Beast's Ballroom

[windy]

Windy raised an eyebrow silently. Kneeling in front of her? She did have somewhat of a weakness for gentlemen. Which wasn't such a troublesome thing, considering the fact that there didn't seem to be a lot...

"Well..."

She had never been asked to dance before...what was she to say?! Well presumably either yes or no. Or maybe. Or something of the sort.

Shyness reared it ugly head. How she hated that. Normally 'shy wouldn't be the best word to describe the loudmouthed cynic. But when she was, she was hopelessly and almost comically flusterable.

Though as it was, she was also clumsy and had no idea how to dance. Considering all that, it was probably best to decline, but...she had never been asked before.

"...S-Sure..."

But as soon as her quiet answer left her, she found him gone again.

My, what an odd day she was having. But...it was the thought that counts! Even if she had still never danced with someone, someone had asked. Which meant someone wanted to. Which was undeniably quite flattering.

Shaking her head, she straightened in a dignified manner and repeated one of her many mantras.

"A man who flatters a woman either hopes to find her a fool or make her one."

Getting overexcited would not do.

[whirlygoofga]

Sonolias smiled as Kylon to ask, but let off a little grunt as a girl looking a small bit similar to the girl Kylon wished to dance with, who had glitter strewn about all over. Her eyes red from tears showed that she might not have been having such a good time here. Patting Kylon on the shoulder to keep him reassured, Sonolias whispered quickly without moving his head,

"Go for it.."

After quickly slurping down the rest of his beverage, Sonolias blurted out, "Oh look, it seems my punch has ran out.. Would you please accompany me to the table over there?" he asked Maileaa, and without waiting, walked towards the table quickly, grabbing her arm as he walked. "Just come with me, please.."

[angelous]

Angelous appeared in front of Windy and said, "Sorry to leave, but it was important."
He extended his hand once more and said, "So you want to dance or not?"
"I umm..." he said, "I am not a good dancer but I'll try my best."

[vent]

It would probably be best to mingle with the guests to reduce suspicion, Blanc. Do so. There was no change in expression of Blanc's face, as there never was, and he immediately went through with his given orders, walking over to some of the guests and "mingling", without so much as visually acknowledging the existence of the barely human-like Heartless who had bumped into him. Needless to say, his attempts at making small talk were terrible, simply causing people to stare at him with some level of "creeped-out-ness".

He would go around, joining conversations while simply giving out robotic responses and militaristic suggestions. In fact, when someone spoke of how much they hated their wife, Blanc gave the rather thoughtful suggestion of "Kill her and bury her remains beneath a tree. It will decompose her corpse much more quickly than they would in a river or just the ground in general." Yes, that quite sealed the deal with that little circle of friends. Blanc was out of their little circle.

The next few groups proved just as disastrous, including one with a woman crying in a corner, of whom he took the liberty of telling her, "It is pointless to cry over a dead child. Make another if the emotional 'hole' is too great to bear." Yes...things were going smoothly. On second thought, Blanc, go and test the refreshments for poison, and do not speak unless you are spoken to or you find it absolutely necessary.

No other thought even crossing his mind, he simply made his way over to the area where punch, alcohol, etc. were. Once again, without a second thought, he downed one after the other, taking one of every drink they had, people staring at him from every which direction rather oddly. They thought he was going to poison himself to death with all of this alcohol! Not so, however. Blanc's digestive system had been removed for practical reasons, meaning his esophagus went down for a bit and then simply stopped. When the liquids hit the bottom, the darkness would dissolve them and tell him everything he needed. As suspected, aside from the ethanol content in the alcoholic drinks, nothing was deadly about them.

Lame.

He saw a man forcefully leading a girl over to the refreshment, his eyes focusing on them peripherally. Her eyes were reddened, as if by crying, but by what. It seemed a mix of fear, sadness, and disappointment. Then there was the man leading her to the refreshments. He seemed to be in a bit of a rush to get her away from where she was, but the question was why. The answers would come to him soon, and it was of no priority to speak, according to Darkfire, so he would let it be.

[windy]

Windy fiddled slightly with her dress. This was getting more odd by the moment. Though the time she was given made her cynical nature creep back promptly. Now that the shock had worn off, she was back to normal.

"I'm afraid I've read that dancing is poetry of the foot. If you ever saw me write a poem you'd understand my hesitance..."

