It was like a flurry. A snowy flurry. White lace ribbons of hair swirling up into the air at each graceful bound. Haloing around the grim ghostly pale face that was graced by a generous array of shadow play. These dark gradients collected heavily under her eyes, highlighting each snowy white strand of hair and reflecting dangerously off pale lips. Shadowy caterpillars washed over each fluttering white lash, metamorphosing into shimmers of light when two icy blue orbs slid open to chase them away.

The open, private stage was nothing new to Alice. It was far sunder to the common elaborate ballrooms she usually practiced in, but with all the more blaring light of distraction overhead. The lights made it harder to cast her gaze into the invisible audience. There was none, and she had made it a mental focus never to imagine one. At the haven of the stage, she was in control of each flowing action. Monarchy to elegance and grace and oppressed by only her dark inner monologues. The stage was where the white spider often spun her hypnotic threads. It was her natural domain - her own true sanctuary. Away from the prying eyes of everyone but herself. From  those eyes. Her eyes.

Twirling around, she leapt into the air, lashing out on arm at the height of her bound as if to strike down upon an imaginary enemy. She landed on her toes, ignoring a soft, sinewy crack, only to implant another soft shoed foot to keep herself stabilized, and quickly straighten her spine to commence a bounding twirl. The performance was all pulled from mechanic memory. Bending and twirling and rebounding with grace in an elegant ballet-waltz with a phantom partner. Swirling into the last routine, she pivoted her foot at a sharp nine degree angle and reeled back on one leg with a memorizing roll of her arms. This was it. The last position. The snowy white temptress elevated herself once more on her toes, but before she could swirl in one last chiming twirl, her foot slipped out from underneath her, and she slipped on her own perspiration.

The impact was defiantly heard, yet not felt. It rattled emptily through the nonexistent crowd. Alice growled in frustration, icy eyes narrowing under the heated glare of the theater lights. "No good." She hissed between gritted teeth. She wasn't concentrating. She couldn't. Not when she felt the presence of another's eyes on her from somewhere. But where? Who? A stray butterfly in the presence of her web perhaps? For once, she half hoped not. Such an inelegant display would only sour her impression. And being in an entirely new area, her threads would be weak. She needed experience with her new grounds in order to successfully spin a stronger devious web.  

There were important things that needed to be..."acquired" in the theater.  Naoko hadn't been all that active, as of late.  It was her last year and she still needed to do one last thing.  Something to really shake things up.  And after the Winter Ball, she had an idea of how to do just that.  All it would take was a little trickery.  And She certainly enjoyed her trickery.  So, she grabbed a few things and stuffed them into her backpack.  There weren't big things, so they wouldn't even be missed.  But, they would certainly come in handy later on.

As she made her way to the exit, something caught the teal haired girl's attention.  Someone was practicing a dance routine, out on the stage and Naoko poked her head out to see just who it was.  And fortunately for her, managed to catch the performance at just the right time.  A pale, white haired girl took quite the spill.  At least if you were judging it by the sound, which bounced all over the empty theater.

She switched the straps of her bag over to another shoulder and sauntered over, a smirk stretched out across her face, "Yikes, that was quite the wipe out." she remarked to the fallen girl, "But, better to mess up when no one's around right?"

She looked around, before she shrugged and offered a hand to the girl, "Well...almost no one."

A voice. Alice kept her gaze transfixed on the stage floor at first, then on the hand that was offered to her. It appears as if someone had witnessed the ungrateful fall. A mock disappointment, but certainly not something worth stressing over. Not yet, at least.

"A reasonable philosophy." She responded monotonously. She wasn't the type to inject emotion into her voice unless required. Though, she could admit she had more or less genuinely tried.

A pale hand extended to take the other's. She let her ivory fingers hover for a moment above the open palm before lowering them to establish light contact. Icy blue eyes flicked up to meet the other's. Silhouetted against the glaring lights, past that generous arm, unfolded a smirk. Beyond that smirk existed a girl with blue-green hair and an aura that exuded that of a natural troublemaker. Well, maybe natural was the incorrect word, but she certainly did seem like the troublemaking type. Something with the characteristics of that smirk and those blue eyes.

