Magical Masquerade: The entrance

Action: Comforting Genevieve Delacourt

sta: 6 | eva: 7 | str: 1 | wis: 7 | arc: 6 | acc: 8
Abilities: Fearless

⋄ April 13th, 2024 | Quidditch Training Pitch ⋄
⋄ Interactions: @Aly Salinger, @Pericles Dralt, @Evelynn Decipio, and @Jack Warren | Mentions: @Winnie Harper, @Mathias Pride, and @Vladimir Athanatos⋄

Mask	Outfit
Reducio	Reducio

𝓓ecipio. It was a nice surname, and sounded very fun to say. It sounded rather elegant, in Bex's very expert twelve-year-old opinion, and as such was well-matched to the girl who wore it. Lark was a far less elegant name in her opinion, but she supposed that she was a far less elegant girl.

"M- miss Lark? Rebecca Lark. Uh, I go by Bex." Despite having been at Hogwarts for almost eight months now, she still wasn't quite used to the odd, formal way that many wixen introduced themselves. Evelynn seemed especially decorous and structured - much like Pericles, though she could tell he typically put in an effort to meet her closer to where she lived, which she appreciated even when he got it comically wrong - so her greeting certainly matched her apparent nature. Names carried weight; Bex was under no illusions about this, what with her own name related baggage, and so she wondered, not for the first time, if she perhaps should start to put more of an effort into introducing herself similarly, at least to those who preferred it. Identity was a fickle thing, though, and the strings of it were not always tied up so neatly. She so rarely conceptualized herself in terms of Rebecca Lark. When she thought of herself, it was usually just as Bex. Sometimes more formal introductions had a way of making her feel unmoored.

For example, what was the correct reply to "it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance"? Charmed? The pleasure is all mine? Movies made those sound like the right answers, but she'd be terribly mortified to say either of those out loud. Evelynn seemed cool and posh, and Bex really wanted to make a good impression on her. Aly and Pear were looking at her like she'd personally invented Quidditch, so she was admittedly quite high in Bex's esteem at the moment. She settled for "nice to meet you, too," which, like, lame. She wondered if she could learn to talk like Evelynn and Pericles did. Nothing she said out loud ever came out sounding like it did in her head.

It's in the middle of Evelynn's story about the tailor that the first real kerfuffle of the night seems to break out, at least one that's social in nature, as the brief incident with the bees hardly counted. The context was as lost to Bex as much of the night was going to be from here on out, but from what she could gather, an older student adorned with pink flowers was very unhappy with Mathias Pride. Bex found herself grateful to not be Mathias Pride; may he live to see the end of the ball.

She was caught up enough in the spectacle that, at first, she didn't notice the man who caused such a shift in energy from her companions. It was Evelynn's assertion that finally caught her interest. "...He is supposed to be dead. Do you think they lied?" Who was supposed to be dead? Did she mean that hyperbolically, or had her attempt to murder someone gone awry? She didn't know Evelynn very well, but she seemed like someone that, should she want you dead, you would be dead. "Who lied? About what?"

Following the gazes of her astronomical counterparts, she was met with the threatening sight of... a guy. His main distinguishing features seemed to be blond and pale, which didn't do much to set him apart from the numerous other blond and pale ball goers.

While the man himself seemed rather boringly ordinary from where she was standing, it was the look on Pericles' face that made her pause, a small seed of nervousness beginning to take root. Evelynn she'd just met, and while she'd spent countless hours in Aly's presence over the past year, all of those hours had been in the very specific context of Quidditch. But Pericles she'd spent some time getting to know since she'd met him in January, and he looked... tense. Tense, and rather intense, in her opinion. She hadn't the faintest idea of what laid behind that look, but she found herself feeling markedly less calm and safe than she had been only moments before.

"You weren't planning to go looking for anyone else, were you? You ought to 'hang' with us."

In any other circumstance, she would've found it funny how he always managed to sound like a grandad whenever he used even the most basic of slang, but the slowly creeping atmosphere enveloping the conversation made it hard to find much of anything funny, at the moment. "No, I don't have any other plans. I can stay with you." She wondered if it wouldn't be smarter on her part to avoid whatever was brewing here and return to her dorm, but if Pear said to stay, she would.

While humour might be off the table, embarrassment, apparently, was not. "Keep an eye out for anyone acting oddly, and under no circumstance should you allow anyone to kiss you. Set them aflame, if you must. And watch for shadows."

If Evelynn was hoping for her warning to resonate with Bex, she would be disappointed. Bex, a quick, noticeable blush colouring her cheeks, set her focus too firmly on the first part that she ended up missing the second. "Wh- why would I let anyone kiss me?"

Bex, coming from a divorced, dual-household family, was, while certainly used to those older than her talking over her head, did not find herself especially enjoying it. Her companion's quick back and forth regarding events that she hadn't been around for was rather vexing, and she found herself hopelessly lost as she attempted to parse through what any of them were even talking about.

Struggling to focus on a conversation she couldn't even understand, she's the first in their group to see him, as Bex watches the older boy, notorious shoe-gluer and her maybe-friend, push his way through the crowd behind them. Where he was headed, she wasn't sure, but he was certainly proceeding, unconcerned with those in his way. Stepping away from their little cluster, she loudly called out to him, "Jack?"

