Event The Fall Ball (The Hunt) Finished

FIRST LOCATION

The poor guy in the painting couldn't say anything, even with Scarlett's added threats to whoever had put him in his current state. Of course. Cassie sighed. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you... I guess you're not really up to talking at all, are you?" she said softly. A sudden flash of empathy burrowed into her brain and the girl added, "I guess it can't help that you've got all us lot yacking on at you, huh?"

A nervous-looking girl [CALLISTA LOVIS] whom Cassie had seen talking to Knight (that was what Scarlett had called him, right? And why did the name sound so familiar?) earlier raised her hand as if it were a lesson, leaving Kara - who seemed to have dubbed herself the leader of the group, much to Cassie's annoyance - to tell her that she could speak. Now, that was something Cassie could admire - in a lesson at least. When the muggleborn wanted to speak, she generally just spoke, which tended to get her into numerous amounts of trouble for not raising her hand. Like she cared anyway... right?
Raised hands aside, the information the girl shared was certainly worth waiting for, and Cassie gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God," she said earnestly. "I thought it was some sort of threat towards- wait," Cassie Heather suddenly stopped, eyes widening. "There's a hospital... of magic?!" she asked in amazement. Whenever Cassie sustained an injury, she just used the Hospital in Beauxbatons. She'd had no idea that there were magical hospitals for the public to use - but then again, it did make sense. "Woah, that's awesome."
Kara asked someone to call out the name Mungo Bonham before walking off. "If it was that important," Cassie muttered to Scarlett, "You'd think she'd have done it herself." But still, the muggle-born reluctantly raised her voice and called out, "Mungo Bonham! C'mon, there can't be that many options!"
However, another girl Cassie didn't recognise [CALANTHE CHOI] shouted far louder than Cassie, causing the Beauxbatons girl to give her a wonky thumbs-up of approval. It was just a shame that nothing happened.

As usual, Scarlett could stand up for herself, and Cassie heard her talking coolly to the person [CASH] who had insulted her. Meanwhile, the Beauxbatons girls talked to each other, before Cassie noticed Scarlett waving at her. "Sorry, I got to go," the older girl told the blonde [JAQUELINE LEVANT], before bestowing a happy wave upon her and going to join Scarlett.

One tall girl with a haughty look on her face [ANASTASIA BECKETT] - oh, how Cassie hated haughty people - asked sarcastically if anyone knew who Paran Taja was, adding that he was supposed to be saving some guy called Laiks Denbora... in the painting. Cassie frowned. "Whoever he is, that's some brilliant 'saving' he's got going on there." She gestured at the painting. "I guess that's Laiks, huh? Poor guy."

Henry Knight - finally, Cassie Heather remembered his name - said something which the paintings had told him, and Cassie snorted before striking a dramatic pose. "Oh, my knight in shining armour!" she intoned in a rather high-pitched voice, catching Scarlett's eye before stepping behind her and resting her chin on th other girl's shoulder. "Save me from my two lovers who for some reason think I'm worth fighting to the death over!" A laugh, and Cassie stood straight again, all pretence gone. "That's just cliché rubbish. The ghost can't be this Paran guy, anyway - he's a ghost, not a painting!

The girl in the moon costume [MARTYNA ROMERO] squeaked something about Scarlett's common-room before rushing off. "You have common-rooms?" the Beauxbatons student asked a little stupidly. Of course they did - why hadn't she realised it sooner?

MOVING TO THE SECOND LOCATION

The ghost cat - Star, Kara had named it - began running after Tina and Cassie jumped. She'd almost forgotten that poor Star was there. "We should go!" she told Scarlett animatedly, grabbing her friend's arm and just remembering to turn back to the bloody man in the painting. "Sorry, dude!" she murmured, genuinely apologetic. "But, look, we might be able to figure out how to help you! Ok?" A bit pointless, as no-one but Scarlett would have been able to hear her, but it still helped Cassie feel a little better about leaving him.

