The Fall Ball

[Quincunx]

Bacchantes feel no fear, no pain. Tzimfemme whirled, dipped a shoulder, flung out a foot for balance and connected with the lower jaw of a lunging cottonmouth. It fell back in a wide-mouthed heap on the floor and struggled to rise again, but crumpled under Tzimfemme's heel. Goggle-eyed males drank in the tireless leaps and ignored the snakes, the callous kill, the thin froth at the corners of her mouth and the glazed eyes. She ignored them. Inhuman and breathy notes, thwarted reptilian rages all around, a burning gout of vampire blood: they wanted a frenzy. Tzimfemme's frosty-eyed plague would not allow frenzy and fenced the idea tightly in logic. The world would stop spinning if the music stopped--unless it was watered. Sacrifice. Make the world bloom anew. Falcon was not an innocent and William no longer a child; he would live. Seek.

 

Falcon collapsed. Tzimfemme dropped into a starting crouch and strained her ears. She missed Ayshela's shrieks from above and the unending susurration of snakes gliding underfoot. Neither the unconscious malice of Ozymandias's shadow beasts nor Minta capering atop a table with her poisonous daggers firmly in hand disturbed her. Her body, fevered and caged, left her mind cool; somewhere in that mass of strangers was an appropriate young Bacchus to tear to pieces and venerate afterwards--but they were concealed. She couldn't sense the protective auras and spells of the Pen knotting themselves around the Fall Ball and even now bemusing most of the participants into acceptance of the situation. They were as untouchable as unicorns. Unicorns? The plague! For situations like this was the vampire blood meant. Once she burned that damned white death away, nothing would be untouchable. . .

 

She heard the name while the blood was transmuting and went mad. Instead of shifting her shape to burst the brittle shell, the intangible aspects of Tzimfemme (let's call them Tzimm--'Tzimfemme thought-and-emotion' becomes awkward) lunged out of her physical self and raced away from the ballroom. Minta, startled for a moment, quickly recovered and dashed after the silver-tinged Tzimm, hooting happily and chanting an avatar-killing song she'd picked up from parties unknown. The body of Tzimfemme remained locked in the crouch, supported by the shell of plague, but it softened as the plague tried to permeate the empty body, and sank to the ground to rest on forehead and knees.

[Racouol]

*Thud,THUD,CRACK,SNAP* The dungeon door shattered reveiling a filthy Racouol.

 

"I wish for once you would use the doorknob. I am sick and tired of having to buy a new door every time you want to enter another room. Hell you do not even have your hands full when you kick the doors open." Murdock complained as he looked at the pieces of the door now on the floor.

 

"Quit your whining, just be glad that I have finally a place within the pen's keep to call home." Racouol said as he lit another torch.

 

"I personally wish you chose to live in one of the towers instead of the deepest part of the dungeon." Murdock muttered as he threw his backpacks against one of the walls. At that moment he noticed something under one of the larger pieces of the door. "What is this?" he asked himself as he knelt and brushed away the door pieces revealing two letters. One was labled for Murdock while the other was labled for Racouol. "Looks like someone expected us to chose to stay in these rooms."

 

"Well whatever it is it can wait. We need to unpack first." Racouol said as he pulled an oak desk out of his pocket.

 

"I am going to read mine first, it might be something important." Murdock then opened his letter and started to read it. A few moments later Murdock dropped the letter, rushed over to his luggage, and began searching through it.

 

"What is it?" Racouol asked as he pulled a rug from one of his pockets.

 

"It was an invitation to the fall ball. We are late." Murdock answered.

 

Racouol's eye widen. "We must hurry then. Make sure you contact a couple of the Racouollettes before we leave."

 

 

****************************************************

 

15 minutes later Racouol, Murdock, and two of the Racouollettes were infront of the Ball Room door. Racouol was dressed in a tangerine tuxedo, a wide brim hat with an extreamly long feather sticking out of it, allagator skin boots, and an eye patch with a few fire opels on it over his left eye. Murdock wore a pair of purple pants, light green shirt, a yellow vest, light brown shoes, and a neon pick bandanna. The two ladies were luckly dressed in a normal yet very revieling evening gowns.

 

"I hope that you brought a gift for Ayshela." Murdock said while his hand reached for the door.

 

"Course I did, some very nice elven white wine aged about 4000 years." Racouol replied as he pulled a rather dusty looking bottle out of his pocket.

 

"You sure that it was properly bottled and stored? Nothing worse than to be home trying to drink wine only to find that it turned to vinegar." Murdock asked.

 

"Just open the door already."

 

"Alright already. I just hope those thugs that tried to stop us a moment ago are alright. Hopefully they were not the guards." Murdock said as he opened the door. The four walked in and their jaws dropped the moment the saw the chaos within.

