Masks, masks, masks are fun! I hate the game Majora's Mask, but I love the masks! I was reading a translation of the MM manga, which inspired me to write something about...MASKS!
I made up a holiday in Dragon City. I call it "The Festival of Masks," or "Masquerade," I just love that word. I love the Phantom of the Opera song "Masquerade" as well! Anyway, this holiday is like a cross between Valentine's Day, New Years and Mardi Gras! But everybody wears masks!
I own The Festival of Masks, but not the show or characters!
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Masquerade
It was a tradition, buy a mystery mask and wear it to the festival. If you found the person with a matching mask, you had to spend the rest of the day together. Children loved the holiday, teenagers secretly adored it, and adults tolerated it. The mystery mask system was aimed more towards children who wanted new playmates and teenagers who harbored thoughts of fate bringing them together with their crushes.
"Children, do you know why we wear these masks?" For a quiet man, Conner could really get someone's attention. A group of children and adolescents, those between the ages of three and nineteen gathered at the Penn Stables to hear the tale from Dragon City's greatest story teller. It was a well known legend, but Conner Penn's words really brought the tale to life, dancing before your eyes in a parade of archaic pictures and spidery symbols.
At the prompt of a young boy, Conner continued, "Long ago, this was the day when the gods played at the wheel of fate; the wheel that brought two people together, or tore others apart, the wheel that could begin a new life, or end thousands. People believed that masks had powers beyond that of hiding your face. They believed that the mask could hide your soul as well. If the cruel gods, who cared only for gambling and nothing for human lives could not find their souls, they could not be used as betting chips."
Inside the stables, fourteen year old Artha sat next to Beau. Conner didn't know of this hiding place, or how Artha was making a mess of his festival clothing, but that didn't matter. He was busy and Artha wanted the company of the black and gold dragon. Said dragon sniffed at the box in Artha's hands, shaking the dark-haired boy out of his reverie. He muttered vaguely before beginning to unwrap the box, "Why should I even bother? I haven't found anyone with a matching mask since I was six!" Eight years ago, Artha's mask matched that of his friend, Parmon Sean's. They'd been best friends ever since. He slipped the ribbon off and proceeded to open the plain white box.
Artha paused with the lid halfway open, he could hear his father telling the story outside and quietly spoke the same words to Beau. The dragon looked at him quizzically as Artha closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, still mumbling the story.
"Eventually, humans decided to play their own wheel of fate. New masks were distributed based on chance and fortune. Sometimes, the mask had a match, sometimes they didn't. Those with the matching masks were drawn to each other, they were to spend the day together and reveal their faces at the end of the festival. Most became friends, some lovers. None of those with matching masks ever became sworn enemies."
Artha opened his eyes and looked at Beau with a grin, "That's my favorite part: these people believe the legend so much that they automatically become friends. But that's only if their lucky enough to get a matching mask!" He closed the box and patted Beau on the nose, "I haven't had a match since I met Parm."
Outside, Conner's story continued, "The greedy gods were angered by this. The fate was their game, and the humans had no right in playing it. That was when the Magna Draconas came. They defeated the avaricious gods and allowed the people to continue with this tradition, the Magna Draconas assured the people that the holiday should be kept with light-hearted intentions and festivities instead of the desire to hide themselves."
Inside, Artha didn't care. He was staring at the simple box in his hands. In the past four years, he had felt something. He wasn't sure what, but it was a pull. A simple tug at his heart, telling him to go somewhere else. The pull was weak and his father's order of not wandering off was strong, so Artha didn't know what was at the end of that pull.
The story ended and the listeners scattered, children to play games and youths to search for those that wore identical masks. Artha's fingers still hovered over the edge of the box, causing Beau to snort in indignation and nudge the lid up. Inside was one of the more elegant masks Artha had seen.
Not to say that any expenses were spared on any of the masks, but some were more beautiful than others. This was a mask styled like a Pack-Class dragon's face. The thin black line of the dragon's jaw was painted into a graceful frown, and the pale blue glass eyes stared back at him eerily. Dark purple surrounded the eyes, fading to a lighter purple as it spread outward. Artha gaped at the stylish mask for a second before sliding over his face.
