The jolly red man didn't know where a shop was. Cailyn herself didn't know anything about the shops around here but she had been on adventures there before. Though she lacked the concentration to pay attention to the shops around. She didn't have the thing people called money either. It was a strange concept to exchange paper for good. But that was the way the cookie crumbled in this world. Paper for goods, goods for paper.

The red man asked a man to look one up. The man looked rather scared of the jolly red man though she could not grasp any scaryness. He quickly typed in things on his machine and he found one. It was amazing what you could get out of a machine these days. She didn't know how to handle those things anyways so it was best that there where people around her who knew. The man directed them towards the shop and Cailyn exepted the arm the Jolly red man extended.

” Not if you pummel through any random wall he thought to himself.

It was thought from him which she picked up. "Breaking walls isn't nice." She said to the jolly red man as if he was speaking the thought. This would raise the akward bar but she didn't know better. Anyways of they went to the shop.

(Sure thing, will you set up the thread =) )

“Thanks,” Shin mustered as that ever-fleeting confidence he’d had before slowly returned to him. “You look good too. I like the dress’s color. Works well with your eyes. But anyways…” He glanced back at Kasumi, extending a hand. She looked good that night, too. He didn’t remember yet if he’d told her that… ah well, it deserved repeating. “Seconding the amazing for you, too.”

The moment was disrupted as a wine glass shattered and Shin’s head spun to find the disturbance’s source. Seven foot tall naked man. He blinked and shifted his body casually to the side of the dance floor away from said disturbance. “Um… maybe over here? Talking’s good, too…” He ushered her towards the stairs to a balcony. Maybe instead of dancing, they’d talk for a bit… yeah. As his foot touched down on the first step, he called back to Alexandra with a wave. “Make sure you try the cake!”

Kasumi walks with Shin as she looks at the 7 foot tall naked man. She looks down she was not sure what to do or say as she nods some "That sounds find Shin." She lets out little giggle. Soon she pulls up her dress so she does not step on the hymn of it. She moves so grasefull with eeach step that she takes. She smiles as she looks at Shin.

Soon she is back on the balcony she does not mind it. She likes the balcony she looks over the sight soon she looks back at Shin "So what do you want to talk about?" Kasumi smiles more as she rubs the back of her neck. She was not sure what to talk about herself. Yet she likes being with Shin so talking about anything is good. She just liked spending time with him. She could not help but to look at him as she smiles more.

Kasumi could not help but to smile when she was with Shin she wonders why? Soon she shakes her head yet she smiles still. Anything to talk about is fine yet she can not think of anything. Work brain work! There is so many things to talk about why can't she think of anything right now. This is not good she does not want him to think that she is an air head or something.

Her eyebrows rose and she shook her head with a questioning tilt to her mouth and head., Jax wasn’t quite sure if he meant what she thought he had meant. Watching his expression, and hearing his slight bragging, she decided he had. “Oh really?” She could still feel watchful eyes, but something made her hand drift to his shoulder with a small tightening of her fingers.

“Well, I’m glad you have more than muscle. It seems ” Jaxon apparently needed her perspective moved, rather than mountains, and Venus seemed to have a personality that brought something out of her. She was hesitant to call it strength, but it seemed alright to call it a willingness to look at herself and push herself in a direction that was uncomfortable for her…

Was she afraid? Yes. Afraid of making a choice that couldn’t be unmade, afraid of what seemed to live inside her, and afraid of what the world could do to her if she relaxed the steel that she had grown in her spine. Jaxon felt that there was something inside her, besides her powers, that was dark and hidden… and could hurt her more than anything physical.

Shrugging, Jax laughed at the touch on her hip, the awareness of the people around them sliding away as other things she wanted to pay attention to slid into its place. The hand at his shoulder slid down to rest on top of one of the hands at her hip as they spun and weaved through dance moves. “I suppose they will have to be good enough…” She gave a soft dramatic sigh, rolling her eyes playfully.

