Nice guys finish first [Tag Zev] on Cascade Hall

DH Skies

July 18, 2018 6:19 AM

House Cup Winners by DH Skies

OOC - set later on the evening of the ball. Posted here to avoid confusion. You are welcome to post in one or both parts so long as your posts are not contradictory.

IC
The waltzes and other traditional dances played for just over an hour, which was plenty of time for anyone who enjoyed that sort of thing (or wanted to find out whether they did) to have a spin or two around the dancefloor. They had also announced the last three dances of this type, to ensure that no one who had been desperately trying to pluck up the courage missed their chance. Now though, it was time to turn the jukebox over to the winning house.

"Attention please," Professor Skies called, her voice magically amplified for the purpose, "It is time for us to announce the winners of the house cup. The members of the winning house will each receive a token for the jukebox. You have the remainder of the evening to use it." She had ensured that the supplier knew this was for a school event and so, whilst its supply of both magical and Muggle music was extensive, anything truly filthy had been excluded, and any swear words had been edited out. The jukebox would cue up the songs in the order they were selected and, if it ran out of picks from the students, would revert to playing at random. It was likely to result in an eclectic selection, especially if there were students who preferred classical as there was nothing to say they couldn't select those pieces, but hopefully it would be fun.

"And so, without futher ado, this year's winners are... Teppenpaw. Congratulations. Enjoy your reward," she tapped her wand against a green velvet bag and, with a shower of yellow and maroon sparks, silver tokens flew out, making their ways to the members of the winning house.

That done, she made her way over to Nathan.

"Congratulations again," she smiled at him. "Hopefully this is a nice way to end the year. Though, frankly, the year ending is good enough for me."

Subthreads:

A good end of the year indeed by Nathan Xavier

Nice guys finish first [Tag Zev] by Kir McLeod with Zevalyn Ives

13 DH Skies House Cup Winners 26 DH Skies 1 5

Nathan Xavier

July 24, 2018 9:28 PM

A good end of the year indeed by Nathan Xavier

The ball was going reasonably well. No prefects had danced with the scenery. Nobody had spiked the punch. He hadn’t seen any tears so far, and if any teenagers snuck out into the gardens they had managed to avoid his notice at least. Of course, the night was still young, and people might be waiting for the House Cup announcement before trying anything that might jeopardize their House’s chances.

Soon enough that announcement came. He had spent the intervening time talking with Isis mostly, occasionally other staff members, and once he’d even taken Isis out on the dance floor, all while keeping an eye out for trouble, either intentional, situational, or plague induced. He’d begin making his rounds soon, to tell the seventh years good luck and give them his best wishes for their future success, but that could wait until after the House Cup announcement, too.

Selina called for attention, explained the jukebox privilege, and awarded the Cup to . . . Teppenpaw.

Nathan smiled and applauded for his students, pleased to have the cup reside in his House again. His cat had taken to sleeping inside it, and he didn’t like to disrupt the old girl’s routines. Plus, it was always nice to have such a physical reminder of his students’ accomplishments. Proof, as it were, that nice kids finished first, too.

He smiled again as Selina approached him. “Thanks,” he said warmly toward her congratulations, accepting them on behalf of his House. He laughed then, when she expressed her relief that the year was ending at all. “Yeah, I didn’t even bother looking for summer lodgings until the Quarantine was lifted,” he admitted. He’d been an early victim of the illness, having probably picked it up from Jozua, Georgia, or Joe in the first couple weeks, but he would have readily volunteered to help watch the students stuck here over summer if it came to that. Unlike some of the staff, he didn’t have any other family obligations to get back to, and his girlfriend was already here.

Once the quarantine was lifted, however, he’d been quick to start looking for summer rentals a good long way away from Arizona. He and Isis had found a nice little cottage they both liked out on the Maine coast, remote enough from . . . basically everything . . . to be cheap, but absolutely beautiful and tranquil, exactly what they both needed after the madness of the past school year. Lack of electricity wouldn’t bother a pair of magical folk, and while indoor plumbing would probably have been nice, he was willing to deal with an outhouse and water pump for a couple months in exchange for such an amazing view everyday.

“We did find someplace very nice, though,” he added quickly, in case Selina got concerned that the delay might have resulted in a homeless staff member or two. He had never explicitly stated he and Isis lived together during the summers these days, but he didn’t think it would be hard for her to guess who the ‘we’ referred now that she knew they’d been dating for over three years.

