Closed Thrills & Chills Bash Open to ALL!!!

Bubba considered himself to be a fairly nice, easygoing guy. Sure, sometimes he had a mouth on him, but you only really got on the wrong end of it you really pissed him off. Sienna Lenoir had the unfortunate distinction of knowing exactly what buttons to push. He truly had never met a more unpleasant person in his short time on earth. Even Felix Kolbeck, who he'd met at summer camp and immediately taken a very strong dislike to, seemed like Mr. Rogers compared to Sienna. "Just for me? I take great pride in knowing that I'm living rent-free in your head. Strangely, when I see you I just get this sudden buzzing in my head, and then, when you open your mouth, this unbearable screeching comes out. So if you could refrain from opening your mouth, that'd be great." He finished as he channeled his inner Lumbergh.

When she talked it was like there was an unholy symphony of a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards. He needed an ibuprofen drip just to get through the pain of talking to her. He would rather 1v1 the Balrog than spend another minute sparring with her. "No, you see I'm under no misgiving whatsoever. I don't doubt that other houses care about intelligence. They just wish they had ours. And I don't necessarily think you're unintelligent by any means, you just happen to have a most unfortunate personality to go along with it."

He gave a hollow, mirthless laugh at the idea that any eagle would need a condescending flowchart. A flowchart was just a helpful visual aid for someone with an IQ of under 130, there was no shame in needing one. In his mind, the shame was in refusing to admit it. "No, you see, an eagle would never need it. It's just the speed at which synapses fire. Some people's neurons just happen to fire faster than others. And no, of course, we don't need a flowchart for duels or anything else. We just need it for people with... lesser minds." With that, he finally reached the end of his tether, she was so unreasonable she turned him into an asshole. "You know you really are infuriating. I mean honestly, how do you put up with the constant flow of shit that flies out of your mouth? I don't even agree with half the shit I say when I'm talking to you, you just have this unending, natural ability to get under my skin like a splinter under the nail!"

He didn't even have the patience to respond to her insults about his insults. They weren't supposed to be good. They were supposed to convey just how much she irritated him, and he felt, to that end, that it certainly conveyed the requisite level of annoyance and frustration with her unceasing antics.

He finally decided to just roll with it, he couldn't bring himself to bash his head against this wall anymore. "Hey, they pay good money to be king of the half-witted imbeciles," he said in the most sarcastic voice he'd ever used. His frustration had reached its breaking point and he'd just simply had enough. "Do me a favor, as the muggles would say, and lose my number." And with that, he took his leave of the party, leaving for saner pastures.

Bubba McGarry has left the thread

Interacting: @Sienna Lenoir Mentioning: @Winnie Harper as Felix Kolbeck

The lithe fox collected the goblin king’s coat, but his gaze never turned away. "Valentin...?"

Even through the waves of emotion, Valya stared back as the concern on Ginyami’s face fed the churning stormsurge. Just maintaining eye contact and having the boy there, right there with him, helped Valya purge the pent up anguish and joy that had been corroding him from the inside out. He couldn’t live like this anymore. Valentin had to let go of the past. It was killing him, and living fully was just too important to keep holding back, mortal or otherwise. This young man, he asked about him… Yes, the mindful fox seemed not only curious, but interested. Valya had a million questions for him as well. Here the dark-haired boy stood, a beckoning well of possibility, facets glinting near at hand and far in the distance, as if waiting to be explored in every dimension. Valentin revealed every answer he could think of to Ginyami's question, and here the fox seemed to respond in kind.

Was it Valentin’s longing fueling his imagination, or was Ginyami really inviting him on that journey? How was it that, when others barred their own horizons as private, confined, and guarded, Ginyami’s seemed to welcome him, and of his own volition? The only way Valya could respond, emerging from the rubble of his crumbled tower, was to embrace the open sky. A comet could not stay in one place and, without enough gravity, escape velocity was inevitable. The Mahoutokoro boy’s next words pulled at Valya harder across the expanse with their humble invitation.

As Ginyami spoke, the goblin king shifted his weight forward, away from the wall, a new strength rising within. With the blessing of rain the kitsune had granted Valya’s skies, the expanse of his inner tear-soaked kingdom greened and brightened with sunbreak. Beaming back at Ginyami with gratitude, Valentin listened.

"If perhaps I could feed you through a kiss, you might feel a bit better about it." The fox plucked a grape from the coat on his arm and held it between his thumb and forefinger. The simplicity of his offer and his deference gave Valentin the respect of free choice. The seeker found it endearing, how bold and candid the proposition was, like there was no need to hide. Ginyami’s joke even summoned a full chuckle from the goblin king, drawing him in to stand only inches away. Valentin then removed his gloves and slid them into the coat pocket in the other boy's grasp.

