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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A lot has changed in a year. She and Stiles aren't even dating anymore. She also may be making doe eyes at his best friend. But she's not here to talk to Derek about her love life. The point is, Malia's learned to care about people. Also, she doesn't want to die. That's always a good motivator for anyone.

"Silver bullet to the head." Since he asked how you kill a hellhound. Malia doesn't know that he's not quite all the way dead yet, but she'll get there soon enough. But it takes her a moment to think back and see if anyone Derek cares about has actually died. "Nope, everyone's alive."

"Must've been some silver bullet," Derek comments thoughtfully. Something like that makes sense, except that he'd heard that they were indestructible. "Anyway, okay well that's good. I guess on the up side, you've got a little break from that madness, then."

He pauses. It's sort of weird to talk to her like an acquaintance rather than family, but he hadn't grown up knowing she was family. "...you're staying for a while, right?" he asks.

She nods at that, before glancing back to the ball for a minute. "So long as I don't screw things up too much with Scott." She knows she's walking a fine line in terms of what she has told Scott and what she hasn't. She doesn't want to lie to him exactly, and in a lot of ways she's not. But she's not telling him the whole truth either.

"He knows I'm your cousin, by the way. He just ... doesn't know how I'm your cousin."

Derek gives a gentle huff at that, a humorless laugh that suggests he knows that feeling all too well right now. Screwing things up with Scott, for Derek, could be dangerous to the whole human population of Cadelle. Granted, he's willing to give Scott credit for having figured himself out back home without Derek, but again...he'd had Stiles there and here, he doesn't. Derek needs to not screw things up with Scott, so that Scott has someone to teach him to anchor himself and keep control in his corner...or the humans could suffer the consequence.

"We just both have to tread lightly," he agrees. "He has a lot of anger right now. A lot of resentment toward Peter, so explaining how you're my cousin is definitely something I'd say you should keep in your pocket for a little while."

Then, Derek pauses. "I didn't realize you were that close with him. When did that happen?" It isn't accusatory, it's just a fact; he hadn't realized that Malia was very invested in anyone else in the pack beyond Stilinski, but then he hadn't stuck around after Mexico, so he's aware that he's probably missed a lot.

Yeah. He's missed a lot - at least in terms of Malia. She cares about a lot of people now, and there's a moment where she almost looks a little offended that Derek thinks she doesn't care about Scott. Or maybe it's just her bristling because her feelings for Scott - her Scott - are complicated, and him being from so early on in the timeline hasn't exactly helped her come to grips with those either.

"He's my alpha."

It's an acceptable connection for them to have, as far as she's concerned, and a more than reasonable reason for her to care about him.

"And I don't really think you're one to talk about caring about Scott when you bailed."

She doesn't necessarily think he's in a position to tell her what her relationship with Scott should be.

That, too, is news to Derek. Last time he'd talked to her, she sort of grudgingly had become part of the pack, and even then, only for Stiles. But Derek doesn't prod; it's none of his business. If she wants to tell him, she will, and if she doesn't, that's fine. They're not close and he finds himself wondering whether they ever will be. He can't find it in his heart right now to forgive Peter and while he doesn't connect that at all to her, he can't help wondering whether she would be willing or able to bond with him when he's feeling that way about her father.

So to her answer, Derek gives a little facial shrug as he takes the mental note. Malia identifies as Scott's beta now. He'll keep that in mind.

"I'm not judging you, I'm just surprised. And I didn't bail, I had a sister to take care of. Scott never really wanted me around unless things got bad anyway, so I didn't figure they'd miss me much." He doesn't sound bitter and that's because he isn't. It ended up working out better for him that way, anyhow. He'll always have a fondness for Scott and he's always going to feel obligated to Beacon Hills, so Derek will forever come back when they need him, but the fact of the matter is, the Hale pack doesn't protect Beacon Hills anymore. The McCall pack does. Derek doesn't need to step on toes and if he stuck around, it would only be because he didn't trust Scott's pack to protect Beacon Hills in his absence.

Malia might not understand his motivations — hell, McCall might not — but Derek's decision to leave is his way of respectfully handing the reins over to the new pack in charge and leaving on good terms is his quiet way of making it clear that he's around if they should need him.

To be honest, Malia doesn't really want anything from Derek beyond actually wanting to be around her. She's not desperate enough for friends or family to go chasing after anyone for anything. She doesn't even have to chase after Peter for his attention, though she's still trying to sort out how she feels about that particular thing, and needless to say it's Complicated. But the fact of the matter is, she doesn't particularly care how Derek feels about Peter.

She cares about Derek actually wanting to hang out with her, and not just hanging around because she's supposedly family. So far, the impression she's been getting is that's not what Derek wants.

"I don't know about that." Scott doesn't talk about Derek, even if he probably should have called him by now. "I'm just saying you haven't exactly been around to know what I do or don't care about."

