Halloween Dance!

[Dryope *]

The auditorium is decorated with black, orange, and skeletons, and clowns, and the punch is (thankfully) unspiked. It's time to put on your finest (school-appropriate) costume and head to the Halloween dance!

All dance threads must be posted in this sub board. This event runs until the end of the year, at which point all threads here will be locked. They will be archived in this board, not moved to the auditorium archive. (So don't worry about asking to have it moved.) The dance takes place on Saturday, October 31st, 2015 in the early evening through the end of the night.

Costumes may not be offensive and must adhere to the school dress code. No bare midriffs, excessively short skirts or cleavage, and boys must wear shirts. The theme is the Circus, and so students and staff are encouraged to have theme-appropriate costumes.

Happy Halloween!

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar had failed to come up with an outfit appropriate for a circus-themed dance, but he was fairly confident that themed costumes were optional. He had spent more time than was strictly necessary shopping for grey clothing (because he wanted it to be the same shade, which had proved difficult) and then painting his skin and dying his hair had required such painstaking work...

He was very proud of the end results, and since the dance was on Halloween, he didn't want to switch into another outfit. He wanted to use this one to its fullest potential.

True to his word he had shoved as much confetti as possible in his dimensional storage -- he hoped he wouldn't lose any of it or he would be pulling confetti out with everything else for the next year -- and promptly dragged his friend Devyn down to the auditorium with him.

"You make a great undead monstrosity," He approved as he took in the Frankenstein costume. "It really works for you."

[Deleted]

How did Xun always end up in these sorts of situations....?

Halloween had forever been his least favorite holiday. As an extremely superstitious person, he tended to stay away from all things spooky and haunted and didn't appreciate being scared in any way, shape, or form when it came to supernatural beings. He therefore hadn't made any plans on coming to the dance until some of his 'friends' managed to convince him that it would be fun and ghost-free.

At least, so far, they seemed to be right about the latter. Since it was circus-themed, it seemed that it was less spooky and more festive, so that was good. Xun himself had gone to only a little effort to dress up, since it was pretty last-minute. He was just wearing some of his normal wushu clothes with a black shirt tied around his head in a way that made him look like a ninja. Simple.

He was currently hovering around the food tables, nibbling on the foods that didn't look like eyeballs or witch fingers or anything else cannibalistic. His dark, contact-clad eyes scanned the area for people he knew; like usual, his 'friends' had abandoned him for more exciting and energetic people once they'd gotten here. Sigh.

[Deleted]

Despite his promises to attempt to have fun, Devyn had been a very unwilling participant in the getting ready aspect of Halloween. He discovered, about halfway into the process, he didn't quite like having to paint his skin green (which was apparently absolutely necessary for his Frankenstein costume). Though he received no pity from his friend, who had a far more labor intensive process to go through, and thus dimmed his own complaints down to a more easily manageable pout.

Though he had admitted, reluctantly, once it was all done that it did look pretty cool. Sunar had been very adamant on telling Devyn to not scratch his face no matter what, what sucked was that immediately after hearing this Devyn felt the faintest tickle on the left side of his nose.

It had yet to go away.

He and Sunar had in fact punched more orange confetti dots out of the leftover construction paper, a process Devyn had been very enthusiastic about. Especially because periodically during the process he had paused to throw a handful of the confetti in the hair, complete with a little cackle of glee.

His distaste about the situation had almost entirely disappeared by the time they arrived at the dance, he grinned over at his friend, "I'm not sure if it could be considered a compliment to be a 'good monstrosity'." Teasing, of course.

Uh-oh, the itch was back, this time by his lip, he kept his hands by his side lest he ruin his 'FrankenDev' paint job.

[Sunar Chugani]

"It was supposed to be a compliment," Sunar sighed dramatically. "Fine, you make a terrible undead monstrosity. Be less good looking and more horrifying and dead." 

He scanned the crowds, eyes instantly alighting on someone else he recognized. 

"Oh! Isn't that Xun?"  He pointed in the direction of a boy with a black cloth tied around his head. He thought he had seen their roommate leave dressed like that, but he had been so caught up in his own preparations he hadn't given it much thought. Perhaps he should have; the other boy was so quiet, and didn't seem to like crowds. It was rather impressive he had actually made it out to a party. 

"We should go say hi!" 

He navigated through the crowds as best as he could, with many a "sorry" and "pardon me" as his wings bumped into people. Maybe he should have worn something a bit less clumsy. 

When he had arrived at the snack table he yelled (so as to be heard over the music) "XUN! YOU CAME!"

