A beautiful sound rang out above all others as a melodious song. The amplified voice delivered a heavenly name. Her name. It was a glorious moment.
Unfortunately the feeling of solemnity and grandeur was interrupted when the voice insisted on pronouncing other minor data about her. Without paying attention to these malicious words, Celeste, obediently took a step forward for all to admire her beauty. Instead of the usual hand waving greeting, which she considered extremely vulgar, she executed a curtsy worthy of a aristocrat of the early eighteenth century. When she slightly inclined her head, her curly golden hair lively danced on her bare shoulders. Every step and every smile were highly calculated to show all her charm.
Clothing, hair and manners worthy of a king's court. Would she find a prince worth of her?
Her Italian dress marked her stylish but childish figure. It began where her delicate shoulders ended, and from there fell forming a sharp v-neck that not only showed her perfect skin, but also an expensive almond shaped diamond.
Actually, none of this was enough for her. Of course not. The beautiful original blue of the dress was replaced with a fancy polished silver. Work of her own skilled hands. The fabric of exquisite quality seemed to be made of liquid silver, shiny and flexible. Beautiful but at the same time impossible.

When the turn of the girls ended, she moved along the public looking for a good place. And although it was difficult, she finally found an empty place away from the members of The infamous circus of freaks, the scariest show in the world. She glanced a half snake man half naked, and a girl who looked like some kind of demon. Just thinking about that cold, scaly skin gave her chills... as well as the many tusks, horns, wings and other protrusions exhibited by many of the mutants, so she tried to be as far as possible of everything which did not look like a human.
Celeste did not even bother to look for someone familiar, she knew very well that she would not find any familiar face there. It surprised her that Sam was not there. Her Asian model would be a good "buy." Sure, if he could keep his mouth shut.

To watch the bachelors did not offer the fun she expected. Her moment of glory was on the stage...
In her eyes all of them had a problem. One even had an eye patch. He will probably be missing an arm or leg. That guy looked like someone out of a world war II film.
Leaving aside those who were old enough to be her father, there was only a child too small to be of any use, and a pair of twins dressed in identical clothes. They were not bad, some would even say they were pretty good looking but unfortunately both had cat ears. What a waste...
There was no one there worth of a date with her. Unless they were saving the best for last, she was not going to put a penny on anybody.

"Oh no, I have not met her. I simply... heard something. My apologies."

The snerking in his head was quite obnoxious, and not his own. Over by the wall, the white-eared cat boy was smirking vaguely off in definitely-not-their direction. Slate pointedly refrained from looking at him. Though it was odd; Calley's information was usually accurate.

Perhaps this was an 'inside joke'?

Unfortunately, it had made the girl highly uncomfortable, as evidenced by her concentrated silence. Slate blinked in the face of such intensity.

Careful, Slate. Dr. Lewis did her residency in the explosions ward. Heh.

Careful, Calley. You will miss someone writing on your sheet.

What? Really?

The other twin pushed off the wall, and took an ever-so-discrete stroll past the biding tables.

...And twenty-eight cents, Slate caught, moments later.

His smile was quite sincere as he answered the girl's question.

"Yes," he stated simply, offering his hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Sam stood silently in the back of the room, doing his best not to draw attention to himself; which turned out not to be such a hard thing to achieve, as everyone seemed intent on getting the best date. He had come down to the Valentine’s Day auction purely because of one person: Celeste. The blond was wearing an extravagant silver dress and looking pleased with herself as usual. He sighed; telling her where he lived really had been a big mistake, now there was no getting rid of her.

Only a few days earlier she had taken the time to redecorate the wall of his room for him, or at least he figured she had to be the one responsible. It would have to be just too much of a coincidence that some other blond girl should have been seen headed towards his room on the only day she was present in the school. So today he had come to make sure that she did not cause trouble and he figured that he might confront her about her little act of vandalism while he was at it, but for now he was content just to watch.

Now that she had finished showing off, she looked lost. He couldn’t help the small smile that came to his lips; somehow it amused him to see her feel so uncomfortable. After all she had elected to come here of her own free will, now she must live with this decision. He did however feel responsible for her and he wondered if this was what it was like having siblings.

Aleksandr was very careful in his attempts to not trip up the bidders and the auctioned as he moved gracefully around the room. It was difficult at times to pay attention to all of his bulk when in such a crowded place, but for the most part the other individuals milling around seemed aware enough to step over or around the coils of scaled flesh that moved across the floor. That was just one advantage to living int a mutant residence: They knew what to watch out for when it came to the more unusual mutations.

