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Welcome to Charming, the year is now 1895. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.

Where will you fall?

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Braces, or suspenders, were almost universally worn due to the high cut of men's trousers. Belts did not become common until the 1920s. — MJ
Had it really come to this? Passing Charles Macmillan back and forth like an upright booby prize?
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Danse Macabre
#17
But. That sounded like he had reservations to her. Hopefully that wasn't the case. "Go on and do something to him then, no one's going to notice if you subtly hex him, they're too busy dancing." She'd much rather see Mrs. Greengrass on the receiving end of a curse, stuck up bitch that she was, but he'd made his choice and she wasn't even sure he'd cooperate with him as a target, let alone his cousin.

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#18
Oh. Well, that was intriguing. Not exactly as defiant to the social norms as what he had had in mind, but he had to admit, slinging hexes at unsuspecting idiots who were trapped on the dance floor and couldn't respond did sound like a more entertaining evening than pretending this was just another party.

After giving it a bit of thought, Tiberius drew his wand and muttered a spell that, to outward appearances, had no effect at all. He replaced his wand in the pocket of his suit coat and turned to Antigone. "Your turn."

#19
He was getting his wand out, that meant he was actually going to do it! Tig got a little excited as she watched and then... nothing. Rather, nothing but disappointment. What was that? "Did you even cast a spell?" If he had he clearly was missing the point. For that reason and that reason alone she didn't insist he try again just yet.

"Look." Tig drew her own wand and trained it on a former classmate she held a reasonably strong grudge against. She cast a spell that would temporarily cloud over her vision so she couldn't see, add in the fact that she couldn't physically start dancing and the result was something Tig thought was increasingly hilarious.

| OUTFIT | Moody Muse Music |




#20
Tiberius watched her spell take affect, bemused. "Won't some of the other guests take notice? And maybe remember?" he commented as he watched the woman stumble and stagger around the dance floor, still trying her best to waltz despite her obvious lack of vision.

(As a side note, who was this woman? Had Antigone just chosen a victim at random, or was this someone she would claim she hated? While he didn't pretend to have a very in-depth knowledge of Antigone's emotional life and interpersonal relationships, the idea that she could absolutely loathe someone and it might never have arisen in conversation even once was a bit off-putting).

All in all, he thought his own curse — which would see Theseus struggling with a progressively worsening itch in his crotch that he could not, while dancing, address — was a little more in line with the subtlety of her game.

#21
She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders and continued to watch the stumbling dancer. "Perhaps. Probably not. Does it even matter as long as no one can trace it back to me?" Quite suddenly she was struck by the memory of her tea party duel with Ellory Pendergast and how she had gone from not caring in the slightest to making an effort to be less blatant. It made her oddly uncomfortable. She furtively side-eyed Tiberius. Suddenly she wasn't having fun anymore.

The spiteful mirth vanished from her face as her expression clouded over. Everything in the room repulsed her and she couldn't say why exactly. "This is dull," she remarked, her voice taking on a sharpness despite her lowered tone. Tig couldn't decide if he was immune from her repulsion or if he was the most repugnant of all. What she did know was that she wanted to leave the room at once.

| OUTFIT | Moody Muse Music |




#22
"It's your party," he retorted back easily enough. "So who's to blame for its dullness?"

Although he couldn't resist responding with a light jibe, it wasn't really his intention to start an argument with her — and so rather than waiting for her to respond, he changed the subject. "What would you rather be doing right now?" he asked, with some genuine curiosity creeping into his voice. He didn't know how she would respond, but whatever she said was certain to be interesting, at the very least. That was one thing that could be consistently said about Antigone — she was never dull, herself.

#23
His question echoed around her head as she tried to get a handle on herself. It was like she was feeling too much at once except it was all smeared into one ugly incomprehensible sensation that was making her skin crawl and her stomach turn.

Without so much as a word or even a glance, she let go of his arm and started walking away from him with increasing speed toward the nearest door. All she thought of was reaching the door and walking through it, she blocked everything else out including the possibility that Tiberius might follow.

The palm of her hand finally connected with the doorknob and she thrust herself through, almost slamming it behind her. Tig leaned her back against the nearby wall, shut her eyes, and pressed her fingers over her eyelids to blot out all the light. She'd barely shut her eyes when she heard the door next to her opening. Her hands dropped away in an instant and she reluctantly opened her eyes to look daggers at the intruder.
""

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#24
From his perspective, it seemed less like she was fleeing the ballroom and more like this was some sort of cryptic answer to his questions of what she would rather be doing. Intrigued, he followed her — but was a bit confused to see her just standing in the hall outside the ballroom, leaning on the wall and glaring at him.

"What?" he asked, not sure what he had done to earn her ire. "What are you doing out here?"

#25
If she even wanted to communicate what was going on in her head at that very moment she wouldn't have known how. His obliviousness only made it worse. She wanted to push him away, figuratively as well as physically and visit further violence upon him until he understood what she felt but how could he understand if she didn't? Well that wasn't entirely true, she could understand it if she let herself but she was afraid of what she'd realize if she did. What she really wanted was to implode, to self-destruct.

Tig gritted her teeth and continued to bore her eyes into him as her thoughts raced. He himself had said that she'd changed, months ago he'd remarked upon it as though he hadn't noticed. What if that had been an act? What if she'd underestimated him and he'd been masterfully manipulating her their entire marriage? No, no she couldn't think that, that would undermine her entire life as it was now. It was giving him way too much credit. It had to be. However, he'd clearly gotten into her head whether he'd planned to or not, why else would she be going to such efforts to control herself at that very moment? The question remained of whether she could trust him, she'd given her trust more easily of late and now she couldn't figure out if that was a terrible mistake or a good thing. Was he enemy or ally?

