ArchivedLogs:You Can Dance

You Can Dance
(if you want to)
Dramatis Personae Shane, Sebastian, Ghost, Lyric, Lia, Kai, Daiki, Taylor, Karrie
In Absentia	19 December 2013 Xavier's Winter Dance
Location <XS> Great Hall
The largest room at Xavier's, the Great Hall is designed to hold all of the mansion's residents and then some. Built for the mansion's bigger functions, it serves as the school's dining halls on ordinary days, and ballroom when needed. On school days, long trestle tables stretch across the hall, high-backed chairs with plush cushions offering seating for the students. The Great Hall today has been transformed, seemingly frosted over in pale glittering ice. Icicles drip frozen and crystalline down from the ceiling, each carrying their own faint luminescence, and the dance floor gleams cool and glassy like ice -- though solid and firm and not slick at all. The flowers on the tables are bouquets of blue and white, and the walls no longer look like walls but banks of trees, snow-frosted on the bare boughs that stretch up towards the icy ceiling overhead. For all the icy coolness of the /decor/, the room itself is warm. Full of music from the (rather famous) DJ at the front of the room, tables along the back heavy-laden with (non-alcoholic) hot and cold drinks and foods, the hall stands ready for a night of cheer before winter break begins. With the break almost upon them and a rough month behind them, Xavier's is in need of some relaxation. Tonight relaxation comes in /style/, or as much of it as a bunch of teenagers can rummage up. At least some of them have been helped along earlier this afternoon by a shopping trip -- both for dance-clothes and for whatever other everyday wear they might be lacking -- escorted by Jackson so no doubt /burgeoning/ with flair. Shane was there, too, in a purely consultatory role (many of his suggestions admittedly revolved around more pinstripes and vests and bow-ties.) And now he is here -- a formal dance doesn't pull him /that/ much further out of his usual attire. Dark three-piece suit, polished shoes, neatly tied bowtie. A dark tophat perched on his spiky head. Sebastian beside him, though, /does/ look a world away from /his/ usual ultra-colorful ultra-feminine style, in that he's dressed identically to his twin, down to the cufflinks. He looks less comfortable than Shane in Dapper Suit, or maybe that's just uncomfortable with the /crowd/ in general as they enter the ballroom. Flanked, somewhat, by a bit of an /entourage/; Shane's brought Guests! Many Guests, a large /contingent/ of students here, he insists, as /his/ dates. He's even given them all corsages! Though his concept of 'date' is rather nebulously defined; upon arrival he's just dragging Sebastian (who has one of his corsages as well) off towards the refreshments to nab some spicy hot cocoa. "Oh my gosh." Sebastian sounds a little breathless as he looks around the room. "I really /do/ feel like we go to Hogwarts sometimes." "I'm pretty sure doing the decorations in here is actually, like, an /assignment/ for Pa. They make them train, too, you know." Shane sips at his cocoa, glancing up towards the DJ booth. "I should tell Ryan to put on something you can /swing/ to.” Entering the Great Hall, though /not/ as one of Shane's dates, is Ghost! Dressed in a classical-style suit, with a matching fedora, and pants, but even in a formal setting still barefoot, she has a camera slung around her shoulder for the sake of /journalism/! Earplugs stuffed into her ears, she eyes around, spotting Shane and Sebastian, walking up to them, grinning. "Hey, guys! How's it going?" Lyric is totally in Shane's harem, tonight, /beaming/ over her pretty new corsage. She's dressed in a long formal kaftan, brightly-coloured in deep green with richly beaded-and-embroidered muliticoloured hemming; a matching headscarf is wrapped around her extravagantly poofy hair. She trails after the twins at a light bounce, snagging herself a tiny cup of cocoa too. She lifts one hand to waves cheerfully at Ghost with her arrival. She's already bopping her head lightly to the music, one hand resting on the drinks table. Lia has been /quite/ busy today, having spent much of the day shopping quite extensively to supplement her wardrobe that had heretofore included only Xavier's logo sweats and T-shirts. Lia might not know much about /clothes/, but /costumes/ for dancing in? That she gets! Sleeveless and emerald green, her dress has a fitted bodice decorated with poinsettias, cheery red petals and deep green leaves with centres of glinting gold sequins. The flowered design continues past a matching red sash around her small waist, creeping down in points into the skirt that flares over crimson crinolines that peek out now and then, near her ankles. The girl has small faux-silk flowers in matching red and green pinned to her ash brown hair, which some kind soul with styling