“Ginyami…” Returning to full height, the seeker stood close enough to feel heat emanating from the boy like an aura. He reached out with his scarred right palm and dove his fingers into the layers of black in the fox’s hair. Brushing upward in an arc, Valentin’s delicate fingers caught the strap of the kitsune mask between them and gently pulled. If Ginyami did not resist, Val moved the false face painlessly out of his way before plunging his nose into the dark locks below with a full embrace. A deep breath would fill the seeker’s ample lungs as his fingers wove through the black and away to his side with mask in-hand. He pulled back a few inches as he raised his opposite hand under Ginyami’s chin, and with his mithril eyes seeking the other’s pupils, Valentin whispered: “Let that be the fate of the last one in that bag.”

Looking at the perfect gem of a concord grape between Ginyami’s fingertips, the thin seeker felt a change. “This time… I want you to watch, please. Even for the final one, if you want. Challenge me, and let me challenge you.”

The goblin king took one step back to look Ginyami over. The fox had been nothing but kind to him, he thought. He deserves the best from me, and I have to be strong enough to make it so.

“I have things to tell you, Ginyami. You have to understand. With each of the remaining grapes, I want you to know better what you’re getting yourself into. I love to go fast. Truly, I was made for high speeds. However, in the past, I have made others crash along with me, on accident. I nearly killed people this way. They call me the White Immortal, a true revenant, and I can take a beating... but I can’t let myself hurt you by going in too fast. I won’t do that again. You deserve happiness, so if you want me for your own… first, you must know… I play for keeps. My unrestrained love is one for all eternity, which makes it dangerous for someone to finally take me on. My mother read auguries for me when I was younger. You’ll remember, one said my unconditional love is strong enough to kill an immortal. Well… a relationship isn’t the same for me as it is for most people. Just so, a kiss is… much more powerful for me. However delicious that final grape, let me also have the natural you afterwards. Just you. All told. How does that sound?”

Valentin reached down to take Ginyami’s hand beneath the coat of the goblin king. If he found it, the seeker would squeeze and hold on softly as he looked into the other’s eyes to make it clear: Valya meant every word. There was no trick to the bag other than being unsmashable, and it only held one bunch of grapes.

“Ask me anything, and I will tell you the truth. Then I’ll ask you, and if you answer, I will eat a grape from your hand. By the end, you will know if you really want to give me the last one.”

Valentin's English = #CC3333; Interacting with @Jack Burnett

Roleplaying as Ginyami Midorimori from Mahoutokoro
"English | Japanese"

Conscious of each breath he took as Valentin grew closer, Ginyami smiled at the sound of his chuckle and held steady as he tucked away his gloves.

“Ginyami…”

At his name, he looked up into the taller boy's face, warming at the feel of those long, dexterous fingers in his hair and leaning into them like a cat. He paused in his movements as said fingers caught on the string of his mask, surprised when they pulled it away, but unresisting. Instead, his gaze drifted up in wonder at dream-like pale complexion of the youth who bent close, taking in his scent even as his own was shared. Ginyami glanced briefly at the mask that came away in Valentin's scarred hand before turning back to the goblin king, his chin tilted upward with the other. A shiver that was not unpleasant tingled down his spine upon hearing the whispered words, their eyes locked upon one another's.

“Let that be the fate of the last one in that bag.”

"As you wish," the fox replied, dipping his head in deference. "You know, you discovered my dream without my even telling you," he announced, grinning as he reached into his kimono pocket to produce Valentin's crystal orb from before. "It was simply this: to live in a world where I would not have to wear a mask." He then slipped the crystal into the outer pocket of the goblin king's coat opposite of the one that held the gloves.

“This time… I want you to watch, please. Even for the final one, if you want. Challenge me, and let me challenge you.”

For reasons Ginyami couldn't quite explain, his pulse had been steadily increasing since he had first felt Valentin's hands slide through his black locks, but it shot up at his voiced desire. The Japanese boy could feel it throughout his entire body; the beat of his rapidly-pumping heart. He tried to will himself into a calmer state as the seeker took a step back and Ginyami listened to him continue to speak. Though his smooth tenor was soothing, the words which he spoke contradicted the effect with their crucial content. Was he saying what Ginyami thought he was saying? If you want me for your own... In what sense did he mean? But the fox didn't dare ask. He didn't want to dare presume things he had no business imagining. Valentin said a relationship wasn't the same for him as it was for most people, but Ginyami guessed that extended to all kinds of relationships - romantic and platonic.

