Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 18: Grand Ballin'

[Dark Sage]

"Well, nothing I can do to convince you," said Alferis and he walked towards the crowd, where the ball was starting.

Inside was exquisite. All sorts of food was set out, musicians were playing their songs and people were dancing, chatting, and laughing. There was a great amount of light in the room as well.

"Wow..." he mumbled, in awe of what he saw. He felt a tap on his soldier and when he turned around, he saw it was Reika.

"Heh. You don't look as bad in that armor as I thought," she said, a neutral expression on her face.

"Mmm. I'm not really used to wearing it though. Anyway, I guess we have to, well, pair up and stick together," he said.

"Don't think you're going to get chummy with me though. I don't want you to make any moves on me ok? That's an order Alf."

"No worries," he said, the two walking.

"Good. Because if you do, I'll have to make sure you don't make any children," she smirked.

"Yipee," Alferis said in a toneless voice, heading to the food.

"Mmmm..."

Edited August 28, 2010 by Dark Sage

[Ansem]

"Brother....? Where is he?" She said, her tone changing from glee to anger. "Its brothers fault mother died. She couldnt take the stress of handling the kingdom. I'll be sure to pay him back." She then sighed. "Im sorry, Charlotte, why is my brother here?"

[Psych]

Rita

Slipping away into the room she had left her things in, she took two small vials of the Rudoberry, and put them in her dress. "These will come in handy."

-------

Cess and Pary:

As the two men walked into the Grand Ballroom, there were two large staircases heading down from what one would presume to be the throne room on each side. Pary walked over towards the balcony, before stepping out and enjoying the night air. Cess waited near the door for Rita to show up.

[Snowy_One]

"Be careful in coddling to that which is beyond you Ixion. Not everything is as blatant as mathimatical formula. I am a grown woman. I know my powers, weaknesses, and vunlerabilities. I am not some flower to be treated like glass. Though your shadows are indeed a weakness, I am not so vulnerable that a mere slap of the hand would send me into a fury. Such a oversight can easily cause your demise when we fight."

[-Cynthia-]

"We ended up traveling together by concidence. He has one of the Crimson Weapons, wants to defeat the Lord of Azure Flame or something I think. It is a worthy cause, so I decided to join them." Charlotte told Queen Jen.

[Ansem]

"I'll talk with him later." She said smiling. "I'll take my leave now, Princess....... um would you be kind enough to point to the direction of the dining room?"

[Script]

Luc Altair

After.... introducing himself to Ixion, Luc had kept to the outer edges of activity to observe some more. Nothing he had seen was of particular interest, so he steeled himself and began walking back to the practice floor. Along the way he spotted Duke Von and immediately stopped. The red-haired Duke was exactly the kind of nobleman that would be attending the ball -- well, not exactly the most common kind, but one of them at least. And he was a man Luc had prior animosity with. Luc barely kept himself in check when he spoke with the man, his pompous praising of himself always getting on Luc's nerves, and the man probably barely kept himself civil as well when dealing with Luc. So of course Luc had to go and introduce himself.

Luc walked into Duke Von's vision, Luc ignoring the date he had brought with him other than a brief thought of pity for the poor girl. "Duke Von," Luc bowed, "it has been far too long."

[Phoenix]

Ixion

Ixion: Coddle? I'm only interested in avoiding an incident, and like you, I do tend to wear light layers from time to time. How concentrated they are depends on who is out to capture or kill me on a particular day. Speaking of which ... "when we fight"? You seem certain that there will come a time for such a thing. Why is that I wonder ...

Duke Von

As Duke Von and Kamilla made their way toward the ballroom, a familiar face approached. The Duke put his free hand up to his mouth to hide a giggle and then pulled Kamilla a bit closer in preparation for the ... introductions. Luc's bow got a smile from Von and though he felt that the man didn't deserve much reciprocation, he would not allow himself to stoop to such an obvious insult by not bowing back. Once they had both risen, he gave Kamilla a light tug placing her almost in front of him and presented her with his other hand.

Von: A pleasure, Count. I would like to introduce you to my consort for this evening. This is Kamilla.

The girl nervously ran through proper etiquette in her head just before she was mentioned. The only thing she could think of was to offer out her hand like she once saw a noble woman do. Something about the hand being kissed. It didn't make much sense to her but, the Duke would be upset with her if she messed up so she did. The nervous look on her face said it all.

Kamilla: (Please let this be the right move. I'm free after this ball if I can just not embarrass him.)

[the_whistler]

Heinz nodded at the mercenary's words. "I'll catch you if you start falling," leading the wyvern rider slowly in the first few steps of the waltz Charlotte had explained. "The princess went over this earlier, it's a step backwards, to the side, and then close the feet. Just mirror what I do," smiling in an attempt to reassure her.

