The end is just the beginning (tag Felipe) on Cascade Hall

Selina Skies

January 01, 2022 7:39 PM

The Ball by Selina Skies

In many ways, the ball looked set to be the same as ever. The house tables had been replaced with small tables, draped with white tablecloths and laid with sparkling centrepieces. Chairs with bows on their backs were clustered at each table. At the back of the room was a table of refreshments, and a floral archway with a photographer. The main space of the room was given over to a dance floor. Underneath these superficial similarities, things were a little different this year. For one thing, the prefect dance was going to be a group number. There were a few non-prefects involved, those who had already been asked as the dates of existing prefects before the matter had been settled, but it had worked out to a neatly even number, so that was all well and good. For another thing, John was not the only member of Selina’s family in attendance. Not that staff routinely brought their children (unless they lived there), but they did routinely bring their partners… It was a little strange, seeing Ema at a Sonora ball, and Selina wasn’t ever quite sure how comfortable she felt with people knowing that Killian was dating her daughter. But… well, it seemed unavoidable. And they looked very happy, which helped soften any nerves she had about it. And perhaps those differences were small and inconsequential to everyone else. She was sure there had been floundering over dresses and dates, and that there were a mixture of elated hearts and slightly bruised ones, and people who felt fabulous and some who felt self-conscious, and that every other thing was just like every other teenage ball that had gone before it – for all that it probably felt like life and death matters of a totally unique nature to the students living it.

The main student body made their way in. Selina gathered the prefects and their dates in the entrance hall, checking they were ready. Once she had everyone, she made her way in.

“Good evening. Welcome to the ball. The majority of the evening will be yours to do with as you wish – to dance, to take pictures, to enjoy refreshments. Later in the evening, we will announce the winners of the house cup, and provide a special treat for them. But first, I would ask for just a few minutes of your attention, as the prefects present their chosen opening dance.”

She initiated a small round of applause, stepping to the side and gesturing for the prefects to come in. The music started, and the group moved through their choreographed routine. When they were finished, she gave a brief round of applause, and then the music resumed, leaving the dance floor open to any who wished to take to it, and everyone else free to do as they pleased.

OOC: Writing for the prefects based on what was agreed in their meetings. Making the assumption that nothing goes horribly wrong with the dance, but happy to correct if need be.

Subthreads:

Going through the motions by Xavier Lundstrom with Mab

Strategy in action [Jezebel] by Martin Crosby V with Jezebel Reed-Fischer

It's the ball!! [Bonabelle and Wally.. maybe Stanley] by Valentine Duell with Bonabelle Row, Stanley O'Malley

Um. Have a thing? (Tag Lorena) by Oz Spellman with Lorena Abernathy

Look out, y'all, I've got the prettiest date! [Ros] by Tommy Jamison with Rosalynn Tellerman

Is this good-bye, German Tent Girls? by Hilda Hexenmeister with Jessica Hayles, Sophia Priory

So what do we want to do, Beginner Teppenpaws? by Hansel Hexenmeister with Patience Reed-Fischer

I am a beautiful fairy princess by Dora Xavier with Janis Rosemary Silver

I wear my sunglasses at night by Phil Carson with Christopher Brockert

Well, there's less to complain about this one. by Osvaldo Alamilla with Leonor De Matteo

For our adoring fans. [Jeremy] by Leonor De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue

How does this work? [Katey] by Giselle Duell

So over this. by Bridget Ferguson with Alexei Vorontsov

Imma Princess! by Iris Cobb with Winston Randall

Well. This is different. (Bertie) by Mara Morales with Bertie Jackson

The end is just the beginning (tag Felipe) by Zara Jackson with Felipe De Matteo

In need of twirling by Verdillia Scurlock with Augustine Reed-Fischer

A ball of nerves by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Dathan Fischer

Goodbye to the home that wasn't. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen with Morgan Garrett

I'm a mermaid by Ellie Alperton

Texture matching! (tag Connie) by Theo Spurn with Constance Melcher

You heard me [Ray] by Billy Cobb

Why must things grow complicated? by Alexei Vorontsov

Reviewing the year that's been. by Eben Sosna

Here goes nothing (Lavender) by Graham Osbrook

Ending on a...present note by Tarquin Fox-Reynolds

I came to eat canapes and scowl at Stanleys (tag Killian) by Ema Skies with Killian Row

Princess for a song (Gabriel) by Morgan Garrett

13 Selina Skies The Ball 26 1 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 01, 2022 8:06 PM

Going through the motions by Xavier Lundstrom

Was this mandatory? The question occurred to Xavier as he made his way into the Cascade Hall. He was here under the vague assumption that it was, and the inertia of simply going with the flow. To not go to the ball would have involved an active decision, a fight against the system, and he already had enough of those going on that he needed to pick his battles. Plus, it wasn’t like there would be anyone to hang out with if he didn’t come. He was, by nature, a social person, and the idea of sitting in his room alone wasn’t as appealing to him as it might have been to some. Of course, he might easily come and spend the night alone here. Oz had a date. A girl date. He tried to squish down the knot of anger and frustration at that. It wasn’t that Oz was on a date with a girl per se that bothered him, it was just the resultant loneliness, and the realisation that he should probably get used to it. Oz was his best friend but he was gonna date girls. And, for all that Oz whined constantly about his twin, he and Henry had been bros since they were little balls of cells. Oz could complain all he wanted that Henry was a dork, but it was also abundantly clear that he would drop everything and go running the second he thought Henry needed him. It made sense. However different they were they were always gonna have That Twin Thing. So, Oz might have come first for Xav, but he probably had to get used to ranking number three on Oz’s list of priorities. Which sucked. Especially as, whilst he had a few acquaintances, it didn’t feel like he had solid friends outside of that. He’d been too busy playing catch up (or trying to) with his studies.

Speaking of failing at being a wizard and over-compensating, he hoped the hall was cool. He would have been pretty happy in a short sleeve shirt and slacks for the occasion. But given everything that was going on, he was doing his best to look at wizardy as possible. To show he was assimilating and what not. His mother had basically insisted that he get dress robes and play the part, and so he had an extra layer over his regular clothes. They were lightweight, and he was pretty used to wearing robes given that was the uniform. He just would have ditched them if given half a chance. His were black and pretty simple, though they were cut low enough for his shirt collar to show, and he had added a little rainbow bowtie.

Once the prefect dance was done, he glanced around. He didn’t want to be stuck on his own. He also didn’t want to get pounced on by Phil, who seemed to keep cropping up in his life. He decided to get some snacks because those were theoretically good, and because it probably made him look less alone and like a loser if he was doing something rather than just sitting by himself.

He surveyed the buffet, wondering whether he felt like drowning his feelings in cake or like eating absolutely nothing.

“Oh, hey, they have smoked salmon,” he commented to the person next to him, as he reached for a couple of sandwiches. “That’s my favourite.” He still wasn’t sure he wanted to eat anything, or talk to anyone or even be here. It felt a little bit like his mouth was moving entirely disconnected from his brain, saying all the small talk things it was supposed to whilst his mind was entirely shut off. But it beat being alone all by himself, or finding the energy to resist.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Going through the motions 1529 0 5

Martin Crosby V

January 01, 2022 8:30 PM

Strategy in action [Jezebel] by Martin Crosby V

The more Martin played, the more he came to realize that life really was simply a game of chess. And he was good at chess, so surely he would succeed at life as well. He had at last selected a college, although he was entering Undecided as to his major. There were potential sacrifices - if, for example, he later chose a career path not offered at his school, he would have to transfer or adjust - but if his strategy was sound, the benefits would overshadow the costs.

Just as now, he sacrificed additional time in the bathroom to allow his roommates to use it for their preparations as well, in turn keeping the peace and ideally earning a favorable opinion. Martin charmed his headboard to be reflective, and now he sat cross-legged on the bed, tying his tie. Perhaps it was just his perfectionism, but he could not quite get the bowtie correct. He had tied dozens of them in his lifetime, but somehow, this silk burgundy one he had picked up to match Jezebel’s dress was not cooperating with his fingers.

Eventually, the Crotalus found a knot with which he was mostly satisfied, so he finished dressing, adding his matching vest over the white button up, as well as the black jacket, a bit long in the tails to exist between coat and robe. He slipped his feet into recently polished dress shoes, combed through his short dark hair a few more times, and made his way.

He was nervous. He did not expect to be, but then again, he had been nervous asking Jezebel in the first place. She seemed to have that effect on him: stripping away at his collected exterior, chiseling out some other young man. It was scary, but in all honesty, the seventh year also sort of liked it. He liked Jezebel.

Martin met her in the Common Room and, sitting at their usual chess board to wait, he was immediately stunned. “Wow,” he uttered in a moment of complete earnestness. “You look…. really wonderful.” A half smile tugged up one side of his mouth. He offered her his arm. “Shall we?”

When they arrived at the Ball, there was not much time for them to be together before Jezebel had to take her place for the Prefects dance. It still irked him on occasion that he wore no badges, and it was also strange this year that they were doing a group thing that did not even require partners, which meant he couldn’t even blend into the crowd of Prefects and pretend, but it did mean that he instead got to watch Jezebel dance this one, to simply observe and enjoy the way the light shined on her hair. A sacrifice, a benefit - she was absolutely beautiful to watch.

He applauded as their routine concluded, and he continued to do so as she returned to him. “That was sure something,” he smiled. He offered her his hand again. “Might I have the next one?”

OOC: For reference as to Martin's attire, I am picturing what Draco wore to the Yule Ball, but with a burgundy vest and tie instead of white.

12 Martin Crosby V Strategy in action [Jezebel] 1439 0 5

Mab

January 01, 2022 8:38 PM

Same. by Mab

Mab was a prefect so she felt she was obligated to at least show up to the ball, and even dress relatively nice. She didn't have a fancy ball gown or anything - that was out of the question - but she was wearing a black skirt and a black blouse and black tights with black shoes. The dark and overly simple ensemble stood out a little more than she would have liked it to among all the colorful robes and dresses many of the other students were wearing, but she was sure she'd heard black was a solid formal color, and once she retreated to a shadowy corner, she'd hopefully blend well into the shadows and people would forget about her in favor of staring at Fredreike Zauberhexen or one of the sparkly girls in princess costumes.

She'd refused to be part of the dance at any level or in any variation, but she could, if nothing else, stand around and stop people from spiking the punch or whatever it was prefects were supposed to do at this when they weren't performing some kind of entertainment for the masses.

The dance that she was very adamantly not a part of finished, and the other prefects dispersed around the room and gave her no better ideas for what she was supposed to do. Most of them looked like they were just enjoying the ball (or not enjoying it, in some cases) rather than actively chaperoning or anything. She guessed she could get some food anyway. This was taking place across a meal time, some something to eat was going to be necessary eventually.

Plus, she could watch the punch bowl easier from near the food table.

She was frowning at some suspicious looking sandwiches that might have been tampered with when one of the beginner Pecaris identified them as smoked salmon, which Mab hadn't known people made sandwiches with, which explained why they looked weird. Bel didn't like fish and Mom had rarely been able to afford it, so salmon wasn't exactly something that often turned up on Mab's table at home.

"Never tried it," she admitted, and hesitantly picked one up. She eyed the sandwich like she suspected it of being poisonous. "You say it's good?" Not that she had any evidence that this kid's taste could be trusted, but if it was somebody's favorite, it was probably worth at least trying once.

1 Mab Same. 1473 0 5

Valentine Duell

January 01, 2022 8:38 PM

It's the ball!! [Bonabelle and Wally.. maybe Stanley] by Valentine Duell

It was finally time! Valentine had spent most of the term preparing for this evening. It was going to be the most wonderful, fantastic, and magical evening if it killed her. Hopefully it didn't come to that though. She had spent plenty of time today getting herself ready, and once again wished for the millionth time that she had a roommate. Getting dresses and hair and makeup would have been so much more fun (and easier) with someone else. Still she managed. Her dress was pink and purple with just the right amount of floof in the skirts to make it a proper 'ball gown' in her eyes. Her hair was done up in a fancy bun that she'd practiced plenty of times before. In honor of her and Bonabelle's very first tea party, she stuck her wand through the bun as she had done before so many years earlier. This time she was reasonably certain that she would be able to get it out though on her own.

Once all of those preparations were made and she was ready to go, she stopped took a good deep breath and examined herself in the mirror. This would go well. It would be a wonderful time... at least so said the tea leaves that she'd examined earlier that day. She was pretty sure about that anyway. "Tonight will be great." She whispered to her reflection in the mirror. Val just hoped she was right.

Bonabelle, Wally, Stanley and her were all from different houses. She hadn't really thought about that before, it was a little interesting and she wondered if it meant anything. Probably not. Anyway, because of that they had agreed to meet outside the Hall so that they could go in as a group. As she approached she saw at least one of them already there. "Hi!" She called out as she tried her best to glide gracefully over to them smiling brightly. She'd been practicing this movement as well in her dress all week.

2 Valentine Duell It's the ball!! [Bonabelle and Wally.. maybe Stanley] 1490 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

January 01, 2022 8:56 PM

I win by doing the unexpected. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel felt a bit silly and exposed. She hadn't realized how much she'd become used to the green robes they wore and the way they hid so much of themselves. Even though most of her real quality time with Martin was spent outside of class, most often in the Common Room where she had become comfortable enough to be in her pajamas and slippers when they were up late, or in casual clothing otherwise, it still felt like a lot of skin. Her eyes examined every square inch of what was visible in the mirror - her shoulders and long neck were one thing but the low neckline of this gown showed off a shape that she had not previously announced to the world. It was a bit surprising that her mother had even approved the dress, frankly.

With a soft sigh, she let her mind acknowledge for just a moment what was happening. Martin had asked her to the Ball. Since he was a fancy to-do sort of guy, she suspected that meant something more than desperation to find a date. Which meant he wanted to ask her. Maybe he didn't and everything was still normal but it was a thought she had to mull over. As she examined her shape in the mirror, she couldn't help wondering about the sorts of shapes she liked best. She knew it was women who caught her eye and she'd almost become comfortable accepting that about herself at this point. But she also knew it was Martin she wanted to be beside and she could honestly say that she didn't want to go to the Ball with anyone but him. The idea of kissing a boy still sort of grossed her out but she could probably accept it. What was it they'd learned that one time? Something about sexual orientation versus romantic orientation? Maybe that was her. Or maybe she just didn't have a box to fit into yet. She certainly felt out of the box tonight, as she shoved her wand into the designated spot in her dress pocket - magic had finally won something because muggle fashion was decades behind in terms of dress pockets - and slipped into a pair of modest pumps the same color as her dress.

She made her way to the Common Room where she'd agreed to meet Martin and felt a catch in her throat as a grin came to her face automatically. Perhaps she didn't have to be very interested in boys to notice this one. Maybe that was okay. Of course, that train of thought did run the risk of her either being heartbroken, stuck in a relationship with a man when she didn't want to be, or heartbroken because she realized she did want to be and he had actually been desperate for any date after all.

"You look gorgeous," she grinned at him with a mischievous sparkle in her eye, pretty sure boys didn't hear that sort of compliment enough. "Truly, Martin. You're perfect." She accepted his arm with a nervous little shiver that raised goosebumps on her skin; she hadn't been this close to him or anyone before and it felt . . . actually, it felt pretty good.

They arrived at the Ball and Jezebel allowed herself no time to enjoy the sight before she got into the dance that she really really hated. Martin had been allowed to participate as they'd already planned on doing this dance together before but he'd opted to watch and frankly she couldn't blame him. It had still worked out to even numbers and when she was done, she found the even to her odd and smiled at him, a bit embarrassed.

"Something," she agreed, breathing a little heavier than she was totally proud of. She wanted water and she wanted to sit but Martin's hands were out and that seemed better than either of the other things. It was odd how quickly things had turned for her; she hadn't realized that being happy with someone could be like this, even if she wasn't sure what this was. Now, as Martin twirled her out onto the dance floor, she felt like a proper music box figurine. She couldn't help giggling as they danced.

"Thank you for asking me," she finally managed, smiling up at her date before looking around. "It's gorgeous," she acknowledged briefly before returning her eyes to him. "And I'm happy to be here with you."

It was true. It would continue to be true, she realized. Even if that wasn't exactly what made the most sense to her or what she most wanted. She was just tired of being anything other than happy. It turned out, of all the people at Sonora, Martin made her happiest.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer I win by doing the unexpected. 1454 0 5

Oz Spellman

January 01, 2022 8:58 PM

Um. Have a thing? (Tag Lorena) by Oz Spellman

It was weird, having a box arrive on your birthday that wasn’t for you. Not that mom sent a lot of presents, because owls were complicated (and presents were expensive) and because his and Henry’s birthday fell so close to the end of term that they usually just celebrated once they got home. Having a date seemed to involve a lot of giving them stuff when it should have been for you. Not that Oz wanted the weird flower on a string thing, but it was his birthday and he’d already given Lorena candy he could have eaten himself. Girls consumed a lot of valuable resources, and he still wasn’t convinced they were that interesting in return, although they were kind of fun to look at.

It was also weird to think of spending his birthday with someone that wasn’t Henry. Okay, sometimes he had resented sharing his birthday, but now that he had to do something else, it felt weird. He’d had breakfast with his brother. They’d had pancakes, and Oz had given him an ‘IOU one pack of magic cards’ which he’d buy when they got back to the real world. He was pretty sure Henry would rather have that than any of the weird actual magic stuff that could be provided by owl. He’d also thrown back to years past, by presenting it along with a hand drawn card of his own. It was called ‘Decoy’ and detailed how you could cast an impressive illusion that looked just like your body double and could provide a useful diversion.

Now, it was time for the ball. He was neatly dressed in a shirt, slacks, and a tie (the easy kind, where the elastic just went over your head and then you hid it under your collar), though his hair was still in its characteristic spikes to make it very obvious he was Not Henry, and because it looked cool like that. He had the ribbon thing with a fake flower on it (a basic take on a corsage, that fit both the fact the boys were only thirteen—when Monica had been buying supplies, though fourteen at the point they’d use them—and that there were two of them, and that sending fresh flowers was prohibitively complicated and expensive, and they would just have to do with whatever she could grab relatively easily and cheaply).

He made his way to the entrance hall, where he’d meet Lorena.

“Hi,” he said, when he spotted her. He held out the ribbon-flower like it might have germs. “My mom said to give you this?” he added questioningly. He wasn’t totally sure what it was for or why anyone would want it, but girls were weird.

13 Oz Spellman Um. Have a thing? (Tag Lorena) 1514 0 5

Tommy Jamison

January 01, 2022 9:14 PM

Look out, y'all, I've got the prettiest date! [Ros] by Tommy Jamison

Dad said that this suit was the one that he got married in, and that Tommy should be very grateful to be allowed to wear it. Tommy pointed out that probably wasn’t true, because it was Tommy-sized and Dad was a giant. Dad said that he had been very young the first time he got married, and also Tommy wasn’t there, so how would Tommy even know? But then he gave Tommy an affectionate push, and the jig was up. It was a good suit all the same, the right kind of tan that was neither so dark that it looked brown or so light that it would stain from the first salsa’d chip to even look at him. He wasn’t sure exactly what color Rosalynn’s dress was, but he knew that she liked blue and purple, so he got a blue vest, a purple tie, and purple shoes so he could match her either way. And he got her a wrist corsage made of fake irises that were charmed to alternate between colors. Mom surprised him with a matching boutonniere for himself.

Tommy had asked Rosalynn to meet him a little passed the Cascade Hall doors, just to avoid some of the meet up crowd. He didn’t feel particularly anxious in crowds, but he got there a few minutes early on purpose to achieve his true goal: he wanted to see her the minute she was coming. And when he did, it was totally worth it.

“Hi!” he beamed, his voice betraying both his eagerness and the recent onset of puberty he would be facing moving forward. He cringed at the way it cracked but didn’t let it slow him down. “I got this for you,” he said, thrusting the corsage forward. “It’s blue right now but it’ll turn purple too. Also probably green, so I hope that’s okay. The only spell I could find was, like, cool colors or warm colors.”

12 Tommy Jamison Look out, y'all, I've got the prettiest date! [Ros] 1518 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

January 02, 2022 1:08 PM

You're sweet by Rosalynn Tellerman

Rosalynn was excited for her first ball. She had a boyfriend she loved. She had a dress that wasn't as wonderful as Tommy, but nothing was so she loved it anyway. It was a deep blue and shimmered when she moved (if one looked carefully, a person could see it wasn't just random glitter but rather it was charmed with the sky's actual constellations). Her hair was perfect (and had required actual magic to make it so) and she felt so very fancy with it up like it was. Her nails were shimmery with a clear coat of glitter polish, and her lips tasted like strawberry from the pink gloss she'd put on them. She wished her mom and dad could see her, but there would be photographs, so she guessed they would eventually.

They were meeting inside the Hall itself, where they hoped there would be fewer people trying to find their own dates, and when she walked passed the Cascade Hall doors, she broke out in a smile because she spotted him right away.

"Hi!" she returned, beaming in her delight at seeing him in his suit, with all of the accents in her favorite colors. She accepted the corsage and placed it around her wrist, admiring the blue irises that matched Tommy's boutonniere. "Thank you, they're lovely," she declared, holding her wrist out and watching them shift into one of her favorite shades of purple. "I can tolerate green as well," she understated, with a smile for her boyfriend. "I'd have a very hard time of it here at Sonora if I couldn't," she added, referencing the school robes they wore almost every day.

"You look quite dashing today, Tommy," she told him, as she again noticed how true that statement was. "I like the vest. It brings out your eyes. Can we get a picture taken before we spill pumpkin juice all over ourselves or something?"

1 Rosalynn Tellerman You're sweet 1520 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

January 02, 2022 1:31 PM

Is this good-bye, German Tent Girls? by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda was not, by any stretch of the imagination or definition, a graceful person. She was coordinated, though, and she had very good endurance, so she got through the dance without embarrassing herself. She would win no awards for most beautiful on the floor - not least because she again wasn't wearing a fancy ball gown but merely a nice set of wizard's formal robes in a deep emerald - but she stepped on nobody's feet (which was good, because she probably weighed more than any of the other people on the dance floor) and her movements all went in the directions they were supposed to go at the time they were supposed to go there, so it would do, and she'd had fun with it, too. Dancing was nothing like Quidditch, but it was enjoyable enough, and she'd gotten to do it with some of her best friends.

When the dance ended, Hilda gravitated toward the friends she'd had since they'd shared a tent together what seemed like a lifetime ago, and now there was a lifetime stretching ahead of them, as their seventh year came to a close and graduation loomed close. It occurred to her for the first time, that this might be the last time she saw some of them. She hoped that would not be the case.

