z

Young Writers Society


The Masks We Wear



User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:22 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



The Masks We Wear

[ A Saeverse Production ]


Image


When you wake up, you find yourself in an abandoned building.

There were people there, once. There's little remnants of them here and there - a forgotten chair, an overturned orange bucket, and a building that must have once been full of life. But the building is abandoned now, and nature has reclaimed the world outside. It's even begun to sneak its way through the slightly opened windows.

(If you stand close enough to the glass, you can feel the slightest bit of a draft.)

While you're observing your new, unfamiliar surroundings, you realize there's something on your face. You try to take it off, but you can't. You eventually realize it's a mask - personalized just for you.

And there's other people in the building, too, each with their own special mask.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:22 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Rules

1. Please include a description of your character in your first post - you can throw it into a spoiler using the code down below and put it at the top of your post.

Code: Select all
[spoiler]Put your description here![/spoiler]


2. Feel free to pick characters from whatever you want. They can be from another roleplay, a storybook, a novel or even a fanfiction of yours. The world, time and plot they're from ultimately just impacts how they interact with this roleplay, so it's really up to you.

3. You can have as many characters as you want, but there'll come a point where you can no longer add new ones because it would alter the plot too much. I'll make sure to say something when that happens, so don't worry about it for now.

4. Please don't write for anyone else's characters. It's hard to predict what someone else might have their characters do, and it takes away some of the fun for the other writers.

5. You're free to have your character guess what the plot is, but don't make any plot-altering decisions with talking about with me first. You can PM me or chat in the spoilers of our posts if you have an idea - I love scheming! :) I just want to make sure your schemes can be incorporated into what I'm already scheming.

(I also have a discord server for roleplay scheming! If you don't use discord or don't want to join, don't worry about it. But if you want to join in on the shenanigans, here's the invite link.)

6. Don't post multiple times in a row, and make sure everyone has a chance to get a response in. There's going to be times where it makes more sense to post back-and-forth between two people, but try avoiding it unless you absolutely have to - it prevents the other writers from getting too behind and feeling like they aren't involved with the story.

7. Have fun!
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:43 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Spoiler! :
I'm using two characters of mine for this! I haven't used them in anything on YWS before, so this should definitely be fun. :)

(As a quick aside - both of them have noticeable British accents!)

Alice Quinn: From her voice alone, it seems like Alice is somewhere in her teenage years - specifically, the middle of them. She has long, slightly curly black hair up in a ponytail, and bright green eyes. She's wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of sneakers. She's also carrying a messenger bag over one shoulder.

Her mask looks like the one down below, but has dark green gems in the place of the white ones.

Image

Edward H. Blackwood: His voice and height implies that he's somewhere in his mid-twenties, but it's hard to put an exact year to it. He has neat, auburn hair and dark brown eyes - so dark that they almost look black. He's currently wearing a much more formal outfit: a long sleeved, collared white shirt, black dress pants, a suit jacket, and loafers.

His mask is the one down below.

Image


When Alice woke up, she found herself laying on the floor.

For a moment, she thought she was back in her cell - that everything she had worked for in the last few weeks had just been little more than a dream. But when she glanced down at herself, she saw she was wearing the clothes she remembered wearing last. Clothes that Edward had taken her shopping to get, since his cult still wasn't that trusting of her.

And, a short distance away, she found Edward.

At least, she assumed he was Edward. The hair and build were right, as well as the outfit. He was on his back, so it was a little hard to say for certain. She thought for the briefest of moments that she could try escaping, but knew she'd be caught before she could.

Edward let out a groan.

She looked away and started checking her bag.

"Good morning," she said, her voice as cold as it always was with him. Or always should have been, anyways. It was hard not to let a little warmth slip in from time to time.

She glanced over at him.

And then she paused.

There was a mask.

On his face.

...Now that she thought about it, did she have one on her face, too?

What kind of cultish thing was this?

"Are we hiding our faces from the demons too, now?" she asked.

Edward blinked and raised a hand up to his face.

"...No," Edward slowly said. "We don't need to hide our-"

He fell silent, studying her and the building with a certain unreadable look to his eyes. Then he got up and silently went over to where she was getting to her feet. Without any warning or explanation, he slipped off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" she asked, flinching away.

Edward tapped the underside of his arm. "Someone could see your mark, Miss Alice." He tilted his head ever so slightly and gave her the cold smile she hated from the moment they first met. "We can't be having that happen, now can we?"

She closed her bag.

"We can't," she agreed, slipping his jacket on. "...Thank you."

Edward looked at her face for a long, silent moment, only to turn away seconds later.

"Well," he said, "our first order of business should be to figure out why we're wearing these masks."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar



Gender: Agender
Points: 200
Reviews: 0
Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:35 am
View Likes
SebiGhoul says...