products in the girls' dorm has set half up and half spilling down to her shoulders in spiral curls. Lia, too, sports a corsage marking her as Shane's date, though her acceptance of that proposal involved some wide-eyed questioning as to what dates /do/. Assured of fun and dancing, she is mixed into the entourage, bouncing slightly in the shiny red shoes on her feet. Kai filters into the ballroom a few minutes after the others. He's also benefitted from recent clothes-purchasing, dressed rather smartly in black slacks and a white shirt that's covered by the green suede vest, and bound at the neck with a fancy red bowtie. Someone's even convinced him to pin a sprig of holly to his shirt, to add to the overall festivity of his outfit. He doesn't look terribly comfortable as he enters the Great Hall, although whatever discomfort he might exhibit fades in the presence of the room's transformation. The Korean boy stops dead, his eyes going round as he cranes his neck around to take it all in, slowly rotating his body and not paying attention to where his wobbly orbit is carrying him, which is directly at the group date. "Heyyy!" Shane is just about to take a sip of his cocoa but instead he sets it down on the drink table, grabbing a second cup to offer it to Ghost. "/Excellently/, whoa, did you come here alone, Ghost? You want to be my date?" He gestures towards his /harem/ in indication. "We're going to have all the dancing and all the fun. I mean, I guess fun doesn't really go /down/ for other people the more of it we have. So maybe we're only going to have a /lot/ of the fun." Sebastian just blushes, hiding himself behind Shane's elbow to take a small sip. "I really like your shoes," he tells Lia. Probably not for the first time, he was there on the shopping trip, too. He gulps his cocoa down in a quick swig. Lyric's bopping draws a bigger smile out of him. 'Want to dance?' he signs to her, nodding towards the dance floor. "Hey." Taylor is here in Shane's cabal, and he geeeently nudges at Kai's shoulder with one tentacle as the smaller boy approaches. "Look a little lost." "Look a little /amazed/," Shane interjects with a grin, "you like? My pa prettied up the room." He sounds as proud with this statement as though /he'd/ done any of the work. "I'll pass, but you can be /my/ date, if you'd like." Ghost grins, teasingly playfully, observing the room, smelling all the various people and scents and prettiness. "Jax did amazing. Unless you were talking about Micah. Then /he/ did amazing." Grabbing the cup from Shane, Ghost continues to grin, looking around. "I don't know how to dance, apologies. If I tried, I'd probably mess everything up. And fun, well, that sounds fun, I guess?" Lyric nods eagerly, at the question of dancing. She bounces up onto her toes, smiling bright and looking hopefully towards the dance floor. 'You look handsome,' she signs to Sebastian warmly, and then to Lia: 'Do you like to dance?' Her eyes narrow in uncertain pensive squint as Ghost speaks. 'Don't need to know. Just move.' Lia beams brightly at 'Bastian's compliment as if she were hearing it for the first time. "Thank you, I like them, too. I feel like I should click my heels and they would take me home. Except home is here so maybe that is a waste of magic shoes. Did you know the shoes are only red in the movies? I read the books and they are /silver/ there, but silver didn't match the dress and I /liked/ the red. Though I did get different silver ones because probably I would need shoes that aren't red sometime, too," she informs the boy as if he weren't there already when that decision was made. "Mr. Faeryjax made /ice/ magic." This serves as her commentary on the decor. Her smile grows, crinkling the corners of her eyes as Lyric signs to her. 'I love dancing. I was told we could dance and have fun,' she signs back animatedly. 'I got swirly skirts for dancing.' Taking a gliding sort of side-step to ensure a clear space, she spins around once, letting the red crinolines flare and swirl around her legs, as advertised. Kai jumps a bit when Taylor nudges him, and he comes to a halt with a small blush as he's addressed. "It is very pretty," he says to Shane with a small smile. "Mister Jackson is a very good artist." He looks over the entourage, eyes landing on Lyric as she signs. He tips his head, furrowing his brow as he attempts to understand, and then frowns as the words fail him. Lia's response is very helpful, though, and he shrugs. "I have not actually danced at a dance," he admits, as if he were the one being addressed. "I like moving, though." He hops in demonstration, landing carefully in his new shoes -- which are, apparently, still sort of slippery, despite the lack of actual ice on the floor. "No, totally Jax. I don't think Micah can --" Shane tips his head up to scrutinize the ceiling. "Actually I don't know he might just do it with science instead of magic." "I don't think --" Sebastian is starting to answer the question of decorations, but Lyric's compliment makes his cheeks flush darker. Deeper, near to purple as his eyes drop to the floor. