Masquerade Ball

[Admin]

[Beast's Ballroom]
{Remember, no fighting.}

Upon entering this room, your character takes on a randomized costume. These costumes are usually of a Medieval nature, ala a jester, but I'm sure you could find some of a Halloween nature. Against the left and right walls are stretch tables full of wild and extravagant foods. Through the farthest wall, you can see the bright moon through the large amount of glass. In front of this massive window is a small orchestra, constantly playing music to dance to. The room is lit up by an unimaginable amount of candles throughout the room, but mainly from the chandelier above. And remember, don't be a wallflower.

[Memories]

"Why the hell am I here again?", were the first words Mem said to himself since arriving at the very extravagant ballroom about fifteen minutes ago. He had just now been packing all the delectible looking food he could onto the plate he currently held in his hand. He wouldn't begin to try and pronounce the names of the various entrees and pastries he had just picked up. Besides that fact he was greatly troubled by his sudden forgetfullness of the reason he was eveb here. At that point he was so concentrated on remembering the purpose for his arrival that the plate he held nearly slipped out of his hands. Slipping back into reality, Memoriam grabbed the plate with both hands before all the food flopped onto the table. His sudden knock back into reality reluctantly made him realize why he had come here.

The reason was simply due to boredom. Mem had nothing much to do on Silver Shores, and there wasn't any epic battles to be fought so he thought he might unwind and go to a masquerade
ball which he had heard about. So here he was, the same man with a foolish and rather dumbfounded look on his face, and a plate with a heaping pile of various fancy foods.

"Oy, well I best stop talking to myself and enjoy my meal" With that said, Memoriam sat down at one of the empty tables and simply started eating. It wouldn't be long before he realized that he didn't have the "acquired taste" and wiped the food out of his mouth with a napkin. His meal now ruined, Mem put on his rather ornate goblin-esque mask and followed his feet to the ballroom floor to find a partner with whom to dance with.

[Violinist]

Only a few minutes after the only other guest so far had given up on his meal, Michael Paladin walked into the ballroom. His outfit had changed, but that wasn't really uncommon when visiting other worlds. Currently his normally comfortable outfit had changed into what could quite accurately be described as a close-fitting red tuxedo. Along with the tux was a red cape, a big hat that was also red. His cane had also transformed, becoming thicker, non-collapsible and it had a skull on top. Also, it wasn't white anymore. As for a mask, all the Paladin had on his face was a red bandanna that covered his eyes.

'It seems like I'm early,' he thought to himself as he cautiously climbed down the stairs into the hall below. 'Unless the hall is filled with ninjas, there's only one other person here besides me.' Judging by the scents, there were huge buffets lining two walls of the room and there was a small orchestra playing near the windows opposite to the entrance. Deciding not to bother the other guest yet, Michael headed towards one of the tables lined with food. When he reached the table, he realized that he had no idea where the plates or the cutlery was. With a sigh, he turned towards the footsteps of the other guest. "Hey!" he hollered, "where're the plates?"

Only a second after talking, Michael started walking towards the guest. His cane made a clacking sound on the tiled floor that was only overcome by his voice that sounded once again, this time in a warning. "And don't say anything silly like telling me to take this blindfold off or pointing or anything. I'm blind."

[Memories]

It was now Mem also realized that except for one man who had just entered the ballroom and the orchestra he was the only one there. He felt a bit foolish walking onto the dance floor when there was no one to dance with. There was the gentleman who just entered, but he was well, a guy. As far as Memoriam knew, he was straight and typically only danced with girls. Then again he had never given the idea of straight and gay much thought since he had never felt attracted to anyone.

Of course he had no time for these absurd thoughts, a well-dressed blind person needed to find those plates. Deciding not to lead him over to where the plates were, Memoriam simply picked one up and forced it in his hands. From what he could tell the nameless man he just gave a plate to was definetly blind. Making obvious observations was one of Mem's specialties.

"So...what would you like good sir? There's some frog's legs, caviar, buttered lobster tail, something that looks like a severed tongue, and greenish goo." Mem was being as formal as he could for the certain occasion. After all this ball was supposed to be fancy. His rather extravagant garments were no exception. Upon warping into this world he had been blessed with a fine silk robe which fit him perfectly unlike the ruddy green coat he usually wore. Under that was a burgundy shirt made out of the same material as the robe. His pants were made of comfortable cotton that kept him warm, and his boots were now knee-high and made of even more expensive leather. Mem also had a rather rediculous purple hat with many oversized bird feathers.