A familiar voice caught his attention as it addressed him, causing him to pause just before he'd decided to take a glance at the bidding sheets. He turned toward the voice and smiled down at the young lady that had greeted him. It was the young gargoyle mutant that had been unfortunate enough to get swept up into some anti-mutant nonsense when she'd run into him at the park not too long ago. Of course, that wasn't the only reason he remembered her. She was a lovely little thing and he could hardly forget such a wonderful visible mutation.

"Ah! Preevyet, Gina!" he greeted, fading in and out of his native tongue yet again without paying the slip any mind. He adjusted his height just the slightest bit so he wasn't unreasonably taller than she was. He may have been holding himself a little too high while he'd been showing himself off.

"So far, is good. I am ready for auctioning, yes. The spotlight does not frighten me. Is where I should be, like every mutant," he continued, wishing he had the option of offering her a drink or something. The poor girl looked so tense. "And I am seeing that you are looking as lovely as ever. You make your dress look so pretty, and I am seeing your face now with your hair up. You are putting the other girls to shame."

He gave a grin, but his words were sincere. There was nothing wrong with paying compliments where they were due, even if he did have a tendency to lay it on a little thick. He was a firm believer in showing off what someone's genes had given them. "Is there maybe a young man you are to be bidding on?" he questioned, his grin turning just the slightest bit devilish. One way to get the ladies to stop worrying so much was to turn their attention to something else. Focusing on potential romance was always a decent distraction. "Or maybe there is young man you are hoping to bid on you?

A small hand reached out and gripped Slate's loosely. "Nice to meet you, too," she recited, nodding. Slate just said he was a telepath, and Lenna already told Kaitlyn the same thing, but he didn't answer the 'are you reading my mind' thing. And Lenna didn't say anything about him being able to give himself cat ears. However, they both knew somebody else who could do that...

Just then, a terrible thought occurred to her: what if Calley's trying to get back at me for the whole Dr. Lewis thing? In a fit of paranoia, Kaitlyn let go of Slate's hand and glanced around the room for Calley. Slate was supposed to be the one with the black ears, right? And were both pairs of ears shifted, or did one of them have well-made fakes? Because she desperately hoped that she hadn't been talking to Calley this whole time.

If somebody far taller than her hadn't been in the way, the diminutive Orderling might have been able to see both Calley and his differently-colored ears.

Jorge had continued to stroll through the library, glancing at various bidding lists and seeing who was winning their dates. Apparently Slate was still the big winner here because he had the largest bid. He really could not wrap his mind around who would have bid that much. Was it fake? Maybe a bunch of kids had pooled their money so that they could share him? But…wasn’t he always with Katrina? He shook his head. He simply was not sure at the moment.

Whatever the case, he hoped that the bid was authentic. That would definitely serve to help the team out. As a matter of fact, he was sure that the team could do a lot of good with that money so he doubted that he really needed to be here at all.

But, moving from station to station, smiling and nodded to the few people he recognized, he suddenly found himself near Katrina’s station. A glance at her sheet and he was surprised to see that there were no bids on her. That seemed a little…odd. He was sure that Slate would have done so. Maybe it was against the rules for biddees to bid on eachother? He doubted that was the case, but either way, the good detective still felt bad.

A glance about and he shrugged as he picked up the pen from the table. He wanted to donate money to the cause anyway, right? Leaning down he scribbled a quick number on Katrina’s bid sheet: $20, and stepped away. After all, even if he did win he could always just turn her over to Slate. Why would she want to bug him all day on some outing?

…

…

…

Damn pen didn’t have an eraser. He sighed. Maybe someone would outbid him, but if not, well, it was all for the good of team…

Normally Locke stayed away from anything to do with Valentine's Day. He was awkward enough with girls the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year. Locke did not need the added romantic pressure put on him by a holiday that had its history up in the air. Candy was given to his family, and he laughed at the sight of Eaan dressed as Cupid, but love wasn’t really a part of his plans. Still, Locke showed up at the auction, even though he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea.

He had dodged a bullet with the auction, nobody had signed him up for it. If anyone had tried Locke probably would have buried them up to their neck in the dirt. No force on earth would be able to get him up on that stage where he’d be viewed like a cow being sold off. Instead he had come because a friend was being auctioned off. Gina had, for some reason, decided to sign herself up.

