Masks((Jacques and Caitlin)

[jacques]

Jacques walked down the path leading from the school, Caitlin at his side. It was a pleasant day, a cool wind blew down from the mountain that cradled the small village, although the sun shown brightly through the molted orange-red tree leaves. It was Wednesday, and the pair had just met up at the bottom of the stairs, ready for an afternoon of shopping, butterbeer, and, to Jacques hopes, a trip to the famous Honeydukes.

Jacques had a small, ink green bag hanging from his tee-shirt, and gold-red hat pressed down on his black hair, keeping away the cold wind. Stopping at the center of the village, he scanned the area, a preocubide frown on his face. Where to start..where to start.. He chewed on a lip thoughtfully, wondering which shop might have a tiger or elephant mask.

"Want to try..Zonko's?" He asked, motioning to it. It seemed one of the likelier spots, he has quite sure that Madem Puddy Foots would not sell masks, nor would Honeydukes. Unless it was chocolate..He thought, and small grin wiped away the smile, Man would I like that.. He looked at her, tilting his head curiously, his face serean, waiting for a response.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caity was smiling as she and Jacques entered the streets of Hosmeade, a cool breeze gently blowing her hair into whichever direction it fancied. She glanced at her companion and saw he was having a similar problem, although he didn't seem to mind at all.

"Want to try Zonko's?" he asked when they paused in the village square. The wind was less of an issue here as they were protected by the surrounding buildings, but it was still cold and she would be glad to go inside. She was slowly becoming acclimatized to British weather, but as autumn progressed it just kept getting colder.

She nodded and reply and headed to the shop on their right, tucking her hands in her pockets to keep them warm. In her hurry to be ready in time, she had forgotten her gloves, and still been five minutes late meeting him.

She entered the shop, a bell ringing as she opened the door.

((Let's just keep this thread in the street because otherwise we're going to be starting threads all over the place. Also, another spelling which I'm only telling you because the way you spelt it made me think of the word 'porcupine' - preoccupied, not preocubide. It kept distracting me from my reply. ))

[jacques]

((*sighs* Is it just me? Or do my words sound like animals. Goatly smile, porcupined frown..hmm..
yup! Staying in the streets is fine, or it does get super confusaling.))

Jacques fallowed her closely into the shop, and he looked around, a small delighted smile spread across his face at the insides of the shops. Countless tricks hung from the wall, whistled from baskets, waddled off shelves and emitted loud pops, bangs, and clouds of smokes. It was different then anywhere he had ever been, but it was interesting. He clasped his hands behind his back, looking around, and his smile settled back into the classic calmness. "So-" He said, clapping his hands in a mock buisnesslike fashion. "Where to look first?"

He rubbed his hands together, distilling warmth to each. It was getting colder, though he enjoyed it. The air tasted sharp, like swallowing a knife, but the knife seemed to melt, like ice, leaving you refreshed, and, on ocassion, chilled the marrow. The wind was a favorite too, blowing around like a playful puppy, though he felt bad for those with really long hair, like Caitlin's.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caity grinned at Jacques' delighted smile as she turned to make sure the door hadn't swung shut on him. He looked like a child who was visiting a toy shop for the first time. Her grin increased when he clapped his hands together, reminding her of how ridiculous people in general could be at times.

She herself had never been a great fan of practical jokes, as evidenced in her response to Quin Woods pulling her off the Astronomy Tower and dropping water balloons onto her and several other students. However, there was no doubting that practical jokes could be amusing, depending on who the subject of them was. She herself would have no qualms on testing some of the items scattered around the shop on Quin, if she didn't think it would make her as bad as the annoying Slytherin.

"Wherever you like," she replied to Jacques' question, reaching to pick up what appeared to be a multi-coloured handbag, before realising that poking around with things designed to be used in pranks was not the best idea. She quickly withdrew her hand and looked around, searching for any sign of masks hidden among the masses of other items piled haphazardly around the shop. "Do you know if they have any semblance of organisation here?" she asked. From what she could see, there was no way to find what you needed except by chance.

[jacques]

Jacques grinned as widely as Caitlin was, it was kind of contagious. This was closest thing he had ever come to being in a toyshop, he hadn't even been in a candy shop before. Though it wasn't as childishly delighted as the other one, it was calm, though his eyes hinted excitement. "As far as I can see..no." He answered, shaking his head in mock sorrow at the mess of multicolored junk pile throughout the place. Tentitivly, he reached out and grabbed a long, thin pole. It was black, and had a large rubber thing at the end. Warily, he eyed to, before setting off around a table, now armed with the lsightly smoking stick. He poked among the piles, looking for mask related stuff.