Edited November 4, 2003 by Racouol

[The Big Pointy One]

Stick shrieked from where he was talking with William a few moments ago. Yes, that's right, he shrieked like a little school girl. Snakes! He had nothing against snakes! He didn't really like them either. Looking around the room, he could tell no one else really liked them, so he made his way to the largest cluster of snakes to apply his ranger-charms on the scaled reptilians. He was just about to enter into snake-talk when all of the sudden he found himself curled up on The Mighty Couch. Blinking his eyes repeatedly to look around and figure out what just happened. He was a bit tired lately, so perhaps he had fallen asleep and some generous Penner had moved him to The Couch to get some rest. Blinking a few more times he looked down to realise that he was now wearing a tuxedo! A tuxedo! He didn't remember wearing a tuxedo! Someone must have pulled a prank on him! Stick hopped off the couch to figure out who it was- probably Vincent Silver, or maybe Falcon; he discovered he could jump a lot farther than normally. Grinning in satisfaction he took another big leap and couldn't help notice that he felt a *lot* lighter than normal. He also noticed that everyone seemed *way* taller than he remembered. Like ten times taller. Shrugging he took another leap forwards, he felt off in some way. Looking down at his paws- funny, he didn't remember having paws. Furry paws. Furry *brown* paws. Re-examining himself, he noticed he had brown feet too, and a fluffy tail... catching a glimpse of his shadow he noticed what confirmed his thoughts...

 

The Big Pointy One was a rabbit! He knew it! He jumped in the air in excitement and hopped around ecstacically, not caring whom he bumped into (not like they'd really notice or be injured as it was...) He finally noticed himself. He looked up at himself, and figured it all out! Of course... Mr.Bunny must have pulled the prank on me... turning me into a rabbit... then, he must have cast an illusion to make himself look like me, all so I could think someone cast some sort of spell to make me think everyone else had switched bodies! That trickster! Enjoying his new form, still not really realising he and Mr.Bunny had actually switched bodies, Stick continued to enjoy himself in his current form.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Mr.Bunny felt his mind get tugged and finally pulled away until he found himself looking at a cluster of snakes. He had been taking a few moments to rest his little legs on The Mighty Couch just a split second before, and was somewhat confused to what he was doing now. It didn't take him very long to figure out he was in his sidekick's body. What he had planned on doing with the snakes, he had no idea, as the warrior was horrible at speaking to animals. Plants he could do, but snakes, no. Shrugging, he spoke aloud, "This is weird. I wonder who did it..." and was amazed to hear his own voice, or at least, Stick's. His rabbit-voice only applied in his rabbit body, apparently. Excited as Stick-bunny, Mr.Bunny took the opportunity to introduce himself to some of the new Penners who had not yet learned rabbit-speech. Of course, the majority probably would not be in their own bodies, so he'd just have to talk to everyone to find out who was who.

 

Meanwhile, Sliver and Roxxia quickly realised they had also switched bodies with each other. Laughing, they quickly ran out of the ballroom amidst a horde of snakes and figured there'd be a few interesting things they could manage elsewhere in their current states...

 

Elsewhere, Rocoss was *really* disappointed to find out he had switched bodies with... with a crystal goblet. It was horrible. He somehow looked on through refracted vision and noticed his body trying to contort into a goblet-like shape, only imagining the pain he'd feel when got his body back. If he could sigh, he would have. This really sucked; he comes to this ball, ends up being a wallflower the whole time through, not talking to *anyone* and now this. He *really* hoped someone was thirsty.

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Doomgaze leads Celes back at the bar stool next to Cambronne who's not to sure about what to do with the snakes. While she's still drunk, the alcohol effects starts to wear out.

 

- I'm ssoooo sowwy Doom... I wuz so craptacular.

 

Doomgaze sights and decides it was best to not upset the drunken Troubadour.

 

- Don't worry, just don't drink alcohol for the rest of the evening. There, have a glass of water.

 

- That snaky dawce wazzz zo sstoopid...

 

- Now now now! Don't worry about that, everyone had done stupid things and I thought it was funny.

 

Celes looked at Doomgaze and pouts

 

- Nice try...

 

- I'm sorry, I guess that was crap... How did you said that again?

 

- Craptacular.

 

Both gaze at each other and burst into laugh. The mage strokes at her cat, although a Sylph was already scratching the feline's ear.

[Ozymandias]

A cat...why did it have to be a cat...? thought Ozymandias morosely as he stared out of Cambronne's eyes at the now even more chaotically undulating carpet of snakes...and guests. He knit his small feline brows togther in consternation as tried to sort out the whole bizzare mess- A truly ridiculous sight of almost cartoon proportions to anyone who was undistracted enough to notice. Hm. What spells do I know that aren't verbal, somatic, or material-bound? Ozymandias grimaces in chagrin as his attempt at thoughtfully scratching his chin nearly puts his/Cambronne's eye out due to his newfound flexibility, claws, and lack of elbows. Ozymandias, in that moment, unknowingly becomes a benchmark in history by giving a more perturbed look to a cat's face than any cat had in over four thousand years.