Mem's appearance was all well and good, but he needed to focus on his blind companion. After all until the other guests arrived this man would be his only source of entertainment. Though he was guessing that the feeling of optimism going on right now wasn't shared by the nameless man with a cane.

[windy]

Windy entered the room, staring at the splendor, wide eyed. The sheer size and brilliance of the ballroom sent her stumbling in mid-stride. She had never seen so much finery in one place. Everything the eye could see, caught the light beautifully, causing a nearly blinding effect. Everything gleamed like some sort of fairy tale, causing the girl to squint slightly, shading her eyes with a hand and moving forward slightly.

Suddenly she felt a light sensation starting at her neck and moving quickly down to her feet. Raising an eyebrow in silent question, her attention was suddenly moved to her newly clothed arms, and then slowly to the rest of her. The scruffy thief suddenly had a bright red flowing, delicate, ballroom dress hanging from her shoulders. It was manifested by magic, so it was not nearly as heavy and irritating as it would normally be. But it was an odd feeling.

Hm. Talk about a dress code…

Shrugging off the change of attire, she immediately went back to taking in her surroundings. Her head swiveled about in an eager attempt to take in as much as possible. First down to her feet at the intricate ballroom floor. Then the standing orchestra, deep in concentration, crafting their music with as much quality as anything else in the room. Then the ceiling…oh my, the ceiling. The ceiling was masterfully painted with such skill as to yank one’s breath from their chest. Her head was pointing straight upwards in awe with shining eyes as she ran forward to get a better look at it.

She did, of course, promptly trip as she reached the middle of the room. How terribly undignified. Oh well.

But she merely rolled over and folded her arms behind her head, to continue to admire the artwork. Red slippers now adorned her feet and they moved back and forth whimsically to the music. Apparently, though you could make her dress the part, Windy always found a way to seem entirely out of place.

[yourei]

It had been awhile yet but Yourei was still having troubles figuring out what costume he wanted to wear. None of the old fashioned ones suited him nor did he like the feel of them on his rather sensitive skin. He needed something simple so he would still be allowed to the ball but something that wouldn't hurt him in the process. So he couldn't wear anything that was suppose to fit, he needed somewhat baggy clothing.

What now? Was all that he could think of in his head when he came across an old room that looked like it hadn't been used in years. He there found an old white bed sheet. He decided that he would use it as his costume, an old ghost costume that had been around for years. He couldn't cut the sheet though since it wasn't his but when he put it over his head it was see through enough for him. He would have to go downstairs in order to meet up with everyone else. It wasn't his party that he was attending but it was a party and it was open to public so he might as well go.

Yourei made his way down the stairs to see three other guests beside himself. Two of them were male while the third was female. He wasn't going to ask questions about their costume and was hoping that they wouldn't wonder who he was behind his costume. Underneath his costume however you wouldn't see much difference in the skin tone from the bedsheets from how pale he was though.

Yourei made his way down the rest of the stairs then sat down where he was since he was too shy to join in with the other guests.

[geenween]

Selia couldn't dance, but by looking at the many guests who limited to stand around, she guessed it didn't matter too much, like she had feared at first when she had seen the orchestra. Probably, she guessed, that event wasn't a real ball, more like a gathering, and during gatherings there was music but you weren’t forced to dance. Or maybe those people who didn’t join them were kind of spoiling all the fun (even though she believed there wasn’t that much fun in a walzer), in that case, however, she decided she was going to be a spoiler too. Not need to make a fool of herself by tripping on other people’s shoes.

She only had the time to make a few steps toward the center of the large room before an hand blocked her. A maid pointed toward a wardrobe full of dresses and then to a small changing area. Her words were clear and merciless: 'without dress you can't enter'.

Selia eyed the clothes with doubt, she didn’t want to have to stand outside the room like a moron, even though those pieces of vestiary didn’t meet her fancy too much. The only ones that could fit her had skirts, and the only skirts with a length that she really liked were of Halloween-like costumes. There was no way she was going to put one of those gloomy things, she decided, eventually resigning to pick a simple dress with an heel-long skirt.

