Event Blossom Ball - Spring Festival

Interacting| @Vladimir Athanatos | @Mathias Pride
Mentioning| @Thomas Lestrange | @Erin Ryan
Attire - Medusa
Action| N/A

Erin Ryan

Interact With: @Kazuo Shimada

"If you think that's impressive, you should watch Ruka do his fire dances," Jack proudly told Winnie when she marveled at Ruka's torch-twirling. Then, however, a bolt of negativity hit him as he recalled that he, Jack, was not the only person to have performed fire-dancing with Ruka other than his father now. No, Dealla had learned, too.

He quickly decided not to dwell on the topic as he heard Winnie mention her grandparents owning a bookstore. His face radiated his excitement. "Really? That must be amazing," he commented. "My family loves books too. It must be nice to be related to someone who owns a bookstore. You could read all kinds of books that way."

As if to prove this, Winnie asked about Jack's accent, remarking upon the fact that it sounded Welsh and asking if he knew much about Welsh mythology. He beamed at that, pleased she would ask such a thing and even more pleased to know she already seemed to have her own store of knowledge on the subject. "Yes, that's right; I was born and raised in Cardiff. Wait, why do you enjoy that story in particular?"

Jack smirked when Winnie spoke up for Amelia, guessing the girl didn't quite understand what he was getting at, but he didn't mind. The insult based on the words Amelia had chosen hadn't been meant for Winnie anyway. But then something both amusing and curious came to mind. If Winnie thought 'three was company', why was she agreeing to hang around both him and Ruka? Didn't that make the three of them?

Well, he supposed he and Ruka didn't make a potentially romantic duo like Amelia and Eden might have since they were brothers. It was while considering this that he heard Ruka tell him that the atmosphere was staring to get a bit depressing and his brow furrowed.

"'Depressing'?" he repeated. "What do you mean, 'depressing'? What's the matter?" Was it because it was the Underworld that they had been lingering in? Jack thought he couldn't fault Ruka for that or wanting to move on to see what else was in store if that was the case. He followed after, curious himself.

Suddenly, there were many more people to take note of. Erin was visible again, harassing what looked to Jack like an innocent lantern. A familiar voice asked her to leave the lanturn alone and he looked over to spot Kazuo, one of the organizers of the whole event. It seemed Ruka noticed him at the same time because then he was yanking Jack over to him while proclaiming it was Kazuo with a frightful amount of cheeriness. Had Ruka been that pleased to get away from the Underworld?

"Um...'private'?" Jack asked, looking from Ruka to Kazuo and back again. "Wait, why does he have to keep an eye on me? I don't need a babysitter!"

And then there was Matt again. Fabulous. Jack thought he might have preferred going to spend time with the lantern-attacker. Why was Ruka talking to him? And about kissing practice, no less? Ruka may have mouthed 'you're welcome' to him, but Jack could only stare back with a corregated brow and increasingly frustrated confusion. Why was he sending Winnie off to get a drink when he could easliy go and get it himself? And what was Ruka expecting thanks for?

Shaking his head, Jack was just about to ask Ruka what was going on. When he looked back up, however, someone else had arrived - Dealla. She looked stunning; even more so than usual, but Jack's mood only plummeted. He'd heard a while back that she had agreed to be Kazuo's date for the ball and Jack was already sour about the relationship Ruka and she shared. He didn't want to be around them all for this. Besides, there were far too many people nearby already and he was worried he was accidentally going to trample on someone with his heavy hooves if he wasn't careful.

He sighed deeply and took some awkward, shuffling steps away from the others and toward a boy who introduced himself as Nicholas. Jack had seen him around school before, his reputation having preceeded him even as a first year, and Jack had been impressed with what he'd heard of his work.

"Charon's raft indeed," he muttered to the younger Gryffindor. Then he bowed. "Pan. The pleasure's all mine, Nicholas. Are you enjoying the ball so far? Did you decide to attend for any particular reason?"

It seemed, however, he could not just be left alone. People were flinging around his name again and it wasn't in reference to Jackson Warren. If his goat ears could have moved, they'd have swerved toward Mathias who was once again spouting lies on his behalf. Jack cast the other red-headed Slytherin a dull look.

