cuddlecity | EVENT: A VERY NICE BALL.

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EVENT: A VERY NICE BALL.

Blink, and a week goes by; close your eyes, and the evening of the fifteenth comes to life, the cool glow of moonlight illuminating the quiet streets of the city. For once, it seems like the entire city's come to a standstill — many of the local businesses have closed early today, with signs advising they'll reopen first thing in the morning, and even the dependable, cheerful squawks of the street vendors have hushed for the time being. Hurried as this year's event may seem, the annual celebration is a city tradition that's not to be missed; bakers and booksellers alike know this all too well, and any lingering souls in their shops will be gently but firmly shooed to the exits by late afternoon. They've got to get all dolled up too, after all, and such finery takes time.

Whether the Social Committee's video enticed you or you've been dragged by the metaphorical scuff tonight, the Samhain Ball hopes to offer you an evening of seasonally appropriate escapism. There's something for everyone tonight, from the comforting swells of smooth jazz and upbeat swing pouring out from the stage where a live band plays, to the mouth-watering smells and tastes of a gourmet plated meal served early in the evening, to even the simple beauty of the decorated ballroom itself.

The first hour or so of the evening allows for guests to enter at their leisure through double doors at the north end of the ballroom, where all are greeted by the smiling faces of Flora and Cornelius in their matching cream pantsuits. Should you choose this main entrance, you and your companion — or companions, if you've brought more than one — will be announced in grand style, befitting the occasion. (Savvy — or sneaky — attendees may note the auxiliary entrance on the west side of the ballroom. Follow the garden path, and be mindful of the sprinklers. They do have a tendency to go off at the wrong moments.)

Take a look around, and soak in the sights. The ornately carved ceiling of the ballroom has been obscured for the evening with tasteful black draping dotted with the gentle glow of strung lights. It lends a twilight quality to the evening, enhanced by the soft flicker of tea lights placed at the center of each table on the east side of the ballroom and the sconces hung on the wall throughout. Each table, too, features a soft cream tablecloth and a bounty of autumnal florals, perfectly arranged to match the golden chairs surrounding. There's plenty of seating for all, and no assignments — feel free to claim a table for you and yours, and free your hands of anything you may not wish to carry.

The slow fade of music from the stage signals attention to a single woman illuminated by spotlight, whose silhouette should look familiar to anyone who's spent time in the city. With a small, tired smile, Mayor Drake welcomes you and yours to the city's annual Samhain Celebration Ball; her speech is short, but touches on the importance of the holiday, from the appreciation of the harvest to the welcoming of the new year, and reminds both natives and visitors alike to take time in the coming months to cherish their blessings — including this most immediate one, the promised Samhain feast.

Once you've settled around a table, the ballroom welcomes you to chat with strangers and friends alike, encouraging conversation with soft instrumental music and the quiet, pleasant generosity of passing waiters carrying flutes of happily bubbling champagne. A little liquid courage never hurt anyone, after all.

Dinner is an affair in itself, plated and served by hushed but skilled waiters whose capable hands whisk courses in and out with no more than a smile. No matter your dietary preferences or needs, there's an appetizer, entree, and everything in between available for you — simply raise a hand, and a member of the waitstaff will be at your side to assist in taking your order when you're ready. Linger as long as you like at the table; there's no rush to leave, but when you're ready, let the swells of the music from the stage entice you to the west side of the ballroom, where a dance floor's lit by the warm glow of so many twinkling lights overhead.

The music itself goes on through the wee hours of the evening, so there's plenty of opportunities to fill your dance card with any number of partners. The songs themselves vary from gentle waltzes perfect for cheek-to-cheek swaying to faster rhythms suited for swing dancing's signature dips and twirls, and requests are always welcome if you've something particular in mind. There's even a microphone tucked to the side, just in case you feel the urge to croon with accompaniment to someone special as the night goes on.

Of course, if you don't feel like dancing, or just need to rest your feet, there's plenty of entertainment tucked in the hall. In a small room just off the ballroom, you might find a collection of old-fashioned photobooth machines, ordered on accident and set here where they won't clash with the rest of the decor. They're operational, of course, and free of charge; feel free to take a few silly photos, but be sure to wait for them to print. There's the gardens, too, equally decorated with twinkling lights, though the effect is muted by the moonlight that trickles through the canopy overhead; the adjoining hedge maze and walking paths have often been a perfect site for quiet walks and romantic interludes in years past.

While a perfect world might allow such a charmed evening to last forever, unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and as the late hour of the evening gives way to the promise of dawn, a familiar tune is played to signal the end of the event. As the lyrics go, you don't have to go home... but you can't stay here. Time to make your way to the exit, and see where else the night takes you.

