:The Colleger Club Annual Ball: [Event]

[nightmaremuse]

A small form shuffled in behind the beaming Caroline, almost hiding behind her. Matt was probably the last person any student expected to see at the ball - or dressed up, for that matter. He wore a black jacket with a dark red scarf ornately tied about his neck, and black pants that had pinstripes the same shade as his scarf. The two consistent pieces that could always be expected of him, however, remained: his old, black Converse and his white dress gloves, the latter of which actually fit the environment for once. His hair was no less scruffy than usual, though one could imagine it being quite pretty if he had put any effort into preening it. It had a wave to it that, if tamed, could make for a very handsome and classic cut.

Whatever happened to fashionably late? He wouldn't have minded if they had been late enough to miss half the thing. He finally made it to Caroline's side, watching her touch up her make-up out of the corner of his eye. Why bother with make-up if everyone was going to be looking at the dress? It was a beautiful garment. There were a lot of those here... Everyone came from different regions and cultures, and each had their own one-of-a-kind gown to contribute.
But Matt wasn't admiring the dresses. He gazed anxiously out from behind his curtain of hair, brows furrowed and lips withdrawn into a small frown. He could feel thoughts racing at the edge of his mind. His stomach was churning and his throat was dry. There were more people here than he had anticipated... Talking and dancing and standing in tight groups. And there were crowds, clusters of people all packed together like a fenced-in mass of cows. Why did people ever do that of their own free will? Why would anyone want to stand in a cluster like that? Why in the world had he agreed to go to this ball?

[Elle]

Amy watched Seth walk around the table, almost as if she hadn't heard her. Either that or she didn't care to respond. Maybe she was really spacey and was just wandering around. Or maybe she was actually really shy and didn't want to talk anymore.

Well, whatever was wrong with her wouldn't stop Amy from continuing the conversation.

That is, until an annoying voice caught her off guard. Confused, she spun around to face the boy who called to her. As she listened to him, she just knew that her face was contorting into one of those "Who is this guy?" faces, as she subconsciously took a few steps back. He was... Kinda weird. And not the good kind of weird... If there really was such a thing. Whatever was his deal, she just had a bad feeling.

"Yes... I'm Amy..." She replied slowly.

Watching the knife in his hand wearily, she shot a quick glance in the direction he had gestured toward. She didn't see anyone that she knew over there, but then again, she wasn't really able to see anyone with such a quick glance.

Her eyes returning to the knife, she looked from it to the boy's face and back again. Crossing her arms, she smiled weakly, giving a nervous chuckle. Then, her eyes darted sideways toward Seth. If this guy did try anything, she was sure that Seth or anyone else around here would help her out. Just look at all the people. No worries, then. Feeling slightly more comfortable, she looked back at the boy.

"So, why do you ask?"

[ωΘĿƒ]

Quickly gathering together a great deal of cracker-things from the tray next to the green dip, Coyle began to take little scoops out of his helping and pop them in his mouth. Hmm, not bad, but he didn't have time to eat everything.

He had a party to heat up.

"Oh, no reason. Just striking up some conversation." He shrugged, tossing the plate aside after a few more crackers. "But listen kid, this place is starting to get boring, am I right?"

He took a quick sweeping look over at the beautiful and deathly girl right next to Amy. She'd heard in Amy's mind something about her being Seth. Riiight. Seth was a volatile little mortal. What a scorcher! She wanted to hurt poor little Amy too, but she'd have to wait her turn. That was the pecking order around here - the big predators went first, then came the scavengers.

"Anywho, I just wanted to know if you'd help me make this place somewhat more lively. You know, some pizazz. Nothing special, nothing hard, just a little spice thrown into the night."

As he said this, Coyle wiped off the knife he'd stuck into the green dip. Tucking it nice and clean behind his back again, he quickly flourished it when pausing.

"So what do ya say? Just a little slip up, and we can make this party real crazy!"

Without another word, Coyle grabbed Amy's arm and held her still, swiping the knife across her arm then throwing it into the crowd without a thought. That was right. Just some blood. But not just any blood. Vampires were picky. They needed human blood. It was a good thing Amy was here. Coyle whipped around, his use for the girl done. He leered smiling at the orchestra, who had now stopped playing their cheery waltz music and were frozen in place with that irresistible smell.

Yeeees. That was fun. That was better than fun. It was a riot, and he'd started it! The orchestra began to break apart and move towards the origin of the smell, at which point Coyle thought it better not to be around Amy any longer. Once you got 'em started, the undead could get a bit... nasty.