[Julia Taylor]

"You'll have a good time." These were the words spoken by Johnathon Clark as he and her husband, Hammel English teacher Julia Taylor, walked through the hallway towards the auditorium.

"You don't know that," Julia replied evenly as her black heels clicked against the linoleum tile. She was dressed as Zelda Fitzgerald, a black beaded flapper dress swaying down to her knees with each step. Her husband was F. Scott Fitzgerald, and was basically just wearing a suit. Men had it so easy.

"Just try to have fun," the man said, as he took the brunette by the hand and led her into the auditorium. It was nicely outfitted for the party, with a Circus theme their costumes obviously did not fit into: the teacher had no idea that, just hours before the party had started, the same auditorium had been strewn with fake blood and heinous sound effects and all sorts of other horrible things the students had taken it upon themselves to decorate the space with.

The two stood in the doorway for a moment before stepping further in. Julia was looking for someone her age she recognized, and John was looking for the punch bowl. Some kid was bound to have spiked it by now, right? Not that he could officially endorse such a thing. Julia was hyper-aware of her position as Chaperone, thus she had an obligation to make sure none of the students were acting out. Everything seemed fine for now.

[Deleted]

The worst part about being in the middle of a growth spurt was that it took nearly no time at all for the clothes he bought to suddenly become too small for him. Nao had gotten into the habit of buying things in a size or two too large, but even that was difficult given that while he grew up, he also failed to grow sideways. Nao had planned on simply rewearing the costume that he had worn last year; the butler costume. However, when he tried it on earlier this week, imagine his exasperation when the hem of the pants ended several inches above his ankles. Fortunately, a quick trip to the girls in the sewing club(some who were also on the drama production team), and by the end of the week he was being fitted for yet another costume involving a suit.

With a red tail-coat donned, black hair combed back, and long black slacks, Nao placed the large ringmaster’s hat atop his head and skedaddled off to the dance. He was going to have to pay back those girls for this favor someday…this one and last year’s. Nao had no idea how he was going to do this, however. Well….he’d figure something out. Or he would ask one of his other friends for advice, like Ray or Xun.

Of course his first objective was to find a familiar face, which took longer than he thought considering the only person he really knew there had half of his face covered up by a t-shirt. But it was the shout of another boy calling Xun’s name that drew Nao’s attention to him, first to the boy who had shouted, then to the tall costumed boy behind the shirt-ninja mask. Nao slowly stood outside the small group of boys(and on the other side of the snack table, munching on chips and brownies), leaning his head down slightly to get a better look at the taller boy’s face. “…..Xun….?” he asked, though unsure if it was loud enough to be heard over the music. “Is that you?”

[Deleted]

Xun continued to nibble on various snacks and sip on some punch by himself. This was really the only reason he’d agreed to come along – snacks. He was hungry pretty much 24/7 and any chance to get food (especially unique stuff) was a good enough excuse for him to go do something, even if he was incredibly uncomfortable. He was half-tempted to just grab a couple plates and zoom out of there.

He was considering this option when he suddenly heard his name shouted over the music. Alarmed, he spun around mid-bite with his cheek stuffed full of a pumpkin cookie to see… Two little monsters heading his way. Who…? Oh…. Oh, it was his roommates. At least, he thought it was, it was hard to tell in the dark lighting and makeup. “Uh, heh, yeah… I did…” he agreed meekly with a cough, having swallowed his large bite too soon. “How, uh… How are you guys…?” Xun didn’t dislike his roommates by any means (except for their loudness and ghostly décor for the holidays), but he also didn’t go out of his way to interact with them and spent more time alone in his room than in the common area. And he was an awkward person in general, so socializing in this sort of atmosphere didn’t come naturally to him. “… Cookie?” he asked, offering over one of the three he’d piled on his plate.

He was feeling only slightly less uncomfortable with his two roommates by the time someone he really did like being around suddenly appeared. And he looked… Wow. Xun’s lips stayed parted in a slightly stunned gawk as Nao walked up until he realized he was staring, and he quickly snapped them shut and nodded in confirmation that it was, indeed, him. “Hey Nao!” he finally greeted with sincere enthusiasm. “Sorry, I, ah… I guess my costume is not that great for finding me…” He was all black in a black room; not the brightest idea. “Y-you, ah… The food is good, yes?” he stammered, feeling his cheeks heat up under the dark fabric. “I just do not want to eat the… Body part foods…” Xun really didn’t understand what the appeal was. “… I like your costume,” he added a little more shyly.

[Deleted]

Devyn felt that he'd lucked out with his roommates, he and Sunar got on extremely well and even though Xun and he weren't best friends they didn't hate each other. The other male kept mostly to himself, and it was obvious that he wasn't great at being social, but Devyn didn't find their atmosphere to be tense.

