Dance Dance Reprobation

[magicademymods]

The Twilight Ball Arrival The Promenade has been transformed. Literally. With Modification. Ha ha. Cough. Crickets. Toad familiars eat the crickets. Circle of life. Animals bow before singing lions. You get the idea. Neither tree nor stone form the Promenade now. It is instead a long bridge over a shallow and brilliant pool, the gentle ripples of which catch the afternoon sun and scatter it into a million highlights that play over the Great Hall, the bridge, and those who walk down it. There is no formal receiving line, merely a gentle procession of people across the bridge at whatever speed feels comfortable, slowly making their way to the Great Hall. The Great Hall itself has been enchanted to be completely invisible while one is inside it, save for the outline of doors so people can actually find their way out through means other than smacking their noses into the invisible walls till they find a place with no resistance. Thus the twilight for which the ball is named will show all around the dancers, while they are protected from any errant breezes, faint hints of rain, or slime monsters that might otherwise threaten the festivity. Come in. Find your date and get comfortable. The fun is just beginning. Let the Revels Begin After Headmaster Birony welcomes everyone with a speech about she's going to get on her boat, go upriver, and kick that sonuvabitch Bison's ass so HORDT that the next Bison-wannabe is gonna feel it, the dance formally begins with a peppy number designed to get people out and moving. The orchestra here comprises some of the finest players available anywhere in the world, thanks to the whole Valhudor shtick and graduates of said house, and the music is infectious as it drifts through the slowly-darkening air. But as the dance progresses, they play something for everyone. Martial waltzes and slow dance ballroom numbers. Powerful tunes to lose yourself in, and gentle melodies that slip beneath conversation and encourage intimacy and closeness. Professors Trammel and King treat everyone to an exhibition of what an Earth resident might call 'swing dancing on amphetamines' and many students do call 'the closest I have ever come to death'. No pause for speeches, no announcements or interruptions -- just a steady stream of music, bringing dates and lovers together in dance, as the sun sets and casts the room into gentle and romantic twilight. Also a dolphin and a whale are swimming through the floor and they, too, are unmistakably dancing. If this is the weirdest thing you've seen all night, you need your eyes checked. "Food! One of the food tables has been discreetly slid against a wall, where it positively shudders under the weight of a massive buffet open to everyone. The food here tends towards the light, such as fish and vegetables, cucumber sandwiches and thin-sliced meats. Things that will give you energy without weighing you down, so you can keep dancing till the dawn comes. At one end of the table, an owl the size of a cupboard sits on a perch, serenely watching the varied drinks laid out for consumption. 'Spiking the punch' is so cliche that no one is going to pretend it won't happen or the students will behave on their honor, so here you get a chaperone. Even so, this whole area is a popular gathering spot for those between dances or partners, drawing steady attention throughout the night. Meanwhile, Elsewhere Shockingly, not everyone has found that loving feeling, asked out an attractive someone, and gone to the dance with romance on their minds. The rest of the campus, and of course Anastara itself, remain open as normal... and perhaps even less-minded than normal. The faculty, the familiars, the cleaning golems -- almost all attention is on the dance itself. If there's mischief to manage, now would be the perfect time... or just something else besides wallflowering and missing out. Wait, Wasn't There a Ghost Dragon and an Off-Brand Shoggoth? Professor King managed to find a way around the protoplasmic ooze's resistance to magic and splatted it (with no small amount of help from students and faculty!). The dragon disappeared into the caverns beneath the Magicademy. That certainly isn't ominous and won't inspire anyone to go down there, will it? Don't fall in the river down there. Please don't fall in the river.

Comments

[talkyourwayout]

"Oh! Wow, I didn't know, uh... I'm sorry, Jecht." The man may not seem bothered, but Louie still felt like an idiot. But how could have known that there were nonexistent people here, besides Lena?

Oh god, Lena.

"So you're just... Going to stay here forever? You don't think they'll be able to send you back home? Bring you back?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"I sure hope they don't! Even if I went back... there's nothing for me there but bad memories." Auron and Braska were long gone. His kid, the same position he was in. "This place is a lot better for me."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie was not entirely used to the feeling of anxiety, at least, not in this sort of situation. It wasn't fun, and for that reason - and for the sake of focusing on the subject of Jecht's life - he tried to set thoughts of Lena and her fate aside for now.

