The year's grandest gala for those who have slipped in the spaces that stand between stories...

[foryourown]

Some time in the evening, a musical chiming starts in the atrium. A soft grumble, and then a roar, and one entire wall descends slowly on gears into the floor. Beyond it lies a resplendent marble plaza, walled on its remaining three sides in glass

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[incaution]

Jo wasn't about to be happy about her current situation. Not only was she at some kind of formal party that she didn't belong at, she was there with all kinds of freaking fairies, and now she was stuck in a dress. If it had been something short and slinky, something almost casual, it wouldn't have been that bad. She would have been tugging down on the ends of the dress all night, but at least she would have managed. But something long and form fitting, something with sequins and sparkles all over it, she had no idea how to handle herself properly in. She wasn't even going to touch the fact that she was attempting to move around in glass slippers

[itchafes]

Neal doesn't move for a few seconds after taking a drink. The nausea isn't what keeps him there - the sudden awareness is. It's like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over him. Woke up every sense and then some. He feels amazing.

...Then he spots Jo in the corner, ripping away at her dress - and he knows it's her, can feel it, even though he can't see her face - and says to Peter without turning to look at the other man, "I'll be right back."

And there he is, in front of her, breathless with his own sudden ability to appear the same way all these fae have done to them until now.

If the whole Gala is like this, he will definitely enjoy himself.

He taps Jo's shoulder lightly. "Pop a seam?"

[incaution]

By the time Neal had approached her, Jo had gotten her dress torn a little, and the magic in the drink she had sipped had slipped right into her system and had changed her. When he tapped at her shoulder, it felt like an electrical current running through her system, and she gasped and went rigid as she stared over up at him

[itchafes]

"Wouldn't dream of it." He moves to rest a hand on her hip - and the bottom of the dress melts away at the tear, falling to the ground in a diamond shimmer.

"...Huh. Well." He takes her chin lighting and tilts her face up toward his with a grin. "That was easy."

[whateverthemess]

Murphy drinks about a beat and a half behind her neighbors. She's way past trusting any magical fairy-juice she's offered - but when nothing immediately horrible happens and she realizes not drinking is probably some horrible insult, she downs her glass and prepares to force-puke as soon as it proves necessary.

The brief wave of nausea almost makes force-puking unnecessary. But then it's gone. And the table is about as big as it would have been when she was cat sized, except she's hovering above it now. And there's a steady thrum at her back. And she can feel the Wood outside and the magic in the clockwork animals and the fake snow falling from overhead and now she's in a dress and...

...and something she really, really doesn't want to think is real is happening.

"Harry!" She whips around and almost cartwheels from the force of her own stupid turn, her voice coming out several octaves higher than it should. "...Oh my God. Please tell me this isn't happening."

[w_for_wizard]

Eating or drinking anything a fairy offers you is generally not something that ends well under any circumstances - but weighing that against the possibility of offending the Princess, Harry will take his chances drinking the toast. He closes his eyes, clutching the table as his head spins, but when it fades and he opens his eyes again, nothing catastrophic seems to have happened. At least, he's not any kind of furry animal, and-

Murphy's voice makes him jump, and he turns toward her in alarm. If something's happened to her so soon after she got her body back again, he's going to hurt the person responsible...

Except that all those thoughts trail off as soon as he actually gets a look at her. His lips twitch, just a little, though the smile is very quickly smothered.

"Do you want me to be reassuring or... honest?" he asks slowly, which pretty much answers the question anyway. He pauses, and then adds, unable to keep his amusement entirely in check, "You look cute in pink."

[whateverthemess]

There's a moment of blank-faced hovering before she looks down at herself.

Dress is not pink. Skin is not pink. There's a flicker of the color at the corner of her eye and she catches a handful of... her hair. Pink hair. She stops flapping a moment in shocked outrage and drops onto the seat of her chair with a chime like silver bell. "You are friggin' kidding me right now."

[w_for_wizard]

Harry was trying to be nice and not laugh. He really was. But the chiming as she drops into the chair is enough to snap what little self-control he managed to hang on to, and he bursts out laughing.

Well, she was already going to kill him for the comment about her hair. How much worse can laughing possibly make it?

[msattentionspan]

There were benefits to being in the castle, but for the most part Faith was on high alert. Wasn't it enough to be kidnapped against your will, thrown into dangerous situations, expected to live in the woods, and make nice with people that suspect you of everything from about to turn 'evil again' to being a part of the whole scheme

[im_apimp]

Alec hadn't worn a tux since that time he's not allowed to talk about for classified reasons.

Not that he had issues with wearing anything so long as he could move in it but going from civvies to formal wear in the blink of an eye was a little bit unsettling, but he just shrugged and pushed through it, searching through the crowd to find someone he knew. Well, someone he knew who actually liked him. Pushing his way through the people, he made his way over and stopped with a bit of a sly smirk when he saw Faith.