"What a fortunate coincidence. I also happen to play for keeps myself," he answered, still smiling, but the pulse at his throat throbbed wildly. What did Valentin mean by 'the natural him afterwards'? Did he mean a real kiss? It shouldn't matter if it's a real kiss, he told himself, still having a hard time comprehending why his body was behaving so erratically. I can handle it. He wants to challenge me? Challenge accepted. "That sounds perfect. I just can't promise I will be any good considering it would be my first time. But, if you would still have me, I am yours."

His hand met Valentin's under the coat he carried and he wondered if the Durmstrang student could feel his heartbeat through his wrist. He felt a sincere squeeze and his chest tightened as if they were somehow connected. Even so, he held that light, mithril gaze with his own dark one, refusing to break contact as he drank in the message they conveyed.

"Very well," he said at last, swallowing to wet his throat which had somehow run dry, "I will play your game. So let us start with this: does someone hold your heart?" He might not have been so bold to ask such a thing, but Valentin's reaction to his question about if he had been kissed had peaked his curiosity. Besides, he would have felt awkward stealing a kiss or two from someone who was pining for someone else.

Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)

The Mahoutokoro boy’s hand met Valentin's beneath the long, goblinesque curls of leather at the coat’s neck. The seeker’s hand, fine-tuned and sensitive to the slightest motion, felt the boy’s racing pulse as he squeezed. The mask hung snug at Valentin’s wrist, safe and out of the way as each of his individual fingers coiled across the hidden contours of Ginyami’s hand, searching for the tightest fit.

"That sounds perfect. I just can't promise I will be any good considering it would be my first time. But, if you would still have me, I am yours." The fox's words drew a curve of pleasure across Valentin's lips.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be you.”

Valentin’s eyes seemed to glow from within, nebulous clouds and shafts of silver light encapsulated in smooth-edged irises as if formed by the same gravity as celestial spheres. The candor of his words resonated through his voice, echoing the message in his gaze.

“Ask me anything, and I will tell you the truth. Then I’ll ask you, and if you answer, I will eat a grape from your hand. By the end, you will know if you really want to give me the last one.”

The swallowing in Ginyami's throat was perfectly audible in the empty hall. "Very well, I will play your game. So let us start with this: does someone hold your heart?"

The goblin king smiled. It was the perfect question. Even better, whether out of consideration or from the natural flow of his spirit, the fox had put the crystal orb back within reach. With a tip of his head, the seeker released Ginyami’s hand and took a step back to hang the kitsune mask at Valentin’s side, firmly affixing it to his belt where it would not be easily jostled. Now unencumbered, his main hand reached into the pocket of the coat to retrieve the prismatic, perfectly clear ball. Stepping back once more, Valentin held it up to eye-level and gazed in with a tilt of his head. His lungs pulled in a sharp breath and his brows furrowed as the orb seemed to pull him farther and farther in. Mithril eyes darting about as if watching a scene unfold, the transfixed king’s mouth fell open.

“I see… there is a dungeon beneath a ruined tower that fell from the fighting in its foundations between a red and a white dragon. From the collapse, a rift has opened up the dungeon, and from it, the white dragon escapes and leaps into the sky. At last, it blazes through its home in the heavens, and as it picks up speed it begins to glow. After the shadows of the dungeon, it is so bright under the sun as it soars…” Wincing, Valentin’s sensitive eyes began to hurt, but he could not look away. “The drake is free but it is not alone. The day turns to night, and through the tendrils of darkness, a second silver burns.” Leaning in closer to the surface of the orb, a shard of multi-colored light shimmered across Valentin’s face. “The lights, they…” An inch closer, and Valentin’s eyes widened, his lips pursed. “I… When I look in…” Blinking over and over as if to focus his eyes, Valentin eased back a little. “Now, I look into the orb, and it is clear. Perfectly clear. Through the crystal, all I see is you.”

Pulling the orb back down, Valentin looked forward into Ginyami’s eyes. With the small laugh of a man made humble under the power of the stars, the seeker slid the crystal ball back into the pocket of the fox’s kimono.

“This is the answer. Holding my heart, there is only you.” Valentin looked back at the Mahoutokoro youth with a long and slow exhalation. Now, the king looked all the world like a little boy making an unspoken wish. Yet, holding himself in place two steps away, the Durmstrang boy whispered once more.

“I must know now, Ginyami. Does anyone hold your heart?”

Valentin's English = #CC3333; Interacting with @Jack Burnett

Roleplaying as Ginyami Midorimori from Mahoutokoro
"English | Japanese"

“It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be you.”