 

No, all of those would only make matters worse, he decided emphatically. Damn! What can we do?? This could be one of the most trying disasters since...OHhhhh yeah, that's the spot! OOOOOOOoooo... His train of thought is derailed abruptly as something vaguely resembling a pearl leaps onto his head and begins to scratch behind his/Cambronne's left ear vigorously. Moments later, he is forced to bring all of his mind mage mental focus training to bear on not melting into the floor when Lady Celes reaches down and starts scratching him too.

 

The former king of all Egypt arches his back in pleasure and leans into the glorious scratching.

[Peredhil]

[Peredhil]

After speaking to William, I was at somewhat of a loss as to what to do. I knew where my body was of course, as I could feel my Ring, bound to me as it is. Why Sauron hadn't spent the extra life force to password protect his, I'll never know.

 

I'd looked on Melkor once. The Great Enemy. The most terrifying thing I remember was his beauty.

 

Something had to be done. I wasn't sure what would happen if bodies were killed with their minds switched, but it probably wouldn't be pretty.

 

Thinking back to the last time I'd worn a snake's skin, I wondered if the Serpentine Mysteries would work here. The Pen was situated at a crossroads of powers and planes, a natural weak spot through which much leaked. Perhaps.

The benefit was that they required knowledge, not a great deal of power - most of that was in my own body. This snake wasn't even a potential mageborn.

 

As I began writhing into the Glyphs which comprised the Ritual of Opening, I made a mental note to speak to Guido about all this later.

[/Peredhil]

 

[Elrohir]

I hated snakes.

Really.

I know I went with Dad on that quest to recover the Eye from the Temple of Set, and had worn a snake's body, but...

I really hate snakes. No matter how much I talk to myself, and know it isn't true, they'll always be slimy poisonous worms in the gibbering depths of my mind.

 

Being closest to the Word, we'd been drawn into snake's bodies when it warped. I'd imagine that several others, if not all, had endured some change or transfiguration. The ones furthest away might only have mental effects, but they should be wary of repressed parts of their minds.

 

I found Dad quickly through his essence, and saw he was a reasonably large Boa Constrictor, which rather made sense. They aren't as aggressive as most of the others. From the looks of it, I was stuck in a black mamba. Odd choice for the word, mambas are fast hyper-aggressive and very very poisonous. I can only assume the Word had liked Dad and not liked me in matching us up.

 

Dad said something to William, which just goes to show how well he'd mastered the snake thing before, then started into the that slow snake magic. With a sigh, well, a hiss rather, I began weaving the Circles around him - he might think he could get away with working unshielded, but given the results of his last attempt, I wasn't going to take chances.

I had two of the three Circles writhed into glowing existence around him by the time he'd finished Opening and had started into the Ritual of Welcoming.

[/Elrohir]

 

[Elladan]

I blitzed into full as Dad started forward and time slowed to a crawl. Tiny details became magnified. Yui's sharp breath behind, the glint on Ayshela's knives, Regel standing with bent head listening to someone shorter.

I Pulled the Mithran blade from its location elsewhere. I'm not a cleric by any extent, but the Bull Slayer was known for his hatred of Set, and the blade would put up with me if it got to kill snakes. I've been meaning to return the blade, but just haven't found an active temple.

Dad's shoulder's tensed as he started to cast, and I suddenly Felt Guido's wild flare of magic; he'd taken off his Faerie Dragon Ring. Stupid, he was gonna do something that required magic. No time to slow down and warn Dad or El', so I Shielded and threw myself backward into a Rip I opened, figuring I could survive whatever was on the other side long enough to come back and save them.

 

The Rip worked - but got caught with something similiar and clumsy seeking the Pen.

 

I looked around and slowed. London. I was in London and Dad was in trouble.

The staff knew enough to exit when I appeared with a sword. In the absence of snakes, the sword started to fight me again. I dropped back to realtime and reminded it why it had let me take it from the altar the first time. It's whimpers were background distractions as I used it to begin carving Runes into the floor and walls, enchanting as I went. This would be a Wild Gate, but I was sure I could force it to get me back. Any fool who came in after me might find themself anyway, but that wasn't my issue.

 

The Gate was rough and ready, just lacking an Adept Word but I took a moment to rest and focus. The time differential here worked in my favor, unless the Gate would be warping time as well. None of us are as good as Dad with the Adept magic, but he'd forced us all to learn over the years.

 

In a few minutes, I'd be back.

 

Dad had better be alive. Something inside tried to push at my cheekbones as if to force me to cry, but I fought it back down. Staring at them, I forced my hands to quit shaking at what was in me, then I spoke the Word and stepped.

[/Elladan]

 

[Guido]

Perhaps it was da booze, but something ate my spell. Next thing I knows, I'm still in da high beams, gots my gat, and wearing my Ring. Nice reflexes I thinks to myself.

When I looked down, I wished I hadn't. Something had gone very wrong. I saw da Boss okay, but he swayed and fell, then started writhing around on da floor. Elrohir was on da floor too trying to bite anything dat came close. Der was a raw planar hole starting ta close and Something was coming through.

 

I aimed da gat at it and prepared to introduce myself Politely. Nine rounds of manners.

