Magical Masquerade: the actual ball Closed

Open to Interactions English || Russian

April 13, 2024 - Masquerade Ball

A lot happened in a very short amount of time; some of it obvious and much of it not. Internally, Stephen was at first simply confused as he saw the odd pairing before him. A brusque “…hi” directed at him changed all of that almost instantaneously. It was not friendly. While it normally would have been water off his duck’s back, everything about the student’s demeanor radiated an aura of intimidation. Stephen could feel every hair on the back of his neck and forearms rise to attention, vibrating and on alert, reacting involuntarily to whatever, or whomever, may be a perceived threat. The guy had been stooped over just a bit, probably in an effort to keep EmmaLee in a more secure position, but even hunched over it was clear he was older and taller than Stephen.

If the guy meant him, or even EmmaLee, harm, Stephen was in no position at the moment to prevent it. He was rooted to the ground and unarmed. Well, not exactly. It was true he was wandless, but if it came to it and the guy got close enough, Stephen had no doubt he could wallop him hard enough to make him see stars. That is if the damn Rooting spell didn't reach his hands first. Options were running out fast, here. Stephen's hands were slowly closing into fists even as his eyes left the dark crow and that menacing, frowning countenance. An involuntary spasm rocked the parts of him that were still him as a bead of perspiration tracked down his spine.

Mentally he tried to shake the guy off, but his vulnerability in the moment wasn't making it easy. No point in staring him down and making things worse by antagonizing him, purposefully or otherwise. Better to look to EmmaLee and try to get a handle on what was happening here. He quickly assessed he should have been more specific in his line of questioning as it was clear she thought he hadn't recognized her immediately. Yet one more reason to curse his galactically stupid idea of not letting each other know what they would be wearing. Did she really believe that he wouldn't recognize her anywhere, even if wearing a blue butterfly mask and being carried on the back of a surly, black crow?

Pfffft.

"Actually, I've been bett-...." Before he could finish, EmmaLee had her own wand in hand and had cast an expert Reparifarge at his feet. He felt himself coming back to himself, literally, as the restrictive vice grip of the roots retreated into the earth, leaving his shoes with the merest amounts of clumped dirt and plant debris upon them. Stephen would not know it, but he smiled a bit just then, and his fists began to unfurl. "Thanks. Dueling has sharpened your reflexes, I see," he said admiringly and sincerely. Feeling less vulnerable suddenly made all the difference. As he looked back up at EmmaLee, he could now properly focus on what she was telling him, or try to anyway.

"This is Sara Kohana," he heard her tell him. Stephen would have normally smiled and at least nodded to the fellow, but the guy was simply pulsing a steady stream of Stay-Your-Distance-Pal kind of energy. Besides, Stephen would be lying if he said she had his whole attention. His wand was 20 feet or so behind him and on the ground. What if it got stepped on and broken? But then EmmaLee said the thing that finally did get his complete and absolutely undivided attention. When she told him she was hurt and then wriggled her bandaged ankle at him, he wanted to move immediately to her, but Sara had already stiffened and brought himself to a more than imposing stance. But why?

Offense? Defense? Territoriality?

Whatever was going on between the two was clearly between just the two. Those two. He held back, but he immediately torpedoed his idea of no eye contact when he quickly shot a defiant, penetrating glance at the crow, one eyebrow definitely arched.

Without having the need to turn his head throughout the rest of EmmaLee's recitation of events, Stephen found he could dart his eyes up to her and then back to Sara's as necessary. As her story began to make it clear that Sara had been her rescuer and not her reason for injury, Stephen relaxed his stance altogether. At some point he even refrained from casting steely glances, feeling grateful that she had had help when she needed it. He also found he felt more than a little guilty for having not been there for her himself.

Stephen naturally fell back to being his normal, friendly self by the end of EmmaLee's explanation of events. He was just about to thank Sara for helping his - his - his what?!? - his friend? - his something more ? - when something EmmaLee said about Sara being her knight, just like Jamie had been, resonated in an unexpected way. An 18 - 19 month old memory was suddenly resurrected and Stephen excitedly greeted Sara.

"Sara Kohana!" he blurted out with probably more enthusiasm than either Sara, or EmmaLee, expected to hear in that moment. "Of course. From Mahoutokoro. We competed against one another in the Hexwizard Tournament in the autumn of 2022. I knew your name sounded vaguely familiar. Wow! Nice to meet you formally. That was a very impressive showing by you and your team, I'm sad to say," and he chuckled good-naturedly.