Whew, talk about words. Should you need a recap: be pretty, because this is a fancy event. Bring a friend or come stag, whatever you choose; eat, drink, dance (or don't) and be merry, for this is an event without any dramatic accidental consequences. Well, except the sprinklers... and maybe your own excessive consumption of champange, but that's up to you!

And, though we say it every time, please don't forget that your mod team is here for you with answers to any questions you might have, whether related specifically to this event or the game in general. If you have any further questions specific to this event, we encourage you to ask away on our QUESTIONS COMMENT here in this post. If you have general questions, or prefer a more private venue, our GENERAL INBOX (and SCREENED INBOX) is always available for you.

Enjoy your evening, cuddlers, but if you would, please — save the last dance for us?

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Even though he's told her about his senses, Felicity hasn't fully internalized it. She hasn't experienced it for herself after all, and it doesn't even occur to her that maybe, he could have smelled her presence before she said hello.

"It's good to see you too," she says, smiling a little wider. When he compliments her, that smile gets wider still — this is going well. She even gets some of her playfulness back, because pretty soon, she's lifting her eyebrows to take an obvious look at him and tilts her head.

"You don't look half bad yourself." All said with just the right grin to show that she's teasing, just a little. But then there's a pause, because while Felicity would love to think herself as fearless and totally badass, she still has to pause just to gather a tiny bit more courage before she asks her question.

"Would you ... like to dance?"

It really is nice to see her. Derek had thought that they'd gotten on pretty well. He'd had a bit of a crush on her, if he's being honest, and he's trying to keep that in check right now, seeing as how he's actually technically here with someone else. A sheepish sort of expression passes over Derek's face and he shakes his head a little while ducking it slightly before he looks back up at her. "Well, thank you very much."

She's just full of surprises, though, because then she's asking him to dance and yeah, okay, he's at a fancy party where people are actually dancing on the dance floor, but it still takes him a little bit off guard. All the same, he can't say no and he wouldn't if he could. She's Felicity. She's the first friend he made here.

"I would love to dance," he agrees with a smile, getting to his feet and holding a hand out to her for her to take.

As for Felicity, it isn't lost on her how handsome he really is. Something about that chiseled face and that unfairly good-looking stubble. What she likes about him the most so far though, is how good of a sport he was when they first met and she was quite literally ducking the authorities. Says a lot about person — he doesn't jump to conclusions, he's willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, and he's ... trusting. He had to be, to tell her about werewolves.

It just all adds up in the end.

Still, it hasn't fully hit her yet, not consciously at least, that her heart beats a little faster when he's around. For now, she's just a girl asking a guy to dance, and if the way he says he'd love to makes her smile, all the better for it.

The next song that plays isn't one she knows, but she recognizes the singer and the fact that it's going to be a slow dance. It makes the moment when she takes his hand all the more nerve-wracking, but her fingers can already feel that he's warm, and strong, and suddenly, focusing on him is a lot easier than focusing on her nerves.

Derek starts to lead Felicity out to the dance floor by the hand when she takes it and he smiles a little, almost apologetically, his eyes flickering away from her and to the band as the song changes and it's something much slower. That's just as well, he thinks, because it's a little less deafening for him when they play the slower tunes. They seem to play a little quieter to go with the mellow speed.

His eyes move back to Felicity and his hand moves toward her waist. "Is it okay if I...?" he asks, his hand hovering a few inches away from her hip as the hand he's holding hers in shifts slightly so that he can settle them into a ballroom dancing position. Derek knows how to do that specifically from the lessons his mother made he and his sister take when they were young, for a wedding once.

The last thing he wants to do is presume anything, but it's the only way he knows how. If she wants to slow dance some other way, she's probably going to have to show him.

"Oh, psshtt yeah, of course," she answers. And so what if she feels extremely aware of where his hand is?

Felicity can't focus too much on that though, because pretty soon she needs to worry about where her other hand goes on him, and she settles it gingerly on the edge of his shoulder, her palm wrapping right around it. Her fingers can feel the seam of his suit, right where the sleeve meets the torso, and without thinking, Felicity runs one of her fingers over it.

She's not great at dancing. God knows she isn't the most graceful person on the planet. She was never raised that way, and she spent too much of her childhood trying to break social traditions and fighting the man (god she was so naïve) to really have focused too much on being graceful. But right now, Felicity really hopes that she doesn't take a wrong step.

"Mmm ... I'm sorry, you know. For- well- not contacting you after ..." She glances down for a moment, cheeks warming, before she looks back up. "... that day in the café. You were probably trying to give me time to process and I ... I just want you to know that ... what you said that day ... it's not why I haven't called. Or texted."

With her permission, Derek lets his hand settle on Felicity's waist smiling a little as her own hand moves to rest on his shoulder. If she's uncomfortable at all about his hand placement, her own, or dancing in general, it's lost on Derek, because he doesn't notice. For the moment, they're finding a rhythm that they can settle into which also goes with the music.

