The Masquerade Ball

by **Engghaen** on February 4th, 2014, 4:10 pm

OOCNote: I say 'girl', but Engghaen looks about 19.
The girl shook up as she felt a warm hand touch her shoulder. She immediately pulled it back, not expecting such sudden attention. "Are you alright? What happen?" Alright.. She? No, not now. And the Ethaefal could definitely see that, she did not really appear 'alright'. Therefore, she assumed it was just part of common politeness and she shook her head. Did she really need to explain, here, now, what happened? Surely she did not want to. She wanted to go home, but she had stupidly signed herself up for the auction. With a sniff she looked in that direction. It had started and the first woman stepped up. As the cat had expected, she was beautiful, just like the rest, and the bidding started immediately with one man overbidding a lot. It was obvious that everyone here owned a lot of money, and now she had proof.

She wiped the tears out of her eyes, muttering to herself. You're gonna be fine, don't worry, you're not that bad... Remember when Brandon fell for you? You just need to lear to have fun, that's all.. The girl nodded. Yes, that was true. She needed to learn how to have fun and how to behave at parties. But she could not just leave the woman worried here. Clearly one or other maternal instinct had popped up in her as she had appeared out of nowhere and tried to comfort her.

The cat stared in the eyes of the woman. "Sorry.. Miss.. I'm not alright. The only person I know here is gone, dancing with a wonderful girl, and here everyone has money, and it's too busy, and I don't want a drink, a..and.. I signed up for that auction b..but nobody will bid on me and I'll disappoint everyone and...

But I'll be fine I think. Thank you for worrying. I hope you'll have fun too." And again, she wiped away what was left and took a deep breath. Don't worry, don't worry.. You'll be fine. Just relax and things will be okay. With that she stepped out of her corner, looking back at the woman for once and then disappeared into the crowd.

She was thirsty. She noticed that right away and walked to some or other table, filled with things that looked drinkable. Oh dear. What a disaster. If there was anything the girl knew nothing of, it had to be wines. They were all wines in dozens of colours and shapes and sizes and.. She could hear her brains trying to pick out something. Oh, oh.. The cat sighed. "Ummm..." Those different smells were confusing her. They all had some distinctive smells she did recognise, but trying to pick out which wine it was from.. Scratching her head, she looked puzzled and leaned towards something red. She picked up the glass and stared at it. Seemed drinkable. Poisonous things were normally brightly coloured, but this smelled quite well. She carefully brought it to her mouth and sipped. What this was, she had no idea. But it was not bad. Not that it was her preference, but it was not bad. Holding her drink, she looked around for something to do or someone to talk to.

x

by **Alses** on February 5th, 2014, 7:29 pm

e

Such delicious defiance! Such flouting of social rules and convention! Alses had to cover a rebellious smile – totally inappropriate to the fiery act committed, dashing a fine glass to the marble floor, such a waste – as Cassandra glared out her challenge to the world in general, steel-blue eyes ghosting over the crowds and focusing with furious intensity on the bidders vying for her company.

There were only two in the running so far, many having being eliminated by the audacious first bid, and one of them she recognized instantly, those velvety tones familiar to anyone who attained the upper echelons of the Dusk Tower. His Excellency the Patriarch of House Dusk, no less, resplendent as usual and with a wickedly mischievous shiver in his aura and glittering in his eyes.

‘What game are you playing, my lord?’ Alses thought, once again grateful for the mask that hid oh so much from the crowds all around. ‘Or is this just for your own amusement?’

The other was a complete mystery to her, bulking almost larger-than-life in formalwear that barely constrained the rippling musculature below, and with a leonine mane of luxuriant hair bursting from his head in a glossy wave: he drew the eye by his size and sheer presence – now that he’d announced himself, anyway.

The air was full of whispers, suddenly, of speculation – who was this girl, to have generated such interest? There was a fair bit of drink-fuelled laughter, too – good-natured and happy, thankfully, enjoying the entertainments on offer. This auction was an entertainment, that much was certain, just of a subtler kind than some might be used to, a spectator-sport rife with speculation and debate and no blood at the end of it all, always a plus. And it was for the good of the city, the progressive rebuilding of Sartu peak and aid for the people and families devastated in the disaster. Worthy causes all.

Decision made, on the turn of the instant, Alses snapped open her fan in one quick motion and raised it, glittering, into the air.

“Eight hundred.” Her voice wasn’t loud, exactly, but it didn't need to be. Rich in timbre and curiously resonant thanks to her mask, that elusive quality or perhaps simply the amount bid sent ripples of silence through the people closest to her following the calm pronouncement. She didn’t look at the other two again; one was a mystery and the other was Ald’gare Dusk, who could certainly outbid her if he was of a mind to do so.

It was impulsive, but who cared? It wasn’t as if she didn’t have the money, and Alses wondered what was behind the bravado, behind the haze of drink. She felt sure she’d seen horror, just briefly, and fury, before Cassandra had stepped onto the dais and thrown down her gauntlet, and those were emotions that bore closer examination.

Besides, it would be…nice…to see Cassandra again.

