parties for days

[follow_the_leader]

Holidays are supposed to be fun. Ema is pretty sure that this is true, at least. Her parents certainly seem excited every year. Normally, she doesn't mind it much. She's not that into parties necessarily, but some of it can be fun. The food and drinks are usually good, and the music, and the outfits. She does love watching the outfits. Some are wonderful, some are interesting, and there's always at least a couple that are just hilariously awful. She's still young enough that she's been able to get away with being shy; there's enough of a 'children should be seen and not heard' mentality that this is still considered Acceptable.

Or it was, anyway.

This year, they're going to a different set of parties, and The Twins are here.

Ema has literally never seen her parents this excited. They usually have opinions, of course, she wouldn't want to embarass them by showing up to an event in an inappropriate outfit or something like that. But this time they are so... into it. Ema doesn't get it. They fuss and hover and change their minds about what she should wear and send her to get her hair done and change their minds again and buy her three different pairs of shoes because they can't decide which she should wear, and...

Ema wants to scream at them. She has to try very hard not to be bitter at the twins. It's not their fault her parents think they're the Most Special People in the Universe. But Ema is feeling both overwhelmed by the attention and, somehow, oddly ignored at the same time. Don't her parents think she'll look nice without all this fussing? Or that she'll know how to be friendly and polite without all of their rules and speeches and injunctions about how to treat the twins? She knows this stuff! She's been a good daughter, she learned it all.

For better or worse, this all goes on for a good while before the weeks of parties actually arrive. Worse, because Ema is now thoroughly (if quietly) fed up with her parents. Better, because she's had enough time to process that it's really not the twins' fault, and she thinks she can manage to not feel like she's forcing friendliness if she meets them.

But really, she just wants this all to be over. By the time the Grand Event arrives she's already been going to parties for a week, smiling and making small talk and behaving just as her parents want her to. She arrives at the party, pastes a smile on her face, and starts to 'aimlessly' wander the edge of the party. She's just looking for a good vantage point, really. See-and-be-seen is best done from the sidelines, in her opinion. There must be a reasonable corner somewhere.

Comments

[scry_before]

Right, Adarin remembers why he is talking to these people. Because he is the #1 available bachelor. He resists the urge to fling himself off of the waterfall and run off into the wilderness. Mages can scry, it's not like there's anywhere he could run.

"You're welcome," he says, giving the parents a look of vague discomfort from the creepy, overbearing and unwanted attempts at matchmaking.

He actually has a few suggestions for how to make the magical smart index work, and even kind of wants to provide them, but - creepy overbearing matchmaking. No. He doesn't want to talk anymore, and give them any ammunition to think that he is Definitely Going To Bang their daughter. Sigh.

[follow_the_leader]

The rest of the guests had been hanging back- not quite politely, but at least resignedly- when they see that Adarin had been actually talking to a Reasonably Acceptable Girl. Once he freezes up, however, he becomes fair game again, and the unspoken grace period is over. Other guests start to magically appear at the shoulders of the Milaris', a silent hint to move along.

"We'd love any other ideas, if you think of any!" Eladine ventures, but yields to the pressure of the crowd when she sees his uncomfortable expression. "...we don't want to keep you, of course."

"Enjoy the party," murmurs Ema politely, following her parents as they retreat back into the crowd.

Others immediately swoop back in to take their place. Ema cringes internally. The poor twins. No corner retreats for them, clearly.

[scry_before]

No corner retreats to hide, indeed. Isn't it great, being the main attraction at a party. Come one, come all, see the only kids of the latest half-blood, get in on the action before they're too old to put up with this idiocy and murder everyone. Ha. Ha. Ha.

There is a sister to hide behind, though, so that's nice.

[headunbowed]

And man is she great to hide behind. Because she flirts with the pushy, unwanted, 'reasonably acceptable' girls. And, if they are not pushy or unwanted, their mothers. Because it's funny, and it gets people to leave them both alone.

Then, when the available bachelorettes are well and truly scared off, it's Adarin's turn. Zeviana still wants to escape this wretched party.

[scry_before]

Adarin is going to enjoy this. A lot more than he should. He picks the most boring, obnoxious trivia he knows, and he goes to town.

"Did you know," he says, cackling internally, "that there were at least seventeen separate, recorded languages before the first half-blood, on this continent alone?" And he continues from there, getting more useless and less interesting as he goes. From the glazed over, bored looks in their expressions, it's working. Bwuahahahaha.