[/Guido]

 

[Nuncio]

I finished checking the brush strokes for the fifth time to ensure I'd drawn them correctly. One of the haberdashers commented it looked like Oriental calligraphy. I accepted his praise as just due; I am acutely dexterous with my paws. Clutching my shopping bag with my extra clothes, I adjusted my new silk tie with my other paw.

With one final thanks to the staff, I spoke the Word to activate the temporary Portal and felt it seeking the description I'd specified. It snapped into a lock-on much faster than normal, and I wished that Guido had been here to notice how much I'd improved.

 

As I stepped through, Something brushed me, a maelstrom of rage lonliness and death passionate death, causing me to stumble a bit. There were a few sharp barks and something tugged at my bag.

 

In horror, I realized I wasn't in the Bosses chambers. I was in a Ball Room looking like a Wyvern Terran Conservatory Bash. There were snakes, Pennites, and poorly dressed people; it was a horrible situation. Unfortunately the Portal's glow behind me had faded - I couldn't just step back through and pretend I wasn't here.

 

I looked down to rescue my clothes and saw a tight shotgroup through the center of my bag. My bag with my new suits. It could only be Guido. Assessing trajectory from the exit holes, I raised my eyes to scan the ceiling for that clothes wrecking hamster, and saw the hostess, glaring down at the shambles of the floor with knives.

 

There was only one thing a Peredhil Bodyguard walking into such a madhouse could do and I clenched the knowledge like a drowning rat grips a stick.

 

"Miss Ayshela," I shouted, "Pardon me for arriving late to your enchanting soire!"

[/Nuncio]

[Gwaihir]

Gwaihir was mainly confusied to find himself suddenly on the other side of the room. At first he just figured that he must have walked over and not noticed.

 

Orlan however, realized immediately what had happened when he found himself suddenly in the body of a very messy looking half elf. He looked like disaster and that was not how Orlan liked to look at a ball.

 

It took Gwaihir much longer to realize what had happened. He wondered how this had happened and scratched his head--with something very gooey. Apparently, Orlan had been holding a slice of cake at the time...it must have been cut before Gwaihir went dancing. But now, the sexy sexy elder's hair was out of place and more importantly full of cake. The chocolate crumbs dribbled down his head and onto his shoulders....except the ones that stuck in the icing. And there was certainly enough icing--all over his head.

Gwaihir looked at his hand which now held a mostly empty plate. He shrugged and put it in the garbage can. 'I really should pay more attention to what I'm doing--how ever did I come to be holding an empty plate?' He shrugged and wiped his hands on his jacket...jacket? Since when had he had a jacket this nice? Gwaihir looked down at himself and when he was paying attention even he could tell who he was and who he certainly wasn't. The only problem was that Gwai couldn't figure out who he was. There must be someone around here who looked like this; he sort of recognized the style, but who could it be?

Gwaihir shrugged and walked up to what looked like Yui...only to trip on a rather annoyed black mamba. He looked at it with alarm--now animals Gwai could recognize. 'Umm, Sir, please don't hurt me' he said earnestly. He just had to get to Yui. She was sure to know who he was and she was nice.

[Peredhil]

[Elrohir]

I hissed and just managed to override the mamba body's instincts before biting Orlan. The mamba is one of the few snakes that will charge a person and swarm up the snake-catcher pole to try to bite him.

I started the Circle over again before the next one in could start to decay, but my tongue was flickering to test the air constantly.

 

It smelled like Orlan, the D.E.P. was unmistakable. But Orlan's prowling graceful walk had been known to make jungle cats seek therapy for feelings of inferiority. Tripping?

 

I refocused and concentrated on what I was doing - the mental constructs of Serpentine Rituals are its foundation.

[/Elrohir]

[WrenWind]

Wren never quite makes it to the door befor her head feels like it is about to explode and she crumples to the floor . A glittering heap of silk and gold draped across the exit.

[Ayshela]

Ayshela swayed as the wave of power flowed over her, and nearly fell from her perch on the crossbeam. Throwing herself sideways, she clung to the beam and waited for her vision to fully clear. How much of the distortion was from whatever spells had been cast, and how much was from the surging, firmly repressed urge to cry, she couldn't have said for anything. Still, repressing the never-admitted, always supressed urge DID give her something other than snakes to focus her attention on, so maybe it wasn't all bad even if it was just as strange as everything else, lately.

[Xaious, Master of Time]

"Snakes. Why couldn't they be cats? At least then i would know how to react." quoth Xaious, jumping down from whatever perch he had gone off to. "Hmmm..I know." Quickly he summons a small humanistic zombie group to coral the snakes and people into different areas. "Or maybe not..." While the snakes were pushed back, although into the punch bowl, the humans didn't react so well.

*Clap clap clap* "Way to go, genius. Do you ever think before you act?" Vincent wasn't surprised.

"um...No?.."

"Well maybe you should try it some time."

"Hey, atleast they snakes are off the dance floor."

"THEY"RE IN THE FRIGGIN PUNCH!"