Admittedly, she was rather hard to win over, but she preferred to wait and watch. It was nice to be asked to dance. But as it were, he was only asking a pretty stranger to dance.

Practicality was always the downfall of her girlish daydreams. It was nice to hope. It was prudent not to.

When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.

"Don't worry. I'm sure there are more graceful people around, if you look hard enough."

She leaned against a wall with a slight sigh and traced the lines of a wall idly. Dancing was boring anyway. Sparring was far more interesting.

Verbal and otherwise...

She thought with a snicker with her usual crooked grin back in place.

[angelous]

Angelous replied, for the second time in his life, with a smile, "Poetry of the foot eh. And I thought you were just another pretty face. Oh well..."
Angelous started to reply when he froze in fear.
The same figure the one that knew him, appeared just behind Windy.
"So you came back," Angelous said, "We are going to talk, now. First off how do you know me?"
The figure replied, "We will talk, but not now. I grow bored. And you and I have met before, long ago when you were a boy, but you don't seem to remember, and I know why. But, don't ask, Because I won't tell you why you don't."
"Mmmmmmmm...." was the only thing he could say.
"When will I see you again?" Angelous asked.
"When I decide to talk to you again." the figure replied.
Windy turned around to see who Angelous was talking to, and there was no one there.
She stared at him, wondering what had just happened.
He told her not to worry, but clearly he was. Then he left.

[yuber]

[Well...I've been severely overun due to the fact that way to many people have come here and I wasn't on much yesterday...so I'll take my leave]

The atmosphere was really beginning to densen with everyone dancing and partying with each other. Drinks had been dropped by a variety of people. Obviously the champagne had gone to their head way too fast for their body to handle. However it was a little bit of a different story with Roxas. From first letting the rich apple flavour touch his lips he almost spat it out in disgust. From that mere taster he couldn't quite understand why rich people even drank that stuff it was incredibly horrible. Yet there was alot of things he didn't understand in the worlds and so he just shrugged it off per usual.

Beginning to come forward into the crowd, he thought he would mingle a little bit more but little did he know someone was here who knew him, and he knew her. Pushing past a kid not much older than him, he shot a glare at him with those deep blue eyes of his in a threatening manner. It seemed that others here were determined to cause some ruckus but the blonde haired kid was prepared for anything, this happened alot anyway. Living with someone like Saix who was probably the most loyal of the Organization yet lacked predictablity. That was something #1 didn't take kind too at all.

Then it happened. They locked eyes at each other, or so Roxas believed. Standing rigid and frozen, he didn't move an inch at all. It was Kairi, that girl he had spoken too first from falling off the Station Tower. But he had spoken to her after that at the Alter of Naught. It was very strange indeed that it was going like this, why was he scared of her. Of course, she knew him and would blow his cover. Not taking a second thought, he utilized his essential Nobody techniques. A black puddle swirled beneath his feet in a perfect circle before rising out of the ground enveloping the young kid, and within moments he was gone. Not many would have noticed his disappearance yet someone must have.

[atrum]

Atrum had been mindlessly walking among the constant stream of people who had been entering and leaving the party for what could have well been hours. He had visited here for the solo purpose of gathering information, but tonight all he had discovered was the true meaning of the word irrelevance.

Tonight something was bound to happen, the sheer masses of people that seemed to have gathered must have some reason for all being here. The idea of it just being a normal party didn't seem right.

Upon another quick glance about the room he noted something strange. Something of interest. A child, probably in his early teens, had disappeared on the spot, darkness had risen from the floor and smothered him. Still he had gone and it was what the boy and been staring at that intrigued him most of all.

A girl stood surrounded by people, but she was no ordinary girl. No, Atrum had heard enough rumors while traveling the worlds. Her name was Kairi, one of the people who had locked away Kingdom Hearts. He made his way over to the crowd, attempting to see what information he could possibly over hear.

[Violinist]

Maileaa waited for the crowd to block her view of Kairi before ripping herself out of the strange man's grip and aiming a punch at his jaw. She was only inches away from her target before that invisible hand was back. Maileaa strained against that force and her hand inched its way towards the man's face, finally connecting with the force of a gentle brush. "Great," she muttered, "if I had the power to beat you to death with feathers then I would have an edge here." Without another word, Maileaa grabbed the man and dragged him to the refreshments where she poured some punch into a glass and swallowed it in one gulp. Her hands were shaking so much that she spilled half of it over her hand and nearly missed her mouth. She was already feeling that incredible urge to return to her target, but she would first settle this man that was trying to keep her from finishing her mission.