“Anything,” Shin replied. His eyes hung half-mast. A paper heart was digging into the small of his back as he leaned up against the guardrail, and slowly he was beginning to realize that the mood of the party had changed. Ever since her confession, he’d been noticing more and more things out of place. Like how she smiled and nervously scratched her neck, or how the Valentine’s decorations seemed to loom up at them from every corner, like the shadow of a sniper’s bow… or how the silence seemed to cut deeper with every passing moment they stood waiting for a topic to present itself.

And how, maybe comfortable silence could be good. But he wasn’t ready to stand around hoping for that. And he had a mask, so… he brought it to his face. The night was open to any topic, any topic at all, and silence was far too potent to let the moment wither. A smile pierced his lips.

“Let’s talk about Sailor Moon.”

“Err, maybe over there would be the best place to dance,”

“um uh huh.” He was somehow tongue tied, his over use of s’s via his tongue hadn’t managed that. Not much had but the thought of dancing with Katrina had him tongue tied and oblivious even to gigantic back sides. He fumbled his words and was it hot in here?

He offered his hands to Katrina not knowing where she would want them. there were couples dancing chastly and properly and then there were those that daned like they were hoping to raise the rating of the dance. They were pretty close to a white haired couple “ I um jusssst wanted to sssay thanks for helping me get ssssettled in the mansion.” Oh, debonair…could he be stopped…bringing up the same subject again…gah, why couldn’t he talk around her. He sighed and shrugged on the inside, she needed a friend right no, she looked pretty ad leaving a guy she was thrilled to get to and he would rather comfort her then try to complicate matters more. “Are you ok? That Planet guy and you seemed pretty intense and then , well and you looked a little sssstressssed. After talking to that guy, did he do sssomthing out of line?” he paused and shut his mouth before he oculd offer any heroics… “ I would be willing to ssstraiten sssomeone out if you needed me to.” He said as an after thought almost shyly.

Sebastian's brow creased in concern at her crestfallen reaction. “I'm sorry. I didn't intend to depress you. It has been a very long time since that day and I no longer mourn my loss. Rather, I celebrate that I still have the memories to carry with me.”

Sebastian let her right hand fall from his left, so he could tilt her chin up just a hair more and look her in the eyes. She had beautiful eyes. From this close he could see all the individual flecks of color that made up the overall honey colored hue or her irises. His cerulean gaze met hers in an expression of concern.

“Don't be sad for me, all right? Most of my memories are happy ones and the sting of the painful ones has long since dulled. I'd much rather live in a world filled with color that keeps my memories fresh than have to survive without being able to see how the perfect colored dress can bring out the gold in someone's eyes or be able to see the hint of color on someone's cheeks when they are flushed from dancing.”

It was quite possible that his own cheeks were a little flushed as well. He dropped his hand and returned it to its proper dancing position, smiling gently as if to prove that he was perfectly fine and she need not worry about hurting his feelings. “You seem to be feeling better since the incident at the bookstore. You even came to an event promoting human and mutant relations. You don't have any hard feelings toward the human race, then?”

Ghost mustered a smile for Sebastian as he too locked his eyes on hers and spoke. Her smile was ghost of its former glory, but she was far too used to smiling when it was appropriate rather than when she wanted to. Ghost didn't notice any break in dancing when his hand came up under her chin. She was so very pliable, a very good follow. Were they still dancing? It was almost as natural now as standing and chatting.

"You haven't depressed me." His concern was refreshing, but his eyes a bit too poignant. Did blue eyes just come that way? "I would rather Sebastian live in a world of color." She nodded almost imperceptibly. Colors were cherished by her since she only saw them half of the time anyway. His flirtatious comments about her eyes only served to solidify her like for this particular color. "This is my favorite one." With her now free hand she indicated the dress.

Sebastian asked about her feelings toward humans and Ghost shook her head. "I didn't really blame them in the first place. Things just escalated too far, I think." There was a subtle tenseness to her muscles that wasn't there previously. "I still would like everyone to get along. Maybe not in large groups or in possession of deadly weapons, though."

She did smile then. A gentle and flighty thing. "I think I see it a little better from the other side now. We all have loaded guns pointed wherever we please. It's a trust thing. So from all of that, I think it's just made me think of things a bit--" A sudden flash of imagery interrupted her though process. She'd stopped mid sentence and her tone certainly indicated that Ghost stopped mid sentence as if something had just occurred to her.