Locke smiled and watched his friend go off to talk with a snake man. Somehow it would be easier to make his bid if she didn’t see him do so. It didn’t matter to him if he won the date or not, it wasn’t as though he could go out for awhile. Gina was a friend, and she should have a few bids. With thirty dollars as his limit Locke scribbled down his first bid. Ten dollars.

The place was crowded, Seyta hated crowds. Still, a school for mutants Seyta almost wished she had a chance like this when she had gone to college. As for the auction, well she had missed the opening but was still in time to browse the available dates.

Seyta glanced down at the bidding sheets, the girls where pretty but Seyta was here for the guys. She paused at each sheet reading them over, two cat boys, a snake man, one cute kid who was way to young for her, Maxwell...or David as his sheet listed him. "Well this is unexpected..." Their date some time ago had been interesting to say the least, but it had been a date.

After checking the other available options Seyta moved back into the crowd and shamelessly gave Aleksandr a whistle as she passed. The snake man knew how to show off, Seyta might have to get a more personal look at all the guys before she made any bets...

Koga had been a busy man, He had reintroduced him self to all of his old clientele in the window washing and gutter cleaning business. He could get a job done that normally took a few hours with other crews that had to use ladders. The mansions around the school were generous, it was almost as if some super power telepath went around and brainwashed them into being pro mutant. but suffice to say that when he saw the first flyer go down for the auction he decided he needed to increase his cash flow. if he was going to bid on a date, then he would be showing them a good time. He considered Bidding on Katrina, He still wanted to pretty baldly, but she was into the Calley knock off. He could see it in the way she pouted over the high bid on him. She also put a bid on Calley himself. The aggressive part of him wanted to show her the good time he could show her, but the honorable part of him, the big part told him that he wouldn't want someone plotting like that while he had her attention so he was going to do something that might be for best for their friendship.

He walked over to the ballets and looked at the one closest to his age, He figured that the blonde would probably draw some of the older bidders, and to be honest it would be pretty nice to go out with someone that knew what it was to be a visible mutant. he looked down at the bid and beat the other guy by ten bucks, he hoped he wasn't getting the way of someone else crush.

20.00 -Koga

He wrote in a scrawling cursive. This could be fun, he felt a little guilty for wondering about how things might go if they hit it off, he had crushed on Katrina so hard, but then he had to face the fact she was looking in another direction. besides this Gina was an angel.

Koga glanced about spotting someone that he could not have liked less. it Ms stupidity herself, Maxine Ralls. Koga walked up behind the Redhead, " You aren't planning on exploiting the Kid are you?"

>> "Ah! Preevyet, Gina!"

Gina smiled sweetly. Ah, Aleksandr and his Russian-- a familiar tongue, for him, for a familiar face. Gina could only venture to say that "preevyet" was some form of greeting.

>> "So far, is good. I am ready for auctioning, yes. The spotlight does not frighten me. Is where I should be, like every mutant."

Yeah, that sounded like something that Gina thought Aleksandr would say. It wasn't bad or good, per se. Just... something Gina thought he'd say. He was basking in the limelight, relishing the center-stage. And Gina--? Well, she was trying.

>> "And I am seeing that you are looking as lovely as ever. You make your dress look so pretty, and I am seeing your face now with your hair up. You are putting the other girls to shame."

With that compliment dealt, Aleksandr gave her a grin, and Gina gave a bashful, sweet smile back in reply.

"Thank you, Aleksandr," Gina said, her tail getting that flattered curl at its tip. She made the pretty dress pretty, and her beauty put other girls to shame. A mild pink flush crept into her cheeks, and Gina adjusted her hair, touching her earrings lightly. Too bad Aleksandr was old. He was quite endearing, "You're looking sharp, too, as always. The bowtie and shirt collar... they were a nice touch."

The rest of the snake-man? A naturale, as always. It didn't seem to bother Gina in the least.

>> "Is there maybe a young man you are to be bidding on? Or maybe there is young man you are hoping to bid on you?"

Gina smiled secretively, giving a one-shouldered shrug. If Aleksandr was going to ask questions so mischeviously, Gina was going to give equally-devilish responses. A whistle interrupted her, and Gina looked up. A short-haired lady had paid Aleksandr the compliment of wolf-whistling. Gina was about to make a comment on the occurrence, but just as soon as she returned her attention to Aleksandr, she forgot what she was going to say. Well, back to the original topic of conversation.