"Well, have fun with that." He smiled, and he sprinted off to go find some cover. Already, the waltzers were starting to realize what had become of the formerly civilized musicians. It wouldn't be long now before those hungry, hungry vampires went after everyone, not just poor Amy.

Ah, life is but a game.
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* * *

Caroline smiled as she dragged her partner into the dance floor. Everything would be perfect tonight, and she would make it so. They would both have fun, and this memory would be seared into her brain as one of the greatest parties of her time at the academy.

"Come on! Let's dance!" She smiled, tugging him along. It was then however, that she heard the sound of the music stop, and a commotion start to happen in its place. Weird. Very weird. Caroline turned around, and there she saw one of the weirdest things she thought she'd see in her life.

The dressed-up and cordial musicians were now snarling like rabid animals and running toward the center of the snack tables. That.... was bad.

"Um... Let's dance... over here." Caroline yanked Matt over to the side of the still-dancing people, intent on not letting the strange occurrence interrupt her perfect night.

So what if the musicians were going crazy? She could still have a good time, right? Someone would stop them, right?
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* * *

Back at Illia's side, Z couldn't help but notice when things started to get a little kooky. Well, maybe a little more than kooky. The bloodsuckers were getting riled up, and after that last encounter with White, Z wasn't too willing to let their shenanigans slide. He was going in, godammit!

"Hey Illia, see that?" He asked, smiling. "Mind if I go bust some heads? I promise I won't be long!"

Then, searing pain up his back. Oh right... The injury thing. He popped another of his pills, grimacing but trying to regain his composure enough to look tough for Illia. He could do this. He wasn't going to let those creeps ruin Illia's nice night...

"I ah... I'm good. I'm going over there..."
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[Iƪƪia]

With a sigh, Illia tipped her head in the direction of the commotion. She hadn't seen what happened, nor did she care, but now all of those bloodsucking freaks were fixated on some human girl. For good reasons, obviously, as she seemed to be bleeding.

Well! Wasn't that wonderful? Some weak human kid ruining her night by stirring up trouble with the vampires. Well, why should she be surprised? This kind of thing always seemed to happen at this school. It seemed as if these disgusting creatures had no better use for their time than to make life harder for their superiors.

With her head held up high and her hands resting upon her hips, she turned slightly, hearing Z's eagerness to start a fight. However, before she could say on word, she noticed something; a brief flicker of pain upon his face, though it was gone almost immediately. Easily brushing off any concern she felt, she made a swift gesture toward the crowd as if to say "If you must."

With that, she strode off of the dance floor, taking care to exit as elegantly as she had entered. She had already had one run in with a vampire, and that was more than enough for her. Although, she doubted that any of those lesser bloodsuckers would be as strong as White, she still preferred not to spend more time than was necessary with those freaks. Especially now that they were all riled up like that.

Stepping outside, she breathed in the cool, evening air. As the months went by, the air had gotten steadily cooler. Pretty soon they might even see snowfall. How lovely that would be, Illia thought as she closed her eyes and allowed the chilled air to rapidly calm her down.

***

His third cigarette held loosely between his thumb and forefinger, Ivan instead stared off in the distance, seemingly oblivious to the smoke curling up through the air directly in front of him. Were someone to glance at him now, they might assume that his mind was miles away. That he was completely unaware of whatever was presently going on. That he had just allowed himself to become lost in a day dream.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.

Though his gaze was far away, his mind was fixed upon the events that unfolded around him. He was able to catch everything, even managing to mentally catalog every creature that walked past him. However, now something far more interesting had his attention. That being the noise coming from the ballroom. Or rather, the lack thereof.

The orchestra had ceased playing. Now, what reason would an orchestra of vampires have to suddenly stop playing? And while it was still fairly early, at that. The answer seemed quite obvious. A shame there wasn't more of a challenge to this game.

Smiling to himself, Ivan turned toward the door in time to see the same narcissistic chimera that he had noticed before come elegantly gliding out of the room. She placed such emphasis on appearance. Even in his incredibly long life he couldn't remember ever meeting someone so vain. Ah, but she was vain for a good reason, wasn't she? But why. He had his theories, of course, but he'd need to spend a little more time with the girl before he could be certain of any of them.

After watching her for awhile, her eyes closed, he decided to approach once he was sure that she was calm again. Or at least calmer.

"Not the greatest of parties?" He nodded toward the door.

