What Kind of Magic Spell to Use (Jamal)

[Myra Bennett]

Myra sat carefully down on her bed, staring at the lump of fabric that was laid out on it like could suddenly grow teeth and lunge for her. Which she knew wasn’t true, wasn’t even possible, of course...but it was still a worry. Normally she wouldn’t have been caught dead in such a thing; sure it was a nice color but the top half had sparkly...things all over it. Not so much sequins that blinded you whenever they caught the light, but just a little dusting of glimmers that shone softly in the light instead of becoming blinding. On top of the fabric sat a mask, peachy gold in color, with fin like “wings” coming off either side. She would be lying if she said she didn’t like the mask. It reminded her of the creatures in the sea; perhaps some of the only creatures that didn’t scare her and that she felt even a little bit comfortable with. Combined, she thought the effect was pretty. The deep blue of the dress offset but the rose gold color of the mask. It made it seem more fish than fabric, a thing she kept reminding herself to try and pluck up the courage to actually wear them instead of just sitting there looking at them.

When she woke up today she didn’t even think about the possibility of her going to the dance, let alone being asked by someone. Weren’t those sorts of things supposed to happen weeks in advance? What few “high school” movies she had seen made it seem that way. The person was supposed to ask early so the other had time to get the clothes. Or was it the other way around? And why did people ask so early? What happened if a person was asked weeks in advance and had been building up to it for weeks, only to have it turn out nothing like they had planned? Well, it could be a good thing she supposed. But only if the things that didn’t go according to plan were good things. What happened in the whole things turned into a let down or if it was boring? It seemed like a waste to her then, people asking with so much time left.

She was kind of...glad that Jamal asked the day of. He was just doing it to be a good friend, of course, to help her get more used to people, but still. If he had asked her even only days before she would have turned herself into a ball of anxiousness by now. Well...more so than she usually was. She couldn’t help it! She didn’t know a thing about dances beyond the fact that you were supposed to dance at them. And that she only knew that from the name! It wasn’t like she had ever been to one before and movies were poor comparisons for almost everything. What was she supposed to expect? Would there be a dark corner for her to hide in? Or maybe she should just hide behind Jamal...it would seem easier, given how tall he was. But you weren’t supposed to hide at dances; at least she was pretty sure you weren’t.

She looked at the clock beside her bed and squeaked a little; he would be there any time! She scrambled up, gulping a little at the dress before quickly putting it on, saving the mask for last. Her hair was the same as always, nothing fancy. For shoes she’d chosen to go with simple black flats. Unassuming, safe, and less chance of tripping over her feet and drawing more attention to herself. Her chromatophores started to act up, turning patches along her neck, arms and chest all different shades of blue and silver and gold. She tried to will them to stop, nibbling on her lip as she did. At least they matched the outfit? She couldn’t think of a worse situation involving her chromatophores acting up than them being rainbow colors and making it look like crayons had melted all over her.

She took a couple deep breaths even as she started to pace. I-it’s just Jam-mal… Hopefully if she kept repeating that to herself it would make her calm down. Only a few measly minutes later though she was still pacing, but at least she wasn’t changing colors anymore. She jumped and squeaked at the knock on her door, having zoned out a little in her attempts. She took a couple more deep breaths, swallowing only a little in anxiousness as she went for the door. She tucked her hair behind her ears self consciously, hoping that she didn’t look like an escaped circus creature. She was an octopus after all, and they’re brilliant at escape tricks. Her only problem was that if she survived the circus then she would have to survive the real world.

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal wasn't used to the feeling of a tailored suit, it'd cost him all of the money he had on it but it was better than some cheap rental. It was a simple black silk suit with a silver vest and a cream colored tie. He already had a pair of black leather shoes so that wasn't a big deal and the mask hadn't cost as much he thought it would, it was a simple white mask that was a bit more square shaped so it fit his buff appearance. He admitted he was a bit nervous, he'd never been to a dance in his life and when it came to bringing Myra well he was afraid he'd do something that would set her off. "Calm down Jamal. Octopus feels safe enough to go here with you in the first place. It'll be fine....even if you don't know a lick about dancin'." He'd never needed to dance in his life, sure he listened to music but he'd never really danced before.

