Closed 2, 4, 6, Great! Errand

Step over here, slide to that side, and repeat the same thing. Ethan can't help but smile at how Harmony is keeping up with the steps. He paused for a moment, thinking about how to answer that question. “Hmm...” Ethan raised a finger to his chin, taking a second to think, “We could try a fancy waltz, maybe with some lifts. Or perhaps a tango?” But as much as Ethan loved the idea, he couldn't get past the fact that waltzing and tangoing were way too complex for him. “Simple is better,” he mused. “I don't really know how to waltz or tango, but they look much more complicated than this step—not to mention they're faster and a bit harder to memorize.”

Ethan laughed, thinking about the diagonal corridors she had in mind. He couldn't help but chuckle, imagining this scenario playing on his own mind. “I'm not sure if diagonal corridors are possible either, but I'm sure someone will read a story and think, 'I bet I could draw that.' And I'd rather not have an artist draw an endless diagonal corridor just because they thought it would be funny. Or maybe I kind of want to see that? Huh. Yeah, I actually like that. Do you think they would draw it like a treadmill, one infinite floor running at a slight diagonal? Or would it look like a hallway leaning further and further in one direction?” he rambled.

“I never thought about being at a party and trying to get away from someone you don't like while acting natural,” he replied, “but is there anyone in here that you don't like?” he then looked around the room... curiously.

@Harmony Hollins

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Interacting with: @Kaitlyn Connor	Word Count: 429/400	Outfit: Reducio

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Minnie breathed a sigh of relief when Kaitlyn found her. That leap must have done the trick. She blushed at her compliment. "I feel rather undressed. But thanks! Yours is super pretty as well!" And it was. That green dress looked spectacular on her. Her eyes fell to the box she was carrying. She wanted to ask but didn't want to pry, so she kept quiet. This time her mouth and brain worked together and she stayed quiet. Instead she commented on the crowd. "It's super loud isn't it?" She asked Kaitlyn. The noise was something she really hated, and she also disliked large crowds. But with Kaitlyn, it didn't matter. Minnie looked around and saw a lot of people in a dance position for the foxtrot. "Do you know the foxtrot?" She asked quietly. "I can teach you if you don't." She added. Her mom had forced her to go to dance lessons when she was younger, and one of them had taught her the foxtrot. She would be happy to teach Kaitlyn. It probably wouldn't be embarrassing at all either. She had danced with Kaitlyn before, and Minnie would love to dance with her again. That's why she had said yes, besides the fact that Kaitlyn was a great friend. The only person besides her who she would dance with would most likely be Theo...but he wasn't here. I miss him. She found herself thinking. But now I need to make this night awesome for Kaitlyn. No thinking about people from home. So she forced herself to keep talking to Kaitlyn, which wasn't that bad really. "Remember when this ballroom was only the two of us dancing together, that's when we met! I never imagined it would get this full." She laughed, hoping Kaitlyn would laugh with her. Then she moved on, trying to think of conversational things. "I'm really bad at small talk, sorry." She said when nothing came up. "So...I feel like I've seen you with a pet...is that true?" She enjoyed animals and had seen Kaitlyn with a bunny before. She wasn't sure though. Her thoughts were stopped when some people walked by in really pretty clothes. It made Minnie think of how under dressed she was. She had decided to put on a flower dress to make herself a little fancy, but now she seemed like she was in casual clothes, especially next to Kaitlyn. But she wasn't going to tell her that. For now she would smile and dance with no worries and with Kaitlyn, her awesome dance partner. Minnie's dance partner is Kaitlyn Connor

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Time: Reducio Date	Interacting with : Reducio @Minnie Duke
Outfit: Reducio Dress: link Sandals: link Hairstyle: link Self-made tulip earrings: link	Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

Kaitlyn gave a bright, reassuring smile to Minnie. “I didn’t ask you to the dance to judge you based on your clothes. I think you look cute like this. I personally wouldn’t worry about it,” she said. “Unless, you wanted to go dress shopping?” She teased, giggling. “Yes, it is quite loud,” she agreed, not liking the sheer number of students and loudness. She plucked one of the tulips from behind her ear and held it out to Minnie. “I thought these tulips would be cute, one for each of us. They’re my favorite muggle flower,” she explained brightly.

