Pre-Ball Prep! Closed

Interacting with @Katrina Walker and Boomerang
Mentions Everyone.

May opened her eyes suddenly. Fall Masquerade Ball. Now.

She had opened them up after a very long thinking time in the common room, which was something of a habit that she had taken since last summer. Depressed? Do it. Bad grade? Do it. But today was different. Today, October 16th 2020, May had decided to think about the oncoming ball that was about to happen in.....three hours, and thirty minutes. Ever since she had entered Hogwarts, May had decided to force herself to believe that these events; balls, dances, fiestas....even Quiddich-could be dangerous. And sometimes, she was right. Like the 2020 Blossom Ball. Her partner had abandoned her, Ana had been literally on fire and everyone had been hurt. She had saved a girl from further damage from a mosp and had seen punching and blood. How terrible that sounded, yet again, it had to come...
But now, May thought it would be different. She was going with Benjamin from Beauxbatons, going to hang out with some friends, dance...all seemed perfect....at a glance. The Hufflepuff looked at her peachy-pink dress, her moon shaped necklace, and her silvery mask. And she felt confident.

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Banging the door open, May entered the abandoned classroom num. 221 and smiled, feeling quite suffocated. "Kat! Saw your posters. Came with a few things for you to decorate my messy hair." the Hufflepuff would wink. Since when did she have messy hair? It had always been very well kept and beautiful and wavy. But May liked to joke about such affairs....

It seemed like they weren't alone. There was Boomerang, of course, (May would try and scratch behind his ears before waving at everyone in the room) and a boy she did not know, and other girls she didn't even remotely remember, and of course, the girl that had been dancing at the Blossom Ball when everyone was in the middle of being literally killed by flames and mosps. Nevertheless, she greeted them and went to a table nearby, searching into her bag for nail polish (transparent) and something for her hair.

Interacting with: @Katrina Walker @Amara Dragamior

Jess sat on her bed with her legs crossed underneath her, crisscross-applesauce style, drumming her fingers against her calves as the freshly applied paint on her nails dried. Occasionally she would lift her hand up to her mouth and blow gently on her nails, impatient to finally be able to properly use her fingers again. She held her hands out in front of her now, admiring her handiwork.

Jess didn't paint her nails often, almost never, in fact, but that didn't mean she wasn't good at it. She was an artist, after all, and her nails were really just a canvas waiting for their coat of color. For today, Jess had settled on a simple design: a vibrant white coat, with a small band of gold paint lightly brushed across her pointer and middle fingers on each hand. It had been a bit tricky getting the neat lines onto her right hand, as Jess wasn't much accustomed to painting with her left, but she had managed to make it work.

Satisfied that her nails were now dry and ready for operational use, Jess sprang out of bed and brushed some hair out of her face. She had braided it back into two tight braids after wetting and brushing it thoroughly that morning, but somehow, a good number of her baby hairs still managed to slip out and hang irritably, but not necessarily un-appealingly, in front of her eyes. It had been uncomfortable walking around in the braids the whole day, at first, but Jess had gotten used to it. What were a few hours of mildly undesirable hair choices, after all, especially when they guaranteed her hair would form rich and pretty curls later on for the actual ball? It was annoying, sure, but it was a sacrifice Jess had made herself comfortable with making. Plus, walking around in braids would essentially force Jess out of her comfort zone and possibly grow her confidence, which was something that the young Hufflepuff was definitely looking to do.

Crouching over her trunk and pulling out the white eyeliner she had written to ask her parents to send her, Jess turned and walked out of the Hufflepuff common room. She had originally planned to just do her makeup in the room, but the realization that she probably needed a mirror to actually see what she was doing had prompted her to find an alternate solution and a certain flyer advertising a getting-ready event hosted by Katrina had come to mind. It wouldn't hurt to have someone familiar nearby to help her out with the makeup if need be, after all.