Come to think of it, their first dance had been exactly four years ago, at at last ball, though Nathan hadn’t known that Isis had been harboring any kinds of feelings but friendship for him at the time. He smiled faintly in fond memory.

OOC: Isis’s approval of the cottage approved by her author.

1 Nathan Xavier A good end of the year indeed 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Kir McLeod

July 28, 2018 9:03 AM

Nice guys finish first [Tag Zev] by Kir McLeod

The evening was going perfectly. Kir was sitting at one of the small tables, with his arm around his girlfriend. His girlfriend. How on earth had he got this lucky? She was beautiful. She was funny. She was really, really smart. The whole evening, he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her, or stop touching her - putting an arm around her, holding her hand. No one else in the room existed for him. Only her, and she was perfect.

It had been hard to know exactly how many conventions they should keep and how many they should buck for the ball. Zevalyn had not seemed particularly fussed about whether their outfits matched, so long as they didn’t look awful together. He was hoping he had delivered on that brief. The robes he’d picked started out a dark orange at the top, fading into a yellow at the bottom. He knew that Zevalyn’s dress was a dark, almost black blue, which made him think of the night sky, and when he had seen these robes, it had made him think of sunrise. He wasn’t really a big believer in ‘opposites attract’ - he thought that he and Zevalyn went so well together because of all the things they had in common - but he thought the outfits would look nice together. He also had grown up around enough gay people that it was almost impossible to escape absorbing some fashion tips by osmosis and so, whilst he was sure he was breaking several rules, he was also pretty sure there was something about blue and orange being opposite on a colour wheel and that being a good thing. He’d also realised, as he made his way down from Teppenpaw, that each of their outfits had a nod to their house colours in them.

He had bought Zevalyn a corsage, because it felt nice to treat her romantically, although he had steered clear of real flowers, after their conversation in the hospital wing. Origami flowers seemed by far and away the most appropriate, although with the resolution of the magical illness, they were no longer within his power to make. Luckily, other people had already thought of this as a business idea, and he had been able to order one with dark blue and orange paper flowers. He was reassured to find that he thought those did look reasonably good together.
’Vanimle sila tiri, belegohtar,’ he had greeted her with a bow. For Christmas, he had asked Aunt Lola if there was such a thing as an Elvish dictionary in D&D terms - Gary was forever bringing out huge books that seemed to tell him almost everything. Elvish was one of the languages his character, Erevan could speak. He doubted he would really be able to become fluent but it would be fun to study it a bit, to be able to throw out the occasional phrase in real Elvish, instead of saying things like ‘I call him an idiot, but in Elvish so that he doesn’t understand.’. Unfortunately, no such dictionary existed, but he had received instead the books on Tolkein’s elvishes, both Quenya and Sindarian. He wasn’t sure enough of the grammar yet to really construct a sentence, but luckily the books included some common phrases. And apparently chatting up other nerds was deemed a probable enough use of the language that compliments had featured. He felt that ‘Your beauty shines bright, brave warrior’ was a nice balance of a traditional compliment with some acknowledgement of Amber’s strength. Not that Amber would have understood - she only spoke vulgar languages like orc. He wasn’t sure whether Zevalyn would though, but had been willing to translate, if requested.

The prefect dance had gone well enough. Fionn McLeod had left behind a lot of the baggage that went with being a good Pureblood boy, along with over-scheduled childhood of lessons in all the trappings of being a proper gentleman, but his wife had convinced him that one or two skills were worthwhile; that playing a musical instrument was a pleasure, and being able to dance was romantic. Kir had never been forced to go to ballroom lessons, but he’d seen his parents dance formally at weddings, or just neatly around the kitchen when the mood took them, and had learnt the basics from those situations and the informal lessons that arose from them. He tended to agree with his mother, having done it now for real, with an actual date. It was nice to let loose, to whirl through a Scottish ceilidh, or get your groove on. But there was also something to be said for holding the other person in your arms and gliding around, like you were floating on air, given that that was what he felt on the inside.

