sir!
since we left home, we've faced a variety of foes from a wide range of places
gods, monsters, you know the roster -
hostile creatures that we could resist!
but this was a hell of a twist
'cause we are weak to a power like this
what was it?
a woman
Reba wanted one more dress and @skegulium was kind enough to sacrifice Orivar for the task. Ori's dress is ocean phosphorescence + night sky represented by the hair, while Glitch is the (upon checking references) remarkably consistently purple Alternian sky.
she took my fingers to her mouth
the kind of thing that makes you proud
that nothing else had ever
worked out, worked out
and maybe I tried other things
but nothing can capture the sting
of the venom she's gonna spit out right now
Honour doesn't bother with dedicated outfits to the ball when she's going stag, but that doesn't mean Glitch won't track her down just to neg.
Lilies and lavenders this year for most of the foliage, because, you know.
she's takin' pictures in the mirror
oh, my god, her skin's so clear
tell her Bring that over here
you need a seat? I'll volunteer
now she's smilin' ear to ear
she's the headlights, I'm the deer
Glitch, continuously harassing those who refuse to dress up for the ball, featuring: a kind of terrifying Nanako!
<(Dancing, flowing gowns and handsome suits,)>
<(glittering baubles, laughter, luxurious food and the sweetest romance…)>
<(It’s once again time for our favorite winter tradition.)>
<(I’m looking forward to host my first ball and see you there.)>
<(Best regards,)>
<(Your host... Kilran Barbas.)>
Who’s ready for the winter Yule ball?!
Welcome to the 12th Perigee Eve Ball, a winter event designed to let people show off their trolls in beautiful outfits and have a chance to crown a King, Queen, and Grand Couturier of 2025 and maybe even forge some new bonds and roleplays with friends old and new!
Please enjoy and see below for more details!
Attending is easy, since the invitation is open for everyone. Just keep an eye out for the official post about the inauguration for the ball on the 16th of December. After this, how you attend is up to you; whether you post openers under the ball’s open rp-tag, or if you rather roleplay in private, write drabbles or create art pieces, the event is your oyster!
It’s a GREAT opportunity to interact with people you’ve never interacted with before since trolls attending would naturally be in the same area, I highly recommend reaching out to people you normally don’t roleplay with these two nights!
You’ll find most you’ll need to know in the Guidelines, so make sure to read them!
That aside, you can also have your troll nominate a friend, quad, or even themselves, to be the Ball King and Queen, or Couturier! The winner will be crowned during the ball night, based on collected votes by everyone attending.
More information is likely to come up the incoming few weeks if needed! Please feel free to send asks if you got any questions regarding the event, just make sure to read the Guidelines first and check the Q&A-tag if anyone has already asked the same question. (Note that some asks may be from earlier years, but in most cases they still apply, ask if very unsure).
I recommend tracking and tagging everything ball related #12th perigee ball 2025, and for rp starters #12th perigee ball 2025 open!
It's a powerful thing when you've got this little red nose on. It's a mask, the smallest in the world, but it unveils you. You stand up there and do these exercises that free you, let you play, and see what comes out.
What comes out.. is the truth.
Honk if you like clowns. :o)
These are the images for Reba's giant clown project, which details out the various denominations of the Mirthful that we use in our roleplays. Go take a gander over here!
UV: Are you going to the Ball with Liyiji?
UV: Perhaps we can meet up, if you have some free time. I will be going with Iconic..
UV: And Averii. Do you think it is alright to invite both your kismesis and your matesprit to the same event?
UV: Perhaps I should have planned this better.
@rebatrolls' Vadaya, with his kismesis and matesprit. Vadaya's going as King Arthur, Averii is Heracles, and ID is a supplicant of TDO.
Vadaya's embroidery is stolen from Cal's absolutely gorgeous commission of him last year, go look at it and marvel!
The corners of her lips twitched and turned downward at the poorly hushed complaining of her little shitten. Baiyan's trying her best to be subtle, but she's never been good at controlling her voice - especially when she's railing against whatever rules she's been placed under.
