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

[overharrowed]

"I had excellent advice," he says, arch but warm. "How was dinner? Between the food and the conversation, most of my attention was on my own table, so I wasn't able to gauge much from a distance."

He doesn't resist her drawing him into the dance, assuming this was always inevitable. He's a reasonably graceful man, but he's still guarded. Among Julius' qualities (faults, depending on who one asked) is a reluctance to be seen as unskilled at anything. He is intellectually aware that one needs to practice in order to master something; he would just prefer to do it privately, where no one can see him fail.

[ipseite]

Perhaps a relief, then, that she doesn't attempt anything so ambitious as Salvio's turn about the floor; they find the rhythm and settle into it, and Petrana has some experience with very subtly leading backwards, where necessary.

“I've attended far worse dinners in my life,” she says, rueful. “This one has been illuminating. You were sitting with Anders and the Provost—I think I did not recognise your fourth?” A prompt.

[overharrowed]

He's not too proud to follow her subtle lead, which suggests they may not do too badly.

"Brienne of Tarth," he supplies, easily enough. "A very new arrival, I gather. A rifter, and catching up quickly but with a lot to fill in. Forces, unless I very much miss my guess, though she didn't say explicitly." He'd liked her well enough; he's not sure to what degree their paths will cross in the future, but it will be no hardship to be genuinely friendly to her if they do.

[ipseite]

“A promising review.” Catching up quickly, and not announcing herself in great detail upon a first dinner encounter; Petrana's frustration with rifters is nothing new, but her relief when they do well is sincere enough. It serves all Riftwatch the better, which cannot be ignored.

(The slight shifts in pressure to direct him become less and less, as they find their footing.)

“How have you found the evening?”

[overharrowed]

"Illuminating, though I wish I had the ability to observe more. Though, as the provost's wife observed, I was at a bit of a disadvantage where childhood lessons were concerned." He hadn't minded the observation, precisely, but it was a reminder of the major holes he would need to fill if he were truly going to carve out a place for himself after Corypheus is dealt with.

Rather than let his thoughts weigh him down, though, he adds, "I trust you've had plenty of opportunities to observe, at least. Hopefully you've found it sufficient compensation for the elementary lessons on offer."

[ipseite]

“Is that what she observed to you,” terribly mild. Petrana's long-standing dislike of the Provost is what it is; she doesn't pay especial mind to him or to his wife, but the latter was rather difficult to miss this evening. (Julius, she thinks, would never so embarrass her.)

But the added question prompts a warmer, more thoughtful look.

“Well, I could not begrudge the necessity nor their approach to it. It's been very interesting to observe, and I daresay I'm not the only one to think so. I must speak with the Duke de Coucy again, I think.”

[overharrowed]

"I did notice he managed to work his way out of 'mandatory for everyone,' though I suppose it's not as if anyone could argue that he needs the review." And the duke had shown up, at least, obviously wishing to make use of the same opportunity to observe. "It's a lot of information available at a stroke, to those in a position to make use of it. Even with my split attention, it's worth knowing a bit more about a few people's relative approaches."

Always the diplomat; it's a wonder he was ever in another division.

"And the food was quite good, so hopefully everyone is slightly less inclined to grouse."

[ipseite]

“I was rather impressed with their selections.” Both for the quality of the food and its obvious purpose as a lesson. “I don't know that it will put paid to the grousing, granted, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of those who made earnest effort.”

[overharrowed]

"I think most people want this to work, on a grander scale. And it's worth knowing those who can and can't put their own discontent on a given task aside." He pauses, a moment, as it becomes clear they need to turn a certain way; he'd rather let the conversation momentarily lapse than step on her foot.

After a moment: "This looks very simple when you watch it." Not a complaint, exactly, but rueful all the same.

[ipseite]

“You're doing very well,” she says, encouraging, and she doesn't only mean the dancing.

[overharrowed]

"You're humoring me," he says, quieter but warm. "But I'll take the praise all the same."

[ipseite]

“But not insincerely,” she protests, at once, laughing.

[overharrowed]

She's rewarded with a quiet chuckle. "Well, I'll take it. The overall goal is certainly worthwhile, and it's not as if the principles are unfamiliar." Whether he means charming people or footwork isn't necessarily clear. Possibly both.

"Do you remember, when you were new at this sort of thing?"

[ipseite]

Her smile at the thought is both involuntary and ever so slightly touched with something softer and sadder than only nostalgia.

“Of course,” still light, if drawing back some reserve that laughter had loosened from her. “I was a girl, only, but I think myself not yet so old you should be surprised I remember girlhood—”

[overharrowed]

"Very clumsy of me, to comment in a way it can be so misconstrued," he says, raising an eyebrow. "But that said, there are many things I learned to do as a young boy that now seem perfectly natural to me. I remember learning them, yes, but not truly what it felt like to be unskilled at the tasks themselves. Or perhaps that's an unnecessarily fine distinction."