As she shuffled down the stairs, Jess's mind went to the last time she had seen Katrina, when the Gryffindor third-year had showed her her injuries from the last Hogwarts ball and had warned her never to attend one. Jess had thought about this advice often after finding out about the August Ball, and even now felt a strand of guilt twisting around in her stomach for blatantly disregarding Katrina's advice. She wasn't ignoring it, really, as Jess had a plan. A plan to stay safe. There were two ball locations, one clearly more dark and sinister even just based on how it was described on the ball cards. So, if the students were attacked, it made much more sense for those at that ball to be the targets... so then, if Jess stayed away from there and just went to the light-hearted costume party part of the ball, she would be fine! …Right?

Walking up to the room mentioned on the ball prep's advertisement, Jess glanced up hesitantly at the number of the classroom and tried to spot who was within the room before walking in. Her eyes landed first on Katrina, as she was a familiar face amongst the strangers, then slowly took in the other girls and the one boy already standing near the tables cluttered with various makeup and hair-styling products. Jess's mind went briefly to the possibility of throwing caution to the wind and just dying her hair, right here, right now, but the thought never even got to the point of seriousness. Such a drastic change in appearance would definitely require the allowance of her parents first, and the girl wasn't about to start experimenting with something as important as hair color mere hours away from her first Hogwarts ball.

"Hey, Katrina!" she called out as she neared the Gryffindor. She had half a mind to joke about how hosting a pre-ball prep event probably wasn't the best way to discourage people from attending the thing, but she didn't really think it was the best idea to start making fun of Katrina on what was only their second meeting. "We can get ready here, right? I'm just gonna be doing my stuff over here... don't mind me, I guess." She let out a light laugh and sat down in front of the mirror, pulling out the paper from her pocket where she had sketched the design she wanted for her eyeliner. White was a bold choice, she knew, but it should end up matching beautifully with the rest of her outfit, helping to tie the whole getup together.

Now... she should probably start this before she took too long and ended up running out of time. There were still about three and a half hours left until the ball, yes, but Jess was fully aware of her tendency to leave things until the last minute and end up either messing them up because she then had to rush or just not getting them done at all. Plus, she had no way of knowing how long the makeup would actually take, since she had never done anything like this before, and there was still the styling of her hair and putting on of her costume to get through. Re-inspired in her goal to get the makeup done as soon as possible, Jess hovered the eyeliner uncertainly above her face before touching it to the tip of her eye and drawing a light line extending from a bit before the end of her eye to a bit past it. That looked good for now, right? Next, she drew a line on top of her eye, bringing it up a bit before she reached the end of her lashes. The line looked a bit shaky now, but it was fine. She then drew a line connecting the tip of the top line to the bottom of her eye, and looked over her work. Oh- oh no. That... didn't look like what she wanted. At all. Her reference picture had a pretty, solid frame drawn around the eye, and Jess's essentially looked like a disconnected squiggly line... this wasn't good. And she didn't have any makeup remover on her, either. Looking around in embarrassment, Jess told herself not to panic.

Eyeliner
Nails

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☆ Open To Interractions ☆

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Abilities

Metamorphmagus

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[font=Copperplate Gothic Light]Note: So Sorry for long post

Reducio

The barn owl had arrived at breakfast, seeming exhausted as it plopped down on his shoulder, dropping the small package wrapped in brown paper, his name written in the sloppy script which belonged to Rory Gray. A torn piece of notebook paper had been taped to the back of the package, a smear of red nailpolish marking it, as if his mother had been too impatient to let her nails dry before writing the note. “Kiss some girls,” the note said, the sharpie having bled through the paper in all directions.

At the Slytherin table, his older brother had received a similar looking package, and was currently looking at it with unmasked disgust, as if his royal highness couldn’t be bothered dealing with their mother. Earl had turned away, a weird feeling pooling in his stomach as he carefully found the pieces of tape holding the parcel together, and peeled them off, trying to keep the paper from tearing.

Hufflepuffs all around him had leaned closer, curious faces watching as he’d unwrapped the…suit. It was an elegant gray, with a yellow tie neatly folded beside it, sharply cut and made out of a stiff, expensive material. A wide smile had graced his lips as he’d run his hands over it, feeling the fabric rub against his palms. There was a folded dress shirt which had belonged to Mr. Gray from the looks of it, the shrinking spell she’d cast having avoided the sleeves.

