paradisalost | Thread; The Masquerade

Entry tags:

haseo,
silabus

Thread; The Masquerade

Who: Haseo and Silabus
What: Finally one of those Masquerade threads all belated-like
When: Whenever it still was going.
Where: Level 1 Main ballroom
Rating: A for awesome.

Though he had said he would be attending the ball, Haseo knew that it wouldn't be there for a drastically long time. This wasn't going to be a lengthy and pointless excursion--The only thing that coaxed him here was that mention of some sort of meeting for the people who were eager to leave. Checking it out didn't seem like a bad idea. Then afterwards he would go.

Haseo pawed at the lilting mask he'd gotten specifically for this event, brushing the rather torn and tattered black fabric away from his face as he entered the main ballroom. It was just a small strip of fabric tied across the eyes, with a simple devil-wing on one side. Nothing fancy--it just kinda looked cool.

As the rouge made his way into the depths of the ballroom, he was rather quick to discover that there was neither hind nor hair of any meeting. In fact it looked more like a normal.. ball. "..." He stood rather aloof amidst the scene, scowling at yet another let down. "That figures."

Now what? Leave?

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Silabus had gotten to the ball a bit earlier than Haseo. The Blade Brandeir had left to join in the festivities just after chaining into his new ball clothes. He was wearing a dark blue, button down suit and a frilled, light pink undershirt (its color matched his still-pink hair). The sleeves of the undershirt were long, and hung loosely over his hands, the bottom hem of the undershirt peaking out from the suit. His mask was plain, and it matched the dark blue color of his suit, its only decorations tiny diamond studs lining its bottom.

He had been milling about idly for a short while after arriving, exchanging words with people he didn't know, and lazily sipping at a cup of punch.

He blinked, yellow eyes focusing on a certain familiar person as he scanned the room again. He smiled, set down his glass, and quickly made his way to his friend, shoes clicking on the slick floor as he waved.

"Hase~eo!"

Haseo turned around when he heard his name called. "..?" Oh yeah, he said he would meet up with Silabus when he went to this thing. Judging from the voice he guessed that it just meant he wouldn't have to look very hard in order to find the person he was supposed to go with.

What he was visually met with was a far cry from what he was used to seeing his friend wearing. Haseo froze, not sure how to react. The rouge developed a very strange look on his face as he gave his friend a once over; his primary "what the hell happened to you" expression protruded first, which evolved into a half nervous half-smile laced with a couple of sardonic snickers over the pure ridiculousness.

The strange expression was matched by the equally uncouth tone of voice which followed. "Man, this place is way more cruel then I thought it was." The clothes were one thing, but what caught him off-guard the most was the hair being....well... it was pink. Even though the hair was mentioned to Haseo before, seeing it first hand was a completely different story.

Silabus blinked a few times at his companion's...odd reaction, before a smile returned to his face. He supposed he didn't quite exactly look like he normally did, and the hair definitely didn't help matters for him in that case in that case. Actually, he was sure no one he had met would recognize him after the whole event was over and done with.

He had tried a few times to wash out the offending color, but his attempts hadn't been met with any more that few strands of pink hair washing down the drain.

He laughed a little, twisting a lock of hair around his finger, "I don't think it's that bad..."

"If you say so." Haseo wasn't exactly convinced about it being 'not that bad' or the fact that Silabus thought that it wasn't an unpleasant ordeal. He seemed one of those kinds of people who didn't want to complain about things no matter how bothersome they were--and frankly he would be a little taken off-guard if Silabus had complained. He wasn't in the mood to press the whole pink matter anyway. If Silabus wasn't bothered, then past the primary reaction he wasn't going to be bothered. "I wonder what Gaspard would say now that you two match." he wondered out loud.

Haseo was just glad that, by some stroke of luck, he had managed to avoid the whole plague of pink.

Silabus put his hands on his hips as his eyes once again wandered through the throngs of people he didn't know. At the mention of Gaspard, he grew momentarily silent, wondering how long it had been since he had seen him or any of his friends, or even his parents, for that matter. It felt like it had been forever since they'd been sent to this unusual place, cut off from the real world.