"I didn't have anyone specific in mind, either way," she said coyly, "I am more curious to see who will bid on me. As for bidding on someone else, the only person I truly know is you, and one of the cat-boys."

And those cat-boys were really popular. And, however charming Aleksandr was, he was too old for them dating to be legal... did such rules apply in auctions? Or in casual dates? Gina wasn't sure, but she wouldn't be the one to test the theory. She didn't have a lot of money, anyways. Hence one of the reasons that she put herself up for bid, as opposed to bidding on another student.

That girl on the stage. Not the blonde one who was doing the main announcements, and handed over the mic for her own trot down the runway; the other blonde one. The one who looked like she'd skinned the Tin Man, and made a dress out of his hide. That one. Something about the way she held her chin, the way she turned on her heel, set Maxine's hackles on end. That one thought she was something special—

She was distracted by someone half her height and blushing as red as her hair. He was looking at her. No; not looking—peeking. He was actually peeking at her! And fumbling his—what was that, a blacksmith's puzzle? Heh. Exactly as advertised, she saw. Maxine smiled unabashedly back, and moved to stalk over to her chosen prey for the night, when another little morsel got in her way. Not so little any more, actually. It took her a moment to recognize him; when she did, a grin spread across her face.

"Child porn boy! Or is that Young Adult Porn Man? Someone's had a grow spurt." Seriously. If it weren't for the blessings of three inch heels, he'd be even taller than her. "You've got a little more facial stubble than I remember, too," she grinned, miming his little brow-spikes on her own face.

(OOC: Pulling a Calley and combining CS and Carrick’s post for the first response to the thread)

Keeping a warm smile on his face Sam was more than happy to help out Katrina and her little auction to help out her Frisbee team. It was for a good cause and regardless of the total amount of the auction Sam was going to donate some money as well just to make sure they would have the proper funds to make sure they could afford all of the equipment needed for the team… what the equipment was Sam wasn’t entirely sure seeing as he had never played on a Frisbee team nor seen one. Then again there were a lot of teams Sam had never heard of.

Looking about the open room Sam was happy to see the turnout. Katrina knew how to get people to an event, it was clear Sam knew who he would go to from no on when he wanted to get the word out on something. Leaning over for a quick second Sam patted a kid on the back in between his golden wings. ”Stop pulling at the tie, otherwise you’ll choke yourself.” it was clear the kid wasn’t one for wearing a tuxedo. It took Sam a while to help the kid out but he managed to find someone to alter a tuxedo for wings and a tail. The kid wasn’t happy about it though he made it clear to Sam over and over again dropping what he assumed were Irish curses.

Pushing Carrick forward Sam around smiling and introducing himself when he spotted people he didn’t know. Which it seemed to be a lot. Losing track of the winged loud mouth Sam spotted Jorge and gave him a small nod before walking over in his direction. Sam figured he’d thank the water-mancer for coming at some point, however before he started to head over towards Jorge, Sam spotted one of the kids who was apart of the auction looking a little flustered clutching something to his chest. The kids name from what he could remember from the picture was Mike. ”Hey, looking sharp in the tuxedo! You get bombarded by the girls yet?”

-----

The winged mutant didn’t like being touched, however he let his current irritation with patches go for now. Sam did after all help him find someone to fix his tuxedo. He hated wearing it though. It was itchy and didn’t allow much room for movement even with all the alterations made. If he stretched out his arms to far he could feel the fabric tug at the base of his wings which meant no crazy aerial maneuvers in it other wise he’d have to explain to his mother why the tuxedo she had gotten him was torn and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. Shuddering at the thought Carrick looked around and sighed slightly as he was pushed off away from Sam.

Carrick was upset this wasn’t a talent show like he thought. His wings shifted behind him folding in closer to his body due to the number of people he had bumped into. He looked at all the picture frames and the pictures of people and he wondered how he had gotten tricked into helping out with this. Mismatched color eyes fell on Katrina and he knew how. She tricked him, simple as that. Though even though he didn’t get to perform any of his card tricks Carrick didn’t mind all eyes on him when he was front stage with everyone. Attention was something he was used to and something he enjoyed.

