+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: THRONE ROOM PARTY +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: The Queen of Hearts' Throne Room (Mirror Side's Ballroom)
When: Sept 3rd to Sept 10th
Rating: G to PG-13 (please label higher ratings, thank you!)
Summary: It's about time Mirror Side had its own party, instead of just making the Mirrors sneak over to Real Side for their parties every time! And don't forget to have a look at the Fourth Wall Master Post for event rules, puzzle clues, and more places to mingle!
The Story:

The Queen of Hearts' throne room is more inviting that it has ever been. Beginning on September 3rd, anyone passing by will notice a tunnel of red, white, and black balloons leading inside. Those who grow curious and investigate will not be punished, but instead rewarded - with a party.

As each guest enters, they will receive a mask from seemingly nowhere, and they are encouraged to leave their masks on during the party - for once, it does not matter who is Real and who is Not and who is a double and who is an original. There are only Guests and all are welcome.

There is plenty of food and drink for all to enjoy, and music is always playing. The party is very red and black, and lit by candle light. Each place is carefully set and there are lovely centerpieces featuring the only playing card that matters - the Queen of Hearts.

But hm? What is that on the back?

Comments

[mypartnerintime]

[If there's one thing Max Caulfield actually likes to do at a party, it's take pictures. Especially pictures of people that are uniquely dressed- and those white stars and glow in the dark tights draw Max from across the room like a moth to flame. She awkwardly winds her way through several people, trying to not upend any trays of food, before finally walking up to Coraline and whatever she happens to be snooping.]

Hi! Cheese!

[Max lifts her Polaroid up to her eyes, framing the younger girl against a backdrop of flowers and balloons.]

[doorkey]

[ Coraline whirls at the sound of someone behind her- they could be calling out to anyone, but she's a little surprised to see a girl weilding one of those fun, old-fashioned cameras... at her, no less!

She brightens instantly, if a little bit shy with hesitant supicious and flattered nerves- What if they're a mirror, part of the Queen's court? Gathering evidence of who's in attendance? She doesn't seem like a royal Wonderland photographer or anything, but-

Oh Coraline! Just pose for the darn picture! ]

....Pizza!

[ She chimes back, with as big of a grin as she can, holding the flare of her skirt out as if she's about to twirl. ]

[mypartnerintime]

[Max laughs as the Polaroid pops with a flash, and spits out a picture with a little whirr. She takes the photo and shakes it lightly.]

Not just cheese, right? It better have like, gigantic pepperoni... or pineapples.

[So she likes pineapples on her pizza, so what?]

You also could've said brie. Or... mozzarella. Parmesan.

[Yup, this is exactly what goes through Max's mind.]

[doorkey]

[ Yup, it's one of those really cool cameras that spits out a print instantly, Coraline's mouth hangs ajar for a moment with a brief swell of excitement, perching up on tiptoes- that's so neat, and she's clearly hoping she gets to see how it develops, watching Max wave the photo with a teeny thrill of impatience.]

Pepperoni's okay... but... yuck, I don't want any fruit on my pizza.

...Okay, except for tomato sauce, technically. [ She adds with hands perched on her hips and a slightly exhasperated roll of her eyes, because she can already hear her father in the back of her head, being a teasing stickler about how Tomatoes are Actually Fruits Not Vegetables.]

(What's brie? [ She wrinkled her nose behind her half-mask skeptically. ] Is it like fontina?)

[ When they weren't busy with moving and unpaacking, her parents also liked to ruin perfectly good, normal food like pizza by adding weird things like shaved leeks and fennel and cheeses that were nowhere near as as acceptable to Coraline as mozzarella and parmesan.] Just plain pizza-cheese is fine, please!

I usually do this when taking pictures, hope it's okay!

[mypartnerintime]

[She smiles at the girl trying so obviously to look at the picture. She hands it over.]

Brie's a... cheese right? Isn't it? [This is Max pretending to actually know things, and then awkwardly having to admit that she was faking it.] But yes, one order of regular-cheese pizza with bacon bits. And extra bacon bits. And fine, [she adds with an exaggerated sigh.] No pineapples.

[The picture has fully developed by now:

White stars seeming to shine, standing out brightly against a backdrop of black balloons interspersed with blooming red roses. Underneath, to drive home the outer space theme, gently glowing galaxies and... kid-sized shoes?

Huh.

Coraline's big cheesy grin, childishly enthusiastic to be the center of a camera's attention. A young, bright girl, with a spark in her wide eyes.]

[doorkey]

I... guess so? I mean I've never heard of Brie before, (unless that's one of the stinky cheeses the man in the flat upstairs orders for his mouse circus) but... if you say it is? [ Coraline shrugs, equally as awkward as she takes the photograph carefully in her hands. She proceeds to shake it like she's seen Max do, with a little extra vigor.