Ginyami's lips parted slightly in awe of Valentin; his grip still on his hand, his kind words, and his beautiful, gleaming eyes. His charm seemed to know no bounds and Ginyami felt as though we were under the full force of it, unable to resist. He just seemed too dazzling to be real and Hiro's words from the dinner before came back to him about the phrase 'too good to be true'. It wasn't that Valentin seemed too good to be true - no, it was this. Their relation to each other. Valentin must have had a million fans who would have died to be in Ginyami's place - so why Ginyami? Because he had simply been at the right place at the right time? Because he continued to be? And yet, how long could that last?

No, no, no, don't think about that, he told himself as he watched the goblin king smile at his question. I should simply be grateful for the time I do have with him even if it one day comes to an end. I can't be greedy. This is already more than I deserve. He had partly expected Valentin to be angry at the question or at least taken aback, but no, he just gracefully took it in stride like he seemed to take most things. Ginyami watched him let go of his hand to secure the kitsune mask to his belt before reaching for the orb in his pocket and withdrawing it. With each step back he took, the fox felt the cold chill of the hallway replace the body warmth that had been shared due to proximity and his free arm rubbed the one still holding the grape. Since when had he grown so used to Valentin being so near? So used to it, in fact, that he was fully, unpleasantly aware of his absence when he wasn't?

Ignoring the useless questions that plagued his mind, he focused his attention instead on his companion, observing him gaze into the crystal ball. It was as though he were in a trance the way he stared and began to speak as if seized by the compulsion to put into words exactly what he saw. What he described was a scene that sounded as though it were from a story with its ruined tower and warring dragons. Ginyami's brows steepled a little, curious as to what the meaning could have been behind the dragons and their fight as well as what followed. He wondered what became of the red dragon when the white dragon broke free, but decided not to ask; at least not just then. It wasn't a question that could be returned so that Ginyami could answer and thus wasn't a part of their game.

He grew worried over Valentin's eyes when at first the boy winced and then later widened and blinked frequently. Just as he was about to ask the goblin king to stop, he was told that the orb was clear; that all that could be seen through it was him. Valentin then lowered the orb and, gazing into his eyes with a small laugh, put it back into Ginyami's kimono. For what reason, he wasn't sure. Did he want him to peer into it again?

“This is the answer. Holding my heart, there is only you.”

At this, the fox's narrow eyes widened, shocked by the answer. If not someone else, he had thought there would have been no one, but to be told he was the one holding his heart... Sanguine spots of color spilled across his face yet again, blending with his face paint as his eyes shifted away. He was not used to feeling this way. What was it? Embarrassment? Surprise? Joy? A strange mix of all three to be sure, though the last he was most reluctant to admit to himself. Surely you're joking, he wanted to say, but with someone as earnest and genuine as he had come to know Valentin to be, he could hardly accuse him of a joke just then. It might even have been cruel.

“I must know now, Ginyami. Does anyone hold your heart?”

When he finally regained the nerve to look his peer in the eye again, he closed the distance between them and raised the grape to the other boy's lips, face still ruddy with emotion. "I fear we may have accidentally switched hearts along the way," he breathed softly, hardly louder than a whisper but audible enough in the empty cooridor. "Because as I hold your heart, you seem to hold mine." Leaning forward as he fed Valentin the fruit, he watched him taste it as he had been asked to do. Then, he took that right, scarred, bare hand and put it to his own lips, kissing the back of it tenderly before gently releasing it to its owner's side.

"Next question - what was it that you were concentrating so hard on for the past few days that you forgot to keep yourself fed?" he asked, not without a hint of reprimand in his tone. Perhaps it may not have been a question that could have been turned back on himself either, but he desperately wanted to know.

Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)

So it had begun. Valentin revealed the details of what he saw in the crystal ball without having been asked to.

The frost captain was used to collecting and controlling strategic information on behalf of his teams. For all his scoffing at Sergei’s insistence on image management, Valentin had learned a lot from him about the benefits of playing cards close to his chest. To tip his hand could easily become the undoing of not just his quidditch team, but now the Horntail Horde Hexiwizard team as well. In such games, just one tell could snowball into catastrophe. This was why it was sometimes hard to endure Aida, the pathological truthteller – the wix just didn’t know how to stay silent, readily leaking private information without warning. After Durmstrang reclaimed their quidditch championship title this year, tacticians trying to profile Valentin ceased being a side phenomenon as scores of reporters and analysts began trying to get into his head. After one paper ran a column speculating how the different quidditch captains’ minds worked, others soon imitated and led to the popularization of the topic. Such investigations only intensified under the limelight of the Hexiwizard Tournament, and Val began relying on the “Sergei inside his head” more often than he wanted to admit. There was a limit to how much Val could talk over peoples’ heads now that true strategists were after exploitable secrets. With his teams depending on him, blowback from exposing Valentin’s personal details no longer had stakes confined to himself.

