At the night of the Sugma Ball, Noel was wandering around with a drink in each hand. It had seemed that he has changed since the first time he entered the ball at the beginning, for reasons that had to be yet revealed. Now sporting a much more debonair appearance.

Without realizing it he had been standing in a very peculiar room. He wasn't quite inebriated yet, but he could tell loads of people around him were dancing to music off beat. While someone clapped to ghost notes, another was using boogie moves on a salsa beat. It begun irking him. The smooth sound of uptempo jazz is all he heard, becoming faster by the second.

He pursed his lips and downed both of his drinks, the music had become slower. The Pegasi mage headed towards a waiter to pick up more drinks. When doing this he overheard him say, "You're not drunk enough for this type of party." That wasn't actually what he said, that's what his midlife crisis made him hear. He sort of shrugged as a response, admitting that he may be right. The waiter actually mentioned that this room had a magic DJ.

Once more he walked around the rather large ballroom. People around him were still each throwing different dancing moves. Maybe the waiter earlier was right? Thought Noel, after downing two more drinks. He had to find another waiter than his previous. Rather than an existential crisis, he'd rather just have the drinks and not the talk. "What are you doing here Noel, you're way too old to be here." Another interaction with a waiter, much of what they said was replaced by what his midlife crisis caused him to think they said. The mood had turned sour. A slow burner emotional rock begun playing.

So he seated himself near a table. Totally jiving with the music he heard, still bothered about the people dancing to different tunes - it was unknown to him that this room immersively played music attuned to the persons emotion. Everyone heard a different tune. Whenever someone's emotion switched, a smooth transition occurred between genres corresponding to this feeling. He decided to use his magic to know more about what was going on. Under the table he sat at, he tapped his foot in a very particular way. His eyes lit up for a moment as he felt every vibration in a twenty meter radius. To be able to somewhat focus on the vibrations the male looked downwards and began trying to figure out patterns in the dancing. Maybe he could detect someone he knows personally?

This was one of the first times Noel ever used this spell in a room as crowded as this. Despite being a seasoned mage, a decorated hero- mastery over the subtleties of his gravity wizardry was its greatest challenge. The Blue Pegasi mage begun to stare into his glass, as his tunnel vision set off - scanning a wide radius around himself. With his head slightly bobbing to the beat he heard in his mind, his sensus led him to be lost in all the moving parts around him. For him to one day effectively use this in combat required being able to focus on the important bits. Filtering out all the spontaneous dancing was his first achievement.

As he was doing this a familiar person walked within the reach of his sensory. Couldn't tell why it felt familiar though.

His old man mentioned this once. Called it the warriors-ki. Was this a manifestation of that? Noel felt too much of a trickster to be able to do that naturally, he had to use his magic to do it.

It had to be at least meters away from him, as a conversation started to ensue with someone who felt very familiar. It truly was an interesting exercise to try and detect what was being said based on the vibration he could feel. While no normal human could overhear such conversation occuring at a loud party, with his vibration sense attuned to filtering away the dancing people he could make out what was happening based on the changing body language. The sound waves were too difficult to interpret.

Hyper-focusing had its downsides though, as he soon found himself to be standing in a line that had been formed for Venus. As he snapped out of this tunnel vision, a new number started playing.

He caught wind of rejection, realizing it was Venus - he had heard this voice before. It had been a while since they met. Noel appeared to have aged twenty years, now more properly corresponding to his true age. He couldn't recall if he ever told Venus how old he was.

Would she believe how it happened?

After all, how many other mortals ever visit the Fierdos Girdle for a long period of time. He felt a weird energy overcome him. When Noel initially met Venus, he was quite buff, tall. Then he became more bleak, lank, rimples had faded away due to many acquired powers emboldening his youth into his golden years. Now? Retirement wasn't quite there, but he was approaching the years where he visits places to decide where to buy a vacation condo. Young men get up for him in the trains. People he used to look up to were dead. Venus was among the last shining lights in his life.

"Hey Venus."

The taller male said over the head of the men in front of him.

"It's me."

Without skipping a beat Noel put his hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him and moved him away. Someone else behind Noel did the same to him, but when Noel turned his head they let go instead. He too was quite known. Forcing his way to the front of the line, Noel eventually came standing face to face with Venus and maybe an army of thirsty men behind him - scoping out whether they still had a shot. To be fair to them, she looked very charming yet elegant tonight. Quite funny, considering she was likely to have a reputation of being a bandit queen.

