Masquerade, paper faces on parade

[thegooddrjones]

Who: Martha, pretty much everyone else in Peaksville
What: The Masquerade Party
When: Day 53, "evening"
Warnings: Will change when applicable.
Notes: Everyone jump in, thread jack, start your own thread, all that stuff. For those who didn't get masks or who got crappy ones? The standard assortment of masks are on a table for you to grab one or

Comments

[suddenlysirius]

Sirius had forgone the standard black-tie look (by leaving off the black tie), opting for an air of rakishly good-looking, devil-may-care-yet-fashionably-sensitive. That, and he wasn't sure exactly how to tie the bow without one side appearing more lopsided than the other. Twenty-something wizards don't get a lot of experience with that sort of thing, don't you know.

He left the top button undone, tousled his hair to achieve that windswept look, and chose one of the masks on offer to compliment his handsome features.

Sirius Black had his good qualities. Lack of arrogance was not one of them. Not yet, anyhow.

Seeing no one he knew (which amounted to precisely two people), he took a couple of champagne flutes from a passing server and approached the nearest female. Standard operating procedure.

"I thought you could use another." He gave her what he imagined was a winning smile.

[thegooddrjones]

The party seemed rather larger than it actually was for some reason. It seemed like there were more people around, it felt crowded even though at the moment it certainly didn't seem to be. For a moment she was distracted before the man stood before her and offered a smile. She didn't know him, and he didn't seem at all familiar to her, but Martha was discovering that in Peaksville, that really didn't mean a whole lot.

She returned the smile to him with one of her own, and the flute was raised a bit. "Thank you, love, but I've just got one." After the late night she'd had the night before, Martha was of the mind that drinking heavily would result in nothing more than her in a corner somewhere rather asleep well before the evening's festivities had actually begun.

However, there was no point in being rude. She placed the nearly full flute on a near by table and then took his with a smile. Offering a quick smile, she extended her hand. "I'm Martha."

[suddenlysirius]

He reached to take her hand before her introduction sank in fully. He hesitated - only a momentary lapse, hardly noticeable, really - then took her hand and decided to fall fully into the swing of things by lightly kissing it.

This woman was the one calling him a wanker and defending Snape? Martha was not what he had expected. He was a little glad to have the mask somewhat hiding his identity. It would be nice to have a conversation without being judged by whatever that git had been telling people.

"Well, Martha, it's good to know Mr. West knows how to 'create' beautiful women," he said, his grin broadening somewhat. "Enjoying yourself?"

[thegooddrjones]

When he kissed her hand, Martha chuckled in a good natured way. She hadn't expected him to do that. It was funny, how people were slipping into the roles that West's little party wanted them to slip into. Martha hadn't noticed the way he lapsed, because her attention wasn't entirely focused on him. Well, it was but she was wondering if he was someone she'd met and thought had left.

The fact that it might have been Sirius Black was not even thought of.

She coloured sightly when he said that West knew how to create beautiful women. "Well, I think you for the compliment. And yes I am. It's lovely, but I keep expecting the other shoe to drop." Martha Jones remembered Christmas and the presents that they had received.

[suddenlysirius]

He nodded, looking around.

"Yes, I can see how a garden party could go horribly out of control," he replied, turning his attention back to her. "You never know what might happen. The band could decide to turn it into disco night, the hors d'œuvrs could run out..."

He kept his tone teasingly serious; he had a suspicion she meant something a little less mundane - after all, he had met Miss Devlin only the night before.

"If you drink too much of that champagne, you might end up dancing with a strange man in a jester mask," he added, grinning once more.

[thegooddrjones]

Martha laughed easily at that. "Well, you never know, plants could come to life, or the champagne might get poisoned..." She took a quick sip of the bubbly, a little touch that barely placed a dent in the glass. The vow not to get drunk was taken especially seriously when she didn't know what West might come up with. If all else failed, Martha wanted to be able to act competently as a medical professional should she need to.

"I expect not to be doing all that much dancing here." Mostly because she didn't plan on dancing with anyone but the people she knew, and the people whom she most wished would dance would likely be spending a significant period of time on the sidelines, if they ever came off them at all.

"Besides," she said in a teasing tone, "I make it a habit of knowing the names of the people I dance with. it's just polite, really."

[suddenlysirius]

"Where's the fun in that?" he asked, laughing. "No dancing, and only with the people you know by name?"

He had a sneaking suspicion this conversation might be over the minute he gave her his.

"I could be wrong, but Martha, that's not how masked balls work. Not knowing who I am is all part of the fun."

[thegooddrjones]

She was reminded more than a little bit of Jim Kirk, even though she knew his voice was entirely wrong for it. She smirked a bit and rolled her eyes when he mentioned how masked balls worked. "Maybe my name isn't Martha, Mr. Mystery Man." Martha Jones was flirting a little bit, because it was fun to do so, and because it seemed the right thing to do with the air of the party. Of course, she was completely rubbish at lying, and it was obvious that her name was Martha but that was beside the point.

Another little sip of her champagne and she looked around again. She leaned in close after a moment. "No one's dancing yet anyway."