Action: Hi Jack How are you today?

OPEN to interactions with anyone I've interacted with IC before and/or official NPCs/event organizers. All others, please owl me first.

sta: 8 | eva: 3 | str: 7 | wis: 4 | arc: 6 | acc: 7
Abilities: Perfectionist

Reducio

Action: None yet, just shouting at Vladimir. Open to interactions.

Attire:

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Action:

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Entering Doors To Ball

Stats:

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Stamina:4 | Evasion:5 | Strength:3 | Wisdom:7 | Arcane Power:9 | Accuracy:7

"Looks like I missed the games." Anthony sighed disappointedly. "Pity, I could have done so well in them too." A flying key then zoomed across the entire party, fitting itself inside two large doors and having them fly open. The ball was about to begin and Anthony was more nervous now than ever. He was never really one to dance and never really one to socialize, but he came here to try and try he will. He mustered up the courage to step forward into the halls of the ball along with the sea of other students both filled with familiar faces and newer ones as well. He felt mildly uncomfortable without a companion, but never really let that stop him before and would not let it stop him now.

Anthony noticed that a couple of students stayed behind and for a second he thought he should do the same. However he was in the moment and he couldn't stop his legs or redirect their course. He continued onward into the grand ball, not knowing how things were going to end up...

Interactions: Open

Stood in the empty dormitory, Finnegan cast a final, morose look in the mirror. Scuffed shoes? Check. Scruffy hair that refused to stay down? Double check. Cheap, stupid, glittery factory mask made with love and child labor? Got it. The tiny little elastic band pressing against the back of his head already annoyed him and he hadn't even made it out of Gryffindor tower.