"We stay friends, yes?" she asked abruptly of the friends she found first. "After Sonora?"

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Is this good-bye, German Tent Girls? 1433 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 02, 2022 3:10 PM

The wizardy wizardy motions by Xavier Lundstrom

It was that spooky, quiet older girl whose name wasn't Mags. That was about as much as Xavier knew about her, and he wasn't sure whether that was due to being wrapped up in his own issues, the gender and age gap, or because she just didn't draw as much attention to herself as most Pecaris. He suspected she was only really talking to him now cos they had been forced together by the buffet line. It wasn't exactly the biggest social win, especially as she wasn't even a cute guy.

She seemed very witchy, both by appearance and by the degree of suspicion with which she regarded the salmon sandwiches. Xavier might, once upon a time, have taken this to mean she wasn't familiar with it in tiny sandwich form. He had to admit that he was more used to it on bagels with cream cheese, or on sourdough toast or an English muffin with poached eggs. But, given that it was wizards, he had been willing to pass smoked salmon plus some kind of bread as familiar, especially as he thought he could see a little frond of dill sticking out of one of the sandwiches.

"Oh yeah, it's really good," he said. "Though I love pumpkin too," he added, lest she turn him into a toad for being an outsider. "Just not quiche," he added, noticing that was the form the wizards had chosen to present it in today. The truth was, he had liked pumpkin just fine, just a normal, neutral amount when he had first arrived. It had not been something he had experienced super often outside of pie, but it had come up in the occasional salad alongside things like quinoa and cranberries. During his first year, he had found that wizards cooked with pumpkin pretty darn well, and though he'd never got the hang of the juice, he could get behind more pumpkin. But the Center had served pumpkin soup almost every single day. He was pretty sure he could handle it in a quiche, just about, but the overriding association he now had with savoury pumpkin was anxiety and isolation, so he'd rather pass.

13 Xavier Lundstrom The wizardy wizardy motions 1529 0 5

Mab

January 02, 2022 5:02 PM

The stupid fancy ball motions by Mab

At the kid's assertion that the salmon sandwich was, in his opinion, really good, she put the little sandwich onto her plate, alongside the much more familiar lunch meat rolls of turkey and ham, and some crackers, she had already put there. She did make a face at his comment about pumpkins and quiche though. "Ugh. You fey people are crazy with the pumpkin," she complained. Before coming to Sonora, she'd thought Bel was insane for drinking it as a juice, but that had only been the tip of the iceberg. The whole magical community had a weird obsession with consuming the large orange vegetable/fruit thing.

She avoided the pumpkin quiche, giving it a far worse look of suspicion than she'd given the sandwich, because she half suspected that the more pumpkin one ate, the more pumpkin one needed, due to some kind of addiction that only magical people were susceptible to, and she did not want to fall down that slippery slope because pumpkin was, quite frankly, gross.

She also took some crackers and cheese, some pepperoni, and a few pieces raw broccoli and carrots to be healthy (though she also took some ranch dip, which probably negated the effort). When she got to the drinks part of the buffet, she scowled at the pumpkin juice as if its existence personally offended her and then looked suspiciously at the punch, not trusting it since she'd had her eyes off it for several minutes now, and nearly everything she'd ever read or watched that had a school dance in it said the punch was a danger spot. (Never mind that the punch during the ball in her first year had seemed to be fine.) She took a cup of plain water.

She let her attention return to the kid to see if he would wander off and leave her alone, or if he thought they were hanging out together now that he had offered a food recommendation. Well, she supposed she could at least taste the sandwich and let him know her verdict. Though she wanted to move further away from the buffet than a few steps before she started eating anything. "You have people you need to get back to?" she asked gruffly.

1 Mab The stupid fancy ball motions 1473 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

January 02, 2022 5:26 PM

So what do we want to do, Beginner Teppenpaws? by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel met up with his friend group in the Teppenpaw Commonroom. That seemed like the easiest and most convenient option and had been a major factor in his decision to go to the ball with this particular subset of the student body. He left Cori in his room, but the snake had promised he looked as nice as two-legs ever got, which, honestly, didn't do a whole lot to bolster Hansel's confidence.

Still, the mirror also said he cleaned up well, with his longish blond hair shampooed and even brushed (he didn't always remember to do that), his face cleaned with soap, and his robes were a new set of maroon ones with green and yellow snakes twining about each other along the trim. He didn't know where Dad had found them, but Hans thought they were the coolest set of dress robes he'd ever seen in his life.

As he friends arrived, he complimented their outfits, figuring they probably felt about as self-conscious as he did, and then the Beginner Teppenpaws made their way down to the ballroom (aka, the Cascade Hall). It looked totally different - well the waterfalls were kind of distinctive and they were still there, so it was obviously still their usual dining hall, but it had been dressed up differently, and there was an obvious dancefloor now.

"That's my sister, in the green robes," he pointed out to his friends when the prefects did their dance, and Hansel applauded proudly when they were done. Hilda had looked like she'd been doing military precision drills more than a dance, but the group had done a fine job and had clearly put some work into it.

Now the dance floor was open to anybody, and so was the food buffet, so he turned to his group and wondered aloud, "What should we do first? Dance? Eat? Photographs?"

OOC: Also assumes the prefects didn't foul themselves up, but can change that part of the narrative later if necessary.

1 Hansel Hexenmeister So what do we want to do, Beginner Teppenpaws? 1524 0 5

Dora Xavier

January 02, 2022 7:21 PM

I am a beautiful fairy princess by Dora Xavier

This was not Dora's first ball, but it was the first one she could remember since Daddy said she was only two for the last one. Now, she was six years old, and practically old enough to be a Sonora student herself. (She wasn't; Daddy and Mommy were making her go to First Grade right now instead.) Otto was going, too, and he looked cute, she guessed, in his tiny bow tie, but he wasn't nearly as lucky as Dora was.

The pretty yellow dress she was wearing made her feel like she was a fairy princess. It was sadly lacking in wings, but it twirled very nicely, and she had a yellow ribbon for her hair, and she had fake earrings that clipped to her ears, and she was beautiful. She did another twirl in front of the mirror, whipping her head around so fast so she didn't miss a moment of what her dress was doing as she spun that she nearly dislodged the earrings, but they did stay on, mostly. "Daddy," she said, pulling on his pants leg.

"Just a second, hon," he brushed her off, as he did something complicated with a scarf around his neck. After getting it knotted up in a way that it clearly wasn't supposed to be he pulled out his wand and pointed the stick at the scarf thing and it fixed itself. "I don't know how muggle men get their ties tied," he commented to Mommy before kneeling down in front of Dora. "What did you need, sweetheart?"

"My earring is loose," she told him very solemnly.

"Thank you for staying calm and being patient," he told her and she smiled at him as he adjusted both of her earrings, feeling very proud of herself. Then he used his wand to give them a sticking charm, and told her, "They should stay on good now."

She gave him a big hug. "Thank you, Daddy!"

When the whole family was ready, they headed down to the Cascade Hall, and everything was even more magical and beautiful than usual. "Wow!"

Daddy let her sit on his shoulders so she could watch the prefects dance together, and that was beautiful too, and all the people were beautiful, and "It's so beautiful!" she just burst out, unable to keep it inside.

"It is," Daddy agreed, and they both clapped lots when the dance was over and then Daddy put her down. "Don't run off too far," he instructed, and she nodded in agreement, but then she started walking around, and telling every girl she saw, "You're beautiful!" and every boy she saw, "You're dashing!" Dashing princes and beautiful princes were everywhere tonight!

And then one of her favorite songs started playing and she ran up to the closest dashing prince she could find and asked, "Can you dance with me?"

1 Dora Xavier I am a beautiful fairy princess 1507 0 7

Jessica Hayles

January 02, 2022 7:22 PM

Perish the thought. by Jessica Hayles

It was over.

Jessica found the thought strangely hard to get through her head, and she wasn't sure why. The best she could come up with had something to do with the old, old habit of expecting herself to be productive, and knowing that once she left this place...Writing her poetry might keep her occupied, but her parents would have taken all her credit cards and probably her notebooks away if she had ever just done that and not had something more traditionally...work-y to do, back in the day, before she'd turned eleven. And now, tomorrow, she was pretty much going back to living like an eleven-year-old again, except that she could dematerialize if she felt like it now and her parents had already asked her to do some product modeling.

On the bright side, surreality prevented her from being angry, which was probably the other option. She had, after all, accomplished things here. She was prefect and head girl, had good grades, was sure her RATS had gone pretty well...and since her parents didn't understand what any of her accomplishments meant and couldn't have made use of them even if they had, it all felt sort of...hollow. Of course, she'd do it all again in a heartbeat, if only because the alternative was letting that toe fungus Jeremy Mordue win, but still. After today, she thoroughly planned to never lay eyes on Jeremy again, and unless and until Felipe woke up and got a clue and wanted to be rescued, she had no reason to see or cross paths with Zara again. Which meant she wasn't even going to have anyone on hand to hate properly going forward, probably. Which was seriously weird. It was not normal for someone with her background to lack enemies.

It was, however, more common for someone with her background to lack friends, so she was lucky in that regard. Jessica grinned when she saw Hilda after the dance, though the smile became a little more sentimental after Hilda's abrupt opener.

"Of course," she said. Diamond pendant earrings glittered with the slightest movement of her head, and her hair was elaborately arranged to make sure it didn't obstruct the view of them. Her eyeshadow, eyeliner, and lip stain were all more obvious than usual, and she was dressed in a designer antique pink and silver ballgown. She was pretty sure she and...basically all her friends except Sadie were unlikely matches, for one reason or another, but that just made things more interesting. "Or at least, that's my plan," she added. "Seriously, you're welcome in Atlanta any time, and the more letters the better." It was going to be so weird, just...being with so few people again, at least once they got into the autumn. She was pretty sure she and her family were all going to be super-awkward for far too long.

16 Jessica Hayles Perish the thought. 1442 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 03, 2022 1:20 AM

That too. Stupid balls. by Xavier Lundstrom

Fey people? Xavier was not sure what that meant. He had a vague feeling it was something kind of fairy-like, and he might have assumed it was a dig at his rainbow bowtie, except the rest of what not-Mags said made no sense on that front. Admittedly, there was a lot of gay culture that he was still very unaquainted with but he was not aware of pumpkins being a significant enough reference that most people would get it.

"Huh?" he said. "Fey-people? And I am not obsessed with pumpkin." Sure, he wanted to seem like he liked it, but apparently the scale was tipping the other way, and he wasn't going to put up with being insulted (he guessed from tone, though it was hard to tell) over a food stuff that he barely had positive feelings towards.

He ended up adding some of the same stuff to his plate as the girl, based on the fact he liked cheese and pepperoni, and could tolerate carrot when dipped in ranch, though hopefully it also demonstrated that he was totally normal.

The girl moved down the line, and he followed, only because he also needed a drink. He went for punch, remembering only to sniff it in case of glibbleroots or other nonsense flavours after pouring a full cup out. It smelled reassuringly normal.

The girl gave him what basically amounted to a verbal shove back towards his friends. Which really rubbed in the fact he didn't have any. He debated telling her yes and just marching up to the nearest group like he belonged. Except he didn't feel like he did. He had noticed, during the prefect dance, that a large group of his peers had come together. He hadn't noticed the common denominator that they were all Teppenpaws - only that they were with each other but not him.

"Playing it by ear," he shrugged casually, not wanting to announce he had been ditched by basically everyone. His eyes strayed against his will to Oz and Lorena. "Figured food was a good first step. You?" he asked, his tone firm as he batted the challenge back to Mags of finding a way to avoid admitting she had no friends.

13 Xavier Lundstrom That too. Stupid balls. 1529 0 5

Mab

January 03, 2022 10:25 AM

Agree. by Mab

She should not have said fey-people. They called themselves wizards or magic folk or whatever, but not the fey, even though that is exactly what they were, she was almost entirely certain. Sure the old folk tales thought they were a different species than normal folk, but with confounding charms to confuse things and obliviate charms to make people forget them entirely, plus the entirely human nature to embellish and exaggerate, it was a wonder the old tales of the fey were as accurate as they were. Still, best to focus on the pumpkin rather than her misnaming of the culture. "Not you specifically," Mab granted reluctantly in response to the kid's objection to being obsessed with pumpkin, despite having claimed to love it completely unprovoked. "Magic people in general," she clarified, trying to correct her use of the word 'fey' in out-loud conversation in as low key of a manner as possible.

She nodded in approval when she saw him sniff cautiously at the punch. That wouldn't catch all of the things potentially wrong with it, but it would eliminate some of them. They might not call themselves fey, but wizardkind did still like their tricks and traps.

Case in point. The kid turned her question back on her.

"I have no friends," she admitted matter-of-factually and without shame, and it might even have been a lie, depending on what Sadie thought of the issue, but she had an image to maintain, especially for the Pecaris, among whom she much preferred to be a loner, and Sadie had other friends anyway who she was probably closer to than Mab. Certainly, Sadie was not expecting Mab to hang out with her at the ball. "And my brother has a date." She accompanied that pronouncement with the expression of distaste that it warranted, both for dating at all, and for dating Anya in particular. "Figured I'd eat quick, then watch for mischief from the Intermediate Pecaris." If anyone was going to spike the punch, she'd lay bets it would be one of them. It did not occur to her that she qualified as an Intermediate Pecari as well. In her mind, she and Leonor and Theo had already moved up. And so had Reighleigh Mae Thorn.

1 Mab Agree. 1473 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 03, 2022 3:13 PM

And stupid boys who go out with stupid girls by Xavier Lundstrom

Not him specifically? That sounded kinda like backtracking, because the previous remark had felt very much in his face. But whatever. 'Fey' apparently meant 'magical people.' So, she was accusing him of acting too magical? Or would have been, if she'd meant him specifically. If she had said so directly, it would have caught him so off guard that he probably would have died laughing. As it was, it took far too much untangling and guessing at her meaning. He wondered if that meant she didn't come from magical people originally. It seemed likely, but she was also too scary to make guesses like that at. If he was wrong, she'd probably take offence, and that couldn't lead to anything good.

Mags openly admitted to having no friends, and Xavier took an almost subconscious half step away. He didn't want to catch whatever social life repelling cooties she had, and being seen with her was probably enough to downgrade his already subpar reputation. It occurred to him briefly that he should feel sorry for her but the bluntness with which she had stated it made that feel like it was... somehow the wrong reaction.

Apparently, she was watching for trouble. He wondered why. Surely that was the prefects' job? He had been zoned way out of reality at the opening feast, and the subject was not of enough interest to him to mentally sort through the other options in her year, or to realise that none of them had been present in the dance either. Perhaps she had nothing better to do, so had made herself a self-appointed busy body.

"Oz isn't a bad kid," he defended his friend. Okay, he was a little loud and a little raucous sometimes. He said and did a lot of stupid things without meaning to. But he was not an intentional trouble maker, and he didn't want to hurt anyone, Xavier was sure of that. If Mab was in the habit of keeping an eye on potentially dangerous Pecari, and Oz in particular, she would have noticed that he and Xavier spent a lot of time together. Excepting the time it had spilled over into a pillow fight, a lot of these were quieter little tête-à-têtes, usually amonst the quieter interactions Oz had in the common room. There were also numerous mealtimes where Xavier had been sitting staring listlessly at a space above his empty plate and Oz had... well, done something that could be described as more or less literally hitting him in the face with a bread roll until he snapped out of it and ate at least a token amount. Oz was, fundamentally, a good person, just kind of rough around the edges. Not that that probably mattered right now, other than the need to verbally defend him. "Anyway, he's busy," he added to Mags, the defeat and resentment he felt at that fact colouring his voice as his eyes once again tracked Oz and Lorena.

13 Xavier Lundstrom And stupid boys who go out with stupid girls 1529 0 5

Mab

January 03, 2022 4:13 PM

Agreed again. by Mab

Mab followed Xavier's gaze across to where Oz and Lorena (third year, Aladren) were standing together, clearly a matched pair for the dance. The resentment in the kid's tone suggesting he wished he was in one of their spots, and given the number of times she'd seen Oz and this younger kid quietly sitting together, she was not going to make any stupid guesses on which one. He seemed to be a quiet calming influence on the third year, though, so she only held the association against the kid a little bit.

"Mm," she responded noncommittally to the assertion that Oz was not a bad kid. "He's not the worst," she granted. She'd probably put Billy Cobb down as the worst, though Stanley O'Malley wasn't far off. And if she was counting the outgoing second years, Reighleigh was definitely in the running. The incoming third years were an odd group where it was the boys who were calm and reasonable and the girl who was trouble.

(Not that Mab and Leonor and Anya, or even Hilda, weren't trouble either, but it was a different quality of trouble. Anya - and Theo - were the kind of trouble that couldn't help themselves from being like they were. Leonor was . . . dating Jeremy and all that that implied. And Mab was, well, Mab. Hilda, Mab was sure, would win in a fight against pretty much any two people in the school, Mab included, and also wouldn't understand why one had broken out.)

"Come," Mab ordered, inclining her head toward the side of the room were there were fewer people. "If we're going to converse, let's do it where not so many people will notice it. I'm supposed to be too scary to talk to. You can see if I like the salmon." It was as close to an invitation as she was willing to make. She moved away without checking to see if he was following and found a spot to settle down and enjoy her food that also had a spot for another person, should he choose to join her.

1 Mab Agreed again. 1473 0 5

Bonabelle Row

January 03, 2022 5:21 PM

Wrecking ball? by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle was more grateful than ever that she didn't have roommates. Getting dressed for the Ball, doing her makeup, all of it would have been significantly more difficult with roommates getting in the way and trying to have opinions about things. Perhaps if she lived with Uncle Killian and Ema, that would be alright. Mostly Ema. But that would also be annoying because then she'd have Ema's voice in her head telling her about stuff and she just wanted her own voice and Valentine's voice. Oh, and Stanley's.

She was wearing her signature powder blue and white: a form fitted periwinkle bodice wrapped around her, revealing that she had indeed grown in the past four years, and turned into a soft, glittery, star-like periwinkle gauze cover for white skirts, with a white bow in her hair to match. Her makeup was also shimmering powder blue, except her lipstick which was a rich plum color. She had had Ema's help picking a dress and what not over the holidays and she'd asked a million questions about makeup and hair and nails and every other little thing. She'd even learned how to curl her eyelashes although she'd hated it and opted not to do it for the Ball.

The group she was going with, comprised of both of her dates and her date's twin brother who was also her other date's date. . . , was set to meet outside the Hall and Bonabelle found that Valentine was the only one there when she approached. She looked incredible and Bonabelle gave herself a moment to be entirely entranced and breathless now, before the boys arrived. Then she approached with a smile as Val noticed her and offered a grin of her own.

"You are gorgeous," she said, giving her a soft kiss so as not to smear either of their makeup. "You are captivating, breath-taking, dazzling . . . " She punctuated each adjective with a kiss and then stopped, pausing to enjoy a smile just a few inches from Valentine's face before pulling back to take her in again. The nervous anxiety returned with rage to her stomach and Bonabelle suddenly wanted to throw up. Or go pee. Maybe she could pee out the worry. Her shoulders were high and her fingers were fidgety and she could feel that it was probably obvious that she was anxious. She just wasn't sure what she was most nervous about, making it hard to express.

22 Bonabelle Row Wrecking ball? 1488 0 5

Phil Carson

January 03, 2022 6:17 PM

I wear my sunglasses at night by Phil Carson

Phil had not been too fussed about the ball coming up at the end of the year. He'd gotten a black suit to wear - the same one he'd used on Halloween to be Agent Phil Coulson, but without the ID tag, or the earpiece, and he'd opted for a narrow black bowtie instead of the straight tie that Agent Coulson favored. He kept the shades though, because shades were cool. He looked pretty fancy if he did say so him, like he was going to a fancy Stark party, which is basically what a ball was, so far as he could tell.

He didn't see much of the prefect dance, since he hadn't gotten a front row spot, and he was too short to see over anybody, so he just headed over to the buffet before it had fully finished and got first dibs on the food. He'd already eaten that, and gotten a picture to show his mom, dad, and step-mom, and now he was just wandering aimlessly. He was vaguely tempted to try dancing but so far he hadn't worked up the courage to move toward the dance floor and he was kind of certain he'd fall on his face and break his sunglasses.

Seeing somebody he knew, he headed over to join them to try conversation instead. "Hey, having a good time so far? I had some food already. It's really good."

OOC: Yes, he's wearing what he's wearing in his profile picture.

1 Phil Carson I wear my sunglasses at night 1536 0 5

Osvaldo Alamilla

January 03, 2022 6:31 PM

Well, there's less to complain about this one. by Osvaldo Alamilla

Now he'd seen it all. This was Osvaldo's fourth year of working at Sonora, and the end of their 'end of year event' rotation. Out of all of them, he thought he liked this one the best. A ball was a proper form of celebration, and the end of the school year was definitely cause for celebration. He would finally have some peace and quiet again for a little while once all of the children went home. Hopefully they did all go home this time, not like winter break.

The other main attraction of the ball was that it didn't destroy the Quidditch pitch like the fair and bonfire had. He'd spent a good part of that break just getting things back into order again. The 'concert' wasn't bad on the clean up end, but with all the parents visiting it was a nightmare to prepare for. At least for cleaning up after the other events the children hadn't been around to constantly get in the way and undo all of his work.

The ball was nice and civilized, there weren't extra people here and it was contained to the Hall. All fine points. He had brought Manola and Edu as well. His wife had been thrilled about the chance to go to an official ball, even if it was one for the children. She had gone out on her attire and appearance, and he couldn't deny that she did look quite lovely. Edu stuck to his mother's side like always, which was most likely for the best.

They had watched the prefects do their odd group dance thing. He'd known it was going to happen, but still wondered what was so hard with just dancing with a partner. Kids. Afterwards, at her insistence, he had taken his wife for a quick spin around the dance floor. He knew how, but it was not an activity he practiced nor took a lot of pleasure in doing. Edu also made it a bit tricky. Now they had found a spot to consume their refreshments. While not ordinarily a social man, Osvaldo wouldn't mind someone to talk to for a moment before Manola decided it was time to assault the dance floor again. Better yet he thought, if someone came to talk to her.