Edited 2017-11-02 02:41 (UTC)

Derek shrugs a little. It doesn't really surprise him that Scott never really talked about him. They hadn't ever really been close. If Derek had to pick someone in that pack he'd say he grew close to, excluding Isaac because that's sort of a given and Isaac's left anyway, he'd have said Stiles over Scott, any day. Stiles warmed up to him a lot faster than Scott had and Stiles had been suspicious but Scott had been mean way back when. Derek doesn't think he'll ever forget when Scott tried to blame Derek for "ruining his life" even though he'd been referring to the bite Peter had given him, if Derek recalls correctly.

"And I'm agreeing with you. I wasn't around much. They don't need me all the time. I'm there when they do. I'm not when they don't. I think it works out better that way for me and for Scott," he explains, even-toned and bordering on casually resigned. It used to bother him. It used to bother him a lot actually, but not so much these days.

He sighs a little. "Well you're here now and I'm here now...so maybe I could learn?" he suggests. Part of it is because she's family and Derek's been sorely lacking that in the past several years. ...okay all of it is because they're related, but it isn't obligatory so much as curiosity. If they don't get along, then they don't get along and that'll be the end of that. But if they do, it would be nice to have another Hale in his corner again and he imagines that it wouldn't suck for her to have a support system in the absence of her Alpha and the rest of the pack, since the Scott that's here almost definitely doesn't even know who she is, much less can he be a friend and a leader for her.

Not that Derek would be interested in imposing any sort of leadership — that ship has sailed for him; he's terrible at it and McCall can have that role, honestly, because Derek will just mess it up, anyway — on her, but having someone who gets what she is and where she comes from might not be the worst thing in the world. God knows he'd like to have that sort of bond, especially if it was with family.

Oh. Sorry, Derek.

That shuts her up for a minute, before she nods in response. She wouldn't mind getting to know Derek better, but she's built up a kind of nonchalance about the subject that she doesn't know how to approach. However, it'd probably be a good thing if her only exposure to the Hale family wasn't just Peter.

Maybe.

"Okay," she says. "We can do that."

See? That was easy. She wrinkles her nose a bit before turning back to the party. "Maybe not at stuff like this, though? I mean, it's nice, but it's not really my thing."

Edited (inappropriate random icon strikes again) 2017-11-02 16:14 (UTC)

The pause that falls between his question and her response almost makes him wonder if she's trying to find a polite way to tell him to fuck off, because he's wondering whether she's taking personally the fact that he's not around as much as he could be. Relief washes over him when she doesn't and instead agrees that they can try.

Grinning a little, Derek nods. "Yeah, this isn't really my scene, either. It just seemed like something Glinda would be into. I work at CriminALES; I'm security," he replies, offering her an alternative. "Maybe sometime when I'm off we can meet up there, or you can stop in when I'm on, if you'd rather."

Derek isn't big on this sort of thing, either, if he's honest. It's a lot more fancy than he prefers, but he's having fun anyway. He hopes his cousin is, too.

"Or, do you run? I run every morning. Sometimes also at night. Usually I do it in wolf form, if I can get the privacy to do it, but if you need me to stay like this, I can do that, too." The fact that she can go full coyote isn't something Derek is ignorant of, but he doesn't know the whole story, whether she is stuck like this now and doesn't know how to switch back or if she does, but she gets stuck in coyote and doesn't know how to come out of that. He figures it's safer to just offer the option for him to stay bipedal with her if she needs that.

Her eyes bug a bit because she actually resolved that issue! She probably would spend more time as a coyote if people weren't weird about it.

"No! I'd love to go for a real run."

She can run as a human, but it doesn't feel the same as when she's a coyote. It's so much more relaxing. Especially if she had someone to chase. It doesn't occur to her that he doesn't know that she can do that yet, she's just excited to have a real running buddy.

Derek looks a little surprised at Malia's response, but pleasantly so. It just serves as another reminder of how little he knows about his cousin and how much work they've got to do to get to know one another. She's missing her pack and Derek hasn't got one; they might as well cling to one another in that vein for now. They're family, they should know one another.

The surprise fades into genuine happiness. "Awesome, we should, then. It's way better when you're not alone," he replies. Maybe they can't get to know one another when she's a coyote and he's a wolf, but they can be who they really are inside and there won't be anyone there to judge them. Derek thinks that has merits of its own.

"Listen, I should get back inside and find my date, but text me. We can make it a thing, the running together. I feel like we should."

She nods because that sounds like a perfect plan. She is a bit curious about his date, because she does remember Stiles telling her something along the lines of Derek having terrible taste in girlfriends, and how they're all murdering psychopaths ... up until Malia pointed out that she was also a killer and Stiles tried to explain the nuance.

She thinks he just took it personally because they were trying to kill him.

But tonight is not the night to dig into that, so she'll just nod.

"I'll text you."

Malia nods and so Derek does as well, a small smile tugging up the corners of his mouth. The prospect of getting to know a member of his family he hadn't actually known was a member of his family — or that she even existed — until very recently is actually kind of exciting for him. Family is something Derek doesn't have a lot left of these days, so to be able to expand on it a little carries a heavy significance for him.

"Perfect, I'll talk to you soon then," he says with that genuinely happy smile and another nod. "Have a good night, Malia," he adds before heading back inside to find Glinda.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT: A VERY NICE BALL.

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sorry things got busy!

life happens, don't worry about it!

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