[Myra Bennett]

She pulled open the door a little slowly, almost like she was afraid of what would be on the other side of said door. She knew she shouldn’t be, as she did with most things, but again she couldn’t help it. Sometimes she really hated how scared of everything she was. Okay, not sometimes. All the time. Whenever she would get scared and jump, chromatophores firing all over the place by a door creaking or a shadow moving she would curse herself and berate herself for it. It was such a simple thing! Why did it scare her so much? She didn’t know when her sheer terror at nearly everything started for sure, but she knew when it got even worse. She was just a child then, having not discovered her powers in full yet, but she still blamed herself and lost sleep for weeks because of it.

She was still living in South Asia with her parents at the time, just a little girl. It probably wasn’t a good idea on her parents’ parts, bringing her, a self admitted coward even back then, to the jungles of Asia. With snakes, and large insects, deadly animals, and many a poisonous thing. It was a place of nightmares to her! Looking back on it though all she could remember was vivid colors and running and crying mostly. The parts she remembered the best was when she was at the beach, peering into tide pools. Anyways, back to the story.

She had no clue she could generate any sort of venom, so when she came running back to her parents’ camp after being scared by one thing or another only to be comforted by the family dog, things didn’t end well. Sadie licked her face as usual, it being her way of making little Myra feel better. But what Sadie didn’t know was that she was secreting her venom, and in less than an hour Myra’s best friend was dead at her feet.

Though for now she didn’t think of such depressing things, only that a fellow student about three times her size was standing on the other side of her door. In a tuxedo. He had actually bought a tuxedo. For one dance. One. Not many. She blinked up at him, having to take a small step back to see his face, er, mask, better. It suited him, actually. At least in her mind. She had been trying to imagine him in a masquerade mask off and on, but she never really could picture it. When she thought masquerade mask she thought of the wondrous things that took over Venice for two weeks out of the year. Like hers, his was relatively simple, though white with little gold...figures around the edges. It really did suit him in her eyes.

“H-hi Jam-mal….” Well at least she only stuttered twice and almost got through his name. At least that was something?

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal smiled when he saw Myra, the mask suited her and the dress wasn't too fancy. She was nervous of course that was nothing new so he expected it, he crouched down to her level so he was speaking face to face with her. "Well look at the little octopus all dressed up and ready for a dance. You look really nice Myra." He smiled wider at her and stood up. At least he wouldn't have to worry about making a fool of himself since she'd most likely never been to a dance. He straightened his tie and cleared his throat. "So....are you ready to go?"

[Myra Bennett]

She turned red when he called her an octopus and doubly so when he said she looked nice. That was a good thing, she knew, but everybody would look nice when they were going to a dance. That meant she wouldn’t stick out so much if she blended into the dressed up all pretty crowd. Though with her alligator she didn’t know how well that would work because he was just...giant. But she had gotten used to it, and she actually liked it at times. He was the perfect person to duck behind when she was scared so wouldn’t she like it? “Y-you do t-too…” Great, now she just made herself blush. She was telling the truth though so maybe the blush wasn’t so bad? She just wished it wouldn’t happen so often and especially not in her mask. It hid some of it but it made it warm against her skin which wasn’t entirely that comfortable, now that she thought about it. She readjusted it for the umpteenth time, hoping that would help somehow .

When he asked if she wanted to go she nodded, careful not to jostle her mask anymore than she probably already had. She was half lying of course, because she was never ready to venture into crowds of people even though she more likely to not be noticed in the swath of people. But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, all that would do was stress her more when it didn’t work and her chromatophores would fire all the more intense and then by that point the situation just went into a tailspin that usually ended up with her hightailing it out of the crowd and back to her room to curl up in a nice little ball. B-but...this time I have J-Jamal...That made her feel a bit better for some strange reason. She thought it was just because he was such a good person to hide behind like she mentioned before, and left it at that.