"What are you talking about, you oaf?" he wanted to know, genuinely confused. Mathias had grasped what he had yet to about Winnie. The lack of understanding meant that while Ruka might have been attempting to get Jack out of Winnie's way, Jack himself had yet to desire such a thing. "What 'latest'? I don't have a date this evening, so you can shut your lying trap. There are so many people here, you must be confusing someone else's date for mine." He frowned. "As for the 'violent girl', I think she was totally justified in what she did to you. Too bad she didn't hit you hard enough to keep your jaw from yammering still."

Wearing:

Reducio

Interacting with: @Ruka Burnett-Tân, @Mathias Pride, @Winnie Harper, @Nicholas McCowan, & @Kazuo Shimada
Mentioning: @Erin Ryan, @Dealla Prince, @Amelia Faye & @Eden Gardener
Action: Trying to get away from most of the others to have a decent conversation with Nicholas, but getting confused by Ruka and Mathias
Abilities: Prodigal Charms Learner; Binding Mark
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 3 | Wisdom: 10 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 7
Inventory: Pan pipes & wand
Post Tracker: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

"Wow, Ruka! You do fire dances? That sounds like a lot of fun. You're so fearless, no wonder you're in Gryffindor." She announced cheerfully as they made their way into the festival area. She seemed even more delighted when Jack took an interest in her grandparent's bookstore. "It is great! My Gram sends me a new book to read whenever she writes! A hobby of my grandparent's is to find rare books, so if you or your family are ever looking for anything... Let me know!" She gave Jack a playful wink. This was so much fun, not only had she met Jack, but she got to spend time with her hero. This might have been the best day of Winnie's life.

"Cardiff? Wow... It must be amazing there. I've only ever read about it in books." She wished she could travel more. She blinked at that question, before smiling shyly. "Well... Blodeuwedd is made from oak and flowers. I just wonder what kind of an amazing connection she must have with nature. It's a bittersweet story, though, as she was in love with someone she couldn't be with and turned into an owl... If you skip over the murder attempts, I suppose. I always wanted to know more about her, though."

As Winnie made her way into the festival area, she could not stop her eyes from lighting up. It was breath-taking, down to the very last detail. Whoever had decorated the area was an absolute genius and she would be certain to tell them so whenever she figured out who it was. A cherry blossom petal drifted through the air, and she blinked as it landed on her nose. She silently wondered if they would let her take some of the flowers home after the ball, they would be so lovely pressed inside of a book... Or tucked behind Jack's ear.

The music was, of course, songs she remembered from her years practically growing up as a muggle, but the loud music wasn't a distraction to her, because she could only hear her heart pounding in her ears. She was unaware of the rather dark thoughts her 'personal hero' was lost in. No idea that she was unwanted company, and possibly in danger.

When he spoke, she glanced in the direction of the boy Ruka was speaking to. She recognized him as he was also a first year and they had the odd class together. He was from Japan, and though she was tempted to ask him questions about his home country, she had never interacted with him before. What was his name again...? "Oh, Kazuo Shimada!" She said suddenly, before flushing when she realized she had said it out loud. "S-Sorry, um... I'm Winnie, I don't think we've met before..." She kept quiet as he allowed her hero to speak, until he said something about kissing practice? Winnie was horrified at first, assuming that Ruka had meant her, but then she realized he had meant Jack... Wait, surely he didn't mean...?! No... He had to be joking. Her shoulders relaxed, but then she was told to go get Ruka punch.

"Oh! Of course!" Anything for you... She almost whispered, but smiled brightly instead. She was simply happy to be helpful. She reached down to pick up her gown so she could walk over to the refreshments easier. However, Winnie wasn't deaf and happened to hear a first year boy talking to Jack. What was his name again? Matthew or something? Whatever. It didn't matter, all that mattered was what he was saying to Jack.

"Efforts to protect Jack's latest," He had said. Latest? She wasn't some flavour of the week. Even if Jack didn't love her, she was going to be his friend! She could feel her hands start to curl into fists as she tried to not get angry. "No need to save her, I can tell Jack is crazy about this one," How dare he bully someone she cared about! Bullying was never okay! Had he not been taught that in school?! Her shaky hands poured Ruka a drink. She still had the punch from the Underworld in her other hand. Why he wanted two drinks, she was unsure of, but anything for her hero. She had to loosen her hands as to not crush the cups within them as she headed back towards her friend group.