The mask covered his features completely, even his hair in the back. Beau snorted discontentedly, seeing soulless, pale blue eyes instead of the deep sapphires of the future Dragon Booster. The humans' legend had some truth to it after all, the eyes are the windows to the soul, and the sophisticated masks hid the eyes from all those who might try and look into a human's soul. Beau thought it was all nonsense. If those with matching masks were to be soul mates, should they be able to see the soul of their mate?
Humans just didn't get it.
At the Dragon Eye's compound, Cain and Rancyd were prancing around in the most ridiculous masks (orange dragon and brown dragon respectively). Moordryd spared them a long-suffering glance before turning to his own box. He briefly considered opening it in front of his underlings, but squashed that idea immediately. Tucking the box under his arm, the white-haired teen slipped off to the stables to sit next to Decepshun.
Moordryd muttered a greeting to the dragon before tugging his box open, inside lay an elegant purple dragon mask. He gasped softly and even Decepshun made a sound of surprise and approval. The rider looked up to his dragon and spoke softly, "What do you think, should I go for it?" At the dragon's rapid nodding, Moordryd slipped the mask over his face.
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Fin!
What, you expected me to let them meet up? Ch-yeah. Right.
Ah...That whole fic sounded OH so much cooler in my mind...I feel like I rambled on and on about that legend...Whatever, I sort of like it. All I could imagine while writing this was Artha and Moordryd trying on Masks from Majora's Mask. I think it ended up something like this...SURPRISE OMAKE!
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Artha lifted the strange wooden mask out of a box. It was round with leaves at the top, and it had orange eyes and a strange, round mouth. He stared at the matching instrument, a set of wooden horns, with confusion before glancing over at his boyfriend's find. Moordryd pulled an equally strange mask out of the same box, this one was made of pale brown stone with white tufts of hair and black eyes. There seemed to be a matching set of drums as well.
Lance had found this box stashed away in a dusty corner of Penn Stables along with several other old crates and bins, but he had long since been scared away by an ugly mask of a tan woman with pink hair and large, puckered lips. That left Artha and the recently smuggled in Moordryd to fish through the box for anything cool. So far, they had found the three aforementioned masks, plus a pale blue fish-like mask with a fish-bone shaped guitar, a plain gray stone mask, a creepy mask of someone with blue hair, and a yellow mask with pointed ears and slanted eyes.
Moordryd snickered as Artha held up a pig-mask to his face and snorted before digging out another mask. This one was...A hat? With bunny ears? The white-haired teen tossed it aside. Artha caught it expertly and placed it on Moordryd's head, much to his chagrin.
After tearing off the hood, Moordryd dug out a heart-shaped mask with eerie eyes and spikes pointing out of the sides. He stared at it for a moment before tossing it aside and staring at the mask Artha held. It was white with red and blue markings around the eyes and on the forehead. Artha gave a noncommittal grunt before tossing it aside to land with the heart-shaped mask.
Impatience getting the better of him, Moordryd tipped the box over, spilling out a dozen more masks. Boring, lame, creepy, Moordryd sifted through them and tossed them aside mercilessly. His hand paused over a mask that he had dubbed "quaint." It was a simple, pale silver mask, nothing special or eye popping about it. The mask sitting underneath it was bright and golden with pale gold tufts sticking out of the sides.
Artha smiled and picked up the gold mask, "A Sun Mask for my sunshine." He placed the mask on a stunned Moordryd's face. The newly masked youth smiled behind the disguise, "Fine," He lifted the pale mask, "A Moon Mask for...You" He finished lamely, setting the mask on Artha's face.
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Omake: Fin.
If you don't get it, that's ok. If you do, yeah, yeah...I know Anju and Kafei combine their masks to make the Couple's Mask. That scene was just to cute to pass up, though. I can't quite remember what the Sun and Moon Masks look like anyway, so I BSed it. Deal with it, Majora fans.
Now then, I tried to name some of the better known masks, can you name them all? For the winner, I'll write a one-shot! This one-shot will be dedicated to the winner and will follow any prompt the winner desires. Keep in mind that I just managed to convince people that I'm not a raging pervert, so no lemons.
Remember, I mentioned 11 Masks not including the Sun and Moon Masks. Whoever gets the most right wins! You don't HAVE to name the instruments, but you can if you want. If anyone misses the last two before the Sun and Moon, I'm going to cry.