"Do you know what it is like to be completely helpless in a mass of people where anyone could be an enemy? For eleven years I have had the ability to control the flow of time at will. Now that that ability is blocked, I am defenseless. My armor has been removed, my blade taken from my hand, my shield has been shattered. You could strike me down and do whatever you wanted to me and I would be powerless to resist you. I am not allowed to tell you why I am here, but I will give you this warning. Stay out of this. You are in way over your head."

Before giving in to the rapidly strengthening urge to tie herself to Kairi, Maileaa would grace this man with a fraction of her time, precious as it was.

---

When the song rolled to a halt, Jason felt ecstatic when he saw the dancers float along in a state of bliss before stopping. One of them rushed up to the stage and asked for another slow song. Jason simply grinned and started playing another.

[demlex]

Demlex stood soulessly in one of the corners of the almost cicular room, this was not a place for him normally, but he supposed it would be fine for now. He looked up, the glass cieling led upward into towering peaks of stone. He looked around, everyone was having fun, many of the guest were wearing extravigent dresses, it was something very odd to him, he was not used to this. He still remained with his everyday clothes. Demlex looked into the masses of people, this was a enjoyible night, something met with many smiling faces and wild gossip.

"Tch, I'm wasting my time here."

Demlex needed to find his past self and since his past self knew about him after his accident, the past Demlex changed his course and vanished.

Demlex looked at his palms. Upone entering the extravigent doorway in the beasts castle, he felt his magical power vanish. It must of been the party, with so many powerful guest, they had to force them to get along. Demlex shook his hand back and forth then hid it once again behind his cloak, that was actually slightly opened now.

[kiera]

The party dragged on. Kiera's eyelids drooped. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to come to this particular party, but some part of her mind kept nagging her to stay. The rest of her mind was telling her leave, bu her body wouldn't obey, no matter how much her mind told that the moment she walked out Crescent Angel would be returned to her along with her other abilities. At the moment she felt the itch to transform into her other form, the form of a giant black cat. No matter what she did though, she was unable to transform. The thought not only annoyed her but also distressed her. A creature that only knew violence, malice, and bloodshed never felt at peace whenever a storm passed over. The few precious moments of tranquility was lost on her.

At least no one came close enough to sense her distress or her boredom. Or speak to her. Her resolve was thin at the moment and the peace annoyed her. Annoyance took its toll on the half breed. Her eyes darkened to black as she shifted her weight. Maybe it was a good thing no one spoke to her. Dresses and skirts always made her feel out of sorts. The fact that she actually might have looked good startled her. She did not want the attention of any men. But...

There was that annoying but at the end of every thought! She slightly growled and rubbed her temples. The but to this thought was she hadn't made one friend since her younger years. All her words came out harsh and sarcastic. It was amazing she had managed to stay alive all this time. Sighing, she gave into her 'weaker' side and made her way over to the refreshments. Her throat was dry, or so she told herself. Maybe someone would strike up a conversation and she wouldn't sound cruel or angry. Or heartless. Honest to whatever deity would listen to her, she didn't feel like having someone accuse her of a Heartless in guise of something human-like.

[myone]

He was....still rather confused. But hey, at least the girl screaming and crying had turned the attention away from him!

He took advantage of this distraction and ducked into an unoccupied corner. Here he sat for a while, watching everyone with paranoid intents.

He had given up the sweet hope that this was the most twisted dream he'd ever have, and reality sunk in. Here he was-14 years old, and stuck in a suit and flower! He was missing valuable nap time.

A thought struck him. How was he going to get out of this nightmare just sitting around? As much as he wished it, previous experiences proved that, most unfortunately, the things you want don't just come to you.

He stood up and started edging his way through the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a red haired girl, a man in a white tuxedo, and the same girl who had been crying earlier.

They'll have to do, he thought grimly, and strode over to them. Remember, polite!

"er...ahem. Hello there!" He held out his hand, having seen other party goers do it to greet people they didn't know. "M-my name's Konaa."

Smooth. If it weren't his youth that would make him appear bad, it was going to be his obvious ignorance in how social greetings work that would alienate him.

This was getting off to a rollicking start.