He sighed lightly, all of their attempts at leaving this area had been met with failure. He knew that they would all be able to find their way out eventually, but so far, they hadn't even been able to locate a single cohesive clue on how to leave. He didn't think he could even remember how long they'd been here.

Halting his internal thoughts, he discarded subject. Now really wasn't the time to be thinking of such things.

"Yeah, I wonder..." The Blade Brandier replied, laughing a little. As his sentence ended, he blinked, as though remembering something. He tore his eyesight away from the crowd, turning back toward his friend. "I'm glad you liked the gift, Haseo."

"Huh?" The present? Oh, his Valentines day gift that he'd gotten. Haseo hesitated while briefly recollecting his own failed attempts to construct any decent gift. Now that Silabus mentioned it like that he felt a little guilty about not getting everyone else something. "Oh yeah, it was pretty nice. I haven't had that much chocolate in a long time." He admitted. Not even on a special occasion did he get that much from one person. Combined with all the other candies that he'd gotten from others his candy reserves were pretty well off for a while. He still found it a little ..annoying that he could taste the things, though far from admitting the sensation at all.

The card, too, was probably the most meaningful thing behind that gift. The rouge wasn't aware what he did to get such a thought-out letter about being friends; he thought most people found him too difficult to deal with to think of him as a friend like that. "You must've spent a lot of time on that card, too." Guess he made quite the impression.

Silabus smiled again. He hadn't been completely sure that Haseo would like the chocolates, after all, he didn't really know whether he liked sweets or not, but chocolates were traditional. It isn't easy to go wrong with a gift of that kind.

"It's difficult to find gifts that really say what you want them to," He started, "so I thought that I might as well say it myself, you know?" Actually, he had spent quite a bit of time writing the card, but he had enjoyed doing it, so he didn't look at it that way. He would probably write another for the next holiday that called for it, too.

The brunette crossed his arms, growing silent as he stopped momentarily to listened to the music wafting gracefully throughout the large ballroom.

"Hey, Haseo, let's go dance!"

It was funny the way Silabus said that he wanted to say those things personally, but the irony therein was that all of it was in a letter. Seemed kind of contradiction, then again so did being friend without knowing one anothers name. Well, whatever. He wasn't going to think too hard about it, especially with the question that followed.

Dancing?

There was one thing that Haseo noted about the request: Let's was short for 'let us' which was a plural, meaning that Silabus honestly thought he would join in dancing? Meaning he actually had the hopes that there would be some sort of accepting answer to that question? The rouge put his arms up as if to say 'What? No way.' The words that followed pretty much illustrated the same, "You're kidding, right?"

Silabus laughed before speaking once again. "C'mon, Haseo, it'll be fun!" He extended a hand to the younger teen, a grin on his face and one hand on his hip. He seemed to be ignoring the fact that Haseo didn't seem all that interested in the idea of actually dancing.

But, they were at a ball, and at balls, people usually danced. So of course, the logical conclusion was that they do so themselves (No matter that Haseo didn't want to, but the blade brandeir either a) didn't realize this, or b) was choosing to ignore the fact).

Struck by a sudden inquiring thought, Silabus quirked his head before asking (hand still outstretched): "Do you not know how to dance, Haseo?"

So Silabus was really going to insist on this, wasn't he? If dancing was fun, then they sure had very different opinions of the word. He'd never really given dancing a thought even if they were at a ball. Actually he never thought anyone that knew him would ever ask.

Guess this place was full of surprises.

There came the temptation to swat the extended hand away, but instead of doing that he presented a more broody demeanor by crossing his arms. "No, actually I don't." Haseo admitted reluctantly. It wasn't exactly a skill he possessed, and short of video games that involved dancing he'd never had any experience in it. "But that doesn't mean I'm out to learn how to, either."

