voidtreckerexpress | Party Time

Entry tags:

Party Time

Who: Everyone who wants to attend.
What: It's a party for all, but the pairing up part is for singles only.
When: Day 19 of Fiddlesticks
Where: Gym Carriage
Warnings: Who knows atm just Minako being Minako will add more as things happen.

[Minako figured she did the best she could for the party. Though she also wondered if perhaps she might not have that many people come. Sure she wanted to put singles together, but at the same time, she simply wanted people to have fun.

In the dressing carriage, people will find costumes and masks that were more gothic in nature. There was food and hopefully some forms of sweet treats for those looking for it as well as a variety of drink, mostly non-alcoholic.]

OOC: Examples of the type of outfits and such can be found here: costumes and
masks]

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The way Xander treats her truly is too much. Not necessarily in a bad way, though. But there's just so much consideration being thrown her way here that she doesn't even know where to start unpacking it. When you're not even used to the tiniest bit of kindness, how are you supposed to handle a sudden barrage of it like this?

At least it makes her more determined to bear this party experience, if not just at least for a little bit. So she shakes her head. "I can go see Cottonball. And stay with her. But.. later."

After all, doesn't she at least pride herself in being someone who doesn't give up easily? Xander said the same thing, right? That she's strong. If she could face down monsters much bigger than her, then one silly party is nothing.

"I'm.." She starts, and then stops, seeming to have trouble finding the words. Or maybe the true problem is with actually saying the words instead of cropping everything up like usually and keeping it inside. "After all, I'm not having a bad time, per se. Since I'm here with you."

It's not super indirect for once, but then again, it's not the most direct way of saying 'I like being around you' either. But this is probably the closest Alice can come to saying that directly.

"Okay, so. Party things. Would you want to try a dance, one spin around the floor? Or try to have a snack?" Though from where he was looking, those looked a little questionable, for now...so he kind of hopes Alice demurs, there.

Xander did say she was strong! But the hardest monsters to defeat are the type that come from your own head, as he well knows--he's got his own, after all, acknowledge them or not. And Alice is a lot harder on herself than he is on himself. She needs more encouragement to be kind. Not necessarily to others--she's defending herself, he feels, when Alice is prickly, in general. But to herself? Sometimes that's a serious hurdle--it was for Aya, after all. And they're different people, Alice and Aya, different as night and day, but some things did translate.

"You can not be having a bad time, but not having a good time either," he says. "Still, I'll settle for neutral, at this point." At that, he grins at her. Xander is teasing her, just a tiny bit, but whether or not Alice will pick up on that is another thing entirely.

She seems to be giving him a bit of A Look at that, although it's hard to tell what exactly it is in response to. Did she catch on to the fact that he was lightly teasing her? Is she just really judgemental about the fact he suggested they even try to force down some of those charcoal-like snacks?

At least the issue becomes pretty clear a moment later. Which is when Alice leans a bit closer to him - but just so she can talk in a slightly more quiet voice without having to try and make herself be heard over the music in a way that anyone could hear.

It's obvious why she's being so hush-hush - something about her definitely looks embarrassed.

"I.. I don't know. How to dance, that is."

Okay, Xander has to laugh, then, but it's not malicious in the slightest. Almost joyful. Because really, that's not even near the top of his 'list of problems' at this party. The biggest one he thought he'd encounter was getting Alice there.

"It's okay. It's easy to fake it, and I'll help you. We can even start with a dance I do know how to do--though that kind of depends on the music. Otherwise, it's just kind of moving with the beat. It's not like I've ever been to a lot of dances in my time, either. I'm pretty sure no one here is gonna judge either of us."

And, well, if they did, Xander sure didn't care about any of that. It was a party! They were there to have fun, weren't they??

In any case, he held a hand out to her, smiling now, eyes bright. "Come on, if you look silly, I'll be right there with you, doing the same thing, so it'll be hard for anyone else to tell if it's intentional or just an accident! We can fake it 'til we make it! And hopefully have fun doing it, right?"

Alice is still so unsure about this, no matter what he's saying. But then he just gives her a look with those eyes, and that smile, and.. she's so weak. It feels so hard to say no to that, unless the situation would absolutely require it. How is Xander's smile that powerful, huh? This boy was born to be a con artist!

So after the slightest moment of hesitation, she reaches out to grasp the hand he's offering her.

"If anyone laughs at us, I will murder them."