She listened to the way he cleared his throat and tilted her head a tiny fraction, wondering idly if he was nervous too. Why? Surely he had gone to these kinds of things before, right? Why wouldn’t he have been? And besides, the only thing he would have to be worried about was the possibility of her running off and that wouldn’t cause a stir. But then she realized that for how comfortable with him she felt, she didn’t know all that much about him. Then again, he didn’t know much about her either so she guessed it was kind of fair but she couldn’t stop herself from being curious about him. If nothing else, she would use tonight to maybe ask him some more questions. It would have two purposes; her getting to know more about him and deflecting the attention away from herself so she would hopefully not be a beet red mess for the whole time they were there.

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal gently took her hand and started to walk with Myra to the dance, he knew she would still be uncomfortable but if she was comfortable enough to go with him in the first place he was sure he could stop her skin from acting up. Jamal was glad his octopus had agreed but what he feared the most was that he was making a huge mistake with risking her freaking out and running from the room. But he knew she needed to get used to being around people so he was going to keep on a straight face and lead her there. "If you ever feel like you're about to panic or want to leave. Just tell me, I'm doing this to help you and I want you to be comfortable."

[Myra Bennett]

Myra surprised herself when he took her hand. She didn’t pull away. She never did that before, not yank her hand back to herself like it just got burned. Instead she hoped that she wouldn’t have to let go soon. Was her hand too clammy? Was it cold? Was it uncomfortable since her hand was so much smaller than his? They were stupid questions, yes, but she couldn’t help but wonder because she actually wanted them to have a good time tonight...providing she didn’t freak out and bolt from the dance with her skin all different colors. At the mere thought she squeaked a little under her breath and started to try and take deep breaths so that hopefully wouldn’t happen again. The last thing she needed was to psyche herself out before they even got there but she was well on her way.

She moved a little closer to Jamal and squeezed his hand a tiny bit, using that to try and calm her down somehow. It worked, though she didn’t know why or how but right now she really didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was calming down again. Hearing his voice helped and she nodded, grateful that he was willing to go through all this just to make her more comfortable around people. He really was a good friend. In fact, she would go as far as to say that he was the best thing that had happened to her since she got to Ashford. He was the only person that she could talk to at length with minimal stuttering and he made her feel safe.

“I-I’m sorry you have t-to go through all this-s….” He probably wouldn’t have a great time or anything, if he was constantly reassuring her and making sure she wasn’t a complete deer in the headlights. “A-and I want to ap-pologize in advance for toni-night...It probably won’t be any fun for you…” She looked down, fiddling with the hem of her dress with her free hand. Sure she might be terrified but that didn’t mean that she didn’t want him to have a good time too. The only problem? She didn’t know how he could have a good time when he was looking after her.

She sighed a little. She had a feeling that the dance wouldn’t be as fun as the others made it out to be.

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal gave Myra's hand a squeeze back to help calm her down, he frowned when she said she was sorry and squeezed a bit tighter. "I will have a great time Myra, because I'm going to be there with my friend and I'm doing this for you so if you feel like you have to leave I'll understand." He gave her a reassuring look and patted her back lightly. He was going to have fun as long as she was there especially since this was his first dance, what he was mostly worried about was if she would have fun since he didn't even know how to dance or anything. Taking a risk his draped his arm over Myra moved her closer against him to see if that would make her feel better.

[Myra Bennett]

At his reassurances she couldn’t help but smile a little and nod, feeling a teeny bit better about the whole thing. She wondered how he could do that so quickly, let alone at all. She hadn’t met anyone capable of really calming her down in all her life; her parents couldn’t even do it when they tried. And at first they tried a lot, but the novelty of having a coward for a child quickly wore off and by the time she could walk and could stumble her way through the English language she was pretty much on her own when it came to them. But nevermind. Before Jamal she was on her own to calm down, and that usually took hours, at least. So why could he do it in a matter of minutes? It just didn’t make any sense to her. Why h-him… She caught herself just in time to stop from scowling in confusion, not wanting him to think that the scowl was because she wasn’t having fun or anything.