Kaitlyn glanced around them, also noticing that a lot of the students were dancing the fox trot. She shook her head at Minnie’s question. “I never danced it myself. I’ve seen others dance it though,” she shrugged. “Yes, please, if you don’t mind,” she giggled at Minnie’s offer to teaching her the dance. She was already happy to be with Minnie at this dance.

At Minnie’s joke, Kaitlyn laughed and nodded. “It looked so grand and big. It was hard to picture it this full,” she gestured around them. “But, I think the most important part is the company you have in a room like this. It can make or break a night,” she smiled, knowing that Minnie was making her night. She giggled at Minnie’s admittance to be bad at small talk, she moved slightly closer to her friend. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but so am I,” she whispered, before pulling back a little. “I honestly don’t mind. We can talk about a lot of things or nothing much. I think you’re interesting, regardless,” she told Minnie honestly.

Asked about her pet, Kaitlyn’s smile grew even wider. “I found a Mist Hopper near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. I was outside practicing yoga … I know, it was very cold out. Surprisingly, I didn’t freeze my toes off from it. Anyway, I think she was attracted to me … or the vegatables I had with me. But, yes, she’s my pet now. I named her Demeter. She’s shy, like me,” she explained with a smile. “I’d like to introduce you to her at some point. I think she’ll like you,” she continued.

Her blue eyes fell to the box in her hands, handing it out to Minnie.

“Um, Minnie? I made you that bracelet we talked about. I modeled it after muggle charm bracelets. I hope you like it … and if not, please let me know so I can fix it,” Kaitlyn said, quietly, her cheeks flushed.

Once Minnie opened the box, she would find a gold charm bracelet inside adorned with amber colored gems. There were also five charms on the bracelet, already. One was a miniature Hufflepuff crest. A second was a mini badger. Both of those were a nod to Minnie’s house. A third was a paintbrush, since she recalled that Minnie liked to draw. A fourth was a mini woman dancing, in a similar pose as the figure Minnie previously gave her. A fifth was a miniature brownie, since Minnie liked to bake. She chose the charm bracelet design, since it would be easier in the future to gift Minnie additional charms. And she made sure muggle charms would work with it, too. The bracelet and charms gleamed from a fresh coat of polish.

While Kaitlyn knew that Minnie was a trouble maker, she had difficulty in identifying a good charm for that. She’d rather wait to find a good way to represent it. Hopefully, if Minnie let her help out, she’d be able to identify a good charm to give for it. While she was excited for Minnie to receive the bracelet, she wasn’t about to tell Minnie the work that she put in for it. It required a lot of planning to make the charms, and she spent a total of two late nights to make it. But, in her opinion, spending a few days out of wack from lack of sleep was worth it, to give Minnie a token of her appreciation.

It was likely very telling that of the friends Kaitlyn made at Hogwarts, Minnie was the first that she offered to make jewelry for. She hoped her friend liked it. Her blue eyes fell to her toes, as she waited for Minnie’s reaction. She wasn’t nervous perse, but catutiously hopeful. Hopeful that Minnie liked what she was gifting her.

Reducio

Note: 742 words / 400

Kaitlyn's dance partner is Minnie Duke

10 February 2024

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t have any clue what most of what you said is.” Harmony confessed in response to Ethan’s potential dance musings. “If you have any in mind, though, I’d be okay to give it a go. I like to think I learn and dance well.” She began to slow their steps in an attempt to bring their diagonal stepping to a stop, lest their single-directional steps send them into a wall. “I mean, this is pretty cool, but it’s like dancing down an endless diagonal corridor”

Harmony’s passing thought of diagonal corridors triggered what seemed to be a wave of rambling inspiration in Ethan that then washed over Harmony.
“Ooh, I hadn’t even thought of a hallway where the walls themselves are leaning in a direction! What I meant was the floor running at a slight diagonal, but corridors don’t really have a clear ‘front’, right? So you’d just turn a little bit and it would be a normal corridor again.” A very silly idea struck: “Let’s try the foxtrot as if we were in a diagonally-leaning hallway,” she giggled, the mere idea of leaning further and further already getting her in stitches without even trying.

“In conclusion, Corridors: Can They Diagonal?,” she questioned very seriously. “How about being at a party and trying to get away from someone you don’t like while acting natural?” Harmony hummed in agreement and acknowledgement as Ethan said he’d never thought of her idea, and in response to his following question, scanned the room for faces before allowing her gaze to return to Ethan and saying: “You.”
After a short pause for comedic timing, she dropped the bit, grinning, and shook her head. “Just kidding. You seem like a very cool person. There was this weird misunderstanding with another student last year, but that’s okay now and I don’t know many others at this school yet.” She confessed. “How about you? Do you have any juicy gossip to share with a stranger you’ve known for a few minutes?”