They were chit-chatting about summer plans when Professor Skies took to the stage. Kir was not naturally a competitive person, but he’d been pleased to see that Teppenpaw were leading in the house points competition the last time he’d checked Tavarius Mimms’ portrait. He liked Teppenpaw doing well, because people did sometimes make fun of them a bit. The nice house. Like there was anything wrong with being that. Every time the house cup went their way, it rather proved that point - nice guys did not finish last. He would have taken it well enough if Aladren won, because he thought he trod the line between the two, and so he was just as happy to see knowledge and learning well rewarded as he was kindness, plus it would make his date happy.

Teppenpaw took the title though, and Kir couldn’t help the broad smile that broke across his features at the announcement. Even though the jukebox thing had been mentioned at the start of the evening, he hadn’t given much thought to what he’d pick if Teppenpaw won. Someone had been rather too distracting for anything else to get much brainspace… Now he twirled the token in his fingers.

“Any requests?” he asked Zevalyn.

OOC - Kir’s robes have a colour gradiant like this. Only they’re robes, and he’s not wearing heels. They totally do the swish thing when he moves though.

Elvish compliments cribbed from here. Not sure how accurate it is.

Summary of the evening and any implied God-modding approved by Zev.

13 Kir McLeod Nice guys finish first [Tag Zev] 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

August 01, 2018 10:51 AM

Perfecting the swish and twirl by Zevalyn Ives

Zevalyn had actually enjoyed the dress shopping with Georgia. Once she figured out how to recognize the too pricy stalls (step one, identify who is patronizing them; step two, look at dresses, imagine them in white, and determine if they are too fancy to wear to her own wedding), she enjoyed trying on a variety of styles and experimenting with some wizarding designs that actually moved around on the fabric.

Those were interesting, but ultimately too strange to her muggle raised senses.

She eventually ended up in a shop catering to Aladrens. She wasn’t quite sure why her House was so special - there wasn’t a Teppenpaw one for Georgia - but she wasn’t going to complain because that’s where she found it. It was long and sleek and a blue so dark it was basically black (which was fitting because Aladren’s other House color was black) but when she moved and the light hit it just right it shimmered royal blue in a way that could only (and accurately) be described as magical. The effect was subtle enough that any muggle looking at would be impressed but they would have no cause suspect supernatural enhancement.

Zevalyn loved it. She spent long enough twirling in front of her mirror, just watching its dark lines glimmer into brilliance, to be grateful she didn’t have any roommates anymore.

Eventually though, it was time to go down to the ball and meet up with Kir. She wasn’t at all skilled with makeup and hadn’t yet found a charm that did it the way she wanted it done, so she didn’t bother. Kir seemed to like her natural face just fine and she doubted anyone else would be paying much attention to that part of her when she was wearing such a shimmery dress.

She did put her blond hair up into a rather fancy updo. Zevalyn rarely bothered doing more than brushing it most days, though she did put it into a simple braid when she was being Amber because Amber would need it out of her way in game. Today, it was closer to something Princess Leia had worn (Leia being Zevalyn’s best role model for fancy hair) - except Zevalyn’s hair was rather shorter, thinner, and lighter. Given those limitation, she had duplicated the Cloud City bun and loops as best she could. Magic helped some, but her loops were definitely still smaller than Leia’s had been.

She thought it still looked pretty though, and she liked the way the loopies flopped around while she was doing her dress twirling, too. All in all, she thought she’d have a lot of fun on the dance floor tonight.

Kir was hard to miss once she got down to the Hall and she complimented his colorful outfit, which was quite eye-catching and suited him very well. She wondered if the yellow in it was as intentional a nod to his house as her dress was to hers. He looked quite handsome either way, and she loved the way they swished. As a couple they were definitely going to need to do a lot of swishing and spinning tonight to show off their outfits to their best effect.

She laughed in warm appreciation for the paper flower corsage and the elvish compliment he gave her. At least, she assumed it was Elvish, and a compliment. It had a similar sound to the the things the elves said in the Lord of the Rings movies. “Thank you, my dear elf. I’ll be able to keep it forever!” she declared in delight when she saw the flowers weren’t real and therefore not doomed it die. She might ask later what it was he’d said in Elvish, but for now she didn’t want to ruin the moment by asking for a translation. His eyes and tone told her well enough that it was something nice, and the fact that he had learn some Elvish for her told her far more than whatever the actual words translated to.

They danced in the prefect dance, and Zevalyn couldn’t help thinking they might be one of the more striking couples on the floor, even without spending a fortune on their clothes. The thought pleased her.

