tushanshu_logs | Event | Masquerade Ball

Event | Masquerade Ball

Characters: All
Date: The Evening of October 30th
Location: The Courtyard of Public Opinion
Situation: Valdis and 'Rue' have put together an All Hallows Eve Masquerade Ball.
Warnings/Rating: None

The day has finally arrived and the morning and afternoon are spent putting together what will be the scene of the Masquerade Ball at the Courtyard of Public Opinion. Kedan can be seen coming and going, carrying in decorations and lights and later on, various foods and desserts. Valdis, and Rue can occasionally be glimpsed directing people and moving things around, but anyone not a part of the setup will be ushered on and discouraged from lingering.

As night falls, the Courtyard will be brightly lit and ready for guests...

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Gene re-adjusts his own mask, and flicks Tony on his unprotected nose in retaliation.

"I can. Though that Rue character's some part of it. And I do mean character. Don't you think it's odd that in a community of Foreigners, he keeps so far under the radar?"

For no good reason, Gene's blithe 'I can' bothers Tony, because it reminds him that Gene knows Valdis a lot better than he does, and Tony wishes he didn't. It bothers him enough that they work together— he can't quite wrap his brain around the fact that they've apparently reconciled. It feels too much like Valdis intentionally ignoring his warning to leave Gene alone, and Tony doesn't like it. He still doesn't trust her.

But saying so would give off major 'creepy possessive boyfriend' vibes, so Tony bites his tongue, and responds only with a slight frown and a neutral "Hm." As much as he hates it, he can't stop Gene from socializing with Valids of his own free will. To avoid making a big deal of it, he picks up on the Rue thread instead.

"You don't think Rue's a real person?" An interesting theory, even aside from Tony looking for a change of subject. "Who do you think he really is? Another foreigner, or a kedan?" Truth be told, Tony had avoided Rue, put off by his... aggressively camp gay personality. But the idea that Rue might be a persona rather than an actual person hadn't occurred to him. Probably because there are so many weird people on the turtle already.

Edited (edited to reflect ic knowledge that I totally missed ooc) 2015-11-01 05:48 (UTC)

"I'm not sure. But it doesn't sit well with me. Not after all that mess with the Chihuelans. He could be a spy."

And it probably hasn't escaped Tony's notice that Gene has not come unarmed to this party. To anyone not in the know, the two rings he's wearing on opposite index fingers are almost the exact same shade of red, and their flame-shaped gems pair nicely with his whole red-and-black dragon theme. But the rings are potent weapons - one allows mastery over fire, the other over others' minds. The latter is one he wouldn't want to use unless he absolutely had to, but it would do in a pinch. The other seven rings in his possession are, as per usual, threaded on the string around his neck and tucked into the collar of his shirt.

It's not paranoia if they're out to get you, after all.

"Besides - literally nobody can be that camp." Spoken by Mr. Straight Gay himself.

"Don't spies usually try to be a little more... sneaky?" There's something to be said for hiding in plain sight, but prancing around with a metaphorical 'LOOK AT ME' neon sign over your head would be an unusual strategy for a spy.

Tony snorts at Gene's second comment. "Even if he's faking, I think that means he has to be a foreigner. Nobody on Konryu acts like that." That particular type of flamboyance is definitely a foreigner cultural import.

Gene shakes his head. "Jīn chán tuō qiào," he says. "Masquerading as someone or something else is a common strategy of war, inconspicuous or otherwise."

Tony's comment makes him snort, though. "You must be right on that front. I've never seen a kedan act like that."

Fancy Chinese sayings or not, Tony's not convinced. "Yeah, but pretending to be something that everyone's going to pay attention to just makes it more likely that somebody's going to notice when you slip up. I don't fly around with my stealth suit disguised as Marine One."

He shrugs and pops a cookie into his mouth. "Maybe it's just someone messing around."

"Well, you're not exactly the stealthiest person alive anyway," Gene says, smirking. "And a small blunder in a big persona's easier to bluff away." He'd made several small errors as the Mandarin when he'd been heading up the Tong. Those had been easier to conceal than errors of the same magnitude as normal kid Gene Khan.