Interacting with: @Ethan Smith

OOC notes: Dance partner is Quinn Brook and word count is 428/400

Calming Presence in Effect: All Participants Affected

The boy straightened his pinstriped white and black suit. This thing had been around for a good long while; he had first bought it for the purposes of dressing up as Beetlejuice in his fourth year as part of the planning committee for the Fall Ball "Faerietale Endings", which had only ended well and not at all in fire and a mad bloodthirsty hag doll whatsoever, and had been used more recently (though in a shined up and meticulously cleaned state) for the purposes of moderating a duel in late January. Now he was once again wearing the suit for the purposes of a dancing event. If he couldn't look at least a little dapper while dancing, then what was even the point, right?

With Figaro on his shoulders, Piérre strode into the Ballroom and beheld its decoration and the bones of the room itself. It was quite a lovely place. A shame he didn't come around here as frequently as he would have liked. It could be quite pleasant, proved he had reason to come around here to begin with. Outside of balls or for events such as these, the boy was more likely to hang about the corridors, more likely to simply let himself be swept about by the waves of people on all sides.

He tipped his head in delight as he watched a collection of all students of all kinds dancing and bowing and stepping either awkwardly or surprisingly doing quite well in their individual dances. Alas, Piérre was quite alone. He always had been, usually even in regards to friendships. He knew many people, and many people knew him... but he never had... well, we would probably call it something along the lines of "close friends". He had names, he had faces, he had people... but he had no true compatriots. Coming here had been because he simply liked being around people. He liked being around people, he liked to 'people watch', and he did like to dance. Even dance ridiculously at that.

As he watched the Care of Magical Creatures professor dancing with Reagonomics, Piérre felt his eyes crinkle in amusement. Ah... the potions professor. What a history he had even as recently as the past few months... so long as he stayed out of the way, though, all should be fine. He grinned lightly, nodding his head to the beat of the music as the dances continued all around.

He was not a trained dancer, but he did like to simply try to let motion move through him. This usually was in a fashion reminiscent of dance similar to tap. Simply an action of contestant spinning, swift motion of his feet forwards and back, with occasional jump-spins and twirls that nearly sent him toppling over himself whenever he got a bit to zealous with one move or another. It was less of a foxtrot, though it did have certain elements of the L-patterned foxtrot integrated into the movements and the way that he slid and almost glided across the floor from area to area. These was the motions that the boy performed, spinning between groups and sometimes interrupting them with a barging in by his dancing before he spun off like a wild top and went after another cluster.

He danced and danced until he lost his breath, as he got hot under the collar from the wild movements and felt a fine sweat beginning to form on his brow. He was here to bring life, to bring laugher, and to simply spice things up, at least for the time being. Surely nothing too terrible would happen here... perhaps for just a few moments, just a single breath in time, there was just the music, just the dance, and just the ability to let all the worries of the world melt away.

Until the dance ended, that was.

645 words

Statistics: Stamina 7 | Strength 5 | Evasion 18 | Wisdom 12 | Accuracy 16 | ArcPower 5

Abilities:
Keen Eye | Calming Presence | Beast Master [Cat] | Cat's Grace | Animagus [Hummingbird]

Items:
Wand | Soda | [Sharpened] Locksmith's Knife | [Red] Deck of 52 Playing Cards

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Interacting with: @Kaitlyn Connor	Word Count: 437/400	Outfit: Reducio