The rest of the day had gone by in a blur, with Earl practically vibrating with the excitement. The castle was slowly getting decorated, ornaments being strung up and pumpkins being magiked to life. Between classes, the small boy would take the long way around, stopping to gape at the banners and mood lighting, eyes lit up and lips slightly parted in wonder.

His home had always been right about to fall apart, more than a hundred years old with the ever present ticking of clocks, sounding like the heart of a great beast. Now, instead of the constant clutter and having to hop over gears and toolboxes, being secluded to a small corner with only wooden planks hammered to the walls as a place to stash his belongings, Earl had a whole castle to explore.

Now, he’d never been good with his hands. He’d never been good at anything really, if you judged by what his father said about him to guests, and the way his brother spoke about him. Fragile and delicate, seemingly useless unless you wanted a nice decoration to your room. So, as you can imagine dear reader, his mask making hadn’t gone that well. After several hours of sitting on his bed with sowing supplies scattered all around and multi-colored feathers, jewels and paper, he’d given up, lying on his back with a small sigh and throwing a cloth clad arm over his eyes. He must have laid there for half an hour, eventually falling into an uneasy slumber, eyes moving underneath his lids, splayed out on the huge bed with pink glitter covering his clothes, skinny frame seeming so frail it might have unraveled if you breathed on him too hard. Pygmy puffs had flocked around him, settling down in his hair and the warmth of his sides and stomach, cuddling close to him.

Which was why he hadn’t heard the dorm room open and close, the soft padding of feet near his bed. The stranger was an older hufflepuff, with bright green hair which looked like it had been chopped with dull bladed scissors. He had dark black bags under his hollow eyes, and the studded black jacket he’d thrown on was hanging off his frame in a borderline unhealthy way. A third year like his brother, with his lips downturned in a permanent frown and long dirty nails. He was watching the pink puff on the bed, silvery mask clenched between his fingers so tightly it was a wonder it hadn’t snapped yet. With a jerky movement, as if he was a puppet and was having his strings pulled by a greater force, the boy tossed his mask on the bed, hitting a pygmy puff by accident and causing an offended squeak. After whispering something unprintable at the pink puffs, he opened the dorm door, and slipped outside as quietly as he’d entered.

A few moments later, Earl’s gray eyes fluttered open. He stretched like a cat.

A small, fluffy cat who smelled of oranges and strawberries. A soft whine escaped from between his slightly parted lips as the last of dreams left him, vivid colors fading as the autumn sunlight shone on his face.

Sunset had always been magical at Hogwarts, and tonight was no exception. The entire Hufflepuff room was lit up with a golden glow, which shone off the bunkbeds and onto the sleepy boy, seeming to caress his freckled face and ruffle his hair, warming his skin.

And then his eyes landed on the mask. And he instantly fell in love.

Finely crafted and spray painted with a dull silver, it was heavy, having been made out of a frigid metal which seemed to mold to his skin as he put it on. Beside the mask was a note, written in a curling script he did not recognize. “You’re welcome, idiot,” it said in a deep blue ink, curling script with flourishes where there needn’t be, and a beautifully drawn rose at the bottom. There was a raven perched on the ‘t’ along, and in the top right hand corner the date had been scrawled in.

That was how his outfit had come to be. Next came actually preparing for the ball. So now he was standing in front of the mirror in the Abandoned toilets, looking at his outfit critically. His hands went over his body carefully, smoothing out any creases and caressing the material of his jacket the way one would a beloved pet. It was the nicest thing he’d ever worn, let alone owned. The silver ring on his finger, borrowed from a Ravenclaw girl for the night, was gleaming in the pale light of the bathrooms as he carefully bent over to dig through his bag, looking for his makeup kit. He wasn’t normally this self-conscious. But no one had asked him to the ball yet.

Maybe it was strange, the way his mind worked; as he was putting on his gray eyeliner and having to stare at himself in the foggy mirror for the process not to go horribly wrong, loneliness and…something else, was starting to creep in. He’d spent so much time with himself back home, touch starved and having nobody for company but his own thoughts. His father didn’t like kids, liked no one but his clocks. At the end of every day, he had to exist around his father, get out his way on good days and completely disappear on the bad ones.

