The Masquerade Ball Event Closed

This is a double post for Bridget Collins and dNPC Phylicia Stanwood.

Role-playing as Bridget Collins || Interacting with @Thora Larkston, @Griseldis Edelhardt, and @Jürgen Hess || Open to Interactions!

There was no telling how she knew. One minute the undersized pair was edging closer to a skirmish between several students, most of whom Bridget recognized from Quidditch, and the next she noticed something. Someone tall, who she didn't recognize in the least bit and was almost certainly not a Professor, pulled a silver flask out of his suit jacket. Before he even did anything, she knew something bad was about to happen, although what was the question.

And then the ballroom was aflame. The red-orange flashes lapped on the floor, fueled by the vodka from the flask and the combustible flooring and tables. Bridget would not pretend to be an expert on the dangerous element, but her duel had shown her at least some of the damage fire could do. However, that had been in a controlled environment and here--here mass destruction was just waiting to happen.

What the duel had taught her, though, was that being on fire was not a pleasant experience, at least when considered in a literal sense. And at that very moment, a boy was caught by the flames, meaning not only was his possibly expensive costume at risk, but his very life.

Her shortness had at least one advantage in that it made her sprint across the ballroom much more manageable. Add that to the fact she was naturally fast, good at dodging, and wearing sneakers, and she didn't get burnt at all. Bridget would not pretend to have a hero complex, and the idea of saving the whole ballroom was beyond her, but she could help out individuals.

"Extinguo," the girl enunciated, drawing her laurel wood wand and moving it in the shape of a 'w' with rounded corners. How ironic her wand, with its flame-design carvings, was being used to (hopefully) extinguish a fellow student. At the same moment, another girl who she thought perhaps she'd seen before in classes cast the same spell. Between the two of them, with any luck they'd be able to prevent the poor student from being burnt to a crisp.

Action: Cast the Extinguishing Charm (Extinguo) on Jurgen Hess

Role-playing as dNPC Phylicia Stanwood || Interacting with @Thora Larkston (Karilyna Kawahara), @Teiki Laurent (Astrid Kovac and Teiki Hogwarts student), and @Katrina Walker (Iris Fields)

Karilyna was not okay. Something was off with Phyllis' friend, but what she didn't know. What the redhead did know was that her friend suddenly looked pretty bad, paler, scared. "Are you okay?" she mouthed so the intended recipient was the only one who could see it. She wasn't positive, but if this was at all similar to Phyllis' mini panic attack with the smoke, Karilyna probably didn't want attention drawn to herself.

Out loud, she responded to the other girl's suggested course of action. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good to me. The sooner we get Iris to someone that knows what they're doing, the better. But, uh… I don't think we should just leave her here… Maybe two of us can stay and two can go get a Professor?" It seemed like a fairly good plan to her. Naturally, Teiki, the Hogwarts student, should be tasked with staying as she seemed to know Iris pretty well despite going to a different school. Leaving herself or Astrid with the Hogwartian could be awkward because Karilyna was the only one who had any previous contact with her, but it seemed like she might need to get away from the current situation for whatever reason it was bothering her. Phyllis really didn't want to be separated from her best friend, especially considering all that had happened in the ballroom while they were still inside, but she would do whatever. One way or another, this was an issue she would resolve.

RPing as: Saskia Nicholson

Mentions: The Giant Situation, Griseldis Edelhart, Bridget Collins | Interactions: @Ayden White @Adrian Calhoun

Saskia shrugged. "Well, we could always get some food, or find other people to talk to. Although maybe it'd be best if we went somewhere a bit quieter if you're still uncomfortable with everything that's happening, she suggested. It was true that the ball was getting busier as time passed by, as more latecomers came in the room, which meant it would have been difficult to figure out exactly what else was going on. If they went somewhere with less people, maybe it would have also made talking easier between her and Ayden.

But before they could do anything else, another girl who came up to them. Saskia wasn't very sure if she knew her, but her suspicions were confirmed after the girl introduced herself. As she listened to Adrian talk, Saskia couldn't help but grin at her. Her stammering wasn't something to be made fun of, but she did have to admit that it was kind of cute. Not that stammering in itself was cute, but there was something about the girl that made it adorable when she did it. And the girl was rather captivating to look at, with her pretty looking blue dress and her mesmerizing blue eyes that shone beneath her mask. But she probably shouldn't be staring at the girl for too long. She needed to say something.

