Dance with the OC above you 💃

"A dance...?"

Vagabond leers at the crowd of dancers around them, but the look he shoots at Clarence is absolutely sour. Him, with all his poised, elegant style and endless refined talent and - most of all - his humble personality, dancing with.... that goopy mess? He'd much rather be tossed in a brig than this! He had more important things to do than a dance, and his work was always so demanding - such a trivial event was below him, and yet here he was, begrudgingly stooping to this level. 

...No offense, Clarence. Surely he makes for a positively splendid dancer.

The jester straightens his back. His gaze flickers from Clarence to the festive crowd dancing around them. They're all so happy, partying and swaying to the music - a waltz, if he isn't mistaken. His rigidness makes him stick out like a sore thumb, and he'd earn some nosy stares if he kept denying a dance any longer. Vagabond huffs. When in Rome...

Vagabond leans down ever so slightly and extends his hand. The bells of his mask jangle, gold metal gleaming in the light of the chandelier. He waits a moment, glaring his dance partner down, before spotting Clarence's hesitance - or perhaps it was apathy; he didn't care enough to discern a difference. "Oh, come now," he spits. "Don't go wasting my time. Dance!" 

Without a moment left to complain, Clarence is scooped into a dance by the jester, a quick waltz that leaves neither of the two quite content with the situation. Vagabond mutters directions under his breath in a strained chipper tone - "bring your foot back. No, your other foot!" - leading him every which way. Though his vexation is apparent, he makes for an excellent dancer - both of them do! There's only a few spare moments where a foot was stepped on, or a hand was squeezed too tight, or one of the two tripped on the jester's too-long cape; all of which always earns a groan from behind that smiling mask of Vagabond's, and his painted lips drop down into a tight, forced grin. As soon as he finds he can take it no longer, Vagabond steps away, wiping his hands on the inside of his cloak and squinting at the oily stain it leaves behind. Blegh! This'll take forever to clean!

"There. You got your little dance. Happy?"

Illanya twitches uncomfortably in the formal suit she wears, glancing around the ballroom wearily. It wasn’t her first choice of attire, but manners and customs had to be kept. That and her purpose at a function such as this required her to be mostly inconspicuous… even if she’d rather be wearing something a little more breatheable and just a little more interesting than the formal attire most knights from her kingdom wore. 

She finally spots them, a tall masked figure making their way through the crowd. The smiling mask seems to flick around the area as they speak and look around. The knight has heard things about Vagabond, but has never had a chance to speak to them.

Before she can even process what’s happening, someone elbows her hard in the back, shoving her forward and directly in front of Vagabond. Illanya nearly whips around to give the culprit a piece if her mind., but is stopped when the music begins to swell. She gives a magician a sheepish smile.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to get in the way… but since I’m here, may I perhaps have this dance?” She nearly winces are her own forward ness, but doesn’t have long to think about it as the crowd pulls the two along for the ride. 

Illanya takes Vagabond’s hand once she’s close enough and helps guide them to a slightly less chaotic portion of the dance floor. 

“Sorry to grab you so suddenly, I just didn’t want to get squished between people.” She chuckles before extending her hand. 

The dance is remarkably simple, not nearly as complex as some of the others Illanya had witnessed party goers doing tonight. At times she leads and at others Vagabond leads. They make their way in curving shapes and curious spirals around the small area of the ballroom that they’ve claimed.

Finally the music begins to wane, and Illanya smiles and let’s go of Vagabonds hands and steps back. 

“Thank you for that… certainly much more entertaining than watching the drama that always occurs as these parties.” She laughs, giving Vagabond a polite bow.

“Oh, I’m Illanya by the way! It was very nice to meet you…” the Paladin smiles widely, before turning to leave. Definitely wasn’t who she expected to dance with, but it had been far more interesting than simply nodding her head along to the music. Now perhaps to find some more beverages… she didn’t feel so tightly wound… so why not. What’s the worst that could happen? 