As Star lead the students along corridors and up a flight of stairs, Cassie noticed a strange light which caught her attention. "Wierd," Cassie muttered to herself, but didn't investigate further. Maybe this wierd light thing was just the norm in Hogwarts; who knew? Or maybe not, if the glare on Scarlett's face had anything to do with it. "You ok, Scarlett?" the muggle-born asked, using her friend's proper name for once. Even Cassie could tell that this probably wasn't the time for jokes.

SECOND LOCATION

Cassie followed the ghostly cat into a corridor. The carpets were red - blood red - which gave the girl a little rush of equal parts fear and thrill. And- oh! "Another painting?" Cassie said to Scarlett, in a strangely quiet voice. "I feel a trend coming on here..."

The man in the painting didn't seem at all friendly. No, he laughed at the students, telling them to go somewhere else. Good luck with that, Mister Painting. There had to be a reason why Star had lead them here; even if the cat didn't seem very happy about it.
Several other students seemed to share Star's opinion of the man, and spoke to him angrily, though a few got straight down to business and began asking him questions about who he was, and if he knew anything about the painting from the fourth floor. Cassie, meanwhile, was stuck at the back of the crowd, had lost sight of Scarlett as the lioness had barged to the front, and could barely see the painting, let alone talk to its occupant. "Stupid tall people," she grumbled under her breath, and contented herself with listening to everyone else (even if the language wasn't often exactly pleasant).

The man didn't seem any more likely to help, though Cassie could sympathise. In his place, she probably would have refused just to make a point against all the threats and shouting. At least they knew his name now - Gaiz Toa.

Gaiz told his story about why he hadn't gone to the ball, and Cassie groaned aloud. "Goodness, not that rubbish again!" she muttered, before raising her voice to the painting. "You know, you could've just gone by yourself! There's this thing, an' it's called independence, an' it's acc'tuly really useful! Might wanna learn some'a that!" Cassie's language tended to get shorter and quicker when she was angry, as if she wanted to speed through her words as fast as she could.

But that was when Cassie realised something wierd (though she was just guessing and may have been wrong). None of these names sounded English.
"Hey..." she said slowly, ducking under people's arms to get to the front of the crowd. "You're not English, are you? And... what'stheirnames... Laiks an' Paran, they're not English either, right? Your names don't sound English. And Giselle's a French name... I think. Do you speak French, then? Or are you French?" Cassie paused. "I am, kind of, I'm from Beauxbatons."
Then she realised something else. Maybe the man would be more likely to speak with them if he knew who he was speaking to? Cassie waved at him, and said, in English this time, "I'm Cassie Heather by the way, Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin, but you can just call me Cassie."

"Hey snotty nose! They probably wouldn't even have hung your picture if they had painted you at all. You have to achieve something in your life first, so don't give me that attitude!"

"When he’s finally gone, I might get my sweet Giselle back.”

"Could you tell us about her? Maybe where to find her and we can help you win her back?"

"You want to know if I know something about Paran Taja or Laiks Denbora? I’ll tell you what! These are the two people I despise the most!”

Andrew is experiencing the effect of Manegro Potion (from the Costume Party). He currently has a waist length ponytail, clipped with a shiny silver barrette. Outfit: All black. Collared, long-sleeved shirt. Dress pants, dress shoes, knee-length cape. Wearing Batman mask.

FIRST LOCATION
This was not how Leonard was planning to spend the evening. Granted, it wasn't an uncommon occurrence if the horror stories of last year's great big balls were any clue, but this was far from any territory that had been covered in classes. His general outline of the night included sneaking sweets from the tables, chatting a little with the crowd, maybe dance a little if he was feeling really risky, not following spectral cats to injured people inside paintings. Such was life, however, and life was something terribly difficult to understand. Almost as difficult as trying to understand what in the damned world was going on in Marshal's head.

"Marshal, dying should not be something that you're proud of, alright? Can't believe I've got to explain this to you, but you can't exactly have any style or pizzazz if you're in a grave under six feet of dirt," he said, sight still on the ground and mind still racing with hypotheses that were beyond impossible. Seriously, what was going on in that boy's sometimes-thick head?

