6th Year Girl's Dormitory
Prior to the Yule Ball

So, this was it, the big night had finally arrived. There were not many things in the universe that could make Liviana Wiedman giddy or nervous, but she had been a mixture of both since waking up that morning. Her dress was laid across her bed, shoes tucked neatly to the side as she ran brush through her still slightly damp hair. The room was abuzz with activity, with giggles, with gossip. For a just a moment she sat back and watched as her housemates applied their evening war paint and zipped one another into dresses that hardly allowed room to breathe. Not being a sentimental person, the tightness in her chest felt completely foreign to the sixteen year old. She felt a sort of fondness for the chaos happening around her, an urge to capture the moment and remember it forever. She never wanted to forget the feeling of having young firm skin and perfect hair, she wanted to stay in that moment forever.

Of course that kind of sentimentality was nauseating when focused on too long so she simply dug through her bedside drawer and snuck a healthy sip from a silver flask, before tackling the adventure that would be getting into her dress. Of course she had nothing compared to say, Gigi Trishna; and every single time Livi caught sight of the black and blue corset'd gown she could only shake her head. Gigi had always had her own dramatic flare, but sometimes Livi wondered if she went out of her way to give Professor Trishna heart problems. "Alright Geeg, I have to ask, because I consider myself your friend," she paused to grin at the other girl over her shoulder as she stepped into her own dress and the material settle around her slender form, "are you trying for Victorian Lady of the Night, or very high class Saloon Gril"? Sassy teasing was the sort of thing one could always expect from both Slytherin girls, it was how they showed affection.

"I could have drummed up a boa if you'd given me enough notice," she winked at the dark haired fashionista, pulling her hair over her shoulder, "Zip me up, I might be flexible but I'd rather not have to have Madame Nadge pop my arm back into my socket so close to show time". As she waited for the other girl to either oblige or tell her to go throw herself out a tower window, Livi checked her reflection in one of the many full length mirrors situated around the room. She was a little sad that their difference in house kept her from getting ready with Carys, but it could hardly be avoided. One simply did not get ready for the single most important night of their life in the girl's lavatory - at least not if they had any self respect and wanted to experience the big reveal of all their handy work. "D'you ever come up with a date for tonight? I practically had to twist Carys arm about Erin," gossipy small talk, it was the spice of Slytherin life.

Gigi was attempting to dig the ring out of her shoes where she'd hidden it as Liviana spoke. They were her favorite shoes too. If only she had them in green. "First, mostly." The ring finally came unstuck with enough force to send her sprawling backwards, and she held it up triumphantly. "It's a Muggle thing. Boa would hide the thingie on it." That bit of cloth and ruffles wrapped around her throat wasn't exactly a necklace.

Her hair would have to stay rather mundane for the evening, though. Spared Gigi the trouble of explaining why exactly it took about three seconds to 'dye' it.

"Zip me up, I might be flexible but I'd rather not have to have Madame Nadge pop my arm back into my socket so close to show time".

"I'd pop it in for you." The wicked grin accompanying this probably wasn't too encouraging, but Gigi had a reputation to uphold. One which she played right into with a few sharp tugs as she zipped up the dress. No use letting anyone get too comfortable. "And nah, don't need a date. Probably just step on my toes anyways." With Erin coming over on break she couldn't act up too much, or else she'd have tried to find someone who'd snog her in front of Tapendra. Maybe that was why her brother had let him come over, heh. "Don't have anyone else to worry about, this way."

Livi watched as the other girl wrestled with her shoe, head tilted to one side, "Why is the on going theme of all your jewelry death? Do you need to talk," the second bit wasn't really a question, it was more of a statement. Livi and Gigi didn't do feelings, that wasn't who they were. Of course if she had wanted to talk, Liviana would have done her best to listen with her least critical ear. She had just learned a long time ago that Gigi had a certain fascination with the morbid, the darkness, it wasn't that Livi didn't share the interest she just didn't feel the need to adorn every ensemble with skulls.