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, shrinking down in a small slump that makes his diminutive height seem shorter still. "Oh -- thanks," he whispers, tugging uncomfortably at his tie. "I um --" His hand curls through Shane's elbow. "Who doesn't like to dance." Shane's smile brightens at Lia's twirl, though it's a pretty concerned look he gives to Sebastian. "C'mon, let's dance." He hooks his other arm through Ghost's. "I will /totally/ be your date. If you dance with me. Lyric's right you don't need to know /anything/. You just need to go move and have a good time." Sebastian leans into Shane for a second, but then disengages. "I'll dance in a bit," he murmurs, softly to his brother. "I gotta --" He doesn't finish, just slips off towards the back porch. Shane watches him go with a deep furrow of brow. His teeth scrape against his lip, and he glances up to Taylor for a quick moment. Then off to the dance floor. "My Pa's /the best/ artist," he says loyally. "I'm gonna go /ice skate/." Even if it's not real ice. He tugs at Ghost's arm, /sliding/ over towards the dance floor. "Wait what where are you taki-" Ghost protests, mostly playfully, as Shane /kidnaps/ her to the dance floor. Looking around, Ghost seems kind of nervous. "Uh okay, what does one do next? Just..move?" She shambles around, kind of awkwardly, not joking about not knowing how to dance. "Is Sebastian alright? Wait no, that sounds like a downer thing to say. Uh...good cocoa? Maybe?" Lyric's smile widens, and /she/ hooks her arm through Lia's. She spares a small uncertain glance after Sebastian: '... I /said/ he was handsome!' -- but then follows after Shane at an eager bounce, tugging Lia along with. She's clearly quite enthused about dancing as well, joining the group on the dance floor to twirl as well though her kaftan does not achieve quite Lia's level of flare. She taps Ghost on the shoulder, starting to move -- just a few simple steps, nothing fancy, though her natural-easy rhythm suggests she /does/ have plenty of dancing experience. 'He /does/ look handsome. Though not as bright-coloured as usual. But still blue!' Lia replies, giving only a quick glance over her shoulder as 'Bastian leaves. Less well-trained to social cues, she takes his aborted sentence at face value and assumes the boy truly did have something to do. 'I don't know what he would have to do that is better than dancing. Maybe it is very important.' With a shrug, she leaves off speculation to hurry off after Lyric, requiring little by way of coaxing to the dance floor. She moves easily with the music, favouring steps and small turns that tickle the crinolines against her ankles. 'I like your beads. They are very colourful.' Kai watches Sebastian go with a small furrow of his brow, and he pulls his chin in towards his chest thoughtfully. "I am sure it was important," he offers, nodding firmly. "He did look nice. /Everyone/ looks nice." When the group moves off, he lingers a moment before he follows. At the edge of the dance floor, he stops, uncertainty on his face as the others seem to fall easily into dancing. He seems frozen to the spot, hands coming up to pull at the hem of his vest as he watches sort of helplessly. 'He doesn't want to be handsome,' Shane signs in reply, to Ghost and Lyric both. He seems perfectly happy mixed in among his cadre of dates, spinning briefly under Daiki's arm, attempting to /wind/ Taylor up in his own tentacles, twirling cheerfully around Lia even if his suit does not twirl with him. Unlike Lia and Lyric he does not actually dance with much of anything that could be considered /skill/; a musician's sense of rhythm but no actual training. He does, however, dance with a lot of /exuberance/ so what he lacks in ability he makes up for in enthusiasm. 'He's practicing,' he elaborates further. 'Being a boy.' And then aloud: "S'totally not dancing, /that's/ standing still." He stops his enthusiastic /flailing/ to instead watch Lyric's simple steps, slowly starting to mimic them instead. "See," he tells Ghost cheerfully, "/she/ knows what she's doing, it's easy just do – that." Also mimicking Lyric and Shane, Ghost has no rhythm or skill really, only preventing herself from tripping with reflex. "But why not? I thought most people wanted to be pretty. He is handsome, I don't know why that would bother him." Ghost continues to watch Lyric, taking a deep breath, and also watches Lia. "Okay this is confusing, I think my feet are getting tangled into a web, how do you guys do this?" She sighs, continuing, trying not to trip. "I've never been to a dance before. Used to skip them with friends and go hang out at Denny's." Lyric frowns in puzzlement. 