2 Osvaldo Alamilla Well, there's less to complain about this one. 1503 0 5

Valentine Duell

January 03, 2022 7:21 PM

Super ball! by Valentine Duell

Valentine stared back in loving admiration at her girlfriend. Bonabelle was absolutely gorgeous. Her hair, her dress, her eyes... she was simply dazzling. Some of that might have been the glitter, but she was perfect. Her own eyes roved over the figure that Bonabelle's dress enhanced and showcased magnificently. Her own had grown and matured, but she still didn't quite have what Bonabelle had in that department, and despite her solid belief that the important part of what made a person truly beautiful was on the inside... Bonabelle's outside was a wonder to behold.

Val giggled, blushed and returned each of Bonabelle's kisses. "You must be looking in a mirror," She replied as their faces were mere inches apart, "Those were the same words I was thinking about you." Her girlfriend was nervous, that much she could easily tell. "I'm still not sure how I got so lucky as to find someone as wonderful as you." She pulled the Aladren into an extremely cautious hug so as not to disrupt any of the hard work they put into themselves for the evening. "This will be a wonderful evening, won't it?" She whispered into her girlfriends ear before pulling away. It had to be wonderful, it had to be perfect.

Moving to Bonabelle's side, she wrapped her arm through Bonabelle's and took her hand in her own giving it a squeeze. "How long should we give the boys before we go in without them? I thought it was the girls who were supposed to keep them waiting." She sighed overly dramatically, giggled and shot her beautiful and wonderful girlfriend a playful look.

2 Valentine Duell Super ball! 1490 0 5

Sophia Priory

January 03, 2022 10:16 PM

Indeed by Sophia Priory

Ever since the vote about the prefect dance had panned out in a way that didn’t humiliate Sophia and make her look like a complete and total loser, she was feeling a lot better about the ball. They would be doing the group dance rather than the traditional partner dance and she could not be more grateful, both to Hilda who came up with the idea and to whomever had voted for said idea-which she knew had to be more than just herself, her two friends and Gabriel Wilson. She had…strongly encouraged the younger Aladren to vote her way. Still, the four of them were not a majority so Sophia was experiencing a general feeling of good cheer towards her fellow prefects. Of course, some of them probably had voted the other way but she didn’t know who had so she was just going to feel positivity towards nearly everyone. Maybe even Anya, whom she’d always found obnoxious and entitled. Maybe even Jeremy …..whom she’d always found obnoxious and entitled.

Even after the opening dance, she would have her friends to hang out with. That, unlike her potential humiliation regarding it, had never been in doubt. Even before the vote, Sophia had known that she’d at least have that, that she was lucky because some people didn’t have anyone to hang out with, either because their friends had dates and they didn’t or because they just didn’t really have friends to begin with.

Of course, before the vote, even knowing she’d had friends to hang out with the rest of the night…Sophia had totally been focused on the potential humiliation of being the one person without a partner for the opening dance and the fact that she’d be a potential object of ridicule. Of course, it wasn’t like she was ever going to see most of these people ever again, a fact which she had taken a little comfort in, but she still had too much pride to be okay with such things.

And now she didn’t have to worry any more. It was all over, the opening dance, where Sophia had performed just fine, and more importantly, not been the odd one out, as well as just about everything else. Her entire time at Sonora.
She would argue that it had been successful. The seventh year had done well academically, been prefect and most importantly, made friends. Even if her initial interest in two of them was based on something admittedly and regrettably sort of selfish and she’d stumbled onto the third by chance. Which was arguably how friendships generally happened. Sophia didn’t think anyone went into Sonora knowing who they’d end up friends with or even knew early on how things would pan out.

The Aladren joined her friends and Hilda, never one to beat around the bush, in a way that came across as part of her charm rather than as being rude, asked if they would stay friends. Jessica agreed and then Sophia put in, beaming “Absolutely! You guys can come to Madison too, we even have German restaurants. I mean, they’re probably at least partially American-ized but it’s…something.” Well, some of them might be authentic, there were restaurants for other foreign food that seemed to be. “I mean, Atlanta probably does too.” Of course, the best way for them to get authentic German food was probably to actually visit Johana Leonie in Germany.

11 Sophia Priory Indeed 1447 0 5

Janis Rosemary Silver

January 04, 2022 3:53 PM

We all are, in our own ways by Janis Rosemary Silver

Janis was a bit confused about all the fuss around the ball. People had been talking about it all year. Couples seemed to have been matching. Others has been eyeing each other during classes, during meals, after classes, even in the common rooms. Or at least that's what it had felt like. Still, the idea of dancing did seem nice, and music, how Janis had missed music constantly playing. She hummed to herself a lot, sang to herself in her room and the shower, but the near constant of music playing that happened in her home... her old home, could not be made up for with that.

Janis was thankful that no one had asked her to the dance. She wouldn't know how to react, and which person would she have wanted to ask her anyways? Part of her hoped she could dance with Quincy at some point. If that didn't come to pass, it wasn't the end of the world though. Was she normal? All the moves she'd watched as a kid and a lot of the books and magazines she read were about how much she should want to be asked or to do the asking, but she just enjoyed being around people, and didn't need to be in a relationship with one to feel worthy. Maybe that wasn't how everyone felt. Maybe she was the one that was off.

Day of the ball she decided to go a different route than originally anticipated. Putting the dress her mom had sent her back into the closet, she reached in and pulled out pants and a jacket. Looking at them she took out her wand.
"Lets see how much I've learned" she thought as she started to work. In the end it was close to perfect. The sleeves of the jacket were a bit short, but she'd just roll those up.

Putting on a black top she normally wore under her school uniform she looked at herself in the mirror. She liked the way she looked. The deep red color suited her. Too bad she wasn't a Crotalus, just for the color scheme. She added gold ear climbers that looked like leaves to make it up to her fellow Pecaris.

She entered the ball looking for anyone she knew. Lots of students were coming in wearing tuxes or ball gowns, then the Prefects came in. Suddenly Janis felt wildly under dressed, but she stood her ground. No going back to her room, where she suddenly felt like going. No, she was here to dance, and she was going to dance. A great song came on and Janis felt her left foot start to tap.

Just then she felt someone close to her waist, and that someone had a small voice that asked if she would dance with them. She turned and looked down see a lovely little girl in a yellow dress. The girl looked like someone from a movie Janis had once seen, but the thought left her mind as soon as rolled into it.

"I was just going to start dancing and I'd love a dancing partner," Janis said with a smile, "That is if you're ok with me not being as good a dancer as you." She held out her hand to the girl.

OOC: Her earrings: https://www.etsy.com/listing/223888128/ear-climber-climber-earring-leaf-earring?click_key=0653577117699487fe3c381ef94706b71348a293%3A223888128&click_sum=d71ea321&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=leaf+ear+climber&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&col=1

(Janis' new photo is her outfit for the dance)

41 Janis Rosemary Silver We all are, in our own ways 1493 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

January 04, 2022 10:57 PM

For our adoring fans. [Jeremy] by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor spent a lot of time on the day of the Ball just trying not to throw up. She resisted the urge only by laying in bed, staring at the ceiling and being angry instead; there were, after all, multiple ways to get bad feelings out of the body and glaring was a pretty effective one in her experience.

Mrs. Mordue

The name, her name soon, kept playing in her head on repeat. It was a threat, a promise, a guarantee, a life sentence, a death sentence . . . it was everything and nothing all at once. Her life was set in stone and probably some stupid stone like limeestone or something like that. She was dissolvable, just a name in a gravestone in a hundred years, and it wouldn't even be her own name but Jeremy's. They were going to the Ball together; it was a public affair in a way that their previous relationship hadn't been and while she wasn't entirely sure what her fiancé of sorts expected from her during this thing, she had some ideas about what it meant to be the little lady on a man's arm in high society, even if she was the vastly higher ranking one of the two of them. Tonight would be the point of no return in a way that nothing else was; while Jeremy would be graduating soon and leaving Sonora behind him, Leonor still had time here which meant that her affiliation tonight, her upcoming marriage, would be hanging over her head like a dark cloud. It didn't help that Felipe had gone and gotten himself engaged for love.

Mrs. Mordue

She tried not to read the letters or talk to Jeremy unless she had to. There would be plenty of time for that, she was sure. She didn't need the letters to confirm the inevitable and she didn't need to read them to know if they were engaged or not yet. Deals were being struck, negotiations were being had, and at the end of all of it, they would be engaged. What did it matter whether they counted it as official in two minutes or two weeks or two months or two years . . . it was all the same. Too much, too fast, and too little, too slow all at once.

Eventually, the time came when Leonor could no longer disregard her obligations and she dressed herself in a dull haze, avoiding eye contact with herself in the mirror and using her reflection only to adjust her earrings, her hair, her makeup, her gown . . . she was the picture perfect of high society pureblood life and would be ravishing either at a ball in the states or in Mexico. She never thought she'd miss Mexico.

Her date, she knew, would be awaiting her someplace proper and dutiful, unlike the many other times they'd met before. Tonight was for show. She wasn't even sure if he wanted her anymore, although the thoughts she'd shared with Jeremy when he'd visited Los Jardines de Plata were still true and she was glad to be stuck with someone she knew and she didn't totally despise in all this. She only hated him now because of what he represented and what he was taking from her: her name, her autonomy, her future. Perhaps somewhere in the back of her mind, when she saw him standing there, she let herself imagine a moment in which she loved him. She let herself greet him with a proper dip of the head - no curtseys here since he was by far her inferior despite marriage making her the inferior if her own family had any say in it - and perhaps imagine that she was being playful and coy, and that they could smirk about the formality of it together. Instead, her expression remained blank, serene the way renaissance paintings of tortured souls were done.

Not sure entirely what to say, she let him speak first.

22 Leonor De Matteo For our adoring fans. [Jeremy] 1471 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

January 05, 2022 2:23 AM

And for... fun? by Jeremy Mordue

At this present moment, the tragi-comic circus of his engagement to Leonor—and his own ongoing debate about whether or not it was a good idea—was going in his favour. In the small, short term world of Sonora, he was winning. Martin was debasing himself by going with a Muggleborn—a move which quite frankly shocked Jeremy more than Felipe’s continued poor taste. Felipe had been a lost cause since day one, whereas Martin had always carried himself respectably, to the point of being aloof. At times, it was like he thought he was better than the rest of them, but here he was absolutely flaunting the rules. Jeremy was the one doing everything right, and being everything right, and that meant he had won.

And tomorrow, they would all go on their ways, out into the real world, and he wondered whether it would matter. He hoped Martin got trashed in polite circles, and faced harsh consequences for his stupid decision, because otherwise what was the point? If there were no rules and no consequences, Jeremy probably could have easily found himself a Muggleborn to mess around with who was a lot more bidable than Leonor.

But probably not as pretty.

Maybe not even as fun.

Hate her as sometimes did, he had to admit she was both those things. She was one of the most attractive girls in the school, and she’d never been as stuck up and cold as Pureblood girls were supposed to be. Even outside of that kind of fun, she could be… other kinds. Funny. Kind of like how he’d heard friends were supposed to be when they were pretending to like you prior to a backstabbing.

It was the backstabbing part that worried him most. Leonor’s and his relationship had always been a game. At first one to cure boredom and annoy her brother, all in one fell swoop. And it had moved back and forth, constantly changing nature like a well played game of chess. And Jeremy was much more of a Quidditch player. He didn’t quite trust that his future wife wasn’t trying to check-mate him, and he wasn’t entirely sure what that looked like in relationship politics, which made it harder to look out for.

He made his way downstairs. He had asked (or instructed?) Leonor to attend the ball with him with the very romantic proposition ‘I suppose we have to, for our adoring public.’

And then he had checked her dress colour, and owled his aunt about it, and she’d done whatever women did with flowers, and now he had one in his buttonhole, and one to give to her. It was a little more permanent that some of the other corsages on display, as the band the flowers were mounted to was a white gold bracelet.

He watched her come down the stairs. The part of him that liked lashing out at people was tempted to lean over as he presented the corsage and whisper in her ear ’I’m only doing this because I have to.’ But he didn’t want to provoke her into saying the same to him. He wanted to lash out, he wanted to hurt her to make himself feel good. But he also wanted to be wanted.

“Well now, aren’t you the picture of sophistication and grace,” he said, his tone hovering in the ambiguous area between sincerity and sarcasm. “And propriety,” he added, with a definite smirk.

OOC: You can substitute the metal if it wouldn't go with her dress.

13 Jeremy Mordue And for... fun? 1443 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 05, 2022 3:06 PM

Seems we agree quite a bit by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier suspected that Mags regarded 'not the worst' as verging on complimentary, or as some kind of compromise, whereby they had met in the middle. As far as defending his friend's honour went, he felt he'd done an adequate job. Especially as, once Mags had moved on a step or two, he added "He's the best," under his breath, too quietly for her to hear.

She had all but ordered him to follow, which made him actively inclined not to. But then she had added that she was supposed to be scary, and he absolutely wasn't scared (or at least, not willing to admit it), and that he could see if she liked the salmon. He didn't actually care. Not really. And again, he muttered this, too quietly for her to hear, as he followed her. There was some naturally Pecari curiosity in there, the desire to go poke the thing he wasn't meant to want to poke, but it had been a loud and enthusiastic burst of noise from a nearby group that had really clinched it-it been a sudden burst of happiness that he wasn't a part of. At least she wanted him around, if a little grudgingly and weirdly. And having a plate of food was a good excuse to be taking a seat, if anyone asked why he was with her, and finishing it would be a good excuse to get away.

He settled into the spot beside her, taking a bite of his sandwich.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Seems we agree quite a bit 1529 0 5

Giselle Duell

January 05, 2022 4:01 PM

How does this work? [Katey] by Giselle Duell

Giselle had never been to a ball before. Delphi certainly had had then, but she had never attended one. After all, who would have wanted to take her and whatever would she do there? Lia's laughter at her long ago inquires echoed through her mind once more. She cringed involuntarily and tried to shut out her voice.

The Divinations professor instead tried to focus on the sounds about her in the hall, the music and the chattering voices. Her attire was unusually matched for the event, Valentine had sorted through her rather sparse wardrobe and made doubly sure that there was something suitable and actually matched properly to wear. Then the fourth year had wanted to try and find out, for the fourth time, what things might go wrong at the ball.

Giselle had found what she hoped was an 'out of the way' spot along the wall. She wasn't entirely sure what she should be doing, so hiding and observing seemed like a good option. Her 'sight' spell had limited range, and was hardly ideal for a large room packed with people in constant motion. Instead she decided to work on one of her other skills.

It was difficult to get the proper focus with the noise of the room, but she was able to begin to catch wisps of auras swirling about the space. The first one she recognized was the most familiar, her niece's. It was hard to miss. She found another that she had been studying when possible, it almost reacted when she detected it. Anya was quite good at this.

Before she got much farther, one aura seemed to be approaching her. Giselle released her focus and returned her attention to the ball. A quick motion of her wand revealed the person's identity. She attempted a smile, "Hello Medic Willow, how goes your evening?" She still wasn't all that great at smiling yet, but had gotten a better with some practice. Her therapist had encouraged her to be more social, and she was trying... but she thought she'd still rather be back up in her nice quiet room where she would be safe.

2 Giselle Duell How does this work? [Katey] 1517 0 5

Mab

January 05, 2022 6:09 PM

Weird. I'm normally disagreeable. by Mab

He joined her. She was moderately surprised by this. She was pretty sure other people avoided her as much as she avoided them. (Other than Valentine and Theo whom she had to work extra hard to avoid, and Leonor who didn't have a choice because they were roommates.) Still, it was okay, she guessed, not to have to sit this ball alone.

The kid just sat and started eating without saying anything, which bumped Mab's opinion of him up about twenty percent. Pity they'd never share a class. He probably wouldn't be awful to sit next to. There weren't many people she could say that about.

She tried the salmon sandwich, just to get that over with in case she didn't like it, or that was the only reason he came over (why he'd care, she couldn't imagine, but he'd made the recommendation and might be very mildly curious how it went over). It was odd. Not bad, really, but not exactly what she'd been expecting, and that threw her slightly. She gave it another visual inspection, as she contemplated the bite in her mouth.

Then she swallowed and took a sip of her water. "Probably won't get it again, but I don't hate it," she offered. "It's good enough to finish. Is it French or something?" she guessed, because French food was supposed to be expensive and if Mom never served it, it was probably either difficult to make or expensive. Or maybe it just wasn't available to Boston muggles. "Or wizardly?" She took another bite.

1 Mab Weird. I'm normally disagreeable. 1473 0 5

Bridget Ferguson

January 05, 2022 10:29 PM

So over this. by Bridget Ferguson

OOC: CW-Implied mention of illicit substances and alcoholism BIC:

Sonora’s Midsummer Ball was so not Bridget’s type of gathering. There were no potential husbands or um, other things that might make it more enjoyable, like in the clubs she went to outside of school-which, Merlin help her, she was starting to sound like her father a bit-and her one friend had a date while Sophia, of course, was hanging out with her other friends. Plus, pretty much everyone above second year was paired off and even some of the beginners including Lydia had someone to hang out with.

So, in other words, the ball was completely boring. At this point, the Teppenpaw couldn’t even be bothered to feel rejected and alone. She was leaving and had no real reason to look back, other than Jezebel, whom hopefully she’d get to talk to and say goodbye to tonight, Martin or no Martin. Other than that, though she might as well get something to eat and then hang out in her room. There were at least books there.

Although Bridget supposed she should get some pictures to show Mama of her looking all dressed up and pretty, though this was hardly the only time she’d get to be like that for a ball. For some of those at Sonora this was pretty much it on that front, but as a pureblood of her social status, all the questionable and embarrassing parts of her family history aside, well this would be a fairly regular occurrence for her. Still, she was sure her mother would like to see it, despite this ball being genuinely utterly meaningless and completely pointless for Bridget.

However, that was not the image she wanted to present to Mama. She wanted her mother to think she was happy and that everything was great for her. The Teppenpaw never wanted to worry or upset her so she never told her anything that was really going on. Occasionally, she might confide in her father, but that was pretty pointless too, since he was never going to remember anything. Much as it pained her to admit it, because she loved him, Dad was generally pretty useless.

And honestly, sometimes, she worried she was going to become like him but at the same time, she totally understood why he was like that, and she had basically learned her coping mechanisms from him. Plus, it was fun-and would certainly liven up this stupid ball where she had nobody to talk to and nothing to do. Bridget couldn’t figure out why everyone was so excited for this. Oh, maybe it was because they were all paired off or at least had friends to hang out with except for maybe some of the youngest students.

Which, admittedly, did make her feel kind of lonely and bad about herself. Like people didn’t really like her. However, what did it really matter when she was leaving and never going to see most of these people ever again?

It still didn’t make the Teppenpaw any less bored though. She guessed she’d just get some food for now and walked over to where the refreshments were. “Excuse me.” She said to someone who was standing in front of the meatballs that she wanted.

11 Bridget Ferguson So over this. 1448 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 06, 2022 12:44 AM

Great. by Xavier Lundstrom

Was it French? Xavier frowned slightly, considering that left-field question. He was pretty sure it was not French, it was just... brunch. American or universal. He had had brunch in Canada and Mexico, and he couldn't recall them being really different. Okay, there was an abundance of maple syrup in Canada, and options like huevos rancheros in Mexico, but poached eggs, pancakes, granola, pastries, and smoked salmon all seemed to be present most anywhere you went for brunch (at least, if you were the kind of white middle class suburbanite that stayed in resorts catering to white middle class suburbanites when travelling). He was halfway through shaking his head 'no' to the French thing when Mags asked a different question, one which made him jolt to a stop.

"I don't think so," he stated cautiously. It didn't stand out to him the way the excesses of pumpkin did. Logic said that this was further evidence of Mags being like him, but alarm bells were ringing out over that, drowning out logic. Xavier just recognised that he was being backed into a corner where he had to compare the magical and non-magical worlds, and that made him panic.

I used to have it all the time at home. He could feel the words catching in his throat just from thinking them, let alone saying them. Anyway, the less he said the better, probably. He tried to wash the words back down with a gulp of punch.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Great. 1529 0 5

Iris Cobb

January 06, 2022 6:52 PM

Imma Princess! by Iris Cobb

Iris had not recognized the girl in the mirror after Amethyst had said she was ready. The gowns that her roommate had brought back from her family to choose from all looked like something right out of a storybook. She'd never seen anything like them before, they were made for princesses. How was she going to pay Amethyst back for even borrowing one for one night? She picked out that one that fitted best... trying them all on had been a truly unique experience. Afterwards she'd had more than one nightmare about something happening to it while she was wearing it and swore to herself to stay as far away from Billy during the ball as she possibly could.... maybe Pecaris in general. That would also include Ray, which would be a shame, but.... better safe then eternally in someone's debt.

Still, she'd seen the dresses while trying them on, but she had still been herself. Now that the time for the ball had come though, she found herself transformed. The girl in the mirror looked... beautiful? Rich? Powerful? She wasn't quite sure, but very different. She liked it, but at the same time that girl looking back at her scared her a bit. Was this who she would have been if she'd been born to the Brockerts instead of up on the mountain? That was a silly thought and she did her best to dismiss it as she headed down towards the hall to meet with Henry.

That was another thought to fill her mind. Henry asking her had been a little odd, but he seemed alright. She still wasn't entirely sure how or what she felt about him. Iris kinda hoped that he just had asked her so that he had a date to this thing. If he felt any romantic inclinations, he was just gunna have to wait a bit. She sure didn't yet, for anyone and that was fine for now. She'd have plenty of time for that nonsense later.

Iris was supposed to meet Henry at the ball itself, so she made her way in and was dazzled once more by the changes that had been made for the event. Everyone also looked amazing, it was just like she had hoped it would be, a real live fancy ball. She got lost in the crowd a bit and couldn't locate Henry before the Prefect dance began. After it was over she began milling about to find her date.

OOC: Amethyst actions approved by her author

2 Iris Cobb Imma Princess! 1526 0 5

Mara Morales

January 06, 2022 8:56 PM

Well. This is different. (Bertie) by Mara Morales

For four years, Mara had very rarely done much with her own appearance. She wore her hair back in a plain bun most of the time (classes here had way too much fire involved way too often for her want to leave it down) and while she was vigorous about skincare because it would almost be treason in her parents' eyes for her not to do so, she rarely if ever wore more makeup than lip balm. It just hadn't really ever occurred to her. She could recommend shades and techniques to other girls, but to her, beauty was the thing that made the bucks roll in, not a goal she pursued. She was perfectly content to dress nicely enough on Occasions to not stand out, but to mostly be behind-the-scenes in such operations.

