River chased Hale down the street, around the corner.

Her long legs outpaced his distance and her lungs outstripped his endurance in time. People parted saw her towering veiled form coming and made way for her, while jack had to dodge and tangle through the crowd.

She was glad that Auntie had not outfitted her in heels.

They were away from the bulk of the crowds when she caught him by the scruff of his shirt. She pulled him back and turned him about, looking down at him through her skull-makeup.

"It isn't funny to throw strange charms at people! Is it something nasty? Do you have an antidote?" Her face was hot, boiling actually. The run had been long and her costume was heavy, her corset constricted her panting lungs.

"What do he ever do to you anyhow?"

~~~

"Hey!" Adelfonsus said. At first he meant to snap at their attacker but the flashy poof of whatever glomped in Richard's face. "Rich!" Fonsus grabbed at his best friend's shoulder and swung him around to inspect his face. He didn't notice River flounced off with the power of a bull chasing down a red flag. His hands automatically shot to his bag or wand for a napkin, handkerchief or some spell to aid Rich. But he had neither.

Fonsus squawked as he felt hands grab at him and arm slink around somewhere. It sent shivers - not the good kind - down his spine when he found it was Rich who was pressed against him and staring up at him with an odd starry expression.

"Uhhh...." Fonsus' mind blanked at Richard's question. That arm was really distracting. "Uhm. Uh." Fonsus glanced around wildly. The little nook that kept the trio safe out of the crowd was feeling far, far different.

"Hahaha" he laughed nervously as he realized River was no longer with them. "Yeah, lets, uh, go somewhere else." And so, focusing on something not Starry Richard, Fonsus tried prying his friend off, and thinking quickly, he resorted to their Halloween plans. He headed into the crowd to find a party.

Jack produced a wand from somewhere and pressed it against the angry skull girl's chest. "Easy now, don't make me jinx you. It was just a little bit of love potion, harmless fun. But maybe I should have used it on you?" By now his companions had fled the scene, apparently not wanting to get involved in yet another illegal duel. Jack, on the other hand, seemed to be very ornery lately.

~~

Richard followed behind, practically skipping in his happiness. He kept reaching his hand forward to hold Addie's, but Addie kept shaking it off. "So where are we going? Are we going to be alone?" A strange conflicting expression came over his face for a moment. "You're not going to tell Cae, are you?"
~~~
"We're going - to - a - stop that." Fonsus pulled his hand away from Rich for the fiftieth time. "Party." He shoved his hands in his pockets, hoping that would repel Rich. But fingers linking with his own proved that wrong. "Okay! Pockets are a no!" Fonsus gasped and yanked their hands out to the open air. He gave up and let Rich have his hand. He might lose him in the crowd anyway, right?

"Hm, what?" Fonsus paused in the crowd and glanced back at Rich. How the hell did Cae come up? "Uhh...tell her what?"
~~~
River looked down at the boy. She felt his wand press just above the edge of her corset, through the laceb a lace and touching her copper skin.

Yesterday the one inhabiting this body weeks would have backed down cowering. That person was far away now, lost in the feverish haze. Sweat threatens to take off her makeup, but Caelum had spelled it to be waterproof and sweat resistant.

"Si, Chacotero? No estoy ni ahi." She remembered that jack didn't speak Spanish. "Make you feel more of a man to do that? Take down a girl in a dark street. Go for it, I don't care." She took a step toward him drawing herself up to her full height. The wand now stabbing her skin. "What would you're mother say to see you now? She bought you that nice wand so you could go to school and make something of yourself. And here you are pulling pranks on kids and threatening women on the street with it. Que lata."

River thought... Nothing really, she wasn't on the thinking mood. There was a tiny rapid train of thought inside "omghehashiswandoutsideofschoolandhowdidhedothatyiuradquibgtfo..." But it was to quiet to understand and fading fast.

She was someone else tonight. Someone who would wear a dress and a corset and would not take any nonsense. Sometime who forgot her meds, someone getting a fever and loosing her inhibitions and instincts of self preservation.

Someone who was standing up to Jack Hale with his wand on her chest and without fear in her eyes.
~~~
"My mom doesn't say much these days," Jack growled, looking sideways. "I guess a guy shouldn't be jinxing unarmed girls, anyhow. "Now **** off, don't make me change my mind," he turned and tried to get down a side street to find his friends again.

~~~

Richard winked back at Addie, "Tell her what indeed. So where are you taking me? The Dante's party? I think that was our next stop, but maybe we should skip it and find somewhere private?"
~~~
River expected the jinx, the pain, the pin. Instead she felt the pressure of his wand lift from her skin as Jack ran away. This angered her, this [i]disappointed her...[/i]

She chased him, following him down the alley. Now they were well off the street, alone in the little alley. She would try to grab him by the cuff of his shirt as she first had and spin him into the brickwork. The lace on her dress strained and stitches popped as she flexed her powerful shoulders. River had a natural strength large people possessed, then it had been conditioned by climbing mountains and lifting 9-entree trays and buckets of ice and dirty dishes her whole life. She would never, in her right mind, direct that strength toward violence. Yet, now she had gotten away from herself, it was out of her hands, she was driven by unchecked hormones and adrenaline coursing through her blood.

"Well I'll say it for her!" River would try to pin his wand-arm, but she was clumsy and brutish, practically falling into the other with her shoulder. She was honestly too dizzy to notice if she succeeded or not. “[i]cobarde![/i]*”

*coward

~~~

Fonsus internally cringed at the wink. He may have played with the thought of having a special someone in his life but having that kind of….affection coming from his best friend was….just plain weird.

“oooookay. Yeah. We are definitely going to a party, Rich. You said Dante, right? That should be…somewhere….” Fonsus looked around, straining on his toes as he peered past the many obstacles of props. Where the hell was the Dante’s party? Without much of a clue, Fonsus took the lead and tugged Rich through the maze of people.

“…here!” After a few twisty turns, some dead ends (moments he wanted to forget for the rest of life with Richard mistaking the mistakes as something else), Fonsus found the Dante’s hideaway – er, his house-shop-thing. It was a crowded place. A thrumming place with a certain vibe that just oozed “Dante”.

Sweating, Fonsus pulled Rich into the party past the apothecary shop and up the stairs to the main body of the Dante’s party.

“Hey.” Fonsus waved weakly to the host of the party. “Have you seen River?”

~~~

The apothecary was quite empty as the pair breezed through it. They went up the stairs behind the counter, and into a little apartment above the shop. They passed through a living room on their way to the kitchen, where they could hear the sounds of talk and merrymaking. On the living room couch there was a witch, lying on her face and apparently quite asleep. When they walked by she raised a hand feebly and waved them into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, there was a group of young witches and wizards, most of them Fonsus would recognize from Alchemy club. The Dante was sitting on the counter by the stove, puffing on a pipe. The smoke coiled out and formed into the shapes of hobgoblins and bats and the like. The others gathered around were having a laugh throwing little pieces of candy through the shapes.

"Unwen, Nothing," The Dante was the first to notice them. "Didn't actually expect you. Mother let you in?" The other kids laughed at this, as if it were some kind of joke.

~~~

Jack grunted as he was slammed into a wall. "Speak English, you crazy *****!" He jerked his arm away from her, and she all but tackled him, knocking them both to the ground. Jack hopped up as quickly as he could, brandishing his wand again. River was still on the ground, and he paused to look at her condition. "Get up, I'm not gonna jinx you when you're down."