"Hurmm.." He said, ''This might be even harder then I thought." He concluded, glancing back at her with a slightly sheepish smile((see? All my smiles are after animals. Sheep, goats..)).

He wasn't a huge fan of pranks, and tended to tie a branch to a trunk and slice it free when someone walked by..and that was a few years ago. But it still neat to be immersed in all the colors, sounds, and yes, smokes. He scratched his head thought fully, looking around hopelessly. "Should we..ask?" He suggested, looking for the owner. Finally, he spotted what looked like an owner, and walked over to them.

[Caitlin Collins]

Jacques appeared genuinely delighted to be in the joke shop and Caity found that she herself couldn't stop grinning either. She laughed affectionately at his expression.

"This might be harder than I thought. Should we... ask?"

"I think that might be a good idea," she agreed. "Else we'll be searching this place way past curfew, and still not get anywhere."

She followed him to the back of the shop where a shop assistant was stood, talking to another customer. As the other customer paid and walked out of the shop, she approached behind Jacques, still keeping an eye out for any mask-like objects in her peripheral vision.

"Excuse me," she said as they reached the counter, "but do you happen to have any masks in this shop? A tiger, or an elephant, preferably."

[jacques]

The young man behind the counter nodded. He had brown hair, was around an inch short then Jacques, and had numorous freckles on his tan face. "Yes, right this way." he said, motioning them forward. Glancing at the rod in Jacques hand, his eyes widened fractionably, and he said in a casual voice, "I wouldn't hold that if I we-" But he was cut off. Wondering why, Jacques looked down at the rod curiously.

To his surprise, he saw the opposite end glow bright blue, and then, like a flash of lightning, it raced up the rod, and struck his hand. It felt like a small jolt of electicity, and blue smoke puffed out, choking the air so no one could see for a second. When it was gone, a very startled looking Jacques held out an empty hand, the rod had dropped to the floor, and his black hair stood up one ends. Actaully, it had turned a shocking blue, and was standing up in spikes, like some punk rockstar. Jacques tentively reached up, feeling his head, and let out an embarrassed groan. "Man.." He said, looking horristricin at the blue dust on his hands.

The employee hid a snicker, and busily led them to the shelf, on which perched a verity of masks. "Enjoy yourself, but be.." He gave a loud snort, "Careful, some stain ink, others punch your lights out." And without a further adue, he walked away, quaking with silent laughter. Jacques fallowed him, eyes narrowed, and looked helplessly at Caitlin. "Well..how do we no which is which?" He said, his voice mock morning.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caity jumped in surprise when the rod smoke into the air. She spluttered, waving her arms about so she could see. When she finally got a glimpse of Jacques as the smoke faded, she couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. His hair had turned to blue spikes.

"J-Jacques... you l-look absolutely ridiculous!" she giggled, trying to repress her amusement, but failing miserably. "S-sorry, but if you c-could see yourself..."

She followed the assistant to the shelf with masks on, still grinning broadly and giggling every few seconds. It looked relatively empty - obviously other students had had the same idea and got there before them. She half-listened to the man's warning to be careful what they picked up.

"Well... how do we know which is which?"

"I'd say just point and get him to pick it up," she suggested, gesturing at the assistant who'd left them to it. "You just reminded me of when I tried to use 'tergeo' for the first time. I said 'tergreo' instead, and ended up covering Moaning Myrtle's bathroom - and myself - with streamers."

[jacques]

Jacques gave a reluctant grin, before laughing with her. He shook his head ruefully, and blue dust floated down like fairy dust. Catching his reflexion in a window, he pretended to turn left and right, striking a comical pose. It did look quite goofy, his now blue hair stood up in spikes, tall in the front, smaller in the back. His shoulders were now coated with it, but no matter how hard he shook his head, it stayed. "I guess I do, I wonder.." And he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Do you think it would look good with the mask?" And he motioned to them.

He laughed again at her suggestion and story, nodding. "Good idea. Ick, that must have been..damp." He thought he might keep the new due, or at least until before the dance. Kick the tube over, he read aloud the writing. "Warning! This stays for at least 5 days with washing! Keep away from Hpyogriffs, mermaids, and centors. No cleaning or known spells will let it come out." He shook his head ruefully, knowing he would have to have at least half of the blue hair at the dance.

He scanned the maskes, eyes glinting curiously. He could see leopards, snakes, dragons, an otter, a lion, griffins, and a number of other creatures, some real, others not. He clapped his hands again, rubbing them together. "Shall we get chosing then?" He asked, smiling faintly.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caity nodded in reply to his comment that the experience must have been "damp".

