Chapter Ninety-One: The Ballroom

Player Stats:

Player Tropes:

Riley

Riley is the Film Buff. "Trope Master" grants him the ability to perceive enemy tropes, but at the cost of sacrificing half of his Plot Armor. "Cinema Seer" buffs the Savvy and Grit of his allies when they hear him predict cinematic and impactful plot elements. As an "Oblivious Bystander," Riley remains untargeted by enemies as he convincingly acts oblivious to their presence. "Escape Artist" buffs his Hustle to help enact plausible escape plans. Drawing on his upbringing, "Raised by Television" enhances relevant stats when Riley takes larger-than-life or cinematic action inspired by TV or movies, though it often attracts a downturn in fortune soon afterward. “Director’s Monitor”allows him to watch the rest of the storyline after his demise via Deathwatch. “Flashback Revelation” allows him to communicate with allies from Deathwatch through flashbacks to his past dialogue. "Location Scout" provides a list of primary filming locations within the storyline. He did not equip "My Grandmother Had the Gift…," "I Don't Like It Here...," “Out Like a Light,” or "Casting Director."

Kimberly

Kimberly is the Eye Candy. "Convenient Backstory" allows her to change her backstory to assist with the current task, buffing the relevant stat. "Social Awareness" allows her to see the Moxie stat of all enemies and NPCs. "Get a Room!" boosts the odds of important discoveries when exploring with a loved interest during the party. "A Hopeless Plea" forces the captor to explicitly deny her release when she asks to be released. "Pregnancy Reveal" buffs her Grit. "That's What I Said!" allows her plans and ideas to be "stolen" by higher Savvy allies, with the success of the plan being determined by their Savvy. “Does anyone have a scrunchy?” allows her to shift Moxie points into another stat by putting her hair up. She will be targeted for First Blood because "Looks Don't Last," but the longer she survives, the weaker the enemies get. She did not equip “Carousel Academy Awards” because her last performance had issues.

Antoine

Antoine is the Athlete. His "You are having a nightmare…" trope allows him to repress or heal mental trauma (he is not strong enough to use its plot-resetting powers yet). "Gym Rat" buffs Mettle and Hustle by revealing athletic backstory. "It's Part of the Uniform" gives him higher Mettle when attacking with sports equipment. "Just Walk It Off" heals the Hobbled status by walking. "The Playbook" allows him to see the phases of a coordinated plan. "Time Out!" allows him to go Off-Screen during a fight, reducing enemy aggression. Brandishing a weapon is “Like a Security Blanket,” buffing his Grit and soothing his and allies’ fear whereas swinging a weapon will temporarily halt an enemies attack because of “Swing Away.” He did not equip “Reload After Cut” or "Bad Luck Magnet."

Chris

Grace

~~~

“Get your tropes equipped before the Party starts,” Chris said.

I was not thinking about surviving. Camden and Anna were doomed. I couldn’t wrap my head around that. I went numb, barely registering what I was being told.

Chris reached across the limo and slapped me in the face.

“Equip your damn tropes,” he said again. “We are all sad. It happens. Now we have to survive. Once the Choice ends you won't be able to choose.”

I started thinking about my tropes. I could hardly focus. I didn’t need my Hysteric scouting trope. Now that I had hit my limit, I needed to think about what I was taking into storylines. At level 15, the limit became 8 tropes and 1 background trope. It didn’t really matter then because I didn’t have that many tickets. The limit would increase by 1 every 10 levels after that.

Eight tropes… what would be left behind?

Out Like a Light was quick to go. I didn't plan on sleeping. I didn’t equip My Grandmother had the Gift… because I didn’t need Carousel focusing on me in this storyline and I didn’t have too many uses for it aside from Improvisation. Grace and Chris could be the focus. I would do what they said.

I was struggling to cut another trope when Grace did it for me.

“You don’t need Casting Director,” she said. “You’re under-leveled. Anything it would tell you is something we could find out through other means.”

That made sense, but at the same time, knowing my role ahead of time was very comforting. It was true what she said. In The Grotesque, another storyline I was way under level for, all of the information I learned from Casting Director was revealed soon after by ordinary means.

I ditched it.

That was it.

~~~

Everyone was getting dressed in the back of the limousine. It wasn’t convenient. I spent a while looking in the other direction while Kimberly and Grace got changed. Teammates in Carousel didn’t get much privacy from each other.

Outside, the landscape changed from the flat farmland of northern Carousel to lush, wooded terrain with breathtaking vistas and wilderness as far as the eye could see. Occasionally, we would pass a gate with an armed guard posted outside. A sign we passed said, “The Carousel Hills.”

This was where the richest of the rich lived, their estates guarded by fences and security teams. The road was all cobblestone here, the landscapes designed to be visually pleasing. It looked like the wealthiest NPCs got to miss out on the apocalypse.

Eventually, the driver pulled us into the largest and grandest of all of the drives. Armed guards in expensive suits stopped him before he got too far. He showed the guard a ticket, not unlike the tickets that Silas might award, and the guard let us on through.

As we drove onward, we were affronted by beauty on all sides. We saw elaborate gardens and fountains. Magical-looking archways and topiary animals carved from bushes.