"This was why he was practicing kissing with the guys in the dorm I bed... You guys make a great couple," That was the last straw. Winnie bit down on her lip and purposefully 'tripped' over her own gown. She fell forward, splashing the liquid of one of her drinks into the Slytherin boy's lap. As long as this isn't an action. "Oh no!" She faked a gasp, probably obviously fake considering that she was terrible at lying and the second cup in her hand had remained unspilled, thankfully she had poured the old punch on him, so Ruka could still have a fresh glass.. She still had to get Ruka his drink, after all. "I'm sorry. I'm just so clumsy. Perhaps you can go find a friend, if you have any, and get them to help you clean it off? I'm certain there's a spell you can use." She was already pushing herself up off of the ground, second cup still in hand, walking passed the boy and passing the cup to Ruka.

"Hi Dea-..." She paused to correct herself, "Dee!" She greeted happily, pretending she hadn't just accidentally on purpose spilled something on her classmate. "You look so beautiful tonight, but that's no surprise, you look beautiful most days!" It was probably a bit of a creepy comment, but Winnie really liked the Ravenclaw prefect. When the Slytherin perfect suddenly smashed the lantern onto the ground, Winnie jumped and grabbed ahold of Dee's arm out of reflex. Her face pressing against her upper arm.

Action: Getting some drinks. Definitely not tripping on purpose.
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 5 | Strength: 5 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 7 | Accuracy: 5
Inventory: Purse/Clutch | Wand

Chaos. In a matter of seconds, minutes maybe - some sort of time measurement that did not abide by any linear laws - Kazuo had gone from basically being alone to being surrounded by talking faces. One minute he was waiting for Pride to respond, the next Ruka was hollering at him from across the way. He turned his gaze to the redhead. Redheads. Many redheads. Did the school have a required redhead quota to fill? Wait, was Jack a goat? Jack was a goat. Who was the girl?

Kaz, you know Jack, right?

Kazuo’s eyes narrowed slightly at Ruka’s question.

Bet you guys have plenty to talk about in private, don't you?

What.

I see your date hasn't arrived yet so now's a great time for you to... Keep your eyes on this one, right?

What.

"Oh, Kazuo Shimada!”

Kazuo’s eyes shifted to the girl. Redhead number three. The one he didn’t share a bond with. His eyes shifted back to Ruka and Jack, arching a brow at them both, an unspoken question.

"S-Sorry, um... I'm Winnie, I don't think we've met before..."

“You don’t think we’ve met…?” Well, maybe that came out a bit snide but honestly, he couldn’t help himself. “I think that if we had met you would most definitely have remembered it.” He graced her with a charming smirk. “Nice to meet you Winnie Harper.”

Kazuo then turned to Ruka with a smile that was a bit too toothy as Jack protested Ruka’s suggestions. “I would love to chat with the goat, Ruka, but Dee should be here soon and we have that plan of ours.” He replied with a pointed arch of his brow. Yet Ruka’s gaze had turned to Pride and the next round of words from him only increased Kazuo’s confusion.

"Brought you some more kissing practice, you seemed like you needed it."

His first impulse was to ask for clarification but as his gaze slid to Pride, he decided to wait and see if there would be any elaboration. Unfortunately, it seemed not. Pride barely responded to Ruka’s words and Kazuo’s head tilted slightly, sure that he was missing something. As Ruka talked to redhead number three another student - not a redhead this time - was drawing his attention. As Nicholas greeted them, Kazuo graced him with a pleasant smile. “Thank you. Hopefully, Ryan doesn’t light it on fire.” He replied politely, giving a chuckle at the boy’s joke. “Navigating the Underworld is tricky. Likely to get lost take a wrong turn and end up surrounded by hellfire and brimstone.” Another jab at Pride. “McCowan, right? I saw your duel last round. Solid match, too bad your partner got knocked out so quickly. Nice to meet you.”

Then Pride was talking again, immediately regaining Kazuo’s attention. “Had me first?” A brow arched and he plucked a discordant note on the lyre, unimpressed by the whine in Pride’s voice. “File a complaint? Sumimasen Pardon me, Pride, just to understand you… Are you asking for the manager?” Lips curved upward into a pleased smirk as Pride continued. The words that slid from Pride’s lips were truly an excellent example of verbal diarrhea. Jack crazy about Winnie. Practicing kissing in the dorm. Him and Levi? Levi Drakos? That Levi? Not that he knew Levi’s proclivities regarding boys and kissing but based on the lies of the first half of the conversation it was extremely hard to give any sort of credence to the second half. Compulsive liar indeed. And he didn’t even do it well. Yet Kazuo would play along in his way, and if his tone was a bit mocking? Well, let it be seen whether Pride picked up on it or not. He waited for Jack to finish defending himself from Pride’s colourful accusations, pondering why he was even bothering to rise to Pride’s bait. “He dumped you? At a Ball? How awful for you, Pride. Dumped you for a girl no less. Am I to understand that it was this girl who gave you such a lovely blemish? Truly unbelievable. What can I do to remedy this? I can hardly let the reputation of my event suffer because my co-organizer decided to act like a… what’s the word? Cad?”