"Maybe." He has heard the old saw 'never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity', but paranoia's kept him alive thus far. He doesn't sound convinced by Tony's idea.

Counterpoint: the Tong had eventually figured out that Gene was posing as his stepfather, while his Normal Kid Gene Khan persona had remained intact until he'd revealed his true motives himself.

"If I was too stealthy, how would the bad guys know where to aim?" Tony grins, and then realizes that he's accidentally made a good point. Being conspicuous is a great tactic for drawing fire off your allies, or for making sure your enemies don't notice something you don't want them to. "He could be trying to distract us from something else."

Gene looks at Tony like he's an idiot. The expression is clear to see even beneath the dragon mask. "That's exactly what I said a minute ago." Okay, but is it Tony's fault he's not versed in the Thirty-Six Stratagems? Yes, probably. "If he is a spy - and not just someone having a laugh - then he's certainly doing one hell of a job of drawing the eye, isn't he?"

See, it would never have occurred to Tony to classify the Designated Distraction as a type of spy. In his mind, spies are sneaky, and loud, obnoxious distractions are... people like him. Rogues versus tanks. Completely different.

Tony rolls his eyes. "I mean, trying to distract us from something other than his actual identity. Trying to distract us from something else makes a lot more sense than trying to hide his real identity with a really, really flamboyant secret identity."

Also he totally still doesn't speak Chinese, Gene.

Not Gene's fault that Tony hasn't bothered to learn!

"Like I said," Gene said, "he's doing a hell of a job of drawing the eye. Which begs the question: if he is trying to be a distraction, what is he trying to distract us from?"

~~He's learned plenty of Chinese. Just not any that's fit for polite company.~~

Tony shrugs again. "I don't know." He doesn't actually think Rue is an evil spy with some grand sinister scheme. "He could just be a really bored theater nerd. We should go quote some Shakespeare at him and see if he finishes the lines automatically."

That's what distinguishes Tony from Gene - that, and the fact that Gene's hair is far superior. Tony's far too willing to not see peril and ill intent behind every shadow.

Gene frowns. What do you have against theatre nerds, Tony? "Anyone could do that."

"Recite Shakespeare by memory?" Tony asks incredulously. "Did you pay any attention to how badly I did in theater class?"

Christ, Gene, he hadn't even heard of Hamlet.

"I tried not to," Gene says dryly. "It caused me physical pain."

"Funny, that's exactly how I felt about memorizing Shakespeare."

In fact, it had literally caused him physical pain, by making him stress out about his theater test when he should have been paying attention to not having his ass handed to him by the Living Laser. Shakespeare got him shot by lasers, Gene. Lasers.

If Tony brings that up, Gene is reasonably going to point out that if Tony hadn't been a Slacking Samuel, he wouldn't have had the problems in school that necessitated his dad's holo-will being used against him in the first place.

That's a fight Gene's going to lose, because the trump card is 'you shouldn't have kidnapped my dad in the first place, you jerk,' and that fight ends with Gene sleeping on the couch and both of them being upset for days. No way to spend a party.

"Some people have no appreciation for culture," Gene says dramatically, to forestall that fight.

Yes, that's all probably better left unsaid. Tony appreciates your discretion, Gene.

"Why start now?" Tony replies, with a teasing grin. "You've stuck around anyway, and I'm never taking another theater class. So I never have to read another line of Shakespeare for the rest of my life."

"You don't read Shakespeare, that's half the problem," Gene says, getting off the Rue thread for a moment to get obnoxious. "The only way to properly appreciate Shakespeare is to see it performed. Or to perform it yourself."

Weeoo, weeoo, nerd alert.

"In the original Klingon?"

He sees your nerd, and raises you a more different kind of nerd!

"What?"

Gene pretends not to know what Tony is talking about. Feigning ignorance is the best strategy for him where Star Trek is concerned.

"Now who doesn't appreciate culture?" Tony says, pretending very hard to be offended.

What, Trek Tuesdays were not a thing in the Khan household?

...Okay, no, they probably weren't.

Edited 2015-11-10 05:11 (UTC)

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Event | Masquerade Ball

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practically Gene's entire social circle is "people who have tried to kill him"

wait is that not how you make friends

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howard loves star trek, i will die for this headcanon