Aliquam: Tobias' Gala - Second Floor (Recreation Room)“Poker? Of course. It’s my favourite game.” Marcus smiled a pleasant smile, taking the open chair to sit at the table alongside Angel, Sebastian and their new arrival, Hannah amongst another two players. He ran his fingers along the tops of the coloured plastic chips, counting each of them and internally weighing the value of his stack. Upon being pleased with the results, he calmly folded his hands together, waiting for Angel to shuffle the deck of cards and begin dealing the crisp, shining cards out face down to each player.
Marcus and Sebastian effortlessly picked their cards up with trained practice, Sebastian grasping them in his hooves and bringing them close to his face, so only he could see. His eyes shifting from side to side were done to make sure no one else could see his cards. From across the table, Hannah lifted up her own cards, and then leaned over the table towards Angel, knocking over stacked chips in the middle of the table and revealing her considerable cleavage in the process of leaning forward) to show Angel her cards.
“Hey, Angel? Is this a good hand? This is a good hand, isn’t it?” She asked, fluttering her eyelashes as she looked back and forth between the student’s pretty face and her cards. Sebastian’s hoof slapped his face, and Marcus laughed politely as a vein twitched in Angel’s brow.
“No, Hannah, honey, you’re not supposed to show me your cards, I’m playing too, I… oh brother.”
Aliquam: Tobias’ Gala – Ground Floor (Dance Hall)"Um, lovely mask you have on, madam! It um, it matches mine," the young man said with a bow. His blonde cowlick gave away his clumsiness, but he did his best not to stumble. As if his stammering wasn't enough, he tugged at his collar twice and gulped when he rose to a proper but stiff stance. "Would you, um, would you care to dance? ... Please?"
“Move out of the way, buddy!” Estelle replied without pausing, thrusting her arm out and pushing the poor man out of the way as she stomped past him, looking in every direction she possibly could to try and find Marcus. She couldn’t waste any time dancing with a random man when Marcus could be… could be…!
But she couldn’t find or see him. The dancing was still so lively and packed with bodies that she couldn’t seem to find him anywhere, and the groans from the man behind her suddenly began to register to Estelle. She turned around, to find him sprawled on the floor, gingerly rubbing the back of his head. Guilt began to overwhelm her, and she ran back a little bit, hoping to make matters right and lift him back up to his feet. She hadn’t intended to push him down like that… it was mean.
She bent down, outstretched her arm to the fallen man… and her fingertips touched his. She froze, as did he, and the pair of them stared at each other. This close up, the man was suddenly transfixed by Estelle, and his cheeks grew red. The same then occurred for Estelle, but it wasn’t just the man’s own bashfulness that prompted her own. It was the growing guilt that was developing from the blood dripping down the man’s nose from where she hit him. This was… this was bad. She owed him now.
Meanwhile, across the other side of the dance hall, the bar was filled with yet more excitement and interest. After Simon interrupted the girls’ drinking, Moira had dragged Syed and Amy with her to the dance floor, to bust an embarrassing set of moves that only a mature woman possibly could. With their attempts at picking up girls having failed and with a man lost to the dance floor to join Moira and Syed, Lucien and Lute were left alone. Lute quickly dashed towards the bar, in an attempt mixed of naivety, adorableness and jealousy in hoping to defend Aria from Simon’s photographing advances – something, however, Aria didn’t seem to mind. As Lute tried to dive in, however, he only made matters worse for himself.
Dylan simply turned and stared in disbelief. During the entire time this had been happening, he had been downing shot after shot. Turning back to see his friends again, he couldn’t believe how much had changed so quickly and the perplexing aftermath that had been left to him.
“Lute…? Simon…? Aria…? Whas goin’ on? Whys the room all spinnin-”
Flash!Dylan couldn’t see anything but spots.