"No, you're not intruding at all. I'm Saskia, and that's Ayden over there." She gestured towards the other boy. "We were just talking, but you can join in if you want-"

And that was when it happened. A fire swept across the ballroom floor, where a boy was caught in the middle of the flames, and there were a set of giants who were in the middle of kidnapping what seemed to be the Ravenclaw Beater. She shouldn't have been surprised. All those rumours of past balls going wrong, and the First Year Graduation Party from last year should have been a clear indicator that these events hosted in this school would always go wrong. Of course, she had no idea why it kept happening, and if she did know, she would definitely have tried to find a way to stop these incidents in the first place. But then again, what could a twelve year old child do in these situations? It was obvious the professors wouldn't allow a child to tackle these serious issues, but really, what else could they do if there were other kids who were in immediate danger? Wait for someone to save them? No. She had to take action. There were already many other kids stepping up to help out, and she would have to help as well if she didn't want this ball to descend into further chaos.

"Sorry to cut this conversation short, but we're going to need to stop this from escalating any further. If you can help in any way you can, whether you want to get rid of the fire, stop the giants, get the other kids to safety, or whatever it is, do it. Otherwise, just try to stay safe and get away from the fire as much as you can. I'll be extinguishing the fire if you need me," she instructed, giving the two a serious look. She had a responsibility now, and she needed to get to it as quickly as possible.

Once she was done talking, she walked over to where there were already a few people trying to get rid of the fire. If the situation was less dire, maybe she would have made some kind of conversation with them, but there wasn't any time to delay. Right now, extinguishing the flames was her first priority. Pulling out her wand, she waved it towards the flames. "Extinguo!"

Actions: Extinguishing the fire.

Outfit: Dress | Mask | Shoes

Mentions @Reid Kovacs @Adam Harringtom @Eris Fawley

Eri passes out from a panick attack 

Dale was quite bored, he was waiting for a good time to approach Lark since she seemed a bit bust talking to her friends and all, he didn't want to interrupt them. He was starting to think he was going to spend the rest of the night just standing around... not doing much of anything, it seemed like the professors were also getting bored since Dale saw many of them leave, he considered leaving for a bit.

Well, that was until a half-giant tried to kidnap someone. There was lots of yelling and shouting going on from the direction, Dale at first was shocked, he didn't really expect this to happen, but then he remembered... this is a Hogwarts ball, Dale remembered what happened last year at the blossom festival, even if he wasn't there. Dale reached down to his socks, tucked away inside of his right one was his wand... he might need that later.

Dale rested his face on his index and thumb finger... If he remembered right, the only thing that was needed to make this a true Hogwarts dance they would need a fire, and fire came as the half-giant tossed a lighter onto a liquid, the floor lit ablaze and the kid with.

Dale's first instinct was to take off his suit, leaving behind just a plain white button-down shirt, he would be less hot, he put the suit over his shoulder, he hoped his dad could understand if it got damaged in any way. He knew what he had to do next... Lark, He had seen Santario had left after she had got injured. The only other person he had to worry about was Lark...

"Dale!!"

He heard Lark's voice call out to him, he followed to where he had heard the voice come from, Lark!! He frantically looked around for her, "Dale! DALE!" He looked around frantically around for her until he finally caught a glimpse of her yellow dress. He ran over to her and grabbed onto her, she looked scared and worried "Lark! Jesus Lark, listen you gotta get outta here!" Dale looked behind the floor was still very much on fire, some people were trying to open up the door, he looked back to Lark "Don't worry about me... I'm going to try to help out a bit." He reached down to his sock and grabbed his wand out... he sighed,"yet another party ruined by fire" Dale thought to himself. He finally let go of Lark and turned around, someone was trying to put out the fire, now the only issue was the giants, Dale knew he would regret this in the future, but at least the spell would only make the gaint dance... he pointed his wand directly at the giant the had tossed the lighter and yelled out the word "Tarantellagra!"