Edit: OOC: This is done a bit in retrospect, before the ball started.

Edited August 28, 2010 by the_whistler

[-Cynthia-]

"Take a left, then it should be the third door down." Charlotte said, ushering the queen out the door. Now I need to get out of the palace without too many people seeing my dress, need to make a grand entrance after all.

[Script]

Count Luc Altair

The good Duke Von was always his same giddy self. He presented the girl, clearly possessive of her, and declaring what a fine date she was. Luc rose his eyebrows a bit as Kamilla presented her hand. The offering of the hand was usually from an upper-class woman to a lower-class, and the girl's own nervousness dissuaded Luc from thinking she was an upper-caste, but Luc decided to play along, if only to bother the Duke. "Greetings, lady Kamilla," Luc bowed, lightly took her hand and kissed it. He let go and rose. "Such a fine lady you have here this evening Count. I would love to introduce my date to the two of you, but alas she is caught up in preparations elsewhere at the moment. I would be glad to introduce her when the ball begins, of course. Provided all parties agree," Luc let a small smile slip unto his face as he talked. Ah, how useful it could be to introduce such small and seemingly insignificant words.

[Inactive Account]

"And here we go," Kelas muttered as more and more nobles appeared. Their clothing spoke of excess, and their manner, for the most part, of insults veiled with several layers of etiquette. Someone who looked rather a lot like the girl they'd dragged along for a while-- Kamilla, was it? walked by on some nobleman's arm, but Kelas decided that it couldn't possibly be her.

Finally the inevitable had to be accepted, and Kelas got to her feet. "Right, we'll show up, hit the food, and then... claim indigestion?" she joked, knowing full well that she'd be there as long as Arrin was. "I suppose we should get this over with..."

-----------------------------------------

OOC: Borrowing Tessa slightly, sorry...

Arrin and Tessa managed to find the kitchen. While Tessa ate her fill, Arrin just snacked a little, and they headed back afterwards. "I guess I'll see you again in a bit," Arrin told Tessa, assuming she was probably going to go find Luc soon. For some reason this bothered him a bit, but it didn't seem to bother her, so he kept quiet about it.

[Dark Sage]

"Mmmm! *chomp* MMMMM! Oh god... *munch* *munch* Mmmm, oh yeah, *mumch*" Alferis was clearly enjoying the salmon he dug into, while a few nobles looked in disgust at his horrible manners. Pouring a bit of wine in a wineglass, Alferis quickly downed it and went back to stuffing his face.

"Huh. Tastes like strawberries," he said, licking his lips.

"The girl over there must feel humiliated at her partner's gluttony, poor thing," said a noblewoman.

"...Is he really a noble? Maybe he was brought here as a curiosity. I guess it's a way to teach our children not to end up like those two," her partner scoffed. Reika heard the insults and normally would've cut his purse and possibly his face if he was really out of line. She merely ignored them. What did they know about her? They were merely flies. Nothing they said was of consequence. She merely got herself a bit of wine and waited for Alf to finish, little knowing just how empty his stomach was. She was quite anxious to get back to her job.

Hate giving into those clowns who hired me, but I need something important to do here, or I don't think I can last much longer in this castle of snobbery.

OOC: Effects of alcohol him again.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Dark Sage

[Snowy_One]

"Two beings with as much power as us with no higher forces, each with competing goals, and you having an advantage on me; it's almost inevitable that we will fight. No point in worrying about it right now though. It's not the time or place and there's no point in worrying about it. Only having fun dancing for the night before retreating to our sleeping hollows and awakening the next morning."

---

Esphyr, meanwhile had not done much of anything during the time. Having not been invited, or having any interest in the ball, she had remained within the dressing room, reclining on a bench and resting. "Uggg.... Guess I better do something. Wonder what Damian, Aiya and Alf are up to?" she said before sighing, getting up, and going out looking for any of the three.

OOC: Raiding.

[Ansem]

8D

Heading towards the dressing room, the queen noticed the same girl from the first encounter over there. "Hey, girl. Your the one from earlier......." Inspecting around her, she concluded that Esphyr didnt have a date. "No one asked you out?" She asked solemnly.

[Snowy_One]

"No." replied Esphyr, keeping her tone curt and retrained for the queen.

[Ansem]

"I wonder how someone as beautiful as you can be left out like this." Thinking for a second, the queen came out with another dumb idea. "I know, I'll order Sayer to dance with you!" Pausing for a second, she frowned. "If only i can find him..... I know, why dont you dress up? I mean once you dress up, it wont be hard convince someone to dance with you."