[deathrowotaku]

It was interesting... Arbitrix had seen quite a lot this night, but so had everyone else it seemed. He didn't move from his table until now. He decided if there was to more outbursts much like the girl screaming out the window he would want to know the cause of it. Sure it was none of his business and yet again, he wasn't fond of crowds but he was growing bored, at least thirsty.

Rising from his char he realized his leg had fallen asleep. How long had he been sitting there? He shook his head and walked, though in an odd way, over to the refreshments. As he approached the the table he realized that it seemed everyone at the party had gotten hungry at the same time. Of all the interesting people at the table he was most interested in the man downing drink after drink. He kept thinking the man would soon lose all of the drink he had consumed and would be lying in a pool of his own sick.

Nope, he kept chugging them down and Arbitrix was a mixture of disgust, impressed, and near laughter. He eventually took a step up to the man with the intent of attempting conversation but then realized anyone drinking that amount of alcohol either wanted to beat someone before or did now. So upon drawing breath for words he let it out again with a laugh and leaned onto the table to watch in awe as the man kept at his chugging.

[kairikiller]

Kairi gently smiled upon the man she had talked to by the window. This female's personality couldn't help, but make her giggle at his response toward her as she just continued moving her foot to the rhythm of the band. Men were funny that way.

And then, something stirred within her. She placed one hand on top of the other on top of her chest with her eyes diverted to the floor. Before she could pass it off as nothing, the feeling returned, but stronger. Stronger, stronger, stronger. This beating sickness within her seemed to burn her Heart and turn her stomach with each stirring it made. It had turned her face sour, but wasn't anything that could have alerted someone watching her.

Her eyes briefly up-turned to the man she was still standing by, forcing a smile. "Sorry about that," she said after the stirrings stopped. The feeling was gone, so she linked her hands behind her back and just carryed on. Kairi blissfully just tossed the feeling off as if it was nothing; ignorance is bliss. But, that ignorance wasn't something her body would allow, so it sent her body into another fit of sickness and acidic burning.

"I'm coming...!"

Kairi's eyes were thrown open by this voice, not of fear, but of surprise. What was that voice that she had heard? No one else, upon looking around, had heard it. Only her.

This feeling of sickness was still mild, nothing a young woman couldn't handle. "What...is this?" she whispered to her own ears.

The voice's laughter could be heard in her head. "Here I AM!"

The feeling intensified and the black silhouette behind the window in which they stood by was caught by her eye. "Watch out!" she cried, forcefully pushing the man (and anyone nearby) out of the way of the window. In her attempt at saving him, she landed on the ground and ducked.

The huge window burst inward. The massive creature's form had light reflected upon by the many pieces of fragmented glass. To Kairi, it seemed like the creature had entered in slow motion. The monster seemed to be 8 feet tall and was very bulky. But, this bulk was covered by a ripped and torn trenchcoat that was held together by thick, silver chains. The red, porcelain mask that covered its entire face was featureless, only having holes for eyes. From the back of the creature's head jutted out this mass of hair. The hair was unkept and reached to the floor if it was to be standing, and the hair was red with black highlights. It was close to landing now, still in slow motion to her. Around the thing's wrists were thick cuffs with a chain dangling off of it. She could see on the back of the thing's torn coverings was a red symbol.

With a few screams from the guests of the party, the creature landed. It skid several feet and the glass that hit the floor followed. Slowly, the creature stood. "Some party," it said, laughing afterwards. "Now, where is my date?" It pretended to look around, knowing the exact location of his 'date'. With a slow turn to Kairi, the eyeholes in the mask glowed a darker red than that of his mask. But at the sight of her, the humanoid thing tilted its head. "You're Kairi?" he asked in a tone of frustration.

The monster leapt through the air. Nearly instantaneously, Kairi's KeyBlade met with the monster's mask in a leap of sparks and chips. The monster, who was leaning over to get a closer look at the girl, had been smacked in his face by Kairi's instincts. The mask now had a huge crack running through its center. Emphasized by his moving shoulders, the monster laughed it off. But then, his laughter quickly cut off, and his tone was that of annoyance. "This girl...is supposed to be the other half of the Path? Ugh. Pathetic."

"Be quiet!" The girl was still on instinct, and so she swung the KeyBlade again.

Her swing was answered by an even greater shower of sparks than before. The KeyBlade had been blocked by a shield. The red shield's center had a keyhole in its center. Its basic form was that of a triangle that curved inward on the top. Hanging off of each of the 3 corners was a chain length of 2 feet. The entire shield itself was about 5 feet tall and with a proportional width. Behind this shield, the thing snickered. "You act like you've never seen one of these bad boys before!" The creature, with all of its muscle, swung his shield outwards and Kairi was sent flying.

