Haunted Halls Fall Ball

It had been two whole years since Lindsey last set her foot upon a Hogwarts ball.

The last time she was on a date for the dance, she was thirteen, vibrant, dazzling, dressed in pure white, and managed to spend some joyful quality time together with a courtly French boy, introduced as a personal friend by her cousin. She once thought she’d always snatch a last-time date like that, either by random encounters in halls with acquaintances, or secondhand introductions, instead they never came again. And when she finally mustered up enough courage to take the initiative and ask (or, at least, make him ask), she was dumped. Then skipping balls became a habit.

Two years, how appalling.

Initially this year’s ball was of no exception. She hadn’t expected much from it - that cliché, apparently, with extravagant decorations shining, friends chatting and chirping, couples passionately swirling and occasional hotheaded students fighting insanely. Thankfully, Lindsey Springhall didn’t fit, nor have, any of these, nor did she intend to. Fair enough. She’d duck to the common room and enjoy the seldom serenity when everybody was out socialising as usual, and have all the fireplace and hot chocolate to herself.

Yet she balked at the flyer on the bulletin board for a surprisingly long time, unable to walk away from it carelessly as she used to. Lurking spectres and mysteries… A maze of haunting halls you'll be dying to escape from… Every glance concealing a secret. To be honest, she wasn’t exactly an avid enthusiast of thrillers or horrors, but…maybe she just missed it. Missed all the grandness and unexpectedness.

Oh yeah. She’d give it a try.

Going solo was an obvious and only choice, but Lindsey was contented enough with it. She’d style her hair, apply a bit makeup, and dig out clothes that she hardly ever wore from the depth of her closet. A gauze blouse, an emerald vest with matching A-line skirt - she wasn’t sure exactly if she did, but hopefully she’d meet the dress code. Picking up a few hairpins from the night table, and a random muggle coin she had somehow put beside them, Lindsey thrusted them into her pocket, made sure she had her wand, and climbed out from the bungalow…straight into the courtyard.

Habits were weird. Really. Somehow she still didn’t regard herself as prepared to be alone in the Great Hall amidst merry crowds that were (mostly) paired in twos. She’d turn her heels from the music, into the chilly breeze and towards the maze. Eerie. But maybe intriguing.

Lindsey approached, quietly squeezing herself into the thrown open door. Quietness captured her almost immediately, and naturally she blinked, managing hard to get used of the dim lighting. Several people had already made their appearances - craning her neck, Lindsey spotted a familiar figure. Gingerly she’d step forward - Merlin knew what’s under there - and approach the silhouette in a fancy dress beautiful enough despite the somewhat poor visibility.

“Aly…?” She’d squint her eyes under the dim lights, trying to confirm if it was really the green-eyed Ravenclaw girl she knew. And she was glad that it was. “Hey. It’s been a while. Always good to see you.” Lindsey smiled genuinely at her friend - was Aly Salinger going solo tonight as well? For a split second she was tempted to ask, but hey, there’s something more important - and much politer - that she wanted to say. “Your dress looks lovely.” Lindsey said, softly, lips curling up.

She paused, turning around. A few students were gathering, some were apparently hoping to get the ball rolling by violence, and another few were already testing out spells. “Well…I wanna see if there’s anything useful around.” She told Aly, voice thoughtful. Quite a bit of work there, it seemed.

Lindsey tried to peek through the dimness and watched her own breath forming in a small puff, while chocolate brown eyes tentatively looked around. There had to be something out there for them to discover before embarking on the adventure, right?

Interacting with: @Aly Salinger
Mentioning: everybody around
Open to interactions!
──────────────────────────────
Action: entering, observing the surroundings for a clue
Stats: stamina 12 | evasion 8 | strength 8 | wisdom 14 | arcane power 12 | accuracy 14
Abilities: statistically relevant (+2 acc) | lovely creature (affects everyone) | perfectionist | evasive maneuvers | impartial | poison resistance
Inventory: wand | three hairpins | a coin
Tracker: [1][2][3]

October 19th 2024
Open to Interactions!
Speech: Bold #257379
Thoughts: Bold Italics

While Emily was faffing about at the Whispers of the Dark event, Casey decided to try his hand at the Haunted Halls. An event with no magic sounded just as tedious as it probably was intriguing to him, but like most things nowadays, he didn't quite have enough patience for that. He also wasn't too keen on doing an activity with a group of other people that probably wouldn't stomach his attitude, no matter how much it might be improving. The Haunted Halls therefore sounded like the safer option if he were to spend time before meeting back with her for the actual dancing bit. Just to save some people the grief of meeting Mr. Grumpy Lumpkins in a '30s suit.