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Minnie gasped at the charm bracelet in the box Kaitlyn gave her. It was wonderful, gold colored with lovely amber gems. She could tell Kaitlyn had worked hard on this. Minnie smiled at the charm bracelets, a muggle thing she believed. Did Kaitlyn know how fascinating I think muggle things are? She's amazing! She looked at the charms, a Hufflepuff crest, a badger, a paint brush, a dancer, and a brownie. It was all spectacular. "Kaitlyn...how? This is perfect! I'm so happy that you made this for me! Thank you." Minnie told her, wanting her to know how much she liked the gift. It was perfect in Minnie's eyes. "I-just wow. You really have a way to stun me." She smiled, remembering the other times Kaitlyn had made her stunned. Then her smile turned brighter as she accepted the tulip and put it behind her ear. "I love flowers." She said quietly. "Thanks again." She listened as Kaitlyn talked about her bunny, Demeter. "I have a pet too." Minnie told her. "Her name's Lightning, and she's a ferret. I got her in the magical menagerie. Far more boring than your story about your pet. But it was a...strange visit." Her smile dropped slightly as she remembered the odd cats that were there. Then her smile brightened. Lightning had been the cutest thing ever, and they had immediately fallen in love. "The foxtrot is easy, don't worry!" She told Kaitlyn, wanting her to feel comfortable dancing. She assumed the dance position for the foxtrot, putting her hand on Kaitlyn's shoulder and her other hand lightly on Kaitlyn's. "Okay. So are feet go like...um...so they go in and sideways like so, and the up, and then together." She blushed as she started leading Kaitlyn around the dance floor in a simple foxtrot. It was sort of fun, and Minnie was sure she was getting it quickly. "Aren't animals the best thing? They just are so cute and cheer you up! I love them!" She asked Kaitlyn as they danced. "Oh, and um...you're okay with this dancing right?" She looked at her charm bracelet that she had slipped on her wrist. "I should have asked you first." She blushed, realizing how rude that was. Moving on from the conversation, she tried to think of a topic. All she could come up with was talking about pets. "So...what silly things does your bunny get up to? My ferret gets into all sorts of trouble. It usually is quite hilarious though, so it's fine." She smiled, thinking about Lighting. "I'm really enjoying this dance, aren't you?"

Time: Reducio Date	Interacting with : Reducio @Minnie Duke
Outfit: Reducio Dress: link Sandals: link Hairstyle: link Self-made tulip earrings: link	Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

Kaitlyn smiled brightly at Minnie’s reaction with a light pink flush on her cheeks. She giggled at Minnie’s words. “Thanks,” she replied, shyly. “I just do my best to listen and pay attention,” she responded, humbly. “I am glad that you like it,” she replied. Despite being quite, the smile on her face showed how happy she was that Minnie liked it. ‘This seals it. When I get back to my dorm later, I’ll make a list of charms I’d like to make for her. I like to see Minnie happy,’ she thought.

“So do I. I used to help out at my muggle all-girls Catholic boarding school out in the garden. I chose the tulip though, so I could get a yellow one,” Kaitlyn admitted with a smile. “Do you have a favorite flower?” She asked, her smile bright. If there was one thing that brough her great job was to show that she was listening. Between her normal practice of active listening, where she very rarely interrupted, and now with the gift choices that she used.

“Awesome. Lightning sounds like a cute name for a ferret,” Kaitlyn smiled brightly. “Aw, I don’t think your story would be boring. Getting a pet is exciting. Was there a reason you chose a ferret, if you don’t mind me asking?” She gave Minnie a reassuring smile. She also didn’t mention that she had bruised her rear end for like a week, too, after falling from a perfectly executed tree-pose. After that episode, she vowed to be more careful. So far, she refused to let Demeter play around her when she practice yoga. Hopefully she could change that mindset, after enough training.

Kaitlyn copied Minnie’s movements, placing one hand on her friend’s shoulder, her other hand holding Minnie’s hand. She giggled quietly, watching her feet to mirror Minnie’s movements. She caught on quickly, as the general gist of the dance was easy enough to pick up. Plus, being a dancer already, she was already nimble on her feet. “Thank you for the instruction, you did a good job teaching me. I’m enjoying this,” she said quietly to Minnie.

“Yes they are! I love animals, too! I’ve only been exposed to muggle ones, but they’re all so cute!” Kaitlyn exclaimed, in agreement with Minnie, as they danced together. Her cheeks flushed lightly at Minnie’s question. She gave a reassuring smile to her friend. “I’m fine with the dancing, you don’t need to worry. Thanks for asking,” she smiled.

Kaitlyn giggled at Minnie’s recount of Lightning’s touble. “That sounds so adorable. Demeter likes to run off on me. Her favorite way of expressing her shyness is to hop away. When I first met her, I coaxed her with vegetables. I’m trying to train her to behave accordingly. I find if I pet her, she stays,” she giggled. A twinkle shine in her blue eyes. “Hey, I’d you want, maybe our pets could meet for a playdate?” She suggested. She smiled to Minnie’s question. “I’m enjoying this dance, too. It helps that I have such an awesome partner,” she smiled brightly.

Reducio

Note: 515 words / 400

Kaitlyn's dance partner is Minnie Duke