[GP] Midnight Carnival

[st_aff]

Once, back at the beginning, Songrans had started the Carnival at midnight and ended it an hour later at one minute past. At least, it was reasonable to suppose they had, but, in truth, it had been such a long time ago, it was an article of faith rather than fact. Nowadays, Midnight Carnival began when the sun went down and ended when it came up again. It had been wryly suggested by many more than one Songran that it ought to be renamed "All Night Carnival," but somehow it never was. It made for convenient fiction on the Day of Kosal that all licentiousness had taken place in a single, short, non-existent hour, and so it remained as it was.

What it was depended on who did the describing. It might be wild twists of fortune at games of chance tended by sloe-eyed men and women in brilliant costume. Or it might be fine rice wine sampled from one end of the street to the next until the world spun like Samnang's wheel. For lovers of the Youngest, it might be greasepaint and cartwheels or blindfold-tag in a crowd or blowing soap bubbles at passersby. Chanda's devotees spent the night in sexual revels or romantic trysts under firework strewn skies, while enterprising followers of Vanna might find selling candy or trinkets or operating currency exchange more to their delight.

As soon as the sun set, buildings vomited forth a brightly festooned sea of humanity lit by colored silk or paper lanterns. The night smelled of sweetened puffed rice, rich and salty fish dumplings, spicy chili-fried insects. Turn a corner and chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, gave way to sweat, smoke, wine and sex. By midnight, the Carnival resembled nothing so much as a bejeweled caterpillar comprised of myriad masked and painted faces, in wild distortions of ecstasy, agony, and joy.

Comments

Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina skirted the edge of the carnival, watching the revelry without joining in. She must have looked the part of a small girl with her nose pressed to the glass of a sweet shop, because an older merchant with kindness and wisdom in his eyes, offered her a mask. "Thank you, but I shouldn't spend the money."

He shook his head and pressed the mask into her hand. "Masks are freedom. In one, you can be anyone you want. Take it as my gift, and may your eyes shine bright from beneath it."

The mask would have to be telepathic to turn her into who she wanted to be, since she didn't know herself. But the word 'freedom' stuck in her craw. She had longed for it since she first learned the word and had but rarely had it. She took the mask with gratitude, then settled it on her face, and tied it behind her head. She didn't feel freer immediately, but she did drift closer to the crowds.

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

Dyson liked a good party, and this was a very good party. He'd acquired a mask at the behest of some of the revelers and was at one of the stalls that was selling drinks, a decent ale in his hand surveying the crowd.

When he saw her he didn't recognize her immediately, but as she moved closer he was almost convinced that it was Regina.

Curious to see what she made of the party he retrieved a second drink, and walked over to offer it to her.

"You're missing one of these."

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

Not long after Regina felt eyes on her, a man moved out of the crowds to bring her a drink. She recognized him almost immediately as Dyson, difficult to miss with the image of his naked body emblazoned on her mind. Did he recognize her?

Regina extended her hand to take the ale, even though it wasn't her preference. She could be anyone she wanted, right? Whether he knew her or not, she could be a woman who drank ale with a handsome man and smiled prettily at him. "Thank you. I set my last down, and I seem to have lost it."

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

"You'll have to be more careful with this one." He raised his own glass in salute, "Slante."

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina moved near enough to touch her glass to his and tried not to think of other men and other drinks. "Slainte." The ale had a bitter taste, but it wasn't unpleasant, and after she lowered her glass again, she instinctively chased the foam from her lip with her tongue.

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

He watched her lick her lips, and couldn't help but smile at the unconsciously alluring way she did it.

"not the best I've had, but not the worst either."

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

"It's..." The words common and earthy occurred to her, but she allowed them to fade back and chose, "Foamier than what I'm used to." True, since she generally drank wine or spirits. She took another sip and tried to find other words to describe it. "It tastes bitter, like a grain that roasted too long."

She turned her gaze up to his and let herself ask questions she wouldn't acknowledge not knowing the answers to, usually. "What makes an ale good or bad?"

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

"Our taste buds mostly. Good barley, good water, good hops. everyone likes them put together in different ways depending on their own preference."

Personally he liked a dark stout rather than the more bitter taste of an ale.

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

Subjective, of course. Regina wrinkled her nose in a way that was just visible beneath the mask. "Something else to learn the hard way." A little of her more usual tartness seeped into the words before she reminded herself she didn't have to be the formerly Evil Queen tonight.

"Unless, of course, someone was willing to guide me," she suggested, only mildly flirtatious with the mask containing the usual smolder.

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

That made him chuckle, "I don't know all that much. Just what I like."

And if there was a double meaning to that, well she may or may not get it.

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

She did like men to know their own minds, a fact that had surprised her with Robin, but she chalked it up to years of not knowing what was true and what was fear or her control. So she took a step closer, the way she might have as younger woman, so many years ago. "What do you like?"

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_arknaked]

"I like strength, and honesty." He set aside his glass, and brushed a lock of hair off her brow. "And good music. Dance?"

Re: Regina - tag Dyson, OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

The familiarity of the gesture, the ease of his touch twisted her stomach in knots and brought the sting of tears behind her eyes. She blinked them back before they could shine and set her own glass aside. "I don't know how."

[st_arcrossed]

Rebekah had a mask in hand but she had yet to put it on as she stood still in the middle of the crowd like a statue in a sea of activity. Her eyes were half closed as she let the sounds and smells swirl around her, nearly drowning her senses as she waited for something.

