Beast's Ballroom

[laruka]

(( I'll be leaving soon! not the evil smiley! ;D ! ))

Laruka's face turned into a smile when Ryuu replied, "My names Laruka," She replied happily. Finally glad to have a reply, she turned around. "I'll be going now, I may be going to Destiny Islands," Laruka smiled, "You wanna come?" She asked. The music alowed down a little bit, then sped up into a steady but fast tune. The lights dimmed a little, but laruka noticed it was just her eyes. Some vision!

She let her crimson eyes fall on Ryuu and then turned away. She then walked out of the room, avoiding the dancefloor and food tables. She opened the doors and walked out, as there was a portal to a different world. She raced into it, and teleported herself to Destiny Islands.

(( Meh... lol ))

[flamestar]

OCC: Yeah, I'll leave. Thanks for the party guys!

Ryuu smiled at Laruka's reply. "Nice name, Laruka." He was surprised that she was leaving so soon, he had just met her and he wanted to dance with her, but maybe later. "Sure, I'll come along." Ryuu replied eagerly and when he saw her look at him, he flushed with embarrassment again.

Then she walked off, past the dance floor, the food tables, and through the doors and into a portal. He followed suit, wanting to get to Destiny Islands so he could talk to Laruka again.

[Violinist]

[]

As the song rolled to an end, Jason opened his eyes and noticed one thing. People had ignored him. Although there were some people that paused a little after the song was over and breathed out a sigh of regret that he music had stopped and seeing that was worth more to him than any amount of applause, but he couldn't stand the smug looks he was getting from the other band. True, what he had just played sounded to him like it was written by a drunken, tone-deaf fool when compared to his true music, but most average songwriters would have been pulling their hairs out with envy. Jason truly wanted his music to spread and be enjoyed, but this crowd must be deaf. At his silent call, his shadow returned from its mingling and rose into his and, forming an elegant, black bow.

"Let me show you the music," he said as he placed the bow gently on the strings of his violin, so not to make any unnecessary sound. As Jason drew the bow across the strings, the sound that emanated from him was purer than anything he had played before on this world. It rang out over the entire, ocean-sized ballroom and touched the very essence of the dancers. What was about to be heard here was true music, music that touched the body and didn't bother going through the ears. Jason then started playing. The effect the song on the dancers was simple; they watched in terror as various shadows were pulled on the stage, then in awe and fascination as the shadows formed into humanoid figures and began dancing a ghostly dance around Jason before their consciousness was washed away by the music and they started dancing again.

[Heroic Bilby]

The Heartless in disguise slowly made it's way closer to the source of the strange sounds in the room. Music? Yes, music. That's what it was called. It remembered that much... did it like music before? Did it used to play music? No hints of an answer would come. But as long as its instincts had drawn it here it may as well search for some of these answers it sought.

It stayed close to the wall, creeping ever closer to the source. The sounds stopped for a moment but began again soon enough. It saw shadows dancing, it's vision based almost entirely on the contrast of black and white. It remembered dancing as well. Yes... it was a form of... of what? Entertainment? Yes. But not always. Sometimes it was for... celebration? Yes, that was it. The Heartless was capable of feeling neither entertained nor joyous, so celebrating anything should have been foreign to it. Yet it remembered anyway, and so it's hopeless journey would continue, spurred on by the faintest of hints that held no real conclusions. For now all it could do was watch this dancing, listen to this music... and try to determine just what instinct had led it here in the first place.

[windy]

Windy did appear somewhat ruffled at his casual dismissal of her cheerful mockery. She loved watching people when they were surprised. It was the only reason she found meeting new people interesting at all!

People saw the same things every day.

Show them something new, and for a moment they look like a child seeing something for the first time. Utterly bemused and perfectly innocent. Which people seldom were nowadays...

Snapping her fingers and looking thoughtful, she poked him in the chest in a stern manner and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You should ask someone to dance! What good is going to a ball if you're not going to dance?"

No good at all, as a matter of fact. But she would soon be interrupted from her lecture by the curious violinist, as he rose his bow to play.

She tilted her head and blinked, hearing a few notes of music it seemed as if everything else became still. It was eerily sweet, sad, and pure. Closing her eyes and listening, she was quite blind to the alarm of some of the other dancegoers as she hummed along.

"...Do you hear that?"

[vent]

He had his orders. Blanc was supposed to enter the ballroom and scout for anything strange to occur. As his booted feet clicked against the floor outside of the large chamber, one could only assume that he was either a servant, some kind of snobbish gentleman, or someone of military status. His eyes never shifted from the forward position, his mouth never budged, his turns were all ninety degrees. Still, there was something odd about him, both because he was so pale and had yellow eyes, and because of his body length cloak he used to hide himself from prying eyes. Didn't help much.

