Annual Winter Formal {dance, mandatory}

[NPC]

The gym no longer looked like a gym. A team of expert designers had come through, reorganizing and prettifying everything in sight. Starting from the rafters, long strings of silvery garland stretched toward the floor. Twinkling lights like stars filled the darkened area between them, seeming to wink in and out in time to the music that floated through the air.

Ah, the music. Jaunty holiday tunes pumped throughout the gym, reverberating against the walls and echoing throughout the room. With much of the padding removed from either side, the impressive building had become what essentially amounted to an echo chamber. This time, they'd opted for more classical music: a small orchestra playing the tunes tucked back in a corner. Each member of said orchestra had dressed in their formal best: tail-coats and dresses all around. What appeared to be a formal guitar sat next to them, as though awaiting someone to come and pick it up to join.

Not far from the musicians was a long table with a white and silver tablecloth. Brilliant dishes shimmered here and there across, curls of steam wafting into the air for some of the hot dishes. Silvery disposable plates were offered to balance the goods, while what appeared to be wine glasses were filled with various holiday cocktails, nearly all of them alcohol free. A SUIT, a female with a stern, no nonsense expression, stood near the alcohol, surveying it with a matron's air. Still, the smell tantalizing, calling forth people, and some had already started to gather.

The gym's floor had been cleaned for dancing and milling. Cleared, and polished, without any traces of what used to be a large area for sports and other such active activities. Already a few couples danced about, mostly swaying in time with the cheery music.

However, none would see this if you did not make it past the guards at the doors. A handful of SUITs stood near the entrance. Most of them wore various holiday finery, some even had Santa hats or reindeer antlers perched atop their heads. And each one had what appeared to be a loose bracelet. There were mumbles of there being options, though for now, they seemed to be more of a silvery chain. And the SUITs smiled as they took them, informing everyone that they were just a new precaution. They would replace coins and other currency, as well as serving as identification. One bracelet would do it all. And everyone had to pass these fine individuals, standing there with smiles and cheer. Of course, if you weren't a troublemaker, then you had nothing to fear from the SUITs: most just went on admiring their new bracelets, debating replacements, and soon giving way to holiday cheer.

For others though, a tension that had nothing to do with the holidays hung in the air...

[Rainbow Dash]

"Whoo, let's party!"

No more messing with money? No more stupid identity cards? All right, so the bracelet was a little annoying, and maybe it would get in the way with stuff, but it was useful, so who was Rainbow to complain about a little jewelry? Besides, at least it wasn't completely stupid-looking. And there were way more important things to be concerned about.

"Is anyone even here?" She jumped to try to get a better look around, see if she could spy a familiar shock of hair anywhere around. "Ooh, is that a dance floor? Everyone had better stand back, because I have got all the moves." She dashed over to begin dancing. If anyone else wanted to find her, well, she wasn't exactly being inconspicuous.

[Helena Bertinelli]

The entire Tenebrae complex just begged for some conspiracy theorist to stand around muttering and pinning pictures up on a wall somewhere. And since Helena's favorite conspiracy theorist wasn't around, well, maybe she'd just have to take up the job herself. The new bracelets weren't helping any. Helena glared at hers, which she had seen no way to turn down, and wished for a Bat lab to study it with. Was it tracking her? Recording audio? Visual? Scanning her body for devices? Designed to hum a particular tone that would make her more docile? Were aglets truly sinister?

She shook her head, stopping that line of thought. It never seemed to be actually beneficial, even in a world where it was much easier to come by information and you had back-up. Here? What did she really have? Not even a friend to spend Christmas with.

She sighed and slumped against the wall. She'd already grabbed herself a glass of whatever they had that actually did have some alcohol in it. At least she could enjoy that while being forced to watch everyone else enjoy their time. Who knew, maybe she'd even spy someone she knew, like that fairy girl, or maybe even Robin or another superhero.

"I would kill for a decent scanner and access to a clean computer," she said, holding up her bracelet to inspect it for the umpteenth time. "Any minute now it'll start burning..."