When Alice was eased to her feet, she clutched the edges of her skirt to curtesy. It was low and fleeting, but she had tried to make it graceful as to substitute for her ungraceful fall. A fruitless endeavor now that the mishap was still fresh in both of their minds, though it simply couldn't be helped. "To whom do I owe my gratitude?"

Maybe "gratitude" was the incorrect word too. Though she tried to select elegant, favorable language. Anything to dissolve any amount of distrust as to establish at least a subtle, light air of comfortability.

The contrast between the other girl's pale skin and the darker tone of Naoko's was quite apparent when she took hold of it.  Even more so, when you took the black finger less glove she wore into account, as well.  With a helpful hoist from the teal haired girl, the dance was back on her feet.  In spite of the earlier misstep, she seemed to possess a certain air of grace and poise.  She even gave a curtsy, in a show of gratitude.  Quite the interesting one, this girl seemed to be. 

"Kaneko." she answered, "Kaneko Naoko.  But, you can go ahead and call me Naoko."

While the other girl elected to sound as sophisticated as she could, this was not the approach that Naoko tended to take.  She looked every bit as casual as she sounded.  Contrasts were all about, it would seem.  But, perhaps there might be a few areas of overlap.  Besides, Naoko could always make her own fun.

"How about yourself?" she said, "What do folks call you?"

There was a thick, casual air about the girl. It made Alice feel a bit ridiculed at her own high exemplum of grace. Two contrasting poises. Yet contrasts were not all that unwelcome -- they kept things interesting; unique. It had almost been too long since she had been in the presence of such a relaxed, casual soul. A bit perplexing, yes, but not entirely uncomfortable. Naoko, was it? A peculiar name. But certainly not befitting of the girl before her.

And then came the request for her own introduction. What did folks call her? She had many a name - many a stage alias and symbolic nickname. Only one could be weeded from the overflowing garden in the end, and that was the somewhat plain name Alice. It was an allusion to Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. Why, she still had yet to conclude, but over time it had come to suit her she guessed. A strange girl meshed in the threads of the world. On a chess board facing the monstrous Red Queen. With no pawns yet at her disposal, she had no tactics of which to strike at the moment. She was momentarily just a mere shadow in the Red Queen's sickly grin. Though she endeavored to soon change that. For deep within her mind, unbeknownst to her, it was not the Red Queen, but her own mirror image, the snowy White Queen, that was her opponent.

"Alice Shigeki Chantal Himeno." A mouthful indeed, yet she pronounced all with faulty. The alabaster spider rarely supplied the entirety of her name under normal circumstances. But this girl had her interest piqued, if only in the slightest at the moment. Yes, something about that casual air. It was a bit of a quiz, the revelation of her full name - as she sat back on her invisible chess board to observe how the girl would address her. Each aspect of her name had been utilized at one time or another by many a competent mouth. Some were more frequented than others. Few rotted in the shadows until special circumstances bubbled it to the surface.  

"You may address me by whichever you wish," she added quietly. Assuming a thoughtful pose, she rested an elbow atop her slightly slanted other arm and gently lay her narrow chin upon it, looking the girl over with her frosted gaze.

Alice, as that turned out to be her name, certainly had a bit of a frosty air about her.  Cold and rather detached.  Actually, it complimented her elegant posture quite nicely.  And while Naoko would never be called "warm", she was certainly a few degrees warmer than Alice.  While the white haired girl took a moment to study her, it only seemed fair that she do the same in return.  Instead of gently propping her chin up, Naoko rested a hand on her hip and tilted her head to the side.  The posture almost threatened to cover both of her eyes, entirely.

One thing was clearly evident.  Both appeared to be quite confident.  It was just in how they carried that confidence that seemed to be the key difference.  "Well then, Alice, good to meet ya." she said.  Despite the fact that it was a foreign name, Naoko spoke it with relative ease.  The campus seemed to have quite the mix of foreign students.  Although Alice, herself, had plenty of Japanese influence in her full name.

Judging by her own appearance, one might assume that Naoko came from a similarly mixed background.  Not that she had ever cared to look into the matter, at all.

