Man, this house is full of whimsy! What other secrets are hidden in this place?
There's plenty going on today that isn't secret rooms, though. Guys, it's Mardi Gras! There's a big ol' King Cake in the kitchen, big enough for everyone to get a piece. And yes, there is a tiny plastic baby in there for someone to find. Maybe it'll actually bring the finder good luck. There's also a large supply of Ojen, a licorice-flavored liqueur, out in the parlor. And in the fridge, just waiting to be reheated, there's a huge pot of gumbo.
Outside, the jazz music that could be heard yesterday starts to get louder around 5pm, when the parade starts. That's right, there's a parade! That river outside the gate? All day it has parade floats going down it, blasting music, and occasionally, glass beaded necklaces and plastic coins. And yes, they blast them far enough that most of them make it over the wrought-iron fence. Not all of them, though, and within the hour, there's a large tangle of beads at the top of that fence and in the surrounding trees.
The parade starts out nicely enough, aside from it being on boats rather than on the ground. Floats blast jazz music through oversized plastic instruments. There are giant, colorful masks, a couple different jesters, a dragon that actually takes up several boats, and a bunch of shockingly colorful giant birds and reptiles. None of the floats have any real people on them, just big plastic caricatures of kings and clowns.
In the middle of the parade is a float with a large red and gold crown over a throne, symbolizing the king of the carnival. In the throne is the king, dressed in gold and purple, waving at the crowd. The people who have been in the house have no trouble recognizing the parade's King of Bacchus. It's Jack. Or rather, it's an oversized plastic head on a mechanical body, but it's very clearly Jack with a crown.
It doesn't get better from here.
As the sun starts to set, the parade floats start to get a little less colorful, and a little more... familiar. There's a large, colorful octopus that's perched on the back of a float, that suddenly deflates and squirts ink and blue "blood" once it gets closer to the house. There's a float that looks kind of like a kitchen, with a large fire pit right in the middle of it, and an oversized coffee maker floating directly behind. There's a large plague doctor. A dead stag, with arrows sticking out of it. An oversized bottle of Drano resting on a fire hose.
The floats don't just depict things that happened in Mount Zenith, either. At least two of these new floats are filled with more caricatures of people that our residents have lost. People like Oliver's husband, and Owen's daughter, all oversized and shiny and smiling eerily. There are floats painted with people's abusers, and hints of traumatic experiences. The parade goes on into the night, illuminated by torches and flood lights, displaying all sorts of nightmares and painful memories. Even the cannons that once shot beads out of it have changed, now releasing magpies that fly off into the night.
The parade ends with a massive replica of the statue on the fourth floor. Maybe it's the way that the boat is rocking, but it almost looks like the thing's trying to get off of the float. There's even an uncomfortable creaking of metal under that too cheerful jazz music.