[follow_the_leader]

Ema overhears this tidbit from her corner. She had not, in fact, known that about pre-First languages. Wondering if her languages project is what caused him to think of it, she drifts over curiously, hoping she'll hear more about the languages. If she can get something working for the First languages, maybe later she could...

Nope. Nothing helpful here, that's for sure. The rest of the conversation veers off in increasingly random, unrelated directions, and it just gets more pointless as he goes. She stares at him from around the shoulders of the older couple in front of her, utterly confused. He was all- thoughtful and helpful, earlier.

[headunbowed]

And then, halfway between the mating habits of tropical birds: there is a maniacal cackling, followed by, "So long, assholes!"

If the crowd would please look away from boring trivia to the cliff over there to their right, they may briefly see Zeviana. Flinging herself off a cliff. While laughing.

[scry_before]

Party guests present are, on the whole, absolutely stunned. Staring. At where Zeviana was before she jumped off a cliff.

One, though, smirks. Without even bothering to say goodbye to the poor listeners of his most boring trivia, he turns on his heel and walks straight to the furthest, most quiet, out of the way corner possible. They'll find him eventually, but he's earned himself a short respite.

[follow_the_leader]

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Dooooon't laugh.

Well, now she knows what the nonsense was for. As a distraction, it was certainly effective. (Though she's rather obscurely disappointed, in retrospect, that he lumped in that factoid about languages with other boring information. Languages are cool! He'd thought so, hadn't he? He suggested that dictionary...)

She returns to her parents, who demand a full accounting. Sighing, she dutifully reports the events- though, as a form of mild revenge, she includes as much of Adarin's speech as she can recall.

Around them, guests are milling in surprised shock. As the shock wears off people are beginning to consider chasing after Zeviana, and slowly (and displeasedly) realizing how unfeasible simply imitating her would be without her mana supply. No one seems inclined to put in the time to create a similar spell optimized for their own available mana, but a couple investigate down the platform. Ema expects they'll give up eventually, either because having Adarin around is good enough, they don't want to waste mana chasing her, or they want to return to the party themselves. (Most likely, some combination of all the above.)

Unsurprisingly, the guests on the platform return empty-handed. Adarin is... well, presumably somewhere at the party, but temporarily misplaced. Ema's parents have been amusing themselves by introducing Ema to as many people as possible, mostly boys her own age. Most are- of underwhelming intelligence. One is downright smarmy, and Ema has to move his hands a couple of times. Another, she would be shocked if he was thirteen yet.

When her mother complains of the cold and asks Ema to retrieve her shawl from the carriage, Ema leaps at the chance. She barely gives her mother a chance to finish the sentence before she's off to the platform. "Yes Mother, be right back, won't be a minute!"

[marrinikari]

Halfway down, the platform decides it is having none of this. It wobbles, distinctly; it veers towards the cliff, screeching to a halt at the last second; and then, slowly, it begins to tip towards the waterfall.

[follow_the_leader]

Oh stars they warned me they said it was a death trap there aren't railings why aren't there railings oh stars what do I do-

Ema's thoughts are tripping frantically in every direction. They are certainly not compatible with actual words. A lot of incoherent, frantic screaming ensues as she tries to grab hold of something, anything. The closest thing to a word she manages is a rather garbled form of "HELP!"

[scry_before]

Right then, respite's over.

Adarin is up in half a second, mutters something to himself about getting the proper balance between lift and gravity, and then with a spell - flies to the rescue. Literally. He doesn't feel particularly heroic, mostly just mentally screeching about how stupid a floating platform is for transportation over a portal as he tries to navigate the - slowly spinning platform. This is probably some kind of ploy, is his glum second thought, as he snatches Ema's hand and pulls her into the air, followed by him adjusting the flight spell so she's floating comfortably, too.

"Hi," he says, for lack of a better word. They are now flying. He's done this before, but she probably hasn't.

[follow_the_leader]

...okay then, suddenly flying.

It takes a second or two for Ema's brain to catch up with the fact that she's no longer about to plunge to her death in a waterfall, whereupon she gulps and takes a second (or seven) to collect herself. Okay. Not screaming any more.


...flying.

Nope, not thinking about that. Nope, nope, nope.

