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"... Thana Jr. you say?" He raised an eyebrow at her, but the expression was lost under his mask, "What did you name after me, my little mermaid?" He couldn't resist chuckling softly, taking a sip of his drink as he waited for the song to end. He observed the people on the dance floor, as well as the people who were... Well, he wasn't sure what they were doing, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

When she started to sing, he simply listened, allowing her to take his hand; this song was much better than the 'Chicken Dance Song' from before, but not quite what he had in mind, pace-wise...

This next song though? Perfect.

"If you would excuse me for a moment..." He removed the cup from her hand, placing both of their drinks - as well as his cane - on a nearby table, before returning to stand in front of her, "Ignoring the lyrics of this song," He grinned, one hand placed behind him, one hand extended out towards Amphi as he leaned forward slightly, "May I have your first dance of the night?"

The dragon furrowed his brow as he was lightly nudged, catching that smile. Jericho glanced from Shehk to the table and back. Rather than going for it, he just... stepped closer to the wall. Somehow. Nope. Not ready to go further out.

He took her hand, and led her to the dance floor, ignoring the sort-of chaos that had exploded around; it was prom, no doubt there was more to it than eating, and dancing. There would always be those who would find something else to do to pass the time.

Once they were on the dance floor, he moved to face her, still holding onto her hand. His other hand went to rest on her waist, gently gripping her hip; since the music stopped for no one, it was already past the initial saxophone opening. He remained silent, guiding her with his actions, and his grins, leading her into a slow dance that matched the pace of the song.

Her hand only trembled a little as he led her to the floor. Things around them didn't go unnoticed to the mermaid as she nervously looked around. Ah but...Prom. It was a dance much like scarentines so...perhaps things were better if it was not simply just a dance?

She instead attempted to focus on the boil in front of her, watching what he did. Moved as he wanted. When his hand settled on her waist, she attempted very much not to wiggle away from him. It was such a odd feeling. It was like...heat. She could feel heat from his finger tips and just....

She frowned as followed his steps, matching the pace of the song to their dance. She would admit it was hard at first, and she stumbled she was sure a embarassingly good amount...but Thana would just grin and right her back up.

"Ah...This is such a odd landwalker tradition." She flushed, "I mean it is not a bad one but....It feels like it is meant for um...." She wanted to say courtship but then....Amphi never knew really things that led into a "courtship" and it seemed with the meeting of her recent friends, she often wondered about this courtship idea...even the talk with Thana hadn't helped about flirting intentionally and unintentionally....She remembered the way her stomach fluttered at Roch's simple singing and now...she remembered the way her stomach was fluttering with a simple ask for a dance...Was she sick? "H...How did you learn to dance Thanatos?" She weakly asked.

Butterflies = tornado in stomach.

He'd been gone a long time.

No one noticed him come in. The subtle creaking of the massive wooden door opening was completely drowned out by the sounds of festivities within, music paired with multi-colored spotlights arcing wildly over the dance floor too intoxicating for anyone to notice a late-comer. Clusters of giddy students congregated in packs that spotted the massive hall, encircling the middle of the room where couples meandered, swaying to the music -- they too would be completely unencumbered by the shadow which slipped into the room. For a moment he merely watched the students, glowing amber eyes flashing a bit as the lights played over them, illuminating the wolf-skull mask before the light danced away, flickering over the sparkling dresses and dashing suits. He lingered for only the barest moment, taking a cursory look before slinking further inside, lurking along the walls. Bare feet made no noise against the wooden floors, not even the vibration of heavy steps to interrupt the heavy bass coming from the speakers, skirting the groups of students to avoid any who might happen upon him.

To be honest, very few would have recognized him anyway. He had, indeed, been gone a long time. Even those who might have would probably have to look twice -- time had changed him as it had changed them, leaving him far different than the mental image his name might conjure. Half his head had been shaved, the rest of his pin-straight, jet black hair hanging in a braid to one side of his face. The other side bore the marks of a fight with what could only have been a large wild animal -- scars ran down over his jaw to trail along his neck to his collarbone, marring familiar black tattoos. The black wolf pelt strewn across his shoulders, however, was very reminiscent of the monster who had vanished from Amityville six months previous, the skull-mask covering his face also curiously so.

Hunching his shoulders a little, the dark-skinned student prowled along the walls until he reached an inconspicuous stretch of wall, leaning against it and folding muscular arms across his broad chest. It was clear he had put only moderate effort into his attire -- although he had donned a black suit-jacket, the youth clearly had only a black form-fitting t-shirt beneath it. He also hadn't bothered with dress pants, a casual set of blue-jeans replacing them. His mask was clearly what he had spent the most time on, dark red stains painted onto the bleached skull eerie and vaguely tribal.

