video . un: oz

[swornto]

[As the video turns on, there is yet another tired face of someone resisting their Bloodsport. Really, he's been trying. Oz may be smiling and beaming with energy, but there are dark circles under his eyes and he's paled by the internalized horror of his recent boat ride. This boy is at least very good at faking a chipper attitude and puts that skill to full use over the network.]

He~llo! It's Oz again! And you know what I've been itching to do lately?

[Break things, fight people, summon his weapon and mow down monsters... No, he won't admit to those or allow them. Instead, a peaceful half-truth;]

Ballroom dancing!

I've had an abundance of energy and I need to do something productive. We all come from different worlds, so I bet our dances are veeery different! Anyone want to practice mine? Maybe it'll be a refreshing way to get rid of this energy!

[Without breaking things or exploding. Oz is looking for less violent ways to help people vent their Bloodsport. And maybe some classical dance can distract him.]

Comments

[swornto]

It's supposed to be, right? You see it all of the time in fairytales.

[But for Oz, ballroom dancing and other etiquette has been a matter of survival. He's certain that it can be fun in a different context, but he himself can't think of it as romantic.]

Have you ever practiced it before?

[sparklehorror]

Nah, I've just copied what I see in movies sometimes. But I know there's more to it than just spinning around! I wanna know steps and stuff.

[Mabel has zero self-consciousness whatsoever when it comes to rocking out to her favorite 80's tunes, but that will not prepare her for magical mirror slow-dances with sparkly faerie kings. Now that she's no longer trapped in boring old Piedmont, California for the rest of her adolescence and such opportunities are now much more possible, Mabel will not be squandering potential opportunities.]

[swornto]

Oh, they use movies for dancing?

[He's heard about movies from Minako (she was adorably enthusiastic about it,) so has a vague idea of what she means.]

Watching is certainly different from doing. I'd be more than happy to teach you the steps~. I just so happen to have taken many lessons. [too many lessons, holy hell.]

[sparklehorror]

Or they use dancing in movies! So many great numbers in so many styles! Magical fairy tale balls, summer romances before college, movies where the whole thing is a musical and everybody sings...!

[She's so enthused she does not notice her brother sneaking up on her.]

[swornto]

[Oh dear. Does he warn her..? She seems like such a cute girl and all. It would be a shame to see her suffer... oooh but Gil was a pretty cute boy and seeing him suffer made him even cuter...

Oz chooses the side of evil.]

Is that so? I have heard that dancing can be romantic. It's why I never taught Ada how to dance.

By musical, do you mean an opera or ballet?

[sparklehorror]

Weeeeell, I guess it's kinda like an opera, except it's just regular people with regular voices --

[Aaaaaand there they go. Her brother flops Mabel's entire pile of butt-length hair right over her whole face in an easy, practiced gesture, and entirely on reflex Mabel grabs the closest relatively soft item and beans her brother with it. She subsequently drops her omni on the couch, though her own feed doesn't glitch out, so Oz will get to enjoy overhearing a bunch of thumps and deranged cackling from both twins as Mabel chases her brother across the house.

At freshly fourteen, they really aren't that much younger than Oz. But that's still closer to being little kids than it isn't, and it's often striking to see the way the twins can drop everything to simply play with each other still, despite everything.]