Magical Masquerade: The entrance

English | French Word Count: 592

Interacting with: @Avery Chen | @Colin McCoire | @Fang Hui-Ying |Open for Interactions Mentioning: @

Moving her gaze slowly, Beatrice bit her bottom lip mindlessly. Daffodils stood for rebirth, renewal and fresh starts since it is one of the first flowers blooming after winter. While doubtful, she wondered if the organizers of this year’s ball thought about that. She had a sinking feeling this wasn’t the only riddle they would have to solve and what happened if no one did or took too long? Blue eyes fixated on the Honking daffodils, the Brunette noticed a figure approaching from the corner of her eye. His traditional robe, black kimono and mask easily hinted at his school and heritage. His had to be one of the best choices at the ball, especially because Beatrice appreciated individuals that represented tradition and culture. She returned the smile spread across his features politely and nodded slightly.

„While I respect the idea of Daffodils welcoming the upcoming spring, I do agree that their sounds could cause the sun to hide behind the clouds once more, instead of encouraging it to bless nature with its beauty. Although they do appear similarly to stars that have fallen out of the sky, which would explain their unpleasant noises. I would be in a kindred mood if I got ripped from the night sky.“ Studying the boy in an amused manner, Beatrice figured she would not fulfill the task of introducing herself just yet and moved her gaze back to the yellow flowers. That was what she intended to do, however her field of view was soon interrupted by another person, one whose voice she recognized far too easily. Breathing slow and controlled her eyes fixated on Colin, who was once again far too loud and energetic for her liking. „Hello Cailean.“ A corner of her mouth lifted as she spoke the detail his little sister had revealed about him on their train ride. „I believe Ying is over there, Mister McCoire.“ Waving with a breath of relief, the Slytherin welcomed her friend with a good afternoon and a faint hug.

„Thank you, Ying.“ The Gryffindor had not hesitated to release a compliment upon her arrival, causing the first genuine smile of this night to flash over Bea’s face. „I love your dress, it is stunning and the colors suit you so well! You look mesmerizing.“ She insisted, noticing the gaze on her friends face and giving her a quick explanation on what the task was as she gestured towards the yellow flowers. In that exact moment, to her surprise, a small ornate box popped into her view. „Oh..“ she exhaled and bent down to pick it up. Snapping it open carefully, the box revealed a bunch of sweets and another piece of parchment embedded between them. Glancing at her friends and the boy who’s name she had yet to uncover, the Prefect unfolded the parchment and read the words written out loud.
„Blood of a goddess,
Turned its petals red.
Tears made her a mess,
Her lover now dead.“

A goddess? Thoughts jumping, her mind produced the name of the goddess of beauty and love. Aphrodite. She had many lovers but the flowers his blood and her tears had produced were Anemone, which petals she could spot nowhere near here. „Ying, have you heard of the Greek Myth where one of Aphrodites lovers dies and his blood as well as her tears produce Anemone? What is the rest of the Myth?“ confident in her friends ability and knowledge she turned towards the dark haired lion, eyes scanning the only piercing red flowers she could spot; roses.

Actions: Conversing
Moderated Actions: Scanning the Rose bushes for the next clue.
Trunk
Stats & Abilities: stamina • 8 | evasion • 7 | strength • 6 | wisdom • 9 | arcane power • 5 | accuracy • 8

Lovely Creature | Keen Eye
Inventory: Wand | Mask| Light Cloak | Lipstick | Silk Tissue | Elegancy and Beauty - Lovely Creature in effect, for those that wish to interact with the ability.

Malin was impressed by River's extensive knowledge of the clue. Malin would have most likely been searching for acorns if it weren't for her friend.
More than impressed, though, she was relieved. Relieved that River had not only not been offended by being called scary, but had accepted the compliment graciously.
She followed River and was quite sure she looked like a lost puppy compared to the elegant and empowered River Luxley.
Malin caught up to River, now walking beside her as they searched for the flowers, "So," She began, striking up a conversation as she couldn't go very long without speaking, "What do you like to do with your free time?" She questioned genuinely.
She was trying to get to know River better, and not just the mask that River wore of being proper and mildly terrifying all of the time. She wished to know the real River, the one that played piano like an angel and the one that put up with Malin's shenanigans more than anyone else.

