for some dinner and even charmed a few strangers into having a dance with him. Mostly, he kept returning to the spread of food to eat his heart out.

Seok's heard mention of Iseul more than actually ever met him. The fact that he even received an invite to this masquerade is a little surprising to him because of it. Invites were just sent out to anything non-human, he supposes. Seok isn't exactly one to turn down an invitation somewhere, though. Free food and drink as well as potentially decent company? He'd be a fool to stay home.

It's a bit after the doors open to the guests that Seok finds his way inside of the Fae's home. He showed up tonight wearing simple black slacks and a black fitted jacket with a dark grey dress shirt, as well as a black pair of gloves. The most elaborate part of his outfit tonight is the mask he chose for the occasion. While not as fancy as some, it suits his tastes. He's not often a terribly fancy thing, after all. Beneath the mask, visible through the large eye holes, there's a heavy blindfold over his eyes, one that he's only just able to see through. It's enough to get him around relatively okay.

It's enough to get him to the food and drinks, at least.

Seok smells the human before he ever gets close enough to make out the rough shape of him through the blindfold. How interesting. It's a little dangerous for a human to be loitering about in a place like this though, isn't it? "Hand me a drink, would you?" He cants his head to one side as he holds out his hand. "I had no idea the Fae were employing humans now."

"Only source of food, perhaps? Though I think I would turn to eating flowers first."

Nam lets his hand fall from Gaja's hair, down to just lay it flat against his chest. Lost is the whole pretense of admiring the feathers that the bird has adorned himself with. These fake feathers have nothing on the phoenix's natural plumage anyway. For a time, he completely loses himself in looking at Gaja, eyes following the gold up the side of his face up to his eyes, which catch the light beautifully. At time like these, in a setting such as this, it's so easy to start showing how soft he truly is for the bird.

Then he presses his lips together and clears his throat as he pulls his hand back. Without a word about it, he returns to the bird's side and takes his arm once more.

"They're at their most beautiful this time of year, you know." Is that his way of saying he wants Gaja to come and visit sooner rather than later? Of course not! Awful.

"Must we?"

He pouted at that, trailing his fingers over his skin. But then he realized something important. Something rather fun actually. He tilted his head to the side a bit. "If we are together now and sharing a home, does that mean I am the host too now? That would mean I could stay with you in order to maintain hospitality to your guests since we should both speak with them."

"Make sure you drink a lot of juice and eat plenty of food. I've marked you as mine so no one will bother you in your weakened state."

Rolling onto his stomach now, he brought his feet up to kick them lazily. He should get dressed too but he was having quite a nice time watching Snake while enjoying his cum in his ass. He'd have to find a way to learn where his home was so he could surprise Snake by showing up there. Maybe he could ask Su-jin. He was so good at that sort of thing.

"Why are you thanking me for staying? You're mine."

Simple as that.

Leaning in, he returned the kiss that he was given, smiling when he felt his lips licked after. He was covered in blood but he knew that Matthias didn't mind. Not with what he said after. His monster. His. Sam belonged to Matthias. He smiled and nodded at what he was saying.

"Yes. I'm yours. And you are mine now too."

"Aren't all demons?"

But there was a fondness in his voice for this demon. He looked over at him and he watched him for a time before shaking his head.

"I've known him since the 1800s. I won't let him cause trouble for you." As for himself? Well, he knew that Matthias might do that but he didn't mind. He could handle it. Would gladly handle it even.

"Right now he's just having a good time."

"Ah you lucked into that invitation." For good or bad? Well that remained to be seen. But with the mark of that incubus on him? Well, he'd imagine it could be bad. He didn't know the creature to be able to tell but he could smell age on him. Which was so unusual for incubi and succubi. Especially with the Council around to eliminate any supernatural creature who caused problem to make their presence obvious to humans.

They probably ignored this one because he likely wasn't believed by any friends he had. Poor thing.

"Do you have an interest in our world?"

When someone he didn't recognize (not a surprise since he didn't have a reason to care about this one existing) came walking up to him, he gave him a look up then down from where he was standing. He had a glass of something in hand. Wine perhaps? It was mostly just for show that he was holding it at all.

Tiras hummed softly as he tilted his head to the side. "Dance? Do you know how to dance?"

He hummed a bit as he smelled him. A cat of some kind. Newer too since the city was still fresh on him. Months perhaps? As a predator his senses were very refined. As an apex predator? They were honed down to the finest detail.

“Are they?” He cants his head curiously, watching Nam as the dragon simply stares at him. It’s moments like this when it’s plain for all to see that they are more than mere rivals. More than just long-suffering acquaintances. All their sharp edges fall away and Gaja finds himself truly breathless, gazing back at Nam.

And as spontaneously as it happened, the spell breaks.

Continuing on their walk through the garden, Gaja offers the smallest of eager grins. “Are they? Perhaps I’ll accompany you back to your river… just to see them.” It’s entirely about the flowers. Why would he care about an old crocodile’s company?

Felix grinned. This one seemed playful with a question like that. Or maybe he was condescending to the cat, but if that was the case, Felix chose to ignore it. Playful was preferable.

“I know a few dances,” he assured. “You can ask…” He rose up on his toes and scanned the guests. “That lady over there, that man in the purple cape, oh and that couple over by the table~! They can all vouch for me.”