"I know like, it's the rules of the ball to make us leave after 10, but like! We could pass as old enough Phemoe! Ugh, she just needs to help vouch for us, it's not like we'd get in any worse trouble than -" Baiyan's words were cut off with a sharp yelp as Orivar's cane rapped hard against the back of her ankles.
"Watch your mouth," Orivar scolded as the child stumbled. "And my name is Lu. Mind yourself."
Big, baleful olive eyes stared and sulked at her little reprimand, but Ori paid no mind to it. Children needed to be taught lessons lest they become a little bit too full of themselves. Wild children had to be tamed.
(There was something to be said about the way Orivar was distinctly reminded of her own caretaker's behavior when she was younger and with his wooden spoon and how much she fussed about that, but she refused to explore that memory further.)
Next to the two of them, Phemoe blinked her even larger, more baleful eyes at the two of them. Chin pointed up, she straightened her shoulder and flicked her long, braided hair over one shoulder of her loose, crimson robes to pat gently at the gold leaves mounted against her horns. "I have foresaw," She drawled ominously. Oh joy, her psychic persona was taking the reigns again. "During our glorious entrance into the castle grounds, deep within the courtyard and as we stood upon the shores of babbling lake -" Fountain, Orivar thought, "- Was an ominous sign of bad luck for trolls. The aural reading I pulled from the golden apple given to our most dearest leader -" Orivar shot her a moody look, "- and the way the leaves fell post apple harvest meant that we do not have long for this world."
She paused. Baiyan stared at her, mouth agape. "Do you mean -"
"By world! That is to say!" Phomoe interrupted dramatically with a flair of fin, "This world of magic and wonder!"
Baiyan sagged in relief at her words while Orivar pinched the bridge of her nose. Still, the seadweller continued.
"I believe we will soon come across ill fated encounters, ties to pernicious scenarios trapped in the shards of frozen time, which henceforth will cause us to begin a quick flight from these grounds. That, my beloved diamond, is the future that I have foresaw as the Oracle of Delphi."
Phomoe fell quiet after her declaration, eyes half lidded and expectant as she held her sheaves of wheat against her chest. Expectant for what? None of the trio knew, not even her. Baiyan looked as perplexed as ever hearing her moirail's 'divination' while Orivar simply looked upon her with exhaustion. As much as she's told the child she never did believe in the so-called future sight of seadwellers (psychic abilities never showed in their cooler bloods after all) the child still insisted.
Still, regardless of what Orivar thought, the two of them continued their shenanigans despite it. Baiyan looked increasingly introspective as she digested her words, and her brow furrowed before Phomoe gasped and grabbed her hand, pointing towards a troll across the way.
"Look! Forsooth!" Forsooth? Orivar squinted in confusion, "A hero in the flesh! Hercules himself, draped in the pelt of the monstrous Nemean lion!" The three of them swiveled to look where Phomoe pointed, instantly spotting the massive troll towering over the rest of the guests. With tight braided hair, too much skin showing, and a glorious cape of the whitest lion skin Orivar has seen, he was hard to miss, though she was unsure how much a lusii skin could really carry an outfit. Animal skins are a dime a dozen and with not much else to help accentuate it? Mediocre, at best -
But did the children share the same thoughts? Orivar grimaced as the answer was absolutely not as the two of them immediately bee-lined towards the troll to leave her in the dust. "Is that a real Lusus pelt?" Baiyan's voice floated over the crowd. The tops of her curls barely hit at his elbow as he turned to stare at the two wrigglers accosting him.
"Did you kill it yourself, O Descendant of Zeus?"
"Wait - the fangs are gold! Did it have gold teeth?!"
"Impervious to blade and spear you may be, but surely not to the chill of Hel herself touching the air - are you not cold?"
"Can I touch it?"
Alright alright alright - time to stop this party before it gets started.