"Yeah?" Xaious gave a slight laugh. "I've got some Happy-Ade". Suddenly a table with vast amounts of lemonade-like drink appeared.

"And what exactly is that, anyways?" Asked Ayshela, suddenly rescued from the rafters and other things by Xaious, in yet another time-frozen trip.

"Oh, It's Lemonade...with some Vodka....uh...yeah.." Said Xaious, wondering if she would realize it was what he gave her earlier.

"Well, it replaces the punch, at least." said a very confused Pennite, who just wandered over to the new drinks table.

"Drink up, my fellows, drink and be merry, we have someone trying to clean up this mess...Um, sir?" Xaious began.

"Hiss?"

"Would you mind not craling on my leg?"

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Celes huggles her cat, unaware of the change that occured in Cambronne. Since her pet was quiet, the Troubadour decides to give him a cat treat. While Cambronne's thought was willing to go for it, Ozy's was more reluctant.

 

- Regarde Cambronne! Un bon nanane pour le bon ti-gars!

(Look Camrbonne! A nice treat for the good lil-guy!)

 

Cambronne finally grabs the treat and while the feline is delighted...

 

- How can you eat such things? If that's the treat, I don't wanna think about the regular food.

 

Celes strokes her cat again, telling him how good he is.

[Wyvern]

Wyvern/Yui's teeth chatter as he dodges a particularly energetic rattle snake and almost trips over a lazy boa constrictor, brushing off a viper clinging to his dark cloak and mumbling numerous curses under his breath as he does so. Glancing left and right distraughtly and finally coming to terms with his situation, he sighs only to suddenly brighten up as he notices Orlan approaching. Finally, a person that he could count on for a bit of calm and reason in this chaos...

 

Walking towards Orlan as he clumsily approaches, Wyvern/Yui is shocked as the Sexy Sexy Elder practically stumbles headfirst into a makeshift nest of cobras resting on the Ballroom floor.

 

"Orlan!" exclaims Wyvern/Yui, about to kick off the conversation with some observations on how the snakes were a nice touch to Orlan's appearence but suddenly realizing that he didn't want to give the sexy Elder any ideas about the huntress. Clearing his throat and speaking in a softer, mysterious tone, he says:

 

"Orlan, it is excellent to see you here amongst this mass of confusion. Yes... errrr... there's a cobra hanging from your ear that you might consider attending to."

 

Upon hearing this, Gwaihir/Orlan screams and frantically grabs the snake from his ear, tossing it over his shoulder. The cobra flies through the air and ends up landing directly in the crystal goblet that Rocoss' personality inhabits. Just when the eldest of the seven thought it couldn't get any worse...

 

Turning towards Wyvern/Yui, Gwaihir/Orlan mutters:

 

"Great to see you too Yui, I wanted to ask you... who am I at the moment, exactly?"

 

Upon uttering this question, a large flock of teenage girls wearing "I Love Orlan" T-shirts suddenly barge into the Ballroom and flock towards Orlan, pointing and shouting:

 

"You're my boyfriend!"

 

"No, you're my boyfriend!"

 

"You've been my lover for like, six years!"

 

Wyvern/Yui raises a brow in confusion as the girls take out a large sack and stuff Gwaihir/Orlan inside of it, giggling intently as they rush off to the shadowy corner of the Ball near where the chemical cart rests to split him evenly amongst themselves. Sighing and whining to himself about how he didn't get a body capable of attracting legions of amorous female fans, Wyvern/Yui twirls his blond hair and considers his options...

 

Walking through a shadowed area of the hall as he contemplates his current abilities, Wyvern/Yui accidentally steps into a shadow rift and suddenly finds himself wandering through empty space, which causes him to become even more confused. Glancing left and right, the lizard/huntress takes the nearest exit only to find himself suddenly next to Alzorath's shadowy form at the bar. Hmmm... this ability could certainly come in handy.

 

Wyvern/Yui grins and rubs his delicate palms together as he begins planning out an intricate shadow plane touring scheme.

 

Meanwhile, one of the Racouolettes happens to stumble across Falcon's discarded bone flute...

[DL_Snake]

DL_Snake slipped his arms around Wren's waist and guided her limp form towards a secluded corner in the ballroom. He positioned Wren's prone form so as to hide the fact that she was unconscious.

 

Hearing the melody from Falcon's flute gave him a powerful jolt. That is one powerful charm spell. Thankfully for my paranoid nature...my mental defences are up he thought to himself. As he nimbly relaced Wren's bodice to cover her modesty, he felt a chill pass around the room. Snakes (pun not intended) were slithering all over the floor, hissing and flicking their tongues. What struck him as strange is that some of the reptiles had human personas in them.

 

Fortunately for him, his mental defences were enough that he wasn't switched to another person, or another creature's body. He frowned as he looked about him, trying to figure out the spell involved. Using his magic sight, he noticed wild magic dancing around in the air and almost belatedly remembered Wren. Hurriedly concentrating, he finished his encantation just in time as he saw a golden nimbus surrounding his friend's head before the bit of wild magic reached her.

