Zenith : In Character → Threads, Logs, Events

Who: Vanessa and Levi (like, the real one)
When: around noon
Where: in the halls

( OMG HELP ME! Also you are hot! )

Who: Jerome
When: around 1 am
Where: his room

( Just fuck it )

Who: Oliver [Narrative]
Where: Outside
When: During the parade

( About what he expected )

Who: Oliver and Edwin
Where: The parlor/Secret costume closet
When: 12:30ish

( Custume spelunking )

Who: Felix and Vanessa
Where: Poolside
When: 10am

( So much for peace and quiet )

Who: Jerome & Pam
When: 9:30 am
Where: kitchen

( Why is there a gigantic cake? )

Day 23.

Weather: It's still humid and in the 80s in the daytime, and cooler in the evening. There's a really pleasant cool breeze for most of the day.

Events: At some point yesterday, Dylan and Edwin discovered a secret! Walking through the central foyer, the hallway running down the first floor guest rooms is perhaps a tiny bit narrower than it should be - or they might have noticed that the parlor is not quite so long as to fill the space. A casual brush of the hand against the wrought iron filigree decorating the large fireplace and... oh no, is that a piece loose? A quarter twist to the right and the fireplace swings open, revealing cramped, dusty, steep stairs leading down into blackness. The descent is treacherous and our budding explorers are blinded until a chance brush with a dangling lightswitch chain reveals a cellar full of all the black leather and lace that a gay elf LARPer and a former Beyoncé dancer could ever want. There's also the usual costumes that one might find at a Mardi Gras parade - fairy wings, animal costumes, clowns, Medieval garb, and various flashy outfits in purple, green, and gold. Oh, and masks. So many masks.

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.

Happy Mardi Gras.