[suddenlysirius]

So she was flirtatious. Pretty. Not a complete bore. Young. Well, younger. What was she doing hanging around Snape? It wasn't something to which he normally would have given much thought - he had more important things to deal with and wonder about. Toadstools, for example. Lint.

But the more he talked to her, the more the question intrigued him.

Maybe she was just...friendly. With everyone. Weird.

"Maybe no one's dancing because no one's dancing," he suggested, setting his untouched champagne aside. "Do me the honor?"

[thegooddrjones]

Martha debated for a moment. Her toes had been tapping nearly since she'd arrived here, and the music seemed to be begging for someone to dance to it. It was odd that there was no one else dancing yet, maybe she should. However, Martha was more than a little bit worried about the already crowded area of her love life and how either of the people in it would react to her dancing with someone else.

But neither of them were here that she could tell. And the fact that she hadn't heard from the Doctor in two days and the little disturbance this morning reminded her that she wasn't really... Well, why did she care exactly?

She set the drink down on the table next to her, and then she extended her hand to him again. "Alright, Mr. Mystery Man. One dance, yeah?"

[suddenlysirius]

While Martha may have been worrying about her love life, Sirius had far less romantic intentions. While not a horrible human being - and actually, a rather good person and loyal friend - he had a tendency toward the despicable, particularly at such a young age. Not, of course, that he would intentionally hurt Martha to get at Snape, but there was nothing wrong with turning her head a bit, was there? Besides, she wasn't bad-looking. Not his type, exactly, but certainly not a complete troll.

He led her out on the dance floor and slipped an arm about her waist - not getting close enough to be intimate, but certainly more than enough to be flirtatious with her, meanwhile keeping an eye open for anyone that might be glaring daggers at him.

"So tell me, Martha. What do you do when you're not trapped in this lovely piece of 1950s nostalgia?"

[thegooddrjones]

When he slipped his arm about her waist, Martha too, looked around for anyone who might be watching. She was slightly worried about it, even though she was fairly good at keeping such concern under wraps. After all, she was rather likely to stick out as the only woman of colour who was in Peaksville at the moment. It was funny how that worked, considering the whole point of a masked ball was an anonymity that Martha herself, couldn't take part in.

"At home, I'm a doctor. Among other things." She moved in time with the music, remembering the steps that she had learned in 1969 when she'd been there for three months. There had been little enough to do that dancing had definitely been on the menu. Dancing and reading and the two of them taking turns burning toast. "What about you, or are you going to hide under the cover of your mask?" Martha leaned forward slightly as she said it, grinning.

[suddenlysirius]

A doctor. Well, that was comforting, but also a little off-putting. He wondered if he, James, and Snape made up the whole of the magical community here. She would have said 'healer', had she been one - unless, of course, she was trying to maintain secrecy, but he doubted that was the case. Their conversation over the journal had been public.

So she was a Muggle.

Also weird.

"Don't you know? I'm an international man of mystery." He paused, then made a humming sound, as though pensively considering his next question. "A doctor. Good deal of schooling involved there. I would ask your age, but that's not very polite at all, is it?"

[thegooddrjones]

"You seem a bit young to be an international man of mystery, mate." She was fairly certain he was far too young for that. Martha had met several international men of mystery, and even more intergalactic men of mystery. He was definitely a teenager of some sort. Or had the maturity of one. But they were dancing and everything was going to be quite alright.

"You can ask my age all you like, but I'm afraid how you determine it is entirely up in the air. I could be twenty-four, or I could be twenty-six. It all depends the time that you're counting." She was well aware that she sounded mad, but that was beside the point. It was all about the playing a bit, and she was playing with him a bit, because Martha knew he was playing with her.

[suddenlysirius]

Twenty-four? He almost burst out laughing at that. Snape was nearly old enough to be her father. What did that prat think he was doing, mucking about with someone nearly half his age? He made a mental note to not only relay all information to James, but to bring all of this up to his old Slytherin friend. Twenty-four, for Merlin's sake. What a git.

"I could see not knowing your birthday and being a year more or less," he said, "but it seems to me you've picked up two somehow."

And there, over her shoulder, he saw his target. He would have known that bastard anywhere - mask or no mask, twenty years older or a hundred and five. Not staring, no, but certainly watching.

Good.

Sirius leaned closer to whisper in her ear, "But you know, Martha, the only time that counts is right now."

[thegooddrjones]

"You'd be amazed what traveling in time does for a girl." She responded quickly and slightly coyly. Martha really was amused by his flirting, but she wasn't taken in by it. After all, she'd been flirted with by some of the great flirts in history, and this bloke definitely didn't compare. Flirting was never the way to Martha Jones's heart, as her almost sort of whatever it was with Severus Snape could attest too.

When he leaned in to whisper in her ear, Martha threw back her head and laughed loudly. "Really, is that your best bet at a pick-up line? I'm surprised at an international man of mystery such as yourself. It's almost a bit of a disappointment!" Gentle teasing before she adjusted his collar where the tie should be. "Couldn't get it done?"