Since part of that involved dressing to the dress code, though, she had reluctantly partaken of a nice dress, even though she'd planned to spend most of the evening lurking near a wall frowning at people until suddenly she hadn't been. The selection of said dress had involved a near-war over the Easter holidays - her mother and Jessica had wanted to shove her into something that would make her look like a quinceañera who'd lost her fifteen courtiers and all the necessary assorted relations, and Mara had dug her heels in sharply, rejecting any suggestion of ruffles, tiaras, or high heels. Especially the ruffles. After many battles, the selected item was light blue, with a completely plain, just-barely-shaped-enough-to-call-A-line skirt and a high-necked, short-sleeved top section which was covered in an identical shade of light blue lace. Her concessions to extra jewelry began and ended with plain gold hoop earrings, and actually wearing a gold bracelet with a few small diamonds in it which her father had bought her for some reason several years earlier. She would have preferred something in a more subdued color than pastel blue - there wasn't enough grey in it for her liking - but had conceded the color to her mother in order to avoid high heels.

She concentrated on not scowling out of sheer discomfort, feeling rather embarrassed and ill at ease being caught looking like she, personally, wanted to be considered pretty, when she met up with Bertie. She wanted to say something funny, not least to establish that she was in fact still herself even if she was wearing a soft berry-lite lip tint, but nothing immediately occurred to her, so she went with that great classic, "Hi," followed by awkwardly tucking her hair behind her ear; she'd not only let it down but curled it for the occasion, and it kept slipping annoyingly on the sides.

16 Mara Morales Well. This is different. (Bertie) 1472 0 5

Dora Xavier

January 07, 2022 7:34 AM

Isn't it wonderful? by Dora Xavier

Dora, being shorter than most people here, had made the mistake of assuming red pants meant boy, but as she looked up, she realized her mistake. This was another beautiful princess! Luckily, she wanted to dance with Dora anyway, so all was good. "Yay!" the six-year-old exclaimed happily.

"You just need to try," she added seriously when the older girl said Dora would be the better dancer. "You can't get better if you don't try and mess up sometimes." Her daddy told her that a lot.

When, they got out onto the dance floor, Dora moved how the music told her to move, and tried to encourage the older princess to spin her sometimes, because that's what her dress told her to do. (And also Dora wanted to, because spinning wasn't fun, it was super fun!)

As she turned back to face the older princess again, the light caught on her earrings, and Dora exclaimed, "Oh! You have plants on your ears! They are so pretty! My daddy is the Ball-ol-ogy teacher so I know lots about plants!" 'Herbology' always got twisted up on her tongue, so she took it slowly, and she still wasn't sure it came out right. "Bob-ol-ogy," she tried again. "The one about plants."

1 Dora Xavier Isn't it wonderful? 1507 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

January 07, 2022 8:09 AM

This is good. by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda was relieved when both Jessica and Sophia were quick to reassure her that they would stay in touch and they were welcome to visit them at their homes. "You can also to Utah come," she invited them to be politely reciprocal, but added the caveat, "But we have many snakes." Hilda did not particularly like the snakes and she doubted her friends were any more keen to have hundreds of them around them either. "And no Restaurants. Utah is hot and boring. Atlanta and Madison are better." She didn't even have a nearby town or city to give them, and could only generally name her home by its entire state. It was just their ranch in the middle of the badlands.

As she thought toward the future, and visiting her friends, she couldn't help but think of the other things that would be happening now that Sonora was basically over. "I told you, yes, I have Quiddich money to go College?" There was a word that started with S for what that Quidditch money was called, but she couldn't remember it. She just knew a school was going to pay her tuition so she'd play Quidditch for them, which kind of seemed like an awesome arrangement to her. "I study DADA." If her plans to become a professional beater didn't pan out, she thought she might try to be an Auror, but she was hopeful that her first choice would work out.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister This is good. 1433 0 5

Mab

January 07, 2022 9:47 AM

Yeah. by Mab

She'd said something wrong. She didn't know what she said wrong - she'd been careful not to say 'fey' again, so that wasn't it - but the kid abruptly went from very confused to almost panicked. Given when the change occurred, it had something to do with 'wizardly?' but she couldn't figure out what was upsetting about that word. It was mildly sexist, she supposed, but that shouldn't trigger such a reaction from a guy, and an offended girl should just tell her to use a different word.

It shouldn't have been scary, even coming from Mab. She'd even relaxed some, once they were away from other people, her posture not nearly so aggressive or attempting to intimidate. They were relatively safe in this quieter part of the hall, with fewer eyes on them, and with no reason to pay attention to them, just two people eating their food. Her hackles had slowly lowered, and while she wasn't exactly trying to be friendly, she wasn't trying to be scary, either.

It almost looked like a trauma response, which was definitely not a good thing to trigger, and she thought the best thing to do was change the subject completely, give him some space.

"I asked Alexander to be my brother at the last ball," she commented on the first completely random thing that occurred to her. Which wasn't really random at all, as everything about this ball was reminding her of the last one, and making her grudge against Anya worse because the older Pecari was taking Alexander away from her for the event that was theirs, even if their relationship was completely non-romantic. "My foster mom agreed to take on a second foster kid, so a few days later we picked him up from his group home. Adoptions finally went through last midterm, but now he's spending the ball with Anya." The distaste, bitterness, and resentment were very present in her tone as she said the name.

1 Mab Yeah. 1473 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 07, 2022 7:30 PM

So... by Xavier Lundstrom

The total non-sequitur was sharp enough that it somewhat jerked him from his thoughts. It wasn’t just the unrelatedness, but also the fact that he couldn’t even parse what the words meant. Individually, he knew them. But put in a sentence in that order, they didn’t make sense. Luckily Mags seemed inclined to use more words than she had previously, as she was explaining. Explaining things that made his stomach feel slightly twisty.

He knew that teachers always said stuff about how whatever you were going through you weren’t the only one, or even if your problem was unique, someone else was also suffering or something. He’d never really got why that was meant to make him feel better, but he’d also rarely believed it, especially given both the seeming uniqueness of his problem and the depth of his pain. But twice now, he’d found older students who had pretty dramatic family structure stuff going on. They were all Pecaris. Was this something to do with the adaptability trait? Or were all the traumatised people in other houses just not dealing with it?

“That sucks,” he said, regarding Anya. He wasn’t sure he had enough opinion on the people involved to really think that, but he was clearly supposed to agree. And he did have some sympathy with Mags over being ditched, even if he didn’t think it was quite the same situation. “Oz is my best friend. But he got a date. And then he’s a twin so… I guess I gotta used to coming in third place.” He related what had been on his mind earlier. Partly to empathise, but partly to give him thinking time about what he really wanted to say. The fact that Mags lived with foster parents could mean a lot of things. But the panicky-brain-fog of ‘this-is-what-they-do-to-us’ was definitely making itself known. Which made it hard not to just blurt out ‘why?’ Which was probably rude or something.

“You and Alexander live with a foster family?” he re-established the topic. And Alexander had lived in some kind of group home before. “Did the wizards take you away from your parents?”

13 Xavier Lundstrom So... 1529 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

January 07, 2022 7:34 PM

I suppose we might manage that as well. by Leonor De Matteo

He looked good and Leonor was determined not to think so . . . until he spoke. She accepted the corsage, surprised actually at the beauty of it, and wrinkled her nose up as if the idea of behaving was the worst thing she could think of. It was definitely in the top five worst, to be fair. She stuck her tongue out, both in a show of just how gag-worthy she found good behaviour, and how very little she was actually on it.

"You're such a fountain of compliments," she replied. "Here I was thinking what a ravishing show of masculinity and respectability you are." Her tone matching his in ambiguity. She wasn't quite sure whether she hoped he took it as sincere or sarcastic. It wasn't the first time she'd said something outrageous just for the sake of it but . . . well, it wasn't all that ridiculous actually.

She almost said so. She almost let herself be soft for a moment and tell him he was handsome, tell him how much it meant that he'd matched and that they were going to go to the ball together, tell him that maybe she had a crush on him in the right ways and not just the political ways. But that was too risky and she was convinced that, despite the little smirk and the fancy corsage and all the matching, there was not a bone in Jeremy's body that could possibly feel the same way about her. Still, her eyes were soft as she cocked her head and looked at him a little more closely, letting a bit of her aloofness go. She couldn't help it if her eyes flicked to his lips and if they did it again and lingered too long.

"Shall we, dear fiancé?" Leonor asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively and turning to be by his side, where he could properly escort her.

22 Leonor De Matteo I suppose we might manage that as well. 1471 0 5

Patience Reed-Fischer

January 07, 2022 7:44 PM

I technically count right? by Patience Reed-Fischer

Patience had not exactly had what she'd call a successful year. She hadn't achieved much either on the friendship front or the academic front and those had basically been her only goals. What else was she supposed to do at a magic school in an imaginary city (eh) that you couldn't drive to and didn't exist on maps? Or maybe that was Tumbleweed. . . . in any case, this whole place was hard to wrap her head around and she'd spent so much time trying to that she hadn't actually made friends in any deep way.

Still, the school was small and Patience would have been hard pressed not to notice or recognize a group of students who were the special group of classmates and housemates - a group that overlapped in some mathematical variant that Marcus probably would've known but that Patience did not off the top of her head. She felt extra self-conscious in her ball getup, wearing a dress that managed to scream both I'm still a kid and but I am all grown up all to once. It was the nighest her mother had let her get away with since she'd be having another Ball and so much of the money went to Jezebel's dress. Patience was pretty sure her mother and Martin both had marriage on the mind but she wasn't at all sure what Jazz wanted.

The thought of all that was somehow worse than the fear of being a weirdo so she approached the group of beginner Teppenpaws and smiled a bit awkwardly.

"Hi," she said softly. "Mind if I join?"

22 Patience Reed-Fischer I technically count right? 1535 0 5

Zara Jackson

January 07, 2022 7:58 PM

The end is just the beginning (tag Felipe) by Zara Jackson

The prefect dance had been changed. Well, whatever. Jessica and her little gaggle of friends could have their pyrrhic victory. It wasn’t like Zara wanted to see most of her classmates struggling and humiliated. Would she have wished it on Jessica? The magnanimous graduation-and-ball spirit said no, not really. A little part of her knew that she would have derived some small satisfaction from it. Still, the point was, that they could reshape the dance around their needs, but that need still existed, whilst she was here with her fiancée. At the end of the night, Jessica’s head girl title would cease to mean anything, except a small, sad line on her resume, whereas the ring on Zara’s finger was forever. It was one of the times where it was exciting rather than scary to think about that.

She had dressed in gold, because she was a queen. Her frock was a beaded, floor length gown, which hugged her figure (another point she thought she had over the fragile little stick figure), and her make up shimmered with matching accents. She had been taking extra care of her curls this year, and the heaps of revision had somewhat helped—putting in hair treatments and leaving them to sit went well with getting her studies done. It was paying off, and whilst she’d worked some braiding in to front section of her hair, at the back it bounced out, her ringlets shining.

For the prefect dance, she started and ended opposite Felipe (and was with him for a good deal throughout—for all they moved about and worked as a group, you did still have someone who was your partner, in some senses). When it ended, she crossed back to him and planted a kiss on his lips, before linking her arm through his.

“Shall we have a proper dance now?” she asked. “Or go get photos?”

13 Zara Jackson The end is just the beginning (tag Felipe) 1444 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

January 07, 2022 8:16 PM

I love you forever and ever. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe had recently learned the word 'bombshell' and as he gazed lovingly at his fiancee, feeling like he was absolutely the luckiest man alive, he knew he'd also learned the meaning of the word. She was the absolute spirit of sunshine, both in its daytime heat and glory and in its night time kiss. He was the moon and he'd be honored to spend his life reflecting to the world a little piece of his bride's beauty.

"Pardon my staring,," he said when the dance was done and they abandoned the dance floor for a moment, "but you are dazzling and radiant and brilliant. I can't keep my eyes off you."

Her arm was through his, the taste of her lips lingered, and he felt breathless. Also, they'd just danced a bunch in front of a lot of onlookers, so he was breathless for lots of reasons. "Water first?" he suggested. He was pretty sure he himself was a plant, one who had spent its life in gravely, well-draining soil and now was taking root in much more fertile - not in the creepy way - land. This was his home, planted in the shade of the sun.

"I suppose pictures first makes more sense, for the sake of not being a sweaty mess in them?" he added by way of an answer to her question.

22 Felipe De Matteo I love you forever and ever. 1434 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

January 07, 2022 8:16 PM

Thanks, I will! by Lorena Abernathy

Lorena knew going into this that her dress was just not going to be as fancy as some of the others. Sure, her family did okay financially, but nothing that compared to these rich pureblood kids that seemed to flock to this school. Plus, they had magical parents at home who could help them do extra things that fabric could not do alone. Lorena wasn’t bitter or upset, but it was just a fact of the matter.

Still, she found that for what had to be one of the first times - if not the first time - in her life that she was actually pretty pleased with her reflection. It was more like a homecoming dress, and a modest one at that, than an actual ball gown, but still, somehow the green satin draped around her made her not look so tall and gangly. She felt… pretty.

As she made her way down to meet Oz, the Aladren tried not to let her mind wander too much. Really, she still wasn’t sure what to expect from him. Him asking her was pretty surprising, so her frame of reference was limited. And even beyond the Oz-specific variables, Lorena just plain did not know much about boys. What if he wasn’t even there? What if he stood her up? What if he was always planning to stand her up, and this was all some kind of sick joke?

The thought hit her stomach, and she nearly turned around and ran back to her dorm room. But at that moment, she saw him, and he was there, so she swallowed and proceeded. They both deserved at least that much.

Oz held out a corsage, and Lorena was immediately too delighted to care that it was pretty basic, or fully process that his mom had made him get it. “Oh my gosh, Oz!” she beamed, extending her arm so that he could slide it over her hand and onto her wrist. “That’s so sweet! Thank you!”

12 Lorena Abernathy Thanks, I will! 1510 0 5

Mab

January 07, 2022 8:22 PM

... buttons? by Mab

Anya was even older than Mab was, so she doubted the kid had any opinion on her other than 'the girl who sits on tables' because that was kind of what stood out most about her, but he was at least pretending he thought Anya was the villain in this story, and not the sister who was bummed that her brother had a girlfriend and was taking her to an event that was pretty much designed for bringing dates to, so she gave him props for that. She was aware it was irrational and unfair to Alexander to expect him not to take his girlfriend to the ball. Didn't mean she had to like it.

Mab chewed on one of her cheese cubes as the kid explained his own lack of companion situation. "That sucks," she returned in her turn. Best friend ought to rate higher than third place, but, yeah.

"Nah, not the wizards. Apparently, changelings are just a myth. I've tried to find historical magical practices to explain those stories but haven't been able to. I didn't know there were wizards until after I'd already been taken from Mom, so it was just the boring old child welfare system. Single mom, bad housing situation," Mab shrugged, like it wasn't one of the more traumatic experiences of her life. She skipped over the even worse bad stuff and concluded, "Worked out all right in the end. My foster mom is pretty well off and she married my biological mom. Then Bel - that's my non-biological mom - adopted both me and Alexander, and my mom adopted Alexander, so it's not a foster home anymore."

1 Mab ... buttons? 1473 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

January 07, 2022 8:41 PM

In need of twirling by Verdillia Scurlock

Verdillia loved, loved, loved her dress. It was the sparkliest, prettiest thing she had ever owned, and she was going to be wearing it to a real actual ball, with society Purebloods! Her mother, of course, bought her lovely dresses to attend concerts and plays and other nice outings in, but this was a special occasion and a very special dress.

It was a light champagne colour (a colour name which made her feel very grown up), with a glittering sleeveless bodice, with a bow at the waist, and a long satiny skirt which currently fell to the floor with a slight a-line. ‘Currently’ was an odd word to apply to a dress but an accurate one. If she twirled three times in an anti-clockwise direction, the skirt transformed, becoming a knee-length set of ruffles. Twirling back the other way returned it to its original form. She had done this several times in the mirror in her bedroom whilst getting ready, and was fairly sure she would never tire of the effect.

She slipped her feet into sparkly gold pumps, and added some dangly yellow cubic zirconia earrings. She had carefully washed and dried her curls earlier in the day, and added serum to keep them from getting frizzy. She slid some barrettes with twisting gold leaf shapes on, which in her mind went because the colour matched the sparkling upper half of the dress, but which some people might have found were just a shade or two off—or perhaps it was that they looked rather classic whilst the dress was decidedly modern.

She made her way to the hall, watching in awe as the prefects performed a real, actual co-ordinated ball dance. Maybe someday that would be her! For now though, she needed to find someone who would twirl her, so she could show off her dress. She waited near the edge of the dance floor, arguably just watching everyone else, but in a very convenient position should someone eligible happen to come along.

OOC: Dress is a slightly longer version of this in its current form.

13 Verdillia Scurlock In need of twirling 1541 0 5

Oz Spellman

January 08, 2022 7:45 PM

Cool. Here it is. by Oz Spellman

“Yeah, well, my mom’s a real sweet lady,” he grinned, making it into a joke as Lorena thanked him. It was weird, hearing something nice from someone who wasn’t mom, or Professor Carter-
Xavier (the latter had taken some getting used to, but he trusted her to be on the level). It was kind of like when Xav had said he wasn’t an idiot, even though the two of them were always fighting over Oz saying something stupid. Most of the time, other people saying nice things gave him this awkward squirmy feeling in his belly. Probably because they made them up. They said the things he wanted to be, but he knew they were either lying or not thinking it through, because what they said was always wrong. Anyway, Lorena hadn’t called him sweet, just the getting of the flower, and that had been his mom, so he could firmly push that praise back where it belonged. With a laugh and a smile, of course, because that was how you got through every uncomfortable situation—make ‘em laugh. Preferably ‘with you’, but ‘at you’ would do in a pinch, if it avoided something worse.

She seemed really excited about the flower thingy, which was nice. Other people being happy was a good thing. He wondered whether that meant she’d be more likely to kiss him later. He wondered if he wanted her to. Yes? He wanted to find out what kissing was like, and Lorena was his date, so it was a potentially good chance to do that.

She held out her hand, but stopped short of actually taking the flower. Maybe they were doing extra manners cos it was a fancy party? He pressed it into her outstretched hand, which was kind of awkward cos it was upside down.

“I guess we should go in? What’s the deal with the prefect thing? Someone said we watch them doing a dance?” he confirmed his understanding of the proceedings.

13 Oz Spellman Cool. Here it is. 1514 0 5

Christopher Brockert

January 09, 2022 2:18 AM

I won't judge by Christopher Brockert

It was the end of his first year at Sonora and Christopher couldn’t really say that he was looking forward to going home. Sure, he wanted to see his parents and sister again and he couldn’t say he really had any close friends, but it still beat having to put up with Uncle Eustace, especially since the Crotalus was certain that his uncle was still unhappy about having a daughter. Chris just could not take that level of anger and conflict and it wasn’t like Uncle Eustace was banned from his house like he was from Aunt Madeleine and Uncle Elmer’s.

Although, if he knew all the best places to hide in his grandparents’ house, he certainly knew them even better in his own. Still, Uncle Eustace being there made him feel completely unsafe, like his space was being invaded and violated. As, obviously, Chris was not in charge of who was and wasn’t allowed in their house, he had zero control over this either and his father, who was at least partially in charge of this, was his uncle’s fraternal twin and had spent his entire life being bullied and psychologically-and, knowing Uncle Eustace, probably physically-by him. It was no easier for Dad to stand up to his twin brother than it was for Allegra to stand up to Topaz.

So, Chris tried very hard to see his father’s perspective even though his dad should. really be standing up for his own children better, especially since, what with them being twins and all, Uncle Eustace was more likely to show up in their house than that of any of the rest of Chris’s uncles. Which, of course, sucked. Still, it was not as if the Crotalus had ever mentioned to his parents how exceedingly uncomfortable his uncle’s presence in their home made him feel. Of course, that was sort of something that should be pretty obvious considering that he was uncomfortable in the man’s presence everywhere else-and, by the way, so was pretty much everyone except possibly Topaz, since Christopher was pretty sure she was uncapable of feeling such things.

Anyway, it made Sonora feel like a safer place to be.

As for the ball, Chris had no real strong feelings about it, at least not for himself. Some of his older relatives felt bad because they had nobody to hang out with as everyone around their ages was all paired off. This was less common among younger students-although, both Amethyst and Liesl had plans-so it was less of an issue for him, though he did feel bad for his cousins.

Of course, it would be easier to find people to hang out with if he had actually made friends this year. However, Christopher had been so focused on avoiding conflict and making sure whether or not people were safe to approach that he really hadn’t. He was now pretty sure most of his classmates were all right, though there were a few that he still wasn’t all that sure about. However, the first year was not quite sure who to approach or how. He decided to avoid the decision altogether by heading for the food instead.

And, fortunately, there the decision was further taken out of his hands when Phil approached. Christopher had generally found the Aladren, to be pleasant enough in general, if a bit odd. More of the Isla or Uncle Ben variety of his house than the Topaz one, not that he wanted to believe there were that many of those. Of course, the main thing that he’d noticed about the other boy was that, in a year with people named Liesl, Verdillia and Tissena, Phil, along with Claire, was the only person besides himself named something normal.

Which made them stand out, something Chris generally tried to avoid, but having a normal name while most people around you did not was something he was fairly used to given how, the story went, that when he’d been born, his family seemed to be fairly taken aback by him being named something as common as Christopher. Prior to that, the most normal name in their branch of the Brockerts was Owen. Ruby and Jasper had been around but the fact that their sisters were named Emerald, Topaz, Sapphire and Amethyst sort of negated any normalcy there. Since then, there’d been an Elizabeth, whom nobody ever called anything but Libby, but still.
Chris smiled at his classmate. “It’s fine so far.” Truthfully, a ball wasn’t really all that appealing in general, since he was generally cautious about socializing and not all that excited about dancing, but he wasn’t going to say those things. Especially since he’d better get used to them and this ball was going to be a lot less pressure than those. It was probably best if he practiced.

Of course, small talk wasn’t really what he wanted, he really wanted at least one friend. Though he might be better with more since otherwise he could end up the odd one out at the next ball when his friend had other plans. Still, for now, he replied to Phil. “I haven’t gotten any yet, is there something you would recommend?”

11 Christopher Brockert I won't judge 1539 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 09, 2022 3:18 PM

Something like that by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier nodded, as Mags returned that his situation sucked. Part of him wanted to leap to Oz's defence, and explain all the ways he was a good best friend, especially as Mags didn't seem to like him much. But focusing on those things right now only made it hurt more that he'd been abandoned.

He wasn't sure what a changeling was, but they were apparently a myth anyway, and then that sort of got lost under processing everything else Mags was telling him. It turned out she had something in common with Oz, by the sounds of things, not that it was exactly a commom ground he could bring up. Hey, you both come from poor, single parent families... Bond!