[Twilight Sparkle]

They weren't letting Twilight in.

Well, to be wholly accurate, Twilight was allowed to stand there while they attempted to work a bracelet up for her. She'd been more than willing to submit herself to the whole process; they'd explained it to the various staff members. A new way of handling things that didn't mess around with money: you just waved your bracelet over provided scanners and such. They'd still keep some of the coins around for smaller purchases, but this was supposed to be the new thing. What Twilight hadn't heard anything about, however, was this whole security thing.

"Is this really necessary?" she asked, twisting to look at the person. He kept waving a device over her, muttering, and then turning to enter data. He'd been doing it for a while. Which was really frustrating. Twilight was already a little perturbed, since she'd had to figure out her outfit without any help. She thought that the deep blue dress with the wide hem and various constellations on it looked nice, but she couldn't be sure. Rarity usually did her clothing anymore, since Twilight's tastes ran... simple. She'd also experimented with giving her hair some "body" though now it was starting to fall. After all, Twilight had gotten there nice and early.

And now she sighed in frustration and held out her arm while he took more readings. Something kept pinging every time. She was really just tempted to use some magic to get the stupid thing on her wrist. Nobody else seemed to be having this many problems with it...

[Isabelle Dupont]

Isabelle was excited about being able to attend a ball again. The last one she had gone to was at the Beast's Castle where she lived and she hadn't even made it down the stairs at all for it. She was excited to try it again until she noticed this dance was mandatory and therefor Gaston would have to show up, that is unless he wanted to get in trouble with the suits. A whole night forced in the same room as Gaston with no chance to escape. Well, she could try to enjoy it while it last.

She arrived dressed ironically in a blue one shoulder gown with a slit going up in the side. It was form fitting and looked great on her, which probably meant fighting off Gaston for the rest of the night. She was stopped at the door by a suit who explained the new system for ID's and currency. She took it without complaint and continued to the gym which was decked out so nice it was hard to tell it was a gym. A few couples were dancing and Gaston was nowhere to be found, yet. She found a spot to sit down at and watched as people enjoyed dancing. She wasn't ready to dance yet, but soon she would be.

[Deleted]

There were so many people already lined up by the entrance, all dressed up in flashy dresses and suits for as far as the eye could see. So much glitter, so much jewelry… it wasn’t the type of setting the shy-hearted pegasi was used to, nor did it make her feel entirely comfortable. How she had wished she could just stay at home, holed up in her house with all of her critters beside her and no unwanted eyes of strangers staring at her or passing by. She would never have come if it hadn’t been a mandatory event, and by missing it would mean breaking the rules. If there was one thing that scared her more than strangers, it was the possibility of angry Suits coming to reprimand her for breaking a rule. Oh, who knew how angry they would be? Even the simplest idea of them yelling at her was enough to make her afraid to miss the event. So, here she was, and she hoped that meant her friends from Ponyville were here as well.

“Oh, um, excuse me, sorry,” Fluttershy breathed and ducked her head as the people began to move past her. She hadn’t realized that she had sort of frozen mid-line, staring with widened eyes at the Suits that blocked the entrance. Yes, they still scared her, despite having saved her from some of the angry loose pets in the mall that time ago. She just couldn’t get over how scary they looked with their authoritative stances and ensemble. They reminded her of guards, or police-officers, and those intimidated her equally. 

She realized that the Suits here seemed to be holding up the line as people passed. They were stopping every person who walked in and gave them something that Fluttershy could not see. Instinctively this made her start backing up uneasily. She changed her mind; maybe she would just be better off to run home and lock her doors…

“Eep!” Fluttershy let out a squeak in alarm as the person behind her pushed her forward. She had nearly backed into them, and they were probably realizing that she was holding up the line. “No, wait! I just remembered that I forgot something… I don’t want to go up there! Please take me to the back of the line!” She was pleading in desperate squeaks to the people who were pushing her, but to no avail. Suddenly she was up front and facing the Suits, and it looked like there was no way to escape. Her heart was pounding wildly as all of the eyes seemed to turn to her.