Spoiler! :
Jeanette "Nettie" Rose Davis - A Rather pale individual with many freckles. Her curly, dark brown hair goes just past her shoulders, with as blunt of bangs you can have while having curly hair. Her eyes are a pale blue/grey color, and are the corner of them are almost always curled to a mischievous little smirk. She's slim as a twig and doesn't look to have any muscle. She's wearing a pair of pristine white gloves. Or at least, they were at some point, they currently have several stains on them, quite a few looking strangely like lipstick. She sports a small tattoo, maybe an inch across, on her neck of an Aster, a type of flower. Strangely, it isn't colored in, just line-work.

She's wearing this dress but in a light blue.
Image

And this mask
Image

Montgomery "Monty" Rain Charles - An olive-skinned boy with just the slightest bit of visible muscle. he has light brown hair, with sun-bleach highlights sprinkled throughout, making it appear a bit more sandy blond in some lighting. It's currently very messy since he just woke up, though usually it would be swept to the side in that boyish style that fits him. He sports the same tattoo and gloves as Nettie, the tattoo in the same state of uncolored. However, the gloves are slightly more cleaning, aside from a few stains that seem like dirt and grass.

He's wearing these clothes
Image

And this mask
Image


Nettie woke to find herself in a strangely eerie place. She groaned and pushed herself up, pushing a dusty orange blanket off of her. Sleeping on the floor had definitely made an effect on her, her back ached and so did her throat, probably from snoring.

How unladylike of you! She thought to herself with a chuckle, imagining it in her mother's voice.

She realized she was wearing a mask.

She brought her fingertips to her face, grazing them along the mask's surface, tracings the details in it. It felt like it was beautiful.

She took a look around herself, taking note of the two people in another part of the room, a guy and a girl, one of which looked rather young, she couldn't tell the age of the other. She also took note of an unconscious boy on the ground nearby, someone she found quite familiar.

Nettie stood, walking over to her friend and nudging him in the side with her foot. "Monty, up."

"Another minute." He groaned, rolling onto his stomach.

"Montgomery, get up." She repeated, kicking him a bit hard this time. Monty rolled back off his stomach.

"You sound like my mother. Gross, Net."

"You're gross."

"Correct," Monty smirked at his response, watching Nettie's eyes narrow at him through her mask. She kicked him again, slightly harder than the last. "Alright, alright, I'm getting up." He pressed himself into a seating position and yawned. Nettie followed suit, yawning as well.

"Do you know where we are?" Nettie asked, sucking in her bottom lip, a nervous habit she'd picked up.

Monty thought for a moment. "No, I've never been here. Why are we wearing masks?" He reached to where the fake flower on his mask rubbed against his face, scratching at it.

"I'm unsure, but maybe they'd know?" Nettie gestured to the people in the corner.
they/them





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:53 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



There were other people.

Alice immediately fell back behind Edward, desperately wishing her mask covered the entirety of her face. She knew she had an act to maintain, but it wasn't like she wanted to do the whole cult thing. She was only doing it so she could earn Edward's trust and escape someday in the hopefully near future.

And she knew she'd have to go along with however Edward acted - that was what she had done from the very start. Knowing him, he'd act all polite and totally out of touch with social cues. He had been like that back when they went shopping earlier, too.

"Are we going over to talk to them?" Alice asked.

"Of course, Miss Alice," Edward said. He gestured over at the two who had just gotten up. "They might know something. If not, they might be able to give us a clue on why we're here."

Alice took a hopefully unnoticeable deep breath.

Edward was right, even if she didn't want to admit. She stood a little straighter and squared out her shoulders. A moment later, she was walking beside him instead of behind as they approached the two.

"Hi," Edward said, giving a little wave and a grin. The sight was so shocking that Alice stopped right in her tracks. There wasn't a single bit of malice, apathy or cruelty in that tone or smile! "I'm Edward, and this is Alice. Since you were looking at us, I'm going to assume that you're just as confused as the two of us are on where we are and why we're wearing masks."

Edward glanced over at her, still grinning.

"H-Hi," Alice managed to get out. She got that cults were supposed to be manipulative, and that Edward in general was great at manipulation, but this was like she was with a totally different person!
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:46 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



Spoiler! :
Harper: Exactly what she looked like in the picture I put in the discord that doesn't want to work here. The picture on her shirt of the demented looking smiley face is also on her mask Purge-style.


Harper awoke with a pounding headache, which was probably a result of what happened last night. What that was, exactly, was anyone's guess.