Then suddenly aware that he was babbling on while mayhem was taking place around them, Stephen quickly finished with, "Thank you for helping EmmaLee out when she needed it. I'm quite grateful. I'd shake your hand, but: 1) yours are both full at the moment; 2) I honestly never know when a handshake is a culturally acceptable greeting to offer anyone these days or not; and 3) I really need to run over there and retrieve my wand. It fell out of my pocket just before I was hit by that Rooting spell." His chest heaved mightily as he continued to stand there for a moment, looking at them looking at him, not having a clue, nor the time, to figure what either was thinking right then. He just needed to get his wand ASAP.

"I'll be right back!" and he turned away from the pair, but not before a huge grin plastered itself across his face. "Thar be nifflers about, stealing loot. This shall not stand!" he bellowed theatrically, thinking back to his Airship Capt., "Rattelbones" Notleigh, from the pirate themed summer camp.

Wrangling nifflers was going to be a picnic compared to the cannonballs he felt he had just dodged.

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

Trunk
(The trunk link has been updated to 4th year status. The stats listed below are the ones to use for the Ball.)
Sta:10 || Eva:8 || Str:8 || Wis:10 || ArcP:5 || Acc:7
Perfectionist 1 & 2 || Evasive Maneuvers
Interacts: @EmmaLee LeDames @Hanako Tone

ACTION: Meeting Sara Kohana officially and retrieving his wand

January 7th 2024

Dialogue
English: #e22400
Spanish: #fdc700

Stats: Sta 4 Eva 6 Str 3 Wis 8 Arc 6 Acc 8
Abilities: None yet
Trunk

"I'm a half-blood too. But it was a little different for me too." she said.
I guess there are some exceptions in half-bloods but if a pure-blood wizard had the same childhood as me and Vic then I would be very surprised.

"Wow. Mae hyn mor cŵl. I'm Welsh too. I just said in Welsh languge this is very cool."
Welsh sounds a bit weird in my opinion and I'm sure I'm not gonna use it but the more you know. To be honest this ball was getting a bit boring. It was just the two of us floating around and chatting. A student nearby reminded us that this was Hogwarts and there is no such thing as boring at Hogwarts by exhaling fire. FIRE. WHAT THE HELL!
"Did you see that!?" I exclaimed, shellshocked.

I then saw small animals running around on the ground like rodents. They had black fur and a mouth like a platypus. People at the ball grew protective of their necklaces and jewellery. What were these things called again, nifflers, was it. If I remember correctly they love shiny stuff.
"Hey, look! Nifflers." I said maybe a bit too casually to Victoria.
For a split second nothing happened then the nifflers attacked. They jumped onto the students and tried to get away whatever shiny objects they could. Meanwhile, I was floating around with a bucket of popcorn and enjoying the show.

Action: Watching as the chaos unfolded.

WC: 236/200 Tags: @Victoria Lena Jones

Reducio

Uri's New Mask

Uri stood there racking his brain, just trying to figure out what in Merlin's glorious name he had to do to get this mask off. He just wasn't sure what to do. Was it magically stuck on? He had no idea and suddenly wished he'd paid more attention in Charms as Professor Fresnel probably had mentioned it at some point or another. For now, he was stuck with it when he was struck with an idea, but before he could act on it he realized that Siobhan was talking to him again.

"It was sent to me anonymously," Uri said and wished in doing so that he could shove the words back into his mouth. As he said it he just felt so stupid. Of course, he shouldn't have put it on. "Yeah, sounds pretty stupid when I was it out loud. I don't know why I put it on." He said with a huge cringe that would have been very visible had the mask not been stuck on his stupid face. "So yeah, it definitely seems like a cruel prank," he said in a frustrated tone. "I just don't understand, I've been so busy studying I haven't really gotten to know anyone well enough for them to want to do this to me." He said as he tried to think of who would do such a thing to him, "At least I don't think."

He decided to follow Siobhan to wherever she was meandering. She was nice enough to talk to, even if she had just socked him one. Suddenly it hit him, he'd been so caught up in the moment he'd completely forgotten to check on Seamus, "Oh shit," he exclaimed and reached up, carefully removing the fez from his head. He carefully turned it up inside and checked inside. Seamus was curled up, sleeping soundly. He suddenly realized that Siobhan was probably very confused and he angled the hat towards Siobhan so she could see Seamus sleeping. "This is Seamus, I thought it might be a cool party trick to pull a rabbit out of the hat," he giggled at his own joke, "But, uh, other events intervened," he chose not to blurt out that she'd just punched him in the face.