"That's...good?" he concluded. Other words sprung to mind like 'complicated' but the story seemed to have ended happily, and he didn't want Mags to think he was calling two women being married confusing. He wondered if this meant she knew what his bowtie meant. Technically, the story had a gay ending, in both senses of the word. He found that funny but he wasn't confident enough to share the joke with her.

"The wizards have been giving my family a hard time," he admitted, feeling he needed to explain why he'd asked what he had. " There's no reason for it, it's all just a mix up. But they've got it into their heads that my family hates magic, even though they don't, and that makes it a bad environment for me, even though it's not, so..." So they were giving them a hard time. Having looped the sentence back to where it had started, he just finished it with a shrug instead.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Something like that 1529 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 09, 2022 3:30 PM

A ball of nerves by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Sadie clenched her hands as she examined her reflection. She had grown up with bling and bold colours, and the insistence that her clothes made a statement. She was rebelling against it in the softest way possible; plain clothes, and classic cuts. Her dress was a floor-length peach chiffon dress, whose only detailing was the ruching on the bodice, which felt like it was there to give shape and structure as much as decoration. Between the fact that it was only held up with spaghetti straps and had a sweetheart neckline, she felt a little exposed, but it was easy to feel that way when you spent most of your time wearing a sack, and it was cut high enough that she wasn’t really flaunting anything except her collar bones. She’d paired it with simple silver drop earrings and a locket her grandmother had given her for Christmas.

Her hair and make up should not have been a challenge, as experimenting with those were one of the main ways she and Jessica filled their vast tech-free free-time. She had had her ball look picked and practised weeks in advance, and it had only been made difficult by the fact that her hands had been shaking, and the need for constant reassurance that it wasn’t badly done, or that her choices weren’t too plain, even if they were minimalist. It helped reassure her that Jessica went in for minimalist make-up too. Her hair was half up, pinned in place with ornate clips, the rest lightly curled. She probably should have gone for an entirely up do, as it would have made it harder to fiddle with it—something she kept realising she was doing, and having to force herself to stop.

Her mother wouldn’t have approved of any of it. Looking in the mirror, she supposed this was who she was, if she was completely herself, the owner of her own choices. And whilst it had never been comfortable being her mother’s little show poodle, forced into clothes that didn’t feel like her and then put on parade, it was possibly even more nerve wracking presenting her own choices to the world, especially as she was still going to be on display. Not that she had been the flashy, mommy-curated Sadie-Lake for most of her time at Sonora. She tried to tell herself that. She had spent most of her time here being herself, blending into the background as much as possible, and the strangest thing was, she had found a lot of people who still noticed and liked her. She supposed Dathan was partly responsible for her nerves. She had thought that him asking her would make everything better, and it had… for that first evening. Their arrangement was ambiguous though. She wasn’t sure if this was a date, or just hanging out as friends. She knew which one she wanted, and that had to mean he liked what he saw…

She had made her way to the area where the prefects were gathering, shooting Dathan a nervous smile across the room, but mainly hanging onto Jessica for dear life, and some kind of solution to the fact her hands were absolutely shaking and she thought she might pass out. Once they took to the floor, she was nearer Dathan. They had been more or less arranged by age, though where people had dates or mortal enemies that disrupted the flow a little. As she and Dathan hadn’t been a pair (not that they definitely were now but they’d been even less of one at the time the rehearsals had started), he was opposite Ellie to start with, although when they worked in fours or switched partners, she crossed paths with him. She didn’t love that he was standing opposite Ellie to start and finish the dance (what if she hung around? What if Dathan invited her to—he’d only asked Sadie to ‘hang out’ after all) but whilst the dance was happening she was too busy trying to not fall over her own feet and mentally block out the fact that the entire rest of the school was watching them so didn’t expire. She wondered why Past Her had felt it was somehow worse to draw attention by making a fuss in front of Professor Skies than it was to be subjected to this, especially as Mab had paved the way for simply noping out of the exercise.

It all passed in a blur of panic, and then before her brain had really processed the fact she’d done all the moves she was automatically curtseying to her partner, and the hall was breaking into life around her. A life that was moving, and chattering, and whilst some of that chatter was undoubtedly about her, it was also the sound of people moving on with their lives. She tried breathing. She had a feeling she might have been forgetting to do that—had it not been scientifically impossible, she would probably have said ‘since she had left the Crotalus Common Room.’

She stepped over to Dathan, pleased to find that he was already Ellie-free.

“Shall we… be somewhere other than here?” she suggested, gesturing in the non-dancefloor direction that encompassed most of the rest of the room. The shakes had, as they made their way through the dance, passed up her arms and all around her chest, and it being over hadn’t magically whisked them way. Along with that, she was fairly sure she was currently a colour which clashed rather horribly with her dress.

OOC: Sadie's dress

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers A ball of nerves 1480 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

January 09, 2022 8:27 PM

Sure thing! by Augustine Reed-Fischer

Gus was too young to actually care much about all this stuff, even though both his roommates had managed to find dates. He hadn't even tried; he'd have another Ball in four years and tonight was about a good time. Which he was currently having along, mostly occupied by the awesome snacks he'd managed to find. Although he generally was not one for physical activity, dancing was definitely within the realm of fun for him so he was careful not to overindulge and make himself sick. Puking on someone was not within the realm of fun.

He'd made his way closer to the dance floor as the prefect dance was finishing because Jazz was going to be getting off the floor as it did and he wanted to make sure he gave her both an encouraging thumbs up for her efforts and also a suggestive smoochy face as she undoubtedly went off to find Martin. He really wasn't sure what his sister saw in the dude who looked like he was something straight out of the Twilight saga but whatever. Jazz gave him a grin, followed by an eye roll, and went off to find her date, as expected, so Gus turned to find something to keep his interest. As it so happened, there was a girl nearby. Sweet!

She was younger than he was, which meant she probably was also not super interested in anything weirdly serious (unless she was pureblood because that was apparently a thing) and he could probably enjoy a fun dance with her. Plus she was pretty and pretty girls were one of Gus' favorite things, even if he didn't really know what to do with one.

"You're pretty," Gus said, well-educated in the ways of woman-wooing. Compliments were the trick to it. His own simple robes were powder blue and significantly less compliment-worthy but that didn't mean he wouldn't like one so it made sense to him that people who actually deserved compliments would like them too. "Wanna dance?"

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer Sure thing! 1509 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

January 09, 2022 9:01 PM

Goodbye to the home that wasn't. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie would be going back to Germany. With nothing officially set in stone between herself and Kai, things had ended before they'd begun when he'd graduated the previous year. Now, she had spent an entire year basically just realizing that there were not a lot of eligible bachelors here and she wasn't a bit interested in bachelorettes. Apparently, neither was Friederike Albert. Or at least, not tonight. He was done up in a soft royal blue garment that was impossible to call either a dress or a robe. He looked beautiful, a word that Johana Leonie wasn't exactly comfortable applying to her brother, but more than anything he looked happy.

He, unlike herself, had a date to the Ball.

Johana Leonie took her time, carefully giving herself the opportunity to avoid anyone who might expect her to be friendly as she acclimated to the setting she was in. It truly was beautiful. She even felt beautiful, wrapped in a gauzy pink dress and strappy gold heels. It was just that she didn't have anyone to show off to. She looked around for Hilda and made her way towards the punch table - away from the dance floor - as she searched, figuring she might as well not be lonely and thirsty both.

The first sip made her realize that she was hot and very very thirsty and she realized that she hadn't had hardly anything to eat or drink all day with her anxiety about the Ball filling her stomach instead. She drank the rest of her punch, refilled the glass, and looked around for something to eat.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Goodbye to the home that wasn't. 1432 0 5

Winston Randall

January 09, 2022 9:09 PM

Imma Disaster by Winston Randall

Winston thought Balls were stupid - this kind not . . . other kinds - and he thought that dressing up was stupid because it only served to show off how weird and lopsided his head was probably. Also, why was there so much pressure for everyone to find someone to go with? It had basically been a Valentine's day themed year and that was basically the worst. For himself, Winston was going alone. He didn't even want to watch the prefects dance and they weren't dancing all weird and coupley even; it was just all too much regardless.

At the least the food was good.

He'd been wanting to wear jet black robes to show off exactly how he felt about such institutionalized pandering to the masses but his mom wouldn't let him, so he was wearing a rich burgundy instead, an homage to his House colors he supposed. He'd even managed to avoid spilling anything on his getup for the first few bites. He was milling through the crowd - a mistake, of course, because crowds were terrible and he was only here at all because he was supposed to be - when this became rapidly untrue.

His plate in one hand and his punch in the other, Winston found both pressed suddenly into his own chest when he turned too sharply and bumped into his classmate/housemate/yearmate. She looked really gorgeous, even if she was a girl, and Winston was torn between being really mad that he'd ruined his food (and gotten his robes messy) and really glad that he'd not gotten any on her that he could tell.

"Merlin!" Winston grimaced as he took in the damage and then all his thoughts came out his mouth at the speed of awkward stammering loser. "I'm sorry about that. I probably just shouldn't eat. I mean, I should eat, but not here. I shouldn't be here. This is terrible. You look nice, I just mean this is terrible. Well, it wasn't terrible. But now it's terrible. Do you need help?"

22 Winston Randall Imma Disaster 1527 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

January 09, 2022 9:18 PM

That's basically how I feel about you too. by Leonor De Matteo

So far, the evening didn't totally suck. It had only recently begun, but still. Jeremy had excused himself to the bathroom and Leonor was refusing to acknowledge that she was looking forward to him returning when she noticed an adult she didn't totally hate with an unfamiliar woman and a child. Since she wasn't a moron, Leonor made some guesses and approached.

"Your wife is even more beautiful than you said," she greeted them in Spanish, smiling her polite society smile at the family. "Your husband was gracious in supporting my booth at the fair. I am Leonor De Matteo." She inclined her head to the lovely woman and refused to think about how limited the lifespan on that name coming out of her mouth was.

She was pretty sure that Mr. Alamilla had never spoken about his wife or even mentioned that he had one, although it wasn't exactly hard to tell or assume. If he had, Leonor certainly hadn't found it important enough to remember at the time. Still, the polite thing to do in society was to make everyone look better than they were and remember just how filthy they were for later uses. She filed this particular lack of shared information in the back of her brain, although when she'd ever have a need to use it she wasn't sure; it was just habit at this point.

"You all speak Spanish too?" she confirmed, realizing that she'd only done so with Mr. Alamilla and didn't know for sure yet whether his family did.

OOC: OOC - I didn't ask Jeremy's author if he could go to the bathroom for the sake of this post but . . . well, everyone has to go at some point.

22 Leonor De Matteo That's basically how I feel about you too. 1471 0 5

Ellie Alperton

January 10, 2022 4:48 AM

I'm a mermaid by Ellie Alperton

For her first ball, Ellie had been a princess. For this one, she was a mermaid. Her dress was tight on the body, though the off-the-shoulder ruffle around the top covered her chest, and gave the illusion of some shape there (or at least disguised the fact it was lacking). The skirt kicked out just below her knees with tiers of ruffles. Like her first ball, the colours were pale pink, pale blue, and white, the colours of the trans pride flag.

She was also a mermaid rather than a princess with the date situation—sad, silent, and side-lined, instead of in the arms of a handsome prince.

She tried to find joy in painting her nails, and in her sparkly high heeled shoes. Those things had always been about her, not about doing it for anyone else. But she still cared. She still cared that no one would care how she’d got all dressed up, or be proud to be seen with her, and that she’d have to spend most of the evening by herself. It kind of sucked all the fun out of it.

She made her way down for the prefect dance. She’d been paired with Dathan. That didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t the same as being chosen. And she guessed she could dig her claws in and try to hang on to him for the rest of the night. But even if the prefect dance wasn’t the most romantic version of the activity possible, she could still feel that she didn’t feel that for him. And she could see Sadie from the corner of her eye, watching with a look that said Ellie was gradually draining her soul away. Ellie wanted Dathan because she wanted to be wanted by someone, anyone, and he was the only available option. Sadie actually wanted him, as a person. Ellie didn’t want to be lonely and miserable, but she also didn’t want to be the reason someone else was.

So, she was a mermaid. She hadn’t lured in the prince. She didn’t get to stay up here, where the people were.

“Thanks for the dance,” she said, managing to put on a quick smile, as she just as quickly turned away. She tried not to look like she was running for the door, just going that way. And if anyone stopped her, she could say she was just going out to the bathroom. And maybe she was. Maybe she’d go, and pull herself together and feel like sitting in a corner by herself. Or maybe she’d return to the blue.

13 Ellie Alperton I'm a mermaid 1456 0 5

Jessica Hayles

January 10, 2022 1:02 PM

I agree. by Jessica Hayles

Jessica beamed at Sophia as she, too, confirmed that they were all still going to be friends after tomorrow. Of their little group, she thought Sophia was probably the least likely to have ended up here - Sophia, after all, belonged to the same social class as Jeremy Mordue, who was...Jessica didn't even know how to describe Jeremy Mordue. She could get her head around someone who thought socially unacceptable things - she was from Georgia, for heaven's sake, and she lived among politicians. Some of her grandpa's colleagues, present and past, were absolutely vile. She could not, however, get her head around someone who just that blatantly said the quiet parts out loud.

Still - she'd never have to see that jerk again, or anyone who'd presume to talk to her like that again if she didn't want to. Mr. Rowe had suggested magical politics for her, but Jessica found it hard to imagine getting bored enough to deal with the nightmare of endlessly frustrated efforts that were apparently the life of someone like her who got into politics here. Admittedly, money could talk, but...She was happy enough to have gotten a few good friends who didn't customarily wear their rectums for hats out of this. Because way too many witches and wizards were apparently congentially incapable of removing their heads from those orifices, and it was to Sophia's credit that she apparently wasn't one of them.

"Absolutely," she agreed. "And we probably do in Atlanta, yeah," she added, "but Helen - that's another city - probably does it better. It's the weirdest little place, I think like four hundred people live there, but people visit there almost as much as they do Atlanta. Plus, it's close to start parks and some really good scenery."

Plus, well, if we're rating pseudo-Bavarian bakeries, I'm not as likely to have to explain Mara....

She did not allow herself a glance in her sister's direction. She'd disapproved of Mara coming to the ball with the Jackson kid, and Mara knew this; there had been sharp words exchanged, as Mara had...Jessica didn't even know. Her best guess was that Mara had been insulted by the idea that she couldn't handle Zara by herself if the psycho tried to make trouble, and even though that was kind of a thing - there were so many reasons why it would be worse for Mara to do it - it also so, so wasn't even the point....

She didn't want to think about that, though, and had plenty of things to distract her. "Yeah, that's so awesome," she said to Hilda's news. "Not just everyone gets an athletic scholarship, so, you're probably the class rock star with that one. You'll have to let us know when your games are, that'll be another chance to get together sometimes, after we all cheer you on."

16 Jessica Hayles I agree. 1442 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 10, 2022 2:38 PM

Texture matching! (tag Connie) by Theo Spurn

Theo was excited for the ball. He remembered the first ball where he had given out pipe cleaner flowers and enjoyed everyone's outfits and tried his best to remember to ask before touching them. There had been the very insistent No Touching Without Asking people who had enforced that.

He already knew about six people's outfits. He had asked Anya, Tommy, Stanley, and Wally about theirs, and Connie had volunteered that information as part of her interview. Everyone except Connie had also volunteered redundant information about the colours they knew their dates were wearing, which didn't tell him anything important. He had, however, picked up that you were supposed to match with your date. Connie was wearing something silky. His response to that had been that silk was cold-soft which was inferior to warm-soft and you could wear velvet combined with cooling charms. And then he remembered to add that she could do what she wanted, because he had just meant to share information, not be bossy. And she was very, very, VERY right about tuille. Urgh. Tuille. As it was summer cold-soft was acceptable, even if was not preferable. He was wearing one of his favourite silk shirts, which came from a thrift store and lived up to every stereotype about the patterns on the kinds of clothes that came from thrift stores. He had paired it with velvet trousers and a velvet bowtie, which he stroked whilst he made his way down to the Cascade Hall.

The Guys had also impressed upon him the importance of a thing, which turned out to mean flowers. He was way ahead of them, having given flowers out to loads of people at the last ball. He had already spent a large portion of the winter holidays crafting because it was something he always did with his mum, and depending on the craft, something dad could join in with on sick days. Making flowers was calm and bed appropriate, and the three of them had spent a long time pinching scraps of silk and velvet from his mum's fabric box into petal shapes and sewing them together. He had even managed to find where he had put them, even though it was ages between coming back and having the ball! His pockets were full of them, and he had chosen his three best ones and sewn them onto a nice silky ribbon for Connie.

Now it was time! It was time to admire the outfits, to give out flowers, to twirl! Theo liked all the things the ball brought and there was a lot of bounce in his already bouncy steps as he made his way to the hall, and across to Connie.

"Hi," he smiled. "I got you wrist-flowers, except not gross and squishable like real ones." He held out the band. "Happy ball! I am very excited!"

13 Theo Spurn Texture matching! (tag Connie) 1476 0 5

Bertie Jackson

January 10, 2022 3:19 PM

Preliminary data suggests 'good different' by Bertie Jackson

She had said 'yes!' Okay, technically she had said 'Sure, why not?' He was wondering whether there was an implication to that phrasing but was choosing to focus on the fact it indicated that she would go with him.

He was dimly aware of rituals such as matching outfits and flowers. Normally, he might not have cared much, but he did want it to be clear this was a date, and not just two friends hanging out. So, he had sent her a brief follow up survey entitled 'Preliminary Data Gathering' which asked her dress colour, and which he hoped she found a cute way of asking.

She would be wearing light blue. Bertie was aware that colours did not have genders or sexualities. It was dating other boys which made you gay, and it was fine, and boys could like light blue or pink or any other colour they wanted to. But he didn't. He did think it might be fair to say it was for babies, when it came to boys, given the proliferation of light blue items for human infants assigned male at birth. That was probably some element of the patriarchy he was meant to be against, but he didn't particularly feel like being the pioneer teen boy who wore it, seeing as it seemed no one else had got the message. He had opted for a dark blue, velvet blazer, and hoped that was near enough. He charmed the trim around the lapels to a light shade of blue which he could adjust if it didn't match Mara's dress exactly or if he decided he'd rather not.

He brushed his hair up and out. He was looking forward to getting home and getting it shaved right back. He could have got it trimmed or tried trimming it himself at school, but he really didn't trust the cutting charms for white people hair to come out the same on him. His dad had given him a book of specific hair care charms for afro hair, but being the kind of person to point a wand at your own head and try a brand new cutting charm was... well, it sounded rather Pecari. The good thing about his hair being a big longer was that it gave him extra height. He and Mara weren't too far apart height-wise, but if she was wearing heels, she would probably have the edge on him. Which again, was one of those things that they, as twenty-first-century humans were meant to be over, but not everyone had got the memo. His hair would probably balance out any heel wearing. Plus it looked neat. For all he couldn't wait to get rid of it, it was kinda cool.

He gave his appearance one more check, decided he didn't like the light blue trim and changed it back to black, and went to meet her.

"Hi. You look lovely," he said, feeling akward saying it, which meant the words got all dragged out by his stammer, which perpetuated the awkward and made it more awkward. He was obviously not really bothered about things like dresses and... whatever else (was she even wearing make up? Earrings! But did she wear those all the time?)-he was a man of science and such things were immaterial to him. Except it was Mara. And she had this weird effect of making him care about irrelevant details. On her, they were relevant, because they were on her. Which was circular reasoning and thus needed a little work. But all the silly pointless stuff like dressing up didn't seem it when it meant he got to be here with her. He held out the corsage.

13 Bertie Jackson Preliminary data suggests 'good different' 1497 0 5

Morgan Garrett

January 10, 2022 3:41 PM

Home's a complicated concept anyway. by Morgan Garrett

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God -

Morgan wasn't even entirely sure if the mantra which kept running through her head, blotting out all her efforts to think as Grace Wilkes the totally-not-a-Grace-Kelly-knockoff actress persona she'd pretended to be sometimes when she was little instead of as plain Morgan Garrett, was born from excitement or panic. Was excitnic a thing? Pancitement? Expanic?

Whatever was going on in her head, though, it definitely had something to do with how she looked. She was wearing an actual prom dress. There were layers of netted stuff. There were a few sequins. She had on high heels (and could only hope to not die in them, if she made a misstep during the prefect dance routine, but if she had to die, well, this was a good way to go she guessed). She was wearing lipstick. Okay, so she'd kind of, well, stolen the lipstick from her stepmother, but still - who cared? She was wearing the stuff. For the first time since she'd gotten too old for anyone to bother buying her an Easter dress, she thought she looked pretty, which was insane.

Even more insane was how, in theory, there was still somebody who was supposed to tell her that he agreed even if he was lying. She'd figured, when they'd voted to go all Regency on things, that Gabriel would just quietly not be her date anymore, because...why would he? But nope, there she'd still ended up, sort of, in front of a crowd, dancing like she knew what she was doing and like she remotely belonged in the company of some of the other girls up there. Which was...she was pretty sure a good chunk of those girls didn't register her existence, or if they ever had, they'd only done so to think something dismissive. And she really didn't think she'd looked or danced much worse than most of them!

For the first time, she had an inkling of an idea why Dad had apparently been terrified she was going to do something stupid after the party. This whole 'confidence' and 'thinking people might even admire her' thing was more intoxicating than she would have imagined beforehand. Not enough for her to actually do anything too stupid even on the very slight chance Gabriel was down for that, the awkwardness of watching the adults tiptoe around the circumstances of her birth while more or less begging her not to attempt to carry on tradition had been enough to briefly make her consider converting to Catholicism just so she could become a nun and never ever give anyone reason to think about that subject ever again, but just the same....

Flushed from dances, she went to get a drink and found herself next to an older girl - one of the many she was pretty sure didn't have a date. Since she only had one through sheer dumb luck, she sympathized. "Anything good over here?" she asked brightly, and then, because she liked thinking of other people thinking she was pretty and it followed that other girls would probably feel the same and she also liked the thoughts of making other people happy while she was on a high like this, she added, "Love your dress by the way, you look great!"

16 Morgan Garrett Home's a complicated concept anyway. 1470 0 5

Phil Carson

January 10, 2022 5:29 PM

Thanks, I appreciate that by Phil Carson

"Good," Phil grinned when Chris confirmed the ball was fine so far. "Same." Fine was hardly a strong word of approval, but it fit. Eleven year old boys and dance parties aimed more at the older students with dates didn't entirely mesh well. Still, it wasn't awful and the music was good, even if he didn't recognize all of the songs.