"So, you got some big dance coming up?' she asked, "Or, is all this just for the hell of it?"

There wasn't any judgement behind the question.  The girl was intriguing enough to continue a conversation and so Naoko was going to do just that.  She already got what she came her for, anyways, so why not pass by the time?

Two polar opposites. Not only in introduction, but stance. A contrast between casual and colloquial. A battle of the times, modern in contrast to eloquent, in some sorts. Something about that pose instilled an insecurity in the white haired girl that wished to step forward and brush the hair from the other girl's eyes. Though she avoided eye contact at all cost, she felt more secure - perhaps a bit more in control - when she could see one's colored orbs. Such a casual disposition... Yet her venomous web nor battlefield of the chess board unfurled to strike anything against it. Naoko was genuinely interesting. What would be the harm of just casually conversing for once?

As for the name, it seemed as though she had settled on Alice. Just as she had expected. Though, at the same time, she had expected her family name to be used. With Naoko's casual disposition, however, it didn't surprise her too much. What did was that she had pronounced it with excellence despite her full Japanese sounding name. Perhaps there were many foreign students at Astrea? Or maybe Naoko herself was mixed as well. Alice was, for the most part, Japanese. But it was the blood of her father who supplied a foreign hint of French into the Himeno family line.

"In sorts, you could say that." She answered with an elegant flick of an ivory hand. "I am to continue my routines of waltz and ballet throughout my time here at this academy."

The information was vague, yet enough to scourge up a decent conclusion. Alice wasn't one to let people in to her business. Personal or not. However, she was quite fond of manipulation. Though whether she'd utilize it in the current situation was entirely up to perception. A spider needed to first string strong threads before it could dare to attempt to capture a wayward insect in its web. And Naoko was far from such a stray, absentminded insect. Similarly to that fiery Spica girl Raion.

It was hardly an answer, but what it lacked in specificity did tell Naoko a couple of things.  Perhaps it was something she could delve into, deeper...should the Le Rim girl care to.  This girl certainly was thinking about things in the long term.  She smirked a bit.  As a Senior, Naoko gathered that she wouldn't be around long enough to see what those big plans would amount to.  She had some plans of her own, of course.

"Well, sure hope you have your fun." she said, "I know I had quite a bit."

She chuckled a little.  "Fun" was definitely one way of putting her time on Astraea Hill.  Profitable, sure, but what was the sense in doing anything if you couldn't enjoy yourself while you did it?  There was something in all the elegance and vagueness that hinted there was something lurking just beneath the surface.  One could also call it a gut feeling.

"Is dancing all you're planning on doing?  Or do you have a few other...'extracurricular' interests?" the phrase could have meant any number of things.  And Naoko certainly intended to leave it's interpretation up to Alice.

Fun? She supposed one could call her intentions "fun", although they weighed on the borderline of malicious in reality. Still, the way the other girl had said it had sparked the spider's interest further. What kind of "fun" had Naoko had here? What kinds of deeds had she done here that befitted the smirk on her lips? Alice could only wonder. Perhaps something devious or fitted to cause a sense of trouble? She concluded quite draw a conclusion to the muse.

"Of such interests, I can admit I do have a few." She couldn't prevent the start of an infectious smirk from crawling across her pale lips. Alice had been enrolled into the academy to be educated - no, molded - into the perfect, proper lady. She was to enhance her grace and mannerisms further through dance here, specifically ballet and waltz, while banishing any selfish, poignant areas of rebellious inelegant nature. Though an outwardly frozen soul, she never misplaced a moment or thought for uncanny mischief or manipulation of others. It was all part of her internal game of chess. A game which she intended to struggle against until she won, one way or another.

A smirk began to form on the pale girl's stoic features.  She had guessed correctly and Naoko certainly loved when she was right about something.  Especially when it came to discovering a kindred spirit.  Trouble was always more fun with good company.  "Ah, now there is something to talk about." she said, her smirk slipping into a half grin.  Now, a fighter this girl was not.  She didn't look like the type who would go around swinging fists.  But, there was all sorts of mischief one could conjure up, in lieu of getting into fights.  And the opportunities were endless, to someone who had a little imagination.