She peeled herself off the floor and looked around. It seemed her blackout escapades had taken her to a completely different abandoned building to the one she started them in. And the pretty little preacher's daughter was nowhere to be seen. Harper pouted at that and went to put her hand to her forehead. Instead, her hand met plastic.

Where'd I get a mask?

Nowhere in her town even sold masks.

Through the fog in her head, she vaguely registered the sound of voices. She was behind an old dresser. The kind of thing the preacher would take a look at and say it had 'great potential' and drag the thing into his freaky little garage to make into something garish to gift to some member of the church or other.

It was lucky he wasn't trying to make money off of them. That man wouldn't survive the word 'no'.

Harper used this dresser now to drag herself to her feet and look out at the gathered group. It looked like they were all in masks.

Did I join another cult?

"Hi!" she chirped with a wave, realizing as she raised her left hand that she was holding a half-empty bottle of vodka. In her other hand was her grimoire. Thank Annie she still had that.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:26 am
View Likes
Mageheart says...



There was someone else there now.

When Alice turned to get a look at her, she couldn't help but pause for a moment and stare - the mask she was wearing looked weird. And it was apparently enough to frighten Edward, who supposedly couldn't be frightened by anything after dealing with demons for years - his words, not hers - as his skin turned several shades paler.

...More importantly, the girl was just barely older than her and had a half empty bottle of vodka.

"Hi," Alice said. If Edward was going to act friendly, Alice wasn't going to keep up the cult act. She'd just be herself, and blame it on just acting if Edward asked questions later.

"Hi," Edward added, regaining a little bit of his composure. "Are you confused as the rest of us to where we are and why we're here?"
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Tue Mar 17, 2020 1:43 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



She shrugged and nimbly hopped on top of the dresser. She placed the grimoire in her lap, "Naw, not really," she chuckled, "Waking up in strange places isn't exactly weird for me." And not just because of her habit of having a bit too much to drink a bit too soon in the night.

Her favorite unfamiliar place had to be the preacher's house, though. There was nothing in life better than being called a 'satanic prostitute' by an entitled bastard of a preacher on a Sunday morning. It was worth missing a meeting, really, no matter what the others said.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar



Gender: Agender
Points: 200
Reviews: 0
Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:23 am
View Likes
SebiGhoul says...



Monty took a slight step back, choosing to remain quiet. Nettie, however, stepped forward, flashing a devilish smile.

"My name is Jeanette, though you may call me Nettie." She turned to the newest of their party, a young girl that, from what she could tell, was very pretty, as well as unmarked. She glanced back at her friend. "This is Monty, he's a tad bit shy."
they/them





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Sat Mar 21, 2020 4:33 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Edward opened his mouth to speak, but Alice beat him to it. She tried to pretend that she didn't take some satisfaction in that.

"I'm Alice," she offered. "And this is Edward. He's my..."

She faltered. What was Edward to her, once you took away all the weird cult stuff? She'd have to ignore the kidnapping for a little bit - she couldn't begin to explain that without making people concerned. She could say that he was her boss. Wasn't that what he was? He showed her the ropes, and she did whatever he said.

If not that, maybe he was an acquaintance-

"Friend," Edward said. Alice resisted the urge to give a startled yelp when Edward suddenly wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. Maybe it was the intimacy or the way he had been talking, but she wasn't all too surprised when she looked up and saw he was smiling.

It was a...nice smile. Nothing like the smiles he usually gave, at least.

"Does anyone have any idea why we're here?" Edward asked.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
95 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 999
Reviews: 95
Sat Mar 21, 2020 7:48 pm
View Likes
Teddybear says...



Harper shrugged, "Meh, if this killer headache is anything to go by I'd say my reason was a really good night. Well, pretty good," she frowned, looking around, "Never been here before, any of you recognize it?" At least one of them had to be a local of whatever town she'd drunkenly stumbled her way to. That was just...statistics? Was that the concept.

She shook her head, chuckling at herself. Her head was pounding and she was trying to figure out math. Kinda. Sorta. It was an eye-rolly situation.
formerly TheMulticoloredCyr

he/they





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:33 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Alice looked around.

None of this place looked familiar. She would have never gone into a place like this before everything with Edward, but she wasn't even sure he had been in a place like this before, either.

"I don't," she admitted.

"I don't, either," Edward added - his arm still around her shoulder. "Which is weird - you usually have to know a place to end up there by accident..."

He finally pulled his arm back, resting his chin in his now free hand.

While Edward mulled over what sounded almost like a philosophy - and probably thought of some evil, cult-like plan - Alice decided it was time to take her mask off. She had been too thrown off to take it off before, but now there really wasn't any need.

She went to remove it.

But nothing happened.

"...Edward?" she slowly and quietly said. "There's a problem."

He glanced over at her. "What's wrong?"