She sucked in a breath as Gigi zipped her up, a little bit more roughly than was necessarily. The infliction of pain was another one of the 6th years quirks, Liv was just glad Trishna hadn't caught her skin in the zipper on purpose. "How kind of you to offer, but I know you and think you'd rather rip it clean off than put it back into place," she fluttered her lashes at their shared reflection before turning and smoothing out her skirt, checking for any seams or other unflattering bulges from the back, "And, as much as I would love to fulfill your fantasy of making a human version of a rag doll, I have a boy I have to be seen with tonight and he would probably like it if all my limbs were intact. You could have swept up the pieces of Deres' broken heart. I'm sure he's looking for a good snog since Professor Storm declined his invite so publicly".

The ring wound up stuck in a place of honor on an exposed portion of the bed, and Gigi fiddled with it a bit to make sure it wouldn't roll around while they dressed. "Not going to go around wearing decapitated skulls, or torn-off arms, so skulls it is. No point wearing something fluffy." World wasn't fluffy, so why lie? Not like she could pretend otherwise.

"Human rag doll? Why, you planning on dating Harper and taking a sharp turn for the cray cray? Not short of effigies to torch there." At least Carys didn't seem towards violently unstable, from what little Gigi knew of her. Erin needed to break type. Far too much of a weakness for people even Gigi wouldn't snog for trolling.

Speaking of which...."Never gonna be desperate enough to snog Deus. Maybe just patch him up and launch him at Professor Storm again. Think we could find someone to take pics for the Howler?" Given Ignan's thing with her deservedly in Azkaban egg donor, Gigi found the idea of him snogging anyone just a bit twitchy.

Even if it was just Deus.

And there was no way she'd discuss that with Livi. Or anyone, really. Not in a million years. Too much never talking to anyone about it ever with that mess.

Livi watched the other girl, slightly amused smile on her lips as she shook her head, "King's English Darling, we've talked about this. When you start babbling gobbledy gook I have no idea what you're talking about". She turned back to the mirror reaching for a nearby brush as she tried to decide just how to manage the long strands for the evening. She would, sadly, not be center stage of the event because her boyfriend didn't happen to think being a Champion was all that interesting. She wasn't even sure that Ezra had put his name in. Things were mildly strained between them at this point anyway because he completely misunderstood her distraction lately. She was hoping a night of showering him with her complete devotion might get them back to a good place again. If it didn't, well, then... she didn't actually have a contingency plan.

"I adore Erin, you know that, but the two of us in a relationship? I value my pretty little head too much to take on his exes myself. Carys can take care of herself, anyone so much as harms a pretty blonde hair on her head and they'll have the wrath of Maeve and every other Whitman - myself included after his hide. I think even Theo would understand the idea of familial protection. I don't know what's going to develop between those two but if nothing else she gets to dance in front of everyone and be pretty - two things that are of the utmost importance to her," Liv sounded amused as she pulled her hair back into a twist, turning her head from side to side to inspect her cheekbones before letting the chocolate tresses fall back down to fram her face.

"Really? You'd never snog Deus? I wasn't aware he gave anyone much of a choice about it. I mean he kisses Hufflepuffs for Salazar's sake," Liv sounded very amused by the idea of anyone telling Deus no. It just didn't happen, oh she supposed that Gryffindor had cut him off at the pass, and the professors tended to roll their eyes at him... but Deus Deres was the sort of person to just launch himself at you mouth first and the next thing you knew you were in a broom closet or behind a garden shed...not that Liviana knew from experience or anything. Ahem. Glancing at Gigi's reflection, "How are you wearing your hair tonight? I have this comb Dolly sent me and it's really lovely but I just keep thinking of how terribly hot the Hall gets and having to sit through all the speeches and the stupid Champions dance. I'm worried I'll look wilted before the night is half over".

One more patented Georgiana Trishna eyeroll. Her speech wasn't that Muggle, though apparently not dragging her words back a a century or so counted with the other Slytherins. "Skulls are classic. Could probably find some with snakes crawling through the eye holes if that'd make it better for you." Sometimes seemed like the only way to be 'proper' Slytherin was to blare it everywhere as if everyone would assume you'd be a Hufflepuff otherwise.

And hey, whatever fuss Livi might throw up, she'd gotten the gist of the cray cray comment. "I'd throw myself up as a wall to see Erin get someone decent. Dancing and looking pretty is a damn lot better than his usual sort." Boring and proper wasn't the worst thing that could happen. Rather have Carys than someone trying to bury claws in him.