“Here’s your new bracelet,” A woman suit said with a smile as she took Fluttershy’s trembling arm and latched it around her wrist.
Wha-? Fluttershy looked like a deer in the headlights the entire time the Suit was talking to her, explaining how the bracelet work. She wasn’t really ingesting a word of it, and after a few moments suddenly found herself rushed into the doors and left standing near the entrance. She stared down at what they had given her in confusion, and then back up at the gathered crowd. So… many… people…

[Deleted]

“Ugh, everything is so SHINY and SPARKLY!”

Shock crossed her arms as she waited in line. She had been talking nonstop to the people in front and behind her as the line moved forever slowly. It didn’t matter whether or not they were listening, she would make herself heard to them regardless.
“These costumes are so horrible, and not the scary kind of horrible! They are too… not scary! Not scary at all! Why aren’t we wearing masks? At least they would be better with masks! Who is in charge of this party anyway?” The girl ranted with waving arms as she glanced at each and every person around her. When she had received an invitation about a party, she had expected it to be scary like the ones from Halloween Town. It was only until her teachers had instructed them on the attire they should wear that she had had any inclination of how wrong she might have been. Here she was, wearing a black dress and horrible sparkly shoes that rubbed against her heels and feet when she walked. She had to admit that the shoes might have made a decent torture device, if only it wasn’t coated in glitter! The mad scientist who made them must’ve been horribly blind or something.

“Is the line moving yet? HEY YOU UP THERE! MOVE FASTER!” Shock was yelling above the crowd and standing on her tiptoes to try to see over the taller people in front. It seemed like ages before she finally met a Suit, who in turn gave her this ugly looking bracelet and claimed it was supposed to help her pay for things. She didn’t believe any of it; whoever heard of paying for things with a bracelet? How stupid! It was probably just a prank.

She tried to pull the thing off of her without success. Biting it didn't work either. She stared down at the thin silver band with such loathing as she wandered around the room, looking for something to cut it off with. 

[Fumio Yoshi]

The time waiting in line passed by rather quickly for Fumio. The nerdy ninja, just sat forming thoughts, going over new ideas, and figuring out what to build next. As he got to the front the suit monotonastically secured the silver bracelet around his wrist and gave him the once over of the features. Interesting so it uses a proximity scanner to activate a wifi connection to relay our pertenient information to what ever computer houses the database of every citizen in Tenebrae? That should make work quicker. Tell me are all the businesses going to be upgraded by tomorrow? And what time should I be there to get the scanner. Also will it be portable because my business..."

The guest behind him that had received her bracelet suddenly pushed him forward to stop him from holding up the line. He noticed one of the suits fumbling with the scanner with a Purple Haired girl. Running his fingers through his hair to make sure it was straight, he smiled and walked over to her and the suit. His green tuxedo with purple bow tie would have normally stood out if it was not the season of red, green, silver, and gold. "Tech issues?"

[Hinata Hyuga]

Hinata stood at the back of the line. She was in a blue sequined dress that she bought from a store nearby the bowling alley. With the snow falling around, she also had her hoodie over that, zipped up, with the hood over her head. Her long black hair was tied up in a big bun on the back. She wasn't standing in line, or even moving when someone was allowed in. She just stood there, hands in her hoodie pockets, waiting and looking down the street. She was waiting for Hiro to come up. Despite all she went through lately with the pie-eating contest, costume contest, working as an elf, and working at the alley, Hinata wasn't comfortable with large gatherings yet. But boy could she fake it.

She left Hiro's present of the turtle motif skateboard by his door before she left to attend this event. hopefully it didn't slow him down too much. Right now all she could do was wait until he arrived, because she needed that shielding steady element next to her if she was going to face this many people.