There was little to draw him to the ball, but the alternatives were even less appealing. Sure, he could spend the time working on a long overdue History of Magic assignment, but he thought he'd rather die. The other option was to follow @Elsian Cox's example and simply take a nap, but Elsian was a sloth and he was more like a fizzy drink. He had to burn his energy each day or laying down would just cause him to turn and worry endlessly. There was enough to keep him up. Over the course of his second year he had managed to triple the amount of enemies he'd made in Slytherin, double his list overdue assignments, and still hadn't managed to banish June from his thoughts.

~~~

In an act of heresy, the Quidditch training grounds had been completely transformed. They better turn it back exactly the way it was, he thought to himself. Whose idea had it been to defile the Quidditch training grounds in this manner anyway? Well, there was little to be done about it now, he supposed.

Arriving by himself was strangely liberating. No need to worry about staying a safe distance away from the dancing floor, he could simply head straight for the food. So long as he kept stuffing things into his mouth, there wouldn't be any need to talk to anyone either and with a little luck, he'd have most of the chocolate-y food to himself.

After little more than a minute of hanging by the food he'd already ripped of his mask and thrown it in the bin. Dresscode be damned, he was here to eat, spike his blood sugar, and crash full throttle into lethargy. Yet while he was diligently at work toward achieving that goal, he spotted a familiar bush of rumpled curls in the crowd. @Rebecca Lark

She had, for whatever reason, elected to pretend to be a butterfly tonight. Or was it a moth? He really wasn't sure about what she was wearing except that she somehow managed to not look completely ridiculous in it. The same could not be said for everyone attending the ball, though he supposed he rather stuck out himself. His refusal to dress up had resulted in a comfy black hoodie and some sweatpants, like a burglar skulking about the food, occasionally pocketing sweets.

"Wh- why would I let anyone kiss me?" he heard her say from a distance, confirming his suspicion that he had indeed stumbled across his favorite Ravenclaw. Without missing a beat, he pulled his hoodie over his head, pushed off the table he'd been leaning against and slipped into the thick of the crowd. From a distance, he followed after butterfly Lark as she stepped away from the group she'd been hanging around with.

"Jack?"

Jack? Who was that? He traced her gaze into the distance and spotted the ouline of a boy moving away from the ball. Jack had the right idea, he thought, though he wasn't sure what the connection between him and Ms. Lark was.

Pushing past two chatting sixth-year, Finnegan came up to Rebecca's side. "Why wouldn't you?" he grinned in response to the question she'd posed a moment before. "You're not ugly." Stuffing both his hands in the kangaroo pocket on his hoodie, he shrugged. "Don't know about this Jack though, isn't he a bit old?" It was hard to tell from this distance, but the outline of @Jack Warren suggested a fourth or fifth-year. "Whatever makes you happy, I guess. He looks pretty buff...

Stamina 10 ✶ Evasion 10 ✶ Strength 2 ✶ Wisdom 4 ✶ Arcane Power 5 ✶ Accuracy 10

Interacting with: Rebecca Lark, Jack Warren (in a way). Open to interactions.

Lorelai was kissing him. On. The. Lips. This. This was what Reuben wanted. It was his first kiss, but he knew that this was the kind of thing that people talked about. The so-called love. Lorelai liked him back. She really really liked him back, and Reuben was not sure if he could ever forget this.

So, when Lorelai fucking apologized for revealing what she really felt, all Reuben did was cover he mouth with his own and kiss her for about a minute, till it was hard for him to breathe. "Don't ever apologize to me again.", he said, holding Lorelai close to himself.

Apparently, someone had already found the key and the entrance to the ball had opened. "Be my official date to the ball?", Reuben asked Lorelai, offering her his hand. He loved her so, so much, and really wished that he could have her forever. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him. And now that it was official, and she really did like him back, Reuben was not afraid to show her how he really felt. If they lived closer to each other, Reuben would spend every single day admiring just how pretty she was.

STA: 6, EVA: 10, WIS: 8, ACC: 10, ARC: 2, STR: 4
Calming Presence | Evasive Maneuvers

Reducio

Interacting with @Mahlioz Evethisawe Zophyr. @Jack Warren and @Meenauh Silmataurea last paragraph only.

Action: No moderation required
Stats: Sta - 4 | Eva - 3 | Str - 2 | Wis - 10 | Arc - 10 | Acc - 6
Abilities: Perfectionist

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𝑀𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈: @Colin McCoire, @Mahlioz Evethisawe 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈: @Lyrra Kelly

⟵ ---------------------------------- Thoughts | Speech

𝒪𝒪𝒞 𝒩𝑜𝓉𝑒 Reducio

Mellani looked at another girl as she said hello. She had not seen this girl around before, and she looked a bit younger, but she seemed pretty social, and it was getting a little lonely. "Hi!", Mellani replied. The girl was wearing a pretty cream dress, in contrast to Mellani's own black.

The girl then proceeded to ask if Mellani had found anything yet. Mellani shook her head. "Nope", she replied. Maybe she should ask this girl if she wanted to search together. It couldn't be that bad, could it? "Do you want to uhh- search for the key together? It's okay if you don't but just in case...? I'm Mellani by the way.", Mellani said nervously. She was never great at this stuff, but she knew going to the ball alone would be pretty lonely, and it wasn't like this girl hadn't been the first one to start the conversation so...

The next clue was found by Mahlioz, and Mellani added congratulating them later to her list of things she had to do but would probably forget to do. The other clues were soon found by some other people who Mellani did not know. Soon enough, the entrance to the ball opened, and Mellani hoped that this other girl would come in with her.

WIS: 8 ACC: 9 STA: 5 EVA: 7 ARC: 6 STR: 7
Fearless
Action: Asking Lyrra to search with her/to the ball

Date: 13th of April 2024

Interacting with: @Mahlioz Evethisawe

Thoughts: Teal Speech: Cayenne

Irina enjoyed herself for the next few minutes, burying herself into the hedges with great enthusiasm, occasionally listening to Mahlioz as they spoke aloud their thoughts about the clue. Irina was fairly intelligent but only used it when she was interested and focused - she was interested in the clues, sure, but her focus was torn between everything that was happening! The beautiful trees, the many colourful flowers, a strange shiny object hidden in the leaves and then, looking up at Mahlioz as another answer to the clue presented itself to them. She just couldn't stay on task long enough to be of any true help to her.

Irina was just turning around to ask her friend whether she thought a nearby tree was sturdy enough to climb, she realised that they had found a box! "Oh my days, Mahl!" She exclaimed, "You've found a-" but she was cut off as a bright red envelope flew from the now open box.
Irina yelped in surprise as she tried to step away, instead tredding on her long cloak and falling hard to the ground. A loud voice began to echo around her but she was so preoccupied with trying to block her ears and pick herself up again (a hard feat when you're sitting on the very cloak keeping you down) that the words meaning completely flew over her head! By the time she had managed to extricate herself from her own clothing, Mahlioz was gone . . . replaced by a hoard of students being chased down by a swarm of bees a little way off. Irina remained motionless. "How long was I stuck for?" she wondered aloud, eyes wide, eyebrows raised and mouth open in surprise. "You fall down for one second and suddenly we're being attacked by wild bees," she grumbled, finally moving to a spot where she figured she was probably safe.

Irina spent the next few minutes enjoying herself enormously as she watched the Battle of the Bees. She picked up such nifty tricks and was impressed at the combined efforts to catch them in a bubble and transfigure them into doves! If she had been in the situation she decided she would use the spell fumos, the smoke-screen spell. It would at least give her time to get away if nothing else.

Once the Battle of the Bees was over, she wandered off to go and find Mahlioz, feeling slightly guilty she hadn't gone to do that sooner. She wandered past every flower bush in search of her friend . . . only to find her back at the spot she had origionally vacated.
"Mahl!" She grinned and jogged to where the Slytherin was standing. "Lost you for a sec. I never realised how crazy a masquerade ball could get!"

The tide of students was now waning, trickling closer towards a set of grand wooden gates. Irina grabbed Mahlio'z arm and shook it in excitement. "Mahl, Mahl! I think the gates are opening! Come on, let's go!" The young Gryffindor ran forwards, still holding onto her best friend as they made their way towards the opening gates.

Actions: None

Stamina: 5 || Evasion: 4 || Strength: 6 || Wisdom: 7 || Arcane power: 8 || Accuracy: 5
|Wandmaker|