Orivar was quick to step in once Baiyan's hands started reaching for the fur and she used the end of her cane to knock her hand away from the troll. "Can you two behave yourselves without attacking this man all at once?" She said, firm enough to make Baiyan pout and Phomoe blink. "Ask and don't touch. Greet and introduce yourselves. Don't act like animals."
They sure were a nosey duo, Averii decided, as he found himself suddenly bombarded with questions. Who had asked about killing a lion? The seadweller might have the strength, but neither of them looked much like hunters to him. They had that soft curiosity of cityraised trolls, with the brightness to their eyes over the idea of killing that came from not realizing how much work the whole thing was.
He wasn't sure if that was endearing or not. Maybe as it was now, in a small dose of innocence. Surely it would be more grating if it was a constant, but that was part of the fun of balls. You got to rub shoulders with trolls and then never see them again, save maybe another chance encounter on the next half-sweep.
"Nice to meet you too, Lucille. Baiyan. Phomoe." Right, he realized, they were short. And not the right range of hue to be able to use psionics to make up for it. Had he gotten used to Vadaya's kismesis floating about so quickly that he forgot that other trolls were less fortunate? His outfit wasn't the sort that made crouching down comfortable... Or possible without the fear of trolls seeing more than they ought.
Thankfully, there was a quicker option. He'd killed the beast he wore, but it had felt a bit distasteful to do nothing more with it than to wear it one night and discard it. It would be decorating his hive after this night, so it wasn't too much difficulty to reach for the clasp under the heavy head and release it from the pauldron he had it sat across.
"They work for you then?" He asked Lucille curiously as he shrugged the pelt off of his shoulders, gathering it in his hands. "Ain't in no hurry to go nowhere. My squares want me, they'll find me. Here pupas, take a feel. Just don't tug none, he ain't gonna regrow no hair you pull out." At least they weren't so short that they couldn't reach his hands when he lowered them. He felt a bit of compassion for the rustblood stuck pupawrangling for the night- but he recalled vaguely that there was a curfew... Sometime. She'd get a break soon.
"What sorta business is it? If you don't mind my asking." Best to be careful, make sure she didn't think you were looking down on it. But if she had the money to hire on a seadweller, even just a little slip of one, it couldn't be doing too poorly.
“There you are, little priest,” a familiar voice drawled, and Nanako buried her face in her hands as Glitch’s voice echoed through the bathroom. (Not on purpose, she reminded herself, because Glitch didn’t know she was in here.) “Looking good enough to pray to yourself, yes?”
“As you are aware, that is theologically implausible,” Melete said, and Nanako didn’t have to see her to know the expression she was making. That was the problem with exes! She didn’t have to see either of them to know exactly the scene that was outside.
The scene that she’d have to walk past - with the two trolls she wanted to see here the least - if she wanted to escape the bathroom and get back to the rest of the ball.
@rebatrolls' Glitch and my Melete for the ball! Nana got dumped in pitch and flush, which does conveniently leave the pitch quadrant open for what's mostly not a spite-fuelled date.
Lore deets on outfits below:
TDO, "The Descending One," is a pre-Empire god associated with burrowing bees, creation, and the underground.. and, to an extent, horrorterrors. TDO's cult held that life was created six times, and they were involved twice, creating mind honey bees in the first world iteration and rainbowdrinkers in the fifth. These creatures are uniquely tied to the depths, capable of returning from the far underground without losing their minds. Bees were psychopomps, guiding troll souls to the Underworld, while rainbowdrinkers were feared for disassembling trolls and delivering their bodies to the same destination.
TDO was both the creator of rainbowdrinkers and a protector against them. Trolls invoked TDO’s protection by burning circular marks on their wrists and throats, offering themselves as sacrifices to the god to deter rainbowdrinkers in the area TDO's cult was most prevalent. The hope that was that any attacks would then be seen as sacrilegious theft. However, in practice, trolls often resorted to sacrificing a blueblood as bait to ensure safe travel, viewing the rare survivors of such rituals as blessed by TDO.