STATS

(Stamina - 5 | Evasion - 6 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 6 | ArcP - 8 | Accuracy - 6)
ACTION: Looking around with River.

The last time Aly Salinger had attended a Hogwarts dance, it hadn't exactly gone according to plan. In fact, Aly had gotten all gussied up in gold and orange and magical crisp leaves for the Fall Ball, only to turn tail and leave without even being on the lakeshore for a total of three minutes.

This time, though, she was determined to enjoy herself no matter who she spotted burning up the dance floor. Part of it was just the gown, sent to her by her dutiful family house-elf Becca, who had found it in the attic whilst clearing out old boxes and whatnot. It had, apparently, belonged to Marjorie Salinger, Aly's paternal grandmother, and apparently, Marjorie herself had worn it to a Hogwarts ball of sorts back in the late seventies or early eighties during her attendance at the wizarding school. It definitely screamed Muggle fashion of the time, with big puffed sleeves, a high collared neck, and a full A-line skirt, though there were more modern touches: the glittery grey mesh and navy lace over Aly's collarbones, the wand pocket at her right hip, and the way Marjorie had charmed it to glimmer like the ombré fabric was imbued with thousands of tiny shimmering stars - as if galaxies themselves were trapped inside. (Aly, who had recently joined the castle's Astronomy internship, was positively thrilled by this.) Marjorie Salinger had passed just a few weeks after Aly's birth, so though the fifth-year didn't remember her grandmother in the slightest, wearing this made her feel just a little bit closer to the Herbologist of whom Aly had heard story after story whilst growing up. As for the mask, the earrings, and the shoes... well, it was always easy to accessorise in Hogsmeade whenever there was a ball up-and-coming at the local academy.

And so, armed with a dress full of family history and accessories that had caused her pockets to jingle quite a bit less than normal, Aly had readied herself with her best friend Dee in the Ravenclaw dormitories before splitting off to head to the ball on her own. Dee had a date, but Aly was quite happy going by her lonesome this time around - or, at least, that's what she tried to tell herself. She had plenty of friends, anyway, so it would be easy to find someone she knew rather than spend the night being a wallflower... right?

Well, as it turned out, not only were there no familiar faces as Aly stepped carefully along the training pitch towards the entrance, there were plenty of wallflowers already - literal ones, though, not just shy wix. The Aly of a few years ago who had memorised every flower's shape, scent, colour, and meaning stirred inside of her for the first time in quite a while, and a soft smile spread over the Ravenclaw's round, freckled face as she approached the front tree and her pale green eyes scanned over the wooden board and its embossed riddle. This ball had truly been made for her, if a couple dozen months too late.

At the second line, Aly was already running through her head about flowers that induced nausea with their scent or consumption, but the combination of the third and fourth lines and a soft honking sound from nearby cemented her suspicions. Honking Daffodils, of course. Turning towards the sound, Aly was surprised to spot a familiar mane of curls nearly as wild as her own half-updo, and she crept up towards the younger girl sporting the ringlets that she would recognise anywhere. "Bex," the elder greeted as she came up beside the younger, who was decked out in quite a detailed moth costume, "is that you? I haven't seen you away from the Quidditch pitch - well, ever."

However, just as she eyed the bush of Honking Daffodils that Bex, Aly's mini-me and a fellow second-string member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, seemed to have examined, Aly heard the second clue and her inquisitive mind instantly ran through all of her mythological floral knowledge. Well, roses, of course. The legend of Aphrodite and all - a personal hero of Aly's. Turning to a nearby bush of roses practically dripping with brilliant vermillion, the older Ravenclaw reached out and felt a soft scarlet petal between two of her fingers with all of the utmost caution with which one would handle a newborn babe. After all, she wanted very little to be pricked by one of its protective thorns, lining up and down the brownish stem. "Red roses. What a lovely flower," she complimented, her own gaze running through the thorny bush. "Wonder if there's something here..."