Though, when offered a dessert of any kind it didn't matter much to Devyn how tense his relationship with the person was.

If given the choice, though, he definitely preferred cupcakes.

He munched on the sweet, looking around the room and leaving most of the small talk to the more vocal of the roommates. He was pleased that although he could still hear the music from where he was standing it wasn't painful. Devyn wasn't very fond of incredibly loud sounds, so it was a pleasant surprise that it wasn't as bad as he had expected it to be.

"I wasn't sure you'd be the type to come to this," though he had little room to talk having not shown up to a single dance in the several years he had been at Hammel, "the foods good, though."

Just before Devyn turned away from the conversation to scope out any other delectable goodies that were occupying the snack table yet another person approached their growing group. Typically, he would have been less intrigued and would have rather gone to gather more sweets, but it was almost cute the way Xun lit up as the other male approached.

It was probably a good thing he had a mouthful of a cookie so he didn't make a vocal sound of something along the lines of 'aw'. But he did smile a bit at the male's awkward compliment, and couldn't resist slightly raising a questioning eyebrow at his other roommate, Xun, and then looking over to Sunar.

[Deleted]

Zeke wasn't sure why he was coming to this dance. Well, okay, that wasn't true, he did know - Rina had asked him to, and he couldn't say no to something, especially to her and her sweet little face and expectant eyes... Even if he absolutely hated being in crowds because he always felt claustrophobic and on the edge of a panic attack if he didn't think he could get out.

But heyyy, dances were fun...! Right....?

He'd sighed as he looked in the mirror at his costume, but not because it didn't look good. In fact, he thought he played the part of a lion pretty well - ears, mane, tail, and everything, complete with yellow-gold contacts and even a little makeup to make him look the part. He kept fidgeting with the tight choker (collar) around his neck, though, wondering if it was too much. He liked it...

After asking Danny's opinion and getting his reassurances that he looked good and he would be fine and Zeke could call him if he needed anything, the young man steeled his nerves and headed out. At least he knew Rina would look really cute and be happy to see him... Even if just talking to her alone was enough to make him nervous still...

He knocked on her dorm room door with a nervous hand, his normal neutral expression in place until she opened the door. Upon seeing her, Zeke would allow the smallest of smiles to touch his lips. "Hello, Rina," he greeted softly. "You... You look very nice." And she did, like he'd known she would. Once the rest of the pleasantries were out of the way, he'd gingerly take her hand and lead her to the dance. Not for the first time, he couldn't help but notice the extreme height difference between them, and hoped Rina didn't mind.

He also hoped she didn't expect him to actually dance.....

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar met Devyn's quizzical look, then looked back to Xun and the ring master, watching as they stammered at one another. 

Oh. 

Oh. 

"OH," He said aloud, as his very small grasp of boundaries made itself felt for once. "Are we interrupting your date?" 
 

"Unless you two want a double date I guess we're gonna go," He decided, grinning widely at them. He wrapped a handful of brownies in a napkin before grabbing Dev by the arm with his free hand, "Let's go dance and leave the lovebirds alone!"

The DJ was playing some Foxes, which Sunar supposed was fine. For a dance. (okay, maybe it was really catchy and dance-able but that was beside the point.)

[Deleted]

It was Xun! Nao was glad he wasn’t wrong, and he gave the older boy a smile that matched his own. “It’s okay,” he assured Xun. “If I didn’t see you, then I’m sure you would have seen me.” After all, Nao’s costume was 1. noticeable, and 2. didn’t cover his face. He nodded and grabbed himself a piece of brownie from the table. “I don’t like them either, so it’s okay.” It was something that Naozumi and Xun shared; a distaste for things that were scary. For Nao, it was specifically the supernatural, as he was fairly superstitious himself. But…there wasn’t anything scary about a costume party, right? If it were a real haunted house(like the one he hear Pilot Ridge had on the edge of town), then he would be a lot more on edge. This was fine, though. “Thanks,” he said, smiling up at the boy who, despite all the growing Nao had been doing lately, was still much taller than him, only by several inches.

Nao would have wanted to know more about Xun’s friends, and would have liked to have gotten an introduction, but amid his and Xun’s short conversation, one of the boys had interjected with something that Nao didn’t quite register right away.

D….date….? Date???