And he couldn’t do that anymore.

Making a snap decision, he put his stick of eyeliner in the back pocket of his jeans. So if what no one had asked him? That was the beauty of a ball. He was no wall flower, and wouldn’t allow himself to be gloomy. So throwing a smile on his face and the bag over his shoulder, our young boy slipped out of the washroom, not forgetting to place a bag of cookies on the sink. “For anyone who is feeling sad” the sticky note inside it read. The Abandoned Washrooms were a popular spot for those who wanted to cry undisturbed, and he’d stumbled onto way too many kids sobbing their hearts out, NOT to leave chocolate around. Chocolate made everything better, even if just for the instant it took to melt on your tongue.

He ended up walking inside the classroom where ball prep was taking place, bag full of makeup, hairbrushes and ties, clips and scarves, lipstick…yeah he was a makeup freak, and his mother had done nothing to stifle his strange obsession, giving him money for birthdays and whenever she came over. And considering how…spectacularly wealthy her family was, she had the right to do whatever the hell she wanted with her 1000 galleon weekly allowance. Yeah. She still had an allowance.
Shaking his head with an amused smile, Earl pushed the door open with the tips of his gloved fingers, calling out a cheerful “Helloooooo” to all those who were inside. “I brought makeup!!!”

Going over to one of the classroom tables, he set his back down and started pulling out makeup pallets, having to reach down into his bag and go nearly fully inside, defying all laws of gravity and physics, Colorful eyeshadow pallets, concealer, ten different shades of eyeliner lipstick and hair stuff were set on said table. One would wonder where in the world he used all that stuff, considering the only thing he ever wore was a light gray eyeliner which brought out his eyes in the most beautiful way, and maybe some clear cherry chapstick if he was feeling particularly daring.

And yet, there he was all set up like a beauty guru, having had to grab another table and pushed it against his first one so he could fit all his stuff. “Alright, if y’all want help I’m here!” he announced, picking up his own two sticks of eyeliner, one liquid, one in the form of a pencil, and a small hand mirror. The said mirror had a web of silver cracks all over it, and looked like he’d shattered it and then glued it back together in the clumsiest way possible. The moment he’d wrapped his fingers around the pencil, all the sadness he’d felt before washed away. No longer was he mourning his….well singleness. Instead, he was imagining his future youtube channel. He’d start off with “Hello, stars!” and do makeup tutorials, have an aesthetic and fashion advice forum… It would go brilliantly.
He was so caught up in getting the perfect wing on his liner, that it took several seconds for him to notice the person who approached him. “HI” he beamed, rainbow waving them.

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Stats

Stamina: 5| Evasion: 0 | Strength: 0 | Wisdom: 5 | Arcane Power: 10 | Accuracy: 10

Word Count: 1691

Charles Alluring has left the thread unless prevented
Hair

Time to Ball: 3 hours and 15 minutes

The girl [Elisabeth] who wanted her hair curled turned out to be rather helpful. Katrina was constantly checking the reference picture to make sure she was following it as close as she could. It wasn’t long before her hair was curled and looked quite exceptional, if Katrina did say so herself. The rod and the candle turned out to be a pretty useful tool, considering they had no other way to curl hair. Sure, there was probably a spell for it, but Katrina didn’t know it yet. “You are very welcome, stay safe!” Katrina waved and sat the curler down on the bench.

Katrina waved at May when she walked in and gestured to the table with the brooches. “Feel free to borrow one of the clips if you’d like!” Katrina didn’t necessarily offer to help put it in or fix up her hair yet, but she certainly would do so if May asked.

Katrina took a moment to survey the now bustling room, trying to remember what it was she was supposed to be doing, or who she was supposed to be helping. This certainly was helping with her mood. It was kind of odd that she was doing this, seeing as she wasn’t very keen on people coming to the balls. But, it would be worth it if she could just remind everyone to stay safe, perhaps get it in their heads. It at least took the edge of anticipation and worry off of her mind for now.

