Concept
Marceline Chen
“Herr Wolf has a certain love of theatrics.”
Of course. Why did it not immediately occur to her that they were probably going to be presented at this party? It was, after all, being thrown in their honor. Duh.
Sol, who looked like he was positively shitting himself with sunshine, beckoned them all up to follow him and the family onto a balcony that encompassed the entire ballroom, which was now fully visible. The place was absolutely breathtaking, as was to be expected from the gorgeous manor. It was obvious right away that a majority of the room was made for dancing; if Marceline glanced over the railing, she could practically see herself in the polished floor while her ears were serenaded by the swing of the band set up on the stage ahead of them. Although the thought of being in the spotlight wasn't the worst thing she could imagine to happen on this wild ride, the grimaces on Klara and Félix's faces didn't exactly soothe her about it.
There was an avalanche of applause and encouragement from the crowd below them as Sol began his show, and before she knew it Klara was ushering her and the other two girls down the right side of the balcony as their host bellowed out their names by way of introduction. When they reconvened with the rest of the family at the other end, there was nothing else to do but smile and chuckle awkwardly at all the attention they were being given. Marceline was not nearly drunk enough to be basking in all of this gratuitous praise, and so kept fiddling with the clasp of her clutch until finally it was time for the guests to follow the Wolfs down onto the floor and out of focus.
Or so she thought. As soon as she stepped foot from the stairs she found herself being swept up by the German guests, who were all suddenly incredibly interested in her and the others. Perhaps they were simply saving their excitement back in the entrance hall?
Regardless, now her cheeks were being assaulted with kisses and her hand was being shaken like it was going out of style. It took all of her charm to maneuver her way out of the crowd to the edge of the room for a few moments, where luckily she found Félix lingering. She immediately asked him to get her two glasses the strongest drinks he could, and when he returned, she gulped down whatever it was that he'd mixed for her and replaced the glass in his hand in one go.
"Thank you very much, good sir," she half sang, half shouted over the music as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her thumb and forefinger, careful not to touch her lipstick, then clapped her other hand on the man's shoulder cheerfully and recomposed herself. "You are amazing," she said appreciatively to him, then more to herself, "Let's do this, baby."
Having not really eaten too much before the ball, the drinks hit her like a slap in the face. Within no time at all she became one of the fish in the sea that was the dance floor, finding herself being traded around from partner to partner and occasionally just grooving along by her lonesome; and even then, she was having a fantastic time. The music was great. The people were great. It was all great.
What would make it even better?
A fucking cigarette, of course!
After having one last drink from Félix, Marceline scampered from the ball and up the stairs to her room, where she had a bit of trouble with the key because she was still bouncing to the music that was floating up from the hall. When she finally did get inside, she grabbed her lighter and a new pack of cigs from her messenger bag before heading back down.
On the way, she passed the other female in their group, whose name she didn't remember at the moment. Though even in her drunken state Marceline took note of how upset she looked as she flew past her up the stairs. She was there and gone too quickly for Marci to get her thoughts together and ask what was wrong, and she was feeling a bit too happy to want to mess with it by going to check what was wrong.
Selfish? Yes. But who wasn't even a little bit when they were intoxicated?
Marci proceeded out of the front doors and onto the grounds, taking out a stick from her pack and lighting up as soon as she cleared the threshold. Immediately she noticed another familiar figure ahead of her, also having a smoke. She took a step forward, her tongue running along the edges of her top row of teeth as she debated on making herself known.
Finally, she moved and spoke at the same time, careful to avoid the small suitcase that sat beside his feet. "Mr. Aust, yeah?"
"Hey," he replied, offering her a light but putting it away upon seeing that she was sorted, "How are you finding it?"
Marceline took a moment to respond, inhaling the smoke and letting it slide out of her mouth steadily as she observed him. He was definitely different from the rest of the company at the manor - much less wound up, in the many variations the phrase had for them. Michael was just sort of there, playing it like a normal human being. It was kind of nice to have a break from the extremes.
"Oh, everything is quite lovely. Quite, quite lovely." She said this in an exaggeratedly English accent, even going so far as to playfully flourish her cigarette in the air in a posh manner before flashing a little smirk. "Where did you disappear off to this afternoon? We didn't even get a chance to say thank you for saving us from the waiting room."