"Don't be that way Haseo, I can teach you!" He flexed the fingers of the hand he was holding out to his friend. "It has been a while, but I should be able to remember..."

The last time he'd danced was at his high school graduation, which admittedly wasn't all that long ago, but ballroom dancing wasn't exactly something you could practice well without a parner and ample time, so needless to say, he had probably gotten a bit rusty. He didn't doubt that actually dancing would jog his memory, though. He could vaugly remember the steps, and the positioning was easy enough. Now all he needed was for his dance partner to actually cooperate with him.

The rouge sighed, "..." He'd said at least twice now that he didn't have any interest in dancing, but the matter was still being discussed. "Look, I don't have any interest in dancing and I'm not interested in learning how." This was starting to feel a lot like deja vu. Haseo recalled vividly when he got his character reset to level one and Silabus and Gaspard not listening to them then with the repeated accusations of being a noob; Then again at the item shop when he insisted on not being a vendor and getting stuck with it anyhow. He really didn't want to end up doing something like THIS from the same kind of insisting.

That didn't mean that it was going to end up like those two examples either.

"It'll be good for you." Were the last words that Silabus spoke before stepping forward and taking the rouge by the wrist, tugging him out onto the dance floor before he even had time to aptly protest against it.

Once they had been dragged out, the brandeir turned back to his partner, placing Haseo's right hand on his waist and his left on Haseo's shoulder, before taking Haseo's other hand with his free one, lacing their fingers together and setting them up in the position for a normal box step. He offered a innocent smile in consolation.

There were those words again. 'It'll be good for you.' Like, it would be good for him to learn more about the world, or it would be good for him to learn how normal players play in the world. Haseo started to zone out and imagine all the ways that the situation could turn worse, then it actually did.

The rouge stumbled over his own feet, nearly losing his balance after being dragged onto the floor. Before he knew it Silabus was trying to dance with him like mentioned in some square or something. Of course, being subject to something like this with his protest wasn't taken well at all. The smile from his friend was only met with an infuriated glower. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Let go!" He violently shoved both hands away.

After of which, he promptly did an about face and started walking in the opposite direction. There was no way he was going to stick around and have to dance like an idiot. Hell, he didn't go to dances in real life so what was the point in going to one here? This was a stupid idea to begin with.

"H-haseo!" Silabus started at the violent rejection. Not to say that he had expected for this to all go smoothly, but he hadn't quite expected such a strong reaction. He supposed he had overstepped himself, even if he just wanted for his friend to relax a bit. In turn, it seemed that he had the opposite effect.

He stood in the same spot momentarily, unsure of what to do, before shaking himself from his shocked state. Rule number one with Haseo was not taking things personally. Before he knew it, he had started moving again, walking briskly to try and catch up with his angry friend.

When he was within hearing range, he spoke again, softly. He had to attempt to remedy this somehow. "Haseo..."

It didn't take the rouge long after beginning to stomp away to remove that "festive" mask he was wearing, clinching the intention of leaving the ball for good. Being forced to do something he didn't want to like that--There was no way he was going to stand for it. Haseo barely gave as much as a pause as his friend called after him the first time, though he did halt a little abruptly in mid-stride upon hearing the second time given its drastic change in tone.

He simply stood, back to his friend, and waited for an explanation or pleading of his case or whichever came first. As long as it didn't involve going back on the dance floor and looking like an idiot by trying to learn how to dance.

Silabus stopped a little ways behind his companion, averting his eyes to the ground as he stood there. He wasn't sure exactly what to say, but he knew he had to say something...something.

"I'm sorry, Haseo. I just..." He cut off, reluctant to finish the sentence. It was no exaggeration to say that he spent alot of time in The World, even too much time in it, as he often forwent sleep to participate in the online game, but this place was so much different than that. Being trapped in something and freely participating were two totally opposite things. They had all been here a lot longer than he had expected them to be, and though he didn't like to admit it, it was wearing at his ever-present optimism and positive nature. Despite the immense number of people, this place had an inherent emptiness. There was something off about everything -- it wasn't the world he was used to. This place made him feel lonely and tired and...it was a feeling that was getting hard to shake off.