The Third Year heard her name being called and spun to see Jess, “Hi Jess!” Katrina bit her tongue remembering last time they had talked, Katrina had explicitly said not to go to balls. Well, that didn’t go every very well, had it? At least Jess would now to pay attention and stay safe, at least, Katrina hoped so. “Sure thing, there’s plenty of chairs to go around,” Katrina sort of joked, a real smile finding it’s way on her face.

A boy [Earl] with rather daring pink hair walked in with a full bag of who knows what. He announced that he had makeup and started setting that out on one of the spare tables. Katrina made a mental now to visit him before she packed up. It was a far better alternative to asking Interruption for help.

MERLIN! Katrina remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She speed-walked over to him [Charles] and watched as he set the bottle back down. “I- Oh, alright. Have fun at the ball, stay safe,” Katrina’s parting comments were a bit rushed. Hopefully, he had not left because she had gotten distracted.

Katrina realized that at the moment no one was asking for help with anything. She smiled to herself and grabbed a brush out of her sweatshirt pocket. (yes, I really just said that) She started brushing out her hair, gentle on the tangles. She sat on the outside of the group of people, eyes out for anyone else requesting help.

Interacting with everyone

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Interacting With: @Jess Malters, OPEN TO OTHERS
Mentioning: TBD
Makeup
Hex Color: #20681A

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[font=Blackadder itc]Coded by Rafael D'Spacito[/font]

Amara had finished up getting herself ready for the ball, and there was still a bit of time left before she had to change and meet Percy in the common room. Most people seem to be doing fine, having friends help or figuring it out themselves. Not feeling up for just sitting in her dorm, doing nothing, Amara looks around for something to do, blatantly ignoring the gaze of Katrina. Seeing a girl who appears to be a first-year struggling with her eyeliner, and near tears, Amara walks over with what she hopes is a kind look on her face.

"Would you like some help darling? Sometimes doing lines like that on yourself can be hard."

The made-up Dragamior looks down at the picture that seems to be for reference. "Have you considered using some tape or parchment as a guide?"

A pretty first year this girl is, and whoever did her braids is an expert at them. She seems... sweet, innocent, pure, not ready to go to a Hogwarts ball. The first ball Amara went to, well it broke her. She was lucky to have older students there, willing to protect her and her classmates. This evening, she will do the protecting, she will not let any of these first years be broken, be torn apart the way she was..

Interacting with: @Amara Dragamior
Mentioning: @Earl Gray

So... it seemed telling herself not to panic didn't actually do much, or really, anything at all, towards making Jess not panic. Dang it. Her mind was briefly relieved from its frenzied state by the arrival of someone who honestly seemed more likely to be a figment of Jess's imagination than a real, physical person, though. She had seen plenty of kids with interesting fashion choices at Hogwarts so far, but never someone who was so... pink and chipper. She watched, entertained, as the boy promptly sat down and started unloading what seemed to be a whole department store's worth of makeup and other beauty products onto a table. If there was ever a marshmallow that had been turned into a human, Jess thought, it would be this boy.

Her sudden and relieving shock at seeing the boy quickly faded as she watched him pull some eyeliner out of his bag, though, and her mind was forcibly pulled back to her own ruined makeup. As her eyes landed on her sorry excuse of an eyeliner design, she fought the urge to cry. Nope. Definitely not going to happen. Crying because she couldn't get ready for the ball properly and had now probably ruined her entire costume? Couldn't be Jess. Nuh-uh. Just then, she heard the boy she had been watching earlier offer help to everyone around him. Okay, new plan... go over to Happy Boy, and ask for help with her eyeliner. Right, she would do that right now. Now. As soon as she got up... which would be right now. Jess sighed as she realized that her shyness was prevailing over her again. Something about this whole pre-ball event just wasn't going well for the girl. Until-

Did someone just call her "darling?" Oh my god, that pretty girl seemed to actually be talking to Jess, calling her darling (oh my god, again), and offering to help her. "I- no, I didn't think of that... it sounds smart, though!" She said, her face now more pink than Happy Boy's hair. "And um, yeah, if you don't mind, I think I do need help... I'm pretty sure I just ruined my whole thing by doing it myself, so..."

Eyeliner