"Hardly!" Her reply was somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. She turned to face him and, after looking him over for a second, she continued in a lower voice, "But what else is new..."

Ivan only nodded agreeably, looking back toward the door as he did.

"Sometimes everyone just seems dead set on sabotaging you and every aspect of your life..." He muttered, tossing his cigarette to the ground. Though the girl wouldn't notice, his words were really a challenge of sorts. A test to see if his theories were correct.

Almost as soon as she'd heard his words, a look of shock crossed her face. Just like that, he'd won.

"Yeah, it does... It does."

A look of confusion plain on her face, it was obvious that the girl didn't know what else to say to his comment. And, unfortunately, as much as he'd have liked to continue their conversation, there was a certain other matter that required his attention.

"Well, if you'll excuse me," He began, "I must go rescue someone."

Giving her a short bow, he made his way back to the ball room, leaving the girl to merely watch after him in confusion. It was a shame that he had to end their talk so abruptly, though somethings simply couldn't wait. No troubles, though. He'd see the girl again. Right now there were far more pressing matters to deal with.

Not with the human girl, of course. Oh, no, he didn't really care what happened to her. So a few innocent creatures might die. In the end it really didn't affect him. No, but he needed to get her out safely.

Walking up to her, he grabbed Elle by the arm, attempting to pull her away from the crowd. Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear, "I believe it's about time for us to leave... Wouldn't you say?"

[nightmaremuse]

Next thing he knew, Matt was being dragged closer to the crowd. His stomach churned with a fresh wave of nausea. Dance? She expected him to dance? He took a moment to tune in to the music to get an idea of what she might have in mind... but he found none. It had been playing a minute ago, he was sure.
His lip instinctively curled back in a twitch as a snarl reached his ears; but it wasn't canine. Matt had never encountered vampires before. All he knew of them so far was that they smelled bad, and now he knew what their snarl sounded like. Posture perking, his olfactory quickly sorted through the room. Matt's first method to get answers was his nose, no matter how effective it may be in a given situation. In this case, however, it did find him an answer.

His anxiousness and nausea abruptly left him. He now lifted his nose to the air, his olfactory hungry for more of the scent it had caught. Suddenly he was jerked away from the commotion, startling him so much that he gave a small yelp. Now oblivious to his date, he resumed sniffing frantically, desperate to find the scent again. Shadowy, black flame erupted from his form, flickering about him. Red swirled in his black eyes, the red that rather than signaling a premonition signaled that one was coming true. He leaned forward toward the smell of human blood, then shuddered a little before his nose turned black. The blackness spread about his face, which soon extended into a muzzle, his teeth becoming a canine maw. Large, wolf-like ears sprouted from his hair. From these first slower changes the black flame exploded across his form until a black dog slightly bigger than a wolf stood in his place, a long, scruffy tail whipping about behind it. A second set of glowing red eyes opened above the ones already there.

Matt's nose was still sniffing away, and now his four clawed paws slowly began to propel him across the floor towards the scent. His tail, trailing smoky shadows in the air as it moved, wagged behind him like any dog's would when on the trail of something exciting.

[Elle]

Before she was able to truly grasp what was going on, Amy had been thrown into the middle of the crowd, blood dripping from a gash in her arm. With a shriek of both surprise and pain, she instinctively grabbed her arm in an attempt to stop the blood flow.

Gasping, she carefully inspected the wound in her arm, tears of pain welling up in her eyes. Then, changing all the shock and pain she felt into anger, she gritted her teeth and whirled around, looking for the boy who had attacked her. However, she didn't have much time to look before she noticed something was... Off.

The orchestra had stopped playing and instead, they were watching her with strange looks. They almost seemed... Hungry. But... That didn't make sense. So, what was wrong with them? Well, whatever it was, it was creepy and she didn't like it.

"Um..." Was all she managed to say as she slowly began backing up toward the door, keeping an eye on the creepy musicians who had started walking toward her.

----

Wringing her hands together, Elle nervously watched the vampires edging toward the human girl across the room. All too quickly it brought back memories of the time she had spent being cornered by the legions of the undead. She could only imagine what would happen to this girl. After all, she couldn't even change into a giant, armored lizard to protect her.

Someone should do something to help her...

As she was thinking this, Elle felt a hand on her arm, causing her to jump. Upon realizing who it was, she began to feel better about her own safety, yet she remained somewhat uneasy. She looked toward the human girl, still worried for her, however, she allowed herself to be pulled away from the room.