Most of these creatures Felix could identify by scent. He also possessed a keen sniffer. But Tiras? All he could get from him was age, power, and sex. Felix never encountered an incubus before, so he had no frame of reference to identify such a thing as him.

He gave a flourishing bow and held out his hand with a toothy grin. “Shall we? Once I dance with you, I can say I’ve had all the prettiest partners tonight.”

Snake blinks at the creature beside him. Unlike most here, he has no way to tell who is what. All he can see is a party full of otherworldly people – most, if not all of whom are something more than human. What Snake can and does recognize is age in this one’s eyes. Nam may look like a young man, younger even than Snake, but his eyes are deep and ancient as the seas.

Nam’s comment earns a helpless little smile. Snake reaches into his back pocket and unfolds the invitation written in the looping hand of their host. With the other, he rubs the back of his neck.

“This happens a lot to me,” he admits.

Perhaps it is dangerous. It isn’t as if Snake knew the host was Fae before he arrived. He highly suspected, but there was no guarantee he was correct. Just dumb luck. Dumb luck is how he got into most of the situations that gave him the opportunity to meet the non-humans he adored so much.

Peering over at the… plague doctor? Yes, that definitely looks like a take on a plague doctor’s mask. He lifts his brows curiously and casually asks, “Alcoholic or non?” Snake isn’t the assuming type. He’s discovered their host has a wide variety of wines and juices as well as water, sparkling and not.

“Oh,” he adds with a note of amusement. “I’m actually a guest.”

Sam sure hit the nail on the head. Snakes blog was popular in some circles – people who are interested paranormal things and cryptids – but most readers think he’s writing some sort of serial urban fantasy fiction. Little do they know everything he writes about is true!

He lucks into a lot of things. Situations like this. And he kind of loves that. He’s very interested in the supernatural creatures of the world. Not just to check off all the sorts of non-humans he’s met, but he’s interested in them as people. How their lives are perhaps complicated by living among humans. That sort of thing.

“I do, yeah!” He even brightened a little. “I’ve been lucky to meet a lot of, um… non-humans?” No one’s ever told him if there was some proper term they liked to use. Creatures seemed a little impersonal.

Snake let out a huff of a laugh. “Did I give blood?” Weren’t those the instructions for after a blood donation? Well, he thought he was funny. What’s also funny was the way Tiras’ eyes on him sent a shiver up his spine and left his skin dimpling like gooseflesh as Snake finished buttoning his shirt.

His fingers paused in their task, and he blinked over at Tiras. “Yours?” Does that mean he’ll see Tiras again? Does that mean Tiras wants to see him again? A mere human? And why is that thought making his pulse race anew?

“Then… will you tell me your name?”

(And yes, Su-jin will do a deep dive into Snake’s life the instant Tiras asked him to. Or even mentioned the guy.)

Nam leans in a little to peer at the invitation as though he might be able to tell the difference between a forgery and the real thing. Not that it truly matters one way or another. Uninvited guests is something he's become entirely too used to. They plague his home. Once upon a time, they were much more welcome but now he would be perfectly fine with closing his home to all but one.

Eyes drifting back to the human's face, Nam raises his eyebrows. Happens to him a lot? "Did it not once occur to you that you should leave when you realized you were in a place that could be very harmful to someone like you?"

Oh, no, Matthias didn’t mind in the least. In fact, he found a little bit of blood made Sam sexier. It stood in stark contrast to his fair skin and soft features. A truly monstrous sight, indeed, and one Matthias enjoyed greatly. The demon trailed his fingers over Sam’s cheek, thumb moving along his lower lip and smudging the blood lingering there.

His eyes followed, tongue darting over his lips as he gazed at the blood clinging to Sam’s face. Then, slowly, a devilish grin appeared.

“I’m not sure you’ve well and truly claimed me, yet.”

Iseul lifted a brow. “Do you want to play host alongside me?”

Technically, since Iseul was the one who sent out the invitations and the intent of the party was formed before they were together, Damian had no such duties. However, if he wanted to claim them for himself, Iseul certainly wouldn’t tell him no. It’s sweet how eager he seems about it.

“I would like it very much if you would share in the hosting duties with me.”

Snake’s brows rose up and his lips turned down briefly as he shrugged. “Running from predators isn’t very smart. So far, I’ve been lucky enough to not have too many problems.” Other than that damn chupacabra… Most of his experiences with the non-human creatures he’s met have been pretty positive.

“Given who and what the host is, I kinda doubt there’ll be any trouble. Even for me.”

"You do understand that you won't be under our host's protection forever, yes? You'll leave here eventually to go back to your regular life, and some of the guests may feel inclined to go with you. With or without your knowledge." That sounds a little more like a threat than Nam really intends it to. It's meant more as a warning. He may have a certain distaste for humans but that doesn't mean he wants to see one come to harm. At least not without putting in at least a modicum of effort to see it doesn't happen.

Nam steps out around the human and gets two glasses of a lovely looking white wine, then he turns back toward Snake and holds one glass out to him. "Do be careful while you're here, human."

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❝ Masquerade ❞

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𝑆𝑛𝑎𝑘𝑒

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𝐹𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑥 𝐾𝑜𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑖

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presuming they don't use Tiras' name on the conspiracy blog...

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