'He /is/ a boy. He should dress like one more often. It looks good.' She looks over /Shane/ with an approving nod of her head, and giggles at his twisting of Taylor's tentacles. She takes a few steps back, tapping Kai lightly on the shoulder too though she doesn't bother again with trying to speak to him. Just keeps dancing, basic and simple. She lifts the hem of her long dress a little bit so that Ghost can see her feet move more clearly (they are clad in flat juttis, also elaborately embroidered in gold beading.) 'Who is Benny?' she asks Ghost with her free hand. Lia keeps the others in sight well enough to continue listening to them, but otherwise proves rather mobile, herself. 'I practice being a girl sometimes,' she answers Shane. 'Because I am usually a doll.' Her little brows dip faintly at Lyric's pronouncement. 'I like when he dresses colourful. He should do that if he likes it, too.' When Ghost asks for assistance, Lia moves over close to her. "Follow?" serves as her only warning, not really thinking to ask if /touching/ is okay before moving in /very/ close to her, resting hands on her shoulders. Shane's comment gets a flush out of Kai, his skin darkening as he ducks his head. At Lyric's tapping, though, he looks up, following her slowly out onto the floor. His steps are tentative, at first, and a slow mimic of Lyric's, with the addition of a small hop after each. It's very methodical, at first, with little attention being paid to the actual music; a fact indicated as the boy slips off the beat. "I have seen commercials for Denny's," he adds to the conversation. "They serve a lot of different food. Mostly with eggs." 'D', Shane corrects Lyric, having to stop dancing to elaborate further, apparently unable to focus both on signing and on the steps. 'Denny's. It's a kind of shitty restaurant that serves kind of shitty breakfast. The diner in town is way better you're not missing anything. Actually the cafeteria here is pretty much as good as most diners anyway.' He watches Lia start to lead Ghost, bopping his head cheerfully, and then falling back into step alongside Lyric and now Kai. 'He likes dressing colourful,' his signing is slower, now, as he moves. 'but people sometimes don't like it? He practices being a girl a lot but he's trying to be a boy now.' 'Eh, however he wants to dress, he can dress, doesn't bug me. I mean, /I'm/ wearing a tux, right?' Ghost is partially startled by Lia grabbing her shoulders, before eventually letting her lead, also following Lyric at the same time, which is confusing. "Hey, I resent that, Denny's is good! At 2AM, that is. 3AM, sometimes." This gets a laugh out of her, as she observes the others dancing still. "IHOP is pretty much the same. They're all the same, really." '/Denny's/,' Lyric repeats with a nod. Then, 'I like waffles.' She nudges gently at Kai's arm: 'With me,' she signs this not to Kai but to Taylor who helpfully interprets: "Try and match what she does. At the same time so you're with the music." Step, step, step, she doesn't really try anything further than the basic steps for now. 'That's good,' she adds encouragingly, to Shane. 'He /is/ a boy. It's good to remember.' Eventually, Lia realises that people are still /talking/ and being turned away from them complicates things a bit when said talking is in ASL. She spins herself around Ghost, skirts swirling, moving behind her instead. She uses her own body to guide the other girl's movements tactilely, slower, with a slight bit of exaggeration to her weight shifts and the movements of hips and shoulders. She lifts her hands from Ghost to sign over the girl's shoulders. 'He should wear what he likes. He helped me pick out my clothes, because I told Mr. Faeryjax I liked his clothes. Does he like being a girl more? Maybe he should just be one. He seems like an unhappy boy.' Kai gives both Lyric and Shane a grateful look as they surround him, and when Taylor translates, he gives the girl a small smile. His steps alter to follow hers, his efforts not to bounce on the beat shown in the rigidness of his spine. His expression is thoughtful, then, and he raises his hands to sign (badly). 'Thank you. I no good signing. Is...' he frowns, and finally just points at his temple and flutters his fingers. Maybe he'll get lucky and that will mean something. Maybe even the right thing. He finishes with another 'thank you' before he speaks up. "I like French toast," he declares. "And I think Bastian always looks nice. I like the colors he wears. If he likes them, he should wear them." 'He picks /pretty/ clothes. Good clothes. He and Pa are /excellent/ --' Shane frowns for a moment before just signing, 'clothes people'. He frowns deeper at Lyric's reply. 'I don't think he's a boy. And he really doesn't,' he nods at Lia, '/like/ being a boy. I don't know what he likes being, though. A pretty shark.' He smiles again, suggesting after, 'Maybe a f-a-e-r-y?' Not a word he knows, apparently. 