open | your baddest behavior

[cozen]

WHO: Alexandrie, Bastien, Byerly, and their captive audience
WHAT: Mandatory etiquette and dance lessons
WHEN: Justinian 15, 9:45
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: See the OOC post and IC announcement for more information! If you didn't sign up, you can still participate in Parts A and D, and just handwave the other two, without needing to sign up or get an assignment. If you want to do B and C, you can find your own dance partner/seating group OOC, or you can sign up now and we'll dole out new assignments if we get enough latecomers to do so. If you signed up and are missing from the lists when you shouldn't be, I'm sorry and please tell me!

disclaimer: event less fancy than pictured

Seating Assignments
— Table One: Gwenaëlle, Iorveth, Matthias, Athessa
— Table Two: Flint, Ilias, Darras, Med Seller, Yngvi
— Table Three: Julius, Thranduil, Anders, Brienne
— Table Four: Benedict, Colin, Valentine, Six, Derrica
— Table Five: Teren, Salvio, Bartimaeus, Osana
— Table Six: Freddie, Petrana, Kain, Merrill, Silver
— Table Seven: Yseult, Cosima, Steve, Inessa
— Table Eight: Sidony, Fifi, Nell, Fingon
— Table Nine: Thor, Nathaniel H., Solas, Skadi

Dance Partners
— Cosima & Nathaniel H.
— Athessa & Anders
— Teren & Flint
— Freddie & Bartimaeus
— Yseult & Darras
— Nell & Julius
— Merrill & Colin
— Skadi & Benedict
— Gwenaëlle & Solas
— Petrana & Salvio
— Osana & the Medicine Seller
— Sidony & Matthias
— Six & Thranduil
— Brienne & Valentine
— Fifi & Steve
— Thor & Fingon
— Ilias & Iorveth

Comments

Anders (OTA)

[justice_is_blond]

"About time," he says when the music starts to change. Anders reaches out to the side, not even looking. "Would you care to join me in a real dance? None of the other nonsense that's meant to have people looking at you. It's time to have fun."

Later he takes a break with a drink, draping himself over a backward chair in a very improper (look at those ankles!) fashion, smiling like the cat that got the canary. He survived. He probably won't get a high score, but it's never going to be relevant and he'd at least made an attempt. And he looked damn good doing it, peacock robes, hair braided, a gold hoop in one ear. He's proud of himself, even if no one else is.

[doneisdone]

"But of course," comes a purred Orlesian accent, and a blue-gloved hand rests in Anders', light as a feather. The woman it belongs to is tall, and wearing a gown in colors similar to those of the Wardens, and-- an eyepatch, and a smirk like the cat that ate the canary.

[justice_is_blond]

If it were possible to swallow his tongue, Anders just might in this moment. He looks at Teren, at the dance floor, and then back at Teren.

"You... you want to dance? As in, actual dancing. With twirls and spins and lifts and the like? Not that I'm turning you down. But you, you're Teren." And smirking, and no one has died yet.

[doneisdone]

Anders' look of shock is apparently the reaction she was hoping for, as evidenced by the cackle that leaves Teren's mouth at the sight of him. Clapping him on the shoulder, she turns to walk away again with a shake of her head. "Don't worry, boy, you'd never keep up," she assures him.

[justice_is_blond]

"Excuse me." That snaps him out of it, and he raises an eyebrow at her before he's quickly catching up to the departing Teren and holding out his hand.

"You're speaking to the inventor of the Spicy Shimmy. I can keep up."

[doneisdone]

"Spicy-- what," Teren repeats, stopped in her tracks. This she has to see; her eyebrow raises as she takes Anders' hand, intrigued and cautious.

[justice_is_blond]

"The Spicy Shimmy," he repeats with a waggle of his eyebrows. This is almost definitely a mistake, but he couldn't just let her walk away like that. Can't keep up, as if. His pride is at stake, what shreds of it he still has that he's not going to lose with this.

Anders steps closer and shakes his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. "You start like this. And then you move down." Which he also demonstrates, shaking his chest before moving on to his hips and then his knees, actually getting lower as he does so. If Thedas was familiar with The Twist this would be similar, but it's also far more ridiculous. That may be because of the grin on his face.

"Can you keep up?"

[doneisdone]

Although she doesn't immediately follow his lead, Teren can't help but smirk at the sight of it. "You look like a fool," she says, but the usual harshness isn't present in her words.
"How long did it take you to come up with that one?"