     There was a block party at the corner of the street. All the neighbors got together to barbecue, play music, and simply enjoy the final days of summer. Yeli always invited everyone to these events, thinking they should be shared with more than just the neighborhood, so when he saw a new face he was happy to walk up to him.
     "I'm glad someone actually came," Yeli said with a light smile. "My name is Yeli. What's yours?" As he listened to the answer, he felt his eyes drift to the ears. Cat ears? His gaze dropped. Cat tail, too. He looked at the man, Leon's, face. Red eyes. What a strange person this was. Nevertheless, the smile on Yeli's face never faltered. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Would you like some food? We just put more on the grill so it may take a while." He paused to listen to the music that just started, perking slightly. "We could dance? Would you want to? I'm not much of a dancer, if I'm being honest, but I can sway and wag a finger."
     He sure did. Yeli did very little dancing and more tilting his head from side-to-side with the music, but as long as there was someone there besides him, regardless of appearance, he was willing to be in the spotlight. Fortunately, more people came to dance, whether because of the two there or because of Leon's dancing skills.
     "It seems you're a trend setter," Yeli complimented with a light laugh.

Bugaboo stood in the small crowd of their co-workers, chatting for a while, before splitting off from them. They wandered around the club for a while, going up to the bar and ordering a glass of water, which they promptly drank, looking around. 

They spotted Yeli standing over in the corner, they finished their glass of water and walked over to the man, "Hello, you looked a little lonely.." The spider-cat said, "This place can be kinda boring if you're here alone" they smile, "You wanna dance for a while?" they asked.

Bugs didn't really dance much, mostly just bobbing their head from side to side to the beat of the music, and awkwardly stepping around, trying to make sure they didn't hit into anyone on accident- They could be a little clumsy at times. 

Eventually though, they did start dancing, grabbing Yeli's hand with their middle left hand and leading him in the dance, mostly twirling him around in an awkward sort of dance. "Geez I'm bad at this" Bugs giggled a bit,

     Ennette had her face buried in a book, one she was grateful the bookstore carried considering how quickly it sold out. She grunted in frustration and closed the book in time to see the worker right next to her, causing her to squeak and jump back. "Oh my goodness! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!" she gasped, a hand on her chest and her eyes wide. Relaxing, she motioned to her book. "I'm terribly sorry about not noticing you earlier, as well, I'd been so engrossed in this book. It's frustrating, though." She held it out for them to see. "It's a book about a new dance, and I just can't seem to figure it out." A pause. "This is a strange request, and you have the option to decline it, but... would you mind practicing this dance with me...?"
     Bugs was kind enough to accept, and Ennette was over the moon, even if she did find their many arms difficult to keep track of. If it hadn't been for them, she wouldn't have learned this dance at all! 

(Me rn)

(^ Ennette is so damn adorable I am deceased  )

(me: claim maybe? brain: k bye)

His love for parties was still pretty much nonexistent... Still, he had been invited and declining an invitation was rude. He... just felt out of place, even if he just appeared to be a tall human being. Maybe it was just the joys of being an introvert.
However, his mood lifted when he saw a familiar face. Of course he waited until she was not in a conversation anymore before he approached her with a friendly smile. "Ennette." the reaper greeted the princess. "How have you been?" it had been a while since their last meeting, after all and since he considered her a friend he was interested in her life. She also was one of the few connections he had to the world of the living, so anything she talked about was quite fascinating. He was just, how did people call it? Out of the loop? as far as these things went.
Looking around he noticed most of the people were dancing. Did he prevent her from doing so herself? Oh... "If- you'd like, would you dance with me? I'm afraid I might be a bit rusty, but if that does not bother you, it would be my honor." his smile was almost sheepish for a moment. "If you don't have someone else you are waiting for, of course." That was also very likely, was it not? After all, Ennette was, besides being a vibrant and adorable personality, a princess and surely had a lot of people interested in her.
Luckily she seemed to have time to spare and did dance with him, while he sincerely tried not to accidentally step on her feet. (He succeeded.) Actually, it was not as bad as he had anticipated, although that may very well have been because Ennette was a good dancer and he learned quickly by observation, so mirroring other people's movements was something he was fairly good at. After a while he did not have to focus as much and it became quite fun. In all honesty, he was not remotely as bad of a dancer as he had made it sound, he just had not been sure if the things he remembered from years ago were still the same today. Not that they were called classic or standard dances for a reason...

"Thank you. For dancing with me and teaching me. I had a lot of fun." Zero said with a warm smile once they were back at the side of the room. "I hope you could enjoy yourself as well... at least a little bit?" he was slightly worried about that, maybe teaching someone was tiring - he wouldn't know.

