fandomtownies | A Beautiful Ballroom, Somewhere, After Dark

Dancing bears,
Painted wings,
Things I almost remember...

Peaches and peach-based meals had shown up today all across the island. And for those poor fools who had partaken of them, well, after dark they would find themselves transported to the most wonderful ballroom, dressed in the most lovely clothes they'd ever seen. Even people who normally wouldn't go for these kinds of trappings - long gowns, brocade frockcoats, costumes straight out of fantasy - somehow finding themselves not minding so much. Maybe it was the music and how it made people want to whirl around the dance floor. Maybe it was the glittering masks that adorned every face and gave people that delicious feeling of anonymity. Maybe it was the glasses ever-full of
a heady wine and plates of fruit that were fizzy in the mouth.

In the end, it didn't really matter, did it? It was a ball and people had come to dance and so, dance they would. Dance and talk and laugh and feel all their cares and tensions and fears just floating away...

[OCD up! Masquerade NFB because it's some kind of weird shared hallucination.]

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Someone holds me safe and warm,
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...

Nobody really arrives, do they? No, they are just sort of there. Beautiful and glittering, happy to talk and laugh, eat and drink.

And dance, of course. Dance most of all.

Don't worry your pretty heads about anything, loves. All your cares were magically left behind you.

[Feel free to have the occasional nagging thought of something unfinished or a feeling like there's something you're supposed to remember, but overall, everyone is dreamy and happy and have no cares in the world.]

Edited 2019-07-03 08:40 (UTC)

This wasn't anything like the dreams Fjord had been having more and more of, as of late. This... this was something else. Something faraway and right there immediate, something beautiful and peaceful and joyous and calm.

Normally he'd feel out of place in garb so fine. Like a sore thumb, like the butt of a joke.

Normally he'd stay off to the edge of the ball and watch, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

Tonight, though, he danced, and he enjoyed the wine (since when had he enjoyed peach wine?), and he was at peace with the dance.

"Hello!" Verity was taking a rare moment off the dance floor to get more of that delicious peach wine. It was so refreshing, light and sweet at the same time. "Fjord, right? Having a lovely time?"

The question was pure formality. Who wouldn't be?

The funny thing about dreams, really, was that what in the world was there to hide from or hide behind? Fjord replied, and when he did, the accident that he used wasn't his normal drawl. Instead, it was a light, almost airy accent similar to something that might hail from England, today. And he seemed quite at home with it, too.

At home with everything here today, really.

"As a matter of fact, I am," he mused. "Verity, right? And the evening is treating you well as well, I hope?"

Was it still evening? He had no idea, and found that he didn't care to check.

It had to have been! They certainly hadn't been here long enough for it to be any longer than that. "It's been marvelous," she sighed happily. "Everyone here has been just so kind and thoughtful. Have you had a chance to dance, yet?"

~~'The accident?' Serves me right using voice to text at 4:30 in the morning...~~

"I've considered it," Fjord mused, "though I'll confess I don't have terribly much in the way of experience. Then again, dancing does seem to be the done thing here, doesn't it?"

"It does," Verity said, happily. "But you're in luck. I'm a professional dancer. If you wanted to learn, I mean."

"Why, Verity," Fjord said, and some part of him, some minute, easily ignored part of him that was shoved so far down inside of him he couldn't hear it at all, was reminding him, no. No, he didn't dance. The rest of him was fine, this evening was divine, why would he ever say anything but, "yes, of course I'd love to learn. It would be quite the honour to learn to dance from a professional dancer at a ball."

Prompto, it would seem, was absolutely in his element that evening, reveling in the bright and elaborate finery that made even his Kingsglaive uniform look like shabby rags, and the sheer elaborateness of the party going on around him. He threw himself into the very thick of it, finding himself charming and suave, laughing with the other guests over their drinks, accepting dances from here and there and everywhere, and all of it so easily, too! No self-consciousness, no doubts, no feeling like he was an impostor who had no right being there, who didn't deserve it, who was just pretending to fit in. He did fit in, he did belong, it felt almost as if he was born to be there, to schmooze with all the loveliness, the pomp, the circumstance, the refinery and the sumptuiousness of it all.

Even the masks didn't bother him so much as they perhaps should have, those suggestions of daemons and monsters, because it was all in jest, all in fun, the illusion of something then whisked away to reveal a pretty, laughing face, a charming smile, a playful wink...

He could go on like this all night, reveling in the splendid decadence, dancing, drinking, laughing, dancing some more...and more...and more...

It was funny how Vette had never really learned to ballroom dance in her life, but tonight it didn't seem to matter. She moved with all the grace she possessed, a girl raised to get anywhere, lithe and small and almost ethereal among the crowd. Everything sparkled, everything. Especially her smile as she found herself swept away in the dance, in the dream.

It was all so perfect. So, so perfect. How had she managed to get through her life without ever knowing the sort of bliss that a dance could bring?

For the first time in her life, Vette felt beautiful, and she wanted it to never end.

Lana might not have thought she would ever enjoy this sort of thing, but it was lovely, really. Soft and dreamy and comfortable, safe in a way few things were. She twirled and danced, enjoying the moment, ignoring anything else.

Honestly, this? This was how Verity's life was supposed to have turned out. Dancing. Just dancing all the time. The shoes on her feet didn't hurt and she just knew that no matter how much she danced or for how long, her feet wouldn't blister, her ankles wouldn't turn.

She moved to the music - was that another tango? Don't mind if she did! - giving herself up to the dance in a way she had rarely gotten to do since she'd left Dance or Die. Why wasn't this her life always? No Covenant agents to fight. No snippy dragons to protect. No gross gunk to wash out of her hair or her clothing or off her skin.

Hell, she wasn't even wearing weapons and rather than horrifying her, it was delightful! Who knew how much lighter she'd be without an armory holding her down?

She could do this forever.

Far away,
Long ago,
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Things it yearns to remember...

As people around town start shattering the floating silver spheres, the magic begins to fail. Masks go from smiles to empty-eyed leers. Clothing feels too tight, almost strangling. Minds clear, become sharp again, and this all becomes wrong, so wrong.

Clearly, the only way to get out of here is to break out. Go forth and break things, Fandomites!

...Too bad some of you have already been taken.

Fjord had known, somewhere deep down, that it was too good to be true. The wine had begun to taste of vinegar on his tongue, and the clothes, they were all wrong, weren't his armor at all. Every face seemed to be jeering at him, seemed to be mocking him, what business did he have at a ball like this? What could he ever hope to--

"Eldritch blast!"

Fjord was all too happy to attempt to break this particular dream. He'd been prisoner to his dreams far too much for his tastes, lately.

And a song someone sings
Once upon a December

Y'all, go back in time almost ten years and read the original

I'M NOT CRYING YOU ARE.

A Beautiful Ballroom, Somewhere, After Dark

Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

Re: Mingle and Dance

The Spell Breaks Down.

Re: The Spell Breaks Down.

OOC