Leigh wanted to get better. She knew she needed to if she was to actually enjoy her life. She had been a slump for far too long, and now felt like she was back at square one again. Brant had scared her more than she had been in a long time. She knew that the world outside of her apartment wasn’t particularly safe, but she had found a way to be able to be out in it with only a little paranoia. Now she felt as if she was scared of her own shadow. Everything seemed to put her on edge, and the potion she had been given for her anxiety only took the edge off slightly. She was still scared, and didn’t want to be out in society. Somehow she was able to look relatively normal, though she was sure some might note that she looked a touch nervous. Having her husband by her side allowed her to feel a bit more comfortable and able to handle being out a little easier than on her own with personnel about.

This was an event she knew they had to attend, and she tried not to mind all of the people about and focus on being there with her husband. She couldn’t riddle out just how he was still able to love her and support her when she was nothing like the woman he had married all of those years before. Of course, she would always love him and stand beside him no matter what anyone said to her. But that was different as he was trying to protect the wizarding world, as she just sat around trying to gather herself most of the time. She smiled softly as @isaiah spoke to her and kissed her temple. She wasn’t sure what she had done that caused her to have such a wonderful husband, but she was thankful for him. ”Thank you.” She replied before nodding as he told her everything would be all right. She did believe him, even if her nerves were still a bit off.

Seeing her sister @elena approach them had made her relax a bit more. She didn’t have many people in her life anymore, and she was grateful to have the woman as part of her family. She still missed her brother terribly, but he had left her with the most amazing sister in law, niece, and nephew. They were her world, and another reason she had been trying even harder to get herself better adjusted. She hugged the woman back, her smile widening a bit more. ”So do you.” She replied as she looked Elena over. She really was beautiful in all aspects. ”Thank you, @gracelyn. So do you.” She said as the woman approached them. Leigh had really grown to like the witch. She fully trusted her, even though she could scarcely trust anyone else outside of her family. Her eyes darted to her husband as he asked if they wanted a drink, not wanting him to leave, but knowing it would be silly to ask him not to when Elena and Gracelyn were present. ”Yes, please.” She replied with a nervous smile, hoping he wouldn’t be gone for too long.

Colemet really wasn’t feeling like herself tonight, or more like herself than she cared to admit. Big events made her nervous anyway…. She didn’t want Damion to be too worried, and she wanted him to have a good time. She shouldn’t have come, because she was going to hold him back from that considering how on edge she was. But still...she couldn’t say no to coming with him. Being around him made her feel worlds better anyway, and as she had said with Cass, Damion helped keep her grounded. She just had to keep her head and try to enjoy herself. The party itself was beautiful and elaborate… She supposed she could enjoy it. There were just too many people around...it was making her heart race faster than it should. She took another deep breath to keep her composure and tried to distract herself, looking for drinks and then smoothing out her dress and holding tighter to Damion’s arm. It would be fine.

Colemet knew that Damion noticed she was off, it would be hard for him not to. She gave him a weak smile at his words and his reassurances that Oriel was harmless. She knew that this was probably the case, but she couldn’t help but be nervous around anyone new, especially when she was pulled as taut as she was. “Okay…” she agreed hesitantly, then did her best to put on a good face when @oriel approached. She smiled when he spoke and complimented. “Pleasure to meet you too. And thank you,” she said. She listened to him banter with Damion for a moment, then realized she was being addressed again. “Oh, I’m fine,” she said vaguely, not really feeling the need to say much else. He then introduced her to @carys and Colemet smiled and nodded at the blonde. “Nice to meet you, Carys. You look beautiful.” Colemet hung back as they talked, staying mostly quiet and close to Damion. She felt awkward and quiet, like she should be contributing but she was too nervous and anxious and jittery to say anything worthwhile anyway. Eventually, they took their leave, and Colemet bid them goodbye. “Nice to meet you all..” she said, then they walked away.

Colemet turned to @damionkvothe once they were gone and gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. You deserve to have a better time tonight than this...I don’t want you to feel like you’re just looking after me,” she said. She didn’t want to hold him back from having a good time...

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OOC: Sorry I took so long, guys!!

The gala really was an elaborate event, Bianca could admit. It was high class, well attended, and it made Bianca want to spit on society even more. This is what they all did...flaunted their money, their power, their position, while simultaneously putting down those that they thought were lesser. Humans were such mindless corrupt creatures, and it was because of this, these ridiculous social conventions, that Bianca was in the place that she was. Of course, it wasn’t entirely society’s fault...she was partially too cynical for the world. How could she not be after the way it treated her, and after the way she grew up with her father? He was a deadbeat, had nothing to offer...he reflected the rest of the damn world to Bianca. He was just as bad as them. He abandoned them, abandoned their mother… Bianca couldn’t even call the man her father. He was such by blood and that was all. Otherwise, he’s dead to her.