Action: casted Tarantellagra on the giant by the door

What was it with Hogwarts events ending in tragedy? There was always something, whether it was fire that burnt down the forest, students dying or more. While they were challenging to deal with, at least they never came as a surprise. Maya thought that this time around would be a charm, but it seemed not so much. No, this time, there were giants that decided to take on the student body. How this all came to be was beyond Maya to the point that she could care less. What excited her most, though, was the thought of war.

There seemed to be many students that left the ballroom, however, there were still enough in the ballroom to watch over. The worst part was that there were only two adults: her and Boniface. This should be fun, she thought to herself, wondering how the two would handle themselves in a situation like this. Maya spent two years in such situations whether they were bombings or full-on combat. Giants can be handled.

She looked down at her dress. Rolling her eyes, she knew that this was not going to happen in this outfit. She grabbed the hem of her dress below the waist and pulled it off, leaving the top of the dress and parts of the bottom torn. She then took off her shoes, her feet barefoot on the ballroom floor. She looked like an amazon woman ready to fight. Her wand, she pulled out of the top of her dress where it fit nicely between her two breasts. Warm, she held onto her wand in caster position and quickly observed her surroundings.

She saw what seemed to be two half-giants in the ballroom. One was grabbing a student while the other one was standing by the door. They were trapped. Perfect, she sarcastically joked to herself. On top of all this, students were rummaging around the room, casting spells that they thought to be morally working for the situation that was happening around them. The worst part of it all was that they were separating the professors from one another. They were making it hard to take control of the room.

Maya, located by the food and drinks was about to move forward towards the half-giants, pushing students back, when she saw something fly towards her area of the room. It was a vodka bottle on fire-- a bomb. Maya saw that there were a few students around the front of the table, "GET DOWN!" she shouted, and she quickly pushed whatever students who were in the target zone out of the way, throwing them to the ground. Getting up quickly from the floor, she saw that she had missed one, @Jorah Moussa. He got the backlash of the bomb and his clothing caught on fire (along with the dance floor around them).

While the dance floor was on fire, her priority was on the student who was slowly 'cooking'. Her wand pointed at the student and before she could say her words, there was another student who decided to use the extinguishing charm on the flamed student. She nodded at the Slytherin and moved on to the next situation: the ballroom fire.

How easy would it have been to just put fire extinguishers in every room? she thought, wanting to break glass and use a legit fire extinguisher to put out the flames. But now, it was up to skill to ensure that the spell worked. The fire was growing and she needed to use a lot of focus to ensure that it would be put out to keep the students safe from burning. She saw a lot of students who were doing the same, but the more the merrier in this case.

Pointing her wand at the fire, she focused on the extinguishing charm, a spell with no incantation. Even as the smoke began to build, she took a deep breath and using her energy, she cast the spell across the ballroom around her. She made sure to get as much of the fire as she could. But then there was another problem: the smoke. As the fire went out, the smoke began to get thicker. Immediately, Maya turned around, grabbed her high heel shoes and aimed herself at the large glass window. As hard as she could, she threw her shoe at the window, creating a large hole of fresh air. One can see the smoke beginning to slowly trickle out of the ballroom. She grabbed her other shoe and did the same, having it thrown in the same general area, making the hole much larger with the help of cracks.

Maya used extinguishing charm on ballroom floor near where the vodka bomb exploded and threw two shoes into the window to create a large, cracked hole for fresh air and for the smoke to trickle out of the ballroom.

Maya always wondered what the end-goal of dueling was in Hogwarts. All the students were running around casting spells left to right. Some at the same target and some just in general. This was not how she would have taught the class if she were in charge. Taking in one's surroundings was far more important than just throwing out as many spells as one could from their wand. No one was working together in her opinion; it was a mess.

"KEEP EXTINGUISHING THE FIRE," she commanded the students. There were a small few who were working hard at it. Perhaps her order will get more to do the same. Not every student will be able to master a spell that has no incantation. Every child is different, and the more that conduct the spell, the higher the chances can be to ensure that it is extinguished.

Maya left the students to take care of the fire and made her way towards the giant that was blocking the door. The troll was strong. How strong, Maya cannot know. She had never attempted to fight against a troll. And thinking about Boniface, who knew what his history was with dueling and fighting creatures that were not human.