Kairi smacked the opposite wall and landed on her face.

The creature, ignoring all the others, began to approach the fallen Kairi. "Out of all the other Path halves in this universe...I get this insect." The thing sighed at himself. Once it had reached her, he said, "Get up, girl! Have some pride as the other Dusk!"

The creature was answered by Kairi's moans. "What do you want?!" she coughed up the thing.

"Why...baby doll, I just want you."

Before Kairi could question the thing's sentence, she was forcefully scooped up by the monster's hefty leg and flung into the wall. And, before she could fall, she was pinned by the throat by his large hand. "You have no fighting spirit."

And, with that, Kairi began to scream and wiggle. Not because she was being choked, but because of something else. After the monster placed his shield against her chest and a small unlocking sound, the entirity of Kairi's form faded to black, Keyblade and clothes and all. It had started at her feet and soon climbed upwards at a rapid pace. Once her head was consumed, her screaming stopped. The creature then removed his hand from the darkened Kairi, and like glass, she shattered upon the ground. The monster held his shield above the pile of shards that had once been Kairi. They glowed red briefly, but soon dissolved into particles that were absorbed into the shield itself.

He examined his shield briefly, wondering when he'd actually use this new power he had gained. "Feh...I got the easy one." Before the other people present could do or say anything, the monster bound through the window and was gone.

[Sorry for any inconveniences concerning Kairi's location or characters that were near/with her.]

[~/\The Dragon Writer/\~]

As Kairi started smiling and giggling, Kylon couldn't help but return the favor. He usually didn't do things like that, but today was a day that he was feeling brave. He was about to ask her again, in a more 'flirty' way, when he noticed there was something wrong with Kairi. She put her hands on her chest, and let her gaze fall to the floor. Kylon couldn't help but to feel slightly afraid for her health. She was rather young, and Kylon didn't want anything to happen to her that would make her sick. Hearing that she was apologizing, he thought that there was something strange going on.
"Er...you don't have to apologize. If you're feeling sick, then-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Kairi's eyes suddenly widened. A concerned and confused gaze from Kylon looked at her, hoping that nothing was truly wrong. He could tell that it wasn't just some ploy to try and get him to go away. If it was, Kairi probably would've used a much less, over-the-top method. And she probably would've used one of those cliche lines like 'I've gotta fix my hair' or something. No, something was definately wrong. When she let out a whisper hardly audible to him, he could tell that she wasn't alright. He moved his hand over to her shoulder, and was about to try and comfort her, when suddenly, she yelled at him.
"What the-AH!"

Before Kylon had any time to react to anything, he felt his feet leave the ground completely. Kairi, who was surprisingly strong, had pushed him away from her. His back hit the ground, causing him to skid on the very smooth and slick wood floor. Crashing against a wall not too far from where he once stood, he was about to get up and ask Kairi what that was for, when suddenly, a giant beast crashed through the window. Kylon could hardly believe what was happening! Just a few moments ago, he was enjoying a nice and peaceful party, then suddenly, all hell broke loose. Before he could even get up, Kairi had drawn her keyblade and began attacking the strange beast.
"What's going on?!"

Then, before he could even blink, he watched as Kairi flew across the room to the opposite wall. Kylon let out a scream of...well...seeing Kairi being thrown across the room didn't exactly make him happy. Springing to his feet, he quickly went to draw his swords, only to find that they weren't there. He swore he had felt them before, but he then realised it was only his sheathes. Looking over to the pile of weapons not far from him, he spied Sol and Luna, instantly rushing toward them. When he was only a few feet away from them, he reached out to grab his swords, but found his hand stopped by some unknown force.
"No, NO!"

Looking back over to where Kairi and the beast were, he saw that she had suddenly been shadowed by some strange shield the beast was using. With eyes wide out of fear and shock, Kylon dashed as fast as he could toward the two, praying that he'd be able to save her somehow. Unfortunately, by the time he had gotten there, Kairi was gone, and the beast went back through the window. Kylon looked down at the ground where Kairi once lay and dropped to his knees. His hands felt around at the ground, trying to comprehend what had happened. But there was no way that he could understand. All that he could do was sit there in the ballroom, looking down at the ground.

Kairi was gone...