Even without others being at risk, however, Valentin was inherently quiet about himself. Whenever details about his family, wealth, and eating habits came into focus, people started treating him differently, and Valentin hated it. It was one reason he related to Kim’s concealment of his family name, Sato. Still, he didn’t like Kim’s use of a false name. It felt too close to manipulation and misinformation when the most Valya could stomach was to remain silent when it counted. Despite his international fame, the seeker was not a boastful type anyway. Often impatient, Val preferred learning and games over small talk, usually bypassing all the random opportunities to talk about himself that would send the tongues of other extroverts wagging. Val especially disliked Sergei’s suggestions about self-glorification – he just wanted to be loved for himself. Plenty of people already tried to game him for what they could get out of their relationship without Val having to drop additional information, let alone brag.

Although Valentin constantly surrounded himself with better-intentioned friends, and the more the better, he was usually in the position of encouraging others to open up, rather than volunteering personal information. For this reason, especially among the more self-absorbed, Valentin became known by his actions rather than through self-description. As a captain, king, and friend, it was easiest to provide social value through his insights and suggestions, his strategy and observations. The rare moments when his team needed his vulnerability and proactive self-expression – these became powerful and useful memories for his people. Like his tendency towards physical communication, it felt more comfortable and humble to not go out of his way to talk about himself. Day by day, most went along happily knowing little about Valentin’s inner world. Now, however, a clever fox had entered the scene.

With Ginyami’s curiosity channeled through direct questions, Valentin ended up revealing more to him within the span of a month than most people learned over years of casual engagement. For this reason, when Ginyami told him of what he’d seen in the crystal without Valentin having to press him again, it touched Valya. The fox had gone out of his way to show himself when he could have continued trying to avoid the topic. Valya saw this not only as a sign of trust, but wondered if it had begun for Ginyami as well – the urge to unify.

Why did the goblin king go on at length about his own crystal ball vision when it would have been adequate to simply answer the question? Val now wanted Ginyami to know such things, just as he wanted to learn everything about the Mahoutokoro boy. The frost captain couldn’t understand how they had so quickly gotten to the point where he wanted their minds to meld, sharing information freely so that together they could act as one unit. The experience was familiar from deep work with his co-captain and champion, and to a baser extent with his team mates, in the process of game strategy and teambuilding. Yet, Ginyami was on an opposing Hexiwizard team. It had occurred to Valentin earlier on, of course, that the boy might be like so many others trying to build a psychological profile on him for the purposes of winning. Yet, since their first explorations of each other in the Hogwarts dining hall, Valentin had almost immediately laid down his guard. Ever since, the wish for a deeper bond with Ginyami grew with all the momentum of a surging conflagration. For all the warnings in his gut about his reckless openness, Valentin craved it, burned for it: true connection. Could the black-haired fox give it to him – mind-blowing, profound, electrifying connection?

What was so different about this boy, setting him apart from all the fans and the multitude out to use Valentin, if not the spirit he saw behind Ginyami’s eyes? It must be true... the seeker thought, remembering how the intricacy and phrasing of Ginyami's music moved him. When Valentin entered that dark void where the silver entity shimmered, he knew it was a place where logic held no traction. When it came to matters of the soul, the seeker understood that the voiceable reasons would flower with time if only given enough sun and rain.

By the time Valentin finished answering the fox’s question, he truly believed it could be glorious for them, a fusion as radiant as his dreams. The frost captain knew that Ginyami could be using him, but the possibility of making his wish a reality – however improbable, however tiny and evasive the chance – Valya had to do it. It was just like the golden snitch had taught him. With all his heart and devotion, he had to reach for what others saw as impossible. Life deserved no less from him, and now Ginyami, too.

Following Valya’s confession, the Mahoutokoro teen turned his eyes away with red dashing across his striped cheeks. His expression struck Valentin as one of disbelief, if also happy and embarrassed. Displays of bashfulness bloomed often on the faces of Valya’s fans, but this was different… This time, Valentin was not content to stand back and watch, and the goblin king’s offer was no mere polite gesture. This boy’s spirit shone a brighter silver than any earthly metal to the niffler, and Valentin wanted this soul for his own.

“I must know now, Ginyami. Does anyone hold your heart?”

As the fox closed the distance between them, heat scintillated across Valentin’s body, and with the first grape nearing his mouth, the seeker drew an anxious breath. Eyes locked with Ginyami’s, Valentin hung suspended on every syllable. "I fear we may have accidentally switched hearts along the way, because as I hold your heart, you seem to hold mine."