Also a bit of awed indignation. Bacon on a pizza? What a time to be alive!]

Buh- whuh...Where can you get bacon on a pizza! How come my mother's never told me that's one of the choices! [ More parental betrayal. Being a preteen is hard, nobody tell her it just gets worse from here.

Finally, she peers down at the polaroid] Ooh, this is a really great picture`of me! Do I get to keep it, or... [ Before she gets her own hopes up too much, Coraline suggests a compromise. ] Are you going to put them all up on the mirror, somewhere?

[mypartnerintime]

[Max laughs.] When you're older you can put anything you want on pizza. Just don't let the pizza-police know. [Seriously, she's seen people put wasabi on pizzas. Such are the adventures of high school life.

Max looks a little lost about the picture. It is really good and she'd like to keep it, but... but hey, it's not like she's short on film or anything.]

How about we take one more, then you pick which one you want to keep? [She holds up her camera, grinning.] But this time you say fondue?

[doorkey]

How old are you, anyway? [ Coraline squints suspiciously, eager to know exactly how much longer she must wait until her Glorious Life Of Total Pizza Freedom Begins.

...Or not? Here in Wonderland, the dining room does tend to deliver whatever she pleases, and there's no stern mom sipping her coffee and peering all judgey over reading the paper whenever she raids the kitchen fridges.

Nodding in agreement, she steps back into place and strikes a funny, mock-glamourous pose this time- even more cheesy and deliberate, less off-guard and delighted than that first snapshot. One hand is on her hip and the other behind her head, knee popped just so to show off those milky way tights.

She puts on fake french accent, too, just for her own amusement.] Oui, oui! Fon-duuuue!

[mypartnerintime]

[Much more flair this time! Max knows someone who loves attention when she sees them. She takes a moment to line up the frame properly, then the camera pops with another flash.]

Very good, madmoiselle! [She pronounces it wrongly, though it's not clear if it's on purpose or not. In any case she gives the picture a light shake as she waits for it to develop.]

I'm eighteen. [Then she pauses with a sudden thought.] Almost nineteen. Huh. [Although that really depends on how you count time in Wonderland.] Weird. And you?

[doorkey]

Um... [ She drops the pose, eyes on the polaroid. ] Well I was eleven, when I first got here.

[Coraline says, and it's clear the question's just become an uneasy one. ]

Growing up... I guess it works kind of funny in Wonderland?

I mean I should be... almost thirteen now, or- Well there's this event, so I should technically be even older, but...

[ Kind of troubling, actually. How many un-birthdays, since she's in the future now? ] Well, obviously I'm not? Weird, huh.

[mypartnerintime]

Yeah, it's totally weird. [By now the photo is fully developed: Coraline in the same outfit, but with a more daring (fantastic!) pose, and if possible even shinier galaxies.

Max studies her and notes her discomfort. It's not so bad, is it?] Does that bother you? I mean... the best part of my life was before I turned thirteen. Everything was possible.

[Except bacon on pizza, apparently.]

[doorkey]

You mean, life just gets worse from here on out?

[ Not exactly reassuring, Max. Coraline seems to deflate a little, eying the older girl skeptically.] Goody gumdrops.

I guess it doesn't bother me too much, because if I ever found a way home, years and years later, I wouldn't want mom and dad missing out on half my kid-life?

But sometimes I think maybe this place is more like Neverland than Wonderland.

[mypartnerintime]

[Wow, she actually made a kid sad. Way to go Max!] N-no, I just mean like... when you get older it's still good, but for different reasons. [She can't even tell if she's lying or not. She tries to think of a better way to put it.] There are a bunch more low points, but the high points are way higher.

[There. The low points get way lower, too, but... but she doesn't have to mention that right now.]

I don't think they'd miss out on it either way. [She looks thoughtfully aside, trying to remember the stuff she's learned about Wonderland.] You'd sort of... be a kid again, anyway. And hey, Neverland sounds pretty awesome to me. Pirates, adventures, flying...

[And man, she definitely has to remember to use goody gumdrops in the future.]

[doorkey]

Most of the adults I know are either really crazy or really boring. [ Coraline observes, pointedly eyeing a few around the room who fit at least one or the two. The mansion might attract more of the kooky-neighborly variety.]

And being a teenager...well, it seems pretty complicated. [ She exhales, looking Max up and down with an apprehensive expression- for now, Coraline may even seem a little bit admiring. After all, the older girl's been really nice< to her, taking two pictures, thinking her outfit looks cool?]

It can get adventurous here too! It did all the time! And even I go to fly before- on broomsticks, when it was wizard school. (That was fun.)