It also didn't help that, despite his strange appearance, he still remained rather attractive to those who may have been looking, several women along the halls staring at what little view the cloak gave them. They were turned off, however, when even the most attractive of them received not even a single sideways glance. They didn't even get a cold shoulder. They were just ignored. One went so far as to splash wine at his cloak, but all he did was take a large step forward and let it get all over the perfect white tiling.

You are to enter the ballroom and find out if anything suspicious is occurring. Something doesn't feel right. That was the only thought that was going through his head at the time, and it wasn't even his own; it belonged to his master. It had been bouncing around in his constructed mind for the past several hours, and all he had been doing aside from that were calculating several possible scenarios for when he got there.

And there it was. The glorious ballroom chamber, right through the next door. Before entering, he stuck his arm in, as though testing the water in a pool, and noticed that his cloak has begun to transform into a jacket. He quickly pulled it out and watched his cloak revert back. He came up with a rather simple solution, removing his cloak and hanging it from his left arm like a waiter. When he entered the room, he was wearing only a skin tight black bodysuit., which was rather prompt in changing into simple slacks and a white, frilly shirt. His black hair flowed freely down to his collar bones before he once more put on the cloak...which once more became a black jacket.

He would live with it.

Mingle with the guests, if possible, but be wary. Blanc took a few more steps in before someone bumped into him.

[atrum]

Atrum walked through the tall double doors that marked his entry to the party. This sort of thing was strange to him, having spent so much time away from civilization and to now suddenly be thrust into such a large quantity of people may prove a challenge.

Taking his final steps through the doors he was shocked to find his long cloak beginning to shrink, until eventually the whole thing began to change. When the transformation was over he was standing in a smart, black, dinner suit well-fitted and seemingly brand new! His eyes darted about madly, checking no one had been watching the spectacle. When he was satisfied no one had seemed him he casually walked over to one of the tables of the room.

Picking up a glass of wine, he drained it in a matter of seconds before checking his appearance in the empty glass. Thankfully nothing else had changed except, of course, his attire. Putting the glass down he noticed his eyes change from black to grey but he soon dismissed it, for him that was a normal occurrence.

He gazed about the room once again. People danced elegantly in the centre, some stood talking among the crowds and some, such as himself, stood at the sidelines silently observing. That was his task for the night, to learn and to listen for anything that he could make use of. He made his way towards the crowd, deciding that in mingling with them, he would seem less suspicious.

[Heroic Bilby]

The creature eventually wandered away from the source of the music. It had stirred some thoughts but offered nothing useful. Nothing important. Nothing that could give it a clue to follow. In this period where it's thoughts grew weaker the powerful Heartless instinct that had drawn it here in the first place began to take more influence over it's actions. What could it be that felt so strong even while it was in this dormant state?

With it's head of black, uncombed hair bent down the human form of the creature began to move throughout the crowd once again. Most avoided him, as usual. He was severely under dressed for such a party. Or rather... he was just under dressed period. Many of those gathered continued to find his presence absurd, but as the nature of the event was one of peace between different peoples there were none who found it appropriate to speak up about it. For now it could continue as it wished.

The yellow eyes spent most of their time staring at the ground, using the lights shining from peoples hearts to guide itself around them without having to actually look at the sources. It was painful for it to see hearts, its vision interpreting them as beacons of star-like brilliance. When it had to look at too many the urges to wipe them all out into a peaceful darkness became ever greater, eroding away at what little free thought it had to call it's own. The darkness was not pleasant to the Heartless... but the light was just too painful to bear. Sadly, it still drew their gaze as if partially hypnotic. Their only relief was to plunge the lights into darkness.

And that's when it happened. A light much brighter than the other hearts was being cast on the floor. Instinctively the creature couldn't help but suddenly look up and find the source. A reaction it would immediately regret. The man's eyes squinted in pain and his jaw clenched in tandem. It's entire body seemed to tense up all at once, hands desperately rising to block the view between itself and the source. Was this what drew him here? This heart of exceptional power that called out to it's instincts?

The burning sensation in it's eyes was so bad that the Heartless was forced to back up abruptly, for had it looked much longer the desire to go and snuff it would become far more than it could bear. In it's haste the creature would bump into another guest suddenly, causing it to turn towards the body. Its own yellow pools stared into a similar set in his man. Much to the being's relief, it also shared a similar lack of light within itself. In fact, where most had a shining sun illuminating their beings this thing had a pitch black void shaping iself out to the Heartless' special means of sight. This one was different than the others.... but not like itself. No. Which meant it probably had nothing to offer. Without even so much as an apology, the Heartless broke it's gaze and moved past the man, it's meager black pants and cape-like cloak walking slowly in to the sea of elaborate dresses and expensive suits.