Although he counted Atoli among his friends, he just didn't know her to the same extent as he did Haseo. Despite the teen's misgivings about the nature of making friends over the internet, Haseo was the only person he had to reach out to here.

He sighed, running his fingers through his bangs as his lips quirked further downward.

"I'm sorry..."

He wasn't quite sure why he was apologizing again after the first 'I'm sorry' that he'd given, but he felt that he should do it anyway, no matter the reason.

Something quiet, apologetic, and sincere---It wasn't quite the response he was expecting to one of his own frequent displays. However, an apology was a good place to begin making amends for the previous, and it was enough to coax the figure in black to turn around and face his comrade.

The expression that his friend had was something of unexpected, though. Silabus looked oddly crestfallen about the situation, to the point of being downright glum. He couldn't immagine his friend complaining about anything; he couldn't really immagine this expression either. For a moment Haseo had to wonder if he had been a little harsh, but it was no more attitude then he usually had.

Instead of looking angry this time around Haseo looked.. puzzled by the response he'd been given both verbally and non-verbally. Silabus was the one he expected least to give a display like this. "Is it really that important?" He guessed at the reason for the expression, probably not hitting the mark in the least.

Silabus shook his head, giving a most tentative and apologetic smile. "It isn't that Haseo, It's..." He broke off again, his smile fading as he tried to gather the words. It wasn't like he had never been in a stressful situation before, but everything- this entire situation, was so entirely foreign to him. It just wasn't very often that one was stripped of almost every thread of control that they had over their own life.

"This place...I know we'll get out eventually, but three months is a really long time to be stuck inside of a game." He paused again, crossing his arms across his chest, "This isn't the world that I know." He spoke, mirroring words once said. Little did he know that this literally wasn't the world that he knew, but skepticism hadn't allowed him to consider that- at least, not yet.

"Yeah.." Haseo trailed off.

Had it really been three months? Time hadn't necessarily breezed by because he was having fun, but it didn't seem to have been that long. Usually he tried not to think about home or how time was proceeding in the outside world just because he knew it would make him edgy; His parents, schoolwork, daily life, and everything else that had been suddenly uprooted.

"I thought we were just forced into some weird event when we got here." Which by now had pretty much been disproven. Now he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to make of this place. It was no event and it definitely wasn't a lost ground.

Which left the other possibility.

Haseo gave the idea a bit of thought before saying it out loud, letting his mind wrap around the idea before reluctantly hissing the words out. "If it's been that long, maybe we really are Lost Ones. Damn." The only other option was that this was where all the Lost ones went. After all, prior to getting here he had been in a battle; Atoli was there in the same battle, so she could have been effected; Silabus had mentioned being PKed beforehand; Shino, he knew, had been one of the Lost Ones prior to coming here. It was the only conclusion he could draw. And honestly he didn't want to leave until he knew all of them could get out.

Silabus listened to Haseo speak, quietly. He remembered when they had first gotten here. Following suit with Haseo, this place being a weird even had seemed the most probable option, but it had been so long, that he didn't really know what to make of it anymore.

"Lost Ones...?" Silabus blinked, looking up at his companion. The phrase sounded somehow familiar, something he had read on a message board once, a long time ago. "Isn't that...what they were calling coma victims? I thought that was just a rumor, but then that would mean...that we're..." He trailed off as the realization dawned on him, eyes wide. It was an obvious theory, and despite the fact that he didn't want it to be the truth, it was probably their last option for any explanation of the place.

Silabus adopted a distressed expression, his arms falling wearily to his sides. "Then Mom and Dad...Gaspard and Kuhn...they..." He didn't want to think about how upset they'd be. He also didn't want to think about how he could do nothing about it.

The brandeir sighed heavily, turning slightly to look back at the Masquerade. "We might as well go." Considering that they weren't planning on dancing, there wasn't really anything else to do here.

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Thread; The Masquerade

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