Glitch's outfit represents TDO, while Melete's outfit matches to a blueblooded supplicant! Is this kind of fucked up? Melete's already prepared a six paragraph verbal theological essay on why it mostly isn't.
The corners of her lips twitched and turned downward at the poorly hushed complaining of her little shitten. Baiyan's trying her best to be subtle, but she's never been good at controlling her voice - especially when she's railing against whatever rules she's been placed under.
"I know like, it's the rules of the ball to make us leave after 10, but like! We could pass as old enough Phemoe! Ugh, she just needs to help vouch for us, it's not like we'd get in any worse trouble than -" Baiyan's words were cut off with a sharp yelp as Orivar's cane rapped hard against the back of her ankles.
"Watch your mouth," Orivar scolded as the child stumbled. "And my name is Lu. Mind yourself."
Big, baleful olive eyes stared and sulked at her little reprimand, but Ori paid no mind to it. Children needed to be taught lessons lest they become a little bit too full of themselves. Wild children had to be tamed.
(There was something to be said about the way Orivar was distinctly reminded of her own caretaker's behavior when she was younger and with his wooden spoon and how much she fussed about that, but she refused to explore that memory further.)
Next to the two of them, Phemoe blinked her even larger, more baleful eyes at the two of them. Chin pointed up, she straightened her shoulder and flicked her long, braided hair over one shoulder of her loose, crimson robes to pat gently at the gold leaves mounted against her horns. "I have foresaw," She drawled ominously. Oh joy, her psychic persona was taking the reigns again. "During our glorious entrance into the castle grounds, deep within the courtyard and as we stood upon the shores of babbling lake -" Fountain, Orivar thought, "- Was an ominous sign of bad luck for trolls. The aural reading I pulled from the golden apple given to our most dearest leader -" Orivar shot her a moody look, "- and the way the leaves fell post apple harvest meant that we do not have long for this world."
She paused. Baiyan stared at her, mouth agape. "Do you mean -"
"By world! That is to say!" Phomoe interrupted dramatically with a flair of fin, "This world of magic and wonder!"
Baiyan sagged in relief at her words while Orivar pinched the bridge of her nose. Still, the seadweller continued.
"I believe we will soon come across ill fated encounters, ties to pernicious scenarios trapped in the shards of frozen time, which henceforth will cause us to begin a quick flight from these grounds. That, my beloved diamond, is the future that I have foresaw as the Oracle of Delphi."
Phomoe fell quiet after her declaration, eyes half lidded and expectant as she held her sheaves of wheat against her chest. Expectant for what? None of the trio knew, not even her. Baiyan looked as perplexed as ever hearing her moirail's 'divination' while Orivar simply looked upon her with exhaustion. As much as she's told the child she never did believe in the so-called future sight of seadwellers (psychic abilities never showed in their cooler bloods after all) the child still insisted.
Still, regardless of what Orivar thought, the two of them continued their shenanigans despite it. Baiyan looked increasingly introspective as she digested her words, and her brow furrowed before Phomoe gasped and grabbed her hand, pointing towards a troll across the way.
"Look! Forsooth!" Forsooth? Orivar squinted in confusion, "A hero in the flesh! Hercules himself, draped in the pelt of the monstrous Nemean lion!" The three of them swiveled to look where Phomoe pointed, instantly spotting the massive troll towering over the rest of the guests. With tight braided hair, too much skin showing, and a glorious cape of the whitest lion skin Orivar has seen, he was hard to miss, though she was unsure how much a lusii skin could really carry an outfit. Animal skins are a dime a dozen and with not much else to help accentuate it? Mediocre, at best -
But did the children share the same thoughts? Orivar grimaced as the answer was absolutely not as the two of them immediately bee-lined towards the troll to leave her in the dust. "Is that a real Lusus pelt?" Baiyan's voice floated over the crowd. The tops of her curls barely hit at his elbow as he turned to stare at the two wrigglers accosting him.