[Snowy_One]

"What?" exclaimed Esphyr, clearly shocked at the notion despite her fight with Aiya. "Me? Dress up? But... But... I'm ugly! Scarred! Who would ask me even if I did dress up?"

[Ansem]

"No need to be modest. Im sure a few scars here and there wont be noticeable!" She exclaimed pushing Esphyr into the dressing room. There were a couple of dresses left. "I'll take this one!" She said grabbing a red dress. "Here, choose one while Im gone, 'kay." Jen rushed into a changing room and started to change into the scarlet dress.

[Snowy_One]

Esphyr gave a sigh as the queen went to go change before she turned to the dresses available. She had never been much of a dresser, but still... Slowly, she took down the first dress, a simple one of gentle blues and soft greens, reminiscent of the sea. She took one look at it and decided against it, as well as two others, until finally settling on the one of her choice. It was an odd dress to be sure. Backless and breezy on the sides, it was something that only a popular person would wear. Yet as Esphyr took it down, she took an odd liking to it. Slipping into the dress, her normal clothes in a pile, she found that the gentle fabric was soft against her own skin, soothing and relaxing while still providing a bit of warmth on the covered bits, despite the thinness of the fabric. Colored a soft pink, she found she disliked the color, but the breeziness and softness more than made up for the fact.

[Phoenix]

Ixion

Ixion: Our goals compete now do they? I suppose we will just have to see where that leads us. Well then. Shall we?

He motioned his hand at the open door to the ballroom, pairs of noblemen and women flowing through it like a vacuum.

Isotov

Iso: Heh. If things really go that poorly in there, I'll gladly ditch with you. I'm not sure why Arrin's going though. (Please, for the love of peace don't let me throw up again until AFTER the ball. I can't afford to make a scene right now ...) Okay, let's do this.

Iso stood up and took Kelas' hand. Another round of being led through the darkness. For him anyway. It may have been nothing more than a hallucination for everyone else around him, but for Iso it was as real as could be. An entire world of shadow only he could see. The real world blanketed by it.

Iso: (I will get Proxima back ... ... somehow.)

Irina

Their dance practice had gone well enough it seemed, and like he promised, Heinz kept Irina on her feet despite a few close calls along the way. By the end of it, she knew enough to survive the ball. Nonetheless, if they were actually going to dance, she let Heinz know that he would absolutely have to lead.

OOC: I'll let Whistler place them.

Viveka and Jasmine

Viveka was still waiting for Derek but was now rushing to make some last minute preparations anyway. Jasmine was nearly in hysterics unable to find a date and had actually left running down the halls searching for available men! Fate smacked her right into Alphonse's back sending her to the ground! He turned around with a shocked look on his face!

Alphonse: Miss. Are you alright?

He quickly offered her a hand and helped her up.

Jasmine: Y-yeah, I'm alright, I just ...

She couldn't finish her sentence after looking him in the eyes. She didn't notice his black suit or expensive trinkets at all.

Jasmine: (Wow. He's so handsome. I think ... maybe ... OH PLEASE LET HIM BE SINGLE JUST FOR NOW!) ... I uh ...

Alphonse: Why are you running through the halls?

Jasmine: I ... I need a date for the ball. Now.

She sighed and held her head low before he gave her a small grin.

Alphonse: I can take you if you would like.

Jasmine: *gasp* Really? That's wonderful! I ... I totally thought I was going to miss this, and then I thought I wouldn't have a date! Oh thank you so much ... err ... what's your name?

Alphonse: Alphonse.

Jasmine: Thank you ... err ... Sir, Alphonse.

Alphonse: Hmm, shall we?

He offered her his arm and she took it before they headed for the ballroom.

Levski and Daneka

The two had already arrived in the ballroom a bit earlier. Levski was wearing a pitch black suit similar to an overcoat, but unlike most, it ran all the way down to the ground, just barely touching the floor, much like Daneka's dress. She rested her head on his shoulder and kept a decent but friendly grip on his arm as they walked.

Daneka: Thank you for matching with me so splendidly, Monsieur Levski.

Lev: You can thank me by answering a few questions of mine.

Daneka: During ze dance. Zat is where two people truly discover each ozer. A fitting place for you to learn why I do what I do, no?

Lev: ... good enough.

Daneka: Now go back to smiling. I like you better zat way. I want zis to be a happy occasion.

Lev: Why's that?

Daneka: Because every time I see you and your friends it's always "death to ze enemy". Let's just mesh well togezer for one night. We can go back to undermining each ozer in ze morning. After ze booze wheres off.

Lev: ... heh. I can agree to that.

Daneka: Splendid.