[Darwin Daugherty]

Darwin had shown up for the party quite early, got the annoying silver band, made his way into the gymnasium, and planted himself against a wall. His face still at a loss of happiness or even of sadistic glee he was known for. Right now he was just upset. He wouldn't even be here if it wasn't mandatory. His outfit lost it's usual flair for chaos that one might expect from him. It was just your basic everyday run of the mill black tux, white shirt, and red tied. He watched as others came in. Most started to have a good time. First one he really noticed was rainbow Dash. And then again she came in like a wrecking ball to the dance floor, so who didn't notice her? He also saw one of the teachers from the school walk in, still examining her bracelet as she parked against a wall with a drink. Understandable reaction. The school librarian was the next one he spotted. She was just sitting down, maybe waiting for someone or an offer to dance.

Then it happened. The moment he was dreading more than anything else right now. Fluttershy appeared. This took his flat lined mouth down into a frown remembering when they met for the first time in this world. The pain and heartbreak of it all. It started this decent of his and got him a second warning from the Suits, though this one was much more serious and troublesome of a warning. If he had his abilities right now. maybe half of these people wouldn't be here right now. Or maybe half of this town wouldn't. The suits already saw what he was capable of without powers so it was no surprise the bracelet was secured on tightly. It was without a doubt a tracking moniter. Apparently they had reasons of their own to do this, especially after the insanity in the woods when he arrived here.

[Guts Blackhound]

This was a nightmare, pure and simple.

A strange new world with rules far different from his own, that lacked monsters or battles to be fought. At-least, direct ones. And now, to top the whole ordeal off, he was forced to attend this ridiculous dance. This was turning an already grim ordeal into something utterly horrifying for the once feared Black swordsman. Although, how much fear he was likely to instill now was very debatable.

He was forced to wear a suit that, even by his own standards, was tacky beyond belief. It looked and felt as though he was wearing the skin of some strange beast that hadn't been tailored in any capacity. It was merely a black, cheap mess that wasn't helped by the fact he had run out of that hair dye. Thus, instead of jet black spiky hair with a set of bangs, there was a notable strand of white on one of his bangs. It was only a small part of his hair, but it stood out like a sore thumb just like the rest of him. He had been able to get a lend of a black glove that he now wore over his prosthetic hand, making him look slightly more presentable then he usually might have in this situation. But, it was merely putting a bandaid on a gaping wound.

Standing in one of the dark corners of the ball room, arms crossed and a sour look on his face, Guts' eye traced around the room to try to get a look at the rest of this place. He had been to a ball once and, just as he had there, he felt completely out of place. Despite the guards he had a bad feeling about tonight: The last time he had attended a ball like this, everything had changed for the worse for him and his friends. There had also been poison involved.

Guts made a mental note of staying clear of the drinks.

[Deleted]

He hated dances, and he hated this form-fitting black suit that he had to wear. What was the point of this again? It was just another waste of his time, as most of this town had caused. They had taken his weapons again, claiming that it was not needed in this setting, and made him wear what looked to him like a feminine piece of jewelry on his wrist. Not coming to this event apparently had some sort of consequences. Oh, how he loathed the people in charge here.

It had also not been that long ago since his roommate had humiliated him in front of a large crowd of people. He scowled and his cheeks reddened slightly as a group of students passed, grinning, pointing and whispering in his direction. The story of “Fairy Princess Zuko” had spread like wildfire recently, and Zuko could not save himself from his own mortification. The boy growled and clenched his fists to his side as he stood against the wall of the gym. He would still make Darwin pay for that one…

For the moment though, he scanned the crowd with a narrowed, hardened gaze. He hadn’t had any luck on his mission of finding the Avatar ever since he had arrived here. He was beginning to wonder if the Airbender had taken a different route, skipping this town entirely. This could be his last chance to find out if the Avatar or his friends were anywhere in the vicinity or if any rumors had been spoken. People up to this point had been either completely clueless or decidedly uncooperative, but from what he knew, the whole town was supposed to be here tonight no matter what. It was time he got his answers, even if he had to force it out of some of them.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Oh, there's issues," muttered Twilight, looking over at the lanky boy who'd approached. They were still fiddling with Twilight's bracelet, shooting her semi-apologetic looks from time to time. One of the festively suited guys looked over at the lanky guy. His mouth opened as though he wanted to say something, then closed, then opened again, before he finally managed to get a few words out:

"It's not a technical issue," he said, his eyes flicked to Twilight. "It's, uh, something else. So you don't have to worry about it. Look, why don't we move you to the side? That way people can, like, work around you. Just come along here..."