Her words take him a little off guard, mostly because he isn't really expecting her to bring it up and he certainly hadn't planned on it. She's here, now. Whatever her reason had been, she seems like it's fine now. That's all that really matters.

So Derek shakes his head a little. The hand he's holding hers with opens a little in a gesture to stave her off from feeling like she needs to explain herself. "Seriously, it's fine, Felicity, don't worry about it," he says, giving her a small smile. "It's really fine. No hard feelings." Admittedly, it had hurt, but he's not going to hold it against her.

It's a hard moment — to keep going or to just let it be. She isn't surprised that she's talking about this, because that had been the whole point, hadn't it? To come apologize and hope that she hadn't done any irreversible damage by what would traditionally be called ... ghosting.

Her lips form into reluctant smile, almost like she can't believe the fact that he's basically letting her off the hook from explaining, but as she stares into his eyes for a little longer, her smile softens and relaxes.

"Okay," she says, her voice just above a whisper. Because she's starting to realize something that maybe Derek has realized all along. The music is smooth, they're dancing in snyc, and if she gives this present moment a chance, if she stops talking, it's ... starting to feel ... really nice. It's something about the way two people can move so well together, even if it's slow and measured, it just feels ... right.

The thing about Derek Hale is that, while he might look tough on the outside, he isn't as much as he'd like to be on the inside. He just wants to love and be loved; to have a pack again. He wants to be around people. Having to be mostly on his own the way he has for so many years in spite of the fact that he's very much a pack animal has been hard enough but to then also have to pretend he would prefer the solitude more often than not just to keep people safe had become too heavy a burden to bear. Now that he's somewhere relatively safe, he wants to break down those barriers and really, truly start letting people in. Why not let her off the hook for needing time to decide that he wasn't a danger to her before wanting to approach him again? He'd been a practical stranger when he'd shared the information, after all. He really can't blame her.

So when she agrees to drop the subject and move on, Derek's glad. There's no point wallowing in the pang of hurt that had clung to his heart for a week before he'd finally felt it starting to settle into the pile of lost opportunities in the back of his mind. It hadn't hurt so much once that had happened. So why should he hang onto a grudge and why should she hang onto the guilt?

"I'm glad you came over to say hi, though," he confesses, "I had really liked talking to you, before." It's his subtle way of saying that he hopes now they can keep talking. Or being friends. Or whatever...apparently this place requires more of them than Derek's been very good at giving.

Felicity, on the other hand, is tougher than she looks. At this point in her life, nothing about her external appearance or body language exudes confidence (or anything close to toughness), but it's almost like this light, fluffy, klutzy persona of hers is a direct response to her past. She did love and was loved, but it ended far worse than any relationship could have ended, and it's shaken her enough to break past that naïve, the-world-should-fear-me attitude. Because no, she couldn't hack her way into getting Cooper out of jail, just like she couldn't hack her way into saving his life.

She's more careful now, more willing to let people think she's just some dumb blonde, because it's all just easier that way. And if she's really being honest with herself, not needing to pretend to be tough, and goth, and anti-establishment all the time is a relief.

But then there's this place. Cuddle City. A place that not only offered her a way to right the wrongs in her past, but also, ha, a place that runs on their abilities to connect with other people. During that first month, she still wasn't sure if it was all a ruse. Some kind of game or fake reality they're all secretly plugged into. But then all she did was meet nice people like Kara and Sara. Robbie and Steve.

And Derek.

"Theeeen, I'll make sure to keep saying hi. Tonight ... and after tonight." The way she's looking at him now, it's the same expression she had when they were back in the cafe, teasing each other about social media and how to exercise. "I uh ... I like talking to you too Derek." Present tense.

This place means a lot of things for Derek. It means, first and foremost, Cora's guaranteed safety. He'd failed his pack; he'd failed Laura. He wasn't going to fail his other sister, not again. If all he has to do is be in this place and get to know people and maybe, if he's lucky enough, fall in love then it's a pretty worth it price to pay to make sure that Cora stays safe.

He hadn't thought that this place was going to be easy, honestly, when he first arrived. While he hadn't really known what he ought to be expecting, what he's found here is not it, that's for sure. He's got a job he likes with people he likes. He's trying to help Scott McCall once again but maybe this time, now that he knows what he knows about the man Scott will be, it'll be easier and more effective. He's making friends. He's meeting beautiful women who haven't given him any reason at all to believe they mean to kill him instead.

All in all, Derek really likes it here. And it's people like Felicity that contribute to that.

He smiles and then laughs a little. "You definitely should. Maybe I'll say hi first once in a while, now that I know it's okay to," he replies. "You still want to learn how to work out?" he asks with a wink. Honestly, he's still interested in learning the technology, but he isn't going to bring that up unless she does, because it's more than a little embarrassing. "Because if so, then I even have a built in reason to start a conversation which will make my life a hell of a lot easier," he adds, only half-joking.