Yes, nice was the word.

Where the auction would go now, with three people in the running, well, that would be interesting to see. Perhaps she should take advantage of the momentary silence for a long dive down to the depths of auristics, read something of the intentions of the mystery challenger and Ald’gare Dusk – if she was able to scrutinize him, anyway.

Time to try.
e

by **Elysium** on February 9th, 2014, 8:22 pm

Silence again enveloped the ballroom, many turning to Alses in a mixture of awe and delight. Whispers began to hum all around her. ’Who is she?’ Some said, voices low and conspiratorial. ’I’d pay a thousand kina for her alone…’ One man joked nearby, elbowing his friend in the gut. Tiny choruses of laughter erupted here and there, as onlookers began to make their wagers.

”Eight hundred!” The auctioneer boomed. ”Going once, going twice…”

Fan arcing toward the sky, the giant decisively made his offer.

”Two thousand kina.” He said calmly.

There was nothing. Not a peep out of the entire crowd. The Patriarch’s brows shot up in incredulity. Chuckling, he raised both hands, his aura a mixture of bemusement and glee. Deep at the recesses there was nothing but a tight weave of merriment; it was for sport, for the challenge. He was no more bidding for Cassandra as he was bidding against the man. And from the look of it, he admitted defeat.

”Two thousand kina,” the man said shakily. ”That is truly unprecendented.” Meanwhile, the entire gathering had gone into collective apoplexy. There was shouts of triumph from some of the gathered Constellation, while the other notables of the city began to rumble in consternation. The crowd was laughing, cheering, gasping. The Sharai would be rebuilt, the city restored, all because of this Svefra girl who’d cast down the gauntlet in free spirited rebellion.

”What a remarkable young woman,” Chiona whispered, suddenly at Alses’ elbow. The woman was stunning in a backless gown, tasteful red embellished in gold. Her long mane was a mass of curls, tumbling artfully about her shoulders. ”For a moment there, I thought Father was about to strike the killing blow.” She pursed her crimson lips in good humor. ”You never cease to amaze me…” Her mouth bowed upward into a cheshire grin. ”Sela.”

”Two thousand going once… Going twice.”

A beat. Everyone turned to look at the man.

”Sold! To the mysterious stranger!”

He moved toward the dais. All eyes were set upon the pair of them. Extending a hand, he smiled, broad, full lips twisting up at the corners. Cassandra would feel an innate pull toward the man, as if he had his own gravity, luring her in with a power not of this world.

”You’re more radiant than waves dappled in sunlight, fiercer than the strongest storm. Miss Southwind, will you dance with me?”

by **Alses** on February 9th, 2014, 11:49 pm

e

OOCMeant to say it before, but I love that new post-box, Elysium!

“You’ve got your own,” Alses snapped in reply, furious beyond reason, the green-eyed monster making her emerald eyes almost glow behind her mask. “You distracted me! And now-” Her grip redoubled on her fan, shaking slightly and white as bone with the pressure.

“You’ve had things going your way far too much, as of late,” Chiona replied equably as the echoes of: ‘Sold!’ echoed around the room, but there was a warning flash in her eyes and a sudden stiffness of her posture; she wasn’t happy at Alses’ snappish reply. “Time to learn how to swallow that bitter pill and smile whilst you do it.” Chiona’s own smile at that wasn’t entirely nice, either – although later on, when calm asserted itself, Alses would concede that she probably deserved that, and a bit more besides.

“Essential part of being a politician – you do still want to be one, don’t you? I told you it wouldn’t all be jam and cake when you first mentioned it – and besides, it’s all for the good of the city.” She pronounced it sanctimoniously, casting her eyes theatrically heavenwards. Slightly more seriously, she continued: “Two thousand kina of repairs, Sela, keep your mind on that and not on the pretty sailor.” A slow shrug. “I hear they’re planning to sail soon, anyway.”

“Now, here’s what you’ll do," she continued, maintaining a light and meaningless smile as she spoke. To anyone nearby, it would seem as though they were simply chatting amicably together, exchanging gossip or confidences or just commiserations on Alses’ recent loss.

“When they’ve had their dance – which you’ll applaud like the rest of us – you’re going to be sporting: congratulate that rather muscular gentleman on his win and wish him a very pleasant time of it. And you’re going to do it with a smile in your voice and with not a hint of that ugly side of your personality that comes through when you get thwarted. You, my dear, are going to have to learn to smile all the time, even when you’re defeated, when you hate the guts of the person smirking at you. No time like the present to get in some practice, hmm?”

Chiona pursed her perfect lips and looked pensive for a few moments, evidently debating something. “Besides,” she continued, slightly more tentatively, “If you want that girl for anything more than a fun night out, then you have considerable resources at your disposal to see her again, don’t you? If our Councillor Radiant-”

“Rumoured,” Alses cut in quickly, mindful of prying ears even in the middle of a good, jealous fulmination.

Chiona waved away the word with an airy gesture and a knowing look. “-can’t manage to come up with some reason to visit the Svefra boats, then she’s a poor fit for the post indeed.”