Flash, flash flash!“Oh… hey buddy. I didn’t see you there!” Simon paused briefly from his frenetic photo snapping to see Lute sprawl on the floor after trying to do… ‘something’, multiple times. Simon scooted towards Lute as quickly as he could, skipping practically on tip toes to the fallen virtuoso, and offering him a friendly hands up to mimic events transpiring across the hall with Estelle and her nameless approachee. He gripped Lute firmly, and helped pull him to his feet, slapping his shoulders and body free of dust, and standing back with his arms folded over his chest to inspect him satisfactorily.
“I think you’re looking okay, buddy!” Simon grinned. “Nothing looks hurt or broken! You feel alright, though?”
“Less taaaaaaaaalk more daaaaancingggg!” Aria slurred, hopping off her bar stool and suddenly interlocking both of her arms into Simon’s and Lute’s, dragging them to the dance floor exactly where Moira, Amy and Syed were. Or at least, the general vicinity of them.
The sudden lurch and grabbing of Lute though unbalanced the poor man yet again, and he was sent stumbling backwards and away from her, hip hopping on one foot into the throng of the dance party, his arms bicycle-wheeling over and over again. Despite his best intentions, he was going to fall over again. He knew it, he just knew it. Even the voice inside his head was telling him that, and she did it with a snickering laugh at the approaching inevitability.
The on looking dancers all thought Lute’s jig was some new and crazy dancing fad, and some even started to mimic it, whilst others stared in wonder and bewilderment at Moira, Amy, Aria and Simon.
Lute eventually stopped though, just as his foot slipped out from under him and he tumbled over forwards. But, fortunately for him, he managed to avoid the floor this time. Instead, he landed on something a lot softer that stopped his fall almost as soon as it began. Something soft and bouncy and quite… happy. Something that smelled… nice?
“Why hello again… Lute, isn’t it?”
The man froze on the spot as a chill of dread beaded and sweated down the nape of his neck and spine. He couldn’t forget that voice from earlier on in the day. He couldn’t have landed where… where he thought he had, could he? He… he… he didn’t mean…!
Ooh, naughty boy, chimed the voice in his head.
Lute back-pedalled out, trying his best amongst sputtering coughs and fits to apologise for his gross and completely accidental but still inexcusable actions and that he really didn’t mean to do such a thing because he wouldn’t dare do something like that he wasn’t a pervert like the camera man even if he did grow up and spend a lot of time with girls like Robin it didn’t mean he was one of
those guys it was purely an accident of course and oh god where is the nearest exit to run to or toilet stall to hide in oh kill me now please Gods kill me
“Would you care to dance, Lute?” Rose held out her hand regally, the sound of her tranquil voice snapping him out of his panic to stare up at the beautiful woman in her dazzling, glittering diamond dress, her full red lips curled into a delicate smile awaiting him to take her up on her offer. An offer, when looking into her, he realised could not possibly be refused without then departing this world for good.
“Your friends are certainly a lively bunch, aren’t they?”A voice snapped the left behind Lucien to look over his shoulder to a bedazzling man with indigo hair in a smart and well dressed suit standing behind him, smiling as he looked over the party. He took a step forward to stand beside Lucien, flicking his eyes briefly at Dylan, who was otherwise preoccupied with the rest of the antics occurring on the dancefloor.
“I’m glad to see your friends enjoying themselves. Quite a party, hmm?” The man smiled and laughed as Lute crashed into Rose. “My name’s Tobias,” He turned, extending a hand out to Lucien to shake. “What’s yours?”
At yet another end of the Dance Hall, leaning against the buffet tables, happily munching the food stacked on top of plastic trays and watching the dancing and gala before them, a tall skinny man and squat, chubby man both dressed in smart and well fitting tuxedos watched the party happily enough whilst eating. Forever... eating. Both of them just stared at all of the Pride's antics as they unfurled. Moira and Amy's drunken dancing. Lute crashing into the gorgeous blonde woman after his weird dance, and the red haired woman knocking some man over onto his behind. Still eating.
"Hey, Biggs?"
"Yes, Wedge?"
"This is one weird party, isn't it?"
"It sure is."