[mypartnerintime]

[Crazy/boring adults? Complicated teenagers? Max follows Coraline's gaze and looks over the unique guests as well.] Yeah, that... is actually a perfect summary. You could write a whole dictionary on teens and adults using only those words. Throw in hormonal and-

[Err, she really means hormonal like emotional and maybe impulsive. But she bites down on the rest of her sentence because Coraline's a kid and she's probably going to take it in a weird way.] Uh. [Change topic.] Well... sometimes events are fun I guess. So were you here before?

[doorkey]

[ The teenage girl was just barely getting into saying something interesting about how older people worked when she cut herself off, and Coraline cocked her head with a faintly disappointed frown. And... what else? She had wanted to hear more about what else was there besides being hormonal and preoccupied to look forward to.]

Yeah. For almost two years. It was just... Christmas time, just past New Years? Last I checked, but now it's right near the end of summer.

[Right around the same time of year she remembers it being, back home with her parents. Coraline thinks about grey school uniforms, and how colorful life has been in the Mansion, and can't help but feel a little guilty for liking the place so much.]

[mypartnerintime]

We probably just missed each other then. Unless it was a different year. Wouldn't put it past Wonderland.

[Max is pretty much in love with Wonderland- but for different reasons.]

And then you just poofed? Vanished? [She frowns at Coraline.] No warning at all or anything?

[doorkey]

It's been a long time ago. [ She frowns doubtfully. ] I barely know anybody anymore. My journal-making-thingy... the little pocket-computer? Needs a big update, becauuse it's not even working right!

I... don't think I poofed? I just went to sleep one night, and... when I woke up again, I wasn't even in my old room anymore. And there were these party invitations everywhere. Everybody living here's strangers now. And there's a whole Other-Mansion? But none of all that used to be here!

Or maybe I got mirror-kidnapped on the Other Side, like Alice? Nobody must have known about it.

Sorry I thought I replied to this!!

[mypartnerintime]

...A lot of this stuff wasn't here a few days ago, either. There's so many people now, and that extra mansion is brand new. All in the span of a few days.

[Max shrugs at the younger girl. What can she say? Wonderland is weird.]

I'm pretty sure someone would've noticed. So I guess you went home for a while, way back. And there was no warning, was there?

[doorkey]

I saw the other mansion! With the cafes and shops and everything on the first floor and then the big dance party and the snuggly room on top!

[ Coraline nodded enthusiastically ] I was surprised about it, but in a very good way! This party's even weirder. The mirror-people on the other side have never thrown us parties before?

[ Sort of suspicious, if you ask her. She still keeps peering around hoping this isn't some trap to keep them on the mirror side, with the awful queen who might even be more awful than the Other Mother. ]

You've never seen anybody on the talky-journals asking around about me, have you? I looked back a long ways, but never found anything. The last time I used mine was before Christmas... the mansion really goes all out for the holidays. It gets really distracting!

And no, there was no kind of warning, it just feels like I had a really... long dreamy sleep, I guess. Except I woke up in the front of the mansion, not my old room.

[mypartnerintime]

[All of that just goes to show how long Coraline was in Wonderland- as well as how long ago. She studies Coraline with a curious expression.] No, nobody's posted recently about a, uhh... I didn't actually get your name.

[Max grins sheepishly.] I'm Max. I haven't even been here long enough to have a Christmas yet, but it's September now. Does it go all-out in a good way?

[doorkey]

It's Coraline Jones. [ She says, doing another little curtsey and twirl in her denim dress. ] Maybe they were asking about a Caroline instead? My name gets mixed up all the time.

...but I... I think it really has been a long while.

[ Which is unsettling, and might have continued to trouble her, if not for mention of Christmas launching her into fervantly nodding enthusiasm.]

Uh-huh! The mansion decorates itself and there's music and the vendors sell all kinds of neat crafts, there are snowball fights and presents and everything!

[mypartnerintime]

Neat. [She's a little wary because sometimes the idea of events sound okay, but the reality is... upsetting.] Sounds a little like what's up right now. Sans presents. [She looks around appreciatively at the decorations and the large crowd.]

So... how long was it before you disappeared?

[doorkey]

I mean I guess we could all give each other presents, if we wanted to, but... I barely know anybody here, so that might be a bit tricky. [ She shrugs, pulling out a chair at the nearest table and plopping herself into a seat. ]

What do you mean? [ Coraline frowns, the end of her nose crinkling as she squinted. ] I said I was here almost two years.

Once Christmas finished up, it was... a few days after then? Then I jumped to now.

[mypartnerintime]

O-oh, right, yeah. Two years. [The mun Max Caulfield is not a very good conversationalist.]

Sounds like a wild ride. Confusing. [Yeah, confusing. Here one moment, here again years later. Time travel.] All things considered, you're taking it pretty well.