However, he'd spent the better part of the last few minutes with his eyes straight to the floor, pondering a different question. Figuring out the makings of a moron that had better eyesight than him could wait. While his gaze had been directed at the wood they were standing on, his ears did pick up on bits of the conversation, though it didn't make much sense with what he already knew. There was something about Mungo's, a wizard hospital of sorts from what Leonard knew, a Parking Taja, which sounded a bit like the Taj Mahal, though he was almost completely certain it had nothing to do with Indian architecture or cars, some talk about portraits and blood and everyone's shared braincell that wasn't being used, and his blonde companion's signature disregard for sarcasm and the fact Leonard's interest in the girl was more something of fear she was going to kill him than anything related to romance. Said companion, after thoroughly battering the Slytherin's ego beyond repair, did prove somewhat useful in the end, though the method of getting Leonard to see the cat was quite forceful, for lack of a better term to describe it.

"Oh," the word was said with something close to disappointment, though it was mostly surprise. He'd assumed it had run away farther, not been right in front of him the whole time. He quickly covered up his mortification with bitterness, something he was quite good at by now. At least, he was better at that than spotting glowing creatures a quarter of his height. "Look, if it's just playing around with the other cats, what's it even doing here? Is it the ghost bloke's pet? Some sort of diversion by whoever's behind all this? I mean, there's always a chance the guy who burst into the ball's just been sending us on a wild goose chase while he goes and plots our doom. That'd make sense, considering he's given us just about enough information for us to learn nothing."

"Like you said, Alec," he turned to the curly-haired boy, picking up one of the colorful wrappers that littered the floor to further his point. "It makes basically no sense for these candies to be here. I mean, surely the ghost's name isn't The Honorable Lollipop. Unless they were meant as a distraction, a way to get us all away from wherever he's putting some tragedy-causing equipment by distracting us with candy and some paintings of a dying man."

Leonard silenced himself when Marshal began to talk to his potential murderer, proclaiming once again of his almost nonexistent intelligence. He could only hear the boy's words, and it seemed both of them had little clue as to what exactly the name was, but neither Parking nor Perry felt correct at all. Fortunately, though, the tiny spark in the first-year's brain was beginning to work in ways that would make less of a fool out of Leonard, suggesting that the wounds of the painting's subject were made by a beast, not a man. The conversation between the two ended with the girl running after...something. And the cat was now gone. Again. Did he have some sort of cat repellent on?

And with more attacks at Leonard's quality of eyesight, Marshal was gone. After a moment's hesitance, the snake decided to come with, though he walked much slower, caution in every step. There was always a chance the murderer in question had already found those going with the cat.

"Let's go, Alec. Maybe your candy name idea will pan out over there. Also, safety in numbers, right?"

He then ran faster, trying to catch up with the group, though he didn't see them again until reaching the corridors across the Gryffindor common room entrance.

SECOND LOCATION

After a quick count, he'd managed to locate the light-haired boy among the crowd. Leonard rushed toward him, for even if Marshal was a slight annoyance, he still had the ability to contain useful information in his skull, though he didn't seem to be using it much.

"Hey, Marshal," he said, out of breath. If the cat really was just a distraction from their death, it was certainly a very tiring distraction. "You found anything here? Any chance the murderer's one of these portraits? I mean, they all look pretty hostile, so I wouldn't be surprised."

"How about that one?" He pointed towards the drawing with a man, holding a sword. It was an obvious choice, something usually always counted out during riddles, but this was not a five minute video with bad voiceovers and convoluted riddle storylines, this was life or death. While saying his next words, he looked closer. Maybe there was something hidden in the brush strokes, a paper or something other. "You questioned him? Anybody borrow his sword lately?

