Re: MASS THREAD: The Débutante Ball

[Keith Nicholas]

Wally had been...different upon returning from Australia. Very different. She was more open, more willing to talk and interact with others, (although not with Keith's pizzaz, but hey, not everybody can be a champion) and above all, much more focused.

Keith wasn't even going to get into the changes on the physical side of things. He had decided that either there was something in the water in Australia or Wally had had an very fortunate run in with a body swapper machine.

Eyes up Nicholas, he thought to himself as he imagined his sister slapping him repeatedly across the face. Atta Boy.

But, ahem, focused. Yes. On business. Which hey, was fantastic, and yes, definitely, he enjoyed her hustle and innovation, (though it did tend to drive him up the figurative wall on occasion, and by on occasion he meant every time she implemented something he hadn't thought of first) but honestly enough was enough.

"I feel like I've corrupted you," he said with a grin. "Next thing I know, you're gonna be breaking people's knees or giving them offers they can't refuse. But alright," he said, holding up his hands in a pre-emptive sign of surrender. Let's take a look at the clientele."

He pointed to Elijah. "I've tried, no-go. Weird, right? He just didn't like it. Maybe if I came out with a flavored brand...could call it "everything nice" in keeping with the theme. Don't let me forget that idea."

He pointed to a tall, frail, blonde sixth year in their house. "Cerelia Avery. She's a level eleven bookworm, and the scale goes to ten. Top marks every year. Rich, demanding parents, which is usually a good thing in our line of work, but it's like she hasn't realized that she's supposed to hate them yet and still desperately vies for their approval. Waste of time."

His finger went in the painfully pregnant brunette. "Cecilia Krum. She was one of my finest customers, but one brotherly intervention later and I'm not sure she's touched the stuff since. Besides she's like a gazillion years pregnant, the least we could do is wait until the baby's born until we leap in with the potentially...sorry, definitely damaging drugs."

He swiveled around until he was pointing towards a sixth year Slytherin. "Penelope Macnair. She...looks like a freaking antelope in the lion's den. Are we not selling to her? Why are we not selling to her?" He shook his head.

"Andrei's already hooked, as you know...I don't know who that guy is," he said, pointing to a youngish looking man near Eli. "Pretty sure he works for the Ministry though so I'm not gonna try selling to him and you aren't either. Kaiden Poliakoff...I don't even know his deal, and we played spin the bottle together. That was a weird night. Um...Leisl, way too smart for us...Ashcroft, don't get anywhere near them, her or him, alright? Just don't give me a little time with that. Shadow...eh. Worth a shot."

[Clair Sauvage]

There was no reason for Sabina to attend this ball, other than to prove to the entire Wizarding World that she was not dead. Revealing herself so soon was probably a mistake, but it wasn't like balls happened every day.

Hair piled all on top of her head, Sabs had decided the rules about tiaras also applied to anyone who'd had a child. It wasn't like she was here looking for a husband, after all. Her golden gown gleamed in the candle-light as she glided into the ballroom.

How many of these people could she sway in the time she would be here, she wondered.

[Katarina Rookwood]

The ballroom was absolutely spectacular. It was the kind of room that had the ability to take a more inexpiranced girls breath away and transport her to another world where princes did exist and fairy tales did come true. But for a girl of Katarina Rookwoods class, who had seen countless ballrooms and lavish parties, all events began to loose a bit of their sparkle. It was the same champagne, the same people, the same music, the same dresses. Every single time. After awhile even the extraordinary cant help but be ordinary.

Katarina entered the room with Augustus but it took only moments before they parted to their separate social circles. As the Ravenclaw moved through the room she scanned for the distinctive blonde locks of Cerelia. She found her without too much difficulty and hugged her friend in greeting, giving a soft kiss on the cheek for good measure. Cerelia looked beautiful in her dress, but Kat sensed a bit of discomfort coming from her and she was unsure if it was from the clothes or the ideas associated with the evening. "Find a table with me?" Kat asked, hopeful that she would get a full evening with her best friend.

Katarina hated being social. It was so much duller than sticking to the limited company she enjoyed.

A voice echoed through the room and Katarina immediately turned in the direction of the speaker. Recognizing Elijah in the distance, a small smile crossed her lips. She was grateful for the company he had provided in his little art lessons for her. More than being a good teacher, he was a friendly face that she was slowly getting more comfortable with. Strangely enough, he seemed to be joining the limited ranks of people she could stand.

After he finished speaking Kat turned back towards Cerelia. "You ready for this?" she asked, a little bit of laughter in her voice. This night was sure to go on forever. The bad ones usually did.

OOC: Dress

[Wilhelmina Abercrombie]

He spoke, grinning widely, surely proud of the damage he thought he had caused to her. She would not spoil his fun by revealing that she had always been an odd cookie, nor would she admit to her own sobriety when it came to drugs - regular alcohol, she could not deny, but she was clean with Sugar and Spice. It had only been a matter of time for the girl to commit a criminal offense - he had happened to need her expertise, was all. A fact she didn't mind reminding him of.

"Yes," she said, her voice sounding robotic. "Because I haven't broken anyone's knees." She gave him a blank stare for a moment, before smiling, to assure him that it was a joke. A waiter passed by and she hooked a glass of champagne. "Nah, I'm kidding. I don't break knees. I limit myself to noses." And she took a drink, signalling the end to that thread of conversation.