In truth, she was hunting at the moment. This was the perfect place to find someone to feed on and it would allow her to go a longer time before she would need to feed on Sam again. It would give him a little more time to recuperate and she thought that was important.

Her long blonde curls cascaded down her back when she lifted her chin, sorting through the sounds in hopes of finding someone who would be a good target. Maybe someone causing trouble? There was always one or two in a crowd like this. Someone she wouldn't feel all that bad feeding on.

[st_oriedqueen]

Next week, when the sun is up.

Regina's upper lip curled in a snarl of frustration. She'd bent her pride enough to let herself enjoy him and she got 'next week'? He'd probably been mocking her. The whole thing was too... fairy tale, with masks and kisses, and pretenses, to be real.

She snatched an ale off a nearby table and dropped the appropriate coin in its place. She didn't care what it was. She needed a drink. Or three.

As tangled up inside her head as Regina was, she didn't see Rebekah until they were nearly face to face. So much for her efforts at avoiding her ex-lover who didn't know her from Eve. (Lillith, who was she kidding?) "Rebekah," she said with a nod and tried to keep several years worth of friendship and affection out of her voice.

[st_arcrossed]

Rebekah had seen the stunning brunette around since she was kind of impossible to miss. That and there was a strange vibe around the woman, a sort of tension that Rebekah could pick up on but didn't understand. Still, she offered a polite smile because it was someone from the hotel. Someone who was in the same boat as her.

"It's Regina, right?" She asked before the woman could even move on and she arched a brow while tilting her head to the side. "Your name, I mean? Is it Regina?"

[st_oriedqueen]

Hearing Rebekah's voice saying her name--like a question, uncertain, instead of intimately knowing--summoned the sting of tears behind her eyes and she bit down on the inside of her lip to stop them, then nodded.

"Regina Mills," she said after a minute, and then, because she'd had enough of this night already, "If you're looking for a meal, I'll feed you." It was hardly the first time she'd done it.

[st_arcrossed]

Rebekah recognized the struggle to hold back unbidden tears because there had been plenty of times when she had bit her own lip to keep the emotions back. It was rare that she succeeded given her nature and what she was but she still recognized when someone was visibly struggling for control over something.

Tilting her head a little again, she watched with the same sense of curiosity as before but it swiftly turned to surprise. Then she scowled, stepping closer. "How..." Then she pulled herself together. "What are you talking about?"

[st_oriedqueen]

Anyone approached by a vampire of Rebekah's power ought to flinch away, anyone but an enchantress of her own power--or a woman who'd made love to her dozens of times. "I knew you. A version of you. Somewhere else." She ached for the familiarity of that friendship, needed it badly. "It's all right. I'm safe for you. We rescued Hope together, with Hayley. You helped me save my son. We were... friends."

[st_arcrossed]

Having some experience already with the idea of different versions existing somewhere else, Rebekah doesn't immediately dismiss the idea put forth to her. She did blink a little but the further mention of Hayley and Hope both sort of help too.

"Friends?" She really didn't have a lot of those but she was still a touch wary as she looked the woman over. "If you know Hope, who is her father?"

[st_oriedqueen]

"Lovers." It seemed pointless to hide that now, when Regina would be more than happy to take Rebekah back to her bed. "Hope's father is your brother Niklaus, who you usually call Nik."

She paused to let that sink in, knowing it would be as close to proof as she could get without reciting intimate details.

[st_arcrossed]

The mention they were lovers caused Rebekah's brows to arch but she didn't dispute the idea. Instead, she gave the woman another slow once-over while Regina answered her question. The mention that Rebekah called her brother by a nickname of sorts helped to reassure her further, so she relaxed with a little nod.

Yes, it could still be a trick but she was going to keep an open mind at the moment. "Well, this is all very interesting. You do seem like my type, though."

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina laughed, a soft, sultry sound and moved closer. She slid a hand along Rebekah's side and offered, "A dance or a quiet corner might give me a chance to show you how right you are," although she didn't plan to take it all the way home. It would take time with this new version of Rebekah before Regina could have her without the memories of the old intruding. But it wouldn't hurt too terribly to provide evidence in the form of a few knowledgeable kisses and caresses. "The latter provides an opportunity for you to feed, as well."

Her heart warned her this wasn't what it felt like and she was reacting to Dyson's rejection, but no evil came from this connection in Gotham; it had strengthened them both, and right now Regina needed all the extra strength she could get.

[st_arcrossed]

The way the other woman laughed was velvet on Rebekah's senses and she found herself further intrigued by the invitation. There was a voice in the back of her head that wondered about Sam but they hadn't made any promises or commitments to one another yet. Not that she was in the mind to go off fooling around with other people and there was a chance she wouldn't let this go very far but she wanted to see what Regina would try considering what she had said about their relationship in another world.

"Perhaps a quiet corner for right and a dance later?" Rebekah suggested with a slow smirk that would look familiar even if it existed on a different version of the woman Regina knew. It was still Rebekah, after all.

[st_oriedqueen]

The smirk was almost painfully familiar, not only because she'd seen it so often on Rebekah's face, but because it looked so much like the one she saw in the mirror. She pushed down the welling grief of loss and slid her hand down Rebekah's arm, threaded their fingers together, and led her toward two wagon-stalls that formed a nicely shadowed niche.

"Permit me the liberty?" she asked, stepping in close enough that Rebekah would feel the warmth of her body against her skin and see the strong pulse in her throat.