#*mask

A quick headshot of my dappervolk avatar 🧡 plus spoopy version

The woman lay on the grass of a park, watching fireworks burst and sparkle overhead. A silver moon mask lay beside her, a match to her shimmery outfit. These humans, so excited by the turn of a single year, so ready to celebrate life. When life was so short that's what you did, she supposed, celebrate every moment. One year is so much to a being that has little more than eighty of them. 

She'd turned fifty-seven two days ago. She'd started counting eventually, once the years became so many that she couldn't go home. The mirror gave her no clues, wouldn't for a very long time. Her parents were in their eighties and she looked twenty-six still. She could go to a party and dance with humans less than half her age, didn't they have a word for that? 

She sighed. She didn't belong with humans anymore. Maybe she never had. She stood and began to walk, it wasn't long before she heard voices. She followed them to find a man and woman and a blue box. She knew that box anywhere. 

                       this post is for a-drowning-mans-thoughts                  and plague doctor appreciation, and mask-making    Questing through dollar stores in late September or early October,   one should eventually come across a mask much like the one below.            I've got a stack of four---the set cost about eight dollars.        Peeling the trim and decals off is tedious, but not really difficult.

    The hot glue is a little stubborn, so you'll have to pick it off bit by bit,          unless you were lucky enough to find a plainer 'beaky' mask.

The beaky masks are very broad. You can tie them tightly to fit, or trim them down (using tinsnips, pruning shears, or something similar) if the plastic is soft enough to be cut without cracking---it's more comfortable.

The size difference is pretty dramatic, but once you've trimmed the mask, you only need to paint it and attach new strings. If you'd like a lower half on the mask, you can attach a plain full-face mask and cover the seams with modeling foam, which would also be a good material to build the lower beak out of. I find the half-mask works well with make-up, though---my voice isn't as muffled as it would otherwise be, I can sneak food and drink, and people of all ages are sufficiently frightened.