"W-Wait..! Um, can't you do something..?"

[ωΘĿƒ]

Z's heart bounded at Illia's a pproval. Yes! Time to play it macho! The valiantly clad dragon took a bow before his date, speaking solemnly as he possibly could.

"Thanks a bunch, doll."

He high-tailed it into action then, swirling around and careening after the maddened bloodsuckers in shear of a little blood of his own. He didn't even notice Illia leaving, he was so focused.

He needed to do this. He needed to get back at them for hurting him, and making Illia's ball less than perfect.

Z collided with one of the first to make it past the surprised dancers, going down in a hail of punches.

"I'll send you back to Whit with your damn tail between your legs!" He yelled excitedly, pounding at the white figure. The musician was surprised at first, and Z got in a few good blows while he lay dumbfounded like mush of the dancers were now, but he recovered quickly, and with all the brute force of a starved animal, began to claw and snap at the dragon in revenge.

"Crap! This suit is expensive!"
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* * *

Caroline took a big scooch over when the fighting started. She knew this would happen, she just knew it! Turning to Matt, she attempted to apologize for the bad time.

It seems she failed him on her quest to get him into the "in" crowd.

But then, before her very eyes, she saw the weirdest thing happen. Her shy and slouching date turned into a dog and ran off!

Carloline stood there a moment, sniffling. Dammit!

Dammit, dammit, dammit! Why did this always happen to her?!?!

Instead of being sad or scare though, something else came over the young girl at that moment - rage. Why was she always at the butt end of things? She was the popular one. She should be getting the attention here! And what was it with all this ridiculous chaos anyways?!? Was this school wacko or something?

Yes. She came to the inevitable conclusion of yes. This place was a madhouse, and everyone in here was weird, or creepy, or a lunatic, or a psychopath, or could turn into a big black dog and run off sniffing.

Now that was scary and all, but instead of thinking it best to run away from all this crazy, wacky chaos, she instead thought of the famous saying she'd heard all her life.

"When in Rome..." She sighed, agitated. Caroline stripped her pretty green high heels off, stuffed them in her overly sized purse, and ran off after her date.

"Hey! Get back here! I'm not letting you off the hook just because you're a werewolf!"

Werewolves did that, right? They changed into - er - dogs? Whatever. He looked like a werewolf right now, and that was what he would be until such a time as she saw fit to change his name. Now, to go and catch this werewolf.

That would be tricky...
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* * *

Coyle sat happily on the chandelier in the middle of the room, staring down at all the people running to and fro about the Club. Yes, this would be fun. Midnight was in a few minutes, and that meant that not only did these music players get to run around eating people, but every other bloodsucker in Colleger got to as well.

And that was a lot of vampires... Coyle giggled with delight.

"I love a good slaughter!" He chimed, happily. He kicked his feet out over the edge of the huge metal framework, making the chandelier shake and sway as he did so. Sadly, one of the pretty little crystals dropped off while he was trying to turn the overpriced lamp into a swingset, and hit the head of- oh crap. Was that the Russian guy from earlier?
[/size]

[Iƪƪia]

Ivan followed the dragon's gaze to the frightened human girl and the group of vampires bearing down on her. Soon enough she wouldn't be the only one in danger, of course. And it didn't help at all that overzealous dragon pup had just rushed one of them instead of doing the smart thing and leaving with his lovely date. A shame. She was the type who held grudges.

Elle seemed rather keen on helping the poor human girl. Not that she'd actually help her. No, it seemed as though she'd rather have him play hero and rescue the girl.

Turning back to his date, he prepared to give her a charming, yet logical reason that would allow them both to leave without him having to dirty his hands. Well, that was the plan. But they don't always work out now, do they?

A small object had apparently fallen from the ceiling and finding its target at the top of his head. Startled, his hand went immediately to his head as he stumbled back a few steps. Cursing under his breath, he caught sight of the small, glistening crystal. Suppressing the primitive urge to growl, he turned his gaze skyward. It was almost... Entertaining how the creature was able to annoy him without saying a word to him yet. It only served to emphasize his clearly boorish nature. Someone should really teach the brute a lesson or two.

When he returned his attention to Elle, his face was once again as calm and serene as possible.

"Yes... Certainly I can," He assured her, gently nudging her toward the door, "But perhaps you should get out of here quickly."

Turning away again, he took several steps toward the crowd. It was such a chore, having to deal with these creatures. There were far more important things that required his attention.