ACTION: Talking to Alec and Marshal, leaving to join the Second Location, and further observing the portrait of Gaiz Toa (whose name is currently unknown to Leonard) from a distance.
STATS: Stamina - 5 | Evasion - 6 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 7 | Arcane Power - 6 | Accuracy - 7 | Health - 500/500
INTERACTING WITH: @Marshal Mozor and @Alec Mason
STATUS: Open to Interactions
POST TRACKER: 1 | 2 | 3 | x |

Open to Interactions
Mentioning @Anastasia Beckett, @Elizabeth Isaacs & @Cassandra Ironwoods
Post Tracker
The Masquerade | X | X | X | X
The Hunt | X | X | X | X

Location 2

Starlee's hopes of being useful were being dashed again. Why couldn't she get away from these people that made her so uneasy? Her eyes kept flittering back and forth from the painting to an older girl in this vast midnight-black sparkly ballgown and a horned dragon-like mask. While she was rather beautiful... there was also something... terrifying about her. Which meant that her focus was entirely derailed. Perfect. Plus, her eye still hurt from shoving a sweet in it. Maybe she should go to visit the hospital wing? She couldn't imagine trying to explain her situation to the school nurse... 'Oh yea I just decided that I would see what would happen when you shove candy in your eye, no big deal.' Wow, that just sounded so idiotic. Perhaps she would... not do that then. Just wallow in her self pity. Yea. That sounded like the better option.

She managed to find nothing odd about the painting (in what little she managed to even look at the painting; her hurt eye twitching and endlessly staring, creepily, no doubt, at the older girl) and she was getting extremely close to giving up on this whole hunt fiasco. She thought this was supposed to be some fun event for the students, but this wasn't really fun anymore. Elizabeth was right, she shouldn't have been put in Slytherin... and she shouldn't be on the dueling team either. That much was clear. She looked around, hoping to see some sign of Cash, she really needed their support right now, but she supposed in her rush she left them back at the first location. Fiddlesticks again.

Even with her eye throbbing, she decided she was going to give it one last shot. While maybe she couldn't see quite as well, she could certainly hear. And listen she did to all those around her who were asking the portrait their questions. Well, clearly, the portrait hated Taja and Debanora. Not only that... it seemed the Gryffindor thought that Debanora deserved what he got. Aka Debanora was the bloody man in the other painting. Well, quite obviously, this HAD to be the guy that hurt Debanora, that other painting. There was no question about it in Starlee's mind. Her frustration and pain was certainly leading her to jump to conclusions faster than she normally would.

"You- you must have hurt Debanora then mister!" she said accusingly at the painting. "Now fess up! Or who knows what will happen to ya!! Don't make me get a professor!" She felt the professors could certainly handle a miscreant like this one, so she thought it made a pretty intimidating threat.

Action: Accusing the painting of Gaiz Toa of hurting the man in the first painting
Stamina: 4 - Evasion: 5 - Strength: 6 - Wisdom: 8 - Arcane: 6 - Accuracy: 5
Abilities: Healing Sage

Interacting: @Lindsey Springhall
Mentioning: N/A

Outfit

[font=times new roman]Wyatt was feeling quite useless, and for good reason too. Lindsey was doing all the work. Of course, he could try and get some answers from the portraits himself, but he had never had a good interaction with any of them. That, and he had a feeling a lot of them remembered when he kicked Alec J. Mason until he bled, and it was unlikely that anyone who saw him do that would be willing to give him information.

“Heard nothing.” she announced to him, with some disappointment. Her chocolate brown eyes wandered around. “People are leaving… They are heading to the Gryffindor common room…” She muttered just loud enough for Wyatt to hear. Wyatt didn't expect going to the Gryffindor common room that night... or any night. Still, it seemed like the best place to go for clues.

“Actually I don’t think it would have any use staying here…we should move on. What do you think?” Wyatt bit back a sigh and nodded. He really didn't care for Gryffindor, but finding clues mattered more than his hatred for his rival house. “Though I'd much rather avoid the Gryffindor common room and the area around it... it is probably the best place to go if we want to find any clues to solve the riddle.”

Lindsey excused herself and returned to the same portrait who dissmissed her earlier. She asked to give her a minute, but when Wyatt saw the annoyed look on the portrait person's face, he wanted to know what was happening. The only words Wyatt could pick up, even when he was quite close to Lindsey, were “hex” and “Incendio”. Yikes.