"Hi!"

More people. Well, a person. The lovely Aphrodite adorned with roses and carrying, of all things, a golden apple. The smirk he had trained on Pride turned into a smile of delight at the small detail of her costume. No doubt some might misinterpret it as a smile of delight for the girl herself but unlike certain other children, he was not concerned with the implications of loooove and dating. “Ouji-sama! Not at all, things have barely begun. Well... things here have barely begun. Seems the Underworld is holding the Ballgoers hostage, only a handful have managed to find their way down Persephone’s path. An… interesting handful.”

Even as he said it, Redhead Number Three made a fantastically awful decision that left Kazuo snickering. Her acting was absolutely terrible though at least her stumble seemed real enough. Her contriteness was non-existent especially with that little ‘if you have any’ jab buried in the middle. “Subarashi! Amazing!” He exclaimed in a dry tone as Winnie proceeded to compliment Dee then promptly grab onto her arm. “Kore wa kanpekidesu. This is perfect.”

───────────── Interacting: @Mathias Pride @Ruka Burnett-Tân @Jack Burnett @Nicholas McCowan @Winnie Harper @Dealla Prince Mentioning: Action: Being the center of attention apparently ─────────────

──────────────── Stats Stamina 5 Evasion 7 Strength 5 Wisdom 6 Arcane Power 6 Accuracy 6 ────────────────

───────────── Abilities Perfectionist You have a reduced critical failure chance range by 1. In addition, you can counter up to 1 point of additional critical failure chances caused by abilities or spells (not potions). ─────────────

|Interacting|
@Jack Burnett @Kazuo Shimada @Nicholas McCowan @Dealla Prince
|Mentioning|
@Erin Ryan @Winnie Harper @Mathias Pride
|Open for Interaction|

Ruka was admittedly paying next to no attention to the conversations going on around him. There was a moment in which he was torn between feeling flattered by the way Jack proudly talked about his fire dance, and concerned about his brother keeping up conversation with someone who had just declared her love for him. Shouldn't that have made him run for the hills straight away? Did he not realise...
Ruka shook his head to himself as he tugged Jack along. He vaguely heard the words about Winnie's grandparents' bookstore, and Welsh Mythology, but he had no interest in keeping still to let any talking proceed. Talking would only give Winnie's wildfire emotions an excuse to set everything around her aflame. No, best to just move ahead.

He only paused briefly when Jack asked him what the matter was, breath catching in his throat as words upon words struggled to come out. Ruka swallowed all of them down; What was he supposed to say with Winnie sticking by their side so insistently? Maybe he could... No, he'd only confuse Kazuo. What options did he have when his brother so stubbornly refused to see the way Winnie looked at him as if he was made out of all the treasures in the world? "Remember when I said you're a handful?" he asked, shaking his head in exasperation. "I regret bringing my torch because I could really use another hand." With that he kept pulling his brother along, pace adjusted to make sure Jack's hooves had a chance to keep up with him.

Approaching Kazuo had been a spur of the moment idea, the first thing that seemed to make sense upon looking around the area, but things were working out tremendously well. While Kazuo clearly took him for a crazy person at that very moment, Ruka found himself quite proud of his decision. The corners of his mouth quirked into a little smile as Jack declared that he didn't need a babysitter. "Could've fooled me," he muttered before turning his attention back to Kazuo who was now putting that oh so valued charm of his on Winnie just by greeting her. Good, he'd known he could count on Kazuo to be distracting in one way or another.

Next up, Jack's dorm mate who seemed about as confused by their arrival as Kazuo had, though it didn't take him very long to jump at the opportunity to try and harass Jack some more. Perfect. If Ruka hadn't been holding a torch he would have clapped his hands. The other Slytherin's words were enough even to distract Jack from his conversation with the newest arrival, Nicholas, who Ruka vaguely recognised as a newer addition to the Gryffindor Duelling Team.

