They were clumsy and unpracticed, Madeira unwieldy with her ever changing center of gravity, Jomi with his complete lack of rhythm. But even as they stepped on each others toes and bumped chest and hips, they managed to do so with grace. This was not the first time they had danced together, and Jomi knew her possession-broken body like she knew the pull and currents of his soulmist. She could never manage such a feat with a flesh-and-blood man, but with her most powerful ghost she swung and danced and thought just maybe she looked beautiful doing it.
When Emma joined the fray, balanced on the jut of Jomi's narrow hip, she adjusted herself so she had each of their hands. This felt like family, she thought as she laughed her way through the fumbling of the new steps. A broken family, perhaps. Each of them fused together with the frayed threads of the true homes and families they lost, but family all the same.
Looking into his calm black eyes and the relaxed currents of his materialized shroud, Madeira thought perhaps Jomi felt it too. But a glance over her shoulder changed that. Suddenly he was that bitter walled-off creature he had always been.
"Hold the kid, I've got somewhere to be."
Emma was thrust into her arms, and her skin rippled with gooseflesh as she was suddenly in full body contact with the freezing electric storm that was soulmist. She just had time to register the Kelvic's scowl lifting into that wolfish smile she knew to fear before he vanished.
"Jomi!" Madeira hissed through her teeth, but the ghost was no longer close enough to hear her. "Gods dammit all".
"Where'd Jomi go?" Emma whined as she was put down, a dangerously teary pout on her face.
"Well..." Madeira sniffed deep of the cool, heavily spiced air. A whiff of ozone was dissipating around them, but deeper into the crowd she could sense that subtle electric ripple of a blinking ghost. "He's gone looking for trouble." She reached for the little ghost's hand, and Emma automatically wrapped her fingers through her glove. "Lets go retrieve him." And remind him that misbehaving ghosts get ghostnailed to the floor, was the unspoken promise.
Following him was easy. The ghost was not even trying to hide himself from her, though he was otherwise unmaterialized and thus invisible. But following him through an excited, dancing crowd was proving a challenge. Madeira held tight to little Emma's burningly cold hand as she was bounced around the dance floor, pulling herself along by the burning sense of the nearing ghost.
So focused was she on finding the ghost (and throttling him when she did) she did not consider exactly where they were headed until she felt the change in Emma's soulmist. The dejected little girl, upset with the disruption of their dancing fun, gave a little jolt of tingly anxiety down Madeira's arm as her shroud picked up its swirling pace. Glancing back at her, she saw the girl smiling nervously and retreating behind the bouncy curtain of her hair.
Oh petch.
It was the pretty, sparkly boy the girl was so enamored with. He was dancing with two women on his arms. The first was graceful in a sleeveless satin dress, with silver chains in her glassy violet horns and her beauty shining straight through the oddly appropriate okomo mask. The second was shuffling along to the music in elegant black silk and a featureless white mask from which poured guileless laughter in a honeyed voice.The trio was the epitome of what the festival should be: carefree, joyful, beautiful...
Was that Savis?
It was only a moment. A flash of silver, a familiar timber, the pallor of the woman's hands, suddenly it was all so familiar. What threw her was the sound of her laugh, until she realized she had never heard the Nuit laughing with anything but wicked amusement or complete distain. But in the arms of the beautiful man and graceful woman, she seemed so... happy.
Oh petch. Jomi you wouldn't...
Perhaps she was the only one to see the tiny tremble in the boy's hands, and the way they seemed to tighten and release. Like someone was trying them on for size.
Don't you dare.
And like a pervy spiders she saw a pair drift lower and lower. She picked up the pace, towing shy little Emma along, her cheeks already burning with stung embarrassment.
Don't you do it.
Too late, by the time she reached the Eypharian each hand was sunk deep into a squishy handful of ass. Yet before the boy could be unfairly slapped by either rightfully indignant woman Madeira had him by the collar of his silky blouse. Emma made a squeak of alarm as her master both pulled down on the Eypharian's collar and kicked the back of his knees to make him kneel. She stood over him from behind, in full wrathful Spritist mode, haloed by the colourful lanterns that hung over the revelries.
"You're alright, sir. You've been possessed. If you'd stay right there I'm going to preform a holy exorcism the likes of which this stupid ghost has never seen."