[justice_is_blond]

He knows quite well he looks like a fool, but that's a lot of the point of it so all he does is grin and hold out both hands to invite her to join.

"Years and years of perfecting my charms, until it became the seductive perfection that it is now." Anders raises an eyebrow. "Come on, don't be shy."

[doneisdone]

A slightly sour look precedes Teren stepping forward and taking his hand, her expression cautious but wry. "Shy," she scoffs. "Show me how."

[pinprick]

"Isn't that what you wore to our wedding?" Nathaniel takes Anders' hand and leads him to the dance floor. "I'm glad to see a public reprise."

He wishes he were still a Warden. His new job is interesting, but his marriage was practically a non-issue back when he was a warrior instead of a diplomat.

[justice_is_blond]

"It is!" There's no effort involved in leading Anders over, and he's quick to fit himself to his husband. This is the dancing he most likes, when there's emotion involved. "I thought it might be fancy enough for a fancy party. Well. A pretend fancy party."

His eyes sparkle. "I'm almost glad I'll never be invited to a real one."

[pinprick]

"They're the worst," Nathaniel assures him with a wry smile. "Although if you really want to, we could always throw one. Invite only friends. Not that I have very many."

[justice_is_blond]

He shakes his head.

"I wish they could see what I see, and then you'd have any number of friends. Then again, if they saw what I see, they might try stealing you away." Anders' eyes sparkle. Sometimes he feels like a liability, but Nate's too honorable to break vows. And he loves Anders. There's that too.

"We should work on the friends thing, maybe not so much the party thing. They're nice in moderation, and I like dressing up for them, but they feel like the wrong sort of indulgent if there are too many. There's so much to do."

[pinprick]

"Thank the Maker." He turns Anders under his arm. "I despise parties. I often feel I'm in the wrong line of work now. I want to be in the war room. It's what I know. I know where I stand with people when we're fighting together."

[justice_is_blond]

He leans in for a brief kiss at the next turn, smiling warmly.

"Diplomacy's another sort of fight, isn't it? One's a lot more simple, but people die either way. Both are messy. Though where you're at might stop there from being much more war, you know." It could protect his people. "And it gives the both of us a greater chance at retiring one day."

Maybe they won't hunt him after the war. If he doesn't have to start a new one for mages after Corypheus is dealt with.

[pinprick]

"I don't think I could fight again," Nathaniel admits lowly. It aches to admit it, but his body has been through too much these last few years. "But that doesn't mean I couldn't aid in strategy."

There's an awkward hesitation before he continues.

"And there are rumors about you and me. Rumors I can't confirm without jeopardizing everything I work for. That would barely be an issue, if I wasn't a diplomat."

[justice_is_blond]

He's quiet for a few moments, feeling the weight of Nate's words. Already he's weighing his husband down.

"Would that be... something you want?" The question is tentative. "Something that you're all right with? Stepping down? Or would it instead, would it instead be a burden?" How much will he cost Nate in the end? He'd only gone dragon hunting for Anders, only had the taint accelerated and then lost Wardening because of Anders, if he's losing something else he wants too Anders doesn't know what to do or feel.

[pinprick]

Nathaniel touches Anders' chin to raise his eyes to him.

"My fear isn't what I'm going to end up doing. My fear is that at the end of the war, I won't have a marriage. And if I start denying things publicly so I can keep doing something I barely even enjoy, that's the road we'll go down."

[justice_is_blond]

If only he could argue it. He meets Nate's gaze before looking back down. To be denied by the person he loves most in the world would wear at him until it broke him. It means too much.

"I don't want you to be without, though. You've given me another chance at life, but if all I do is take your life away, where is the fairness in that? I love you. I want you to be happy."

[pinprick]

"You make me happy." He leans in for a kiss. "You're my sanctuary. You're my life. I was good at this job in Denerim, but here? I'm outclassed, and I don't know what I'm doing. I want to be in the war room again."

[justice_is_blond]

He swallows and wraps his arms around Nate, nodding against his husband's chest.

"I support you. In all you do. I love you so much, and I want whatever is best for you. Join the war room, love, and let's take out this blasted menace of a Darkspawn magister." Nate having an eye on what's going on there could mean a little less fear when it came to what's coming for mages, too.