It was the yearly ball, all sorts of beings great and small attended. Even zero. Nickolas stood in the corner dreading the dance. It was known has the " sinful dance " were the seven sins danced with a partner of their choice and so far no one caught his eye until... zero did. The wrath owl approached zero with a soft smile " will you dance with me?" He asked, after acceptance he began to waltz with zero, alittle awkward for the two but both did their best to ignore the feeling until it was done. " thank you dearie " Nickolas hooted before giving zero a... a phone number 

"Ah, two people, born gold, and then tossed aside like crooked nails. I think if anyone knew I were speaking to a demon, though, I'd be lit afire."

The room the two of them were in was silent, not at all a good atmosphere for dancing. Hiding in the shadows of her parlor, Orianna reposed against her chaise, patiently watching Nickolas. It took her several minutes to finally stand and approach him. She knew nothing of the wrath ring, or of the royalty he was descended from, but that was all the more reason to learn and later contemplate her choices. And so, she took his feathered hand his hers, and smiled.

"I think we should be friends, however," she told him, "And you don't even have to pay me!" For now, anyway, though it wasn't like it was his wealth that appealed to her. Nevertheless, laughing, she pulled on his hand, and grabbed his opposite.

"Ballroom dancing in Yenereth feels all the same, so I can't help but be curious what it's like back in that ring of yours." Orianna pulled herself a bit closer and leaned her shoulder against his. "I want to see what the differences are. It doesn't even half to be ballroom dancing, if you don't want it to be -- you don't even have to dance with me, but for now, please do humor me, dear sir. Then, I'll go find that old violin of mine."

He was here for a Bounty, how the hell did he end up in this situation? Zaz'real for once was dressed proper, he didn't even have his hat on for once... However the guns never left his side and yet from across the room he spotted a beautiful woman and for once the country man wanted to know everything about her. What she did, What was her favorite color, How he could make her happy. He walked up to her and slowly approached her.

"Good 'vening, Madam... Might I say, you look mighty fine... May I have this dance?"

He smiled at her, before finally noticing as her eyes might dwindle down to his cigar. Oh! He had forgotten about his old habit, he nervously smiled as Orianna would take his hand... He chuckled and begin to dance to the music, he was battle-minded fellow however the only rhythm he could hold was through whistling not dancing, he stumbled a little bit as they continued to dance across the Ballroom.

"S-Sorry, I'm a yellow belly when it comes to these here.. dances."

     (IK HES MUTE BUT I FORGOT :/

Nick started the cowboy down. “Hey you! I bet I can square dance better then you! “ Despite having very bad dance moves,Nick was very confident he could beat the boy. He could feel his cousin judging him from the snack bar. Nick was about to embarrass himself..again. But he was too drunk to notice. He gave a slurred “YE HAW” and playfully smacked the cowboys behind. It took him a bit to get his balance back but he managed to dance ok. The cowboy did end up beating him but that was expected. 

With the night in full swing, everywhere Xil went brought with it a wave of festivity and livelihood. It seemed everyone attending a grand party such as this was caught up on the dance floor, swinging to old music and laughing at their own two left feet. It was a moment of fun, where worry and loneliness held no bearings; but for Xil, perhaps the opposite was the case. They stood alone within the sea of dancers like a lone island, watching those around them as they went along to some old jazz tune.

But, if we want a dance here, we might as well get right to the pointe.

Waddling between the crowd was a clown -- little Edison, yet another partygoer in this glamorous ball. His bright maroon shoes squeaked and squawked along the shining floor, and he hummed to the music with a sharp trumpeting trill. His goal here was simple: a snack bar was promised and a snack bar he would get. He wouldn't eat -- no, he couldn't -- but watching the fruit slices float lazily in the punch bowl would be the cherry on top of an already peachy night. That goal had been set in stone as soon as he stepped foot here, but the clamor of dancers were keen to put a stop to it entirely; a shimmy here, a bump there, and Edison had splatted onto the ground with as much melodrama a clown such as he could put on. It was no plain-jane partygoer he fell in front of, not at all; it was Xil that towered over him, staring down with an expression that could be read as dumbfounded if they weren't so absolutely exhausted first. As soon as he props himself back on his feet and got a good look at the person before him, Edison reels back, a look of shock painted onto his yellow mask, before he remembers his manners. A glance towards the crowd, then one back at Xil. He reaches out his hand, motioning for them to join him in a little dance all of his own making.