Outfit:

Reducio

Text:

Reducio

Italics:Thoughts
Normal text: Actions and general description of what is happening
#5doo8f: Talking in English
#1a8ca2: Talking in Norwegian (Translations under revelio)

Interacting with:

Reducio

Open to interactions from others River has interacted with IC, please owl me if you wish to interact with her but have not done so before

Lin was quick to follow River as they made their way to one of the rose bushes. Just like before, River was careful with how she moved as she searched, not wanting to accidentally rip or dirty her dress. Especially now that she was around rose bushes, because of the thorns of course. "So," Lin started saying after a few minutes of silently searching for the next clue, "What do you like to do with your free time?"

River took a second to ponder the seemingly simple question. There was a lot one could tell about a person by learning of their interests after all. "I have a particular fondness for magical creatures, I suppose," she began, "My mother was a magizoologist before she retired after my birth and kept all of her research at home. We have dozens of enclosures scattered about our estate grounds, all of them filled with the most curious of creatures."

She looked over at Lin as she continued, eyes lighting up behind her mask, "Many of my best friends have been among our creatures. Some of my favourites currently are Ægir, a niffler who enjoys keeping his hoard in my bedside drawer, and Jörmungandr, an occamy that hatched earlier last year and has a hatred for small spaces despite being able to fit inside them perfectly fine. Jörmungandr also seems to share my love of ice mice, despite the brain freezes he gets each time he steals one of mine." Her words were incredibly fond, her love of her creature friends evident in just how happy only speaking of them made her.

"As you know, I play the piano as well, I've taken lessons since I was four along with dance and etiquette, oh, History, English and Math as well I suppose." She shrugged her shoulders somewhat uncaringly, but there was still an ingrained elegance to the motion. It was as if she had practiced the motion hundreds of times, to get it just the right amount of gracefulness and casualness.

"I enjoy art as well; I have over a dozen of my drawings up on my wall back in my dorm room. Many of them are of the creatures we keep at home; others are of my parents and me. I have a few that depict Norse Gods and Goddesses as well, to pay respects to my lineage." She carefully avoids snagging her skirt on a nearby thorn as she continues, hoping that she wasn't being a bore with how much she was talking.

"I like reading, although I've never read a book twice unless it was special to me, since, with my memory, I could just recall what was on the pages and essentially 'read' it in my mind if I really wished to recap what was written inside it." Another subtle shrug, she was getting more accustomed to talking of her Hyperthymesia with others, but she still wasn't all too comfortable addressing one of her biggest quirks.

She looks over at Lin, the rune drawn on the left side of her face peeking from beneath her mask as the floating balls of light passed by overhead, "What about you? What do you enjoy doing, outside of playing the piano that is?"

Word count: 540

Action: Talking to Malin Penns as she searches the rose bushes.

Sta: 5 | Eva: 5 | Str: 5 | Wis: 7 | Arc: 10 | Acc: 3

Abilities: None

Linda thought she could notice something when she felt someone crashing into her and guy's voice following this encounter. She stood up and looked at him. It's alright, don't worry. She smiled. All the while, she caught herself on a thought that he looked quite attractive.

Realizing what she thought about and wondering why she would even think so, she hurriedly looked at herself, trying to see if everything was alright with the way she looked like. He looked older than her. Um... I'm Linda Ramirez, Hogwarts. What about you? I think you are from one of the attending schools, right? She asked awkwardly, but still keeping smiling. Why did she keep smiling even when he seemed to be looking somewhere else?

I like your mask, it looks unique in this masquerade full of different masks. Linda thought about her own mask. There was nothing unique about it. But she didn't mind it now. The fact that in her opinion it was still suiting for her outfit was enough.

