Last-Minute Decisions [CLOSED]

[Taras Putschist]

[This RP is closed to all but the following characters: Taras Putschist, Stephen Kang, Delia Alvarez, Lyall Ordin, Quatre R. Winner, Kitty Callahan.]

The common room was quiet for a change, but that was to be expected; after all, the date being the one it was, schoolwork was hardly the foremost topic on any student's mind.

It wasn't even the foremost topic on Stephen Kang's mind tonight, and that, if anything, could have meant one of two things: either the apocalypse had come, or it was the night before the Winter Ball. In this case, the latter was the correct answer.

"I still don't see why this is so important," grumbled Taras, who was sprawled haphazardly on a nearby sofa. "Why do you even care about getting a date? There are more than enough females here in Valcentica who would gladly throw themselves at you given the chance."

"Speak for yourself," retorted Stephen from his seat in front of the fireplace, and Taras twitched irritably. "I haven't heard whom you're going with, for one."

Taras directed a glare at the back of Stephen's head. "I'm not going. Now answer the question. Why do you care so much, and why didn't you ask one of the girls here instead of spending all afternoon hooking up a foreign fireplace to the British Network and wasting all my Floo Powder on a call to Hogwarts?"

"It's very simple," said Stephen patiently, still watching the flames. "We're guests here at Valcentica, and it'd be polite to attend the Ball. As for your second question, I don't know any of the girls here well enough to ask, and I'd feel weird if one of them asked me."

Taras scowled, but he was prevented from responding as the fire crackling in front of Stephen flared green and a head - female, bespectacled, and obviously Chinese - appeared in the flames. It - or rather she - squinted up at Stephen for a moment before her eyes widened in a pleased expression.

"Kang!" she said. "How're you getting on, then? Adler said there was a Floo call earlier this afternoon for all available Ravenclaw females." She grinned impishly; there was a faint tittering noise in the background.

"Pretty well, Ming," said Stephen, his ears turning a bit red. "Look, I've got a favor to ask of one of you - "

"Oi!" said apparently-Ming irritably; Stephen paused, confused, but she continued, "Not you. Hang on a sec, Zhang's poking me."

Ming's head disappeared from the flames and was immediately replaced with that of another Chinese girl. "It's a ball, isn't it?" she said knowingly, her hand reaching up out of the flames to push her glasses back up on her nose. "It's got to be. Well, that's what we thought, really. You ought to see the common room, every Asian girl in Ravenclaw's in here."

More tittering. Stephen scowled; his ears were now bright red. He could practically feel Taras's smirk on his back.

"Look, it's not just me, really," he said, "it's a bunch of us. Me and Putschist - "

"Leave me out of this!"

" - and Winner and Ordin - they're these two guys we met over here. The situation's kind of desperate - the ball's tomorrow night - "

"Did you say Winner - " began Zhang, but she was shoved out of the way by Ming, whose head reappeared in the fireplace.

"I'm in," she said promptly. "And Zhang, if she wants. I don't think we can spare anyone else, though. Professor Ironvale's bound to notice if half of us go missing. I'll get Muria and Vogel to do hallway patrols for us."

"You haven't got homework to do?" said Stephen hesitantly.

"Well - yeah - but Charms homework or going to a ball with Stephen Kang? Come on. Professor Gringoire'll never notice. He never does."

"True," admitted Stephen, grinning a bit despite himself. "Tomorrow night at seven, then. Don't be late."

"Aiyah. Give me a break, Kang. We'll be late. We're Chinese. It's what we do." Ming's head withdrew from sight as the flames returned to normal.

"Now that's done," said Stephen contentedly, turning to Taras, "we can figure out what to do about you."

"I told you. I'm not going."

[Aleksei Trevelyan]

Kitty breezed into the common room, completely unaware of the semi-illegal Floo call that had just taken place. This was probably because she didn't have the faintest clue as to what she was wearing and who she was going with, and was beginning to freak out.

She didn't even like parties or balls, and found them to be a great waste of time that could be better spent reading or...well, anything aside from being forced to socialize with a bunch of complete dimwits who she had nothing in common with for hours and hours on end. This was, perhaps, a somewhat cynical view of things, but it was just how things seemed to work for her. But...not tonight. It seemed like everyone had a boyfriend, or at least a friend who was a boy, to take to the ball. If she didn't show, well, she just couldn't not show. It just wasn't done.