A wash of dazzlement passed across Valentin’s face as, through his mind’s eye, a thousand shooting stars crossed the dark of night. A melody re-entered his head, uncurling like a hundred-petal chrysanthemum, while Valentin’s chest sizzled as if at any moment his heart would burst into flame. With Ginyami so close, the seeker’s skin prickled with sweat like that of Icarus drawing close to the sun.

“Ahh…” breathed Valya, face burning from ear to ear with vermilion. Through the heat, it came to him that in his vision, the silver-white colddrake had not only reached the sky, but in fact broke through the atmosphere into outer space to meet the silver anomaly. That was the only way to explain why he had never been so breathless before.

“Ah… Forgive… No one has handled me like this before. I’m not… accustomed…” Valentin’s usually faint Turkic-Russian accent burgeoned as his blinded eyes tried to blink back into position. Ginyami wasn’t even touching him, but the simple power of his words held Valya in a state deeper than fascination. Taking a moment to recover his breath, he leaned one arm on Ginyami’s shoulder as he felt the smooth curve of the grape touch his lips. This is real. Hold on, this is real…

“Gin… Ginyami,” tried Valya, feeling his breath come out as hot as from a fire-breathing dragon. He tried to gesture about having returned the crystal ball from out of his own pocket, but it may have come out incoherently as he tried to focus himself. “Do you… not want my gifts? The orb. You put it back in my pocket and I don’t know why. Do you not want it? Would you not take the things of mine you desire?” Rolling his neck with the momentary closing of one eye, Valentin tried to look into Ginyami’s eyes once more. The skepticism he'd read earlier on the boy’s face was tingling up through his skin even as he felt consumed in delightful flames. “Only in believing in me can I give you everything. To take from you, I need you to take from me.” Then, with one more shuddering breath, Valentin tried to center himself through the intensity of the moment. Lead by example, Valik…

Feeling Ginyami’s eyes upon him, the seeker summoned strength from his deepest reserves… and his teeth took hold of the grape between the boy’s fingers. He held still for a split second, and then his curving pink lips wrapped around the little planet-like fruit and sank down onto Ginyami’s fingers. Valentin’s tongue escorted the sweet sphere to the back of his mouth as his lips continued to hold onto the boy’s fingertips. Their hold was delicate, like velvet petals, but a rush of hot breath from Valentin’s nose accompanied his release of the boy's skin.

The seeker pulled back his head and looked back into the darkness of Ginyami’s eyes, smashing the grape between his molars and letting it slide down the back of his throat. The expression on the boy's vulpine face burned into Valentin’s memory as he continued to stare, memorizing every detail of this moment.

“Let me have a place within you, and you may live within me,” Valentin whispered.

The other boy then took Valya’s scarred right hand and pressed a kiss onto its back. From every angle, shivers broke across the seeker’s body. His consciousness shot like a rocket into some high-speed orbit, and Valentin knew Ginyami was talking, but all he could hear was the most divine music of his life. Spooling through his mind like black and silver ribbons caught in a solar wind, the notes summoned him, called to the deepest chambers of his heart. With Ginyami's release of Valya’s hand, a lucid impulse fluttered through the seeker, and he shook his head as if to wake up.

“I’m sorry, what did you say just now? Your question. Please repeat it to me.”

Valentin's English = #CC3333; Interacting with @Jack Burnett

ATTENTION!!!
THE SPIDER GAME EVENT IS ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE!!!

It was time for the highlight of the evening to take place! At long last, the Spider Game would commence! Kim let his blue eyes flicker over those gathered around in the ballroom. He took out his wand and upon using the correct wand movement, used the Green Sparks Charm. "Verdimillious!" A flurry of green sparks flew up into the air and crackled, attracting the attention of everyone present. Once attention was caught, Kim put his wand away. "Welcome."

"Please follow me." Kim instructed everyone and then headed for the 'Death Door'. He raised the heavy 'curtain', which was actually an elaborate painting he'd done, and disappeared underneath it into a different section of the large ballroom. The area guests would come into would be a large portion of the room. There were four raised platforms an equal distance from eachother and a short distance away from them were a long line of chairs set up where people could spectate.

Once the guests who weren't taking part in the matches got settled in their chairs, Kim turned his attention to the matches he'd put together. He pointed to the first platform all the way to the left. "Can I get Ginyami Midorimori, Valentin Schnell, Galton Lansdale and Bailey Glade onto platform 1?" He asked, showing them that the platforms actually had numbers too. It made it easier to keep track of, at least in his mind it did. He waited while they all took up their positions.