The only reason Bianca came to this event was because of @cinnamonroll. She had catered the event, and she had seemed so excited about going, and Bianca simply couldn’t turn down her sweet sister. So here she was, attending a gala that meant nothing to her except Lilybelle’s happiness and the potential to pickpocket some of the rich that might be here. It wouldn’t be difficult… But no, she told herself that she ought to be focusing on her sister and her happiness. Before she knew it, Belle was pulling her in the direct of @cip before she could stop her. “Belle, I’m sure he’s really busy and…” But it was too late. Her sister had already towed them all the way over to the host.

Killian was quite enjoying the festivities, and it was at a perfect time for him to attend. In the evening was when he was free to go out and do as he pleased. That usually involved gambling on a typical night, but he stayed away from the casino for one evening to attend a party such as this. Killian liked to see how the parties changed over the ages...he had been to hundreds of them in his lifetime, maybe even thousands, and he found that humans still put value on the same things over time. Status, standing, and acceptance. That was all humans wanted in their blink of a lifetime; acceptance. They sought it through events such as this, fraternizing with others and pretending they all really gave a dan. It was almost amusing, seeing from his point of view the way things were when you had a longer time to see it. Amusing, and almost sad.

Killian wasn’t surprised to see another of his kind at this party, as perhaps she was seeing things the same way he was at a time like this. He saw that she was attractive just from giving her a once over, and he could tell by the air she gave off that she knew what she was doing in this life of hers. She seemed confused by his statement at first, but then the recognition dawned in her eyes and Killian smirked a bit more. Yes, she realized he was of her kind, that they were one and the same. He inclined his head once at her thank you. “Of course,” he said before taking another sip of his own. He kept his societal manners from the eighteenth century, if nothing else. He nodded again and scanned the party. “I am,” he said. “I’m always interested to see how these events turn out. And yourself?” he asked in return. He offered his hand to her to shake and gave a fanged smile. “I’m Killian, by the way. And who might you be?”

@viriette

Leona was running behind schedule. There had been a problem at the Ministry and then afterwards she had needed to change. Of course, the woman wasn’t terribly upset at running behind schedule. It meant she would make a grand entrance and, while she would have preferred to be punctual, at least the entrance would make up for it. Taking time for one last glance in the mirror, the witch smiled. Even for being a mature woman, she knew she still looked good. It took a lot of work to remain this way, but she was proud of herself. Should she ever marry again, she could be considered a trophy wife in the right crowd.

Apparating to the elegant home of the Count, Leona couldn’t help but feel intrigued. Rumors had been flying, but not much substantial was known about the man. That bothered the witch. She was a socialite and it was her business to know everyone, no matter on which side of the war they had aligned themselves. With her husband she had played her part well, but now it was just her and the part hadn’t changed. She knew about both sides and knew where she would align herself should another battle come. This time would be different though. She was older, much to old to be a petty soldier. Of course, this evening was not about that.

Smiling as she looked around Leona felt comfortable. She often had hosted similar nights, though it had been quite some time since she had done anything of this level. Quietly she noted her surroundings, spotting the bar with a smile. There were several people she knew, but none she particularly was interested in speaking with just yet. Content on watching, Leona climbed the stairs, making sure to keep her dress firmly in one hand to not ruin it.

Gown

He was never one to turn down parties, no matter the occasion. He enjoyed himself in large groups… talking, drinking, seeing where the night led—and it was far less stressful than hosting a party themselves. Though he had to admit, Persephone normally did most of the work where that was concerned, though he tried to help out as needed… which was mostly just if she told him something very specific to do, because then he had no problem in getting it done. But having a party at their own place meant that he was on alert a fair bit more than if he was elsewhere. Nikolai always paid attention to their surroundings, as that was just the safest route to take to make sure that nothing suspicious or odd was happening; but when they were having their own party, he felt like it was more of his responsibility than any other time.

With a party this large, he would wager that the Count had security well in hand. It would be unwise not to, with the amount of… important people here, he would say. He saw several higher-ups in the Ministry, after all, along with some celebrities, some Quidditch players… yes, it would be rather dim to not make sure that he had a handle on security in case anything went wrong, but that wasn’t something that he particularly wanted to spend his night worried about. He’d keep an eye out, because he always did, but he didn’t particularly think that anything bad was going to happen. He wondered if Spiridon would be coming with Vitalia, because he realized he had never asked his brother if he planned on coming, but before he could ask @persephone if she recalled whether or not they would be there, another familiar face came into view.