 

Looking around him and noting the confusion surrounding the ball he shook his head in resignation. Extending his senses he ntoed with approval that Tiel had left before the chaos reigned. Even in a party, I've got business to settle he sighed to himself.

 

DL_Snake trudged towards Gwaihir in Orlan's body. Using a summoning charm, he summoned Orlan in Gwai's body towards them as he moved. Realizing his mistake belatedly as the flood of female fans milled abuot Orlan's body in excitement. Throwing his hands up in exasperation he teleported himself out of the female crowd and glared at Orlan...or was it Gwai, as if it were his fault.

 

Out of the corner of his eye he noted Yui's body but exhibiting Wyvern's usual clumsiness shadow walking from one point to another, knocking things over as he/she went. Seizing this opportunity to save Yui's body from further damage by Wyvern, he casted a body switch spell upon the stumbling figure. A cascade of energy flew from his fingers and surrounded Yui. Yui's body fell face flat onto the floor as DL_Snake winced in sympathy. I have got to remember that next time

 

Finally he fuond Wyvern lying spreadeagled beneath the table What WAS Yui doing in that body?. Slowly regaining his consiousness Wyvern looked at Snake.

 

"Argh, you! What did you do? I was having a fun time shadow walking, switch me back! PLEASE!" slobbered the lizardman. Snake ignored this as post body-switch depression syndrome (He just made it up as he went along anyway) and hauled Wyvern to his feet.

 

"Wyvern, you were damaging her body," he said drily. Propelling the bulky lizard towards his tray of devices, he gestured to Wyvern. "I'm gonna need your help, Mr Scientist. I don't have enough energy to do individual re-swtiches, so I'm gonna need your devices. Please produce something that works for once, bro," the Elf's eyes twinkled at Wyvern as he looked imploringly at the lizardman.

 

Wyvern said he might have something that will work and rummaged through his devices. Meanwhile, Snake casted a spell so that he, Wyvern, Yui and Wren will be protected in case something went wrong.

 

"HEre, I have just the thing!" Wyvern announced as he produced a weird loking apparatus in triumph......

Edited November 9, 2003 by DL_Snake

[Wyvern]

Rushing towards his cart of scientific beakers in the far corner of the room, Wyvern frantically toys with the cylinder-shaped apparatus he's holding while carefully avoiding the snakes that litter the ground. Arriving at the beakers, the overgrown lizard sadly mutters something about not being able to abuse more of Yui's talents as he grabs two random beakers and begins rapidly combining their contents. Obtaining a bubbling green formula from the mixture, he tosses in an orangutan hair with a small garden snake from the floor before turning towards Snake.

 

"I have it DL_Snake!" exclaims Wyvern as he holds the formula in the air and examines it contently. "This should answer all of our problems!"

 

With that, Wyvern tosses the formula into the air and lets it's contents rain over the crowd, expecting it to result in people switching back to their normal bodies. Instead, it creates large storm clouds within the ballroom that begin to rumble with thunder, blocking out the starlit ceiling created by Vigil's starseed with their darkness... DL_Snake looks up at the clouds, then back at Wyvern.

 

"WYVERN!"

 

"I'm sorry!" hisses the reptilian Elder, wasting no time and tossing together another mixture, this one made of rabid pigs snot and deep sea urchine sweat. "That formula didn't work, but hopefully this one will do the trick!"

 

Adding a touch of pepper to the formula and sprinkling it's contents in a circle around himself and DL_Snake, Wyvern raises a brow as several gases are emitted into the air and time gradually slows down. Shaking a fist at Wyvern in slow motion, Snake slowly cries:

 

"W.....Y.....V.....E....R.....N.....!.....!......!"

 

Wyvern apologizes in slow motion, then slowly combines two more formulas, these ones labeled "sylph eyelashes" and "minotaur saliva." The moment the overgrown lizard combines the two substances, the beaker explodes and time speeds back up again. At the same exact moment, a minotaur dressed in a Julias Ceasar outfit hobbles in through the front doors of the ballroom and begins muttering verses from "Hamlet." While all this happens, it begins to rain from the clouds above.

 

"WYVERN!!!!!!" exclaims DL_Snake "You're only making things worse!!!"

 

"Yeah, so what else is new??!!!" cries back Wyvern over an enormous rumble of thunder.

 

Fortunatly, at that very moment, the Racouollette that had found the bone flute previously begins to play it to the tune of "My Fire Elementist Left Me for a Salamander." Thanks to the incredibly out of tune noises the Racouollette produces, the melodies of the flute have the opposite effect that they once had, and actually begin repelling the snakes. As numerous serpents begin slithering away from the ballroom as fast as they can, the personalities of the pen members of the ball are left behind and proceed to enter back into their former shells...

 

As the pen members regain their personalities and shift back into consciousness, they begin to notice the dark storms in the sky and the minotaur philosopher reciting quotes from various plays...