She stopped leaning and moved to face him dead on. "I can't explain," came her abrupt response after a lengthy silence. There were numerous questions she wanted to ask him but she couldn't trust the answers now that she questioning everything. "Say something. Do something. Anything." As demanding as she sounded there was none of her usual haughtiness or flippancy but a serious intensity.

| OUTFIT | Moody Muse Music |




#26
The longer she stared at him without speaking or otherwise reacting, the more he began to worry that something was seriously amiss. Was she ill? Not physically, but... mentally, maybe? It looked like something inside of her had snapped. It wasn't as though he had ever been very good at reading emotion in her eyes, but he had spent enough time around her to know when things changed, and this look she had was different, somehow, than anything he could remember seeing in her before.

And then her words, when they came, only increased his suspicion that something was seriously amiss. What did she expect him to do? Sometimes when she asked something of him he got the sense that there was a right and a wrong answer, or at least something that she was expecting or hoping he would do and something that he wouldn't, but if those extremes existed here he had no idea what they were. Everything he'd learned about social interactions over the years was no help, either, because he had never encountered this, whatever it was.

Reaching out, he took both her arms firmly in his hands and gave her a light shake. The movement was instinct rather than thought — he just wanted that look on her face to change. "Snap out of it," he ordered. "You've lost your senses."

The following 1 user Likes Tiberius Lestrange's post:
   Antigone Lestrange
#27
Tig was surprised by his choice of words. She hadn't expected that level of perception from him. What did it mean? It couldn't be that obvious, was he in her head? No, no he couldn't be, he couldn't be. She needed a distraction, something big, something enough to derail the tornado of paranoia and uncertainty that had established itself in her head.

She grabbed him by the lapels and balled her hands into fists until her knuckles turned white. "I need to clear my head." She spoke aggressively although for once her angst was not directed towards him. "I need to-" All she could feel was an urge for destruction. "I want to hurt something." After a moment she she felt oddly compelled to add, "Not you."

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   Tiberius Lestrange


#28
Tiberius took a moment to take in and process what she'd said. It wasn't an urge he had ever personally experienced, because his mind was too analytical and emotionless for that sort of thing. He didn't want to hurt people or things; sometimes it was merely necessary in order to achieve his goals. Sometimes those goals were things others might have considered frivolous, or not worth the cost of inflicting pain or loss of life, such as simply satisfying a curiosity or exploring a new concept or theory — but to each his own. To Tiberius, those things were important — and often moreso than society's need to protect humans above all else. Although he'd never felt that particular impulse, it wasn't as shocking or distasteful to him as it might have been to someone else. In fact, it seemed perfectly in character for Antigone, creature of emotion and whim that she was.

"You've picked an inconvenient time for it," he observed, glancing back at the door that lead to the dance. One song had just ended, he could hear, and another, faster paced tune had begun. Most good hostesses, he was certain, did not sneak away from their own parties to torture someone in the next room, but what was to be done about it?

"Summon a servant," he suggested with a shrug. "Or pull a guest aside, if you must — just be sure to obliviate them after, and don't leave any permanent damage."

#29
Her grip started to slacken. Was he encouraging her to...? He was and he couldn't have been more blasé about it. She wasn't sure if it was the thought that she could act on her impulses if she so desired and he wouldn't stop her, or if it was simply his nonchalance but it seemed to have derailed her completely.

Her hands tightened once again around his lapels but this time with the purpose of enabling her to kiss him abruptly on the mouth. She barely lingered before she moved back. The need for violence had eased enough that she felt mostly in control of herself again but the volatility was still there. It was like she had caught a glimpse of her own reflection but what she saw was unfamiliar and strange. For now it was out of sight but it wasn't gone. "You've changed me." Tig couldn't quite meet his gaze momentarily as she said this. "Did you mean to?"

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   Ophelia Devine


#30
Her sudden change of focus caught him off guard. That being said, he knew the answer right away. It wasn't that he had thought about it before, at least not in such explicit terms, but it was an instinctive knowledge that yes, of course that had been his goal. Everything he had done with her, for her, or to her since that fateful tea with his aunt Olivia Pendergast had been to further her progress down this road. Olivia had seen something in her that he hadn't — some potential to actually belong in the family in more than name — and here, after years of slow but steady work, it was finally realized.

"Yes," he answered simply. "Does that irritate you?"

#31
He wasn't supposed to say that, that wasn't what he was supposed to say. He was supposed to deny it, to say no. Of course she knew he must have wanted to but that wasn't the same thing as manipulating her so she thought it was all of her own volition. Unless that wasn't the case? "Did I have a choice? Was it my doing or yours?" Irritated didn't cover it, just what was he implying exactly? Tig willed him to tell her what she wanted to hear and for it not to be a lie. It can't all have been painstakingly plotted, there was no way, she'd given him grief hadn't she? She'd tormented him a little, surprised him at times, that wasn't all false it couldn't be.

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#32
He could see that she was getting spun up, emotionally, but his expression and his tone remained level as he responded to her question. "Your choice was to sink or swim," he said with a gesture of his shoulders that was almost a shrug. "You chose correctly."

That was oversimplifying things, of course. The truth was that it wasn't as though he could have molded her into this himself, especially disconnected as he was from the normal tenants of human nature. There had to be a seed of something in her, the potential to become this. He had taken steps over the years to provide the right environment for that seed to take root and grow, but he hadn't ever been sure of his own success — not until she had surprised him that summer with her suggestion about the twins. Even then, he wasn't sure he would have predicted the way that she'd ended up now — a creature that was not just his making, but a creation of all of the influence of his family and her own malice and scorn. She truly was, at times, exquisite.


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