In his brother's stead, Ruka took a step back to offer his fellow Gryffindor a wide grin. "Good to meet you, Nicholas," he said brightly, clearly delighted by the chaos within their little group. His eyes followed Winnie for a moment as she followed his instructions to get a drink, and he found himself only vaguely surprised for a moment that she hadn't just handed him back his old one and told him to get another one himself. Of course, her return was inevitable, but it seemed enough, for the moment, to get Jack's mind focused on other people while she was away. "Don't pay this lot any mind. They all enjoy riling each other up a bit too much," he told Nicholas with a slow nod. "But stick around, I'm sure it'll get more entertaining."

With those words, Ruka turned his attention back on the small group of people again. Kazuo seemed almost amused as he dealt with the boy he had addressed as Pride, and Ruka found himself leaning forward a little to be able to follow the conversation a bit better. Filing a complaint, being dumped, violence - Pride talked as if Kazuo could somehow change anything about his personal woes, whether they were fiction or fact. It was almost a blessing when Winnie did return at that point, two cups of punch in hand - one of which she handed to him - and feigned a graceless stumble that would pour punch in Pride's direction.

"I love your Ball, Kaz," Ruka told his friend brightly, nodding to accentuate his words. This was much better than anything that had started in the Underworld. "The entertainment is spectacular."

He sighed, relieved somehow, just as another person made their entrance. Dealla looked beautiful; The Goddess of Beauty suited her well, Aphrodite through and through. He couldn't quite tell if it made him happy or sad that she had chosen her outfit based on the nickname he had given her, coupled with the flower crown he had made for her. Regardless, his expression smoothed into something fond and relaxed as he watched her greet Kazuo. Naturally her Date deserved her attention first, but she was quick to offer everyone else a smile that Ruka returned with a shallow bow in her direction.

"Aphrodite," he greeted softly. He wanted to say something else, tell her how pretty she looked, be funny, clever, impressive in any possible way, but before he could settle on something there was a loud thud that made Winnie cling to Dealla's arm as if holding on for life. Turning to look for the source of the sound, Ruka spotted Erin who had seemingly taken to a physical confrontation with the decorations.

"Is she... okay?" he asked quietly and nobody in particular, concern evident in his voice. He'd heard plenty about Erin, but attacking inanimate objects for no apparent reason... That seemed to go a bit far. Why was nobody more freaked out about that? "Shouldn't someone check on her before she dropkicks the punch fountains?"

|Action|
- Delighting in the Chaos
- Being vaguely concerned by Erin's newest choice of Sparring partner

|Stats and Abilities|
Stamina - 7 || Evasion - 9 || Strength - 4 || Wisdom - 12 || Arcane Power - 6 || Accuracy - 7

The Muggle Condition || Advanced Casting || Perfectionist

Lil Outfit Doodle

|Post Tracker|
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5

Outfit:

Reducio

Open to interactions

Action: entering from the Underworld.

English = 337085

Open to interactions

As Lavinia walked along the path from the Underworld section she as trying not to break out into a run, already she didn’t feel comfortable at this ball and wished that she had stayed in the dorm. Nevertheless this was her chance to break out of her shell and try to experience an adventure for once in her life that wasn’t quidditch.

Arriving at the Spring Festival she felt a weight lift off of her shoulders and part of her dread about the ball was gone. There were tables set up along the edges and they had decorations that fit the season much more than the underworld. People had already started to gather here and conversations looked like they were being held. She didn’t want to intrude on anyone’s conversation at the moment so just walked into the area stood alone. If anyone wanted to come up to her she wouldn’t argue.

Lavinia was just trying to remember that all she had to do was get through the night and then she could enjoy her birthday in 2 days. She told herself again and again that everything would be okay and that soon enough she would be out of this ball. At least she felt more comfortable in this area then the last one. Maybe if she tried to stop being afraid she could actually have a good time here.

For Moderation:

Reducio

Action: Entering the Spring Festival from the Underworld
Stats: STA: 8 | EVA: 8 | STR: 7 | WIS: 6 | ARCP: 6 | ACC: 11
Abilities: Foulplay and Interception (These are quidditch related abilities and will most likely not do anything in this ball)
Heath points: 800/800

Post Tracker: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

REMINDERS

1.) Initially entering the ball, as in the Underworld for the first time, is a free action.

2.) It takes a full round to compete in the trials. This means that after you have entered the ball and specified that you are using an action to complete the trials, you cannot post again until the following round when you return from them.