She then noticed that he was searching in other flowers and was about to say it, when she heard someone finding new clue. Ah so it was all about finding clues first. No wonder why it was quite hard for all to find it. Thinking about the new riddle, Linda got interested. So it's searching for clues first. She didn't sound too enthusiastic about it, but that didn't matter. Do you think it could be roses or would it be something else?

She looked around at all the flowers surrounding them. Giving it just some more seconds to think it through, Linda moved to search in roses. Would you like to search together? She asked him before walking to the new bush and attempting to search there.

Interacting with @Della Barfield as Quentin Gagné
[/quote]

Kaya smiled at her friend. Truth been told she also didn't think about sending owl or letter to EmmaLee ever since August. Neither did she encounter her during previous ball. I've been quite great. Also that's okay. I also didn't send owls, but we can fix it from now on.

She thought for a second, looking around. Fall ball? Yeah, I was with someone who I guess didn't come this time. I don't really remember if I saw you there or not, so sorry for that. She smiled a bit, feeling somehow guilty about not saying hi when there was possibility for it. On the other side, she tried her best to be more focused on her ball partner, perhaps EmmaLee was, too.

Her thoughts were stopped by someone finding new clue. So this is all about finding clues. She was just a tiny bit disappointed, but happy at the same time as it made it even more exciting adventure. I see some, but I guess we need roses more, so let's go there first. Kaya answered to EmmaLee, letting her lead them to the roses bush.

Kaya sat down carefully with making sure to stay without scratching herself or her dress. She was wondering what the next clue will give them, while looking at EmmaLee to be sure her friend was careful with roses as well. Remember to take care while we are searching here. I don't want you to scratch yourself or damage your beautiful clothes.
Interacting with @EmmaLee LeDames

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Interacting with: Open!	Word Count: 229/200	Outfit: Reducio Reducio Mask: Reducio

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I walked over to the ball, slightly early, but later than a lot of people. Apparently there was a clue thing that pointed to the honking daffodil bushes. Still behind the game, I rushed to the bushes and started searching, adjusting my mask as I went. I had chosen my mask because it looked both dangerous and beautiful, which I liked. I had spent hours at a mask store picking it out. I wasn't a fan of magic, but I loved balls, so hopefully no magic happens. But I know that won't happen, considering my luck. Something terrible will most likely happen is what I assume. I searched the bushes, hoping to find it. I was looking in one part when my hair got stuck in the bush. I blushed and looked around best I could, hoping no one had noticed. I pulled my hair out and shook it, hoping no one saw. I was incredibly embarrassed. After that thing happened, I went back to searching the bushes, rather intrigued by this whole thing. I stopped after a few moments to survey the crowd. It seemed most were still looking in the bushes, so I would keep doing that. A few students weren't which meant they had found the next clue, but I was determined to catch up to them. So I kept searching around in the bushes, hopeful. 𝓐𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷: Searching the honking daffodil bushes 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕤: Stamina 7| Evasion 7| Strength 3| Wisdom 6| Arcane Power 5| Accuracy 7 𝒜𝒷𝒾𝓁𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓈: The Muggle Condition

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Meenauh hasn't been at a ball for quite a while. Balls were bad, balls were dangerous, balls were disaster. Every ball she was present in the past, ended not well. And "not well" is far from reality, really. She maybe had one that she really went to dance at and really just danced at. But in the whole myriad of disasters at Hogwarts, it was a drop in the ocean that was most probably forgotten (pfft, look at her Wisdom, 'forgotten' is not a word in her lexicon).

So, if not a particular boy person, she'd have kept not having a ball dress in her trunk, as it's been for quite a long time. When she finally sent her mother an owl and casually asked to send her the dress, it came back quite quickly with the dress and a simple note: "What's his name?".

