Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bumblebee (Dessie Jacobs)

When the invitations arrived the first thought was 'trap', honestly the second and third thoughts were also 'trap', but as the others were standing around discussing them Dessie just eyed them. She was going a bit stir crazy. She wanted to go out patrolling to work off the building anxiety but that was not allowed when not in Destiny City and England was most definitely not Destiny City. Exercise helped but it wasn't the same so while the invites were likely a trap they also were a outlet for her at least.

So with a quip and a grin she snatched up her invite, much to the likely horror of her family.

The next thing she knew she arrived at the bottom of a stairwell, opening up to a round foyer. It was pretty but worn, the mosaic at her feet was cracked damaged, but it wasn't the place that had Dessie's jaw gape for a moment. It was the scores of people in various outfits. Ballgowns and dressy suits. Gold and glitter was everywhere. Gem like clothing everywhere... and the masks. Every shape and size it seemed was there.

It was a masked ball. She had to be sticking out in her jeans and... Pale blue eyes widened slightly as she looked down and saw that her casual wear was now a flowing blue dress. The dress wasn't what had her cursing, well it was, but it was the fact that it was slit open nearly to her bellybutton, only a simple golden cord under her modest chest kept it all appropriate for the 18 year old. Gold accessories decorated her much like her fuku did but the mask on her face was completely new. A quick look at it reveled it to be a black and gold cat half face mask, with earrings. Actually her whole outfit reminded her of her reincarnation visions she saw on Antares, except with more color... and a mask.

Between the outfits and the woman who had just welcomed them all to this place, apparently a squire wonder if the translucent lady was to be believed, Dessie was beginning to believe that maybe this 'trap' wasn't as trap like as Xander and Lily first thought. Which really stunk since Dessie wanted to punch someone... hard.

Enchantress // Corrupt Meridiana

Meridiana looked up with a hopeful gleam in her gem colored eyes when a voice called out of the loud murmurs of arriving guests. Where she had expected to see the Squire herself making a grand entrance, the Senshi of the Succubus found herself mildly confused when instead there was a shorter woman who bore no resemblance to Chauvet. Strangely enough, and what bothered her more, was that the Master of Ceremonies, as she referred to herself, seemed almost ghost-like in appearance.

A hologram perhaps? She wondered.

Her head canted to the side curiously but ultimately kept her queries to herself for the time being and instead, once the announcement had finished, Meridiana made her way over to where the drinks were being served and requested from the barkeep one of the glasses of champagne. Not because she was thirsty, at least not at the moment, but more so because she simply wanted something to hold on to if only to keep her from fidgeting with the hem of her sleeves.

Reaper (Labyrinthite)

Upon his arrival, Reaper had kept out of relative sight. It had become almost second nature to be able to blend into the shadows cast upon the walls with nothing more than watchful, whiskey-gold peering out from the darkness. His manner of dress was not uncomfortable but not what he was used to when he stood as the general instead of the man. The mask fit across his face was a poor substitute for the hood he was used to but he could make do.

The lack of auras, despite the obvious variety of people who had been invited, was almost concerning but when the woman arrived to announce where they were and what they were here for things slotted into place.

A wonder, the magic of a knight-- those were all things that came into play when it came to the strange happenstances of the event he was now party to.

Surrounded by a sea of faces hidden behind masks, Reaper wondered if he knew any of the people hidden behind them. He spent more time letting his gaze sweep across the masks, suits, and gowns pondering such things than he did listening to what was going on as the doors to the Gallery opened.

Finally his gaze settled upon a woman with strikingly orange hair and he slipped through the crowd with more ease than might be expected until he was behind her. His lips curled up, teasing into wicked and almost feral grin when he pressed fingers into her elbow. "M'lady," he murmured in a low, gravely voice.

ghouliboo

Pearl

She honestly hadn't noticed the mask at first. She'd been too busy with the painting she had been working on to notice much of anything for most of the afternoon. You had to work decently quickly with acrylic paints if you didn't use retarding medium... So by the time she had noticed the strange, pretty mask sitting on her desk, she had no idea how long it had been there.

Beneath the mask had been an invitation, or something she took to be one. It had certainly been fancy, far fancier than anything she had ever received personally. Like... like Cinderella being invited to the ball, or something like that. A costume ball, most likely, since it came with a pearly white mask. Was she going to be Cinderella tonight? It was most certainly magic, because she was quite certain it hadn't been there when she had sat down for homework earlier.

Knights were real. Why not magical invitations to magical fancy costume parties?

It took her a bit before she finally reached out to take it, her teeth biting into her lower lip in mingled excitement and hesitance.

She had never thought of herself as the Cinderella of the story... but maybe it wouldn't hurt anything to pretend for a night...

Pearl expected to be swept away to the unknown. She did not expect to appear in a grand foyer to the sounds of Toxic playing overhead. Blue eyes blinked slowly, framed by the mask that now sat on her face. So many beautiful people... this really is a ball.

A nervous shift of her feet brushed heavy velvet against her legs and Pearl blinked again in surprise. Her clothes had changed... and the dress looked old, in the way it was shaped, but very real with its weight. Nothing like the cheap costume dresses she'd tried sometimes as a child... and also unlike those dresses, this one fit her tall height perfectly. Lifting the hem with double handfuls of cloth, Pearl wiggled her toes in... silk slippers? Certainly period accurate to the dress...

What a delightful start to things. She felt like she'd stepped straight into a fairy tale.

Nessy

Pendour found herself jostled away from her new friends by the shifting crowd, and also because she was keeping almost all of her attention on the little ghost girl. The ancestor, really. That was the interesting part. She might have been young but there was something in the way she carried herself that reminded Pendour unmistakably of Irving.

Was she the one with the magic that brought everyone up here?

Pendour found herself staring even as the dance music started and people started shuffling to look at art. She’d look, soon, but first she’d take a minute to try to wrap her mind around everything, appreciate everything, and that girl was the center and the soul of this place, well, until the living knight showed herself. The universe was a grand place. Every place that she’d seen was a work of art in its own right and having bits and pieces of it under one roof was an idea so lovely it practically made her shiver.

She took the glass of star-drink without really thinking, and she sipped on it as she kept up her wanderings.

Open for interaction

"Fascinating," Genevieve said of Crystal's marks, as if she were examing a particularly fancy rock and not a living human being. "And they don't hurt? I feel like they should hurt." Genevieve stared into the distance, and her form flickered again, but then she smiled sweetly at Crystal, tilting her head.

"Are you liking the Gala so far? Would you like some champagne?"

The Windy Thing

If A Good Time was going to answer her, it seemed to be swallowed up as the host of the evening took the foyer and spoke. A gallery hrm? That quite sounded like a good idea. She smiled beneath her mask at the man next to her, eyes bright, and bowed her leave.

"I think some champange and a stroll of this gallery is in order, good sir. Do... Have a good time," she mused, striding away from him with a flick of her hips. She really liked this whole mask thing.

Maybe she'd see how Chauvet had done it, and try to replicate it on Earth. She could do a lot of things with a mask like this...

She plucked a flute of the bubbly drink from a passing waiter and strode into the gallery.

[Exit to Gallery]