 

Meanwhile, Wyvern slithers away with the rest of the snakes, the serpant element of his unconscious mind once again triggered by the bone flute...

[Ozymandias]

Oh, of COURSE those poor SNAKES get set right, Ozymandias reflects ruefully. Not the CAT. Gazing across the ballroom at the partygoers steadily collecting themselves, he spots...himself, pouncing on something. Still chewing vaguely on the kitty treat, Ozymandias/Cambronne stands up for a better look. The poor cat looks utterly ridiculous twice in one evening as Ozymandias stares goggle-eyed at the position his body is now in.

 

Then again, this isn't so bad...I kind of like the tuna flavoring. thinks he, chewing with determination as he slowly sinks back down into his (new?) mistress' lap.

[Zariah]

Zariah and Crow watched all the different activity unfold throughout the ballroom. Zariah felt new emotions that she never had experirnced before.

 

"Crow, even though I haven't met everyone, I feel as if I BELONG here. You know? As if I was MEANT to stay here. This has been quite an evening so far, and I have so enjoyed our time together so far."

 

"Caw Kah cah Kaw," Crow remarked.

 

"Well, thank you Crow, you are truly a good friend. The question is, will Nyyark arrive at all to the Ball?"

 

Crow gave a look of concern.

[Racouol]

Racouol quickly produced some ear plugs and shoved them into his ears. He then walked towards the center of the ball room avoiding various snakes slithering out of the ball room. Staring at the growing storm cloud in the ball room. "This can not be good he muttered to himself. In moments the rafters were covered in the clouds then it started raining green pudding. "What the..." a huge glob of pudding hit him in the face knocking him onto the ground.

 

********************************************************************

 

Murdock quickly tried to cover his ears from the shreeking of the bone flute. However he could not block the sound and before long his reptilian instincts took over as he crawled away.

[DoomGaze]

DoomGaze found himself lost in his thoughts as the company he was with distanced themselves from him. He grew tired an weary from all the action that had been displayed by the mysterious, lab-coat bearing lizard everyone called Wyvern.

 

"Poor sap," DoomGaze remarked, eyes fixating on the lizard "He is trying so hard to impress people, yet all his efforts become more and more disasterous at each attempt."

 

DoomGaze sighed once more as he started to look around the room. He spotted Zariah, but something was different, she was with a crow, but to his curiosity, she still had the same face on from when DoomGaze first met her.

he looked back and he saw poor Annael sitting at bar, where he had left her before having an embarassing moment with Celes. He felt divided between the two. DoomGaze didn't want to leave Annael alone, unless she really wanted to be, but coming form experience, he truly believed that no one would want that if they were given the oppotunity to be with.

 

He smiled shily at the alone fallen angel, who was being entertained by her butterflies, but the expression on Annael's face showed that she was getting a little tired. She noticed DoomGaze had glanced at her and smiled. She hopped off the stool. brushed her dress with her hands and walked to him.

 

"So watcha doing?!" she asked merrily.

He stood there and shrugged at her, "Right now I'm doing nothing, but I was thinking on going to see Zariah over there, her date hasn't shown up yet, and I just felt like keeping her company. You can come with if you want."

 

She smiled and so did he, but he was unsure if Annael would want to go.

 

"I'll be over there then, if you want to come over"

 

She nodded as DoomGaze drifted off towards Zariah.

[Zariah]

"Cah kaw cah kaw kah," Crow remarked.

 

Zariah responded half way as she looked up toward the approaching Doomgaze. "Yes Crow. I agree, things have not been the same for the crow community these past 10 or so years...and I-" Zariah was fully distracted.

 

"Hi Doomgaze, We were just talking about some crow stuff, but we can change the subject to something more suitable. Do you, um, heh...usually words are easy for me to find."

 

Silence.

 

"Heh. This is backward. Well, my last dance wasn't so successful, but I have cleaned up. Care to make a few rounds?" Zariah was even taken aback at her own forwardness.

 

 

Crow cocked her head to the side and awaited his response.

Edited November 12, 2003 by Zariah

[DoomGaze]

DoomGaze was stunned at her proposal. " A dance with me?!?!" he answered immediately. He suddenly nodded his head in delight, with a gentle smile on his face.

He stood there, not knowing what to do. She too, having done the first move, awaited his lead. "Well," she said "Lead the way!"

He laughed trying to hide the fact that he did not know how to lead, "Me lead?! Well I guess I can try" He sighed, and then asked Zariah to stay where she was.

 

He quickly ran up to where the DJ was playing songs. He whispered in his ear asking for 1 dance beat song, 1 classical dance, and 1 slow dance. The DJ nodded in approval and quickly changed to the song type of his request.

 

"What was that for?!" she asked inquisitively.

 

"You will see"

 

The music changed to a beat-filled song, and people started to strut their stuff on the dancefloor. DoomGaze took Zariah's hand and lead her to the floor where everyone was dancing. He wondered if actually putting a slow dance as one of his requests a good idea, but nonetheless, he thought that maybe the 2 songs he put before it would delay enough time for her date to arrive, but if worse comes to worse, the two would have to dance through out all 3 songs.