He decided it was time to put his plan into action. He carefully restored the fez and Seamus to their rightful place on his head. "Speaking of, I've had an idea if you wouldn't mind assisting me," he paused as he put his plan into action. He screwed up his face in concentration, so much so that it would be visible in his eyes as he did it. He could feel his chin changing, becoming smaller and more pointed. There was now space on the jawline of the mask that would make it easier for Siobhan to grip onto. "I know it might hurt, but I really want this mask off," he said as he began explaining what he was trying to do, "You should be able to grip under both sides around my chin. At the same time, I'll work my hand under my chin and hopefully, we can get it off together." He thought it sounded logical, and she seemed to be willing to help.

Action: Helping Siobhan remove his mask

STA 5 | EVA 3 | STR 3 | WIS 7 | ARC 7 | ACC 5
Metamorphmagus

Interacting: @Reginald Drake, @Siobhan McCarty
Mentioning: N/A

Roleplaying as Akira Shimizu from Mahoutokoro
Outfit: Clothing Mask

Japanese / English

Little could help Sara in the onslaught of anxiety that washed over him as the words left his lips. And like many of his other intense emotions, they tend to physically express themselves through a dash of menacing eyes and deep frowns. It should be a familiarised routine by now—the barrage of guilt, and shame, pushing his nerves into overdrive. If not for the tiny girl riding on his back, he probably would have turned on his heel and simply left the boy, not wanting to make him uncomfortable with his presence. His shoulders were so stiff already that it was hard to tell if he was extra upset by Stephan’s reaction to Sara’s socially inept greeting. I was all too familiar with why he was being looked at with an expression like that. He didn’t blame Stephan. And he couldn’t particularly shame himself too much either for invoking such a reaction. It was hard to shake off the ache in his chest, still. A profuse apology was just on the tip of his lips, but he held himself back. Unsure if it would only make him feel worse.

Thankfully, Emmalee did a lot of the talking. Explaining everything that happened from A - Z. Even taking up the opportunity to shrink the roots right back to earth. Freeing Stephan, finally. And introducing them 10 better than Sara ever could. His frown softened ever so slightly at her mention of him being a knight. He wanted to say if anything, she was the knight. She managed to put people at ease just by being there. An inner strength that only took a minute for him to admire. He simply helped her with her shoes and carried her to where she needed to go. He was more convenient than the qualities associated with a knight. But he kept his thoughts to himself and simply enjoyed the now warm feeling in his chest at her appreciation.

He didn’t get to linger with his thoughts for too long before Stephan completely took him by surprise, repeating his name in a way that was different from earlier. He didn’t say anything at first, taken aback. Blinking slowly as Stephan recalled an event they both shared. It took a moment, but once Sara got it, the tension in his face faded slightly. “Ah….Ilvermorny…” he said in recognition. It was hard to tell if he was happy by the slight familiarity, but judging from how his face relaxed to its usual sharp look, it would have been good. He slouched his shoulders a bit in slight guilt at the memory of the event. It was not the best time for him. But telling Stephan he was too busy internally crying and speaking broken French to the chess pieces to notice too much about his opponents. “It's… nice to meet you. Better than..when at the chess board..” he managed to utter, each word a rough gruff, trying to hide his hesitation to talk about the hex wizard. “You have ..a really amazing memory”, he complimented, genuinely impressed he could recognise Sara all these months later. Much to his relief, that seemed to be the last of the Hexwizard conversation. Sara decided to focus on the relief that Stephan wasn’t as on edge as before. And he knew he had Emmalee to thank for that.

Sara found himself genuinely admiring the way Stephan conducted himself. And how grateful he was that his looks and demeanour didn’t discourage Stephan from doing so. It was so ..warm and excitable. His words flowed like running water. Sara was able to listen to his words but did not have the proper time to form an English sentence to respond. Only managing a short, “Ah..un” he nodded. "un" (うん) for a more casual "yeah". From Wikihow, 'How to say Yes and No in Japanese

Watching in both awe and slight confusion as Stephan walked away to retrieve his wand. He first turned to look at Emmalee, tilting his head slightly. “ …I like his ..energy” Sara admitted in a lighter tone, a significant lack of tension in his stature now compared to earlier. “You have very nice friends. You both look close. Bestfriends?” He curiously asked. he looked back at Stephan retrieving his wand. “ ..we ..just.. stand here..?”

Abilities

|| Terrible Presence || Lovely Creature || Fearless || Evasive Meneuvers I || Rebound | |

Stats

Stamina: 5 || Evasion: 16 || Strength: 15 || Wisdom: 3 || Arcane Power: 10 || Accuracy: 10

Action: Talking to @Emmalee LeeDames and @Stephan Schwartz @AngelFyre McCubbin. Still giving Emmalee a Piggyback (ooc: sorry it took a while > _ > )
Mentioning: neiup

Attire:

Reducio

Interactions:

Reducio

@Evelynn Decipio and others participating with her.

