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Kali jumped as well when Charlie appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Her hands went immediately to Lance, gripping his shirt and staring. Where had he even come from?!

"...humping us?" She whispered, so Charlie would not hear, looking at Lance. Was there really a danger of that? Yes, Charlie was a bit out there, and he was dressed as a hooker, but he couldn't be that bad...could he? She pursed her lips and looked over at the impling questioningly. He didn't seem so bad to her. But, then again, Lance lived with him. He probably knew him better than she did. She should probably trust him.

Adrian grinned, spinning to look at the wizard Prince before standing up. "You do, bête." While saying the insult as nice as possible to appeal to the young man's sense of vanity, he smiled. "As is yours. Sophie," He turned to her before Howl spoke and stroked her hair. "Call me when your ready to go." Then with a polite bow of his head, Adrian left without hearing (or so it seemed) Howl's last comment.

Sophie turned to her husband and gasped, one hand flying over her mouth. "Howl! What have you done to your hair?" Then she flushed slightly under his compliment, even though she knew that probably every girl in the vicinity had heard it too. "Oddly enough, it suits you. Though, your natural hair is must prettier." She looked down at the rose with muted surprise and gave it a whiff before slipping it in the brim of her hat. "Of course," she said, reaching for his hand.

The wizard had the feeling that he had failed in impressing Adrian. Again. Maybe vampire fathers were impossible to impress? Howl frowned slightly, removing his mask and stuffing it into his pocket. "You don't like it?" he asked, and with a flick of his hand, his hair was brown. Halloween must have been one of those times when he felt he could reveal his natural hair color. Or perhaps he was merely attempting to impress his wife. "I don't see why you prefer it. I've never figured out why people put such value on natural hair," he muttered before grinning. "Better?"

He took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. "Do you think you can talk our feet into knowing the dance?" he asked. It was almost identical to a question he had asked her quite some time ago. He leaned closer to her cheek, before whispering, "Why do I get the feeling your father still dislikes me?" Then he swiftly, expertly planted a kiss on her cheek. "Might as well give him a reason to, then." He pulled away slightly, placing his hands on her waist.

"Ready?"

((post for dg))

Her moments of quiet reconciliation ended after a few moments, after something unseen whispered sweet words of encouragement into her ear. She realized, no party would be fun if she were to just sit around and watch people all night, even though there was a bit of entertainment in doing so. Her eyes wandered the dance floor, and something akin to disdain boiled in the pit of her stomach, causing her a moment of hesitation upon standing.

Don't stop.. Keep going.. Have fun... the soft voice whispered, an unseen hand giving her a slight push forward. For some reason, it seemed that Alome just couldn't refuse that ghost, after all.. He had pulled her from a rather.. Dark place..

"Fine.. I'll go.." But who to talked to..? So many people seemed occupied.. Finally, her eyes rested on two boys that were standing in the doorway, seemingly curious about their surrounding themselves. Her steps were quick and with purpose, as she approached them, though stopping short of them both.

"Good Evening. I am Alome.. And I was wondering if either of you would like to dance with me..?"

Echo squeaked in surprise when his friend suddenly yanked him away, having not been too surprised with the large amount of food, and especially not as excited as Ellery was. On top of that, he hadn't expected Ellery to keep his hand held so tightly, more thinking that the boy would just dart off without him; well, apparently he didn't know Ellery all that well. When the two arrived at the food tables, he wriggled his hand out of Ellery's easily as the boy set his hands to food and other important things. Echo, on the other hand, meekly took a small-but-delicious looking piece of chocolate, turning to sway with the music as he ate it slowly.

Ellery's smile was joyous around his stuffed chipmunk cheeks, and with difficulty he swallowed, sighing heavily with contentment once the food was down. Scrubbing furiously at a few crumbs on his face, he then selected a caramel apple and began eating a little more slowly, wiggling from side to side gently. "Um... I dun'no," he said with an easy shrug in response to Dmitri's question. "'S all too nummy t' wait, I guess!

"Oh, 'nd I'm Ellery," the faun said, pointing at his chest. "'M th' devil; my daddy said it was purrfect." The boy beamed, obviously oblivious to the insult. He then shook Echo gently, smiling at his friend. "'Nd this is Echo. He's a phan-tomm er som'thin'; 'M not rully sure." Ellery shrugged again, then turned back to the food. Mmmm, food...