He arrived at the Courtyard and before him was the "Ol' Scary Door in the Open" façade. Casey had done a fair few haunted houses in his time to steel at least one nerve. So without much hesitation, he pushed through the door and entered the room on the other side, instantly throwing his hands into his pockets as he shielded them from the chill in the air. His nose twitched at the musty smell and squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the low lighting he was now introduced to. The first few footsteps he took felt like there was something beneath him, kicking in his other instinct to proceed on his toes. Literally. His steps marginally quieter than the creaky floorboards.

"This place could do with a bit of refurbishing, that's for sure..." he said aloud to himself. It would be very "Un-Casey" of him to not make jokes and sassy comments regardless of the situation.

As expected from a Halloween décor, the room's intimidating prosthetics casted cautious silence amongst the other guests, aside from the odd chit-chat peppered into the mix. Casey was internally grateful there weren't any stinger sound effects or screams for jumpscares. After the Hogsmeade incident and the lingering paranoia after briefly losing his hearing and his head trauma (both of which had thankfully cleared up), he was ready to preserve whatever peace he could latch onto before it would be tossed out the window.

With constructed movements, he observed his surroundings methodically before his hand landed against one of the walls. Maybe it was his imagination or another instinct to sink to the level of what the environment was hoping to provoke in its guests, but Casey felt something off about them, before finally pulling away and went back to wandering about the room, glancing about himself.

"Talk about walking into the abyss..."

_{Word Count: 467}

Action: Entering and Observing Surroundings

Stats: Stamina: 8|Evasion: 7|Strength: 7|Wisdom: 6|Arcane Power: 6|Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Fearless |Poison Resistance

Interacting with: Casey Stone (@Emily Shepard)
Word count: 205
Outfit description: here

Reducio

Stats: Stamina: 5, Evasion: 6, Strength: 4, Wisdom: 7, Arcane Power: 7, Accuracy: 6
Inventory: Wand, sharp hair pin

Role-playing as approved Castlelobruxo iNPC Ariam Vargas
Open to interactions

Ariam was glad to finally get started with the ball, their first one too. Sure it had a rather terrible start, but tonight was not about that and Ariam was sure they will not let it get to them. Wearing they newest red dress Ariam stepped into the section of the ball they called the haunted halls. Acacia's idea of doing the escape room like activity called Haunted Hall was one Ariam quickly agreed with. It's not like they have a date to dance with at the main ball.

They wonder if their dress would prove to be a bit constricting for the activity. It was a fairly tight long red dress, one that was inspired by 1920s fashion, hense why Ariam thought it would fit the theme. It wasn't the easiest thing to move around in unfortunately. Ariam chuckled at Acacia's remarks before replying. "Indeed, remember those candles at the mistletoe spin back st summer camp? I'm still glad none of the wax dripping ones ruined my outift." Dont get them wrong it was a nice ball, but that candle had to have been a fire hazard right? "I wonder if Castlelobruxo or at least a different magical school would host events one day. I bet we could do a fantastic job."

While Acacia kicked the wall Ariam opted for getting a better look at the room, the darkness was annoying but Ariam knew it was only a matter of time before their eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

Word Count 251/200

Roleplaying as iNPC Quentin Gagné of Beauxbatons
English | Français
probably soon to be interacting (finally) with @Linda Ramirez
outfit: a simple black suit

Quentin found himself at the Hogwarts ball. He couldn't believe they were still going through a party, a scary-themed party at that. Only a large explosion and the death of the Beauxbatons headmaster could break through his usually happy-go-lucky mood, and that was exactly what had happened a few days ago. He thought it would be grounds for emergency transportation back to France—his grandmother was probably sending large armies of owls to the school board at that very moment—but the festivities continued as planned.