She clings to Adarin's hand probably a lot harder than she needs to; when he speaks, she jolts, realizes what she was doing, and eases up. "Sorry," she mumbles automatically. Then, "Uh, hi." Then, as her thoughts return, "-Thank you, thank you thank you, it just- it was tipping me, I didn't know what to do, I'm so sorry."

She catches a glimpse of the waterfall, moans in fear, and determinedly looks away again. "Um. Sorry. Again. Thank you. I sound like an idiot, I'm babbling, I'm sorry, but thank you, you were right, it wasn't safe, I shouldn't've-"

She shuts up. If she says anything else, she will burst into tears, and that will not help.

[scry_before]

"You're welcome. It's okay," he says, in soothing tones. So, probably not a ploy, or at least not hers. He can be comforting. "You don't sound like an idiot, it's okay to babble after a - magical malfunction as distressing as that." He worded it that delicately to not freak her out.

"Would you like me to take you to the ground, or back up to the party? Or stay here and take a minute before you do either?"

[follow_the_leader]

It takes her a little bit to get her thoughts coherent enough to actually interpret his words and turn them into something she has an opinion on. Once she manages- "Um, I should... I should calm. Calm down. I think." She gulps. "Ground is, is fine, you already- I don't want to- I'm so sorry, you went to all that trouble to escape and I'm ruining it and, and..."

Okay, she's crying now. Not sobbing, she's breathing just fine, but tears are running down her face. She turns her head back towards the party, hoping he won't see; this is far and away humiliating enough already.

"...thank you. Again. I just- thank you?" Realizing she's going back into idiot mode, she tries to straighten out her thoughts more. "Um, yeah. Ground, but... not back yet? I should, um. Calm."

She needs to get back on the ground, never get on the platform again, go find her parents, tell them-

Oh. Oops. Matchmakers.

"Uh, actually, up here may," sniffle, "be better. They'll just," sniffle, "...talk, if we're," sniffle, "safe but hiding. Slow rescue is," sniffle, "probably less... inta- intet- interprable?"

Calm, calm, calm- she has to go back to the party- calm. How to be calm? Well, she's a little calmer. Crying, but calming.

[scry_before]

He is not going to comment on the crying.

"You're not ruining anything," he assures, in the same soothing tones. "Don't worry about me, it's just a party. There will be others no matter what I do. It's all right. Once I accidentally set myself on fire and I spent the next three hours babbling about fire safety to Ana, I'm not going to judge."

[follow_the_leader]

Well, that surprises a hiccupy giggle out of her. "So I shouldn't," sniffle, "set the platform on fire in," hiccup, "revenge then?"

[scry_before]

"No, that would get me babbling about fire safety, I'd be completely useless for a while and be terrible company. Now, freezing it, that I'm completely fine with, feel free."

[follow_the_leader]

"You're, um," sniffle, "kinda important company, at the moment."

She manages to get the tears to stop. She takes an experimental sniffle, then looks towards the party resignedly. (As long as she doesn't look down towards the waterfall, it's- okay. Maybe.)

"Uh, I think- I think I can go down?" She sighs. "I wish I could just- leave. I'm, um, kinda... not really a party mode, now. But, my parents are there, so. I guess I should get them."

[scry_before]

"You are," he points out, "perfectly entitled to leave a party after this. If your parents argue, I can be an important person at them."

[follow_the_leader]

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean-" she pauses, collects her thoughts (insofar as she can) and continues. "I don't... think my parents would make me stay, after, um, that. But- if it would help, if I could, uh, stay on the other side of the room and ignore you? Or something? Stars, I don't even know. But you, you saved me and you're going to get mobbed for it and- I don't want to just leave you to it."

[scry_before]

Well. That's - actually rather nice. "Thank you," he says, genuinely. "I think I can get out of being mobbed, though, if I'm clever. Possibly by saying something like, 'My sister's cliff jumping is distressing and I very desperately need time alone I had to fly today I am a delicate flower.'"

[follow_the_leader]

That gets another giggle. She's bordering on hysteria at this point, so it probably sounds rather manic, but she's alive who cares. She can be hysterical if she wants to!

"Stars, that's- you're as much a delicate flower as that speech was entertaining and engaging," she says between gasps of laughter.

[scry_before]

"What spee- oh." He laughs. "That speech. Yes, I was feeling vindictive, it's the little things in life."

[follow_the_leader]

"I made the mistake of listening. I heard that thing about languages, and then, uh..." Manic giggle, "tropical birds and china patterns and, and, farming techniques..."