With Chiona’s mildly threatening presence at her shoulder – and no sign of Lheili or anyone else even remotely likely to drag Lady Dusk off to some other corner of the ball, not even her father – Alses had no choice but to watch as the stranger who’d won Cassandra made his triumphant procession towards the dais to claim his prize.

Claim.

Unfortunate choice of words, especially since no-one seemed to know who he was. As he strutted up the avenue that opened for him, the cock of the walk and king of all he surveyed, contrary to instructions Alses was not smiling, not a bit of it. Thankfully, her mask hid it all, and she did at least have enough equipoise to put her hands together with a smattering of light applause that was all she could manage in the general jubilation all around.

“Al-Sela…” Chiona murmured presently, even as the man made a florid and overblown statement about Cassandra, a circuitous way of asking – as Lady Dusk had unerringly predicted – for a dance. Taking Alses’ slightly sullen silence for attention, she continued, eyes locked on the pair: “Is there anything…unusual…about that man? His aura, I mean. Or have I had too much to drink?”

“Yes, you probably have,” Alses replied, short and clipped. “I suppose you’re trying to calm me down?” Calmness and serenity were both necessary for auristics, and Chiona knew that, the minx. Even so, that was her peace offering and Alses sighed, obediently sinking herself into the numinous whilst the party and the sudden centrepiece event unfurled all around.

by **Cassandra Southwind** on February 11th, 2014, 3:22 am

Cassandra forgot to be flattered when the bidding began, too consumed by drink and the effort not to seem drunk. She had little concept of money, neither of the numbers that were shouted nor of the generosity they entailed. No, her concerns were a little more selfish, wavering between what these bidders intended to do with her and how she appeared to the rest of the crowd. She was doing a right good job of staring and seething when a female voice piped in, one which rang strikingly familiar in the pit of her gut.

Alses.

The vicious young Svefra faltered, perhaps all too visibly to the aurist and those like her. Despite herself, Cassandra's lips softened; her eyes grinned. Of course Alses was here. She matched the party, the pride and splendor of it, and still her grace surpassed it. Even in the form she might have personally considered lesser, the ethaefal woman seemed to shine from behind her mask. Cass could not have dreamed for a better end. She blinked wildly, attempting to resume her posturing toward the rest of her audience, but she could not help the new beat of excitement that had coupled on her happy heart.

Alas, the mood was short-lived. Just as the crowd's incessant whispering seemed to crescendo into satisfied finale, it was silenced again. The same man as before, the one with way more hair than was probably good for him, was lowering his fan by the time Cassandra could tear her realizing eyes from Alses. Two thousand? It took the foreigner a moment to remember what that number was. It was too big and abstract for her to fathom, much less care. All she knew was that the rules of this stupid game meant that he had defeated the ineffable creature that had opened her soul on Aviakittis night.

Alses.

She thought he looked rather smug about it, too. As he moved toward her stage Cass did not look at him, attracted instead to the spot where Alses had raised her fan and said her word. Already the brilliant child of Syna had turned her attention elsewhere; Cass could not see auras nor discern the disappointment wrought behind the aurist's mask, and so she was left to assume that the defeat had been accepted in indifferent, unapologetic form. Frantic butterflies, birthed from Cassandra's quick-beating heart, fell to her stomach and swarmed angrily there.

The man stood beside her and spoke. Glancing from his copious hair to his shiny boots to his posh, smirking lips, Cassandra found the nerve to accept his hand.

In another place, at another age, she might have found some eloquent way to slap him in the face and shower him with disdain. And yet something about him made her want to be better than that, to hate him and everything he represented on a higher level. She did not bow nor give any pretense of society, the storm in her eyes raging as she looked into his. "Certainly," she articulated, mocking the stiff-lipped accent inherent to Lhavit's upper echelons.

Perhaps she leaned a bit too heavily on his arm as she plodded down the stairs, no longer able to spot Alses in her eager sweepings of the ballroom. Maggie and Marina were waiting at the foot of the dais, speechless but thoroughly impressed. Cassandra did not look at them as she passed. She did not look at any of the greedy gazes that inquired on at the mysterious, intriguing pair. She only stared ahead at the indiscernible distance, stepping awkwardly onto the dance floor with her thoughts unable to part from that which she had lost.

Alses.

by **Roscoe** on July 22nd, 2014, 7:51 pm

Congratulations friends, your patience has been rewarded!

Rewards|

Jenni :

Alses :

Julius :

Brandon :

Krisa :

Ai Shou :

Luna :

Cassandra :

Wendell :

Engghaen :

Agnusha :

Shared Rewards :

Additional Notes|

This was an extremely pleasant thread to read and to grade. You all did a top notch job and I hope I awarded that skill and dedication accordingly. If any of you have questions or concerns regarding the grades you have received, feel free to get in touch with me and we will sort things out. I am relatively new to grading and so I will not act as though I'm beyond error here. In any case thanks for the read and the experience, your characters did wonderful here, and all the little threads running through the evening were a real delight to read.

Open The Masquerade Ball