Is that a joke? Or is that 100% genuinely meant? It's always hard to tell with Alice, isn't it.. It's most likely just the way her tsun chooses to expresses itself in a situation like this.

At least she does seem in for the dance, since she's already taking a step away from the table she had been wallflowering next to.

"I don't think you need to go that far!" But Xander laughs again, despite knowing Alice is probably serious. Deadly serious. He's just banking on the fact that most of the other people will be too busy dancing and enjoying the party on their own to notice any goofs that either of them make.

Or so he hopes, anyway.

He won't take her hand unless she accepts his, though. Even if it's supposed to be a thing with waltzing. She might know it, but Alice is also averse to being touched, normally. Which Xander knows. So hey, he'll just fake it. That tends to be the way he operates lately. And he feels that so long as he's not actually hurting anyone, it's okay.

"So did you ever learn to waltz, back where you were? Or did that get skipped in all the chaos? Alex's foster mom taught me--mostly because I think she felt I needed some sort of refinement." Xander laughed at that, because he knew for a fact that when Rose had offered that to him, she hadn't meant it as an insult. And hey, he'd been curious anyway! It hadn't hurt anyone, after all--and it seemed to be a good idea here!

"I was too young for formal lessons back then," she quietly adds. Mostly since she doesn't want to draw too much attention to it. She trusts Xander with her story, but she much prefers listening to him talk about himself and where he's from rather than have to talk about her own circumstances. His own stories sound so much better. Despite how things started for him, things seem to have been so nice and lively for him back home recently. It all just sounds so simple. Xander needing waltzing lessons for refinement. It's adorable. "But I can follow your lead. Isn't that how it's supposed to go?"

.. Alice is pretty sure someone leading is part of those formal kinds of dances, anyway.. She may or may not have skipped out on mentally staying focused when her parents were talking to Lizzie about it in favour of daydreaming about other things..

"I don't know how much refinement you can expect from me though."

He couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, but I don't know how astute a student I was." Xander tried. He'd try now, too. Her threshold for embarrassment was probably a lot lower than his, as these things went.

...really, daydreaming about other things was probably a lot more fun than listening to parents drone on about Adult Things, in the long run. If Xander had stopped to think about it, he'd realize that. Especially since everyone at the Artificers' conclave was an adult, and that place was stuffy and boring as hell, whether you were an experiment or not.

"I don't know how much refinement you can expect from me, either. So we're even. I don't think I'll lift my pinky whilst drinking from a teacup, so I'm probably some sort of heathen, once we get right down to it," Xander said. "We'll just have to skip the tea and get it in the kitchen later, maybe. Where no one needs to be embarrassed!"

There. He's got it handled. Or, at least, he thinks so.

He does at least have something handled. Despite how tense and awkward the idea of dancing with all of these other people present is, the way Xander talks is just so.. casual. So easy, or so it seems to Alice, either way. It seems like his words just flow out naturally, rather than being carefully considered and turned over and over in her head first the way Alice treats her own words.

It's nice. It makes things feel a bit less difficult. It makes her believe that perhaps if he can act so casually about it, she may grow to do the same.

At the very least she's able to bring the faintest trace of a playful edge to her tone as she says: "Well then, why don't you show me how you dance first and then we can decide on your refinement, or lack thereof."

Well, he didn't expect to get challenged to put his proverbial money where his literal mouth was, but...challenge accepted? At best, he hopes she thinks it's silly at best, but...

Then one of the songs he's familiar with pops up, and his face is startled for a moment, but he knows the moves. So while Alice might think he's suddenly lost what little mind Xander professes to have? Xander thinks he's totally busting a move.

Not that he really expects Alice to fall in on this one, but she did ask for an example. It hasn't occurred to Xander, however, that the dance he's chosen (even if he's flexible and keeps to the beat, and probably would make a good showing in a dance contest!) would do little more than disturb his companion...oops.

.. well, that was a quick decision on the refinement part.

Alice just stares at him when he starts to move like that. It's hard to pin down what the exact emotion on her face even is. Probably mostly confusion, sure, but it's also like she's going through all seven of the seven stages of grief right on the spot here at this sight.

"Xander, what.."

She starts, shakes her head, and then leans in a little before she continues. As if she's trying to spare him the embarrassment of others hearing her say this out loud.

"What are you doing?" Alice is pretty sure Xander isn't the type to play a prank on her, but what else could this even be?

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Party Time

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