She turned with him, letting her eyes bounce between figure and figure, holding her glass aloft, allowing the lip of the glass to rest thoughtfully upon her own bottom lip. She wouldn't think of approaching either Ministry men, simply too risky. She liked the money too much to risk it. Her greed level had not yet reached the desperation for more. The Cerelia girl looked much too uptight to accept, as did Penny. She commented, "Penny's along the lines of Avery, but more neurotic. She'd have a conniption if we even offered. And I don't want to deal with lawsuits concerning Krum's daughter if she comes out looking like a one legged wallaby if we let her have our product."

Her eyes rested heavily on Andrei who, while handsome, rubbed her the wrong way. His little ragtag group, all good looking and entitled, seemed to be a good fit for their product. "I think Kaiden would be game. Shadow, definitely. I've had run ins with her. She's not a smart cookie, but she's... I'm trying to see how I can tie up this metaphor, but I can't. She's a skanky cookie? Does that work?"

Her eyes found the Rookwood girl. "You know... you get one of those girls to do it, they'd all fall in line. There's this weird sexual tension between all of them, and they all seem the perfect mixture of beautiful and unhinged. I'd bet it's worth a shot." She shrugged. "I say we let the product sell itself. I'm sure we can find the bar, and a quick swap could do the entire room some good."

[Shylock Ashcroft]

With Monroe practically chained to Destrey all night Shylock was free to persue his own agenda.

Ravenclaws had always been his delicacy of choice. They were clever enough to understand the subtlety of his humour but naive enough that his more risqué double entendre went over their heads. Flirting with them was such fun, and even more was playing them off one against the other.

It didn't take him long to zero in on the two girls across the room Avery and Rookwood, they could be his entertainment all evening if he let them.

"Hello, ladies," he broke in on their conversation, expecting they would both automatically pay attention simply because it was him.

[Nick Potter]

Nick didn't like balls or dances, and this would be no exception. He never knew what to do at these sort of things and let alone good at them. The only reason he would come to things of this manner is if his family made him, which they did.

He dressed in a grey suit with black dress shoes. As he walked into the crowded ballroom he looked around. He saw Keith Nicholas, Elijah Krum, Cecilia Krum and Andrei Dolohov. Those were the only people in the room that he knew.

Nick soon became that creepy guy in the corner of the room that just watched everybody. Choosing solitude over socialization because he didn't want to have to get married at his current age.

[Keith Nicholas]

"A skanky cookie," Keith said with a quick laugh. "A cookie with dangerously low self esteem."

"You may be right..." he said as Wally brought up the Rookwood girl and her group of giggle accomplices. I knew all that sexual tension would be good for something other than...entertainment."

Luckily, Wally simply moved on to the next topic of conversation, mentioning that a little bit of Sugar in the bar would do everyone some good. "Sounds like a plan," he said. "I'll distract the bartender, and you go in for the kill? Or Vica-versa?"

[Wilhelmina Abercrombie]

He was moving on to the plan of attack, and she listened intently. "Well, I could always use my feminine wiles... Yeah, you'd probably do best at distracting the bartender." Though she had grown, her exterior changes had not become useful to her yet. She simply did not know how to use them to her advantage yet.

She looked about and spotted the bar. She jerked her chin and said, "Keep him distracted. Have you ever done a major heist in heels - it's a pain." She gathered the end of her dress in one hand and gripped her wand in the other, moving towards the bar, prepared to rush behind the bartender once his back was turned.

[Keith Nicholas]

"Oh man,this can only turn out well," Keith muttered to himself as he saw Wally prepare herself for a mad dash. Maybe he should've been the one to go in for the kill after all, but at the same time he honestly couldn't see Wally using anything like feminine wiles to distract someone. All the body in the world was wasted if you didn't know how to use it, and on that front, Keith had more feminine wiles than Wally.

"Hey, hey, excuse me," Keith said, walking up to the bar and snapping his fingers to bring attention to himself. "Soda and bourbon please. And when I say bourbon, I mean bourbon, from Kentucky, no 'Tennessee sipping whiskey' or anything stupid like that.

The bartender fixed him with a glare. "Are you serious?"

"Super serious. Serious as serious can be. Come on, I'm 18, or 21, or whatever the minimum drinking age here is. You can trust me."

"Go dance with a girl or something kid, stop wasting my time."

"You are severely overestimating the value of your time if you consider this wasting it," Keith said. "Now come on, hey, at least look at me when I'm talking!" He struck the bar with one hand, causing the bartender's eyes to flicker back to him from where they had strayed downwards. "It's called basic respect and decency, for God's sake."

[Wilhelmina Abercrombie]

Keith approached the bar and Wally swung around in a wide arch, slipping immediately behind the bartender, their backs only a few feet apart. Luckily, she was much shorter, so there was no worries. She released the hem of her dress and then waved her wand. the corks and lids on the liquors rose into the air. Deftly, she removed her sugar and waved her wand again, sending the drug spiraling into the different liquids. She waved her wand again, and the drinks resealed themselves.

Easy peasy.

However, she had forgotten the length of her dress. She turned and took a step - her heel caught on her dress and she stumbled. She reached an arm out, catching a bottle, but making a terrible ruckus.

The bartender spun around and she straightened up, staring at him with no expression. She willed herself not to look at Keith.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he demanded.

She stared at him for a second, and then, suddenly, burst into hysterics. "I'm sorry! I'm just so emotional. My boyfriend broke up with me, and I look fat, and no one likes me... I'm adopted!" She wailed loudly, knowing full well that every man was at a loss when there was an emotional teenaged girl crying in front of him.