At least, once changed, she didn't look horrible or awkward. The colour, a rather dull blue, didn't underline her pale skin too much and the gown was so simple that she didn't risk to trip over at every step. Half-satisfied, she mingled with the rest of the guests, minding to keep away from the candles. Her hair were still untied and the cloth she wore looked easily fire-catching...

[ophelia]

Ophelia burst through the gilded doors head over heels in a backwards tumble of dusty fabric. She stumbled and skid, toppled and turned, trying to regain her balance on the marble that kept slipping out from under her. An embroidered eyelet on her train had snagged on the hinges and with a large dreadful ripping noise tore her voluminous skirts in a long strip that lengthened as she spun nearer the center of the dance floor. Faster and faster, the ribbon grew longer and longer, stretching from one end of the hall to the other. One slipper flew off her foot and into the far corner of the room, yet another landed in the punch bowl. A pearl choker dangling on her neck broke, and grimy beads clattered in all directions. The merling's long mane of hair swung like a disorderly pendulum in the flickering candle light.

With one final whirl, directly under the center chandelier, the strip shredded and snapped and left Ophelia to fall in a dizzy and disoriented heap. She staggered to her feet (in the midst of an aghast group of dancers) and wobbled, utterly cross-eyed. Draped in the shambles of what was once a musty emerald pompadour gown, but now resembled nothing less than tattered velvet curtains. Tattered unbecoming curtains that were less modest than she would have liked. Her bare legs and half her scaly shoulder showed!

Trying to cover herself, she threw her head back as proudly as she could (considering the circumstances) and patted her snarly green tresses. Then swiveling her head around to survey the crowd, she sniffed and decided it was best to make her way to the side of the foyer. So as to regain a little of her precious dignity. Or a strong glass of whiskey.

[yourei]

The boy couldn't help but look up when he heard someone burst through the front doors and even though he couldn't see everyones faces or appearance the best he could tell that the person was female and had long seaweed green hair.

It didn't take the newcomer long to make a scene by accident by coming in backwards through the doors then skidding, toppling and turning. Her skirt could be heard ripping even from where he was sitting and he could see the thread from her skirt spinning around and around until she herself had ended up in the middle of the dance floor. One of the shoes she was wearing went flying and a splash could be heard from one of the tables meaning that it had landed in a punch bowl, whatever she was wearing could be heard breaking then smashing onto the floor and then after all that the last of her skirt had ripped off and she fell to the floor with parts of her upper dress missing aswell.

The poor girl tried to cover herself with no prevail and then it looked as though she was about to burst into tears. Yourei not knowing exactly what he was doing ran forward to her and took off his bedsheet revealing his rather pale appearance and strange clothing before he quickly wrapped it around the girl to cover her properly being sure not to make her feel uncomfortable.

"There.. their are more dresses upstairs to choose from." He talked silently and mostly in a shy manner since she had been the very second person that he had actually talked to in his new body life. He wasn't sure what to say and if she asked him to help her up he would have no choice but to kindly refuse. He didn't like the touch of people on his skin, for some reason it hurt him.

[Memories]

For as long as physically possible, Memoriam focused on getting the blind fellow his food, but with the entrance of four new guests, that task amounted to an utter failure. To put it bluntly, curiousity had gotten the best of him, and Mem felt it his obligation to mingle and entertain the new arrivals. He first made sure the handicapped man had his hand firmly on the plate before he departed. "Seeing as how everyone's here it's my duty to bid welcome. The food is right in front of you so just feel around. I think someone of your nature will take more of a fancy to it than I did." With the nameless man now taken care of (as best Memoriam could take care of him) the dream spirit departed to the furthest wall where you could see a breathtaking view of the moon up close.

"Three ladies and two gentlemen", Mem said to himself, now at the very end of the room, just in front of the window which withheld the cool breeze of the night. From what he could tell by his recent survey, two of those ladies were clumsy to say the least. Particularly the scaly one who just entered. Mem's eyes were reasonably quick enough to catch a glance at her odd appearance. In fact clumsy might have been an understatement. The girl nearly killed herself just coming in to the ballroom. Mem decided she would be his main target for the time being. After all meeting someone like her only came once in a lifetime. He'd seen enough blind men, pretty girls, and ghosts for ten lifetimes.