In response to the question about the food, Phil offered, "Yeah, it's a bunch of finger foods and a few main dishes. I had the pasta. It was good." Pasta was usually safe. It was hard to mess up pasta. Even his mom could make pasta, and she was more of a throw-a-frozen-meal-in-the-oven kind of cook. "And I had a fruit parfait for dessert and that was awesome. Highly recommend." He knew from Herbology that there were some actual food gardens in the Gardens, and he wondered if the fruit had come from that. They had seemed like they were very fresh and excellent specimens of strawberries and blueberries.

"Actually, I'll come back with you. I forgot to get a cup of the punch." He did want some of the punch, and he was thirsty, but honestly, he kind of wanted it just to have something to do with his hands.

As they started walking in the food table's direction, Phil asked curiously, "What was your favorite part of the year?"

1 Phil Carson Thanks, I appreciate that 1536 0 5

Billy Cobb

January 10, 2022 5:43 PM

You heard me [Ray] by Billy Cobb

OOC: Continued from the Gardens BIC:

Oh, right. Billy thought to himself as he looked down at Ray's instructions. He rolled down his pants, only to be reminded that his legs and feet were still wet... and actually starting to get a bit chilly. That was easy enough to fix. There had been a drying charm they'd learned which he thought would probably be useful once he was out exploring the world. So, he'd made sure to learn that one good. He rolled his pants back up, pulled out his wand and a moment later had dry feet. Then he rolled his pant legs back down into their proper place.

He found his socks, sat and sat on the ground to pull them onto his feet, pulling his pant legs back up in the process. A moment later he had his shoes sorted out as well, stood and pulled his pant legs back into place for what he hoped was the last time. Billy accepted the coat back from Ray, and debated insisting upon her keeping it at least until they were closer if she was cold, but figured if he took any longer she would probably punch him.

Finally she took his arm and they were off to the ball, to cause mischief without actually causing mischief. No frogs, Archie would have to do without company. The walk through the gardens was a pleasant one, probably more so without the frogs. He liked walking like this with Ray, it was nice. The walk ended though as they slipped into the hall to some applause. No... not for them, he double checked, something else had been going on in the hall.

Billy had learned a few things about Ray's ma since they'd met. It seemed primarily that she liked pretty things, and Ray didn't quite share that view. So he figured it was best just to nod at his date's comment about the ball. It was really full of pretty things and people here. Then he added in a quiet voice "My Ma would love to know that I didn't bring any frogs."

He smirked at her comment about dancing, "'Course I can dance..." He paused and listened to the music that was playing for a moment, "Though I'm not sure if I have to anything that sounded like this before." It seemed like most of the dancers were holding onto one another and swirling about the floor, or just kinda moving about weirdly. The walk over to the hall had been nice with their arms linked. He sorta wanted to try the dancing style that involved holding onto Ray, that might be real nice as well. Plus she'd asked about dancing with a partner, and the holding each other type looked a lot more partnery than just moving about weird near each other.

"Let's find out!" He exclaimed with a grin as he stepped in front of her and put his arm around her waist where the other dancing guys had their arms on their partners. Then Billy offered his other one, 'cause it looked like those were supposed to be held. Already the flood of new sensations were crashing over Billy, he really liked the closeness and contact with Ray. His mind idly thought that it was good that Ray's Ma like pretty things, 'cause she had sure made a pretty daughter.

2 Billy Cobb You heard me [Ray] 1519 0 5

Iris Cobb

January 10, 2022 6:10 PM

Imma... umm... a little worried now? by Iris Cobb

Iris had gotten careless and now she was in terrible trouble! The music had been so nice while she searched for Henry that she'd taken a few small dance steps instead of just walking. Then she twirled and the dress had twirled wonderfully! So she moved terribly recklessly after that across the floor, enjoying the motion and the music... and collided with Winston and his food! She had just come out of a spin and found herself pressed up tight against the boy, almost nose to nose!

Her reflexes kicked in and pulled her back away from him. That was when she saw the cup and plate both crushed against his chest. Iris' first reaction was horror at the state of his robes, but that only lasted a moment. The color drained from her face as she wondered what her... no, Amethyst's dress looked like. She couldn't bear to look down, if they looked half as bad as Winston's... She shuddered at the though.

Then Winston began apologizing and asking if she needed help. She probably did, and more than she could ever possibly afford. She looked nice? He looked nice as well, less so with the food but she wasn't one to talk at the moment. "I.. I don't know." She stammered, trying to get some words out. "How bad is it? I'm sorry as well." Uncertainty and fear were playing across her face, she didn't want to know the answer, but she needed to know. Wait! A thought struck her! A good thought! "A professor can fix this, right? Cleaning? Repairs? All of it, magic can make it all like new again, yes?" A desperate, hopeful look shone out, boring into her housemate. The look of a drowning person praying that ropes were real and one was near at hand.

2 Iris Cobb Imma... umm... a little worried now? 1526 0 5

Mab

January 10, 2022 6:32 PM

Thought so by Mab

"Yeah," Mab said in agreement that her family situation could now be classified as 'good'. She was even getting used to Reilly existing, and she hadn't caught her moms doing anything gross after lights out in a while, so that was a plus. Having her mom back was definitely good. And having Alexander as her brother was also definitely good. And Bel was pretty awesome, too.

When the kid explained his family situation, it didn't sound good. "That sucks," she said again. She didn't know what else she could or should say about it, but that seemed moderately inadequate. Though she thought she maybe understood why he'd been so quick to volunteer that he loved pumpkins, if there were acclimation problems.

"My mom's a muggle," she offered, "but Bel's a witch, and I've lived with her since just before first year. Is there anything you want to know about magic homes that might help? I mean, Bel's got a wall full of DVD box sets of crime drama and superhero shows, and an exercise room with an actual functional crossbow mounted on the wall; she's a fifty year old woman in a roller derby league, and she reads the Inquirer like it's real news, so she's not exactly normal even by witch standards, but . . ." Mab shrugged. "She's an auror." That counted for some degree of respectability in the magical world.

1 Mab Thought so 1473 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

January 10, 2022 8:25 PM

Why must things grow complicated? by Alexei Vorontsov

Before midterm, Alexei had truthfully never thought much about the girls in his year - or at least, had not thought of them as girls. He'd grown up in a house full of sisters, with his father often away on business and his one brother much older than he was, so the idea that there was much special about girls except that they had to wear skirts even while playing had not really entered his head. He knew in theory that someday, he'd doubtless marry one, but that was quite a long way off and not something he'd really applied to the girls around him at school any more than he applied it to his four sisters or his various girl-cousins.

Before midterm, in Tumbleweed, he had noticed that it was curiously nice, holding hands with Iris Cobb, but he didn't think he'd have thought much more about that, either, if not for his sister Katerina. Katya, home for Rozhdestvo and Novyi God at the same time he was, had heard him mention offhand that there was to be another ball at the end of the year, and she had drawn him aside after that with a very dour expression to tell him he should take great care not to draw the attention of American girls. American girls, she had explained, seemed to think not only that it was quite proper for themselves to marry at eighteen or so (which was normal enough at home, too; Tatya had joked about how Mama might hide behind her and put a wand to her head the next time someone proposed, since Tatya was almost twenty-one, now, and still showed no inclination to settle down), but also that, if they decided to marry him, they'd expect Alexei to do the same, even though that made no sense. How, after all, could he support a wife at eighteen? Men, she'd assured him, were even stupider at eighteen than Tatya had been, and Tatya had, in Katya's estimation, been very, very stupid. Better not to create any confusion, she'd said severely; if Papa decided he ought to marry an American girl, then Papa would make some arrangement when Alexei was old enough to be smart, and in the meantime, he should be careful.

How, exactly, he was supposed to do that, Alexei had not been quite sure. It would have been difficult even had he already not expected to spend the Ball with Iris and Amethyst, who were now his friends and natural people to spend time with at a dance, since they were girls and he was not. As it was, it was quite impossible. He had decided not to tell Katya this, though - Katya really did seem to think she was his and Tatya's mama sometimes as much as their sister, since of all the sisters, she was probably the most like their actual mama, Tatya was easily the one who most exhausted and exasperated both Katya and Mama, and Alexei....

Well, there were two ways it could be with Alexei. On one hand, Katya was the next-youngest, and there were several years between her and Alexei. After Tatya had gone to school, bossing Alexei around and acting as though he were one of her baby-dolls had been one of Katya's major occupations for a while. On the other, Alexei had also been Sorted to the same place as Tatya, and Tatya, as observed, was someone Mama and Katya found exasperating and who they felt needed to have a sharp eye kept on her. Perhaps it was because of both things. In any case, though, Alexei found it easier to just not tell Katya or Mama things that might make them fret instead of doing what Tatiana did, which was to argue with them or laugh at them, depending on how wild of a mood she was in at a given time. There were some advantages to being the baby of the family, and the opportunity to figure out how to handle his parents by observing the others was one of them.

With Katya and Mama and even Tatya (who might have teased him) all far away, though, he had managed to only occasionally think of the issue through the second half of the year. At the moment, though, at the Ball, he could not help noticing that quite a lot of his classmates looked like the waifs who turned out to be magical princesses in the old stories in all their finery, and he was additionally troubled by wondering if he would have noticed this if Katya hadn't said what she'd said.

Either way, though, he was now at the Ball, trying between other thoughts to figure out how much his robes really stood out. His collar was much higher than seemed to be the fashion, and perhaps more snug around the shoulders than some, but on the whole, he thought he managed not to stand out too much. Not as much as if there had been more embroidery, anyway.

"It is strange, to see so many colors here," he remarked to someone. "When often it is all in green. Do you see anyone who wears green today?"

16 Alexei Vorontsov Why must things grow complicated? 1531 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 11, 2022 12:19 AM

And skates? by Xavier Lundstrom

It sucked. Yup, it did. He wasn't sure exactly what he would have said to himself either, but somehow his family trauma getting the same reaction as their favourite people having ball dates didn't quite cut it. If he was honest, nothing anyone had come up with to say or do had been sufficient. He knew they were all trying and it was complicated, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could deal with it.

He poked a cheese cube around his plate, and Mags filled the silence. He gave a half shrug at whether he wanted to know anything about magical homes. He wasn't sure he had specific questions but he was a good little acclimator so sure, she could lay more knowledge of how the wizarding world was fantastic on him. Maybe someone would give him brownie points for regurgitating it later.

What she said turned out to be way more interesting than he'd thought it would be.

"That's not what I expected," he admitted, realising he was staring at her as she finished. He turned his attention back to his cheese cube, still poking it to buy himself some thinking time. He didn't think wizards did much meeting-in-the-middle with non-magical people. The ones he'd met so far definitely didn't. But such a thing was out there. That was good to know, though it also heaped extra on the frustration pile to know his family had just got stuck with some of the butthole type sticking their noses in when it all could have been avoided. "Thanks," he concluded, deciding her information has been helpful. From the wizards he had met, it hadn't really felt like compromise was possible. It had felt like a power struggle, where they wanted to force him to badmouth where he'd come from, whilst holding access to his parents over him as a threat. It didn't have to be like that. He tried to take comfort in that, even though he didn't know how to get away from the current set of wizards and make contact with some more reasonable one.

"She skates?" he added, picking up on the other most interesting bit of what Mags had said. It had almost got lost in the deluge of information, especially as Mags hadn't used that exact phrase. But skating ran so deep that the reference glittered like gold in a muddy stream. "Me too. Blades not quads though. Roller blades, not like- never mind," he cut himself off, remembering that Mags had said she had a non-magical parent, and she also seemed to speak English as her first language.

13 Xavier Lundstrom And skates? 1529 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

January 11, 2022 3:09 PM

We can but try by Jeremy Mordue

OOC: CW - desire to inflict violence (first paragraph) BIC:

Not a proper man, eh? He'd show her. Not now, not with other people watching, but if she ever said something like that to him in private... Well. Then he'd just have to show her how strong he was, wouldn't he? She shouldn't doubt that, and she shouldn't toy with it. Hadn't she seen him on the pitch?

But then she was doing that thing. He wasn't sure what it was but something about her body language teased him in a different way. She suggested she hated him, then she suggested she wanted him.

Then, just as suddenly, she snapped into playing the perfect little lady on his arm.

They had to pack away their other feelings and perform. Which of them were real? For him, it was both. He both hated her and wanted her. And only being allowed to express that in small doses was making it more concentrated.

Oh well. They said most people weren't in love when they got married.

" Let's," he agreed, as she took his arm. He steered her into the hall, where they were forced to endure the ineptitude of the prefect dance. He found himself watching Hilda. She was stompy and graceless on the dancefloor, but she was decent in the air with a bat. He was glad he wouldn't have to return and play without her.

When the dance finished, he turned to Leonor.

"Shall we show them how it's actually supposed to be done?" he asked.

13 Jeremy Mordue We can but try 1443 0 5

Mab

January 12, 2022 7:08 AM

Skates, yes. Much better than balls. by Mab

Mab allowed just the smallest amount of smile to peek through as the kid expressed his due amazement at all that was Bel. "Bel Pierce is not what anyone expects," she granted, a little bit smugly. That was a woman Mab was proud to call . . . well, she called her Bel, but she was proud to consider the woman one of her moms. Mab loved her mom-Mom dearly, she really did, but it was Bel she wanted to be when she grew up.

Except with a darker aesthetic. Bel either went with a fiery hot color scheme or an in-your-face purple one. Mab preferred a more simple black. Maybe some dark grays.

Mab nodded in confirmation when the kid asked about the skating. "Yeah. First thing she bought both me and Alexander when she started fostering was a pair of rollerblades. She likes to terrorize the neighborhood on them." Another glimmer of a smile snuck through unbidden. "'Good family bonding' she says, 'getting cursed at together by pedestrians.'" Plowing through a crowd of tourists in hot pursuit of Bel was one of the first times Mab remembered being happy after she'd lost Mom.

She popped another cracker into her mouth and looked around at the ball she had absolutely no interest in being a part of. "Wanna blow this joint for the MARS sports room? No pedestrians there, sadly, but I can enjoy an open park, too. You'd be with a prefect so you won't get in trouble." Mab might get in trouble for leaving the event and leading a younger student astray, but she wasn't sure she cared.

1 Mab Skates, yes. Much better than balls. 1473 0 5

Zara Jackson

January 12, 2022 2:39 PM

Sounds fun by Zara Jackson

"You're allowed," Zara assured him, when Felipe apologised for staring. She gave him a slow motion twirl so he could enjoy the full picture. She was pretty sure it didn't count as creeping when you were engaged. She leant in, whispering something that was definitely not school appropriate in his ear. And perhaps his comments had been a little more innocent. Perhaps he was admiring how she looked all dressed up, and that was nice too. They certainly wouldn't be able to act on what she had said whilst they were on school property. As of tomorrow though, they would be grown ups. Free to go off on grown up adventures.

"Okay, let's get refreshed, and get you some water. Then do pictures before I ruin my lisptick," she agreed, leaving it up to him to interpret whether that meant with eating and drinking, or with other activities.

She took him to get some water, and once that was done, made her way over to the photographer, making sure they got plenty of cute shots together. She planted a firm kiss on his cheek for the last one, leaving a neat little lipstick mark, and made sure he tilted that side towards the camera whilst she put her arms around him and smirked.

"Alright," she smiled, pulling him away once that was done. "Dancing now? Or more of that?" she asked, fingers tracing the lipstick mark on his cheek.

13 Zara Jackson Sounds fun 1444 0 5

Osvaldo Alamilla

January 12, 2022 5:54 PM

Maybe I'm not doing my job properly then. by Osvaldo Alamilla

Osvaldo reflexively frowned when the De Matteo girl approached him. He quickly hid it as he had promised Manola to not be an 'unpleasant stodgy old curr' or something like that the entire evening. However it quickly returned for another reason. He was sure he'd never told this girl about his wife. He tried to imagine a conversation between them that would for some reason make him inform the child of the beauty of his wife. He couldn't. What a bizarre thing to say.

Manola glanced up at her husband with an expression of mild, amused confusion. After taking stock of his own bewildered countenance, couldn't help but smiling with a slight chuckle to herself at this young woman. She had heard plenty about the fair, although not much about Osvaldo supporting a booth. All thought of commentary on the subject dropped from her mind as the young woman introduced herself.

Osvaldo, thankful that at least for the moment the girl wasn't talking to him any more, was unexpectedly thrown back into confusion as his wife practically prostrated herself before this child. It was admittedly a well executed curtsey, but still… what in blazes was the woman doing? "Yes, and let me say that it is truly an honor to make your acquaintance Doña De Matteo." Manola responded in the natural Spanish of one who speaks it as a primary language. A moment passed and he received a sharp look from the woman beside him. Oh, yes, yes… social pleasantries. He coughed, and paused another moment. It was proper to introduce the younger person first, but she’d already done that herself, well easier for him then. ”Miss De Matteo, this is my wife, Manola Alamilla.” Manola straightened herself up and another very brief moment later discretely elbowed him in the ribs. ”And hiding over there is Edu, he.. Our son.” The seven year old boy emerged halfway from behind his mother for the introduction.

Edu was a bit in awe of everything so far. There were far more people here than he was used to, and everything was so sparkling, colorful and fancy. The lady that came over to talk to Mama and Padre was no exception. Still sticking close to his mother, he bowed politely as Mama had shown him. ”A pleasure.” he managed to get out.

Manola, pleased with her son’s response, shot another sharp look at her husband before returning a pleasant smile to Leonor. ”You will have to forgive my husband, he does not give much mind to the intricacies of society. Which can lead to moments of unintentional disrespect.” The last sentence was pronounced just a tad bit sharper and aimed in Osvaldo’s direction. He let out a mild harumph, and she could tell he was doing everything within his power to not roll his eyes. She pulled her attention back to Leonor, ”I must say that you look simply magnificent tonight. I do hope your partner tonight fully appreciates his good fortune.”

Osvaldo's eyes wandered about the room while his wife talked. He wondered what his chances were of finding the Headmaster and perhaps finding a reason to consult with him for a while. He was one of the most sensible men in this school.

2 Osvaldo Alamilla Maybe I'm not doing my job properly then. 1503 0 5

Eben Sosna

January 12, 2022 6:41 PM

Reviewing the year that's been. by Eben Sosna

It had not yet been exactly a year since Eben Sosna had found out that he definitely wasn't crazy, but it was close enough that he didn't mind using Midsummer's Day as a platform from which to review the whole year which had passed since that monumental day. The catch was that he wasn't too sure how he felt about doing so at a ball.

On one hand, he guessed, it was good that the magic people kept surprising him, because otherwise, he'd eventually get bored, just like he so often had been back home. On the other, though...he was pretty sure that only the Illuminati and maybe the kind of elves you called 'fair' so they didn't kill you were supposed to have fancy parties like this with choreographed dance routines and everything. Was that just slander on wizards, then, or had he accidentally joined the bad guys? Most of the people around him were...kinda nice actually, he hadn't had anyone laugh at either half of his name or call him a loser all year, so it was hard to figure out how they'd qualify as bad guys, but....

Defense Against the Dark Arts, he thought, was the class to keep an eye on until he could make some sense of that. It was supposed to be about fighting bad guys, but mostly it was "defend yourself from the guy who knows the exact same things you do." Which implied that either they were learning the Dark Arts, or that he was interpreting the words wrong, or that it was...something else. He kept hearing about how magic got more interesting after the first couple of years, so that was something to reserve judgment on for now, too, he guessed.

It's always 'someday,' he thought gloomily as he hovered near a wall, feeling very out of place at such a fancy event. Someday I'll prove the ghost was real, someday I'll figure out what's going on here...Wish I could just go ahead and do something.

The only option for that he could see, though, was going ahead and getting something to eat, so he went to the refreshments to do that. He wasn't crazy about finger foods - they were, in his experience, kind of blah on the best of occasions, and if all fancy events were like his cousin Elizabeth's wedding reception a couple years ago, then fancy ones were outright bad. He hadn't known it was actually possible to make a cupcake that had the texture and flavor of sawdust - but most of the options seemed to be them. He looked cautiously at something he thought was a dip for chips. "Any, uh, any idea what's in that?" he asked someone, pointing to it.

16 Eben Sosna Reviewing the year that's been. 1538 0 5

Mara Morales

January 12, 2022 7:54 PM

Want to gather some more? by Mara Morales

Velvet. Bold choice, Mara thought. The climate here was controlled, more or less, most of the time, but it was summer, not the traditional season for velvet. Interesting. She never would have pegged Bertie as someone to deliberately subvert fashion norms to make a statement - or, honestly, to care about fashion and stuff like that at all. He had clearly done something with his hair on purpose, though, so she assumed the jacket was deliberate too. Very interesting.

"Oh - uh, thank you," said Mara when Bertie then observed social convention to the letter, both calling her 'lovely' and offering a corsage. An actual corsage, like at a prom. She could tell she blushed a little as she accepted it. "About the - flowers and what you said." Which was even more awkward as a sentence than his delivery of the compliment in question had been...She was pretty sure this was how going to dances together went in general, though, and could just hope that what she'd seen in the few girl-type movies she'd seen and things got better once the beginning bits were over and the music started up.

"You don't look half-bad yourself," she added with a smile and offered him her arm. "So - think we should go in, knock 'em all dead?"

16 Mara Morales Want to gather some more? 1472 0 5

Graham Osbrook

January 12, 2022 8:29 PM

Here goes nothing (Lavender) by Graham Osbrook

Graham didn't think of himself as particularly a slob, but nor did he usually spend all that much time with his mind on his appearance. Certainly he did not spend more than a few seconds at a time in front of any mirrors, critically examining his hair to make sure it was where he'd tried to brush it or examining the cuffs of his robes closely for any loose threads. It therefore felt weird to do so now, but he tried to ignore that, along with any thought about how it was not just weird but also kind of effeminate. His date's outfit was probably going to be more expensive than both their educations put together, and the whole situation was kind of...weird, with him trying to pretend he hadn't more or less been given orders to ask her in the first place, but those weren't reasons not to have some pride. If anything, they were reasons to have a little more.

Not to mention respect. He was pretty sure Lavender would probably be able to price his dress robes by the yard on sight, but just because he couldn't afford her level of tailoring didn't mean he ought to show up looking like he'd just gotten out of bed or something. There was such a thing as good manners (he could all but hear his grandmother observing this in his head) no matter who or what you were.