Turning his head to see if he spotted anyone else he knew his eyes locked on Calley then Koga and then Jorge. There were more people here he didn’t recognize but didn’t really care, if he didn’t know them now he would eventually or not at all. It didn’t matter to him. Looking around Carrick placed his hand on his breast pocket and felt the metal container he nicked from Sam when they were at the Tux shop. Really who leaves a full flask in their tux? It was just luck that Sam didn’t realize it was gone yet.

He didn’t drink it now however he did have one small swig before he and all the possible dates (he shuddered thinking about the word) got on stage and presented themselves like show ponies. Carrick of course presented himself like a gryphon opening his wings a little more than usual to steal people’s attention though he had to admit the cat ears and the snake guy was good competition. Moving his hands down to his side Carrick walked towards Jorge and waited till his back was turned before reaching his hand out to his back pocket where he hoped the officer kept his wallet.

Michael was still a bit nervous, even more-so when the lady seemed to be slightly happy at meeting his glance, because it wasn’t something he knew how to interact with. The little boy relaxed as he saw that she started to talk with another person, and it gave him the chance to wander from that position without feeling in some way obligated to remain and create more eye contact between them.

Someone came over to him, Sam, and he looked up with wide eyes. "B-...bombarded? Sharp?" This was starting to get dangerous. He looked around with increased suspicion and quickly escaped to the punch table.

Michael merely left that area to move to where there was Hawaiian punch. “Can I help you with that?” An adult woman came over to the little boy, smiling at him, and michael’s eyes widened as he looked at her for a moment, and then looked down again at her feet, shoved into heels that were probably longer than both his hands one atop the other to form a kind of line. She was a lot bigger than him.

As he pondered why someone would wear shoes that big, the woman got him the glass of juice, and he mumbled a thank you before taking it to a set of chairs that were moved to the side of the room. He held the cup in both hands, remembering the stern warning about not staining his clothes. Brow furrowed in concentration, he brought the cup to his mouth and slowly sipped the liquid.

He actually brought his head to the cup as well, and almost tried to elongate his mouth to sip as carefully as he possibly can. His feet, not touching the ground, lifted up as well. After all, this was serious. Stains could hurt the clothes a lot. He finished his sip, feeling replenished. Then he looked down at the rest of the liquid. What should he do with that? He was all done…

With handshake came touch; with touch came the opening of the telepathic connection. Perhaps he should start advising people as to this faucet of his power, to allow for informed consent?

...That would be inconvenient, however.

Wow Slate. And people think I'm the devious one.

The white-eared cat boy was over by a wall again, this time on the other side of the punch bowl. He leaned back casually, not really paying attention to the kid seated next to him, who was staring at his drink like it was a foreign invader. He was entirely missing a certain monologue directed his way.

Slate was not. Was there a polite way to break into that train of thought?

...Both pairs are real, yes. Would you like to touch them?

Slate's black ears twitched slightly, offering verification of their veracity.

Time was unstoppable, the worst of all tyrants. While ordinary people walked casually, trapped in their thoughts. Greeting. Smiling. Pretending.
She tried to hate them but she could not. That masquerade was both repulsive and hypnotic. Friends and enemies exchanged glances and greetings, smiles and words without the slightest concern.
And while that pretentious dance was executed in the background, she had not received a single bid. Her station was alone, a sad allegory of the tower at the end of the world in which she was trapped. She waited with the only company of her exotic treasures. In the hope of being rescued by a noble knight. But nobody seemed to notice her beautiful black eyes, or her gorgeous golden hair, fine skin or refined manners... no.
Of course, the queen was not pleased with this behavior.

Did she have to admit to be a mutant for someone to be interested in her? She thought. Enraged. But immediately dismissed the idea as an absurd occurrence. She was not sure if she was a mutant, she could be a witch, a goddess or any other supernatural creature. But mutant, no.

She assisted with the promise of men fighting for her. Maybe in a violent but never old-fashioned sword duel. Or with cold revolvers in the first light of dawn... unfortunately, now it was clear that if someone was going to fight for her, he will do it with horns and claws... The girl was not sure to want to keep the winner. She needed an insurance policy. From its small but expensive handbag, she took a modern cell phone. Two quick stabs of his nail and the small device soon communicated her with Max. "If I call you again, I want you to bid a thousand dollars on me." Confused but not enough to disobey, her bodyguards quickly accept the order. In the limousine must be enough money for an emergency like that.
After that, she settle to wait for a fish to bit the bait.