'F-a-e-r-y shark.' He mimics Lyric's slow steps with a good deal more fluidity, clearly used to learning how to use his body even if not used to learning how to /dance/. "French toast is great. I like eggs with -- what's that shit. Uh. Ham and -- yellow sauce." Back to signing when he adds, 'IHOP and Denny's are /both/ only good at 3 in the morning when you're drunk or stoned.' Eventually, Ghost begins to get the hang of dancing, not relying on Lia as much, more on herself this time. 'I like poached eggs with toast. Ooh, and eggs Benedict. That too.' Ghost grins at Shane calling Sebastian a faery shark, and adds to this. 'Can I be a shark too? Wait, no, I'm more like a spider. Or a..uh..what other things climb walls? I don't know, okay?' Ghost grins again, still watching Lyric and mimicking her as well. 'I've never been either, so, I must be an oddball, eh?' Lyric's brows furrow, eyes skipping between the others to follow the conversation. 'Faery,' she demonstrates the sign when Shane spells it out. 'Faery-shark. But he /is/ a boy. He should be a boy. I think he forgot how. I told him in class it would be good to be again.' She puts fingertips to her lips, giggling at Kai and shaking her head. 'You're fine. You're learning, it's good. I learned English slow too.' After some consideration she tells Ghost: 'Faery-Jax climbs walls. He teaches how to climb them.' When Ghost starts to move on her own, Lia slips away, dancing closer to Shane to facilitate conversation. 'They /are/,' she agrees emphatically of 'Bastian and Jax's clothes-people credentials. 'I have so many pretty clothes now. With colours.' She shrugs at Shane's assertion that 'Bastian doesn't like being a boy. 'He shouldn't be a boy if he doesn't like it.' So simple. Her expression turns confused between all the restaurant talk and the end of Shane's sentence, and she asks after for explanations of the unfamiliar signs for 'drunk' and 'stoned'. 'I like to climb things. Walls are flat, though. That sounds hard. I like trees and ladders and the playground.' Kai gives Lyric a small smile when she giggles, even if most of what she says gets by him. As does most of the current conversation, but he doesn't really seem to mind. Instead, he watches the play of fingers, occasionally looking down at his feet. "I don't know a yellow sauce," he says to Shane, looking up at the other boy with a curious expression. "It is good on eggs?" He thinks a moment. "I like ham," he adds, looking back down at his feet. "But sausage is better. The flat kind that comes in little circles." His dancing seems a bit looser now, and there's less stiffness in his spine. He's /totally/ got the hang of things, now. 'Drunk' "like drunk," Shane explains cheerfully, "like lots of alcohol and" 'stoned' "like stoned. Smoke pot, get high. Only time worth going to Denny's. You can be a shark if you want to, Ghost. I'll teach you. Spider-shark." He falls out of step with Lyric's careful teaching, twirling away to commandeer Daiki with one hand and Karrie with the other. Probably he will be back soon enough. But: /dancing/. Ghost laughs, having totally gotten the rhythm of it. 'Climbing walls is what I do. Without tools, too, it's just..my thing. I stick.' Ghost grins, as she begins to move back to the food area. 'I'm going to go grab some food, you crazy kids have fun.' She then walks off, dancing her way towards it carefully. 'He teaches how to climb rock-walls,' Lyric explains. 'When it's warm maybe I'm going to join. /Daiki/ does it,' She explains this like it's super-important, 'and he's --" She hesitates for a moment, glancing over towards Shane dancing with Daiki, her cheeks flushing a little darker. 'Nice.' Shane's explanations of the signs draw a frown from her, though, a wrinkle of her nose. 'Shouldn't do those things,' she says with a repetition of 'drunk' and 'stoned'. 'Bad.' Her expression smoothes back out to a smile soon enough, though. She twirls once more, and then lifts one finger to Kai like 'wait'. 'I'm going to ask the pretty-DJ for something with --' Her hands vigorously THUMP out a motion like drumming. Like LOUD. Twirling her way off through the crowded floor, she heads for the front to go find them a stronger /beat/. 'Oh,' Lia replies as if the clarifications don't really clarify /much/. 'Mr. Faeryjax talked about climbing rocks with ropes. I've never done that before.' Her eyes track to the back porch again as much of the dancing group disbands. 'I think I will go see if Sebastian is okay. He went away a long time ago and did not come back.' The girl actually dips a little curtsy at the remaining dancers before breaking off from the crowd, moving for the door. Kai watches as everyone peels off, nodding as Lia is the last to go. "All right," he says, waggling his fingers after her. Alone again (mostly), he continues to dance. Because dancing, it turns out, is /fun/.