Nervous? Was she nervous? Astra was so much as nervous as....okay she was nervous.

"Maybe..just a little..." she said, her face all but going a bright tomato when he placed a arm around her. Yup, fat chance of her face staying anything but red for the rest of the night. The fae had no idea how to react to this. Her stomach had a case of nervous butterflies, and she enjoyed being close to Yuki. But at the same time it was embarrassing, she couldn't help but blush

"D-do first?" Astra squeaked as her mind tried to quickly come up with a idea. "d-d-dancing! Yeah dancing, Lets go dancing!"

..Could she even dance in this dress?

And she spotted him. The boil's cheeks actually paled behind the owlish mask he had pulled over his face. Not from embarrassment, not really. The outfit was over the top, but he'd picked it out himself. No, it was the look on her face when she spotted him. That surprised, disbelieving smile she turned up to him as she stammered out a compliment as best she could. Silly as he might have felt in the avant garde suit, all of a sudden it was all totally worth it.

"Hey, how's everything going so far?" Now that she'd spotted him there was no reason to linger back, so he closed that small gap between them and pulled the immaculately dressed ghoul into his arms for a proper greeting. "You look really lovely," he murmured against the top of her head. "Prettier then anyone else here."

He gave her peck on the cheek, lips ghosting over her skin, before moving to deliver a proper kiss. Fingertips pressing into the small of her back and massaging as he held her against him.

Last year they'd entered together, but this year that would have been a little harder. As acting Student Council President, Junko had to be there early to help with any last minute set up, and to over see everything down to the second those gym doors opened. He probably could have joined her in all that, but he'd needed the extra time to figure out how to wiggle his way into half his outfit.



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Nergui wasn't entirely sure why she was there, or what had prompted her interest in the first place. Perhaps it was the chance to mingle, though considering how the infection effected her in larger groups, sh had to wonder how that had ever been considered a favorable idea. Barely within the large room, she was already feeling a touch twitchy, and the grip she had on either dark elbow tightened as she stared around the gym and it's many mask covered faces, a nagging little voice at the back of her mind reminding her repeatedly that she did not belong here. It was enough to leave the corner of her silver eye twitching beneath of the lace of her mask, a darker black standing out against the charcoal of her skin.

The spot of silver lining to the whole affair was the chance step out of the role of refuge, and into the glamorous folds of a carefully selected dress. Like her mask it was all black lace, ribbon, and flouncing layers, but over it all, and cinching along the narrow line of her waist, was a leather corset, cut in unsymmetrical lines. For a horsemen of death, a priestess no less, it was very fitting. Long, spider silk hair was pulled up and piled atop her head, woven through with the same gilded swirls of gold and silver she usual wore, downy grey wings folding around towards her temples, and as always, she kept her lace veil, the sheer fabric forever hanging down to mask the eerie glow of her golden eye.

Among the crowd there were a few familiar faces. Or figures, as the case may be. Lifen and Mengyao of Conquest, Shikoba of War, a few nameless others she had seen before but had no name to associate them with. However where she was alone, they were very clearly not, and whether or not their company would have been preferred, she wouldn't be intruding. Not so much out of respect, but for the fact that she'd rather take up a persons whole attention, rather then a fraction.

She left them alone, and stead made her way along the wall until she'd found a mostly barren stretch occupied by a single male figure in a blood touched skull mask and dark animal pelt. Upon first glance she'd have taken him as a warrior of War, but he didn't feel like one of the lost. Held tilting gently as she regarded him, she finally decided he must be a student.

"Are you sure? I'd hate to be too heavy for you or something..." Tomoko was probably the kind of ghoul who would be 100 pounds wet, but she still would have hated for him to overwork himself for her sake. "But thank you either way."

Thackery's reassurances were appreciated, and the small smile on her face reflected that well. Really, from most any other ghoul her constant inquiry likely would have been easily read as 'fishing for compliments'. While Tomoko's home was close to a fishing town, however, she herself had no talent in such things. Instead, all she did was stand up just a bit taller to try and look as proud and presentable as Thackery was about everything.

Excitement feedback loop - she was slowly feeding into it.

"I don't know who is here yet, so maybe we should try to get in a dance before we chat....?" it was her trying to force herself to actually answer his question rather than try to pawn it back off onto him to answer and decide for her. That was a rather challenging thing to accomplish, after all. It still came off as a 'maybe...?'