After that dance, she was also pleased by how much she had captivated Kir’s attention. The dress definitely gave her a charisma bonus tonight, she decided. They danced a bunch more, enjoying the excuse to be so close to one another, not that Kir seemed to need one, even off the dance floor. Still, it was a ball. Being couple-y was basically as encouraged tonight as it was normally discouraged, and they took advantage of it.

They were taking a breather and chatting about their upcoming summers when the House Cup was awarded to Teppenpaw. Not too surprising really, given the size of their lead the last time she’d checked in with Professor Mims.

She smiled and shook her head. “Oh no, your House won,” she reminded him. “You get to made the choice. But maybe something fun to dance to?” she suggested with a playful wink.

1 Zevalyn Ives Perfecting the swish and twirl 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Kir and Georgia

August 02, 2018 10:17 AM

All about that firework by Kir and Georgia

“Ok. One fun dance number coming up,” he promised, leaning in to give her a quick kiss before getting out of his seat. At least, that had been the plan. It sort of turned into a slightly longer kiss than anticipated. “As soon as you stop distracting me…” he murmured. He allowed himself one more kiss, and for his hand to squeeze hers (the one with the corsage on, the corsage that she had said she could keep forever) before pulling himself away to head to the jukebox, frequently glancing back at Zevalyn as he did so, apparently awestruck by her presence in his reality.

He arrived at the jukebox about the same time as Georgia, which reminded him of his first meeting with her, when he had been singing ‘I Am What I Am’ and she had asked if it was about Muggleborns. Something like that would be good. Only not that, because it was a) more anthemic than strictly dancy and b) it did not feel like a song he and Zevalyn would dance to as a couple. But something that had a message about being yourself without being quite so melodramatically gay - of course, all songs with that message ended up beloved by the LGBTQIA+ community, but there were some that were more deeply entrenched than others. Some could just be for anyone who needed a boost in their self-esteem. That was definitely what a Teppenpaw victory song should have its message.

“Any ideas what you’re going for?” he asked Georgia. Her date was currently at the jukebox but she was hanging back uncertainly.

“Not sure…” she replied, fiddling with her token slightly self-consciously. “It’s kinda hard to choose.”

“Well… do you have a song that just… makes you want to get up and dance? That’s like, your go to happy song?”

“Yes….” she admitted, a little awkwardly, “Can’t exactly see it being a floor filler though.”

“Who cares?” Kir smiled, hoping he could get Georgia feeling positive, “It’s your song, not theirs.”

“I care! What if your song comes on and everyone is like, oh my god, that is so lame. And no one wants to dance to it.”
This was not a dilemma Kir had ever considered. If that happened to him, he suspected he would just spin around the dancefloor by himself like an idiot because he had literally no shame. He didn’t think that was going to be a winning suggestion with Georgia though.
“I promise I’ll dance to it,” he assured her.

“You don’t even know what song it is.”

“Yeah, but it’s your happy song, and nothing should stop you from putting that on.” And I have almost literally no concept of embarrassment or self-consciousness, which helps he added, but only to himself because it seemed Georgia had enough to cover both of them and he didn’t want to rub it in. “Go on, what is it?”

“Do you know ‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor.”

“Yes!” he replied, “I do and I love it and you should absolutely play it. After you,” he gestured, noticing that the jukebox was free, but following to make sure she followed through on that choice. Once she had, he programmed in ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry. Joe’s song was playing ahead of theirs, so he made his way back to Zevalyn, although he wasn’t adverse to dancing to the other Teppenpaws’ choices. In fact, he thought it lacked house spirit not to, so he paused short of their seats, holding his hand out in invitation instead.

“One party classic, befitting of Teppenpaw spirit, coming right up. After Joe and Georgia’s choices. Do you want to… maybe join them for a bit?” he asked, and then deciding he couldn’t just pretend that was a casual idea, he added, “I uh, promised Georgia I’d dance to her song with her if no one else did,” he added, suddenly wondering whether this was going to be a problem. “She was worried no one would like it and I didn’t want her to be too self-conscious to put it on. I mean, it’s not like dancing dancing. We can all dance together to it, if you want to as well. Is… is that ok?” he checked.

13 Kir and Georgia All about that firework 366 Kir and Georgia 0 5