She had to think... There was something important about giants, even if they are half-breed. Not only did they have super-strength and were classified as smart beings, there was something else about them as well. Taking a minute, she observed the students attacking the giant. They were using many different types of spells but nothing happened. Could it be that they were producing weak spells? No... There was something else... Come on Maya... What did you learn in your days in Defense Against the Dark Arts... she thought. Closing her eyes and listening to the students cast their spells along with nothing happening the giants, it clicked.

"SPELLS DO NOT AFFECT THEM!" she shouted to the students who were able to hear. There needed to be a different plan than spells and charms. Nothing magic was going to work on them... She then realized what this had to be. This needed to be a fight between creature and human. This was a muggle fight.

Maya ran towards @Boniface Murtagh MacTavish and ordered him the following, "I have a plan, but make sure the giants do not take or hurt anyone. I'll be right back," she said, and quickly she ran away from him. She needed a weapon... Anything. What she would have dreamed to have a dagger or gun with her like when she was in war. But that isn't the case. She had to make something out of nothing.

What to use... What to use..., she thought to herself, mouthing the words. She looked around the room, looking through the students, fire and smoke. She saw a chair flipped over and she had an idea. Putting her wand 'away' in between her breasts, Maya took a chair nearest her, flipped it over and using her elbow and strength, disconnected two legs from its place. "Perfect," she said to herself. But this was only the body of her weapon. She needed something sharp and strong.

The smoke was lessening as the students were extinguishing the fire. Maya was reminded by why the smoke was thinning down. It was the large hole in the window. And with a hole in the window comes large, thick shards. Barefoot, she made her way carefully, her left hand carrying both legs of the chair, towards the window where there were large shattered shards on the floor. Using her eyes, she looked for two that seemed strong.

Many were small, but there were a select few that were thick and sharp. Maya carefully reached and grabbed them. She nearly lost her balance which made her fall slightly, her palm hitting smaller shards and got scratched up by them. She winced at the pain, but quickly ignored it. There was more that needed to be done than to worry about small cuts.

Her weapon was almost complete. She just needed to put it together. Looking around the room, she saw that there were no ropes that she could use. @Solomon Lear had made sure that this room was as uneventful as possible what with everything that has happened in the past during Hogwarts celebrations.

She looked back at her outfit and smiled. Her appearance being appropriate was not what mattered the most, it was the safety of the children. She ripped her dress some more into strips and began to piece together the shards with the chair legs. After a few minutes, they were complete. She banged each one against the floor to check their strength, and they were doable.

Maya ran back to Boniface and gave him one of her handmade spears, her full legs bare. "Are you ready?" she asked assuming he knows what is coming next. Maya was breathing heavy, but still in control of her body. Her adrenaline was rising at the ready of attack. There were two giants in the room and luckily, the students were gathering their attention with their spells that do not affect the giants.

"We need to get the students out of the ballroom," she quickly said, looking towards the giant by the door where most of the students were paying most of their attention towards. "Let's go," she ordered the man, and she made her way towards the giant, hoping he would follow after her.

Interacting with @Hugh Lowe and @Reid Kovacs
Mentions @Xailah Alptraum

The warm words of comfort showered over her. Hugh hadn't changed much in those two years so far. He still had a way to perfectly reassure her. He made her feel as if she was nearly untouchable. No danger would get close to her with him by her side.

He shielded the bright light of the fire from her that were starting to sting. Some spots on her bare shoulders seemed abit scorched. Carefully, the little dhampir pulled her fluffy white sjawl over them. No need to get hurt more.

Hugh was a man with a plan. And this time was no different. As she eyed up at him she could only feel like he grew even taller. Soon, she'd have to yell at him for him to notice her. The Half-Giant who blocked the door, soon got attacked by another student. With her claws she gave him a taste of his own medicine. Impressive.

Nico looked around her before they decided to run towards the door. Everyone was fighting these guys. No one wanted people to get hurt even more. They didn't want another Ball of Fire. It brought a small smile to her lips as she wiped away her tears.