Echo frowned softly at the fact that his friend hadn't listened the many times that he'd actually specified his costume, on top of the fact that they'd watched every version of that movie constantly for the past week. He should remember better!! Pouting a bit, oblivious to the chocolate ring around his mouth, he leaned around his friend to specify. "I'm the Phantom of the Opera. You should 'member that, Ellery, I told you hundreds 'a times," he said with a firm nod of his head, gently poking his red-painted friend's shoulder with one of his messy white gloves.

Ellery brushed off his friend's discontentment with an impatient hand, rolling his eyes and smiling. "Wasn't hundreds, Echo, dun be silly. 'Nd I'll 'member now; yer th' Fantom of th' Opera, see?" He smiled at Echo, and then whispered conspiratorially to Dmitri. "Make shure you 'member too, if ya don't wanna get poked."

Harm? Oh, there was plenty of harm to be had in letting Charlie tag along. The redhead wasn't exactly the type of person that Lance wanted to have around when he was trying to be at least somewhat romantic. However, if Kali wanted to meet him, he supposed that was her choice.
"Alright, but don't say that I didn't warn you..."

The French boy grinned widely and stretched, causing Lance to advert his eyes - why, oh WHY had Charlie been so insistant on the hooker costume? Really? He couldn't have just crossdressed like a normal person? "So, have you guys banged yet?"
Of course that was the first question to come out of his mouth. Lance hoped that God would just kill him now and save him the embarrassment.

Cain, of course, was hiding with Luka in the boy's shadow. The violet-eyed being was confused when his best friend flew up to Howl's head and began hugging it. Curious, Cain flew up out of their previous hiding place so that he could float behind Luka, his head tilted to the side. "Vim, vi?"

When the other boy made it apparent that he also, at the very least, knew who The Phantom actually was, his face split into a giant smile, half of it hidden behind his mask. "Really?! That's so cool!! Wull, I mean, it's cool that you actually know who he is. 'Cause most people don't. Like Ellery," he said with a bit of a wiggle, sticking his tongue out at his nearby friend before popping the last half of the truffle in his mouth. With a sigh, the little nix smiled as the piece of chocolate melted slowly in his mouth; how he missed candy with sugar in it...

Ellery wrinkled his nose at the perceived insult, and haughtily ate a ghost-shaped cookie. "Wull, th't's whatcha get fer dressin' up as som'fin' th't's not obvious. I'm just th' Devil, so ev'rybody knows me, 'nd no one feels bad fer not knowin'." He stuck his tongue out at his friend in victory, then turned to look Dmitri up and down. "So... whaddya you s'posed t' be?"

--- Happy Halloween! ---

A long grey tail flicked nervously behind the girl as she steadily plodded into the ballroom, one hand holding tightly to her red-haired guardian's. The centauress was half-hidden behind her father, silently enjoying the soft clacking sound that her hooves made as she stepped onto the marble floor. Hexa smiled down at his daughter, gently loosening his hand from her's and wrapping it around her, placing it on the small of her back and gently nudging her forward.

"Go on, sweetie. Mom and I will be here if you need us," he said sweetly to the girl. Awkwardly, she stumbled forward, looking through the tentacles of her jellyfish costume with wide, frightened orange eyes. Her father simply smiled and patted the poofy blue hat atop her head, taking his royal girlfriend by the hand and leading her onto the dance floor. The girl, on the other hand, took a portion of her long white hair in her hand, wrapping it around her arm and twirling it awkwardly as she stared at the large amount of children in the room from behind her bangs and tentacles. There were so many people... and they all seemed to know each other.

What would any of them want with her?

Sophie put her hands on her hips and nodded. "Because it shows you; the natural you. The way you say that is like you don't like yourself." She wagged her finger. "And I know thats not true."

She followed him out onto the dance floor. "...I can try." The witch said some very encouraging things to her feet, then took his hand in hers, hoping that her charm hadn't faded since coming to Gaia. "He doesn't he's just-" She flushed and got comfortable in his hold.

She looked him boldly and nodded. "After you."