“Oh, I had business in Munich: I had to coordinate this lot here.”
"Mm, I see. Must've been a headache, hm? I'm sure Sol's pretty demanding for that standard of his."
“You can say that again.” Marci chuckled as she blew smoke up towards the sky, a bit surprised at how easy it was to talk to the man who had to arrange such a grandiose event.
She was tapping out her ash onto the ground when Michael spoke again, although he didn't seem to be talking to her. “Evening, princess.”
Marceline turned around to find that one of the Wolf twins (she still wasn't sure on how to tell them apart) was fast approaching them from the entrance hall. “Ja ja, grüß gott." She seemed to be making a beeline for the male, and when she arrived at their little gathering, she held out a hand towards him. “Gib.”
For a moment, Marci thought that Michael wasn't supposed to be smoking and that the twin had come out to confiscate his stick, but quickly realized it wasn't the case when he handed her her own cigarette and lit it for her.
“How are you, Marceline?”
Her eyebrows shot up a little on her forehead at being so directly addressed, and even more so when she realized she had no clue which name to call her. She quickly racked her brain to see if she could find a tell-tale sign as to which sister she was, and when she came up with nothing, settled for being witty.
After exhaling the pull she'd taken to cover up her thought process, she replied with a small, smug smile, "Oh, hello, princess." Her little joke was met with a really dirty chuckle from Michael and a very gentle glare from the woman. "I'm doing well, just needed to step out for a moment. And you?"
“Something like that. And call me Maria. I get enough of that from him.”
Phewf. She had a name.
Her blatant irritability, perhaps slightly soothed by the fact she had a cigarette (because aren’t they wonderful?), told Marceline that she wasn't too hotly.
"Something wrong?"
“Oh, an idiot crashed into me earlier, then I needed a cigarette but couldn’t find one and then I came out and didn’t bring a drink and now the whole evening is ruined.” There was a moment during which Marceline thought she was being completely serious, as she only wanting to be a darling guest and listen to her host's problems, but after watching Maria take ridiculously big puffs on the cigarette as a kind of mime for stress, she realized she was only joking.
“That sounds horrible." Michael deadpanned. Marceline laughed under her breath at his blank response.
"Well, it can only go up from here," she said, "I think the only solution here is to just get even more blasted after this cigarette and I can almost assure you all is not lost."
“Blasted?” Maria repeated, uncertain.
“Volltrunken," Michael answered, translating.
“I have a better idea.” The Wolf sister turned to Michael with her hand out as she reached the end of her cigarette. He automatically dug out his pack and offered it to her. Curious, Marci tapped out her ash again and turned her body to face them both, keeping the hand holding her clutch tucked underneath her other arm. She watched Maria take the whole damn thing and help herself to four sticks, putting them all in her mouth in a row.
Marceline's jaw dropped and Michael looked playfully appalled and affronted as she beckoned for the lighter. He dug that out of his breast pocket and handed it over as well before taking out a cellphone, which he began playing with in his hand. Maria took the lighter and proceeded light each cigarette that was hanging from her mouth, to which Marci responded with a, "No fucking way… You're crazy!"
Laughing in disgust and mostly awe, she watched the other female contort her face into weird shapes so that she could take drags from every stick. It wasn't the first time Marci had seen someone do something like this, but the fact that Maria Wolf, someone who has way more money than she has probably seen in her entire life, was acting a fool in front of her was something priceless.
She disposed of her cigarette on the floor after seeing Maria do it and took another from her pack, deciding not to repeat the Wolf's antics because she only brought like two packs over and didn't want to waste her sticks. She got a light from Maria and after settling into it, eyed the phone that Michael was still bouncing off his palm, rolling his fingers around, and doing tricks with. The sight made her habitually nervous, but also reminded her of a question she'd had. "Oh, I meant to ask, is there no service here? I just want to make sure my phone isn't bugging out because it won't connect to anything."
“Yeah, no, you won’t get anything round here,” Michael answered, still tossing the gadget into the air, “This is all they’re good for.”
Still nervous about the airborne phone, Marci kept her cigarette in her mouth so that at least one hand was free to try and catch it in case it slipped - emphasis on try. "Oh, wow, uh," she mumbled through her cigarette, "Haha, I see… Probably good anyway. I won't be tempted to have my nose glued to the screen."