"It was. Very. I worked out the spell eventually though, and it's been very useful since. People just seem to enjoy getting me wet. First Myrtle, then Quin, Kylo, Quin again..." She tried to think back to any other times she may have gotten wet. "No, I think that's it."

"Warning! This stays for at least 5 days with washing! Keep away from Hypogriffs, mermaids, and centaurs. No cleaning or known spells will let it come out."

"You'd better get a mask that won't clash with bright blue in that case," she laughed. Five days later would be Monday, after the dance had already taken place. "At least you'll be easy to pick out in the crowd."

"Shall we get choosing then?" he suggested, clapping his hands together again and making Caitlin giggle once more.

She retrieved her wand from her pocket and poked among the masks littered on the shelf, not particularly wanting to touch any of them after what had happened to Jacques.

"Well... here's a siberian tiger mask." She pointed to the mask previously hidden by a lion and a dragon. "But it's white, of course... And there's loads of other big cat masks... Ah! Here's an elephant... but it's African..." She shrugged apologetically at Jacques. "Sorry, I'm a perfectionist. Even though half the people there won't even know the difference between an Indian and African elephant anyway."

She continued searching, glancing sideways at Jacques every so often for two reasons; one - to see if he had found any plausible Indian elephant masks, and two - just to look at his very oddly coloured hair. That grin seemed to be permanently etched onto her face. However hard she tried, she couldn't seem to gain a calm and collected appearance.

[jacques]

Jacques copied her, taking out his wand and poking carefully among the masks, and grinned broadly when she said it would be easy to spot him. Unfortunately, no one wouldn't spot him, which meant he couldn't go unnoticed..which meant he might end up the center of attention.

He looked at the Siberian mask and the elephant. Funny, each one was from the wrong continet, but they were alike there cousins in the other region, not unlike themselves. He turned over a purple skunk, and noticed that Caitlin kept looking at her. Well, its understandable when one has blue hair. He thought, a tad rueful. He glanced at her, then looked away, a small red tinge coming to his cheeks. Finding what looked like an elephant, he gingerly balanced it one his wand, and showed it to her. "Is this one?" He asked, still grinning. It didn't look quite like an African, it had smaller ears, and what looked like painted decorations.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin tried to stop shooting glances at Jacques' new hair style when she noticed he had turned a shade of red and focussed instead on rooting through the masks and schooling her expression.

"Is this one?" Jacques asked, startling her somewhat. She had been concentrating so much on not giggling that she had completely forgotten what they were doing and had been staring at a chimpanzee mask for the last minute.

She turned to look at the mask in his hands and was shocked to be confronted by a mask-version of the Indian elephant decorated for a festival she'd seen in a crystal ball sometime last week during an impromptu divination lesson. It was perfect. Throwing caution to the wind, she reached over and plucked it off the end of Jacques' wand with her bare hands; not because she was brave, but because she had momentarily forgotten the warnings in her excitement. She held up the mask to her face and turned back to face him.

"How does it look?" she asked in a slightly muffled tone.

[jacques]

"How does it look?"

Jacques looked at the mask, rubbing his chin in mock thought. It looked very nice actually, decorated the way it was, it seemed to fit her. He gave her a small grin, though his eyes were fixed worriedly on the mask, hoping it didn't burst into pink flames that stained the skin or something of the sort. Twirling the wand back to his pocket, he gave a small laugh at her muffled tone.

"Like an elephant." He teased, before continuing. "Looks great, it'll be a jungle at the ball." He grinned again, and spotted a tigerish mask in the bunch. Taking out his wand, though he was still looking at the mask, he tried to hook it through the eye, and bring it out. At this point he didn't want to have green skin and blue hair, and played it on the safe side. It was tiger, orange, with black spirals around the eyes, and stripes. "Hows bout this?" He asked, smiling faintly.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin smiled at Jacques' comments and admired the mask he'd picked up through elephant eyes.

"Looks like a tiger," she replied, grinning, and pulled the elephant mask away from her face. Or at least, she tried to. It wouldn't come off. "Oh, you're kidding me," Caity groaned, pulling harder. Still, it refused to budge. "Dammit!"

She looked up at Jacques wearing a hopeless expression that he couldn't see and noticed with relief and slight envy that he hadn't made the same mistake as she; the tiger mask was hanging from the end of his wand.

"A little help, please?" she asked, smiling hopefully. "An unsticking charm should do it."

Next time, she thought to herself, I'll be more careful before picking things up. You would have thought I'd have learnt from Jacques' mistake.