To begin his new engagment, Mem sauntered over to the punch bowl whistling a dandy tune as he picked the poor girl's shoe out of the bowl, and tossed it a few times, up and down in the air. It still had a bit of punch left in it even after the numerous toss-ups so Memoriam drank the rest figuring it was terrible to waste it. "This punch definetly needs more sugar, of course that might also be the fact I'm drinking this out of a shoe. Then again anything could use a bit more sugar in my opinion." With that said he tossed the lovely lady her shoe. "Also the dress is lovely dear. The recent trim gives it um.....zazz."

[windy]

Stretching with a contented sigh, Windy, still laying on the ballroom floor, bright eyes affixed to the masterful ceiling artwork, seemed reminiscent of a stargazer, contemplating the familiar landscape of shadows and light. Her dark hair swirled across the floor in random patterns, and she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light of the glittering chandeliers, the better to observe her chosen sight. She found the hard floor rather pleasantly cool, and considered staying like this a while longer.

Suddenly, a loud, angry ripping noise reverberated throughout the hall. Windy winced visibly, wrinkling her nose at the sudden interruption of the overall pleasantness. Raising an eyebrow in questioning annoyance, she sat up just in time for a rather harried looking green haired girl to stumble in front of her, and for a large bit of ripped green fabric she suspected used to be part of her dress to flop unceremoniously upon her tousled head. She twitched underneath her new, rather unwelcome, hat. Throwing it off to the side watching it skid slightly along the smooth floor, she considered returning it to the girl, but she doubted it would do much good now.

Pulling herself to her feet again, she supposed all that was a good indication that she should abandon her session of ceiling-gazing for something slightly less hazardous. She considered moving toward the food, as she was rather hungry...

However, the prominent melancholy of the poor orchestra was impossible to ignore. Clearly they had noticed that no one was dancing. They would surely be paid either way, but it was obvious that they would prefer that their music induced merriment.

Without any further thoughts or planning, the wayward thief launched herself into a twirl, beginning a sort of improvised and energetic waltz with an invisible parter. Humming along with the tune of the brightening musicians, she found herself laughing brightly as she skidded and pranced comically.

[geenween]

That party was becoming… weird, though Selia wasn’t regretting at all to have decided to participate. From a potentially bothering gathering were people did nothing but stand around and look at other dance, now it had turned into a show for slighlty freaky creatures and probably-crazy dancers. Selia watched all the turmoil with mild interest. She was used to not (completely) human beings with her live in Traverse Town, though those behaved in a quite worrisome way, like they had never been in a crowd. Probably, that assumption was very right in the green-haired scaly girl’s case, as for the other… well, that could be stress.

The young woman shook her head: she should stop speculating about others, it was not that polite. The problem was that she was too used to it and besides, who would know? She smiled lightly as she saw the immediate ‘success’ of the green haired scaly-girl: already a few guests were trying to make her feel better, though something told her she wasn’t going to exactly thank them after such a scene. She didn’t look like a gentle and helpless creature, regardless of the physical aspects.

She was curious to see if she was right with her guess, but as she stood there, she had to scramble back as the dancing black haired teenager almost hit her in her swirling. An “Hey!” escaped her mouth, though immediately after she thought she should have kept quiet. It wasn’t the case to start a quarrel over something of little importance, though the dancer could really look at where she went.

Selia moved away from that area, so to be safe from any accidental ‘tackle’. That brought her closer to the spot where the fallen girl(?) had fallen, but she didn’t want to be noticed and tried to stay in the midst of the crowd.

[ophelia]

A linen sheet smothered her from behind.

Old and thin as a spider's web, it reeked so strongly of child's sweat that she nearly gagged when it was thrown over her. Shoulder's stiffened and eyes narrowed in horror. Something resembling a grown-up still-born dipped in confectioner's flour was whispering a baby-sparrow's whisper in her ear. An indiscernible wheeze of air and sounds. Blowing that cloying rock-candy gone sour scent directly into her eyes. It had emerged from down under the sheet. What a grotesque. How grotesque. It was touching her. It's scent was on her. Burrowing it's way into the pores of her skin. Sinking it's horrible uncertainly into her blood. The guest list had obviously gone down hill.

Ophelia whipped the sheet off like it was on fire.

In her haste, she shoved the offending article so harshly back towards Yourei that her hand slammed into his chest, claws digging into flimsy cloth, nauseated beyond belief at this display of misplaced "kindness". (Empty headed little things like that only ever butted in when they were thinking of others and mucking up society.) Ophelia wheeled around for an escape, her push morphing into shove. But when she came full circle she was faced by a leering mask. A goblin man, blocking her path. Brandishing her shoe? What on earth?