The portrait's expression went from annoyed to amused, with somewhat condescending hints. “Not with that attitude, we won’t. Be a darling and run along with the others if you want to solve this mystery.” Wyatt furrowed his brows. “Don't waste your breath here, Lindsey. He's an ass but he's probably right. We need to go. I imagine our time is limited.”[/font]

Masquerade Posts: [1][2][3][4]
Hunt Post Tracker: [1][2][3][4]

Action: Moving to second location, hopefully with Lindsey Springhall
Ability: Parseltongue
Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 6 | Strength: 3 | Wisdom: 7 | Arc. Power: 9 | Accuracy: 5

Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 5 | Accuracy: 7
Seer | Binding Mark

Mentioning @Percival Rainwood @Dmitri Jones

First Location

Second Location

Action: Casting Finite Incantatem on Percival

At Second Location
Interacting with @Kara Capricorn & @Henry Knight
Mentioning @Hanako Tone & @Starlee Kennedy
HTML colour is 73781E
Post Tracker: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

Much to the Hufflepuff's dismay, the (rather arrogant, now she considered him more deeply) portrait dude all but ignored the second half of her request, far happier to go on a self-pitying tirade about how awful it would be to hypothetically go to the esteemed Masquerade ball without a date. "How humiliating and lonely, blah blah..." she muttered under her breath, though not loudly enough for him to hear, especially through his sorrowful rant. Why did anyone need a date, anyway? She'd tried that thing out with the weirdo fish kid, and it had only proven how creepy boys and gross boys were when it came to that sort of thing. She shuddered thinking of those names he'd called her as she'd departed, similar to ways which her father referred to her mother when they cooked together. No wonder she was always so grumpy...

She did pick up a couple things from his emotional ramblings. Something about Laiks Denbora and a guy called Paran Taja... They'd definitely been mentioned before this encounter. Tina's face became one of fierce concentration as she tried to sort all this new information out in her - admittedly, very overwhelmed - brain. That was when Gaiz Toa - that's what the haughty portrait man had called himself (at least, Tina thought so, but there were a lot of names to remember at this point) - made the mistake of revealing some very telling information.

"This is why Denbora deserved everything he got."

...Even the likes of Tina could figure out that he had to be referring to the injured painting. Suddenly, her confident façade melted away into one of fear. Was it so far-fetched to suggest that he might be responsible for this? What was her criteria from before... The assailant had to be another painting. Check. They had to be hanging around near Gryffindor. Check. They had to have a reason to attack the other... Check? He'd mentioned a lady, who he wanted to get back. Tina hadn't much experience with this sort of thing aside from watching Disney movies. Damsels in distress were quite common in those films (if a mildly sexist trope).

Her bitterness at this revelation did ease off a bit when it became apparent that her efforts weren't entirely in vain. Tina practically glowed with pride at the praise from Kara. "Good idea asking him that Tina. Maybe you do have a sliver of potential in helping us out." Taking into account how rude the girl had been before, as well as how backhanded the compliment had been, this probably shouldn't have meant so much to the First Year, however, coming from an older student... Well, Martyna didn't resist the way her cheeks lifted into a smile. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same attitude towards the way she'd taken initiative.

"Can I suggest looking around for clues instead of angering the portrait that can help us?"

"Uh, coming from you?" Tina snapped defensively, casting her mind back to the aggressiveness with which Gaiz Toa had addressed Henry Knight. He'd certainly been less forthcoming with him than he'd been with her. "Anyway, didn't you hear Kara? I've got a slither of potential. You're just jealous that I've been useful!" She was more happy about this than she should have been. "So why don't you stick to the clue finding and I'll do the tricky stuff, like talking to the portraits, mkay?" She was enjoying this newfound role of leadership far too much. Her ego had inflated tremendously already. "Chop chop! Those scooby snacks won't eat themselves!"

