tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHO: YOU.
WHEN: Valentine’s Day, sundown – 4 a.m.
WHERE:

caughtthebullet estate, the Palace.

And what is a City overrun by Venice flair without its masque?

Come sundown, the overly-lit Palace, suffering under a sea of orchids and a white-and-gold palette, will be welcoming the ladies and gentlemen of our fair City as its guests to this year’s Valentine’s Day ball. Have no fear, the Palace staff has been given notice to help newcomers dock their gondolas!

Should they lack their own, ladies will be served a dance card, white cape and masque upon arrival. Gentlemen without can also be helped find a suitablemask.

Guests will not be introduced by name, but by their choice of pseudonym; instead, they can play the guessing game until masks are formally removed at midnight, giving their time, and maybe their hearts to some hopeful stranger.

jesusing_clown and a cohort of waiters will produce the evening’s treats;

taravata will be attending on any task that calls for strong arms and keen balance;

risetwice’s patisserie will be providing breads, cakes, and the evening’s tort; and

eagleofautozam has promised sweets and candied souvenirs.

The ball’s sponsor and delightful host,

caughtthebullet passes his compliments, and the

sparkling_by puts himself at your service.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Please, be welcome.

[ooc: up very early, but you know what to do! Thread, threadjack, take advantage of the masks for cute shenanigans, and most of all, have fun! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I don't know about that. I think you outshine me." Of course, when you were someone who didn't think highly of yourself anyway... Something he wouldn't really mention here. His words just sounded like he was making sure to compliment her thoroughly. Something he could be good at if he tried.

Watching her with the chocolate, he smiled a little. "I knew someone who was the same way. Bring her around chocolate and she felt better right away."

Actually, for all he knew she probably was still like that. He hadn't checked in on her recently.

Dawn has to smile at that, that he knew someone else who let chocolate affect them so deeply. She finally takes a bite of the dark chocolate candy and her eyes actually close, her head nodding just a bit as she literally savors it for several moments of silence. But hey, Aya gets a break from her continuous talk. Only for a few seconds though.

"Wow. No really, wow. So good." She looks at Aya and poses a question spawned from her own curiosity. "You knew someone else that was this into chocolate? I should probably know them since we could bond in the chocolate love."

Aya watched her and kept himself from chuckling at the reaction she had to the chocolate. It must have been very good. He'd always had a bit of a sweet tooth himself but he didn't really let that be known. It was so much easier to just deny himself something like that anymore.

"She's not here. I haven't seen or spoken to her in a long time." He glanced down at the chocolates there but didn't really say anything else on the subject.

She caught the sadness that that topic brought on. Dawn could often jump head-first into conversations without a thought. But she was also perceptive, a perceptiveness that came from being not so giant and powerful in a world of powerful giants, figuratively speaking.

Instead of press the subject, she grins and picks up one of the chocolates, holding it out to him. "Can't let a girl eat all by herself, right?"

He blinked at the offer then went to remove his mask so he could take the offered chocolate then take a bite of it. Aya had to smile at the taste of it.

"It's very good."

"Understatement of the year." She linked her arm with his again and began perusing the rest of the offered foods. "We're so coming back over here before the night is over. But you have to teach me to ballroom dance -- like those people." There were already several couples on the dance floor looking as if they were in a dance competition. To Dawn it was like a scene right out of a movie.

Replacing his mask, Aya looked over to see what dance was being done currently. That was easy enough to teach. Guiding her to a less crowded area of the dance floor, he looked down at her. Taking one of her hands, he placed it on his shoulder and took the other in his own hand, settling his hand on her waist. He left enough room between them for her to see their feet.

"The trick for the female partner is to let the male do the leading. I'll take this slowly and you mirror what I do."

Her grip on his hand was probably a little too tight as she pulled her bottom lip through her teeth and looked down at his feet. Her other hand gripped the edge of her skirt and she nodded. Of course then she realized that a nod wasn't really a tell-tale go ahead when it came to dancing.

"Okay, mirror what you do and let you lead. Got it. And at least if I step on your toes I'm not very heavy. That should help you -- you know, with the leading."

"Alright. This is a waltz so the count is simple. 1, 2, 3." Taking a step, he counted out loud, "One." And there he stopped while he waited for her to mirror what he'd done before speaking again and moving. "Two..."

Watching his feet still, Dawn was a little stiff at first with those first two and some steps. It was those few moments it took for her to mentally give over control to Aya and trust him in this. Silently she counted with him, her lips mimicking the numbers he said without any volume behind the words. She was obviously concentrating very hard and having taken ballet for years as a child, she should catch on fairly quickly, should being the operative word.

Calmly, Aya kept counting for her as he gradually moved them a little faster so that they matched the tempo of the music. It wasn't a fast song anyways so he already knew that would help here. Smiling a little, he kept them moving, eventually falling silent when he could tell that she had it enough to try on her own.