Duke Von and Kamilla

Kamilla: T-thank you, Count Luc. I am most pleased to meet you.

She gave a weak smile hoping to pass under Duke Von's radar and before she knew it, she'd been slightly tugged back to his side, almost behind him.

Von: Well I most certainly look forward to meeting the undeniably lovely young lady you have accompanying you here, Count Luc of Directus. Hm hm hm. Yes indeed.

Kamilla: (Thank you. If I mess up at this ball. My life is just going to get worse. Why did Shamus have to run over his foot in the first place? If not for that, we wouldn't be in this situation.)

Stephanie

As Ixion and the headmaster were about to walk into the ballroom, Stephanie hurried over to them being careful not to break into an obvious run. Ixion turned around before she could get his attention wittingly.

Ixion: You couldn't find a date on time?

Stephanie: Actually I was very fortunate to run into this fine conservative fellow!

She quickly tugged Altion into view and had him stand beside her!

Ixion: (That strange cavalier. Heh. Like a hand in glove. Or a preacher and a scripture verse meant only to be read and interpreted as is.) How fortunate indeed.

Stephanie: I just want to remind you two to not horseplay in there is all.

Ixion: I'm a man of necessity. She is just responsible enough to handle this it seems. We'll be fine, I think.

Stephanie: Good.

With that, she put her arm around Altion's and practically dragged him into the ballroom. Ixion muttered a bit, only the headmaster being close enough to make any of it out.

Ixion: ... did I pick the lesser of two evils? It is nearly impossible to tell.

The Kiev

Inside the aeries Krinkov had been snoozing. He didn't have much else to do, and the pink wyvern was squawking for some reason. The noise was too much to deal with while he was awake, so he forced himself to sleep through it. Kiev on the other hand hadn't seen Irina all day. It wasn't right. She was almost killed recently and he was hitched. Were the humans stupid? Who would protect her if not him? He had to sneak out of the aeries without being seen by Krinkov and beaten up. Also the pink wyvern was starting to bug him with her needless squawking. She wouldn't stop.

[Ansem]

Opening the door, Jenny stood phased for a second. She was wearing the dress, a beautiful red, strapless ball gown. "How do I look?" She asked Esphyr twirling around.

[Dark Sage]

"Man I just love this wine. And these cakes. Mmmm...Wonder why it tastes like...strawberry. Oh I'm sorry Reika. I'll be done in a minute, just as soon as I have another glass of wine," he said, drinking down another swig before he faced Reika and walked with her to the dance floor, near Heinz and Irina.

"Have to blend in here, so might as well do it," sighed Reika, placing Alf's hand on her hip and holding his hand.

"Jeez. You don't have to say it like that," said a scowling Alferis.

"Who knows? It might not be as bad as I thought," said Reika, starting the waltz.

"Just follow my lead ok?" she said, seeing Alferis puzzled on how to move. She noticed his eyes looked a little red as droopy as well.

Lord, did he have too much to drink? she thought inwardly, rolling her eyes.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Dark Sage

[Script]

Count Luc Altair

Luc dropped his smile as Duke Von tried to hid Kamilla from his view. "As I hope for her to meet a man of your great stature, Duke," Luc let a smile back unto his lips. "Now, I should do no more in delaying you yes? A man of your position should not be held up for so long by myself." Luc bowed and forcibly excused himself. It was getting to be the time he should bring Tessa over to the formal room, and Luc wanted to be there so he could spy on all the more important guests that would be arriving slightly later than others as a power play so they could control everything. Luc returned to the practice room, but was surprised to see Tessa had already departed. Odd. Luc would have to begin searching for her, he turned and went back to the halls in pursuit of his date.

[the_whistler]

After practicing for a little while, Heinz noticed that most of the group was clearing out of the room and heading off to the ball. Guess I'll have to catch up later then, pausing for a second. "Seems like everyone's leaving for the ball now," he commented. Heinz picked up the green cloak from the chair where he had dropped it earlier and put it on, leaving his normal cloak and traveling clothes in the room.

"Well then, shall we?" he inquired, extending his arm for Irina to take. Following the others, the pair entered the ballrooms. There were tables to the side filled with food, decorations hanging from the ceiling, scented candles filling the air, and an orchestra playing in the background to accompany the dancers already on the floor. So she's dancing with the fighter? Figures, turning to face Irina.

"The ball will probably go on for at least an hour or two. What do you want to do for now?" He questioned, inclining his head slightly. Even a mercenary can pull off the manner of a noble, he thought wryly to himself.

OOC: They're nearby the dance floor right now, but any place is fine.

Edit: Quotes, not italics >.< Added a phrase.

Edited August 29, 2010 by the_whistler