A high and uncertain laugh bubbled past her lips. "I'm sorry, I thought you said granddaughter... If you have a... that means..." She breathed an uncertain breath, eyes flicking over his face and whiskers. "Are you m-married and old?" But that was rude question. She tried to laugh it off. But here he was, so very solid under her arms as a twenty-something... maybe a little older... but not Grandpa old. The dancing flush was slowly creeping redder.

A slightly surprised expression found its way onto Sebastian's countenance for a brief moment as Ghost interrupted herself with a question about his marital status and age, before it melted into one of amusement. He tried not to chuckle as she blushed. He hadn't mentioned his age, had he? It was a fair question.

His answer was accompanied by a twinkle in his blue eyes, “To answer your questions as precisely as I can: I am a widower and I am old enough that I no longer know exactly how old I am. To give you an idea, though, I was born twenty years or so before Greece razed Troy.”

They danced on. Sebastian wasn't really paying attention to the tempo of the music any more as they seemed to have found one of their own that worked for them. The white haired immortal continued to steer his dance partner around the other couples on the dance floor without really paying attention to them. One young couple caught his eye only because the young man had bright red skin, but for the most part he avoided others as automatically as trees in a forest.

After a moment of thought he returned to the subject she had abruptly abandoned, “I know what you mean about loaded guns. Mutant abilities can be used very much like weapons. To those that don't understand them, every mutant may seem like they could be concealing the ability to kill instantly. Guns make me more nervous than mutations, but then, I am a mutant and understand that mutations aren't always dangerous and even when they have that potential the mutants that wield them may not use their abilities for harm. Guns on the other hand are always weapons. There is no other use for them.”

He was amused. Amused at her direct question. Really? There was no table to hide under? She glanced around and saw no such escape. Ah well. At least his answer was... acceptably less embarrassing. And he wasn't angry with her in the least.

A widower? And if that weren't shocking enough he was as old as some of the ancient Greek legends. She tried not to stare. Ghost supposed that 'until death do you part wasn't a promise of mutual death timing as she had assumed. Considering Sebastian's talents, there was probably nothing he could have done that he did not try to prevent the death of a wife. But to love someone enough to marry them!

That level of commitment coupled with her current dubious outlook on romance had her stumped on the idea of marriage. "I don't think I would ever be married..." She didn't, but she decided to qualify her statement anyway, "Especially not if I were as long lived..." She must appear a complete child in his eyes and he, the doting uncle. And ancient Greece! Did he know about the legends? Which ones were true? Or any kind of true? She bet Sebastian had an arsenal of bedtime stories that he could dispense for several children over several lifetimes and never repeat a one.

It was strange to think that way.

While the butter in her mind continued to churn, Sebastian lead on and patiently allowed her mind to process what his simple statement really meant.

Ghost nodded slowly at Sebastian, a bit more stiffly than before. She had to be on her best behavior now. The subject of guns did nothing to assuage her. "It seems even the most innocuous of mutants does have the ability to harm, though I would like to believe that they wouldn't. Again, it's all about trust." And both sides had so often infringed on that fragile bond. Tonight was going surprisingly well, though. "I can completely commiserate about the loathing of guns." After all, it was a gun that had done the damage to her. The frightened and angry person behind the weapon could hardly have been blamed considering the situation. The gun, by Aura's admission, had been pointed at her, not Ghost. That was why in the Danger Room, Ghost had switched from subduable self defense to weapon disarming.

Her feet complained at their overuse in heels. Ghost glanced down at them and with her attention refocused there, she again flubbed in following Sebastian. She sighed and attempted to resume polite conversation. She would not complain about her feet. It was her own doing to show up to a party in heels when she loathed shoes as a general rule. "What's it like to be married? or- to have been, I mean, when you were... "

Koga held out his hands, and Katrina stepped between them. This is where she was supposed to be, right? She put her own hands on his shoulders and looked around at what the other dancers were doing. A white haired couple swept around them, and Katrina watched to see what they were doing with their hands. She left one hand on Koga's shoulder, and adjusted the other one so she could hold his hand off to the side. Like this?