Glancing up, she caught Savis' eye and cleared her throat uncomfortably, fully aware this was her fault for bringing the two warring undead together tonight.
"...Hello, Savis. You look wonderful tonight."
When Emma joined the fray, balanced on the jut of Jomi's narrow hip, she adjusted herself so she had each of their hands. This felt like family, she thought as she laughed her way through the fumbling of the new steps. A broken family, perhaps. Each of them fused together with the frayed threads of the true homes and families they lost, but family all the same.
Looking into his calm black eyes and the relaxed currents of his materialized shroud, Madeira thought perhaps Jomi felt it too. But a glance over her shoulder changed that. Suddenly he was that bitter walled-off creature he had always been.
"Hold the kid, I've got somewhere to be."
Emma was thrust into her arms, and her skin rippled with gooseflesh as she was suddenly in full body contact with the freezing electric storm that was soulmist. She just had time to register the Kelvic's scowl lifting into that wolfish smile she knew to fear before he vanished.
"Jomi!" Madeira hissed through her teeth, but the ghost was no longer close enough to hear her. "Gods dammit all".
"Where'd Jomi go?" Emma whined as she was put down, a dangerously teary pout on her face.
"Well..." Madeira sniffed deep of the cool, heavily spiced air. A whiff of ozone was dissipating around them, but deeper into the crowd she could sense that subtle electric ripple of a blinking ghost. "He's gone looking for trouble." She reached for the little ghost's hand, and Emma automatically wrapped her fingers through her glove. "Lets go retrieve him." And remind him that misbehaving ghosts get ghostnailed to the floor, was the unspoken promise.
Following him was easy. The ghost was not even trying to hide himself from her, though he was otherwise unmaterialized and thus invisible. But following him through an excited, dancing crowd was proving a challenge. Madeira held tight to little Emma's burningly cold hand as she was bounced around the dance floor, pulling herself along by the burning sense of the nearing ghost.
So focused was she on finding the ghost (and throttling him when she did) she did not consider exactly where they were headed until she felt the change in Emma's soulmist. The dejected little girl, upset with the disruption of their dancing fun, gave a little jolt of tingly anxiety down Madeira's arm as her shroud picked up its swirling pace. Glancing back at her, she saw the girl smiling nervously and retreating behind the bouncy curtain of her hair.
Oh petch.
It was the pretty, sparkly boy the girl was so enamored with. He was dancing with two women on his arms. The first was graceful in a sleeveless satin dress, with silver chains in her glassy violet horns and her beauty shining straight through the oddly appropriate okomo mask. The second was shuffling along to the music in elegant black silk and a featureless white mask from which poured guileless laughter in a honeyed voice.The trio was the epitome of what the festival should be: carefree, joyful, beautiful...
Was that Savis?
It was only a moment. A flash of silver, a familiar timber, the pallor of the woman's hands, suddenly it was all so familiar. What threw her was the sound of her laugh, until she realized she had never heard the Nuit laughing with anything but wicked amusement or complete distain. But in the arms of the beautiful man and graceful woman, she seemed so... happy.
Oh petch. Jomi you wouldn't...
Perhaps she was the only one to see the tiny tremble in the boy's hands, and the way they seemed to tighten and release. Like someone was trying them on for size.
Don't you dare.
And like a pervy spiders she saw a pair drift lower and lower. She picked up the pace, towing shy little Emma along, her cheeks already burning with stung embarrassment.
Don't you do it.
Too late, by the time she reached the Eypharian each hand was sunk deep into a squishy handful of ass. Yet before the boy could be unfairly slapped by either rightfully indignant woman Madeira had him by the collar of his silky blouse. Emma made a squeak of alarm as her master both pulled down on the Eypharian's collar and kicked the back of his knees to make him kneel. She stood over him from behind, in full wrathful Spritist mode, haloed by the colourful lanterns that hung over the revelries.
"You're alright, sir. You've been possessed. If you'd stay right there I'm going to preform a holy exorcism the likes of which this stupid ghost has never seen."
Glancing up, she caught Savis' eye and cleared her throat uncomfortably, fully aware this was her fault for bringing the two warring undead together tonight.
"...Hello, Savis. You look wonderful tonight."
x