"Did you kill it yourself, O Descendant of Zeus?"
"Wait - the fangs are gold! Did it have gold teeth?!"
"Impervious to blade and spear you may be, but surely not to the chill of Hel herself touching the air - are you not cold?"
"Can I touch it?"
Alright alright alright - time to stop this party before it gets started.
Orivar was quick to step in once Baiyan's hands started reaching for the fur and she used the end of her cane to knock her hand away from the troll. "Can you two behave yourselves without attacking this man all at once?" She said, firm enough to make Baiyan pout and Phomoe blink. "Ask and don't touch. Greet and introduce yourselves. Don't act like animals."
For Averii, it meant a certain ease of motion across the top of his oversized Lusus, more muscle to take down prey that ain't got the good sense to know that it's beat. And usually it meant a proper vantage point from which to look for things, but right now...
"How do you lose a fella in gold armor?" He murmured to himself, eyebrows knitting. When he had offered to go get some refreshments for his matesprit, it had been with the expectation that said troll would stay put until his return. Perhaps he should have known better, with how many familiar faces Vadaya knew at an event like this. For a troll who claimed to hate fancy parties like these, he sure did end up getting plenty of attention at them.
Sighing felt a bit too dramatic only a few minutes into his search, but Averii was tempted. His outfit was the sort to draw comments sidelong from trolls who didn't know how to mind their own business if he didn't have a group to judge them for it, and there were a lot of high blooded trolls running about. He was blue blooded enough that it wasn't usually a problem, but there was a lot of paint and fins in this sort of crowd. And last he'd heard, flat out decking a troll was the sort of behavior the host had deemed 'untoward'.
That thought was enough to pull the beginning of a sigh from him- a huff, maybe. Not enough that when his eyes drifted again from the drinks he was carrying to the crowd, any member of his clade magically appeared. He was beginning to internally bemoan the fact that his outfit hadn't had the space for his phone when a voice called out, the sort of murmurings he had heard before but suddenly broadcast for all to hear.
Here we go, he thought to himself, but when he turned to look for his would-be assailant, there was... Much less of them to see than he had expected. Right, pupas were allowed at this sort of thing. A seadweller pup was to be expected maybe, but the other was green enough to be surprising. Maybe the seadweller had just funded a friend's way to a relatively safe night out?
"It weren't with a charge, nah," he answered to their demands, affable now that his feathers had settled. They weren't trying to scandalize any, it was just pupahood curiosity and bravado that had them nosing about. Averii didn't meet many pupas, but he had never minded them any. After all, one day he'd have to deal with one moseying up to his Lusus and being his problem until it was old enough to learn its proper duty.
They were just so *small*, he thought with a bit of dread as they clustered close. "Did kill it myself though, few perigees back." And processed the hide, but... Details. The pupas weren't interested in that.
"Think you're mixing up your mythologies with that one," he tells the seadweller, bending acquiescently to the other's demands to touch it. He hadn't really paid any attention to the adult drifting in to their midst until the woman struck with her cane, and- Huh. She was awfully old and red to be associated with these youngsters in any way.
Yet here she was, strict as any crechemaestro. "They ain't animals," he joked, uncertain to the relationships at play here. "Using too many words for that." He quirked one side of his lips up to try and signal good humor, sharp teeth tucked squarely out of sight. He could have done without the greetings, but the lesson smacked of time spent with his own ancestor enough that he decided it wouldn't hurt any. If Vadaya was too remiss without him or refreshments, he'd have an easier time seeking him out anyways.
"Well, introductions, huh? Here, I'll start. I'm dressed as Heracles, sure, but m'name's Averii." Titles felt far too stuffy to use on someone who hadn't seen more sweeps than the number of letters in one. "You can touch the pelt too, if you wanna. Ain't gonna be as soft as you think, ain't like no meowbeast. Mane especially is a bit wiry, but behind the ears is a little bit softer."