Probably similar to many students who had been shellshocked by the event, he didn't want to be alone, but he also didn't want to be particularly energetic. One peak inside the great hall was much too much merriment for him tonight, so he mindlessly followed a string of students to the courtyard where some kind of makeshift haunted house or maze was set up. Whatever it was, it probably couldn't beat the real horrors he had already seen.

On top of it all, he had lost the flowers he had bought Linda. He had dropped them somewhere in the fray, forgotten until now. But if she arrived now, even if she were mad at him or had another date, he would just be happy to see her alive and well. And the fear of making an apology was really put into perspective—it would be so hard to tell her how he felt now.

Action: leaning against a wall at the entrance, not taking in his surroundings
Calming presence: active on everyone

S t a t s

Stamina: 10 || Evasion: 10 || Strength: 2 || Wisdom: 10 || Arcane Power: 6 || Accuracy: 12

A b i l i t i e s
Year 1 – Seer 1 (Auto Hit/Dodge) || Year 2 – Fearless ||
Year 3 – Seer 2 (Prophecy) || Year 4 - Binding Mark

Actions
Teasing Simon and Heading to the Haunted Halls

Items
Her wand; A hat pin; (2)Potions: Antidotes to Common and Uncommon Poisons; a few sheets of parchment and a quill

------- ----------- -------

19 Oct. 2024 – Noir Fall Gala

Like he had done for every Ball but their first, Simon was waiting for her in the Hufflepuff Common Room. She knew she was not late, but she also knew her fellow would be early, and the fact that she was still standing before the full length mirror hanging on the back of her dorm door, futzing around with the minutest details that no one, probably not even her Dapper Dhampir, would notice, made her feel like she was late. Grandma Ruth had always told her that details matter. Even if the individual ones are not anything that stick out, they all help to make the whole picture complete.

In this instance, it was her jewelry. She was always wearing her love locket, but this time it was taken off its chain and was being used as an ornamentation on her fedora’s headband. For her outfit, she needed a more Art Deco look, so she had a large, platinum, linear, kind of necklace with a rectangular onyx set in the middle. Whenever she looked at the necklace, it gave the feeling of a Chicago or New York City skyline. It was chunky and it was heavy and it was perfect for the outfit and the theme. Her earrings were a match to the necklace. They were long-ish and had three platinum strands that again, reminded her of a skyscrapers.

She had paired black satin opera gloves with her black satin, off the shoulder gown with a ruched bodice. The sleeves of the gown were little more than black mink cuffs. Her animal loving, vegetarian self would have loved to have told herself, or anyone else that might have asked, that the fur was faux, but it sadly was not. It was the real deal. The outfit and the jewelry came to her straight from her Grandma Ruth’s wardrobe, thanks to her mother. They were just a little before even her grandmother’s time, but they had belonged to Grandma Ruth’s mother, AngelFyre’s great-grandmother, and they had been well taken cared of and maintained through the years. The gown was sleek and form fitting and did have a long slit on the left side which did show off the long, slender pillars that were AngelFyre’s legs to their best advantage. This she knew Simon would definitely approve of, and she smiled with an air of self-assurance. Modesty, and good sense, did prevail just in case something dire were to occur as she was wearing black tap pants underneath.

She was nothing if not always prepared.

The stiletto heels were the only thing she was not too thrilled with, and she chose to wear them because they were perfect for the overall look, even if part of her night was going to be spent forcing herself to concentrate on not stumbling on castle flagstones. She had been practicing walking in them during her prefect patrols for a couple of weeks just to get the feel for them. It would be fine. The rhinestone straps added a nice bit of sparkle to an overall dark, but sleek and sultry outfit.

The two finishing touches were the long, black satin trench coat, which was also trimmed in black mink and the black and white porcelain checkerboard scarf clip that would elevate the belt knot to more eye catching and sartorial appeal. But this one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry had an even more important purpose than that. AngelFyre had purchased it from Gladrags in Hogsmeade precisely because it would hold a dose of any potion of choice. Given that this was a Hogwarts Ball and it could probably be expected that truly bad things were likely to occur, she had decided to fill it with her Antidote to Common Poisons. She secretly loved that no one would suspect it, but she knew she would tell Simon. She could keep nothing from him… most of the time. Besides, it might be important information for him to know in case he needed to use it on her.