Stats:

Reducio

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

Action:

Reducio

Leaving the party.

Anthony had been lost in his thoughts for a while before he snapped out of it. He hadn't realized that he had fallen silent while all the others were still talking and socializing. He remembered grabbing a drink from that girl whose accent he could barely understand and taking a sip of it realized that it was pumpkin juice. It had a nice sweetness to it and wasn't too hard on the pumpkin. However, he also noticed several other people gathering around. All of them looked much older than he was and he honestly sort of froze, sitting there and listening.

"Oh, no. How embarrassing!" Anthony thought. He was just getting used to being around people his own age, but these guys were much older than he was and he started to feel nervous. "Luckily, they didn't seem to notice me to much. A benefit of being small I guess." He said to himself. The sun was beginning to set and Anthony was beginning to feel tired. "Surely another pumpkin juice would help me wake up a bit more, or maybe just some good-ol-fashion coffee." But then he realized. "Oh, shoot!" He said to himself. "I have a duel tomorrow against Slytherins." He honestly was pretty nervous about that and came to the party to try and get himself to relax, but it turns out staying up late to try and have fun just made him all the more nervous.

Anthony carefully snuck away and out of the party. "Not only do I need to rest, but I also need a plan for the duel! I might not have time! Oh, no, Oh, no, Oh no!" "As he headed past the wooden gates to the party and past the few groups of students who stayed outside he began to feel exhausted." "Or Maybe..." he thought, yawning. I could just go to sleep and make a plan tomorrow. He didn't like that idea, but it was probably his only one at this point. Anthony finally left the party area and started heading back to Hogwarts with only the moon lighting his path there...

Surprised he stared, perhaps foolishly, a bit startled at the others' boldness. It wasn’t that Dorion was shy, or avoided attention, but this type of boldness still felt so new even months after finally getting together.

…But he couldn’t say it was a bad feeling. Even if his heart was beating all the bit faster and his cheeks felt a tad warmer. The moment was broken not seconds later though as Dorion called him a freak!

“Freakishly?” He squawked, forcing down laughter as he took the hit with dramatic grace. “Ouch Sweetheart, here I thought you liked at least one of us being able to reach the top shelves~” Still, he did as bid despite the unwarranted insults, lips quirked up in a amused smile as he gave into his partners demands and slowly leaned down the few extra inches he still lorded over the other-

Only to have his own thoughts betraying him! Flying away like static with not a single teasing remark or fancy compliment to cover up the hitch in his breath and frantic leap of his heart currently doing its best imitation of drowning in the sudden flash of love that went through him as Dori pulled back. Quietly fixing his mask in place like it was nothing, like they hadn’t just started a very dangerous game here because by now they should have begun to realize how foolish Elsian got when it came to affection.

And he stared, internally at war between kissing them one last time before they went in there and admiring Dorion becoming someone else just for a moment as the mask finally fixed into place. Becoming Dawn, because Dorion had been right about the theme for them, like always and he’d be damned if the title didn’t compliment them like how the stars did the moon.

“With someone as dashing as you as my date?” He took the offered arm, “Always, my Dawn.”

༻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━༺

Wandering past the gate, he felt a deep sense of relief at having been fashionably late. Perhaps if he’d been less obnoxious in his quest for monopolizing Dori’s attention they’d have been here early even, but that would have meant having to work to find a key…and the boy was quite fine with less effort on his part. No no, any effort or energy he had was only for dancing with Dori.

With eyes only for Dori it was rather easy to ignore any and all crazy shenanigans or drama that was totally not happening as they wandered deeper into the ball. It was quite the sight, like most balls, but he had to admit this one was especially well done. Then again maybe that was because of who he was with.

He could hardly be blamed for a little favoritism, right?

Eyes catching the dance floor he smiled, looking to Dori as a thought popped up. Dancing was always a good start to the night, wasn’t it? A single dance to start it off right.

“Well then Creampuff.” He stepped away from Dori, and with a dramatic sweep of his arm towards the dance floor gave a silly bow to the other, mimicking a scene right out of a story book. “Would you do me the honor of a dance?” The boy peeked up with a grin, the regality of the mask and his outfit making the act all the more silly to witness.

“Promise to not step on your toes.” He mock whispered, as he slowly straightened from the bow. One hand offered to the other before wandering to the dance floor.

