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

[darkenedmoon]

Finally, she'd dragged Jecht away from the buffet table. Not that she'd been able to eat--the excitement of the night had Yotsuyu's stomach full of butterflies. She had already had a dance or two with Hendrik, and a few others, but it was only proper that she actually danced with the one she'd asked.

Even if Yotsuyu had only asked Jecht because she was certain he wouldn't have a bad time, whether he danced with her or not. That and she had to admit that they'd made a fashionable pair as they'd entered--though she was prideful enough to take most of the credit for that, as well.

"I hope you have not had a bad time of it, waiting for me," she said.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Good things are worth waiting for, huh?" Heh, he knew what line to fire back at that! Honestly, he was pretty happy Yotsuyu had unbent enough to enjoy herself here... even if that had to be filtered through 'Yotsuyu' in general. Her laughing happily and smiling openly probably was a sign of the end times, right?

[darkenedmoon]

"How trite," Yotsuyu sniffed. There was that filter again. However, she was smiling--perhaps not as openly as Jecht might like, but she was hardly covering it with a hand or attempting to hide it.

Perhaps the end times were coming, after all.

"So were you enjoying yourself? Not that I think you might find that difficult, but I am curious. How is the food?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Pretty sure I could starve to death eating it," he groused. Given his calorie intake that might almost be true. "But hey, so long as it keeps me going till we get outta here, I'm good. Maybe we should crash a late-night place out in town when we're done, huh?"

[darkenedmoon]

"I am still not certain I could eat." Though it was true Yotsuyu could watch Jecht eat, if only because it was like watching a sideshow attraction. The amount of food the man could put away was truly amazing.

Although it might make her coinpurse whimper its way into submission...

"We could stop so you could eat, at least." Far be it from her to make him suffer more than he already had. Being her date! Having to dress up! Horrors abound!

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Hey, we got a while before that's a problem. By the time we finish dancing you'll probably be starving!" His preferred styles weren't exactly slow and quiet waltzes or whatever the hell, after all. They were gonna move!

[darkenedmoon]

He was going to have to let her catch her breath, then, because she was both unfamiliar with those sorts of dances, and perhaps a bit out of shape. Not terribly so, though--Yotsuyu walked to class, and everywhere else she chose to go, as well.

"Perhaps. Did you have a place in mind? I do not often find myself off campus in the middle of the night, searching for a meal, you understand..."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Naw, but you know me. I'm easygoing about that sort of thing so long as they have good food." He figured she was a picky eater. She just had that sort of air about her, right?

[darkenedmoon]

He'd be wrong. In her ill-tended youth, she hadn't had much of a choice to be picky--it was eat what, if anything, she was given, or go without. Now, she still ate little--but she ate like a bird, a little at a time, but often, when she got the chance.

Her parents were wonderful people.

"Then one might think you would also know where to find good food? If you are out searching for it at late hours..." Was it so far a stretch? He wasn't a complete idiot, after all.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Yeah, at that time of night you stop getting particular. Pretty much anything'll hit the spot if it's meaty and not too dirty." He was not, as it happened, a very discriminating man at all when it came to his food!

[darkenedmoon]

"Perhaps for you." At this stage, Yotsuyu had become discriminating, if only to distance herself from the horrors of her childhood. "If I am having to brush something off because it hit the floor, Jecht, and you expect me to eat it, it is your face I shall be cramming it into."

There, he was fairly warned. So perhaps he'd come up with something slightly better than his favorite midnight hole-in-the-wall.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Whoa, hey!" Jecht held up a hand quick to cut off that line. "It ain't THAT bad! And even if it was I wouldn't do that to ya! You're threatening me with nicer things than you'd actually do if I did that!" Seriously, that was downright mild for her.

[darkenedmoon]

It was mild! But Yotsuyu had also been doing her best to...'lighten up', as he liked to call it. She thwapped him lightly on one robed shoulder. "So has something come to mind, or are we just going to cast the stalks and see what comes up?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Just a place that does some basic stuff. Some sort of stew, bread, cheese. Nothing fancy, but I always thought it tasted pretty good, and the crowd's okay." Seems like the wrong sort of food for her, though, but what does he know?

[darkenedmoon]

But Yotsuyu is willing to try anywhere...once. If it does not meet up to her (rather exacting) standards, well. Rest assured, Jecht, you will hear about it. As if he isn't well aware of that.

"It seems as if it might suffice. If you like it, we can go there."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, but she's surprised him on her standards before. He didn't know any more with her!

"Heh, sure! Once the dance is over. I'm havin' a fun time here, and I still gotta sweep you around the floor a few times."

[darkenedmoon]

"I am not a broom!" There it was, of course. "Nor a top, to be spun across the floor, either. I am well aware that you can pick me up and attempt to do with me as you please, but that would not be a wise move."

What was any endeavor with Yotsuyu without a little hissing?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Her snappy protest had Jecht quickly lifting his hands, trying to quell it even as he wondered what went wrong. "Hey, I thought that was a dance term! You know, for dancing!"