Nikolai grinned when @carina and Henry James Blanchet joined them, “Oh, right, blame me,” he said to Persephone, with an amused smirk. He supposed that these parties might not be as entertaining since she couldn’t drink, but he found that most places didn’t suit his standards when it came to vodka, so he didn’t normally drink all that much while out. Nikolai shook Henry’s hand and nodded in agreement. “The luckiest ones here, most certainly,” he agreed, casting another glance at Persephone, a smirk still present on his face. He knew that she was a bit more conscious of what she was wearing now that she was pregnant but he still thought that she looked beautiful regardless.

It was important to come to these kinds of events, particularly when this Count had just popped up from absolutely nowhere. He didn’t trust that. He didn’t think that the bloke was necessarily here with evil intents, because he frankly had no reason to think such a thing… if the Italian Ministry trusted him enough to make them their delegate, he figured that the man was acceptable for the job; but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to check up on everything. It was entirely necessarily to make such appearances, just in case. He liked to be around, to be approachable—he didn’t want to seem like the Minister that didn’t talk to the people. He did everything that he could to avoid such a stigma, because it wouldn’t benefit him overall. Isaiah had every intention of mingling a bit, but he also knew that he couldn’t leave @leigh alone for too long—or at all. If she was with @elena or @gracelyn , it would be fine. But otherwise, he knew how important it was for him to stay by her side.

After all, he wouldn’t have brought her here, to a public setting like this, if he had any intention of leaving her. He knew that she didn’t necessarily like being out like this, but it had been important that she make her appearances as well. People often inquired after her since the attack, and he needed them to see how she was doing. But he had no plans to just throw her to the wolves. No, she would always have someone around her… usually him, he was sure, but Elena or Gracelyn would do also. He also had his own security as well, even if he was making sure that they were not all that obvious. It was better to have them at a distance than look unapproachable with a damn security team, clearly. But Leigh was aware that they were there, which would hopefully make her feel better. Isaiah also knew that she was comfortable around Gracelyn, who would certainly not let anything bad happen to her. He didn’t think there was really a thing that could go wrong on this particular evening.

He nodded in greeting at Gracelyn, before deciding it was about time to get some drinks. Elena would keep his wife entertained, Gracelyn would keep her safe, and he could mingle a bit on his way over to get them all something to drink. “I’ll be right back, then,” he said, leaning down to kiss his wife briefly on the cheek, his gaze reassuring. He was sure that nothing bad would happen. Perhaps she would even have fun, which would be a bit of an improvement to her mood than it had been as of late. That was the hope at least, he thought, as he smiled once more and headed away from the group to go find some drinks. He knew enough about what Leigh would want that he didn’t have to ask, and he felt like he knew enough about his sister-in-law to grab her something she would like as well—and he would… suppose he’d just have to guess for Gracelyn, but he didn’t think that she would particularly mind either way.

Although she did like parties, she wasn’t one that necessarily went to any as fancy as this one all that often. They reminded her a hell of a lot of the parties her parents used to throw or drag her to, and she knew that it was years ago now… but it was still sometimes difficult to shake those particular memories and obligations. With everything going on, she just didn’t particularly need to think about her family more than she already had been as of late. But it was easy to let those thoughts fade away when she was around @jamie, or so she had realized since she’d met him. She didn’t mind going just about anywhere with him around, even to parties she would hav avoided in the past. They’d gone to the holiday party back in December, after all, and that had been rather fancy as well… and it had been fun. She’d officially met Nicholas then, which had been a little awkward since she’d had to act like she was unaware of everything that she was very aware of, but it had worked out all right. Of course, she was pretty sure that Jamie’s brother still disliked her, but she was trying not to worry too much about that—it would work itself out, or so she was going to continue to tell herself.

She just wasn’t going to push it; Nicholas would either eventually like her, or he wouldn’t, and she wasn’t going to try to force it to go her way. She would understand if Nicholas never liked her, after all she knew a secret that they would probably all be better off with her not knowing. Not that she was going to tell anyone, obviously, or that there was even the slightest worry of something happening that would make her. But Nicholas didn’t really know her well enough to realize that. He didn’t know that he could trust her, and Callie understood that. She didn’t really know why Jamie even trusted her at all, really—he had no reason to. He didn’t really have a reason to not have killed her, if that had been his plan back when they had… met. She was clearly glad that he hadn’t, but that didn’t mean she fully understood why he took the risk just for her. It didn’t exactly seem worth it, but she supposed she wasn’t ever really going to understand that particular decision.