The question about working out registers after a split second, and Felicity looks at him, shaking her head as she grins, like she can't believe he remembers. But of course he does. They're not goldfish. They have more than three second memories.

"I do," she says as she tilts her head to the side. "But only if I can give you tech lessons in exchange."

She does give him a small — tiny even — look of disbelief though, when he implies that he needs a reason to start conversations. Has he looked at himself in the mirror lately? "Oh yeah?" she asks, picking up his tone of voice. "I have a hard time believing girls don't stumble all over themselves to talk to you."

His eyebrows lift as Derek smiles back at her. Honestly, he's glad to hear that she's still interested because it'll give him a reason to spend more time with her and get to know her better. If nothing else, she's a nice woman and he could use some friends. The fact that she's absolutely adorable doesn't hurt, either.

"That's fair, you absolutely can teach me the tech lessons. God knows I need them," Derek laughs.

Rolling his eyes a little, Derek huffs out a laugh and shakes his head. "You know, you might not believe it, but it's a little harder than it looks to get women to stumble all over themselves to talk to you when you've spent as long as I had isolating yourself. It's like a shadow I'm still trying to shake and I think some people sense it and steer clear, I don't know. I'm sort of trying to put forth a new Derek in this place. New place, new life, new me. You know?"

The tips of her fingers move in tandem to lightly brush against his shoulder, like she's feeling the fabric. The pressure is light, potentially even unnoticeable if you're not paying attention, and Felicity certainly isn't even totally aware that she's doing it.

His laugh is infectious though, and Felicity finds herself chuckling in return.

But it's Derek's explanation that there isn't a line of women waiting for him that gets her eyebrows to come down, and for a softer smile to settle all the way to her eyes. "You sound like a personal trainer already." New place, new life, new me. "But really though," she says, to be serious for a moment, "since I only know the new you, I think he's pretty great. So you must be doing a good job."

The music too, is coming to the last 30 seconds, and when Felicity senses it, there's a tug at the pit of her stomach, like she doesn't quite want it to end. But she doesn't want to be greedy either, so her smile doesn't falter. He did come here with someone after all.

A small smile plays on Derek's lips as he looks down for a moment, huffing his soft amusement at her comment. "I don't know about all of that," he jokes. "But I appreciate that compliment. I'm trying, anyway; it's good to know I'm not completely wasting my time screwing it up."

The fact of the matter is, Derek knows there's a part of him that can be fun and extroverted and happy, it's just that he'd locked that piece of himself away for so long that accessing it in little pieces over time is the only way he thinks he can do it without ending up right where he started just because it's comfortable and familiar.

As the song winds down, Derek gives her hand a little squeeze and smiles. The music starts to fade, like the song is ending, and Derek nods a little. "We'll have to get together and start training each other soon. Don't be a stranger," he says before looking her directly in the eye, lifting his eyebrows, and adding, "again."

"Nope," she replies, popping the p quietly, since they're in a formal setting. "Not screwing it up at all. Trust me-" She leans in, like she's letting him in on a secret. "-I'd know. While I am in no way a screw-up, I do screw things up a lot."

When he squeezes her hand, Felicity lets out a quiet, breathy laugh, but her expression changes from nodding silently to oh my gosh Derek pretty quickly.

"Way to lay on the guilt reeeeal thick there," she jokes, as the final notes are played. "Well, when I start texting every morning for a personal training session, just remember — you asked for it."

Laughing a little, Derek cocks his eyebrows. "I don't know if I believe that," he says playfully. Something about her makes her seem like she's mostly pretty well put together and that's really what Derek's kind of trying to say.

The way her expression changes so quickly only prompts another laugh. "You had to have seen that coming," he teases.

A smile pulls up the corners of his mouth and Derek nods a little. "I'll be looking forward to it," he says and that's actually completely honest. The smile softens slightly, then. "Thank you for this. I'm glad you came over. Sincerely."

She just shakes her head and smiles when he said she should have seen it coming. She really should have. But maybe talking to him has been a little distracting, here and there. Just a smidgen.

"Me too," she agrees at the end, her own expression settling on grateful. "And I'm glad you ..." She thinks for a moment, her eyes darting around a couple of times behind her glasses frames. "... are a nice enough guy to made it easy for me to talk to you."

Also known as: I'm glad you didn't shoo me away. Or angrily walk past as if you didn't know me.

"Expect that text tomorrow morning," she says, pointing a finger at him now that the dance is done, and the couples have started to shuffle both on and off the dance floor between songs.

She is glad that she had enough courage to come over. If she hadn't, Felicity has the feeling that she would've missed out on something great in her life.

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EVENT: A VERY NICE BALL.

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