Twilight really didn't want to be "moved to the side." She wanted to stomp her foot and glare and make a fuss. She flicked her eyes through the crowd, quickly locating Rainbow Dash. The purple haired girl focused for a moment, setting off a little purple explosion in front of her friend's face, perhaps even a little too close. Twilight looked around again, but the suited guy had already dragged her. She gave the lanky guy a "can you believe this" look as she shuffled to the side, which was not an easy maneuver to manage while wearing the dress.

[Kori Ander]

Kori breezed through the check. They slapped a bracelet on her, complimented her on her excellent dress, and then let the willowy girl enter the party proper. Kori literally floated a few inches off the ground, her joy keeping her buoyant. Sure, that had caused a few of the SUITs to look her way, but most of them remembered her, either from briefings or from the animal escape incident. So the looks were brief, and then Kori was floating toward the dance floor.

Her dress looked stunning. It was a deep green affair that extended to roughly mid-calf, though it flowed to provide her with quite a bit of movement. The whole thing looked breezy and light, as though it had been constructed by fairies or aliens (which, given that this was Tenebrae, was a distinct possibility). It emphasized Kori's svelte form rather fetchingly, and her nicely brushed hair, which had been pinned up in an elaborate do, further enhanced her already pretty appearance. If anything, the newly assigned bracelet was just the little push that the tall girl needed to look truly impressive.

Kori had just backed up slightly, examining the crowd critically, when she felt someone back into her. The redhead bobbed forward, then turned with ease, seeing a familiar, light-pink haired friend. Kori threw her arms wide, and soon Fluttershy would find herself in the biggest of hugs, accompanied by a: "Friend Fluttershy! It is most pleasant to see you somewhere that animals are not doing the attacking!"

Well, it had been a while, but Kori never forgot a friend. It was sort of a thing with her.

[Marceline Abadeer]

Actually, Marceline had been there a while. She'd slid past the whole bracelet thing with only a few bumps. Wasn't like she was likely to use the thing all that often. Most of the money Marceline collected came in the form of small coins. People didn't generally drop the larger stuff in to a busker's case, after all, and Marceline had been busking since she got here. She guessed that maybe some of the joints she played for would pay her through the bracelet. Actually, she wagered that this place was likely to pay her for this particular gig.

After all, the formal guitar that had been set to the side was Marceline's. She'd walked over to it and gave it that appraising look, quickly determining that it would be acceptable. But that probably wasn't nearly as shocking as the fact that Marceline very nearly blended in with the rest of the musicians. Instead of her nappy grunge clothing, the vampire queen had dressed, well, almost like you expected a vampire queen to dress. A long, flowing gown of shimmering red had been expertly draped over her frame, falling all the way back form her. This emphasized her skin, which to Marcy's distress had gone quite a few shades paler in recent time. Her unruly black hair had been tied back in a tight, elegant looking braid, and it easily hung over her bared shoulders. Really, the only thing that looked familiar about her was the guitar that she picked up.

Playing this music really wasn't bothering the laid back vampire either. Sure, it was all holiday stuff, and mostly wordless renditions, but that didn't really get to Marcy. It was a holiday party, and a gig, and she needed money, so, you know. She did look around the gathered people, mostly interested in watching. She thought she recognized the rainbow haired girl from somewhere. And there was Kori, wearing the dress they'd picked out and hugging some poor, random girl. Marcy winced a little at that, wondering why she felt a slight pang, but she quickly covered up the missed note. Maybe she should just be focusing on the music...