Nao stared at the boy who said it, and who was still speaking even as Nao started shaking his head. “No…..” he said, though it was probably too quiet to be heard over the music. His face, of course, was becoming incredibly flushed as the kid just kept talking. Nao scowled and said sharply, practically shouted, “No! You’re wrong!” Call him touchy over being called out on being gay, but Nao was always touchy when he was called out on being gay. Why would someone make that assumption without asking, or waiting for a clear answer, or just leave it alone because it was none of their business whether or not he acted so obviously gay that people assumed he was partnered with any man he was friendly with.

Yes, Nao was upset. Because this happened to be one of the very few things that could upset him so much.

[Deleted]

Xun nodded in understanding at Devyn’s assumption that this wasn’t his thing. “Yes… My friends wanted me to come, so I did…” He was terrible at resisting peer pressure, after all. “I am thinking about leaving after filling a plate with food,” he admitted sheepishly. Because it was good. Xun wished he could bake stuff like it.

He was busy being happily distracted by the appearance of his friend, too busy to notice at first the glances that were going on between the two other boys. “You do stand out,” he said with a chuckle, looking over Nao’s costume. It was a lot better than his, though. And Xun was happy that there was at least one other sane person at this school when it came to dealing with the supernatural – or rather, not dealing with the supernatural and letting it be. He nodded at the thanks, still smiling rather dumbly as he took some sips of punch. It tasted a little strange… But he figured it was because he wasn’t used to having so many sweets.

The sudden questioning about a “date” completely bewildered Xun at first. Since he and Nao were definitely not on a date, and had only just now bumped into each other, he couldn’t grasp what was going on. He’d never dated before, after all, and didn’t know the first thing about it. It wasn’t until Nao started protesting, actually, that the Chinese boy realized how much he should deny it as well. “We are just friends…” he said softly, although something in his stomach twinged unpleasantly when he said it. Xun watched nervously as Nao very loudly continued to protest, and waited until the other two had left before he gingerly tugged on his friend’s sleeve. “It is okay,” he tried to console the younger boy. “I do not think anyone heard.” At least, no one around them seemed to be paying much attention, too caught up in their own merriment. “We can go somewhere else if you want,” he added after a moment, looking around the area. Maybe getting away from here would make him feel better.

[James Lawrence]

An idea of a fun night for James could include the possibility of a Halloween Dance; it just wasn't exactly in the context he had imagined. At the school, in the auditorium that was packed full of students. Students who were loud. The more students that entered, the harder it got for him to ignore his surroundings. Not that he was suppose to. As one of the staff members that were called on the chaperone, he knew he was suppose to keep his eyes and ears out for any potential situations that needed to be diffused. There was a certain responsibility that came with it.

Due to the last minute planning of his night, James had put little effort into his costume, if any at all. Dressed in his leather jacket, he looked the part of a greaser from the 1950's. The only problem was that anyone who knew James knew this wasn't exactly a costume but his everyday look, only with more hair gel.

It wasn't his fault. He knew that he was going to be at the school, only he'd expected to be in a certain dorm monitor's room. His girlfriend's place; not the auditorium. So James had little to work with. Eyes flickered across the room, but he paid closer attention to the auditory details that not everyone could catch as well as he could.

[Deleted]

Aerina may only be 4’11” tall, but she had to say that she made a pretty darn good lion tamer! Her hair was unfortunately still frizzy as all hell and only barely held back with a scrunchie, and the costume she found at Spirit was made for children…but she still looked really really cute!! Zeke even said so! Okay, he said she looked nice…but that was basically the same thing! Aerina giggled up at his compliment and reached out her hand to take his offered one. “You look great too,” she said with a bright smile. “Such a good lion~!” Aerina almost wished she had a collar and leash to lead him around in, just to make it look more like the real thing. Rina wasn’t going to push it though, she was stoked enough that she actually managed to land herself a boyfriend!

Well….okay, so he wasn’t really a boyfriend yet, but he did agree to go out with her, and he said he liked her, so…….they were practically boyfriend/girlfriend already! Aerina was excited to also be showing up at such an important event as the halloween dance with such a hot guy on her arm.

Or rather, Aerina was more hanging on his arm, practically swinging by it, considering how much taller Zeke was than she was. Aerina thought it was perfect, either way. The height difference didn’t bother her at all and actually she thought it suited them well. Some may even say they were cute. Teehee, people thought they were cute…that was proof that they were meant to be, right??

When they arrived in the auditorium, Aerina was hit with a blast of music and stood in awe at the crowd of people. It reminded her of the festivals from back home! So much excitement. Aerina immediately pulled on Zeke’s hand further into the room and, naturally, towards the dance floor. “Come on, Zeke! Let’s get warmed up, okay? This is a dance, right? So….let’s dance!” The girl giggled and continued to tug on her (not)boyfriend.