Everyone, abso-bloody-lutely everyone had a boyfriend but her. Karia was practically entirely whatsit, antisocial, and she seemed perfectly happy with Arden. So why couldn't she get a boyfriend? Darkness seemed a long time ago - whatever had happened to him? He'd been there one day and gone the next. Oh, God, what if he left because of me?

It took a few seconds for her to notice Taras and Stephen. "Hello," she said, flopping down into a chair, utterly defeated. "I suppose you both have dates to the ball at this point?"

Loser loser loserloserloser.

[Delia Alvarez]

"Squot." The toad hopped over to Stephen's feet and croaked happily up at him.

"Hola!" Delia greeted the three cheerfully. Scooping up her toad, she grinned at them. "Everyone else seems to be off preparing for the ball, so what're you guys doing here?" I should speak for myself, I haven't even got a date. Ah, well. I've never been one to really care about such things, anyway.

Squot squirmed out of her arms, landed with surprising grace on Stephen's shoulder, and attempted to scramble up onto his head. Delia snatched the toad off of Stephen before it could succeed in doing so.

"Sorry about that. It's just that if he decides to sit on your head and does so, you can bet that he's going to stay there for as long as he wants." She tightened her grip on Squot. "I've tried prying him off, but it's never worked."

[Taras Putschist]

"Hello. I suppose you both have dates to the ball at this point?"

Stephen made a faint noise of distress. "I just asked a former classmate of mine - from Hogwarts. I'm sorry, really I am. I thought you had a date - if I hadn't known I would've asked you." He really was sorry; Kitty was a nice girl and probably a much better dancer than An-yi Ming, who was agile enough in the air but had five left feet on the ground.

"Tell you what, though," he said, getting up from his spot near the fireplace and prodding Taras in the ribs, "Putschist here hasn't got a date. He's better than a catatonic dummy, but only just - "

"Stephen!" muttered Taras. "I'm not going, and that's final. No offense, Callahan," he added after a moment.

"No big loss," said Stephen philosophically. "Taras isn't much of a conversationalist. You know what, Kitty, Quatre Winner and Lyall Ordin were looking for dates, too, last I checked. They should be here soon."

He grinned up at Delia's toad, who had suddenly appeared. "Hello, Squot. And hi, Delia. We're trying to find a suitable date for Kitty and persuade Taras to go to the ball. Want to help?"

[Aleksei Trevelyan]

"I thought you had a date - if I hadn't known I would've asked you."

That lifted the little black raincloud hovering over Kitty's head quite a bit, and she cheered up visibly. Taras' outright rejection didn't bother her at all after that - she hadn't really expected him to say yes. He hadn't ever shown much interest in Valcentica's social scene.

"None taken," she said, leaning back in the chair. "Lyall's not got a date? That's news to me. Don't think I've met this Quatre Winner guy, either. Oh, hey, Delia. Thought you were dating wossname. Jon's friend. Isn't he going, or is he away?" She gave Squot the fish eye. "Don't you even think about it, Squot. You're somehow cute, but I don't need a hat today, particularly not one that weighs forty pounds."

[Lyall Ordin]

Meanwhile, Lyall had arrived the common room. He went unnoticed - he had made little noise when entering and did not say a word, as was his habit.

Kitty doesn't have a date? Lyall was surprised. He'd assumed that someone like Kitty would not have had much trouble finding someone to go to the ball with her. She looked pretty dejected about it, too.

"Kitty, would you like to go with me?" he asked, then blushed when he realized how sudden and unexpected the question must seem.

[Aleksei Trevelyan]

Kitty jumped almost a full foot into the air, which was no mean feat for a sitting person. "Augh! Ninja invasion!" She spun around, saw Lyall, and nearly fell over. "Oh, it's you, Lyall. Hahahahahahahaha, hi, sure, love to," she said, and actually did fall over.

Problem one: Solved.

"What am I going to wear?" she asked, semi-lucidly, from the floor.

[Lyall Ordin]

Lyall laughed, then helped Kitty up from the floor. "I'm afraid I can't help you there," he said, grinning. He had been sure that Kitty was already taken, but she wasn't, and he also needed a date... This had worked out quite well.

So now they were waiting for Quatre Winner. Lyall had never actually met him - he'd only seen him a couple of times in class - but knew he had only arrived recently. He figured that Winner, like Kang, would ask a classmate from Hogwarts.

[Quatre Winner]

Quatre was the last to enter the common room. "Hello," he said, taking a seat on an vacant sofa near the others. The room was atypically empty, save for the small group gathered by the fireplace. There was Stephen and Taras, as well as three students he had seen in class but whose names he did not know. He assumed the boy was Lyall Ordin - Stephen had mentioned that he'd be coming - but did not know who the two girls were.