"Oh. I, uh... I didn't know that, either. Sorry," he mumbled. "But you like it here, then? That's good."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Hey. Quite getting all melancholy on me!" Jecht leaned down a little to give the duckling a solid whack on the back, the sort of locker-room companionship a guy like him understood. "Damn straight I like it here! I got no worries, I got things to do, and I got a life to live. It's the best!"

[talkyourwayout]

Louie stumbled at the clap on the back, looking up grumpily for a moment before he laughed it off. "Yeah, okay. Although I don't know if this is the best. But I guess it's not bad here, either."

He would not define this place as being free from worry, for one thing, but why should he bring down Jecht's mood by reminding him of, for example, ghost dragons lurking around?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Still better than Sin, kid.

"Hey, hard to argue with being alive and all. Why worry about much else?"

[talkyourwayout]

"Because I like staying alive?" Louie ventured, but he said that with a smirk, teasingly.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Then get strong. Easiest way. You get tough like me, even the garbage stuff that comes along won't take you down!" No need to worry about ghost dragons or spell mishaps when you can take a beating with the best of 'em and keep going.

[talkyourwayout]

Huh, Louie had not been expecting a more serious answer there, but his smart-alec remark had been based in truth. He was curious, now.

"Okay, I'm listening. How do I get strong, if it's so easy?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Jecht looked around, making sure no one was looking or listening in, then he crouched down suddenly, popping a fist to the ground to support himself.

"You work at it," he said, very quietly, like it was a secret. "You train and you exercise and you stick to it."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie groaned. He wasn't sure why he'd been expecting anything else, but it was still frustrating.

"How is that easy?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"'Cuz you gotta not think of it as anything but easy. You do just a little more every day, till one day that little more's a lot more than when you started!"

[talkyourwayout]

"People say that like it makes doing a hard thing actually easy. It doesn't."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Pff. Do a push-up when you get home. Just one. Tell me that's hard."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie sighed. "Yeah, I guess I could do that."

Whether or not he actually would - well, it was hard to say.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Heh," Jecht said, not bothering to push the point. "If you enjoy it, it ain't work. That's really all there is to it. So if you want something like that but you don't like it, you gotta change your own mind."

[talkyourwayout]

"So basically I'd need to convince myself I enjoy it?" That actually didn't sound too difficult.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Yeah. I mean, look at people who study and read a lot. They do it because they like it, not just 'cuz they want to pass. Look at me playing bala-inlota -- no one would do that just for money and fame, you'd do it because you damn well enjoy it! Liking what you do is how you keep doing it."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie snickered. "Yeah, my brother's like that. The one who's here."

He had to admit Jecht had a point - even with his desire for money, he wouldn't do anything for it. It had to be something that he liked. Making money just made it easier to like something, for him.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Like magic. I can't stand the boring class stuff, so I barely pay attention to it. But spells that work for bala-inlota, I'm all into. One's crappy work, one's chasing what I like. So what gets YOU going?"

He didn't have a good read on the kid, who mostly came off laid-back and lackadaisical.

[talkyourwayout]

Not being someone others could get a good read on was kind of Louie's way. It wasn't that he wanted to be mysterious, he just... Didn't have the best read on himself, either.

He shrugged at the question. "I like making money," was the simple answer at first. But he found himself elaborating. "I like that moment where I see how I can make something work - a business plan or something like that. I like finding patterns in how things happen, and figuring out how to make those patterns work for me."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Jecht barked out a laugh, grinning as he folded his arms to regard the duck. "That's how exercise works, y'know. You could make that one hell of a pattern. Work out the exercises and reps that'll get you what you want the most efficiently, and every time you do it you can gloat about working the system."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie had to laugh, as well. "Well... That doesn't sound too bad, then."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Exactly. And if you don't let on what you're doing, you just look like you're getting better and more incredible from sheer natural talent." Something Jecht knew a thing or two about. PR was damn important!