[angelous]

Angelous landed on what appeared to be a expensively decorated marble floor. He again, just as in Destiny Islands, landed in a kneeling position. He noted a change in clothing, and didn't care. His Organization robe, had become a completely black tuxedo. What bothered him is that people were staring at him, either the 2 sxars on his face that made a x, or the 2 different colored eyes, one green and one blue. His pitch-black hair with bright red highlights also made him stand out, but that he didn't care about. He looked at his hands, and for the first time noticed a sigil . He felt a few dark auras, one of which he knew was his own. His was the strongest dark aura there too, for the moment.
He looked around and noticed someone that looked wierd, only because she had red eyes. Then he thought, he shouldn't be saying that, he had two different colored eyes. He thought she was kind of cute. He walked over to her and said, "Hi, my name is Angelous. Nice to meet you." He then said, " I am sorry, but I have to go." Before he left, he kissed her hand.

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[Violinist]

A strange portal opened up just outside the entrance to The Ballroom. It wasn't a portal, really, but a small, nearly invisible flux in time created for Time's apprentice, Maileaa, to get to the castle. As Maileaa stalked out of the portal, she only paused to review her objectives in her head.

'You are to go to Beast's Castle and observe what happens there. Soon the place will become a turning point in history and you will guide it to the right path. Stay close to the Princess.'

God, she hated it when he was so cryptic about everything. And here she was, standing outside a giant palace where she was supposed to find some sort of Princess and mingle with the snobs. Just perfect. She had never heard of a princess in Beast's Castle, unless he and Belle had just gotten more intimate with each other, but she suspected that she was supposed to look for a Princess, with a capital P. Whatever that meant, Maileaa still had no idea why she was here. Cursing to herself, she stalked into the Ballroom and then stopped in surprise as her usual pink dress changed into a pink, ankle-length, frilly affair with glitter. GLITTER! This day just kept getting better and better. Even so, Maileaa stopped for a moment to examine the dress. It emphasized her figure a bit too much, but it had a high neckline and was rather comfy, even with the frills and the glitter. Looking around, Maileaa saw that most of the women here were wearing gowns and dresses that resembled her own, some were made of satin, some were made of silk, like hers, and some were made of something completely different. Her hair had been woven into an intricate tail tied with a ribbon and on her head rested a golden tiara depicting a clock entangled in thorny vines. As she raised her hands to adjust it, Maileaa found that she was wearing elaborate pink gloves that reached up nearly to her elbow.

To her surprise, Maileaa was actually liking that outfit. That moment of girlish attitude faded, however, as Maileaa focused again on her mission and stalked down the grand staircase and down into the mass of grandly dressed people. She was so busy with trying to decode the message Time had given her that she didn't even watch where she was going until she bumped into a man that seemed to have escaped a large part of the automatic dress code. Maileaa instinctively looked up into his eyes to give him a sharp tongue-lashing, but that intention faded as she realized that she was looking into the familiar yellow eyes of a heartless being. Maileaa's arms automatically grabbed the collar of the man's cloak and prepared to punch him in the face. But she couldn't. It was like an invisible hand had grabbed her fist and prevented it from connecting with the heartless' face. Various people around her panicked or tried to grab her and Maileaa focused and tried to stop time around her. When she found out that she couldn't even sense that familiar force, Maileaa almost fainted. She dropped the heartless and immediately ran towards the nearest window, knocking over several people on her way and not bothering to apologize, Maileaa opened the window and stuck her head and most of her body through it, trying to get rid of what she was feeling. She felt helpless, totally and utterly helpless. Time was the only protection she had ever had and without it she felt naked and shamed. She thought she was going to vomit, and she did, emptying her whole stomach out the window. After she did, time stopped outside the castle and a grandly dressed man walked up to the window on the air. This man was Time. Before he could speak, Maileaa shrieked.

"What is going ON!?! WHY! CAN'T! I! TOUCH! TIME!?" When she was finished, Maileaa almost broke down and cried, not caring everyone who had heard her were staring at her with a stunned look. "It is simple, my child, time inside the Ballroom is being forced to run on normally by a force greater than myself. Even I can't touch the flow of time in there. You need to calm down and focus. This is your first time in eleven years that you are working without the ability to touch time. Although I expected you to handle this more... calmly."