It was paradise.

But the mansion topped it all.

It was huge, like a palace in a fairytale. I could not imagine how many rooms it had or what kind of fortune it had taken to build.

As the driver pulled us to the entrance of the mansion, the doors finally unlocked and the needle on the plot cycle moved to Party.

I didn’t feel ready. I was still numb. On any other day, I would have been theorizing about what sort of horror movie this was, but my heart wasn’t in it. Camden and Anna were a loss I wasn’t ready for. I never had many friends and we had faded apart over the years, but the pain and dread still overwhelmed me.

I kept imagining their faces on a missing poster. How long would I have to be here without them?

There was a knock on the window. I looked up, expecting to see another guard, but instead, I saw a man with red hair and a smirk. His face was mostly hidden behind an ornately designed, festive mask.

The man opened the door before the driver could get to it. We all piled out of the limousine, leaving our clothes behind. We didn’t really need them. Antoine’s baseball bat had already disappeared. It was likely hidden somewhere in the mansion.

As we got out, I noticed that the red-haired man had no information on the red wallpaper aside from “Society Member” and the name "Mr. Flamingo," which made sense, because his mask did resemble a flamingo in an abstract sort of way.

He looked at us like he knew us.

“You made it,” he said. “This is going to be marvelous! They said The Eavesdropper was just a celebrity gossip magazine. After tonight, we are going to be respected journalists… who just happen to write about celebrity gossip.”

He looked at us, pulled his mask off, and said, “It’s me, Jack. Have you all forgotten why we’re here?”

Suddenly his name, “Jack Goforth, The Jack Goforth” came into view on the red wallpaper. He was a level 50 NPC. He had tropes I could not see on the red wallpaper like the Psychic and the Detective NPCs did.

The masks must have blocked insight into identity.

“I’m sure you’ll remind us either way,” Grace said.

“We are here to find out what the oligarchs of Carousel do when they are all on their own. There’s a story here, I can feel it,” Jack said. “Today, we’re going to find out how the other half lives. And Grace, the friend you were worried about is inside. She seems fine. I guess it was a false alarm.”

Grace raised an eyebrow. “Mary Lee? She’s okay?”

“She’s more than okay. Go look for yourself.”

Jack turned to the rest of us. “Don’t forget, we’re undercover here. Don’t let anyone know who you really are or we are all going to jail and getting blacklisted and worse, we will look like hacks. Let’s just hope the real Conner Party doesn’t show up.”

~~~

Our masks were included along with out clothing. Mine was an earthy gray with some warm undertones. I couldn't tell the theme. Most of the other masks had themes. Mine just looked like someone made it from dirty clay and dropped it, creating cracks across it. On the bright side, it covered my face more than most of the masks did, so it might somehow help my blend in.

As we entered the massive doors, we were ushered into the ballroom by some servants.

The ballroom was spacious and tastefully adorned. Rich fabrics draped along the walls and pillars, adding an air of elegance to the room. The dance floor, constructed from an unfamiliar yet inviting dark-colored wood, dripped with a sense of luxury. Glittering chandeliers adorned the lofty ceiling, casting a soft, flattering glow upon the dancers below. Mirrors strategically placed on the walls subtly amplified the grandeur of the space. The room's architecture and careful use of subdued lighting created an enchanting ambiance, making it the perfect setting for opulent gatherings and elegant soirées, or even some sort of sophisticated massacre.

Off-Screen.

“Look,” Grace said, pointing to one of the walls.

I followed her gaze and saw a woman dancing with a young, buff man. She had long blond hair and a shockingly white smile. I could not see any information about her because she was wearing a mask.

“It’s Mary Lee Parrish,” Grace whispered.

Either she recognized her or else her high Savvy helped her see through the powers of the masks. She sounded certain.

“This isn’t good,” Grace said. “It’s better when she’s dead.”

Mary Lee Parrish was an NPC that Grace could bring into a storyline to get a jump start on solving the mystery at hand.

“She always succumbs to the enemy before the story starts,” Grace explained. “If it’s a serial killer, she's dead. If it is a monster, she's eaten. You understand. The fact that she is standing there laughing narrows down what the ultimate threat of this story is.”

“So the bad guys aren’t trying to kill us?” Kimberly asked.

“Maybe not,” Grace said. “The fact that she’s alive points to possession, infection, magic of some sort, or perhaps a fate worse than death.”

We all stared at the woman across the room. She looked quite happy.

“I never get to go to parties like this!” Mary Lee exclaimed with a smile.

Grace probably shouldn’t have said the phrase, “fate worse than death” because as soon as she did, I saw Antoine’s eyes widen. He had already suffered one fate worse than death when he was trapped in the Straggler Forest for decades. It took him several seconds to recover his composure, but the fear never really left his eyes.

I looked at Mary Lee Parrish as she laughed, flashing her pearly white teeth. She looked happy. Glowing. She flirted and teased her suitor with an energy and vigor I had rarely ever seen in the victim of a horror movie.

As a waiter came by, she grabbed a fresh glass of champagne and drank it like she had never tasted anything that delicious.

So which fate worse than death could leave you that happy?