It was gradual, starting with her feet gaining confidence and that confidence in the dance working its way up her body until finally she lifted her gaze from the floor to meet Aya's gaze. That death grip she'd had on his hand was slowly easing and a smile spread wide over her lips. "I'm -- we're waltzing."

Her feet missed a beat as her words interrupted the 1-2-3 count in her mind so that the toe of her shoe hit his. But she quickly recovered and the next time she spoke, she kept the beat and the movement of the dance. "And I haven't embarrassed you yet, which is a plus. Although it's possible I could have just jinxed that. I do that a lot. Say I've accomplished something and then the opposite happens. You're really good at this -- like riding a bike."

Being a fighter, Aya easily shifted his foot away so she didn't fully step on him. His eyes were warm as he watched her face light up now that she was dancing. It was a welcome sight to be sure.

"I learned how to when I was sixteen." He moved them so that they twirled a little, just to change up the routine of it a touch. "You don't have to worry about jinxing it though. I think I can get us to recover." Shifting his hand a little, his calloused fingers brushed her soft hand.

That small twirl made her laugh just a little bit. This was so much fun exactly as she had thought it would be. But really, it was Aya who was making it fun for her. He was confident in what they were doing and Dawn found that that confidence was contagious in the best way possible and she vicariously moved easily with him as he guided her over the dance floor.

That brush of his fingers against hers made her acutely aware of their hands clasped together. And in response goosebumps broke out over her flesh up her arm to her shoulder and neck. "Remind me to thank your dance instructors if I ever meet them because without them I'd never be doing this."

"Instructor. It was my mother." And he wasn't so sure if he would want to see her here. She was dead for one thing. For another, Aya had become an assassin in order to get revenge. He wasn't so sure that his mother would take that well. He wasn't sure any of them would approve of what he'd done.

Hiding those dark thoughts and the regret easily enough, he changed the subject a little. "Did you enjoy doing ballet?"

Subject changes, Dawn was good at those. On most days Dawn's mind resembled a twisted hedge-maze of thoughts that, although dissimilar and rarely linking together, spilled out of her mouth in one big heap of a ramble. So she easily followed along with the topic, although the fact that his mother had taught him to dance did get another small smile from her hidden behind that mask.

"Yeah, when I was little I --" She hesitated. It always made her a little bit sad when she thought about those made-up memories the monks had put in her mind. Because that was all they were, images that had never actually happened. "Well I mean, I know some ballet." She stammered awkwardly. "But I only did it until I was twelve." Only not really. The monks had made her think she did, put knowledge of the mechanics of ballet in her mind.

"Have you ever run into a singing Demon named Sweet? He makes people bare their souls by singing and dancing and if emo enough and giving over to it enough, going all explode-y." Her hand tightens around his just a bit. "Anyway when he came across us that was the last time I danced ballet -- under his influence."

There was something about those memories that made her hesitate. However, Aya didn't question it. He wasn't going to make her share anything she wasn't open to sharing. It was her life and he had his own secrets that he wasn't ready to share with her.

"Sweet? I can't say I have. Then again, I don't recall meeting any demons in my world."

"Really? Mine is kind of riddled with them. It's the Venice of demons -- only instead of water there's demons." She smirks in amusement at her own analogy until she gets the visual of it and realizes how creepy it actually is.

To cover up that discomfort though, she smiles brightly, her eyes lighting up. "Twirl me again, Aya. Faster?"

He blinked at the request then smiled a little. "Alright."

Pulling her a little closer so he could have a better grip on her, Aya twirled Dawn again. This time faster and around the floor. He liked seeing her eyes light up like that. It warmed his heart.

Her grip on his hand tightened a bit and the hand that was holding her dress came up around his bicep to his shoulder so that she could hold on. And how could she not laugh. It was so much fun twirling around the dance floor with him that she just gave in, laughing and getting lost in the movements and Aya himself, feeling him move and moving with him without missing a step. "You realize this makes you the best dance teacher slash partner ever, right?"

Aya chuckled a little but finally slowed them down after a moment. It wouldn't do to get dizzy already. Still he had to lift a brow when she mentioned that he was the best ever. "I don't know about that. I'm sure there are plenty of others that are far better than I am."

She emphatically shakes her head at him as they slow, that excited spark still in her eyes. "Nope, you're the best. And you can't convince me otherwise when I have the proof right here in my -- arms."

He shook his head a little. "Alright. I won't argue then." He could just take the compliment. "I'll just say that I'm glad you think so." That was something.

"I know so." Stubborn, it was a Summers trait. Her head tilts slightly, the move emphasized by the mask she wore, of course. "Aren't you glad I coerced you into coming here?"

"I am. I'm enjoying myself." He thought about it a moment more. "And I think my roommate is grateful that I was able to get out of the house."