"My mask isn't coming off."

He frowned.

"It has to," he said. He reached over a hand and tried to pull it off, but nothing happened. Then understanding seemed to dawn on him - he went to take off his own mask, but it remained stubbornly in place.

He gave it a slightly more frantic tug.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





User avatar
56 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 962
Reviews: 56
Mon Mar 23, 2020 3:52 pm
View Likes
JoyDark says...



Spoiler! :
Casey Anne Skidman: girl, aged in her middle teens (visibly), medium height, dirty blonde hair usually tied back in a high ponytail, glasses or contacts (I suppose contacts with this), brown eyes speckled with tan, pale-ish skin, lean with some muscle; wearing tennis shoes, blue hoodie with atom decoration on it, loose blue jeans, has a pencil and pad of paper in one pocket. Is also wearing a necklace that goes down to about her chest, which is dark gold in color (not actually gold, though). It has a cavity in it for something round like a marble, and prongs extending on all sides, inward and outward, to keep that marble in place. Mask: Image


Casey awoke on a dusty couch.

The couch was moth-bitten and moldy, and the stench seeping from its cushions brought Casey to full consciousness. It only took a few seconds for her to figure out where the smell was coming from.

"Oh gross, ugh," Casey muttered, pushing herself off the couch. Her feet landed unsteadily on the dusty, creaky wooden floor. Casey looked down. She was wearing her regular tennis shoes, normal clothes. She could still feel her necklace against her skin. But her surroundings were anything but ordinary.

Where was she?

She was in an old house, that much was certain. In a room, alone. If she strained, she could hear voices coming from nearby. Multiple voices, mostly young, as far as she could tell. None that she recognized. Which she supposed made sense. If she did recognize any voices, she probably would recognize her location, too.

Casey creased her eyebrows. As she did, she felt her face rub against something hard.

Well, that's new.

Slowly, she lifted a hand to her face. Instead of warm, soft skin, her fingers met hardness. When she tore her hand away, she could see rainbow glitter on her fingertips. She felt around more, trying to find the boundaries of what was attached to her. It only covered half of her face, around her eyes.

She was wearing a mask. And a rainbow one, at that.

What the heck?

Casey wrapped her fingers around the mask. She was wearing a mysterious mask in a slightly creepy house that she didn't remember coming to. Thoughts of horror novels that she had read in the past bubbled to the surface of her mind. One of them was where masks stuck to your skin and then they sucked your face off. Casey tried to push down the memory, the thought, and failed. The mask itched around her face. She needed to get it off.

She pulled at it. All that came off was a dusting of glitter onto her hands. The mask didn't budge.

No, no... Casey pulled again, even harder, and yelped as her skin pulled with it. The yelp echoed loudly through the house, filling the space. Casey quickly shut her mouth.

Well, the mask wasn't coming off. Great.

Now what to do?

I could try finding the others, Casey thought. The ones I heard before, in the other room. Maybe they have creepy masks, too.
she/her

woah
i actually made a post
pretty radical if you ask me





User avatar



Gender: Agender
Points: 200
Reviews: 0
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:05 pm
View Likes
SebiGhoul says...



Nettie looked at the girl she hadn't learned the name of quite yet, she was pretty cute. Her mask was damn cool, too. "What's your name?" she asked, lifting up her chin.

Monty took a deep sigh, and took a few steps further from Nettie, attempting to remove his own mask, unable to either. He grimaced. For one, it stung if he pulled hard enough. Second, he heard a muted yelp from the other room and gave Nettie merely a glance before deciding to check it out. He found the girl rather quickly, looking distraught and wearing a mask just like the rest of them.

"Are you okay?" He asked, moving towards her slowly, trying to show he wasn't a threat.
they/them





User avatar
590 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 1234
Reviews: 590
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:15 pm
View Likes
Mageheart says...



Edward and Alice exchanged a look when the yelp resounded through the building. She didn't want to make a move unless he did, but it was too hard to wait - she hurried after Monty to the other room.

When she got there, she found that he was already comforting her. Alice settled for standing awkwardly in the doorway - only shifting when she heard Edward come up from behind her.

She glanced back.

He was still tugging at his mask.

"I can't get it off," he said, with an amount of panic that she didn't expect from him. Either he was a really good actor, or...

He was actually scared.

"Calm down," she hissed. "Someone probably cursed it to our faces."

"I don't want to be stuck with a mask on my face," he whispered back. Her suspicions were confirmed; he was definitely panicking. Then he grew still, looking her over with a cool glint to his eyes. "...Miss Alice."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.








I cannot separate the aesthetic pleasure of seeing a butterfly and the scientific pleasure of knowing what it is.
— Vladmir Nabokov