But over these months, she could strangely say that Jamie had gotten to know her better than anyone else did—not entirely with her permission in the matter, because he was just able to read her so entirely easily. It was rather ridiculous, quite frankly, and it meant that she ended up telling him far more than she even meant to. She liked to think she knew him decently well by this point, but he still had his secrets. She supposed she did too—he didn’t know everything about her, just a fair bit more than the rest of world, since she kept just about everyone else at arms’ length. “I can’t even imagine how much something like this would cost,” she replied, still glancing around. She supposed she should have been able to make a decent estimate, just because of all the parties she’d been to before, but she really just tried not to even think about the dent it made in people’s wallets—as it was rather ridiculous. “As long as you appreciate it,” Callie said, teasingly, though she didn’t mind dressing up for him all that much. She knew that he liked coming to things like this intentionally… he wasn’t exactly subtle. “And as long as you realize I’m changing the second we—” Her words cut off when she felt him tense, and she stopped herself from looking around, even if she wanted to, “What’s wrong?” She asked, keeping her gaze on him, even though she wagered that he had probably seen someone he didn't want to see. Looking around would only draw more attention to them.

Gemma recalled a time when she really had been good at this. Times where she could go to any party and hold her own, where she had loved nothing more than to be the center of attention, and could pretty much talk to anyone about anything… well, anything interesting, at least. She had never pretended to be knowledgeable about some subjects, particularly anything that she had considered ‘boring.’ Looking back on it, she knew that she could really even be a bit of a bitch sometimes, but at least she had been able to come to parties and not act like a complete idiot. Now she had nothing to do but stand in the corner of the event and not know what the hell to do with herself. She had thought the step of putting herself out there would be… difficult, she knew that. This had been the first party she’d been to since Dorian had died, and the last one she’d been to, he had been there. It had been Halloween, which felt ages ago now. That was part of the reason that she’d convinced herself that she needed to go.

She didn’t think she would be able to convince herself to stay all that long, particularly in light of not having a clue what to do or where to do, or even who to bloody talk to. She felt a bit ridiculous about this whole ordeal, until @lucifer had come over to her. Gemma hadn’t exactly been expecting anyone to approach her, because she knew she looked as out of place as she felt. There had been times when she could have gone to a party on her own and would have been just as comfortable than if she’d gone with Dorian, but it felt like she either didn’t know anyone there, couldn’t find them, and actually didn’t really want to either. This was just a bloody weird situation, and she was surprised at herself that she had thought it would help in any way, shape, or form. It was a push to get out of her apartment for something other than work. She knew that was why she’d done it, and why she thought it would help.

It had just been a bit more difficult than she had originally anticipated it to be, though she could admit—to herself, at least, that this newcomer’s presence was actually helping. It was distracting… not just his words, and conversation that didn’t require much thought, but it was also causing her mind to wander in a direction that she would have rather avoided. It wasn’t that she believed in soul mates—that she thought she could never be with anyone again because she’d had Dorian and lost Dorian and that was it for her. She just wasn’t sure what she could expect with that in the future… she wasn’t sure it was possible for her, and she certainly didn’t think it was possible for anyone to want her when she was such a bloody mess. But this had been the first time she’d even noticed another bloke as being attractive.

And they were thoughts she wanted out of her head for no other reason than just the fact that it was embarrassing—not as if he knew what she was thinking, but still, and probably inappropriate. It was far too soon for thoughts like that, and she refused to so much as let such thoughts cross her mind for a moment further. Instead, she focused on him again, and couldn’t help but laugh as he changed his accent… though she felt bad about how her words had actually probably come out—and she pushed the thought from her mind that she couldn’t remember the last time she actually laughed before this conversation. “No, I’m sorry—that sounded rude. I rather like it,” she replied, a small smile on her lips. He just spoke a fair bit more formally than she was used to, but that wasn’t a bad thing.

She felt a bit more on edge when Lazaro joined them, probably more by his abrupt entrance than anything else, and it further showed just how bad she was at all of this now. Merlin, she was better off just being in her apartment all of the time if she was so bad at actually being out in public. Gemma clearly just wasn’t cut out for this anymore. It was just about the only explanation that came to mind, at least. But she tried to push away those negative thoughts, because she had come here trying to make bloody some kind of progress and this had seemed like the best way to do it.

But it was clear that she was keeping Lucifer from conversations that would probably be far more worthwhile than anything she could think to say. She knew that the Count was the one holding this party, and she doubted that he wanted to speak to just anyone—he wouldn’t exactly have the time, with this many people there. “Well, I’m certainly questioning your taste, but not complaining,” Gemma said, the words coming out a fair bit more self-deprecating than she had actually intended. She broke her gaze from him after a moment, taking a sip of her drink to finish it off. But it had been true as well… she wasn’t complaining about staying in his company for longer. She hadn’t expected to talk to really anyone, let alone someone that managed to distract her from other thoughts, as well as have her think about what she really wouldn’t be thinking about at all.

Looking away from him had been necessary. She didn’t know why—but she had to get her thoughts far away from where they’d been roaming. Gemma didn’t want to think about anything other than the conversation at hand. It was dangerous to think past that, because it just… was frankly ridiculous. “Sure—thank you.” She felt like she definitely needed more champagne, and she hoped that perhaps another glass would remind her why she used to be good at all of this.