Endure and survive.

It's not much of a surprise that Fated is taking Darrow pop culture by storm. Loosely based on a series of romantasy novels, it's a mix of plentiful drama and hot people in pretty clothes, which, in Shion's experience, tends to be fairly successful as long as the budget is decent. Fated has been blessed in that department. He binged what's released of the series thus far in a weekend, and came away knowing he'd been very, very invested while watching, but so very much had occurred that he would have needed a chart to track it all, if he could have been bothered to make one.

Admittedly, this is fair, again in his experience, when it comes to political intigue at court. Though, from what he remembers of his life in Vargr, there hadn't been any dragons or sexy fairy men, which is very much a shame.

It all makes a phenomenal backdrop for a party, which is the idea behind this bit of promotion. With the series airing in two halves, dropped six episodes at a time, on one of Darrow's many streaming services, and the second half about to drop, the company is looking to capitalize on its popularity and hype up viewers, and the execs had charged the marketing company with finding an appropriate way to do so, hence Shion's weekend homework.

They'd lucked out, in his opinion. After all, no one at the firm, or possibly in this city, knows more about court drama than he does, even if he got it all secondhand from a past life.

Granted, the series itself does all the heavy lifting. Boasting four significant ball scenes over twelve episodes, it's almost too obvious that they should throw a big party, one open to the general public, advertised all over social media, inviting any and all to attend festivities that promise drinks, food, prizes, and the high likelihood of one or more of the show's stars in attendance. Though the finale has yet to air, of course, fans of the books won't be surprised to find that the episode centers around a masquerade ball, with the beautiful Princess caught in the middle of a love triangle between herself, a royal adviser with some rather personal motivation and ambitions (boo, Shion thinks, hiss, tomato, tomato), and the aforementioned sexy fairy man, and a delicious twist in which it proved to be a true and proper love triangle (tomatoes rescinded). Naturally their "ball" has to be a masquerade, too.

It's not exactly what Shion thinks of as a ball. Fans have been encouraged to come all dressed up, even in costume, but people have a wide variety of ideas about what exactly that means, and there are those who haven't bothered to dress up much at all, so the effect is more of a high school Halloween party with its wide range of styles. Still, the whole room, a large ballroom at a local hotel that is way bigger than Darrow needs with its influx of approximately zero visitors, is gorgeous, shining beneath chandeliers, the walls swathed in rich red velvet, candlelight flickering in clandestine corners. The refreshments are as generous as promised, and there are both gift bags and prizes for various games — trivia, best cosplay, that sort of thing — that are slightly less generous because that side of marketing hasn't figured out what good merchandise should look like (not a plain t-shirt with the show's logo on it, that's for certain). A string quartet performs a number of songs that range from classical to faux-classical pop hits, including a handful he recognizes as the work of Tiffany Charlotte. A lot of people have flocked in through the wide open doors, beckoned by the banners outside, who almost certainly have no idea what the show is, or didn't know this was happening, but everyone seems to be having a pretty good time.

[ Hello, and welcome to the official Fated masquerade ball! Feel free to have stumbled across this, been invited (maybe by Shion, maybe as an influencer or something), be a fan of the show or the books, etc., and to make up anything you please about the series in either form. Masks will be on offer at the door for anyone who hasn't got one, but aren't actually required. Everyone come play! ]​