He was more than a little nervous, to the tune of wondering if he had been the biggest fool in the world to go along with Val and her machinations, as he finally deemed himself as presentable as he was going to get and therefore went to meet Lavender, but he was pretty sure it didn't show much. Or at least, he hoped that was the case. When he found her, he smiled, as rehearsed, and said, "Hi. You look really nice." He'd had agonies over what compliment to use, which was the least likely to get him in some kind of trouble with someone. Claire would probably mock any choice he could have made later, if she was somehow eavesdropping, but his sister was the one exception to the 'someone' rule. At the moment, it felt like basically everyone else could be a much bigger problem than Claire.

The presentation of the corsage was at least relatively easy, and after that, he hoped the rough parts were over and there'd be enough to talk about and look at at the Ball that it wouldn't be awkward or anything. "So - ready to go?" he asked her.

16 Graham Osbrook Here goes nothing (Lavender) 1498 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

January 13, 2022 12:04 AM

Yes! by Xavier Lundstrom

A rollerblading witch who terrorised the neighbourhood? It was a heck of an image, and Xavier found a smile was tugging at the corners of his mouth. It snagged slightly at the phrase 'family bonding time' which conjured up an image of him and Joel. But at the idea of Bel scattering pedestrians, he couldn't help but laugh. A real, genuine, no-choice-but-to-let-it-out laugh. It felt good.

"Wait, cursed... like cussed at, or...?" he made a vague, jabby wand motion with his hand.

Did he want to skating? Right now. The answer that leapt to his mind was 'yes, but...' He didn't want to leave if it meant missing out. And the way his eyes searched the room until they landed on Oz let him know what he was afraid of missing out on. If Oz did come looking for him, if he wanted to hang out, or something... Well then, he would just have to keep looking. Oz had made his choice, and Xav could make one too, and Oz couldn't just expect him to be sitting around waiting if he snapped out of being in girl land.

Mags' assertion that he wouldn't get in trouble reminded him that he should care about that. It probably wasn't very wizardly to sneak out of a ball to go skating. Except, Bel Pierce would apparently disagree. He imagined her storming in on skates, literal curses flying if anyone tried to make that argument. It was pure fantasy, of course, but it was a fun picture, and it made him feel a little braver. Professor Wright had also been decent about not writing him up in ways that would get him into worse trouble with MACUSA. He trusted him that far, anyway. And the offer of skating sounded good. Far better than any solution any adult had suggested to his problems.

"Sure," he nodded. "Why the heck not?" His expression was half smile, half grim determination as he said it.

"You do skate parks?" he asked, as they stood to leave. She had mentioned mowing down pedestrians or open parks, but there was a much better option in his mind. "Ramps, rails, that kinda thing?"

13 Xavier Lundstrom Yes! 1529 0 5

Tarquin Fox-Reynolds

January 13, 2022 4:07 AM

Ending on a...present note by Tarquin Fox-Reynolds

If he had been asked to pick a least favourite Midterm event, Tarquin would probably have chosen either the ball or the concert, depending on which had passed least recently. After all, what was there to like about hormone-infused or badly acted melodramas? However, it seemed it was the opposite of rose-tinting the past – it was easy to remember the cliché of what he was supposed to think of it, and to forget the actual details. Which were that the students were actually, on the whole, rather sweet. He rarely saw them outside of the library, and an occasional cover period, and it was interesting to see another side of them. And he probably wouldn’t have survived as long as he had in his job, or been a parent, if he wasn’t really rather fond of children. He didn’t love huge crowds, but if he wasn’t the focus of attention (which he wasn’t supposed to be at these things) then it was rather more bearable.

He had brought Danny, even if it wasn’t the social event of the century. Before they had had Mary and Tabitha on staff, he had thought it vaguely helpful to offer some nominal bit of visibility, however invisibly he tried to lurk on the sidelines, and a quiet little reminder that yes, there were other options than everyone being married to a member of the opposite sex. It wasn’t quite so necessary any more but… well, much like the students, however irritating his husband could be, he was actually rather fond of him.

Danny was off getting them some nibbles (and possibly surveying Tarquin’s colleagues on whether he had been seen outside of his office prior to this evening – hopefully he would forget to include the caveat of ‘except for official staff duties’ and then his colleagues could give a truthful ‘yes’). Whilst he waited, he made his way over to one of said colleagues.

“Been quite a year, hasn’t it?” he offered. He was aware enough of the general events of the school that he knew that was true. There was also the fact that it was almost always true, and commiserating over exhaustion before being glad about the upcoming summer was fairly safe territory.

13 Tarquin Fox-Reynolds Ending on a...present note 1464 0 5

Ema Skies

January 13, 2022 4:37 AM

I came to eat canapes and scowl at Stanleys (tag Killian) by Ema Skies

Ema had happily taken Bonabelle dress shopping over the break, and enquired of Killian whether she herself would be needing one, or whether it was going to be too weird. His enthusiastic assurance that she should come had made her smile. She hadn’t splurged on a new dress for herself, as she already had plenty, and having lived in Laos, many of them also ticked the modesty box that made them school appropriate. She had gone with a silk halter neck dress in a patchwork mix of patterns that she’d picked up in a thrift store. The high neckline meant that no cleavage was on display, even if the shape of her body was fairly obvious from the fit. She was not going to wear a sack, which meant it had to be one of those, and she had compensated for the amount of bare shoulder (scandalous, scandalous shoulder!) with a gold wrap. She’d lazily curled the ends of her hair, and thrown on some sparkly make up and called it all good.

Up until the moment she had stepped into the Cascade Hall, the ball had been a silly bit of fun. She wasn’t a student, she was a tag along date, getting to put faces to the names she definitely hadn’t heard from Killian (because confidentiality) but might have heard a few of from Bonabelle (who was bounded by no such rules). She could also glare furiously at Bonabelle’s non-Valentine date (she wasn’t sure how she felt about all that) because she wasn’t bound by having to be neutral and treat him fairly and whatever else was going to tie Killian’s hands.

She hadn’t been expecting to be hit by such a strong wave of nostalgia as she entered the room. It hadn’t even been her school. She had never been to a dance that looked like this, with water flowing down the walls. Except she had, she had been to dances that looked exactly like this, because they all looked the same. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. There were happy couples, absorbed in each other. Girls who’d made themselves look and feel a million dollars, hopefully some of them for themselves. There were couples who were clearly just starting out, nervously feeling each other out for reactions. And then there were the ones on the sides, who didn’t feel like they belonged.

Much like she’d been.

She wondered whether part of her eagerness to come had been to try and paste over some of those memories, to finally tick the box on having a date to a school dance. That was possibly a little pathetic if so, even if it had been an unconscious desire. She was an adult. Looking at all the students, how they edged uncertainly around each other for the most part, how they looked like they were just trying these roles out tonight, for the first time, she tried to feel like a grown up. The distance between her and them, the memory of being in a place like this… It felt lifetimes ago. She was a very different person, and she could easily see the ways in which she wasn’t them, and wasn’t that fragile any more. She gripped Killian’s arm a little tighter nonetheless.

She occupied herself with watching Bonabelle, whilst trying not to look like she was watching her if she looked over.

“I don’t like him,” she assured Killian, after appraising the floppy haired youth who she was guessing was Stanley. In all truth, he looked like a perfectly nice kid, and probably was. “Right?” she checked her response.

OOC: Ema's dress

13 Ema Skies I came to eat canapes and scowl at Stanleys (tag Killian) 0 Ema Skies 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

January 13, 2022 2:51 PM

Oh,um, that's very kind of you by Verdillia Scurlock

Verdillia turned at the voice, and finding a much older student, actually glanced around herself to confirm he was speaking to her. He seemed to be. He thought she was pretty and wanted to dance. Those, theoretically, were good things, but he was so much bigger than her. Firstly, he was in a different grade, to the point that they weren't even in classes together, and with that came a substantial height difference. He was also a very large person, in both size and personality. The way he had complimented her had been very direct. She had been told to expect Americans to be more direct, so she thought she might be supposed to not hold it against him. She wasn't sure whether it meant she ought to say yes or no to dancing with him though. She definitely wanted to dance, but it was possible that someone she liked better would come along... It was also possible that they wouldn't. It was a long evening, and it would be a shame if she went and got herself a reputation for declining dances, which meant that no one else offered.

"Thank you," she said, in response to the compliment. Her voice was a little quiet. She still wasn't fully convinced he wasn't dreadfully rough, and even if he wasn't, he was definitely a good two years older than her and awfully intimidating. "Uh... yes? That sounds nice?" she said. "Uh, what's your name?" It wasn't a make or break piece of information, but she thought it was the sort of thing one ought to know before dancing with someone.

13 Verdillia Scurlock Oh,um, that's very kind of you 1541 0 5

Mab

January 13, 2022 6:55 PM

That almost sounds like enthusiasm. by Mab

"Cussed at," Mab said, but she did not sound certain about it. "At least for now. I wouldn't put it past Bel to enjoy being cursed at, too." She made the same faux jabbing wand motion as she said 'cursed' that the kid had.

"That's the spirit," she said with dry amusement as he responded to her offer with why the heck not? Personally, she could not come up with any reasons. She wrapped her remaining crackers in a napkin and stuck them in her skirt pocket (because of course her skirt had pockets - Bel had made sure of that), and shoved the last two bites of her sandwich into her mouth all at once, and began chewing.

She stood and willed the fairies to bring their empty plates to the nearest trash bin with just a slight pushing hand motion, and the plates magicked their way over there without need to draw a wand. Most people seemed to think that was impressive here rather than a failure to actually use her wand or cast a standard charm with any degree of precision, so hopefully Xavier would think the same.

Once she finished chewing the too-large mouthful she'd taken, she answered his question. "I've been to the one near our new apartment a few times," she agreed. "I don't have a lot of cool tricks, but I'm game to work on them. What's your best one?"

1 Mab That almost sounds like enthusiasm. 1473 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

January 14, 2022 11:11 AM

In a way, I suppose that's fortunate? by Alexei Vorontsov

Studying the ways of people who were not exactly his people while contemplating why life was what it was had been interesting, and still was, to some degree, but it wasn't enough to keep Alexei occupied all evening. At some point, both girls and how dances and dresses looked different here than they did at home had waned compared to a subject rarely far from the mind of most twelve (almost thirteen!) year-old boys: food.

He felt almost disloyal to everyone he cared about deeply in even thinking so, but if he was to be honest, he had to admit that he'd come to enjoy the sorts of food which Sonora most often served. He usually partook of any foods he recognized from home on the menu, as he had a suspicion that they were included every now and then because he was Here and was from There, and he wanted various things from home whenever he was feeling unwell or sad for some reason, but other food had its high points. He was not disappointed, then, to find the buffet mostly full of things he wouldn't see for the next couple of months, and started selecting from the more intriguing looking or known-to-be-tasty ones.

He was contemplating the meatballs, trying to decide if he even wanted them at all, much less wanted to risk eating them in dress robes at a semi-formal event, when he heard someone speak immediately behind him, asking to be excused, or else for his attention. He turned and bowed, careful not to upturn his plate of goodies, when he saw it was a lady. "Good evening. You want the food?" he asked, stepping aside. "I am sorry - I spent too long thinking," he excused himself.

16 Alexei Vorontsov In a way, I suppose that's fortunate? 1531 0 5

Morgan Garrett

January 14, 2022 1:09 PM

Princess for a song (Gabriel) by Morgan Garrett

Morgan wasn't the biggest fan of her own appearance, and never had been. She was too short, always too big in places she'd rather be small and too flat in ones that would make clothes look better on her, her arms always felt too long for her torso, her nose was too big for her round face, she was convinced her left eye and left ear were just enough smaller than their right-side counterparts to make her head and face completely lopsided...and so on it went. Even her lips annoyed her - they were almost a nice bow shape, except for one, like, centimeter of the top lip, just off-center, which was clearly part of her lip yet not pigmented the same way as the rest of it. Adolescence hadn't helped any, but she'd accepted it as a given that she'd outgrown her pretty phase sometime around first grade for years before her pituitary gland had even contemplated making her life more difficult.

One thing about her appearance, however, had always been registered as Good, and that was her coloring. She could pull off just about any color or color combination she wanted to, she thought; she actually felt kind of bad for a lot of blondes, who were so easily washed out or overwhelmed by fun colors. Her mom insisted she, as a redhead, looked absurd in most colors, but at least, Morgan thought, Amanda could make a statement if she wanted to. Someone super-super pale all around...at least, she thought, Sapphire had gorgeous startlingly deep-colored eyes to balance out her hair and skin. Translucent blue eyes with the rest of the color scheme would have meant an eternity in shimmery pastels, always looking beautiful, but also frail and serious.

Morgan, however, was pretty sure she was incapable of looking either of those things, and she could wear whatever colors she wanted, so she did. She hadn't really questioned the wisdom of this until it had come time to dress up for her first and probably last chance to feel like a princess for the length of a song.

Only two colors had really occurred to her. Growing up, her favorite princesses had always been Belle and Aurora, because those had always been her aunt Annabeth's favorites - Belle because she makes terrible decisions sometimes, but at least she tries, and Aurora because just look at that - why did the New Look ever go out of fashion? Everything after that was basically hideous. I'd kill for some vintage Dior... Morgan still couldn't aspire to Dior, vintage or otherwise, but if she held up Belle and Aurora as her prom dress style icons (somehow, she just couldn't get her head around trying to aspire to the elegance of an outright imitation of Princess Grace or Jackie or la Audrey at this point in her life), then her color options were yellow and magenta. Aurora also could go blue, but Morgan figured half the girls at the ball were going to wear some shade of blue, and since she thought she'd look stupid if she tried to look sophisticated, she was going to play to her strengths, which were mostly embracing the idea that she was just a little bit sillier than she really was and standing out before anyone had a chance to point it out if she didn't fit in. So, it had come down to magenta or yellow, and also finding something in one of them that she was willing to wear which one of her three parents was willing to buy.

Battles had been fought, and the war had concluded with compromises being made by both sides in the peace treaty made over the yellow dress she wore to meet Gabriel. It was yellow chiffon, sleeveless but with very wide shoulder straps and a v-neck high enough to reveal nothing whatsoever. The waist was fitted, with a broad, pointed band of fabric around it which was decorated with sunflowers centered on clusters of dark blue sequins. The skirt billowed out from beneath that, not least due to the compromises - the parentals had decided it was for the best that the dress be hemmed from floor-length to midi-skirt-length, and in exchange for allowing this alteration, Morgan had demanded a petticoat which made it wider, and not coincidentally therefore worked with the fitted waist to make her look slimmer. She'd had doubts about whether she could actually pull it off ever since she'd come back to school with it, but seeing herself in the mirror while she'd gotten ready with Mara and Josie, she'd been forced to think it: she thought she looked pretty darn good.

Part of that, of course, was accessorization. In that department, Morgan had admittedly outright gone behind some backs. The parentals had provided her with plain beige satin heels with a skinny beige band that fastened around the ankle; Morgan had seen fit to turn them blue and magic on some sequins. They matched her silvery-metal-and-fake-sapphire earrings, a pair of big studs with silver flower petals arranged around the fake sapphire centers. She'd found a charm which curled her hair into big ringlets in the back, and then she'd teased some volume into the top and very carefully pulled it back from her face and fastened it with a barette with a yellow fabric sunflower on it. After all that, she'd actually kept her promise to go easy on the make-up, just a little brown eyeshadow and mascara plus a coat of Pink in the Afternoon lipstick - not actually the color Audrey had worn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but urban legend said it was, so it had felt like something close enough to a nod to Audrey, when her dress was Belle-colored but kind of fake-New-Look shaped like Aurora and Princess Grace's and she'd worn one of the Jackie necklaces she'd inherited from Annabeth, the gold-tone and lapis chain, temporarily charmed down to twenty inches so it didn't go weird with the dress. She'd considered the four-strand lapis, but had finally decided it was a bit too big on top of everything else. There was a fine line, after all, between not trying to look like someone she definitely wasn't and just...going so far over the top that Gabriel went from 'probably regrets this' to 'definitely regrets this on sight.'

"Hi hi hi," she said when they met up. "So, how do I look? Need to change anything up real quick?"

OOC: Whee, here we go... here is a picture of the necklace Morgan is wearing. The real thing is supposed to be 24 inches, so her alteration of it to 20 inches would have it just about hit the neckline of the dress, which can be pictured here, except for the alterations noted in-post.

16 Morgan Garrett Princess for a song (Gabriel) 1470 0 5

Constance Melcher

January 15, 2022 1:27 PM

Velvet and silk by Constance Melcher

Mother did not really let Constance wear makeup yet. Constance did not quite think this was fair, especially now that she was a freshly-minted, honest-to-God teenager. Through a well-crafted and thorough presentation of the facts, including visual aids and a citation page, she had managed to convince her mother to let her purchase some items for the ball. Connie had not done more than one or two test runs thus far, but she had read enough in books to have something of an idea for how to apply what she needed.

She utilized minimal resources, just adding a shiny light lip gloss, some blush, mascara, and a touch of glitter as eyeshadow and highlighter. Her red hair hung beside her face like the frame around the artwork, and she sat her hair ribbon on the dresser next to her bed. Wearing her hair down was the compromise she had struck with Mother. Connie wanted to argue that putting her hair up made her smarter, but since that was merely a hypothesis and not a proven truth, she could not use it as a credible argument. Anecdote was not scientific, even if she had explored the correlation her whole life.

Still, she was all-in-all quite pleased with the way she looked tonight, even at the risk of impacting her mental abilities. Her evening with Theo was sure to be interesting. Theo was an interesting person, unlike anyone else she had ever known. And he was very different from her, she thought, but she had always felt that she was also quite different from most people too, so they were alike in their differentness.

When she met him that evening, he presented a corsage made of fabric flowers, and she was almost speechless. “Did you make this?” she marveled. Constance was from wealth, so she was far more adjusted to extravagance and expensiveness than hand-crafted sentimentality. This was new to her. She felt her cheeks flush. “It’s wonderful.”

“I am very excited too,” she beamed. Connie offered him her arm, partially out of etiquette and partially because she wanted to feel his jacket. “Shall we?”

12 Constance Melcher Velvet and silk 1523 0 5

Stanley O'Malley

January 15, 2022 1:38 PM

Ultra super ball! [w/ Wally] by Stanley O'Malley

There were two equally likely possibilities about Stanley which Wally had learned after seeing what his brother picked out after ball clothes shopping with their mom. Stanley had either 1) not cared or paid that much attention to color-matching with his date, or 2) inherited some of Grandpa Jamison’s slight color-blindness.

In truth, it was the second. Stanley had actually tried quite hard to match the blue color he knew his date was going to be wearing. Bonabelle was wearing periwinkle, which was sort of on the cusp of being purple but still technically remained a light blue, but Stanley’s dress shirt (the part he intended to match with) was slightly darker and more true blue. Fortunately, the corsage he got her had a variety of blue hues, so one of them was bound to be correct. The boutonniere on his white tuxedo jacket also matched it, and he completed the look with a black tie and black slacks.

Wally, on the other hand, had stayed a little more simple: black suit, white shirt, and a pink tie. His tie, like his boutonniere and the corsage for Valentine, were exact matches to her dress.

The boys met up a little closer to their dorms and then headed to the hall to meet the girls together. Bonabelle and Valentine were very close and lovey when they saw them, which only further cemented how objectively weird the circumstance of their date truly was. And while Wally remained perpetually unsure, Stanley felt confident. All that mattered was that Wally was going to get to spend time with Val. Stanley had already stolen potential time from them, and he had led them down the path to this weird timeline where the girls were dating each other, so he wanted to do everything in his power to make up for it now and help Wally win her. And if that meant he had to spend time with Bonabelle to do it, then so be it. (Honestly, he was still making up his mind on her. He was definitely scared of her, but she also made him have Thoughts that Mom said he was too young to have.)

“We just like to make a dramatic entrance!” Stanley grinned, having caught the tail end of the girls’ conversation. “Don’t worry, your knights in shining suit jackets are here now. Are you lovely ladies ready for a delightful evening?” Stanley grabbed Bonabelle’s free hand, and from the way his gaze flicked back and forth between Valentine’s hand and eye contact with Wally, he was clearly implying that Wally should do the same. The Crotalus felt briefly mortified but did, in his own way, something a bit similar in that he offered Val his arm, offered, not grabbed being the operative difference.

12 Stanley O'Malley Ultra super ball! [w/ Wally] 1491 0 5

Martin Crosby V

January 15, 2022 1:53 PM

Let me try that method. by Martin Crosby V

It was very rare that anyone other than Martin himself (or possibly his parents, in his younger days where he more craved external validation) ever thought him especially exceptional. Martin himself, of course, thought he was far above most of his peers, but he had never been given much indication that anyone else really noticed his potential. That was on them, of course, but still. Even Martin would not have called himself “perfect”, though. And maybe Jezebel was teasing, but she had still said it, and she actually sounded like maybe she meant it.

He thought about that while he watched her dance.

And now he was dancing with her, touching her hands or her waist or her arm as they moved, and it all felt so… different. Martin had, under obligatory circumstances, danced with many girls before. His family (often begrudgingly) attended many events within pureblood society that required him to mingle with other eligible young people. But their skin felt like plastic when he held them, unreal to him and so very foreign. Jezebel was warm. She was soft. She was the first person to ever feel real.

“I’m happy you said yes,” he smiled back at her, struggling to achieve his typical composure. “Jezebel, I-...” His brain ran too quickly, and his mouth could not keep up. He wanted to apologize. He wasn’t sure for what - maybe being too presumptuous? Maybe for… for being him? For the rest of what he was going to say? Maybe this wasn't the right place or the right time, but it was the place and the time. He was almost out of time here, and for the first time, the thought bothered him.

“May I kiss you?”

12 Martin Crosby V Let me try that method. 1439 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

January 15, 2022 8:07 PM

Great. by Lorena Abernathy

Oz returned the compliment back to his mom, which was kinda cute. Good boys loved their moms. She knew that if a boy was bad to his mom, he wouldn’t be good to you either.

He handed her the corsage instead of putting it on her, which made her pause briefly, but she supposed he was new to this whole school dance thing too, and boys did a lot less mental preparation than girls did, so she gave him a pass and put it on herself. It was kind of awkward, but this whole night was bound to be, and in the grand scheme of things, this was probably going to be one of the easier moments. He wasn’t, like, holding her yet.