"Think he knows how long he'll be in the hospital hut if he tried." If she could beat Ignan to a pulp, she could manage Deus. "And I'm not sure on the hair. Might just leave it be, but if you want to fuss over it and poke me with sharp pointy combs, I'll live." There was that wicked grin again. Whatever she might say, Gigi was only doing things for herself that evening. "Hate to see that pretty head of yours wilting away."

"If you keep rolling your eyes like that, one day they'll get stuck midroll and you'll spend the rest of your life looking like you're checking your bang line," Livi's voice was teasing as she twisted her hair up, looking thoughtful for a moment. It was not often that Gigi offered her a chance to actually style that mop. She should take advantage, "Alright, park it Lovey, and let the torture commence". There was nothing quite like gossip and hair potions to signify female bonding.

"Carys is a vast improvement over some of his more outlandish tastes; but don't get your hopes up too high," the dark haried Slytherin sighed and shook her head a little as she waited for Gigi to take a seat in front of her. "She's a staunch traditionalist, she accepted by the time we were four that she would have little to no say in who she married so she's just never bothered with boys. She doesn't see the point in dating when, really, the choice of who she'll spend the rest of her life with was probably made before she was born," Livi couldn't help her own eyeroll.

Running a brush through the other girl's thick hair she inspected their reflections in the mirror, "I do hope they have fun tonight though. Carys doesn't have nearly as much fun as I think a girl should. We were making plans for New Years and it turned into this whole project, I understand the devil is in the details as much as the next person but the cottage will be empty, picking the lock on Dom's adult beverage stash isn't that hard. Instant party. It plans itself"!

"Sure you'll knock my head til they roll loose if it happens." Livi could probably get in a good swing at that target. And Gigi'd be able to take it. She could take Storm trying to drown her, even. But for now she took the seat Livi was pointing her at.

Hope? She didn't do hope too much. Mostly dread, sarcasm, and indiscriminate anger. "Traditionalist? Ravenclaw though, so she's supposed to be smart enough to get what she wants around people. Or something." Carys didn't exactly ooze geek like Tappy and Cy did, though. Maybe the more schlagendweeb style of oozing.

Ugh, oozes.

"Alcohol's the best party, yeah. What else does she want, pin the tail on the family tree?" Bunch of points off if you stick it on the black marks or something. Made D&D sound pretty spiffy, though.

"You come from a very different world, Gig," Liviana just shook her head as she she gave a one shouldered shrug. It would be impossible to explain to someone on the outside the pressures that were put on girls like she and Carys. Being the product of a loveless marriage and dumped off on her Aunt and Uncle (who subsequently became her parents), Livi fought hard against those ideals, against relationship setups. She wanted her own life, her own path, her own choices. Carys wanted her family to be happy. She knew in her cousin's mind there was nothing to argue about because it was a foregone conclusion. Liviana just wanted the blonde to be happy, and if her parents could set that up all the better.

Curling Gigi's hair with the tip of her wand, she gathered half of the mop in one hand and began twisting the dark strands into a knot, "I think she wants something to mirror the adult Gala that's being put on at Mungo's. She's a bit peeved she couldn't go. Which, from the stand point of someone who loves wearing evening gowns I can understand. I just don't think any of our friends have those extremely refined tastes...except maybe Warren, but he acts like he's about forty so I'm not sure he counts". Her lips twitched with a smile as she focused on inserting the jewel encrusted comb and securing the other girl's hair - without actually jabbing her in the skull. It took a certain level of skill, but she'd been practicing on her mother and sister for years.

"Alright, I believe we are done. You'll pass for half a lady tonight," she winked at their reflection before moving to her dresser and slipping on her necklace. It was almost time to meet Ezra. She felt a giddy little flutter in her stomach as she shook out her own hair and began applying her lipstick. It was going to be a spectacular night, one for the history books! Glancing at the other girl she grinned a little, "Alright Madame Trishna. While parting is a bitter sweet sorrow, I've got a very handsome boy waiting for me in in the Common Room. If left to his own devices he might be high before the feast so I shall bid you ado," she gave a deep curtsy before gathering her lengthy skirt in one hand and bouncing out the door with an extra little spring in her step.