A Winter Masquerade Ball (social)

"I don't particularly care for disguise either" Johann spoke, perhaps a little too harshly, to the woman that had sat down beside him. Amalie, one of his guild mates, had obviously tried to approach him with a light hearted joke. "Forgive me ...", he followed up, "... it's been rather hectic the recent few days", hoping that this would offer at least some form of explanation to his behaviour. He didn't know why he felt what he felt, or what exactly this feeling even was, akin to an acute nervousness that he, for some reason, could not rid himself of. Johann, the silver haired Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company, could only speculate, though he had a pretty good idea of the source of his emotional distress. Mars had, after all, merged with him, his body, the two beings becoming one, their personalities, their bodies, even what they felt influencing the other in sometimes subtle, sometimes very direct ways. "You seem to be doing rather well for yourself" he replied briefly, his eyes going back to the drink before him.

He took another sip, almost fully emptying his glass, leaving only a small rest within. Opening his mouth once more, he figured he could use this time to address the things that had happened a short while ago on that job with the ominous Fairy Tail mage that, from the looks of things, harboured one of Mars' kin, and he would try to explain himself to her, unsure of her opinion of himself after what she had seen. The West Fiore Trading Company was a legitimate organisation and business, after all, and word of one of its Vice Presidents being possessed by ... well, something, wouldn't necessarily prove beneficial, perhaps even disastrous. Speaking but one word, "I-" he immediately stopped when another presence had gotten closer, the Lamia he had seen around the Company before occupying one of the seats at the bar, Johann closing his mouth again, turning his attention back to the drink before taking the last sip and placing the empty glass before himself. "I think this is a rather nice song, is it not", chuckling to himself without looking up. "Ah, Sol" he turned at the mention of his name, a quite forced smile spreading across his lips, giving his colleague a nod "Looking quite well yourself today. I hope you're having a good night ? Well, I was just about to head out for some fresh air, so I'll leave the bar to you", standing up from the bar stool he had sat on before, shooting Amalie a passing look as he started to make his way to a door at the site of the ball room. He just needed a little more ... quiet.

"Yeah, looks like the jig's up." Leona said to her dance partner. The dance floor was getting kind of crowded now that more Alliance mages had shown up. Maybe a change of venue was a good idea.

"Lead the way." Leona told the guy she was talking to. She had no idea where anything was in this place. It would be up to the guy to show her the way to their destination.

Cheshire, let the lady to what seemed to be a balcony and he takes his mask off so the cool winter night air can cool him off for the ball room was a tad to warm for his kind of mask. Since he took off his mask, it reveals his cat ears and his cat like eyes."Huh, made a error in wearing this mask, stores up heat fast." He turns and smiles at the girl,"Should of wear a more breathable mask to this ball."

Panacea had chosen against drinking, despite her position at the bar. While she did have quite a good constitution she didn't have the ability to ignore the effects of alcohol like some other members of the company had, and she didn't want to end up shitfaced tonight. Given that this was supposed to be an opportunity both for the people of the company to unwind and to establish better bonds with the mage guilds that they had formed an alliance with having her act like a fool because she couldn't control her alcohol intake would not only be embarrassing, but potentially a serious issue. As such she remained seated with little to do at the moment but pay attention to her surroundings, the white-scaled lamia's red eyes slowly moving across the large room to take in the sights of the various participants of the ball interacting in various ways.

She noticed that the people sitting next to her at the bar stopped speaking once she arrived, which sparked her curiosity. She shot them a glance, but it quickly became clear that they weren't planning to keep talking so she just gave them a small wave before turning away, the only other sign of her curiosity being the tip of her tail tapping against the floor a couple of times, once more accompanied by a jingling from the adornments. Her expression was that of somewhat detached thoughtfulness, as if she was using this position to think things through rather than enjoy herself like most of the others present.

She was looking at the two people who were dancing with clear signs of not being used to it when another powerful presence arrived at the bar, causing Panacea to straighten up a bit and observe from what she hoped was a distance that they wouldn't pay too much attention to her. The new presence was that of a man wearing a black dragon mask, accompanied by a woman with a rather remarkable dress. The man had the aura of someone who was aware that he was powerful, a type of person Panacea wasn't very good at dealing with. They often were rather forceful and while she wasn't the type to look for trouble she couldn't help but become a little obstinate when she felt someone was being too pushy. Luckily for her he just wanted to greet one of the two who had been talking before, the man with the white hair. Said man quickly left after, joined by the woman he had been talking with and leaving Panacea wondering what was going on there. Given that apparently they didn't want to talk where they could be overheard it had to be something important... or private.

Dismissing the thought of following them and eavesdropping Panacea instead turned her attention back to the ballroom when someone sat down next to her and asked her how she was doing. Turning her head Panacea looked at Ada, who unlike her seemed fine with the idea of drinking. Quite a bit in one go, actually. The lamia gave a faint smile, shifting her weight so she was facing the hostess properly before answering. "Well, I'm not really the type for this kind of event, but the atmosphere is not bad and the music's good so I'd say I'm enjoying myself." She watched as Ada looked around, noticing how the woman didn't appear to be very enthusiastic herself. Panacea leaned backwards and rested her elbows on the bar, first glancing back up towards the magical snow before giving her own question to Ada.

"And are you enjoying yourself? You're the hostess but, forgive me if I'm wrong, you appear to not be into the spirit of things yourself." She wasn't entirely sure if it was against etiquette to talk about it so bluntly, but socializing was already difficult enough without second guessing literally every single thing you could say or do. Better to just try and hope you succeeded. Regardless of whether Ada immediately replied or not Panacea would shrug, motioning towards the people dancing in the middle of the ballroom. "Well, whether you are enjoying yourself or not I can't say I'd blame you. A lot of us mages are the more adventurous type, whereas this kind of event is more suited for true-blood merchants and high officials." She vaguely indicated herself. "Take me for instance. If left to my own devices I'd probably find myself a warm corner somewhere and go read a book." She motioned towards the long white tail wrapped around the barstool and chuckled. "It's not even like I can waltz."

---

While letting her Panacea persona do all the external work Akeya was crunching through some numbers and possibilities in her head. She didn't know too much about Ada, but she didn't seem like that troublesome a person. Panacea's inability to quietly comply with the more pushy types was a result of Akeya herself having trouble tolerating such nonsense, since even if she'd trained to make sure she could put on a convincing act of being someone else entirely it was hard for one to fight their instincts and strongest personality traits.

Thinking back at the previous balls she attended she had to pay extra attention to not letting her external behaviour show what she was thinking as she felt a pang of... she couldn't really call it heartbreak, but a kind of discomfort at the lack of a certain presence. Akryn hadn't been what she would call the ideal mate or companion, given his temper and noisiness, but back then she'd become somewhat used to having him around as the more extroverted soul who could get her to go out and do something while at the same time acting as the distraction behind which she could hide while quietly studying her surroundings.

Being at a ball without him made her wonder how he was doing. She had no idea where he had disappeared off to, but she hoped that at least he was still alive.