"Lookin' good, Faith."

[msattentionspan]

At the sound of a voice, she turned around smiling at Alec as he gave her a quick smirk. It was the one person here that she didn't actually mind making a comment on her manner of dress. She was sort of dreading the moment when Buffy tracked her down.

Alec looked good himself, she had to admit that he always seemed to have an interesting way of making her doubt her resolve in this place.

"You're not doing so bad, either. The whole black tie affair looks good."

[im_apimp]

He grinned a bit, before adjusting his tie. "I've seen a few James Bond movies. I think it's pretty appropriate."

[fellbychoice]

Unlike some of the others who weren't happy to be dressed up and to be here, Anna was ecstatic that she was herself again. She had her body back, her powers back, and was nearly floating on a cloud with happiness as she entered the room. She didn't blink an eye as her clothes changed from dirty things to something that suited a storybook princess. Normally, she wouldn't care for such fancy things, but this was a special occasion and she could appreciate the fact that everything was so magical

[notalighieri]

Okay so he was human now. Weird, scary.. but also kind of exciting. Dwelling on the possible downsides of this transformation quickly turned out to be a downer -luckily there was this whole extravagant party going on to distract him. That is to say, a whole invasion of gorgeous girls!

Take this one redhead here, for instance. Dante stops at the sight and backtracks a step or two to take in the sight. He's not normally one who values fancy dress clothing over what's inside the wrapping but it'd be a shame (and a lie) to say this one doesn't fit this Ball theme well. So very well indeed.

Looks like the drinks has been upsetting and confusing a lot of people tonight.

"You all right there, babe?"

Maybe he should practice his language one of these days.

[fellbychoice]

"Hm?" Anna turned her head to look over at the man speaking to her, and she gave a curt nod. She had been looking around for her brother, or for Peter, but she supposed that meeting someone new would be good too. She had spent all of her time in the company of family that she had lost touch with the other people of the barracks, which was a shame. But now she could fix that.

Still excited by being human again, as well as having her body, she really couldn't help but grin over at him. She was well aware the fae were probably up to something, but she couldn't allow herself to focus on it for the time being. She was determined to have one good night here.

"I was just watching everyone. The room is beautiful, don't you think?"

[notalighieri]

He's a bit late, but returns the nod with a small court bow. So what if he has no manners -he can pretend! Especially if there is a pretty lady involved.

"It sure is." He says and grins, of course not looking at the room. "Very."

[gammapulsed]

If Bruce had anything to say about it, he'd have stayed huddled in a corner of his room trying to figure out how he got there and how to get out, but his new hostess apparently has other plans. After a few hours of panicking, the doors to his room burst open to a flood of cats of all shapes and sizes - though these are mostly large cats.

Large enough that they easily swarm around him and carry him down to the atrium, depositing him among the guests before sweeping off back wherever they came from in the first place. He reddens and shifts from one foot to the other, feeling entirely out of place amidst all the finery in just his ruined, over-stretched, filthy cargoes. Never mind that parties have never been Bruce's thing.

The discomfiture lasts until he's distracted by the wall and his brain starts trying to figure out how that would work. But then he's in a suit and being ushered to a table full of more strangers. Joy. He keeps his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone, only raising his eyes to see who's announcing whatever.

[makemiracles]

If anything, Vanille was wary about this whole ordeal. The fact that everyone had just been magically whisked away to a palace of some kind was something from a dream or a child's story, but Vanille had long since stopped believing in a good kind of magic. She had seen and experienced too much in life to know that this was nothing good, and it left her on edge and feeling worried about what was going to happen to everyone. She didn't really know anyone here, but that didn't mean that she wanted anyone to be hurt, either

[gammapulsed]

That outfit is... Wow. Not in the 'wow, sexy' way, though Vanille certainly isn't bad-looking, but the 'wow, what the heck is that' way because Bruce has most definitely never seen something like that before. Ever. And he's seen some pretty weird stuff. Point is, it's definitely enough to make him stare a bit - and heck, it's even enough to make him not flinch and jump at being addressed. Big accomplishment there.

"...Uh. Um, not. Sorry, but not really. It's nothing against this whole thing, I'm not much for the, er." He weakly waves a hand at the room and its various occupants. "Entire party. Thing. It's not my thing, you know, I know it's some peoples' but. Not mine. Is all."

[darktwistyplace]

No one ever warned Meredith not to drink what fairies offer you, so this? Totally not her fault. She braces herself against the table with one hand at the wave of dizziness that follows, but she shakes her head and it's gone again in an instant. And in its wake... something's different. Meredith can't put her finger on what, but the newly pointed ears peeking up through her hair might be a clue.

She's a little distracted from that when she recognizes Bruce not far away, and... okay, she's honestly a little surprised to see him here. Or a lot.

"Okay, so you don't spontaneously combust when you're inside a building or around large groups of people..." Because that was absolutely a legitimate concern. Though around here, you never know...