With her wand in its wrist holster, and one last glance in the mirror, she hurried out of the dorm room and down the steps to greet her second half. He was standing by the fireplace, as she knew he would be, and though AngelFyre had seen Simon in suits before, she had never seen him in a tuxedo. When he turned around, her heart became the epicenter of an internal earthquake that rolled in waves over her body. It was a good thing she had practiced walking in those stilettos because the pillars that were her legs did a good deal of quivering like Jell-O for a few moments. Simon was so much more than a handsome face; he knew she admired and respected and trusted him above anyone else she knew, but the girl still pinched herself everyday at the knowledge that someone that astonishingly handsome looked at her the way she knew she looked at him. It was through the lens of a hormonal cocktail, sure, but there was so much more beneath the surface.

“You –“ she stammered just the slightest bit but quickly regained her composure. Moving still closer to him, now that her legs were working once again, she slid her tongue over her bottom lip and told him what he probably already knew, but would love to hear anyway most likely. “You honestly take my breath away, Simon.”

*******

Ten minutes later the two were outside the Great Hall and peeking in at the festivities. It looked great and maybe they could come back later, but AngelFyre’s heart was really set on the Haunted Halls. The flyer had mentioned it being set up in the Courtyard, so she turned to her dhampir and slowly started tugging him in that direction while walking backwards. So many people are already here, and the dancing and eating we can do later, and you know I do want to dance with you. Buuuuut, I would have to take the trench coat off if we were in there,” and she tipped her fedora festooned head towards the Great Hall. “If you were to escort me out to the Courtyard instead, where it will be, you know, dark and mysterious, and maybe a little cold and possibly scary,” and she raised her eyebrows up and down three times quickly, “you just may find that I try to sit in your lap while you are standing up,” and she chuckled as she placed one long, satin-gloved finger on his bottom lip and flicked it one time only, slowly but playfully.

“Come on, Mr. Kincaid. I know you want to come and play… and she let that linger for a few extra beats before adding, “detective with me.”

Reducio

OOC: The "sitting in your lap while standing up" line is from the noir movie, The Big Sleep.

Maisie was more comfortable in corridors than confined spaces. Corridors always seemed to have something new to explore. So, upon stumbling past the maze—that seemed a much more intriguing idea than any ballroom.

Even if the door was boring.

Still, Maisie picked up the skirts of her navy dress and headed inside. There was an eeriness inside, without music but filled with musk. She coughed slightly but carried on, tracing the footsteps of fellow students. Eventually, she found them or heard them. Some of the older ones she felt were familiar from the common room or the sports she'd watched (including @Aly Salinger, @Cass Ito and @Zach Zaphiere). But she hardly knew them.

Instead it was a curly haired girl, about her age who caught her attention with her comment, "This is what Halloween should feel like!" And that was everything Maisie felt. She tried to move up to her (@Colby Vidler). "I couldn't agree more," she said, "I can't wait to see what we find here!"

Maisie wasted no time moving her head about and squinting. "There should be a fork soon, right? Or maybe another door. A choice." she said thinking aloud, "It can't be a maze with a fork in the road." Or several. With all the cobs and puddles, there was clearly something creeping around somewhere. It was just a question of where. She wanted to be there whenever they found out, whichever path they took.

Stamina: 7 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 2 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 4 | Accuracy: 8
Interacting with @Colby Vidler
Mentioning: @Aly Salinger, @Cass Ito and @Zach Zaphiere.
Open to interaction.
Action: Keeping a close eye for any indication where they might go next, especially if that does mean a choice in where to go.

ACTION:
Picking Kaya up for the ball and taking her to the Haunted Halls game.

MODERATED ACTION:
Casting Revelio on the room to find any concealed/hidden/invisible objects, messages, passages, or markings

ABILITIES AND STATS:

Keeper's Catch | Inapplicable Quidditch Ability
Perfectionist 1/2 | Immune to critical failure.

STAMINA: 12 | EVASION: 12 | STRENGTH: 3 | WISDOM: 4 | ARCPOWER: 3 | ACCURACY: 13

INVENTORY: Wand, Black handkerchief,

Standing permission to godmod given between Kaya and Yasha's writers.