"Now, I look at you and I see a gal who can tell a few stories." she went on.  "What do ya say?  You tell me one, I'll tell you one."

It seemed like a fair trade.  And Naoko had a few in her back pocket that she could pull out, depending one what direction the white haired girl elected to go in.  Some of those being just a little more scandalous than others.  A harmless prank here, a few "borrowed" items there...and just about everything in between.

Stories, hm? It had been quite a while since she had relayed any sort of oral telling of her many tales. They were coiled in her arachnid web like fragile, budding drops of rain; shuddering and hanging suspended but never once surpassing so much as threatening to fall. Some were small, while others were swollen to an immense degree. She wasn't even sure where to begin. Which to say, which to say? Ah, maybe that one would do.

"Three years ago, there was a girl." She began, taking a few steps off to a random direction whilst administering another lethargic flick of a hand. There was a limp present from somewhere in her ankle, yet she seemed not to care nor even notice. "A rival of mine with bloody red eyes and blair as hack as night." She stopped herself for a moment at the presence of the spoonerism. Ivory canines sank subconsciously into her tongue, erecting the metallic taste of blood. Dang her occasional speech follies.

"Hair as black as night." With the correction more or less solidified, she resumed her slow pacing around the stage, hoping it hadn't soured her impression, "We knew each other as children and well into elementary. We matured into the early stage of junior high together, yet our tensions never fleased to care....ceased to flare." There reared another one. "I presented her with many a false letter of admiration from many an unsuspecting student - humiliated and dominated her through excursions of mischief and mayhem, challenges and skirmishes. All the while taking out multiple birds with one polished stone. She never seemed to learn the truth about spiders nor widows of any sort. For once you get ensnared in their web; trapped by your own unaware foolishness; once they are out of your sight - there is little to do but hope to be freed from that snaring web."

She was almost directly behind Naoko now. Not as close as she usually got to people, but she didn't have any intentions nor found any interest in them. It was just habit, she guessed. A quizzical test of a reaction, too, perhaps. Some loathed others out of their field of vision, others became paranoid, and others still provided no expression at all. How would a fellow mischief-maker react? She was interested, yet didn't want to remain too long as to accidently impose any wrongful assumptions. She glided quickly back into view with a few light taps of her shoes. The blaring heated theater lights above created a snowy ripple across her white lacy mane as she moved.

"Like a pawn, I eventually destroyed her base and worked up to the fortifications, utilizing her own foolish short-comings against the strengths. Until--" she paused to flick her icy gaze back onto the teal haired girl, clicking two polished nails together, "--checkmate. Straight into the spider's web." The soft click evaporated almost instantly around the spacious theater. Her throat felt dry. It had been too long since she had spoken so much. Leaning back on her apparently hurt ankle, she kept her spine rigid and looked to Naoko as if for her thoughts on the story. Almost like a student looking towards a masterful sensei. Yet Alice was no mere student nor an inexperienced one at that.  

The white haired dance spun a very interesting yarn.  Or web, if one truly wanted to stick with the "spider" theme she seemed to have quite an affinity for.  Even with the odd spoonerism tossed in, here and there.  But, it was a story that had all the fun things.  Suspense, intrigue and revenge.  Although what had instigated that rivalry was not a detail Naoko was privy to.  There might not have even been a specific event that sparked it off.  All the while, she took a stroll around the stage.  A path which circled it's way around Naoko.

A blue eye tracked her movement, until she was no longer able to follow the girl.  The Lulim girl did not appear to be very concerned.  She could still listen to the other girl, after all.  And for the moment, there was no reason to suspect any ulterior motives from her.  Besides, if it really came down to a physical confrontation, Naoko was never lacking in any confidence when it came to how she could handle herself.  She found Alice out of the corner of her eye as the girl continued her loop and her story.

"Bravo." she said, upon it's conclusion, "Always nice to show someone who's boss."

Naoko gave a broad smirk, along with her approval.  It was starting to sound like the younger girl was quite schemer.  At least that seemed to be the case, according to her own story.  Which meant that Naoko was up, in their little quid pro quo.  She bandied about a couple of possibilities.