"You will be taking part in something I like to call the Spider Game. There will be a total of 3 rounds. The purpose is to throw fake spiders on your opponents, which will stick to their clothes when they hit. If you get hit by 3 fake spiders, you're out. Whoever has the least amount of spiders on them at the end of the rounds is the winner. If everyone is out before the end of the last round, there still is a winner."

"Whoever got out last is the winner." Kim told them. He presented each participant with a small bucket that held three fake spiders inside. "Ready? Let's get started! Good luck to everyone!" Kim said as he headed off to set up the other three matches, leaving these four to their own devices for now. They would get ready, figure out their battle plan and strategize together. There was a chance the match could end within two rounds and not even need the final 3rd one.

It all depended upon their battle plan and whether luck was on their side.

With all four matches being set up now, Kim took a step back and regarded them all, waiting to see what they would do and whether their choices would make them come out on top, result in a standstill or be the losers. Only time would tell at this point. Those who weren't familiar with dueling would get their very first taste of being part of the team, maybe it would even get them more used to the setup. Those who were familiar with dueling might have found it a bit refreshing.

They didn't have to worry about spells, getting hurt or have stress put on them. This was simply a fun game, designed to just enjoy yourself and not have to worry too much.

Information

1. You can spectate the 4 matches by going to the Spider Game Spectator Thread.
2. If you are participating in the Spider Game matches, the links are down below.

@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood, @Jack Burnett, @Galton Lansdale, @Bailey Glade, @Cassandra Ironwoods, @Haley Rose, @Simon Kincaid, @AngelFyre McCubbin, @Aurora Griffith, @Taisia Elidine Stroudefielde, @Damion White, @Oliver Brown, @Charlie Jacobsen, @Rita Su, @Emma Wynn

Match 1: Ginyami/Valentin vs Galton/Bailey can be found here.
Match 2: Ronnie/Haley vs Simon/AF can be found here.
Match 3: Aurora/Taisia vs Oliver/Charlie can be found here.
Match 4: Andre/Emma vs Damion/Bailey can be found here.

One of Cynthia’s friends had asked her to go to the Thrills and Chills party. But she was too busy studying. She still had tons of homework to do, but who cared? She needed some relaxing and a good Halloween party. But since she was studying, this meant that now she was late. Very late. She went over her costume again. A galaxy, the milky way, she supposed. It had stars on it. It was pretty but… How creative. Really, she didn’t need to blast out the fact that she likes astronomy.
Cynthia sighed. She gathered up her confidence and bursted into the room. ‘Hello there. What did I miss? A game about spiders? Well, that just sounds absolutely disgusting. Can I still come here? Am I too late?’ Cynthia stood there quite nervously. She saw a couple friends — Bailey, Aurora, Damion, Oliver, Simon (?she had only briefly met him, but she recognised him). Some famous people around Hogwarts — the well-going Hufflepuff Rita, the Slytherin prefect Ironwoods and Simon’s girlfriend, AngelFrye. And exactly one adversary, though she did not want to name her.
She smiled, hopefully this day would go to plan. That is, of course, if a certain person does not annoy her.

Roleplaying as Ginyami Midorimori from Mahoutokoro
"English | Japanese"

When Valentin began to break out in a sweat, Ginyami at first thought that perhaps the other boy's fever had started to return or that maybe feeding him the grape had been too much. As his companion tried to falteringly explain, however, his light eyes attempting to focus as his English words took on more of an accent, the noiret found the captain's loss of words to be increasingly endearing. He himself was having difficulty controlling his bodily reactions to his emotions, but to see and hear Valentin in such a state was something else entirely. It tied his stomach in knots and made him want...more. To know that he was the cause of the Durmstrang student's temporary 'weakness' only encouraged him to seek out the experience further. It wasn't until then that he thought he started to truly understand what Valentin had meant by becoming 'greedy'.

“Gin… Ginyami,” his peer breathed, and Ginyami treasured the warmth of that breath as he moved closer, engraining the sound into his brain of that lovely voice speaking his name so vulnerably. “Do you… not want my gifts? The orb. You put it back in my pocket and I don’t know why. Do you not want it? Would you not take the things of mine you desire?”

"Oh...I am sorry," the Japanese student apologized. "I had not realized you were giving them to me as gifts. I will accept them, of course; thank you," he said, bowing his head gratefully, "But what I desire most of yours I seem to already have procured." Their eyes met again and Ginyami's coy smile broadened.

“Only in believing in me can I give you everything. To take from you, I need you to take from me.”