At that time, Maileaa was crying. She was panicking and she almost jumped out of the window. Anything would be better than this. Even in her sorry state, she managed to speak between sobs, "Well, at least tell me who I'm supposed to stay close to."

Time's response was simple, he told her to look behind her and the vanished as time outside the castle started moving again. Maileaa pulled herself together, wiped the tears from her face and turned around, only to be stunned again by the fact that she was looking at Kairi, one of the seven Princesses of Heart. Adjusting her tiara and holding out a hand, Maileaa talked as if she hadn't just screamed at an invisible person outside the window. "Hi. My name is Maileaa. Am I right to assume that you are Kairi?"

[kiera]

Black bangs fell in dark violet eyes. Unease. Kiera looked out at the mass of people. The young woman didn’t understand why she had been drawn to this place. Something about the atmosphere intrigued her. Pupils thinned to slits. Nerves Silently she let out an agitated breathe and slouched against the wall. It was a futile attempt to hide in the shadows. A faint dusting of pink stained her cheeks. Being around so many people unnerved her.

To distract herself from the feeling of unease, she crossed her arms across her chest. If she was lucky, nobody would approach her. That way she would leave this place with the last bit of sanity she had managed to keep a hold of. She shifted her weight. Without her claymore, she felt naked and vulnerable. With the Crescent Angel, someone would be able to look into her eyes and see the depths of her soul. So far, no one had bothered to even look her way. A blessing that the half-breed welcomed.

Sighing, she ran her hand through her hair and ruffled it. Closing her eyes, her breathing evened and she was able to relax a little bit. At least the music was decent and not annoying. Involuntarily, she rolled her shoulders, allowing the familiar gesture to relax the tension that had settled on her neck. She could at least try to relax and enjoy the surroundings and music.

[windy]

Blinking her eyes open once more, Windy glanced over newcomers she jumped slightly as she heard the noise of a girl who appeared to screaming out a window in no small amount of distress.

Was this a usual occurance? There seemed to be a lot of odd things happening in this place. Boys falling from nowhere onto floors? Lovely violin music?

Slowly she was garnering a slight feeling of unease. She allowed her scruffy hair to flop into her eyes as she scanned the crowd. A pretty dress was no reason to drop her guard. Scolding herself lightly, she resolved to be more observant.

...I should keep my eyes open...ehm...figuratively and literally...

Though said eyes widened and blinked in her own sudden bemusement as her hand was taken and oddly enough...kissed. Cocking her head slightly, she froze in surprise.

"...Uhm...Windy..." She replied with her name before he made his abrupt exit.

How odd. Angelous did he say his name was?

Even more odd than the floor-boy or even. Falling on the floor was one thing, but mysterious acts of gentleman-like hand kissing was quite another. It was perfectly easy to be clumsy, but being a gentleman was quite a delicate craft.

Or so she read.

"I really should keep my eyes open..."

[~/\The Dragon Writer/\~]

Sonolias is his name? Cool.

Putting his hand out to meet Sonolias', Kylon couldn't help but notice the strange smile he was getting. It wasn't really like your every day smile, which was friendly and caring. No, this smile was a more sly one, almost as if he was trying to say to Kylon, 'You sly dog!'. He didn't quite understand what he was saying, but it didn't matter all that much. What truly mattered was that he had just met two people who could potentially be friends in less than five minutes. It was really cool that he was actually being social for once in his life.

Especially when one of those people was the famous Kairi.
"Sonolias? It's a pleasure."

Shaking the hand lightly, Kylon couldn't help but smile at Sonolias. He thought he understood what that smile meant, but wasn't all that sure. Maybe it meant that he was indicating something about Kairi? Who could tell. Laughing a bit to himself quietly, he turned his to the ground out of nothing more than disbelief. Upon looking at the intricate hard-wood flooring, he couldn't help but notice that Kairi was tapping her feet to the music. Possibly a person wanting to get out on the dance floor? It was possible. Maybe he'd even ask her if she wanted to dance? There wasn't anything wrong with that.

It was just a dance.

Then, suddenly, the music changed from a fast paced, dance song to a slower, couples song. Kylon couldn't help but think it strange that the music was changing so sporadically. It didn't really matter though. Bringing his gaze up from the wood floor, he looked at Kairi and smiled. Even if she was younger than him, she looked quite beautiful in the lighting of the ballroom. He decided, then and there, that he would ask her to dance with him on the dance floor. It wasn't like him to just ask someone he hardly knew to dance, but he was feeling more social and less shy. Placing his hands in his pockets, he smiled another kind smile at the girl, gathering the courage to ask.
"Hey, would you by any chance want to da-"

Kylon didn't even get to finish his sentence before another girl came into the small group made up of Kairi, Sonolias, and himself. It was rather rude of her to just barge in like that, but they were at a party. Mingling was what they were supposed to do. Closing his eyes out of slight embarrassment, and letting out a quiet sigh of the same emotion, Kylon casually reopened his bluish-green eyes to look at the new girl. She was also wearing pink and seemed to have quite a bit of glitter cast about her. Kylon didn't really like it when there was an ungodly amount of glitter on people. Keeping his thoughts to himself, he noticed that her eyes were slightly red, as if she was crying a bit. He didn't bring it up, not wanting to break the peace or create an awkward moment.
"Maileaa? Nice to meet you. I'm Kylon."