Then Maria was saying something not remotely decipherable through her cigarettes. Realizing it wasn't working, she removed them all in a row in a very effective ‘v’ grip with her first two fingers and tried again. “That’s not your phone.”
“Would I do this with my own phone? I’m putting it in the bowl for one of our guests who forgot the rules.”
Marceline would have asked what the bowl business was about but Maria cut her thought off. “The bastard,” she commented, though she doesn't appear to be particularly concerned, “I’ll deal with it, anyway. You still have to get changed.”
Michael nodded and handed the cellular device over to his employer. “Thanks, princess.
"Dressed for what? You're already dressed aren't you?" Marci asked absentmindedly as she took another pull from the cigarette and blew it out into the sky again.
“I can’t just wear this. You’ve met Herr Wolf, haven’t you? The guy currently wearing, let me guess, white tie?” Aust joked, to which Maria nodded her head in confirmation.
“Mm, gotcha. Ah, yeah, thanks again for this dress.” Marci lifted her cigarette in a sort of 'cheers' to Maria, thinking that she must have had a hand in picking out the females' dresses. “It’s absolutely gorgeous. And very much to my taste, so… Good job on that. I may just keep it, but you didn’t hear that from me.” A few drunken giggles escaped her.
“You’re very welcome," the Wolf said, giving her a small smile before again taking another drag from her four victims.
“I suppose I ought to go get changed. I’ll see you both later.” Michael dropped the butt and ground it into the floor with his foot before scooping up the suitcase and heading into the manor.
Marci took another last pull from her own and let it fall to the ground as well, exhaling the smoke with a satisfied hum. "I think I'm gonna head back in, too. Getting thirsty. Coming?"
Maria shook her head and flicked her ash away, looking a mixture of silly and sophisticated with the line of cigarettes between her fingers. "I think I'm gonna stay out here for a little bit."
Nodding her head whilst stepping on the lipstick-covered butt with her heel, Marceline pushed her hair back behind her ears. "Alright, well I'll see you in there. It was nice speaking with you." Then flashing a big grin, she languidly made her way back into the party to find Félix for another glass.
- 9:00 PM
“Herr Wolf has a certain love of theatrics.”
Of course. Why did it not immediately occur to her that they were probably going to be presented at this party? It was, after all, being thrown in their honor. Duh.
Sol, who looked like he was positively shitting himself with sunshine, beckoned them all up to follow him and the family onto a balcony that encompassed the entire ballroom, which was now fully visible. The place was absolutely breathtaking, as was to be expected from the gorgeous manor. It was obvious right away that a majority of the room was made for dancing; if Marceline glanced over the railing, she could practically see herself in the polished floor while her ears were serenaded by the swing of the band set up on the stage ahead of them. Although the thought of being in the spotlight wasn't the worst thing she could imagine to happen on this wild ride, the grimaces on Klara and Félix's faces didn't exactly soothe her about it.
There was an avalanche of applause and encouragement from the crowd below them as Sol began his show, and before she knew it Klara was ushering her and the other two girls down the right side of the balcony as their host bellowed out their names by way of introduction. When they reconvened with the rest of the family at the other end, there was nothing else to do but smile and chuckle awkwardly at all the attention they were being given. Marceline was not nearly drunk enough to be basking in all of this gratuitous praise, and so kept fiddling with the clasp of her clutch until finally it was time for the guests to follow the Wolfs down onto the floor and out of focus.
Or so she thought. As soon as she stepped foot from the stairs she found herself being swept up by the German guests, who were all suddenly incredibly interested in her and the others. Perhaps they were simply saving their excitement back in the entrance hall?
Regardless, now her cheeks were being assaulted with kisses and her hand was being shaken like it was going out of style. It took all of her charm to maneuver her way out of the crowd to the edge of the room for a few moments, where luckily she found Félix lingering. She immediately asked him to get her two glasses the strongest drinks he could, and when he returned, she gulped down whatever it was that he'd mixed for her and replaced the glass in his hand in one go.
"Thank you very much, good sir," she half sang, half shouted over the music as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her thumb and forefinger, careful not to touch her lipstick, then clapped her other hand on the man's shoulder cheerfully and recomposed herself. "You are amazing," she said appreciatively to him, then more to herself, "Let's do this, baby."