She didn't plan to go to this particular ball as well, so the invitation (thank Merlin, not on the last day) was sheerly unexpected. Since their last meeting in September, Meenauh avoided Jack in the corridors. If they stumble upon each other, she'd disappear faster than an apparition, leaving Jack with nothing but a smile escaping his eyes life a blink of the sun. But they did grow into pen pals, which was only more heated when they weren't really facing each other in the corridors physically. She didn't expect him to write and moreover to hook on it. Over this half a year, she sort of naturally started to fancy the attention from the boy. She liked words, she liked the paper correspondence, so she could paint any imagery of whoever was on the other side of the feather. It was dangerous, very dangerous, as you couldn't read the body language or hear the tone. Or to know whether the person was lying about anything or not. So, she fancied Jack — his determination, which came as the greatest surprise. She has completely forgotten, by then, that he had the similar kind of determination even that night. So it may or may not be of his own character. Maybe just one thing that essentially disappeared from her memory.

This exact determination invited her to the ball. She was pondering for quite a while before she agreed to the invitation. It was a new feeling, it was a new kind of attention she never touched with throughout all six years of Hogwarts. Where there's no particular interest, there would be no application.


When the knight had come to guide the princess, Meenauh stepped out of the Common Room, keeping her cold queenly stance as clear as possible. But when she saw Jack, she couldn't keep it straight. His looks were as extravagant as one could just imagine. The crown also did the impression. Instead of bursting into laughter, she managed to simply smile: "I thank thee," she made a curtsy, "And you look... extravagant, Jack," she replied, while accepting the flower.

The point is — she was very nervous up until the moment she saw Jack. Half a year of constant writing, not direct contact and then they were going to a ball together. Yes, she was nervous. But the intricate art of ice-breaking, which seemed to be one of Jack's skills, made it all simpler to proceed.

All the way to the ball, they were mostly keeping silence, and she constantly felt the awkward proximity, which she pretended to be something not worth noticing, but of course she did. She hooked her arms around his, keeping the rose in between her fingers. As they walked in, she noticed the hassle of some sort of scavenging hunt — a usual activity. Jack was behaving like a grown-up child trying to behave older than all the children around, but she knew what he was doing, and she just made a silent comforting nod to confirm that she saw no interest in participation.

'Unless she wanted him to find one for her'. (COME ON JACK SMH) She gave him a condescending look with a smile, trying to make him understand he needed to step up his game.

"I'd like to proceed to the ball itself," she said in her artistically firm manner, "Which means where the drinks are," she revealed the real reason. There was no particular reason to mess with whatever was going on. She wanted a drink and a dance.

Action: None.
Looking around, open to interactions.

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speech • #427c9a thoughts • italics others • #ffffff

april 13th, 2024 • date quidditch training pitch • location spring ball • thread

Ophelia groaned at the prospect of another clue. Seriously? I thought we would find the key! The whole scavenger hunt idea was fun and unique, she had to admit, but she was in an itchy dress and not in the mood to search for something in the dirt. Still, she wouldn't say anything as Quinn walked up. Her friend had been a part of the ball planning committee after all, and she didn't want to sound rude. Plus, it was partially her fault anyway.

"Hi Quinn! I love your dress too. Is your theme butterfly?" What Ophelia said was true, the other girl's dress was pretty and colorful with a spring vibe. It was a green and pink gown with a gradient effect. While it didn't particularly scream butterfly, the mask seemed butterfly enough.

Ophelia thought back to the new clue that had been given out. Something about red petals? Maybe even blood and lovers? She hadn't been paying the closest attention. Blinking, she stood up so that Quinn didn't have to look down at her.

"Is the answer to this one roses? Or something else?" Ophelia looked at her friend hopefully, wondering if she even knew the answer. Did the ball committee people all plan together? Even if they didn't, then maybe Quinn would help her look. And Topaz, whenever she arrived.

interactions • @Quinn Brook + open! mentions • @Topaz November stats • sta 6 | eva 5 | str 6 | wis 7 | arc 6 | acc 5

202 • word count xxx • outfit perfectionist • abilities

action • looking through a rose bush

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