He reached out his open hand to hers, they were rougher than when they first met. "I know I've changed, ..." He'd look down on his hands, and then back into her eyes before blinking - removing the golden glow and halting his sensus ability.
"But if we could get a drink together, I can all explain." The weird energy from earlier gave him a feeling that he was about to get rejected the same way that other man just did. Perhaps what he felt for Venus was stronger than he initially thought. Otherwise he wouldn't have felt like this.
"I heard you sent me a letter, a courier from Hargeon told me the letter defaulted to my home." He had yet to read it. But he also wasn't about to talk about his emotions and whatnot in front of a crowd.

Noel upon saying hello to Venus couldn't overhear the 'no' uttered, but saw her body language change - namely by her changing her position to get ready to walk away. His weird feeling began growing; as the idea of him betraying Venus hadn't crossed his mind. It didn't stop him from taking initiative and extending his hand to hers, he first had the idea to be prince charming with this move, and kiss the top of her hand; but alas the situation didn't seem to call for prince charming to be present at the moment. An impression was created that Venus wanted to talk to prince adult instead. Her optics were changing - as if a crescendo of emotions soared within those crimson eyes. Anger, sorrow, loneliness, betrayal, acceptance. The Blue Pegasi male flinched for a moment, fearing something bad was about to happen. Arisa once fielded eyes with intensity such as Venus', and that wound up becoming violent for a moment.

Luckily it seemed things had begun to calm down a little when he suggested they move away from the crowd a little. When she explained that she was waiting for him, he felt his heart drop a little bit - obviously the letter called out for him, maybe even in a time of need. And he didn't show up, evidently. Noel began feeling bad, the absence caused by the journey he had taken to find himself in the Fierdos Girdle led to Venus' trust in Noel to deteriorate. Those words were painful, perhaps more painful than a strike has ever been dealt to him in an enemy engagement. A cold drop of sweat ran down the back of his neck. "I... I..." He didn't have the right words to be able to reply. Before he could construe a response Venus continued. Claiming he got bored after sleeping with her a couple of times - if that were true Noel wouldn't feel his heart pounding as fast as it was.

Demanding answers from a man described as stoic by many others into his emotions was nihil impossible. Noel accepted mentally he needed to change in order to continue his ways with Venus.

The dancing in the room came to be paused in his head; the manifestation of both an Angel and a Devil came into existence on Noels shoulders. Everything save for the two holy figures had stopped in time. "Pretend we're having a heart attack, you're old, you can make it work." Said the devil on his left. "No! Without Venus this world is not worth living!" Replied the angel. Noel realized that these were mental manifestations - something nobody other than him could see. "She will pity us. Time will mend this. She's tipsy, look at her, she didn't mean it." The angel was angry at this notion. "If we're so good at fighting how come you won't fight for your woman too!?" This wasn't helping. The two figures on his shoulders poofed the next instant. This representation of his inner turmoil defined Noels character. Time continued as normal.

Noel reached out for Venus' hand again, without pause, and raised it to his chest - putting it right above his heart and cupping her hand with his own. "Venus, this is not the sound of a beating heart of a man who thinks you're a fling." He'd look to his right and left for a moment, making sure nobody other than Venus heard what he said next. "This is the sound of a heart that is in love. You are not a fling, 愛してます - I love you." Both devil and angel were right, she seemed tipsy there was a good chance that she unintentionally said those things. That didn't deter Noel from speaking his soul. Her hand felt very cold, but that was something he alluded to have happened thanks to her alcohol intoxication. The idea that she had become a vampire hadn't crossed his mind. Maybe he sub consciously chose to ignore that from being true. He'd let go of her hand. "I'm afraid of being around you, Venus. I'm afraid.. something will happen - you're thé Bandit Queen you know. I'm with Blue Pegasus. The beacon of the South." These were some of the deeper philosophical issues Noel was having - something he now thought Venus could also think about, as she's shown great growth in maturity since they last met.

He extended his arm towards her, to chivalrously escort her. "Let's sit down somewhere, order a drink or two - and have a talk about this." He wasn't being prince charming with her, as he used to be, this was a much more open side of Noel. Had she accepted his proposition, he'd led her to a table - which he would sit down on opposite side, not before pulling the chair she could sit on back from the table as a man would in that time.