Having not really eaten too much before the ball, the drinks hit her like a slap in the face. Within no time at all she became one of the fish in the sea that was the dance floor, finding herself being traded around from partner to partner and occasionally just grooving along by her lonesome; and even then, she was having a fantastic time. The music was great. The people were great. It was all great.
What would make it even better?
A fucking cigarette, of course!
- 11:41 PM
After having one last drink from Félix, Marceline scampered from the ball and up the stairs to her room, where she had a bit of trouble with the key because she was still bouncing to the music that was floating up from the hall. When she finally did get inside, she grabbed her lighter and a new pack of cigs from her messenger bag before heading back down.
On the way, she passed the other female in their group, whose name she didn't remember at the moment. Though even in her drunken state Marceline took note of how upset she looked as she flew past her up the stairs. She was there and gone too quickly for Marci to get her thoughts together and ask what was wrong, and she was feeling a bit too happy to want to mess with it by going to check what was wrong.
Selfish? Yes. But who wasn't even a little bit when they were intoxicated?
Marci proceeded out of the front doors and onto the grounds, taking out a stick from her pack and lighting up as soon as she cleared the threshold. Immediately she noticed another familiar figure ahead of her, also having a smoke. She took a step forward, her tongue running along the edges of her top row of teeth as she debated on making herself known.
Finally, she moved and spoke at the same time, careful to avoid the small suitcase that sat beside his feet. "Mr. Aust, yeah?"
"Hey," he replied, offering her a light but putting it away upon seeing that she was sorted, "How are you finding it?"
Marceline took a moment to respond, inhaling the smoke and letting it slide out of her mouth steadily as she observed him. He was definitely different from the rest of the company at the manor - much less wound up, in the many variations the phrase had for them. Michael was just sort of there, playing it like a normal human being. It was kind of nice to have a break from the extremes.
"Oh, everything is quite lovely. Quite, quite lovely." She said this in an exaggeratedly English accent, even going so far as to playfully flourish her cigarette in the air in a posh manner before flashing a little smirk. "Where did you disappear off to this afternoon? We didn't even get a chance to say thank you for saving us from the waiting room."
“Oh, I had business in Munich: I had to coordinate this lot here.”
"Mm, I see. Must've been a headache, hm? I'm sure Sol's pretty demanding for that standard of his."
“You can say that again.” Marci chuckled as she blew smoke up towards the sky, a bit surprised at how easy it was to talk to the man who had to arrange such a grandiose event.
She was tapping out her ash onto the ground when Michael spoke again, although he didn't seem to be talking to her. “Evening, princess.”
Marceline turned around to find that one of the Wolf twins (she still wasn't sure on how to tell them apart) was fast approaching them from the entrance hall. “Ja ja, grüß gott." She seemed to be making a beeline for the male, and when she arrived at their little gathering, she held out a hand towards him. “Gib.”
For a moment, Marci thought that Michael wasn't supposed to be smoking and that the twin had come out to confiscate his stick, but quickly realized it wasn't the case when he handed her her own cigarette and lit it for her.
“How are you, Marceline?”
Her eyebrows shot up a little on her forehead at being so directly addressed, and even more so when she realized she had no clue which name to call her. She quickly racked her brain to see if she could find a tell-tale sign as to which sister she was, and when she came up with nothing, settled for being witty.
After exhaling the pull she'd taken to cover up her thought process, she replied with a small, smug smile, "Oh, hello, princess." Her little joke was met with a really dirty chuckle from Michael and a very gentle glare from the woman. "I'm doing well, just needed to step out for a moment. And you?"
“Something like that. And call me Maria. I get enough of that from him.”
Phewf. She had a name.
Her blatant irritability, perhaps slightly soothed by the fact she had a cigarette (because aren’t they wonderful?), told Marceline that she wasn't too hotly.
"Something wrong?"
“Oh, an idiot crashed into me earlier, then I needed a cigarette but couldn’t find one and then I came out and didn’t bring a drink and now the whole evening is ruined.” There was a moment during which Marceline thought she was being completely serious, as she only wanting to be a darling guest and listen to her host's problems, but after watching Maria take ridiculously big puffs on the cigarette as a kind of mime for stress, she realized she was only joking.