It was hard to call it a dance, though -- Edison's little set of moves; in one moment, he'd kick his legs out and swing from Xil's hands, and another, he'd be posing as the dapper leader of their waltz. A mean case of disco fever had overtaken the clown, and poor Xil was just along for the ride. Their reluctance and outright defiance was seen by Edison as a cry for help, and he took it upon himself to teach Xil a few moves... by just wiggling their arms around and hoping for a breakthrough. It seemed fruitless in the end; Edison's passion for dance was strong, but his teachings did nothing for his dear dance partner. He would bend over backwards to win a limbo competition, but he couldn't even teach his friend some moves. 

Quietly, the music murmurs to a halt, and Edison blinks and glances up from his deadpan focus on not stomping on Xil's hooves. It is then that Edison takes his leave; he offers up an extravagant bow to his dance partner, then a curtsy, then a good old nod, and off he goes. He slips back into the crowd as quickly as he had appeared. A punch bowl was awaiting him!

A sip from the red solo cup brought juice to Veritas' mouth. It was...alright. No complaints. It was fruit juice, juice of fruits, the actual flavor without any real identity, just fruit. He set the cup down to the side with a somber look on his face. The roaring party around him would often spark life in his old soul. But not today, he wasn't feeling it. Hell, he only came here to get the feeling of excitement again. Course that was a fat load of help in his current situation. Setting the solo cup down on a nearby table, he sank deeper into the shitty folding chair that kept his back aching. 

Moving his gaze to the ceiling like he had done oh so many times before he began to let his eyes droop. The Sound of music and laughter drowned out a bit as darkness curled down over his sight. Right as his eyes had fully shut a small tug on his coat brought him back. Rolling his head to the left, making his fake monocle fall and hang down to his side. A comical depiction of a smiling face faced him. The funny part that had struck him was that it blinked. Strange, it shoulda been a mask. Well, maybe it was. Maybe it was just a really good mask that mimicked the face? Didn't matter really, the small clown tugged harder on his shirt "HEY! hey, don't look so down, friend!" 

Veritas slowly moved his body back up to an upright position "what?" he asked, he had heard what the clown said. He wasn't deaf but what in the hell? It wasn't that e- The clown Grabbed hold of Veritas' hand and began tugging with his entire body "CMON! LET'S GET YOU UP AND MOVING!" he declared. Veritas, having no REAL opposition to the clown that wasn't just dry bellyaching about being tired, he was brought to his feet and followed the smaller man's lead. 

Dragged near the outskirts of where everyone was mingling, dancing, and partying. The clown released Veritas from his grasp and did a small spin "LETS DANCE!" he cried as he began jumping around the much larger man. The giant had to take a second to let his tired brain catch up. Almost instinctively he moved his legs a bit to follow along. After a second he was moving in a circle like a clown but in a much smaller area. He had to admit, such a small action really put a pep in his step. A genuine smile spread across his face as he began taking the lead. Grabbing the small clown and scooping him up in his arms Veritas spun the smaller man around. The infectious laughter of the pair joining the sound of the party

Nerine felt out of place. That was nothing new. Whenever her wife's uncle felt the need to show his niece off to the public, as rare as that was, small gatherings turned into outright parties with near hundred guests in attendance. Dressed in a cotton gown, sitting at the outer rim of the crowd, she listened to the music and made sure to attract little attention to herself. But, it was lonely, just staying on a bench waiting for it all to be over with. It seemed that the so-called Fox Witch hadn't even bothered to visit.

Just as Nerine was beginning to give up hope, a certain man caught her eye. She didn't know much about Veritas yet, and was a bit suspicious of him, still. He made himself out to be friendly, though, and goodness knows she would never get much of a chance to share dinner with her wife. It wouldn't hurt to get to know him, especially considering he was somewhat of a retainer now and... well, Odette's other retainers didn't much like her, so she was desperate to make a better second impression on him.

"This is a bit of a pain." Nerine approached Veritas briskly. She searched the party for Odette, but to no avail. Then, she lowered her voice. "I was hoping for a night in with her, admittedly. This music is fine, but it's nothing like hers. She has the voice of an angel."

Her brow furrowed. Then, she sighed. "I don't know if you're much of a dancer, but if you... you know, if you want to..." She held her hand out to Veritas, and then scoffed. "Just don't be crazy about it. Can't do much of a jig here surrounded by all these stuck-ups. Just something small, just to spare me of some asshole coming up to me. You can slow dance, can't you?" She tugged him towards the crowd, though gently, and looking back at him with her pale eyes. "So, how about it? Or do you just want to head in and get a drop of whiskey?"

@ NP: You can respond to Nerine's default older version or her younger tab! Just let me know which.