"This punch definitely needs more sugar, of course that might also be the fact I'm drinking this out of a shoe. Then again anything could use a bit more sugar in my opinion. Also the dress is lovely dear. The recent trim gives it um.....zazz."

He lobbed the shoe at her. Against her better judgment, Ophelia caught the sodden slipper. It landed with a splatter of mulberry colored juice in her outstretched palms, dripping slowly onto the hem of her dress and onto the polished floor. She gazed down at it with an expression of the utmost revulsion, then turned her head away and gave it a pained wring. A small stream of punch dribbled out from the ruined sole and purposefully unto Memoriam's toes.

"Thank you…Sir" came the begrudging reply. An undertone of dry distaste annunciated in every syllable, her upper lip barely curling. "I'm only glad my recent…incident altered my dress so that it resembled the general dress code." She flashed a razor toothed smiled, eyes lingering on the boy-creature behind her.

[windy]

Windy swiftly sidestepped another girl, with an impudent cackle. Her own scruffy and wild mane of inky black hair presented an interesting contrast as it whirled passed the soft well managed dark tresses of the older girl. Rough and unkempt met shined and polished. Snorting with her all too common disdain she disregarded the startled protest of the blue-clad woman.

A long time had passed since the shock and dismay of other people had phased her. She had spent so much time among the dull, simple, populace of her hometown that she had simply ceased to acknowledge the presence of most other people. They were of little interest to her. They were predicable and boring, like clockwork figures. She often wondered if she was the only one who was whole and real.

No one had ever really caught her attention properly. No one seemed worth noticing.

However, she was slowly beginning to realize that people outside her tiny world seemed different than the two-dimensional simpletons she had come to expect. She briefly considered asking the other girl to dance with her as an apology. She had looked as if she could use some merriment in her day. But looking back, it appeared she had melted a knot of people without another word. Windy shrugged slightly before curtsying in apology to her neglected, yet nonexistent, dance partner before returning to her fanciful whirling dance.

As she returned to her dancing, she snickered in amusement at the hapless attempts to 'comfort' the green-haired woman whose dress had just suffered rather serious destruction. Poor Miss. First the dress, and now some silly fellow is throwing sheets on her unfortunate person. Though she had to admit that the ill-fated attempts at chivalry were somewhat amusing to watch.

Personally, she preferred the manners of her own partner.

[yourei]

He was in for it now, he had somehow offended the girl he was trying to cover the body of. It hadn't gone over her head and he was simply trying to cover the torn up part of her dress so that the girl could simply get another one instead of causing this much hassle. He himself wasn't sure how he offended her since he did best to keep his hands and arms to himself so that his skin wouldn't actually touch her because of his recent experiences with being simply touched.

The girl looked angry and then shoved his sheet back at him so angrily that she had actually pushed her hand into his chest sending him massive pain. To worsen that the girl had shoved her nails into the sheet which was barely reaching his skin but it was. He couldn't help but give a small yelp from the pain and fall back onto the ground. Why was being touched so painful to him and not painful to others?

The lady had walked off and been given a shoe from another man. The man had said something but Yourei didn't hear it and the girl seemed to thank him then come out with a nasty side comment to Yourei. That his clothing wasn't in dress code. It had to be though, people had used sheets that were old for ghosts for many years. The costume also reminded him of a life he pretty much lived for most of his life.

Insulted and in pain from being touched Yourei got up again and covered himself in the sheet he had handed the girl moments before to hide himself and not just his appearance but the tears he had running down his face. He hid those until he was covered then let them leak down. It was the pain from being touched then insulted all at once that made him cry. He cried silently though so you couldn't hear it and he made no motion indicating that he was upset either. He was extremely lucky that his tears weren't leaking through the sheet or on the floor.

"I hate living people." He said this to himself but it was probably loud enough that a few people would hear it. Even if it wasn't meant for them. His tone was low and everybody else was pretty silent at the moment he had said it, even under the music it was loud enough to be heard from nearby people.

He had now gone back upstairs to stay until he was sure the ball was over and it was safe to come down. He decided to stay in the room where he had found the cloth and sit down in a chair still completely covered in the sheet. He blended in about as well as a white crumpled piece of paper does on flat paper.