She tried to ignore the way Starlee surged towards the portrait, coming too close for comfort as she accused him of just what Tina had been about to, stealing the limelight. It was a sickening reminder of their falling out a few hours earlier. Had it been hours? That seemed like a long time. Well, if that was her approach, Tina was going to take the more mature one. Steeling her nerves with the reminder that a painted person couldn't harm her - at least, she thought - Tina waved at the sword man.

"Yoo-hoo! Who's this Giselle? Maybe we can help you find her!" She was mainly pointing to herself and Kara when she said this, making a good effort to ignore Henry. He was annoying, anyway.

Action: Asking Gaiz about Giselle, and suggesting they try and find her

Stamina 4 • Evasion 7 • Strength 3 • Wisdom 6 • Arcane Power 8 • Accuracy 7
Ability: The Muggle Condition

Reducio

outfit of the day~

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-RPing as Durmstrang iNPC Alexander Ward-
-Interacting with Mr Kindness (the guy in the Painting), @Sapphire Riddle & @Callista Lovis -
The texts in bold are in Russian-

-Second location-

Alexander couldn’t help but slightly roll his eyes at the man’s answer. The fact that he assumed nobody had ever painted the you g lad made him almost upset; he couldn’t help it, being a pureblood, he had always been proud of his family and everything that came with it.
"I actually happen to have paintings of myself hanging on the walls back at home, " he talked back, stopping himself when he noticed something.

As the man was talking and gesticulating, Alexander got the chance to observe the rest of the painting, and a small detail caught his attention; right in the cloak of Mr Kindness, it looked as if a piece of fabric was missing.

Why would there be a tear in the red and gold cloak? Did he have a fight with someone? Did he attack the guy in the other painting?

Alexander kept listening to the man, that sounded quite outraged to even be mistaken for some guy’s called Laiks Denbora and Paran Taja. Then he started talking about a girl named Giselle, and how much he despised the two men, and how they deserved whatever happened to them.

Was the man in the first painting one of them? Did Gaiz Toa -Alexander still preferred the name Mr Kindness- attack him because of Giselle, and that was why he ripped his cloak?

Putting away his wand, he looked back at Gaiz Toa and listened as a girl with white hair asked about a pair of shoes. Weird

She then asked if anybody had noticed anything, so he nodded. “Did you notice the tear in his cloak?” He asked and then looked straight at Mr Kindness. “Did you despise them so much that you attacked and left dying one of them? Is that how you got that tear in your cloak?”

The voice of another girl that was talking about some weird lights got his attention then, and he briefly looked at the lights. “They look kinda... weird,” he admitted, before turning back towards the painting, even though he had the feeling he should maybe move closer to the lights.

His eyes kept going back and forth, trying to catch anything suspicious or out of the ordinary.

For the mods
Action: Talking back to Mr Kindness in the painting, and looking for clues or anything suspicious
[Allies: Hanzo Fransonn & Romeo Marchonnè]
Abilities: Charmer || Perfectionist
Stats: Stamina: 5 || Evasion: 5 || Strength: 5 || Wisdom: 9 || Arcane Power: 8 || Accuracy: 8

Interacting with Alexander Ward^{@Lydia Cooper}

Sapphire's had happened gaze turned towards a curly-haired boy, one she hadn't seen before. He may have been a student from another school. Not that that was relevant. He mentioned a tear in the cloak. She nodded to herself, taking that into concentration and also recalling something someone had said earlier. She turned to the painting, spotting the tear. "Hm, I believe I heard someone else say there was a torn piece of cloth in the other painting. That's a good thing to have spotted," she said. Was it painted as such or had the injury happened recently?

She furrowed her brows, deep in thought. What exactly happened to these people? Were the paintings depicting real-life events or was this something else entirely? And why did it seem as if no one had noticed things such as this before? The castle was vast, but most of the Gryffindors didn't even seem to recognize it.

Then there were the lights. What was with their odd, floating behaviour? What was their purpose? They were unusual. She had so many questions and not enough brain power nor background knowledge to safely make any assumptions. She sighed, frustrated. This would be the death of her. She wished for adventure, yes, but honestly... This was so discordant.