He started to dance, mimicking and combining the moves of other guests. She giggled at him and laugh. He stopped "What's wrong?"

 

"Oh nothing" she stopped herself from continuing to laugh.

 

"C'mon, dance away Zariah! Let yourself go, but not too much"

 

She started to dance, and he continued to mimic others.

[Zariah]

Zariah felt as if she was in a dream, as if this was unreal and yet knew it was real. People were watching them, but she was watching and following Doomgaze.

 

Gee, this is so much fun! she thought. I wonder how often he dances with girls

 

Zariah giggled out loud.

 

Doomgaze asked, "What's so funny?"

 

"Oh, I've never had so much fun dancing. I feel like an adolescent"

 

A bright red flush brush accross Zariah's cheeks and the tip of her nose.

 

"Oh okay, well just get ready, I am going to let go of your right hand and twirl you with my right."

 

Zariah responded, "Oh, okay."

 

He spun her gently and twisted her back to the starting position.

 

"So, it must be interesting meeting another Angel. How was that? Did you all have nice conversation? I bet it was a relif. You know, I was soooo relieved when I bumped into Crow. Well...you know not literally...heh....uh...gosh this whole conversation thing is really really hard...I'd just assume write you a note."

 

Doomgaze smiled and gave her another spin the same as before.

 

The first song had ended and there was a second of silence before the next song came on.

[Lady Celes Crusader]

While Celes is stroking her cat, she's getting sober bit by bit and thus, realizing that she acted in a ridicule way. Now, she wasn't sure about what she should do. Either she leaves and unwillingly advertise her lack of control or stay in a while and, even if it means to apologize to anyone, trying to keep up with the appearance. She choose the later although she notices that some people are acting weird. She grabs Cambronne/Ozymandias and lays him on her left breast and shoulder and decides to talk to any denizen she'll meet on her way. Meanwhile, the cat has its own thought

 

- Hum... Hum... I'm so glad to be a cat after all.

[DoomGaze]

The second song had just begun started.. an entirely different genre of song to be exact. It was more classical in nature, and more ballroom dancing like.

Zariah looked at the other couple twirl and dance around the room, and sometimes avoiding them to not get hit. DoomGaze suddenly took her left hand, and raised it in the air, holding it, his other hand going on her waist.

"Don't worry," he reassured her "I've done this once before."

 

Her right hand was still free, as she didnot know where to put it. He chuckled, "Put it on my shoulder." She did so.

 

"Now follow my lead"

 

The two now where amongst the crowd, no longer misfits in the group of dancers. They glided and twirled in motion as the others did. Zariah's first steps were a bit shaky but she adjusted well to the pace of the dance. He stared at her and said "Not so bad now isn't it? Are you sure this isn't your first time?" She laughed at him, continuing to do what she has been doing. DoomGaze still noticed her glancing at the Ball's doorway, seeming like she still is awaiting her date worryingly. He knew that he didn't have much time to spare before the slowdance had come up, but he was trying to make it up to her by doing the best he could to entertain her.

[The Big Pointy One]

Well, this was just crazy. One minute, Stick was introducing himself to people, then the next he was a rabbit. Now, he was himself again, except, well, he had carrots for hands. He had *no* idea when that happenned, or why. Oh well. He shrugged and walked over to the bar where he noticed Celes Crusader had just stood up and seemed as if she was either going to leave, or mingle. Stick was never sure about these things. In either case, he moved to intercept.

 

 

Meanwhile, Mr.Bunny quickly found himself on the middle of the dance floor, about to get trampled. It seemed Stick had gotten careless while in his body, and his mindless prancing about. He couldn't concentrate on not being pulverized though, because he couldn't contain his maniacial laughter (which would sound a lot like silence to those not familiar with rabbit-speak) While he was in Stick's body, he had tried some carrot-transmutation spells to restore people/snakes back to their original forms. It was a bit difficult, although all was going well, until *someone* picked up that damned bone flute and started playing. The next thing he knew, his hands were carrots, and his mind was leaving Stick's body. Eventually, his laughing self rolled off the dance floor, and back to the base of The Mighty Couch.

 

 

 

This really sucked. Rocoss somehow looked, although he didn't know how, since he didn't have eyes (anymore) among the room and noticed that everyone was being restored to their original selves. At least, that's what he assumed was happenning. It'd make sense, since he was *still* a crystal goblet. That's just the way things went. He wondered though, if he could move. Focusing all his will, all his mental energy on moving his entire (new) form. After much strain, he had success! ...sort of. He began to shake a little bit, even wobble. Then he started to tilt. Then the table started coming closer. Then Rocoss realised he didn't know how to reverse his balance, and he fell over on the table. Out of the corner of his... whatever... Rocoss noticed his body contorting even moreso, starting to definitely take on the form of the goblet the elven ranger's consciousness was inhabiting at the moment. The sad part was, no one even seemed to notice. That, or they were freaked out, and keeping their space. Either way, this really sucked.