"Then...I shall have to take more, will I not?" he replied relishing the tremors of Valentin's breathing. A part of him again wondered how much of the Turkic boy's reactions were due to his anxiety of eating in front of another and how much were due to...other reasons. Still, he decided to trust the goblin king and watched him take the grape in his teeth before engulfing the ellipsoid with both lips - along with Ginyami's fingers. The hold of those warm, soft lips caused his own breath to catch momentarily and a fluttering sensation exploded within him at the feel of Valentin's heated exhalation yet again.

As the alabaster king moved back to lock eyes with Ginyami once more, chewing and swallowing what he had been fed, his intense stare combined with the whisper that wafted towards the other elicited a slight shiver from the fox. It was then that he moved to kiss the back of Valentin's hand.

His thought in doing so was that if he could practice kissing and Valentin could practice getting used to it, then by the time they were ready to accomplish the task mouth to mouth, both sides would be more prepared. Valentin wanted him to take? Then take he would - take kisses, that was. He could place a different kiss in a different spot for each grape Valentin accepted. But by the time he had finished his first, he wondered if he hadn't broken the Durmstrang student. Heated as he himself had become, Ginyami cherished the quivering of his ivory companion and the earnest request for him to repeat his question after he shook himself out of his reverie.

“I’m sorry, what did you say just now? Your question. Please repeat it to me.”

"I asked what it was that you were concentrating so hard on for the past few days that you forgot to keep yourself fed," Ginyami repeated, though more gently this time. He was trying desperately not to chuckle at Valentin's lapse in presence of mind. "Since this is not a question you can turn back on me once you have answered, feel free to ask me any other question you like instead."

Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)

“Ah, thank you…” The tone of Ginyami’s music was different now, softer. The words sank in this time, though fuzzy at the edges as Valya absorbed himself in the timbre of the other’s voice. “It has to do with the goal I hinted at earlier, in the practice room.” Looking around the hall to confirm they were completely alone, Valentin put his arm back around Ginyami’s shoulders, but tighter now. Leaning in close, Valya’s nose brushed the hair by the fox’s ear as he whispered softer than before. “Trying to catch eternity.”

Just as he had during their dance, the seeker laid his other hand on Ginyami’s waist, and he felt the breath of life pulsating through them as he matched his lungs’ rhythm with that of the dark-haired wonder in his arms. “Let me offer it to you when everything goes wrong, the power to defeat the Reaper. With my father’s notes and the libraries and the piano, I’m trying to piece back together the songs of my ancestors – the ones they say resurrected those on the brink of death. The old memories of my mother are hazy, but I believe I can restore that ancient music. I feel it inside me when I’m with you, trying, yearning to resolve. When I look into your eyes, I can see it, right there as if I could reach out and touch it…” Closing his eyes, Valentin leaned his head against Ginyami’s. “Then it will be okay for us to be together, because I will know how to weave the magic of your song. It’s dangerous to be around me, we’ve talked about this, but… if I can help you survive anything, then maybe we can stay together. I’m scared, минем төлке. Tatar: minem tulke, my fox. It’s magic derived from the colddrake. This much power, if brought back… It’s not like I was trained. I don’t know what I’m doing. This comes to me from a long priestess lineage that I don’t understand; they were specialists, and there was a reason they were only allowed to have a single heir to carry the torch. This is dangerous, but… I am too. I don’t know how else I can justify giving myself to you. If we will be together, I have to be able to bring you back if things go wrong. Those times I almost killed people… they were a warning. I can’t make a single mistake, and yet, neither can I keep going on like this, fundamentally alone… not when I can push these limits.”

Valentin took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of Ginyami’s hair as he buried his nose in the black strands. He wanted to put his lips on the fox’s ear, like he could eat it up as part of his meal, but the seeker’s task was not yet complete. Instead, Valya urged himself to back off a little. He had a serious question, and he needed to impart the gravity of the situation. Yet, although loosening his grip and taking a half step away, Valentin couldn’t lift his eyes to meet the Mahoutokoro boy’s. The seeker’s gaze had caught on the edge of Ginyami’s clavicles rising above the cut of his kimono. Wandering up through the lines of the boy’s neck, Valentin’s violet-silver eyes got even more stuck there, transfixed.

“Your neck is so beautiful.” Perhaps it was that first grape, or the enchantment of Ginyami’s words, but Valentin felt the stirring of a great hunger. Simply gazing for a long moment, a voice in the captain’s head told him to stop, to do his duty of asking the next question. Through a slow blink, Valentin eased back another half step and released Ginyami’s shoulders. He had to do this the right way or not at all.

“If I succeeded in holding the tail of immortality in my grasp, would you… want it? Would you want me to bring you back from the cusp of death, even if I… whether you wanted to stay with me or not?”

Valentin's English = #CC3333; Interacting with @Jack Burnett