“That sounds horrible." Michael deadpanned. Marceline laughed under her breath at his blank response.
"Well, it can only go up from here," she said, "I think the only solution here is to just get even more blasted after this cigarette and I can almost assure you all is not lost."
“Blasted?” Maria repeated, uncertain.
“Volltrunken," Michael answered, translating.
“I have a better idea.” The Wolf sister turned to Michael with her hand out as she reached the end of her cigarette. He automatically dug out his pack and offered it to her. Curious, Marci tapped out her ash again and turned her body to face them both, keeping the hand holding her clutch tucked underneath her other arm. She watched Maria take the whole damn thing and help herself to four sticks, putting them all in her mouth in a row.
Marceline's jaw dropped and Michael looked playfully appalled and affronted as she beckoned for the lighter. He dug that out of his breast pocket and handed it over as well before taking out a cellphone, which he began playing with in his hand. Maria took the lighter and proceeded light each cigarette that was hanging from her mouth, to which Marci responded with a, "No fucking way… You're crazy!"
Laughing in disgust and mostly awe, she watched the other female contort her face into weird shapes so that she could take drags from every stick. It wasn't the first time Marci had seen someone do something like this, but the fact that Maria Wolf, someone who has way more money than she has probably seen in her entire life, was acting a fool in front of her was something priceless.
She disposed of her cigarette on the floor after seeing Maria do it and took another from her pack, deciding not to repeat the Wolf's antics because she only brought like two packs over and didn't want to waste her sticks. She got a light from Maria and after settling into it, eyed the phone that Michael was still bouncing off his palm, rolling his fingers around, and doing tricks with. The sight made her habitually nervous, but also reminded her of a question she'd had. "Oh, I meant to ask, is there no service here? I just want to make sure my phone isn't bugging out because it won't connect to anything."
“Yeah, no, you won’t get anything round here,” Michael answered, still tossing the gadget into the air, “This is all they’re good for.”
Still nervous about the airborne phone, Marci kept her cigarette in her mouth so that at least one hand was free to try and catch it in case it slipped - emphasis on try. "Oh, wow, uh," she mumbled through her cigarette, "Haha, I see… Probably good anyway. I won't be tempted to have my nose glued to the screen."
Then Maria was saying something not remotely decipherable through her cigarettes. Realizing it wasn't working, she removed them all in a row in a very effective ‘v’ grip with her first two fingers and tried again. “That’s not your phone.”
“Would I do this with my own phone? I’m putting it in the bowl for one of our guests who forgot the rules.”
Marceline would have asked what the bowl business was about but Maria cut her thought off. “The bastard,” she commented, though she doesn't appear to be particularly concerned, “I’ll deal with it, anyway. You still have to get changed.”
Michael nodded and handed the cellular device over to his employer. “Thanks, princess.
"Dressed for what? You're already dressed aren't you?" Marci asked absentmindedly as she took another pull from the cigarette and blew it out into the sky again.
“I can’t just wear this. You’ve met Herr Wolf, haven’t you? The guy currently wearing, let me guess, white tie?” Aust joked, to which Maria nodded her head in confirmation.
“Mm, gotcha. Ah, yeah, thanks again for this dress.” Marci lifted her cigarette in a sort of 'cheers' to Maria, thinking that she must have had a hand in picking out the females' dresses. “It’s absolutely gorgeous. And very much to my taste, so… Good job on that. I may just keep it, but you didn’t hear that from me.” A few drunken giggles escaped her.
“You’re very welcome," the Wolf said, giving her a small smile before again taking another drag from her four victims.
“I suppose I ought to go get changed. I’ll see you both later.” Michael dropped the butt and ground it into the floor with his foot before scooping up the suitcase and heading into the manor.
Marci took another last pull from her own and let it fall to the ground as well, exhaling the smoke with a satisfied hum. "I think I'm gonna head back in, too. Getting thirsty. Coming?"
Maria shook her head and flicked her ash away, looking a mixture of silly and sophisticated with the line of cigarettes between her fingers. "I think I'm gonna stay out here for a little bit."
Nodding her head whilst stepping on the lipstick-covered butt with her heel, Marceline pushed her hair back behind her ears. "Alright, well I'll see you in there. It was nice speaking with you." Then flashing a big grin, she languidly made her way back into the party to find Félix for another glass.