"Kinda reminds me of something.  Way back in the day, at my old school, I had a nosy girl who just always seemed to get in my way.  Probably wasn't that big a deal in retrospect, but I had something of a little business to run!  So, of course, I had to make sure she had bigger problems to deal with.  Sorta like what you did, me and my pals worked on setting up a little 'secret admirer'.  Strung her along for a while, kept her outta our hair.  Haha!  Oh, you shoulda seen her face when I told her what the deal was!  Man, she sure tried to beat the hell outta me.  In the middle of school, too.  Heh, shoulda kept a cooler head and she might not have gotten the boot.  Of course, I wound up on my bottom, too...but, that's a completely different story." she shrugged a shoulder and chuckled, "For another time, perhaps."

Her tale seemed to pass in a favorable light in a smirk and a few congratulatory words. A relief of sorts, yet the word "relief" didn't reflect any sort of emotion within the white haired schemer. She wasn't sure what she felt about the approval. Maybe a sense of pride, but not something she intended to elevate above herself. Here she was no one -- fated to work her way up from the bottom and fortify an even stronger web than in her "hunting grounds" in junior high. Who knows, perhaps this graduated troublemaker could give her some tips? Although spiders didn't really work well with others.

As for the reaction of her little circle around the girl, she found it kind of refreshing. Being able to disappear out of one's sight and to waltz in it with them now completely vulnerable without even a flinch. It was honestly a nice change for once. Stationary now, she reassumed her position of resting her chin on a hand, wrapping the other around her thin waist in order to prop her elbow up onto it.

Naoko weaved a tale in exchange. A similar story of similar schemes, though with a ending sunder to hers. Because hers didn't quite have an ending yet. She had left that part out, but of course, the other girl could conclude whatever she wanted. Still, Naoko's story intrigued her overall. An obstacle manifested in the form of a nosy girl, a "secret admirer" scheme to combat her, a fight to conclude it. Yes, quite interesting indeed. How Alice would have loved to see that girl's face when all was revealed. It was a face she new quite well as a schemer, yet one she never quite tired of.

"A most intriguing story indeed, Naoko-san. An applaudable ending, as well." Alice offered with a soft clap her hands. "I wouldn't mind hearing that other story some time either." She added, a light smirk fluttering across her pale lips.

Naoko was proving to be quite an interesting soul indeed. Perhaps even a bit of a troublemaking role model if she ended up leaving that much of an impression. She sure seemed experienced. Alice could only wonder what knowledgeable schemes lay in that so far intriguing brain.

"Ah, thank you, thank you." she said, giving a theatrical bow to the soft applause.  It was always nice to have an audience that appreciated your talents.  And it was so rare for Naoko to find a girl who shared her particular "tastes".  She still wasn't all that sure about Alice, however.  There were a few things she would be leaving behind after she graduated.  And Naoko wanted to make sure they were left in the proper hands.  After all, it would be a shame for all her hard work to go to waste.

Perhaps she could still leave a few things with this newcomer.  Depending on her temperament and how much of what she enjoyed was purely for her own amusement or if she was also interested in making a few extra yen on the side.  That could come later, however.  For now, she would have to get going with her current project.

"Well, I ought to let you get back to it." she said, offering a wave to the pale girl, "I'm easy enough to find, should ya need me.  Especially if you need get anything 'discreetly'."

It appeared as if the girl had to leave. Or rather, let her return to her ballet rehearsal. Alice couldn't help but smirk a little. Maybe she would seek out Naoko sometime. That is, if she found a reason too. She certainly seemed masterful in the field of schemes. And masterful is what Alice needed to become. Not that she wasn't too far off already, in her mind that was, but little scraps of experience could help down the way. Especially in this new, unfamiliar territory.

"Thank you, Naoko-san. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She performed another elegant bow, though this time stooped a little lower. It was only slightly, but could be noticed with the discerning eye.

Naoko had earned her respect. A good portion of it, at least. She was an interesting character overall, and a seasoned schemer at that. Perhaps Alice could learn a thing or two from her one time.