Forcing these thoughts aside, he glanced around the room, his sights resting upon the string of tables. With a shrug, he stepped back as they seemed to be lifted by an invisible hand and hurled across the room. They collided with the group of vampires - and several students, actually. He hadn't really put that much care into his aim - while Ivan simply watched and analyzed his work. He wasn't planning on defeating a hoard of vampires with furniture, of course, but his attack apparently caught them off guard. If the students were smart, they'd take advantage of the distraction.

Though to be honest, Ivan wasn't the least bit concerned about what happened to his "colleagues." Something else now had his attention.

Yes, perhaps he should have put more of an effort into his aim. Several of his makeshift projectiles seemed to have gone horribly off target. Indeed, they seemed to be skimming along the ceiling now. They'd collide with that chandelier any moment now. Ah, such a shame he didn't have better accuracy.[/color]

[Elle]

Elle stepped back as she watched Ivan look around the room. He didn't seem like he was in a hurry... And it was weird. If he was going to fight those vampires, shouldn't he get closer to them? Maybe he was a magic expert, or maybe his race could attack from afar. Come to think of it... What was his race? His scent was confusing, and Elle had never been able to find out.

And apparently, she wouldn't find out anytime soon. Seeing Ivan's gaze fall upon the row of tables, Elle could only watch in amazement as they flew through the air, crashing into the startled hoard of vampires.

She had thought that Ivan gave off a powerful aura, but she couldn't have known that that was what he was capable of! What else could he do, she wondered.

Well, that's a thought for another time, because at that moment she remembered that she was kind of afraid of vampires. Especially after what had happened in the town...

Picking up her dress, she quickly turned and trotted out of the room, blinking and gasping in surprise as she stepped out into the cool night air. Actually, it was more like cold now. Freezing, even... Okay, that was a dramatization, but it was still pretty cold out. Illia didn't seem to mind, though, as she was also standing outside, not even shivering.

"Um... Hi," She said timidly.

----

Just as Amy was trying to recall those karate lessons that she had taken as a kid, a chain of tables suddenly crashed into the crowd in front of her. Startled, she looked around to see who had thrown them. Who could have thrown them?

Well, whoever it was, she was thankful, and she took the opportunity to turn and run back up the steps to the doorway. However, instead of running out, she turned and held onto the doorway as she watched everyone still inside the room.

Why did that freak just attack her like that? Why did those guys come after her like they were zombies or something? And... Where the Hell did that dog come from?! Just what was going on here?! She didn't know, and she was determined to find out.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Seemingly out of nowhere, and just when Coyle was about to laugh his head off for hitting the Russian guy on the head, a horde of flying tables careened toward him on his cozy little chandelier, and forced him to move.

"Crap!" He growled, shifting out of his skin and scuttling across the ceiling like a startled roach.

What an aim! That guy didn't do that on purpose, did he....?

Well, when confronted with a situation where it looks like someone did something to him, but he could never really be sure, it was safer just to assume the worst and reek a nice, messy revenge on the idiot right then and there. It turned out better in the long run, and it was gratifying as hell in the short run. That dilemma solved, Coyle skittered back to where the chandelier had been standing - now just a tangle of chains and expensive looking jewels - and dropped himself where the Russian was standing.

This time, he actually did mean to hit the guy, whish was probably why he pointed his claws down at the ground, retracted and ready.

"Watch where you're aiming, you pale foreign freak!" The oddly catlike mess of limbs and claws known only as Coyle growled.
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* * *

So here Z was, rolling around in a death lock with a bloodthristy tick, when the furniture starts flying across the room. Although Z was close to the ground - probably because he was on the ground - he still had to duck lower to avoid a few of the low flying table legs and a chair or two from the concession stand. This obviously got him closer to the vampire musician, and subsequently got a chunk taken out of his neck the size of a bowling ball.

"Hey!"]

Z snapped his fingers, letting a blast of fire cook the vampire to a crispy cinder.

"Watch it, will ya?!?!"

Another vampire grabbed him, and tried to take the same chunk out of him. Z heeled him in the stomach and singed half the people around him with another snap of his fingers.

"These thing probably have rabies or something...." He whined, cupping his hand over the bite and wincing at the size of it. Only then did he remember why the vampries had gotten all crazy in the first place. Blood. He was leaking blood now.

"Oh... Dammit!"

He scrambled up, dodging a few more of the snappy musicians before inching his way across the dance floor.

Maybe he should just find Illia and leave now....?
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