“Yeah, the prefects dance first,” Lorena confirmed as they entered the Hall. “It’s like a ceremonial opening, I guess. Like the bride and groom’s first dance at a wedding reception.” It was the most apt (and only) comparison that she could think of, but she kind of regretted it after it came out of her mouth. Was that weird, to mention a wedding thing on a first date? Was this a first date? It was the first time Lorena had gone out with Oz, but was it a date? She was his date, but whether or not that made it a date, she didn’t know. She decided not to think about it for the moment.

“We can dance when they’re done, though,” she added. “If you want to. Or maybe we get something to eat?”

12 Lorena Abernathy Great. 1510 0 5

Dathan Fischer

January 16, 2022 2:34 PM

Good pun! by Dathan Fischer

He hadn't done anything bad, so why did, for the length of the fancy prefect dance he had anxiously practiced until he thought he might be shuffling his feet in his sleep, it feel like he'd totally done something bad? Ellie had known he wasn't going to look as cool as she did, he'd kind of admitted that back on patrol duty at the beginning of the semester, so she probably wasn't mad about that....

"Yeah, thanks to you...too," he added, trailing off at the end as Ellie abruptly walked off after the group dance.

Dathan stood a bit cluelessly for a moment, but then saw movement and turned and found himself looking at Sadie. And noticing that she was really, really pretty.

In theory, he'd known that. When he'd been trying to make checklists of reasons to ask Ellie versus asking Sadie, he'd had to leave off 'is pretty' because they were both really, really pretty and he'd noticed that...basically as long as he'd been occasionally hanging out with them. If he'd been asked before now if Sadie Chalmers was pretty, he'd have said 'yes' without a second thought, though he might have turned the color of his hair while he did so. Now, except for her being about the color of her hair, she looked kind of like someone modeling as a princess in an ad on the TV back home...only his age, not Julia Roberts or Natalie Portman, and actually...real and stuff.

"Oh - uh - yeah," he said when she asked about going Not Here, and made the gesture he thought was offering someone his arm. "Are you feeling okay? Do you want me to get you some punch or something?"

16 Dathan Fischer Good pun! 1457 0 5

Killian Row

January 17, 2022 1:35 PM

I'm more worried about Valentine. by Killian Row

Killian was dressed spiffy as heck because that's what he did. He always looked decent, dressed well and only a half-grown beard to betray his otherwise professional demeanor, but tonight he looked dashing. The half-grown beard was still in place of course because he was not about to show up to a school ball looking like he was a student. He had something that made him look like an absolute potato though and that was the most gorgeous woman he'd ever met by his side.

Last time he had attended this ball, he'd spent most of the night stag, spending his time primarily with Marsh and Gray. He'd taken the Brooding-Hawthornes on a few dances but that was basically the extent of his wooing - and there wasn't much to woo about married lesbian women for him - and tonight was already looking to be a very different affair. After assuring Ema she looked gorgeous, both in the most innocent and the most non-innocent ways, they'd made their way to Cascade Hall. He kept his smile subdued so as not to distract her as she took in all the sights and he made another mental note of how much more beautiful the world was when a beautiful person took it all in anew.

He extended a hand to her when she offered her thoughts on Bonny's second date to the ball and waltzed her neatly onto the dance floor, leading as their conversation continued.

"I don't hate him," he said with a shrug and a bit of a chuckle. "But I love how much you care about Bonabelle," he added with a grin. "I don't know exactly what she thinks of him." He eyed his date, previously not having pried too much into her conversations with his niece but now that she'd brought it up . . . "Do you know what she thinks of him? All your shopping together, I'm sure he must have come up at some point?"

22 Killian Row I'm more worried about Valentine. 1450 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

January 17, 2022 2:03 PM

Yeah, you're welcome. by Augustine Reed-Fischer

"Gus," he smiled when the younger student accepted his offer of a dance. He put out a hand to escort her properly. Much as he himself tended to be rough and tumble, he had enough sisters and a strict enough mother that he had learned the proper ways to dance with a woman. Secretly, he even really enjoyed the memories he kept of learning to dance with his mom in the kitchen. Placing a hand at a polite and respectable spot nearly up to the girl's shoulder blade, he began the dance. "My name is Augustine actually but no one calls me that because it's a lot of name. I'm already a lot of person so I don't need all that name attached to me too. What's your name?"

He didn't have any classes with this girl, which meant she probably didn't know much about him. He wondered what that would be like, to just not know much about people. Gus was a social creature at heart and an objectively bombastic one at that; he knew people simply because people were his greatest source of entertainment in life and much as he enjoyed eating, he enjoyed eating with people more than eating alone. Maybe this girl would like a cookie or something after this, although he'd have to make sure it didn't sound like he was giving her a dog treat for a job well done.

Since they would have had classes together the previous year if she was a second year, Gus used his big smart noodle brain to deduce that she was a first year. "How did you like it here this year?" he asked as they danced.

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer Yeah, you're welcome. 1509 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 19, 2022 12:59 AM

It's funny because it's true by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Dathan seemed hesitant. It wasn't a word Sadie could criticise for, given how often it applied to her. Still, it wasn't something she normally associated with Dathan. Was he unhappy about being here with her? She tried to quell that thought, but it was amazingly easy for it to keep rearing its head.

Had she seen it addressed to anyone else, she would have called the gesture of offering an arm unmistakable. When directed at her, however, she almost didn't notice, or at least didn't pick up its intended meaning, because it didn't occur to her that someone might make that kind of gesture towards her. And then it snapped into place, and felt obvious, and she had to worry she looked like a fool for standing there far too long. Though part of her still said she was mistaken and about to make a fool of herself if she took it. Still a little hesitant, she placed a hand on his arm, waiting for something to go wrong.

"I'm fine," she said. Oh gosh, he'd only have asked if it was clear she wasn't, right? She wondered how obvious everything that was wrong with her was. Probably very? But what was she supposed to say? 'Doing the prefect dance was awful, and now I'm terrified of messing this up because I really, really like you?' "Punch sounds nice though," she said, to be agreeable, and give them a direction.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers It's funny because it's true 1480 0 5

Dathan Fischer

January 22, 2022 5:18 PM

I'm feeling the nerves, too, come to think of it. by Dathan Fischer

Punch sounded nice. That was good. He'd gotten something right....

He just hoped he hadn't accidentally offended her by asking if she was all right. Did that imply she looked bad? Because she didn't. But maybe it could sound that way. He could totally see (now, of course, that it was too late to consider this usefully and just not say it) how that could have sounded that way, now that he thought about it, but that wasn't what he'd meant at all. So...what could he do to correct the mistake he might or might not have just made? Was that possible, assuming he'd even made a mistake? If he hadn't, would trying to fix it somehow be another mistake and make things worse?

His head was going to explode. It was just inevitable at this point. At least, he thought, Sonora was a smaller audience for his inevitable demise than school back home would have been. Except - was that a good thing, even? Ugh....

He got some punch and brought the cup to her carefully, focusing on not spilling anything.

"Here you go," he said, offering it. "So - are you as glad as I am that the prefect dance is over? It was cool, but wow, I was worried I was going to fall flat on my face the whole time." He realized that he'd just made another stupid remark. "Not that you looked like you were going to do that," he said, trying to correct again and sort of hoping he'd spontaneously fall down and knock himself unconscious on the marble floor. "You looked really great - and you still look really great."

16 Dathan Fischer I'm feeling the nerves, too, come to think of it. 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 22, 2022 7:57 PM

Oh, that's probably my fault. Sorry. by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

He brought her punch. Sadie took it, hoping she managed to not somehow up-end it over herself or him or anything else. Drinking from a cup was a life skill she really had thought she had mastered right until the moment when the very red beverage was placed in her shaking hand, making her even more aware of her pale dress.

“Thank you,” she said, as she took it. Her face had cooled down a little in the time he took to go and get it but she still felt like she was one step away from falling on her face either literally or metaphorically, and wondered whether that was ever going to die down.

Dathan at least seemed to feel the same way about the prefect dance. She was about to commiserate and say that yes, it had been totally awful, when he kept talking and—

“I do?” she asked. The hand holding the punch cup had been raising it to her lips again, but now she paused without realising, just sort of holding it, caught absent-mindedly mid-gesture. She could feel heat rising again in her cheeks, but it was almost like it was a different kind. The kind that made her want to put her shoulders back and stand an inch or so taller in spite, or maybe, because of it. “I mean-thank you. You too.” Did that sound flat? Like she was just saying it for the sake of it? “You look great. You always look great.” Nope, too much. Crap. How could she backpedal from saying something like that? A little of the former type of blush rose to her cheeks, the kind that didn’t feel so good and made her want to curl up in a ball and cease to exist. She half opened her mouth, but realised very quickly that she had nothing to say, so closed it again. Except instead of staring at the floor, she found herself staring at Dathan, already expecting to find kindness and understanding there, because that was what he was like. And because it was true, he really was very nice to look at, especially when she found those types of expressions on his face.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Oh, that's probably my fault. Sorry. 1480 0 5

Bertie Jackson

January 24, 2022 2:43 PM

Definitely by Bertie Jackson

He had a joke. A perfect, witty comeback. As was so often the case, it was in his head but he had to debate whether it was worth the effort of trying to get it out of his mouth. He managed to hold back the sigh of frustration that normally felt like the right response to that realisation. Those were the opposite... easy to let slip, but something he'd carefully cultivated an ability to keep inside.

"–-" He made a couple of false starts at getting his tongue untied. Maybe just nodding would be the safer bet. He took Mara's arm, feeling his chest swell just a little bit as he did so. It was strange... He was pretty sure most people regarded her as intimidating, and that was one of the things he liked about her. But to him, she had always been someone it was easy to be around. It was explained quite simply by intellectual level, of course - other people were put off by her intelligence because theirs were inferior, whereas he was attracted to it because they were equals.

"I think the Unforgiveables are still frowned upon," he managed, catching her eye and smirking. "Even at a ball."

13 Bertie Jackson Definitely 1497 0 5

Dathan Fischer

January 25, 2022 3:18 PM

Nah, I think I can blame myself, too. by Dathan Fischer

Dathan immediately, without a second thought, believed that Sadie was just returning the compliment to be nice. He guessed he might look better than usual, or at least different, since he was wearing the black-pants-and-white-shirt combo and a tie, but he was pretty sure that 'great' wasn't a way that he...really looked, basically ever. He didn't mind, really - everything else about him was solidly average at best, so why should his appearance be any different? - but it was nice of her, he thought, to say otherwise....

"You always look great."

...Okay, that was going beyond just being nice. He felt his ears turning red. "If that's true, then you always look...super-great," he said, smiling awkwardly. "I mean, I know people just say that, but you do, you're really pretty - not that that's, like, the most important thing, you're great for stuff besides that, too - "

...He really, really needed to stop talking before he got any further behind. Stopping while he was ahead would have involved stopping several sentences earlier, but he could avoid falling any further behind, right? Also, was it possible that his ears were actually going to sear themselves right off his head? Also, would it be totally over the top to put a silencing charm on himself for the rest of his time at school? Probably yes.

"But yeah. You're great all around, and you look really extra-great now, to...summarize whatever I was saying," he said, hoping to play it cool-ish. "Sorry if that was weird, or...anything."

16 Dathan Fischer Nah, I think I can blame myself, too. 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 26, 2022 12:21 AM

Oh, well, if you insist? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

He just kept complimenting her. She was very good at believing ill of herself, and at brushing off positive remarks when there was any possible ambiguity. But there was none here. He was absolutely and decisively calling her very pretty, and great for stuff besides that too. She felt slightly dazed.

"No, it's not weird. I mean, you're not being weird." It was slightly weird thinking he might actually like her, but she didn't want him to feel like he needed to be embarrassed. "It was nice," she added, very softly. It was easy to reassure him. To tell him he was doing fine, wasn't weird - to accidentally tell him was super hot. It was harder to venture her own thoughts and feelings about the situation, but she trusted him. "Thank you."

She normally smiled a lot, but it was a reflexive gesture, a defensive mechanism against others being uspet or disappointed by her. Now she thought that she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to. It flickered occasionally into a nervous lip-bite, but every time she looked at Dathan, she just wanted to smile. And she was looking at him a lot. The rest of the hall had faded to something on the very periphery of her awareness. She didn't care what else was going on, she just wanted to look at him. She was starting to believe all the things the teachers said about not being able to manufacture love, and it being the greatest kind of magic. Nothing else had ever made her feel like this.

Not that she was in love with him. Was she? She had been willing to admit to herself that she had a solid crush, but it was way too soon to say anything else. Except, would a crush make her feel like she was floating? What was the difference, and how did you know? Dang, why was this all so complicated?

Her thoughts jolted her slightly back to reality, along with someone cutting past rather close to them.

"Shall we sit down?" she suggested. She was pretty sure she was in danger of just getting lost in staring at him, and perhaps the pathway to the buffet table wasn't the safest or most private place to be doing that. Feeling a little emboldened by the earlier contact and the compliments, she placed her hand on his arm to steer him slightly to the nearest table.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Oh, well, if you insist? 1480 0 5

Dathan Fischer

January 29, 2022 3:59 PM

Insisting feels like a big step, but yeah. by Dathan Fischer

Somehow, Dathan found it hard to believe he hadn't just been kind of weird, but at least Sadie wasn't backing away slowly to find her girlfriends to protect her. So it could have been worse. Even better, she didn't seem offended or like she didn't believe him. In fact, she was smiling. Smiling a lot, actually! At least, that was the impression he got stealing glances at her. Looking straight on seemed kind of...hard, at the moment, mostly because he was afraid he'd have some really dumb look on his face and/or - worse, even, maybe - be the color of his hair. Which was not flattering. He had never taken that much interest in his appearance, but it did not take a style genius or a beauty guru to know that redheads should never blush.

"Yeah, that sounds...good," he said when Sadie suggested sitting down.

The smiling a lot...it was a lot of smiling. And she'd seemed really pleased when he'd suggested they hang out together after the prefects' dance. It felt weird to think of being - well - someone anyone else would be interested in (in general, even, never mind...interested-interested) in him, but it also kinda seemed like...well....

"So - hypothetically - if we hadn't had the whole prefect group thing to do, you know," he said, hardly believing he was hearing himself right, "would you - uh - have done the...pair dance thing with me?"

16 Dathan Fischer Insisting feels like a big step, but yeah. 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 30, 2022 4:51 PM

Oh, sorry, I can tone it down by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Dathan wasn’t really looking at her, and Sadie wasn’t sure how to take that. Again, the word she kept coming back to was ‘nervousness’ but that didn’t fit because she wasn’t at all scary. It was why it was so hard to recognise his behaviour as something that looked so like her own default mannerisms - she didn’t expect them on him.

Still, he agreed to taking a seat with her. She sat in the chair beside him, regretting that she had run out of excuse for having her hand on his arm. She liked touching him, liked feeling the warmth of his body under her fingers. She leant forward a little in her chair.

She was slightly taken aback by his question. Was he… was he asking her to do the dance? The non-existent dance, after it would have been over.

“Yes,” she said, because it didn’t seem like a trick question, and he didn’t seem like he was about to laugh in her face. He seemed like he was genuinely asking. Like he was unsure that he could have had anything he wanted, and like there hadn’t been a bigger question that had made her vote against the idea… “Would you have asked me?”

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Oh, sorry, I can tone it down 1480 0 5

Dathan Fischer

February 25, 2022 5:25 PM

We're really awkward, aren't we? by Dathan Fischer

She would have agreed? She would have agreed! Score one for...might have been? Did that even make sense? Dathan was pretty sure that made absolutely no sense, but at least it was better than....

Well, Sadie really wasn't the type to find it hysterically funny that someone presumed to ask, much less to mock him to his face, but she could have something like...get all flustered in a clearly embarrassed and kinda horrified way that made it clear it would have been a nightmare if he'd done that, and which would have ended in him resolving to run away into the night, never to be seen by any witch or wizard again, because realistically, by the next day, they'd have all known about it. This world was just too small for comfort, sometimes, especially when it came to things that took some nerve to do and carried with them the prospect of abject humiliation....

Abject? Object? He only knew the word from watching Aladdin when he was a kid. Well, a little kid. Did 'object humiliation' make sense? He was pretty sure it didn't make sense, and it had sounded like an a sound instead of an o sound, but then again, Jafar kind of talked weird, didn't he....

"I had actually planned to when we came back from midterm," he admitted. "But then all this stuff happened and suddenly we all had choreography lessons to deal with, and praying I wasn't going to, like, start a domino effect of people falling over, and...." And he was rambling. Which wasn't ideal. Scolding himself for being ridiculous, he mustered the nerve to look at Sadie properly. "Do you - uh, would you like to have a dance now?"

16 Dathan Fischer We're really awkward, aren't we? 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

February 25, 2022 6:07 PM

At least we have something in common? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Oh gosh, should she have asked in return? She probably shouldn’t have asked in return. It just opened up the possibility for him to tell her ‘no,’ or to go all bright red and awkward as he tried to find a way to not lie whilst not brutally shooting her down, because if he had wanted to ask her, he could have, and he hadn’t.

Except… he kind of had? And they were here now, weren’t they?

Her mouth fell open slightly at his confession, before breaking into a huge smile. He’d wanted to ask her? Like properly, properly ask her to the ball? She thought back to the ballot, and the vote she’d cast against the paired dance, because she was too afraid of not getting what she wanted. She wondered if hers had been the one to sway it, and how differently this all could have gone. Not that it was going badly at all. In fact, in spite of everything, she seemed to have ended up right where she wanted to be. He was even asking her to dance. Which she hadn’t really planned on doing much, except for the prefect dance. She would honestly have been content to just sit here, and stare at him, and maybe put her hands on his arms again, because he was warm, and soft and she liked holding onto him. Dancing would let her do that, and she didn’t want to break whatever fairytale spell was currently going on.

“Yes,” she agreed. He held out an arm again, and she took it, feeling like she was full of bubbles, and like her feet weren’t even on the floor any more as they made their way to the dance floor. Whereupon it would have been very convenient to be literally floating and footless.

“Uh, I don’t really know how to dance properly,” she admitted. But she’d seen enough high school movies, where they just looped their arms around each other and swayed. And that sounded perfect. “Like this?” she guessed, tentatively putting her arms around Dathan’s neck. However graceful or not it looked, it definitely felt nice.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers At least we have something in common? 1480 0 5

Dathan Fischer

March 01, 2022 4:15 PM

That's a good bright side. by Dathan Fischer

For a moment, Dathan wasn't totally sure what to think about Sadie spontaneously agreeing to his impulsive proposition. Like...he was pretty sure he was picking up correctly that she was not, in fact, offended at all by the idea of being asked out by him, but that in and of itself was still registering as a surprise. Like...how did that work? This super-pretty person appearing to...be kinda into the idea of going on a date with him, unless he was reading everything totally wrong here, and he kinda didn't think he was doing that.

"Me, either," he admitted when Sadie admitted she didn't really know how to dance. Had they mentioned that before, or had he just thought about that fact, among others, so much that he thought he'd had a real conversation about the subject? "But, uh, this works for me," he added, pretty okay with the way things were going. His frame of reference for dancing wasn't much different from hers, so equally tentatively, quite prepared to stop doing that if she gave him any kind of Look, he put his hands near her waist.

"So," he said after some swaying to the music - unfamiliar as usual, because they were in the wizarding world. Was that better or worse than if it had been more familiar? Did that even matter? "Are we, like, accidentally on a date?"

16 Dathan Fischer That's a good bright side. 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

March 02, 2022 1:08 AM

It's far from the only one by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

His hands were on her waist! Oh gosh. It was just like the movies. Except they really never conveyed the fact of just how stupidly warm it was doing this. Maybe that was just her, not a general thing, but she was sure she was radiating enough heat for Dathan to feel it, and she felt like she might be about to melt into a puddle. For the most part, it was a very happy puddle, though the anxiety part of her brain also wouldn't stop. Given that nothing was going actively wrong right now, it had just resorted to screaming in tension-filled white noise.

They swayed, and it felt perfect, even if the shakes and the thumping of her heart didn't show any signs of dissipating.

So, are we like...accidentally on a date?

In the run up to this, Sadie had been half convinced that he meant his invitation as a date, and half that he very much did not. Now both halves piped up to claim the point. It was a date! But only as of now - accidnetally, and unintentionally? But that didn't mean unwelcomedly, right? If that was even a word. He wanted her to say 'yes,' right? All signs so far suggested that he felt the same way she did, and that the more date-like it got, the better, right? He had said he had wanted to ask her, and he had suggested dancing...

"It seems like it?" she ventured in return.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers It's far from the only one 1480 0 5

Dathan Fischer

March 03, 2022 7:20 PM

I think that's good. by Dathan Fischer

She thought so. She thought so! That was great - at least, he was still making some assumptions here, but...he was pretty sure they were getting toward the edge between making assumptions and just...noticing what happened to be, even if it wasn't being said out loud. Cause things did exist even if they weren't talked about, right? Except, they kinda were talking about it, and....

"I mean, I'm okay with that," he said. "If you are."

Of course, A Date was just...A Date, singular. That could mean something, or it might not mean anything. Lots of people went on a singular date and that was that, so there was still another minefield to navigate.

"Do you think you might - you know - want to have more dates?" he asked.

Of course, the timing was...kind of bad. Because tomorrow was the beginning of summer vacation, and he'd kinda bungled his first attempt at the Apparition test, which meant he might be able to travel and stuff this summer, but also might...not, depending on how the re-test went. And even aside from all that, next year was his last year here but not hers, which...could be a whole thing, or become a whole thing, if the 'more dates' thing happened and went well. But that was all in the future, most of it far enough away to just kind of ignore for a while, especially when they were kind of having a Moment and it was nerve-wracking enough to handle without worrying about what-if and maybe and all that stuff.

16 Dathan Fischer I think that's good. 1457 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

March 10, 2022 12:18 AM

I hope so by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

It was a date! They had both agreed this was a date! Sadie had only the briefest, dizzying moment to enjoy that fact, and to wonder whether that meant she should change anything about how she was acting - except this was already pretty date-like, which was what had led them to the discussion of whether or not it was one. Then Dathan threw another suggestion into the ring.

"Yes," she agreed, only just managing to pause long enough to get some control over her voice, so it didn't sound weird or over eager. "I would. I would like that." Okay, that had been covered by 'yes.' She should probably stop talking. Maybe she could shut herself up with one of the options that had danced through her mind a moment ago. There was one she wanted quite badly but was no way brave enough to initiate, especially on a crowded dance floor. Instead, as she leaned in closer, she dropped her head to the side, resting it against Dathan's shoulder. It was a little disorienting at first, dancing without being able to see the world around her. But they weren't really going anywhere, just swaying. And she trusted him to keep her safe.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers I hope so 1480 0 5