Hugh was right. She was fast and rather agile aswell... However, her outfit kind of stopped her from being... agile and swift. Quickly, Nico untied her mask and tossed it aside. Pulling up the bottom of her dress to the height of her knees and tied it in a knot at her hips so she wouldn't trip as easily.
Just like her dress, she wrapped her fluffy sjawl around her neck, covering her shoulders from any painful flames or light. Now she was battle ready.

With a nod she followed Hugh towards the door that was now free for them to attack. Nico herself wasn't very strong but atleast she could keep an eye on the Half-Giants so they wouldn't surprise them. As soon as Hugh started to throw his shoulders in the wood of the door, someone else joined in to help. A rather tall boy, almost as tall as Hugh, had run over to help push open the door. Nico nodded at him as she then sticked close to them, her iceblue eyes glaring at the Half-Giants.

She was getting hungry too... Oh no...

Attacking the giant trying to take Jorah. Cast Flipendo on a table to send it flying into the giant's face and upper body.

Interacting with @Illowy Magnard and @Jorah Moussa

Chris still had his hand out in preparation for her reply, but as she was about to speak some commotion to the side of them started to pick up. The boy looked to his right to see what the interruption was all about, something which made him narrow his eyes in anger. A bigger man was trying to get a hold of a small Ravenclaw to the side of him, balling at him to follow his commands. That was certainly no teacher, nor one of those American tutors, but a person who wasn't supposed to be here at all. He noticed that the giant wasn't working alone, one of his buddies was blocking the doorway to prevent anyone from leaving "Get the kid outta here you dumbass!" shouted the half giant, who was clearly starting to get attention.

The slytherin turned back to Illowy, a slight frown on his lips as he slowly withdraw his wand from his sleeve "Excuse me Illowy, I cant let this stand anymore. When i'm finshed with them we can finish what we started" grunted the kid as he respectfully nodded to her, before turning to his right and walking towards the scene. The crowd in front of him was dense and clustered, something which made his movement slow and almost turtle like as he got bumped around like a pinball. From what he could see through the crowd was the kid managing to slip through the half- giants grip, giving him a chance to grab a hold of a weapon. Chris was only a few feet away until all chaos broke loose, a big explosion erupted on the dance floor, sending fire in all directions around the ballroom. The people around him went into a frenzy, everyone started to push and run like a scared deer in headlights. One pupil was going so fast he almost made Chris fall to his back, but luckily he manged to keep his balance by bumping into someone else. There was one thing for certain though, the heat had picked up considerably and the smoke was starting to fill the room at a fast rate.

His eyes darted around him uneasy as he looked at the fiery inferno around him, people were beginning to already do their part to put out the flames but it clearly wasn't enough right now. That's when something crossed his mind, Illowy! he looked back to the spot where they were standing but their was no sight of the girl, maybe she had ran to safety already or the crowd was blocking off his view of her, hopefully it was the first answer. But there was nothing he could do right now, he had to help the Ravenclaw first, then focus on finding her. Chris grunted loudly and turned back to the giant, continuing his path towards him. He noticed that most of the kids were focusing on the giant blocking the door, with very few putting their attention on the aggressive one. The kid who had slipped away managed to find a wooden leg, trying to defend himself from the mans clutches. A large shout from behind him indicated that spells didn't work against the giant, it literally did nothing to them as he watched someone fire a spell at its body. There had to be something that damaged the giant, it had to be an object of some kind, something that would cause considerable amounts of pain. An object on the floor caught his attention, a long broken off piece of wood was laying on the floor, as well as a piece of table cloth that had been blown along side it. This was going to be something risky, but it could of been the difference maker in this fight. He quickly knelt down and grabbed the wood, before wrapping the cloth around it and tying it in order to secure the wrap.

He picked up the wood and gazed over to some fire blazing in front of him, slowly placing the wood/cloth combination over the fire so it can set a light, forcing a small flame to come the cloth. Throwing this thing at the half giant would be crazy, since it could hit another student easily. He had to get close... "EVERYONE BACK AWAY FROM THE FLAME!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to avoid everyone that came near as he grew closer to the man. Eventually, there was a clear way of view ahead of him. With a loud grunt he rushed forwards and extended the edge of the wood towards the giants side, trying to scorch and distract him from the boy "Argh! get away from him!"

Actions: Chris tries to jab the half giant attacking Jorah in the side with the scorching hot tip of the wood.