When he put his arm over her she startled a little bit, gasping a breath but quickly calming down. She shocked herself yet again when it wasn’t the arm that scared her. The thing that scared her was just the sudden, unexpected motion. She was quite fine with the arm. When he moved her closer she might have even snuggled into his side a little. Might have, though. No one would see it even if they looked closely. However he might have felt it.

Her face flamed in embarrassment when she realized that there was a possibility of him feeling it but still didn’t pull away. She had discovered it was quite comfortable being this this close to him. More so than she might have guessed if she had been so inclined to do so. In all honesty she kind of, almost, maybe...didn’t want to move from that spot in his side. But at some point she would inevitably have to, she just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.

But alas. It would have to be. The gymnasium was only a short distance off from them now and she doubted he would want to keep his arm around her when they went inside. It would likely be too crowded at first for him to stay like that, right? And it would be hot with all the people inside

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal smiled when he felt her snuggle into his side but didn't let on that he knew, he didn't want his little octopus to get all flustered and move away. As they entered the gym he made no move to move her away and stood at the side. "Myra I guess I should tell you....I've never been to a dance before...never really went to school or anything so I never got to go to one. I also don't know how to dance..." Jamal looked down, he knew that he couldn't have fun with her at a dance if he couldn't even take her dancing. Part of him felt like he cheated her since he promised to take her to the dance but he had no way of actually getting her to enjoy it. "I'm sorry I was just so eager to help you get out and into the world that I wasn't thinking straight."

[Myra Bennett]

She couldn’t help but smile a little when they went inside and he still didn’t move her away. She was also glad that he decided to stand on the side for a little while. It gave her the chance to look around and try to take everything in without being in the middle of it. From what she could see a lot of the school had actually turned up for it, something that surprised her a little. She didn’t think dances would be so popular at a school full of super powered teenagers for some reason but clearly she was mistaken if this many people showed up. They weren’t the only ones not dancing, seeing as most of the people who weren’t were congregating around the punch bowls and food tables like a bunch of zebra and antelope at a watering hole. She peered at said food tables around all the people, managing to catch a glimpse. W-well at least the f-food looks…not bad… At least that was good? If nothing else they could have something hopefully good to eat.

When Jamal started talking she looked up at him, blinking behind her mask. Wait, he had never been to a dance before? Or...school? How...how did that even work? She wasn’t entirely sure how school worked in the U.S but wasn’t it...illegal or something to not go to school? How did he manage to get around that? She would have thought that he had been to lots of dances, well, that is if he went to school before. Why wouldn’t he? He was really nice and...kind of...good looking….And there she went blushing behind her mask again. She quickly looked away on the off chance that he could see some of it, not wanting to be asked what could she possibly be blushing about because there was no way in hell she was answering that and it would only make her blush darker.

When he admitted that he wasn’t thinking straight she couldn’t help but...giggle a little. Just a little bit. Jamal always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and always able to think clearly so the thought of him, well, not, was kind of funny. Just a little bit, though. “I-it’s okay...w-we’re still here, right?” Even though it was called a dance, dancing wasn’t a requirement, was it? At least she didn’t think so...It might be. But she was sure they could have a good time whether they danced or not. It wouldn’t be too hard, she always seemed to have fun with him no matter what they did. And look at that! She was already starting to stutter less despite the fact that she was surrounded by people she didn’t know. That was already an achievement. Even if they didn’t dance the night could be counted as a success. Though...she was a little bit disappointed that the couldn’t dance. Even if she didn’t know how. Eh, no matter. Neither of them knew how, so the point was moot. It wasn’t like he’d try to get her to dance anyways, right?

[Jamal Duclair]

Jamal smiled when she giggled, it was cute coming from her and it made him feel better. "I guess you're right. We can still enjoy ourselves while we're here together." She was cute when she smiled, he was surprised no one had asked her before them, not that he thought she'd would have said yes. He didn't think about how the idea of her being here with anyone else made him feel...jealous. He shook the thought from his head and looked at all the people on the dance floor, from what he saw he figured he could copy their movements easy and dance with Myra but...she was so much smaller than him so he'd have to hold her. That wouldn't be so bad, if she let him he wouldn't be at all difficult to to hold and he just might like holding her, that thought made him blush a bit.