The Masquerade

The Masquerade is the Fear of lies, deception, and manipulation. A mysterious Fear, as hard to pin down into a single being as a perfect shapeshifter. The only incidence of 'proof' of the Masquerade's involvement occurs when someone is told they have been saying or doing unspeakable things that they themselves can't remember. At times this can go as far as murdering every one of their loved ones, brutally, before being charged and committed for a series of murders they are certain they have no memory of. When pressed for details, no alibi holds, because the facsimiles are perfect to the slightest detail; their doppelgangers not only resembled them entirely, but knew everything they themselves should know.
At times the deceit is so convincing the victims themselves begin to believe it, allowing doubt and confusion to consume their lives and their sanity. But there are those who have heard of the Masquerade, a creature or a group of creatures of such perfect imitative qualities that under their masks they are nothing at all.
Occasionally the victims of the Masquerade are found with porcelain masks. Underneath, the skin of their face is carefully peeled away, the eye sockets are empty and the teeth have been carefully removed. The struggles of the victims indicate that this was done while they still lived, but no amount of flailing undermines the precision of the work, which is always meticulous.
It is unclear whether the Masquerade is one sentience or rather an organization of doppelgangers. They leave very little in the way of traceable clues, a fact reinforced by the state in which they leave witnesses; those who have been kissed by a Doppelganger of the Masquerade are forever unable to speak the truth, whether they want to or not, and become not only pathological, but exclusive liars until the day they die.
Category:Fears
Category:Characters
Category:Beings