Date: 05/12/2024 Interacting/Mentioning: @Uri Davies@Reginald Drake

Speaking: #556b2f Thoughts: #99b39c Translations: Reducio

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ "To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides" ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

Siobhan's head tilted in questionable concern. Was he not suspicious of anonymous mail? It seemed as though Uri had concluded on his own that the stickinesss of the situation was entirely his fault once the mask had been adhered to his face. It was honestly a little endearing that he was so trusting in what was given to him, especially after he had eaten the parfait that she had given him. She looked through his eyes and saw that behind the mask that there was some form of undeniable form of self assurance that the decision he had made about his mask was the right one. She tried not to laugh at this revalation but it was somewhat difficult not to. However, Uri seemed to have had quite enough of the shenanagins that had occured since the appearance of his mask.

Truthfully, she was still surprised that he was following her and talking to her. She hadn't planned to spend all evening with someone as she hadn't made enough of a connection with anyone to attend with them in a formal sense of friendship. However despite the earlier accident, Uri seemed to either require her help, or actually want to spend time with her and-

Oh... come to think of it where had their other companion Reggie wandered off to? Siobhan stopped mid drink and looked around for the other boy clad in emerald green but found no trace of him. She frowned slightly having hoped to have more of a conversation with him. Her small spin had brought her attention back to Uri who had pulled his hat off of his head and was looking at something within it, similar to the way a muggle magician. She tried not to look to curious so as to give him some space if it was a private matter.

Upon his offer to look at whatever it was he was holding delicately in his hat, she wandered slightly closer so that she could observe whatever it was. Once she stood next to him, a small gasp exited her mouth as she gazed upon a snuggled up bunny with fur reminiscent of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. It was a fitting color for the rabbit considering their location at the moment. She felt her hand reach out to pet the little creature but she pulled back quickly, putting her hands behind her back to stop herself, like a child who had been reaching for something in the oven.

She snickered politely as Uri explained is reasoning for bringing his rabbit -Seamus- and she found it fun, not as embarrassed this time around when he mentioned the punch once again. She was slowly accepting that she would never live this down between the two of them. However she was fully pulled from her thoughts as Uri propositioned her for help with his mask. He had managed to create a handle of some sort by which she would be able to grab and lift up.

"Of course, just let me-" Siobhan offers as she steps closer and removes the other glove from her hand, not wanting to get dirt on whatever was left of his face from under the mask. She stowed her glove in her pocket under the plethora of honking daffodil bulbs, pebbles, and weeds from the parfait concoction she had made earlier.

"Ready? I apologize if my hands are too cold- Unfortunate side effect of handling ice. Siobhan joked with a bemused smile as she hooked her thin fingers under the entryway that he had made for her. Thankfully he had made it a sizable entry and her fingers were able to slip under the mask with relative ease. She tried not to touch him as she gripped the mask but it was easier said than done.

"Stop me if anything hurts." She instructed with a firm tone in her voice as she began to pull upwards, praying that she and Uri combined would be able to remove this clearly painful and dfficult situation from their experience at the ball.

sta 5 | eva 7 | str 7 | STATS | wis 6 | arc 4 | acc 6

Action: Attempting to pull Uri's mask off with him

ACTION:
Conversing with Stephen and Sara

STAMINA: 7 | EVASION: 7 | STRENGTH: 3 | WISDOM: 8 | ARCPOWER: 8 | ACCURACY: 9
ABILITIES: Fearless | Calming Presence
INVENTORY: Wand, Lavender Honey Candies, Blue butterfly embroidered handkerchief, first aid kit.

Calming Presence is in Effect
Allies:
AngelFyre McCubbin as Stephen Schwartz, Hanako Tone as Sara Kohana
Giving them +10% chance to auto-hit.

Basil held out his arms as Devon fell towards him. He caught her carefully and smiled.
"Looks like you finnaly fell for me." He said. Basil helped her stand up then noticed his arms on her sides. They were so close together that Basil could feel her breath. She smelled amazing and her dress sparkled. They both looked up and Basil leaned in closer. Devon looks amazing! He thought. Then he was kissing her. It was that first kiss with someone you love, not a silly game. Basil pulled back and smiled. Kissing Devon felt amazing. He felt like the happiest person alive. He kissed Devon again then took her hand.
"Do you want to get a drink?" Only then did he notice the nifflers prowling about. He grabbed some food and a strawberry drink. Basil wondered if he had missed anything else while he was in his little world with him and Devon. Basil looked around and took a sip from his drink. Other people seemed to be in distress or otherwise shooting spells. Shrugging he turned back to Devon and took another sip of his drink.
"This ball is turning out great don't you think?" Basil asked her. He sat down at a table with his drink and food. The nifflers were still running about.

Action: Drinking strawberry yakult tea refresher
Stamina -6|Evasion -5|Strength -4|Wisdom -8|Arcane Power -5|Accuracy -7
Steady Flyer