Slowly she began to step back and forth, trying to imitate the older dancers and ending up with something like a back and forth sway. Now could she talk and dance at the same time? They would have to see.

“You're welcome,” she responded to Ryuichi's thanks. “It was no problem.” She had failed that quiz, but any questions she had answered correctly were probably thanks to his help with studying that night. She shouldn't have put it off until the last minute and he probably had saved her a few points at least. Enough that if she did well on the next one, at least the average score wouldn't be a fail.

>>>“Are you ok? That Planet guy and you seemed pretty intense and then , well and you looked a little sssstressssed. After talking to that guy, did he do sssomthing out of line?”

Katrina frowned thoughtfully, trying to imagine her face as “intense” when she had been talking to Saturn. She tried not to step on Koga's toes.

>>>“ I would be willing to ssstraiten sssomeone out if you needed me to.”

Koga added an offer to protect her onto the end of his question, in a shy voice. Katrina shook her head.

“No, no one did anything wrong. Except maybe me. The big red guy is one of the Abyss brothers. They're all friends from way back. I was just, I dunno, being crabby at him I suppose. I didn't mean to be, but... yeah.” She shook her head again.

“I think, or rather, I don't know. I might have said the wrong thing. To Fausto, I mean. I think I hurt his feelings, but there wasn't any other way to answer. I was trying not to hurt him but I think I accidentally did anyway. Now he's going out of the country and I won't even get to talk to him for a couple months. I don't know what to do.” Her words were only semi coherent, and they probably didn't make much sense to someone who hadn't overheard the earlier conversation. Katrina was distracted by her troubled thoughts, though, and they just tumbled out in whatever order they felt like.

She swallowed hard, and glanced back up from Ryuichi's tie to his face for just a moment, before turning her gaze away again with a look of guilt on her face, “Sorry, I don't mean to ramble. You probably don't want to hear about all that.”

Trust. “Indeed. Hopefully this evening will be a building block for some sort of trust between the humans and mutants of this city. Things have been going well so far. It goes to show that we can all behave ourselves if we want to do so.”

They were both quiet for a few moments. Sebastian was remembering the first time he had met Ghost, when he had healed her from two bullet wounds. He was glad that they had not been fatal shots. It would have been a shame not to be able to meet this gentle young woman. There was something in her soul that seemed to vibrate in tune with his own and it was pleasant to be with her, talking and dancing.

After a few moments she returned to the subject of marriage, apparently curious as to what it was like to be married. Sebastian looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to think of how to describe marriage.

“If life is like walking through the woods, then marriage is coming across someone you choose to walk with for your entire life. Together you face the challenging paths and together you enjoy the pleasant paths. When it storms you have someone to be with to keep you warm, and when you are injured someone is there to support you. The trick is finding someone that you want to walk with that you want to stay with for an entire lifetime. It takes not just love, but dedication, to make it work. It can be a very wonderful experience if you find a person you truly want to share everything with.” Perhaps that explanation was a bit sappy, but Sebastian was an old romantic.

“Are your feet hurting you?” His hands where they touched her skin were starting to tingle, which meant she was probably starting to get blisters that needed healing. “Would you like to rest, or at least take your shoes off? I'm sure no one would mind if you went barefoot.” He slowed his steps until they were barely moving. They were near a table if she wanted to stop.

She thought very, very hard about Sebastian's vision of marriage. He was the one, after all, who had been married before. So he should know about these things. But it didn't really match up with what she knew about marriage. One part specifically stood out to her. "It can be a very wonderful experience if you find a person you truly want to share everything with." A frown line formed between her brows.

It was possible that was the problem in the few relationships she had experienced. Her mother, the one example most kids have to look up to, had hidden what they were from her father. Surely Garrett had been hiding things from her considering he had essentially disappeared over night. Did people just decide to up and leave without prior thought? It was something she would have to consider later. Things were getting a little too heavy for just dancing.

“Are your feet hurting you?”

Ghost shook her head absently. They were of course hurting her, but the thought of missing a dance did not appeal to her. Sebastian tried again to bring her mind back from wherever it had run.

“Would you like to rest, or at least take your shoes off? I'm sure no one would mind if you went barefoot.”