Sure, she hadn't introduced herself to him, but it was still a formality to introduce himself. Even if it was her who just randomly barged into the conversation, causing him to embarrass himself. There seemed to be another half of the slow song left, and Kylon heard someone go up and request another slow one. Maybe there was still a chance? Taking his gaze away from Maileaa and back to Kairi's, he gave a sort of half smile and took his hands out of his pockets. They were now behind his back, grasping eachother lightly out of nerves. He never went up to a girl and asked her is she wanted to dance...yet today...

...Kylon was feeling different.
"Well, if you'd like to dance, just say the word."

[angelous]

Angelous Lycan appeared in the ballroom once more, again in the kneeling position. He got up and went to Windy and bowed. He said, "Windy, nice to see you again. Care to dance, and while we do maybe we could talk."
He offered her his hand, and hoped she would accept his offer, because he thought she was kind of cute.
The part that he liked best was the color of her eyes. Like him she had eyes that one would call normal. Then again, Some of the other people didn't have normal color eyes either. Not getting a reply but a stare, he said, "I'll be over there," he pointed just to the right of the entrance; If you change your mind, I'll be waiting."
He went back over to her and said, "I have to go, I don't know why but, my offer still stands, just wait till i get back."
Angelous then left, with a worried look he knew Windy had seen.
Just after he went through the entrance, someone said, "It's good to see you again Angelous."
Angelous looked and saw someone in a black robe. Was it the same person that gave him his robe? Or someone else? He wasn't sure it was the same person because he heard somewhere someone had defeated them all.
He blinked, and then the figure in the robe was gone.
Confused and worried, he left.

[Heroic Bilby]

The Heartless was taken by surprise this time. In it's haste to walk away after bumping in to the man with similar eyes it had apparently collided with a woman newly entering the scene. Of course, it would have simply walked away without a word after quickly checking what it had run in to, but the woman had seen fit to remove such a choice from it's future possibilities. Upon gazing in to it's yellow orbs she had deduced it's true identity and seized it's collar, holding it for a following attack.

The creature's eyes and facial features filled with panic as it was taken a hold of so abruptly. Not even a word had been uttered by it's attacker as to why it was to be punished so. Was it because of the collision? Because of what it was? Because of who it had once been? No, that was unlikely. If even it did not know who it once was then why would this woman? Regardless, it could sense the hostility within her towards itself. The Heartless raised not even a hand in it's own defence as it was gripped, it merely turned it's head after getting over the shock and gritted it's teeth, awaiting impact. It's thoughts feared what would happen next. Not the attack itself, but the results. It was certain that coming under attack would strengthen it's Heartless instincts and awaken it's true form and powers in order to protect itself. If that happened there would be no way it could possibly hold back from trying to send each heart around it in to darkness.

But it never came.

The creature slowly opened it's gaze to find the woman restrained from her attack by a mysterious force. After a few moments she eventually yielded her hold on him and rushed away, leaving the Heartless to back away clumsily with a bewildered face, eventually falling on to it's backside and watching her vomit out the window from it's seat on the ballroom floor. This turn of events puzzled it further than even before. Although the monster's true nature was still in check it's thoughts were focused on what had transpired. Why had the woman attacked and not finished what she started? What held her back? Why was she choosing now to ignore it? The creature had stood slowly by now and had begun to walk in a circular perimeter around the woman at the window, it's posture slouched forward and eyes full of a desire for answers. Other guests were unsure if they should be helping him after being attacked or to fear him all the more now. Whatever they chose for themselves the woman was definitely ignoring it's very existence once she turned from the window. She had walked over in to the crowd and...

Again! The Heartless turned completely away now and let it's cloak-covered back face the woman. She had gone to where that heart was. That unbearably bright heart. The reminder of it was enough to purge any wonders about the girl from it's mind, at least for now. Shaking it's head of the shock to it's vision the Heartless slowly walked away from the source of it's discomfort with a sour expression gracing it's features.

It seemed as if there was nothing but misfortune for it at this place....