A loud croak. Quatre located the source of the sound as the very large toad held in the one girl's arms. "Oh. Hi." Grinning, he reached out and gave Squot a couple of pats.

"Did you manage to connect to the British Network?" he asked Stephen, not aware that he had arrived several minutes after the call.

[Taras Putschist]

Stephen nodded, grinning. "Hey, Quatre. Yeah, I just talked to the Ravenclaws a moment ago - An-yi Ming and Anise Zhang said they could come." He looked hopefully at the blond boy. "You do remember them, right? They were in the same year as we were."

Of course, if he and Quatre had lived in the same dorm room for six years and still didn't remember ever meeting each other, it was kind of silly to think that Quatre remembered the Ravenclaw girls.

He paused, then said thoughtfully, "Although I do think Zhang recognized your name, so you must know her from somewhere, right?"

[Delia Alvarez]

Kitty and Lyall. Two problems solved right there. Now, how would they persuade Taras, of all people, to go to the winter ball?

"Oh, Monty's off with his family for the holidays. So I'm left alone for the ball," Delia told Kitty, grinning to hide her disappointment. "Not that I mind, really."

She smiled at the new arrival. "Hola! I'm Delia Alvarez. And this here," Delia indicated the toad, "is Squot." She smiled again, pleased at Quatre's apparent liking for the toad.

[Taras Putschist]

Stephen nudged Taras, grinning wickedly. "Hear that, Putschist?" he whispered. "She's free. Go on, ask her."

"Stephen, for the last time, I'm not going."

"Hah! And leave a poor fellow Elsa stranded without a date to the ball? Cruel, cruel, cruel. Go on, ask - "

Taras scowled. "There are plenty of other male students."

"Ah, yes, but you're Taras Putschist, stunningly rich British pureblood and dream date of every female in Valcentica."

"Shut up. You know I couldn't care less."

Stephen only grinned wider. "You are cruel - but I'm not shutting up until you agree, you know that. You need to get out more. And considering this is coming from a Ravenclaw, that's saying quite a lot."

Taras's scowl deepened. "You mean to say that if I dare to argue further with you, I'll find myself the recipient of a sleeping potion or two and get dragged to the ball anyway."

"Something like that, yes."

"I'm not dancing."

"Never asked you to."

Taras sighed. "All right, then." It could have been worse; of the girls at Valcentica, he'd probably talked to Alvarez the most. And she'd been his double during that duel at the beginning of the year, which had to count for something.

He glanced up at the girl in question. "If you need - a date," he said stiffly, "I suppose I could go."

[Quatre Winner]

Quatre patted Squot a few more times. "Ming and Zhang?" Of course he remembered them - they were both on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, they both fenced, Zhang played the piano, so on and so forth. "Yeah, of course I--"

Quatre stopped short. There it was, again. First time, when he and Stephen hardly recognized each other despite six years of attendance at the same school, and now this. Just how was it that they both remembered their Ravenclaw classmates - and their classmates obviously remembered the two of them - but not each other?

"--remember them," he finished. It was all too confusing, Quatre decided, and he resolved to figure it out after the ball. "So... who's going with whom?" he asked. It was valid question; they both knew An-yi and Anise equally well.

[Delia Alvarez]

Delia grinned, both because she had just been asked to the ball (by Taras Putschist, no less), and because she was amused and impressed that Stephen had managed to get Taras to go at all.

"I'd be glad to go with you," she said happily. She was sure Monty wouldn't mind, either; just about everyone knew that Taras was not actually interested in anyone. Delia was slightly disappointed at Taras' refusal to dance, then mentally smacked herself and hid her disappointment. He was doing her a favor, after all.

[Aleksei Trevelyan]

"With his family? Poor boy," Kitty said, standing up. "And don't worry about memory issues, guys. They seem to be par for the course here." She leaned over to Delia, keeping her voice low. "Can't say I pity you, though. I mean, Monty's nice-looking, but he's no Apollo like Taras here..."

She waved at Quatre. "Hi! I'm Kitty. Saw you in class before. You must be Quatre?"

Right. Mental wardrobe...not the qipao, although she adored it so. It had already seen service at Natty's birthday party (where she'd been a bit overdressed, at least in comparison to the girls, who were strippers that week) and the feast, so she had no desire to wear it again. Variety was the spice of life, after all.

No poofy dresses, and nothing too slinky. Something...something girlish but not girly, stylish but not overly mature. This could be difficult.