Shoes off? Ghost sucked on her lower lip before nodding and lifting first one foot and then the other. She hooked her heels off and dropped them as a pair next to the table where they would quite possibly be forgotten. If anyone had Cinderalla syndrome it was Ghost. Not that she was always running away from handsome princes. No, she was always leaving her shoes in strange places and forgetting them. "I'm not used to wearing shoes." It was a bit strange admitting that in a world of sterile containers and cleanliness. A barefoot was more likely considered to be a yokel rather than a respectable member of society.

"If you're not tired, I'd like to keep going..." There was just something so lovely about the dress and the old style tux with the tails (coat and unicorn) swirling around. She could have hugged him for saving her from a life of glum table sitting. "I haven't really gotten to do a thing like this so I'd like to get my money's worth, you know?"

Oh, she'd been to dances before, but they mostly been the same horrifying routine. A boy she thought was nice or cute or kind. A friend she stayed with near the wall who swayed with the music. A romantic song would come on, something like Celine Dion or Dido, and the lights would dim. Hark! The boy, any boy, approached. A flutter of excitement. She would get to dance and flirt and fall in love and he would choose her... friend. Just once Ghost wanted to be the one twirling around center stage. And it wasn't exactly something that was do-able alone.

"Sorry to be glum... Valentine's isn't the friendliest of holidays." Nor was the beginning of the year the easiest of times. She laughed it off a little. "I'm kind of daft at some of the lovey-dovey things so it's really bad for me." Emphasis on the really. Now without the heels they were a little bit closer to the same height.

~` “Oh really?”

“Mhmm.” He replied quietly, as if she had just asked if his skin was red.

~~“Well, I’m glad you have more than muscle. It seems”

He moved and lead them fluidly through the steps of a complicated dance she followed along as if they had practiced for years with each other, he would enjoy her if she had decided that they could move like this in anther setting. All this doubt in her mind would be fun to remove.

~~“I suppose they will have to be good enough…”

“I look forward to changing that statement to more than enough, dear Jaxxon.”

They would dance an dance and per haps dance until there dress shoes left them wanting to die, but then unlike some other’s they were used to the ritz and their feet had sometime long ago become accustomed to the pain that came with the shined black torture devices that the world called dress shoes.

~~“You're welcome,”. “It was no problem.”

He smiled at her shyly, Maybe he would have had better luck fighting the big guy, well there was always the possibility of Calley turning into a tiger and eating him…


Not stepping on Kogas toes would be pretty easy while they swayed back and forth, it took thema minute to decide that a little shuffling stepp back and forth would be goo to. Oh, a shuffling rotating back and forth.



~~“No, no one did anything wrong. Except maybe me. The big red guy is one of the Abyss brothers. They're all friends from way back. I was just, I dunno, being crabby at him I suppose. I didn't mean to be, but... yeah.”

“oh, I am sure that you didn’t do any thing too bad. I guess, I could ssstraiten you out for you?” He forced him self to laugh weakly at the lame joke.

~~“I think, or rather, I don't know. I might have said the wrong thing. To Fausto, I mean. I think I hurt his feelings, but there wasn't any other way to answer. I was trying not to hurt him but I think I accidentally did anyway. Now he's going out of the country and I won't even get to talk to him for a couple months. I don't know what to do.”

Koga’s mind was spinning; He was trying to keep up with all she had just said. What did she say that made him leave the country?
What could she say?

~~“Sorry, I don't mean to ramble. You probably don't want to hear about all that.”

“No, no, I ramble all the time. I am here if you need to talk.” He paused to see if she was going to add something right then. Well, did you tell him the truth? Fausto, I mean. If ssso, then that isss the best thing for him. And you. If you didn’t, then you’d be just sssetting youself and him up for a bigger upset.” He looked at her when she said all this. He then paused and he wanted to ask if he liked her…of course he liked her, he dedicated a song to her… “Sssso how late are they letting usss ssstay out tonight?”

The ball had after all begun not to long before lights out in the mansion, and the time they were supposed to go to bed. Not that half of the students actually went to sleep. It was more than anything just a way for the adults to get a bit of time to relax and wind down with out having to worry about all of their wards running wild. Lights out meant they only had to worry about the sneaky ones.