one thing's universal, life's no dress rehearsal

[stagemanagers]

[Prom night! The greatest night of your young lives if you watch any Western high school media from the past 60 years. The looks, the music, the copious amounts of fancy snacks, the sore feet from dancing heels and then spending the rest of the night in bare feet- it’s all part of the bigger package.

The courtyard and the roof have both been decked out in a special way for tonight, despite no one really seeing Hester or anyone/anything else decorating. There are round tables set-up in both places, covered in yellow-gold tablecloths. Some of them have platters of snacks laid out on them, one has a large punch bowl that never seems to empty no matter how many drinks are taken from it.

On the roof there’s an extra table with pencils, small slips of paper, a box wrapped in gold wrapping paper and a notecard labeled Song Requests. Just write a song, pop it in the box and within a few minutes it starts playing! Weird, there doesn’t seem to be a sound system anywhere...

Red paper lanterns have been strung around the outline of the roof and between stakes in the courtyard, granting soft romantic light for a night to remember. Put on your best costume shop formal wear, get ready to lose your shoes after an hour and sneak in liquor even though most of you are of age.

After all…tonight belongs to you.]

Comments

[fourbutts]

I don't- I don't know what to do, other than like. Drag her into a closet? I could do that? But that's not, like, a long-term solution.

[fourbutts]

[ It's so much, Elsa!! ]

I never thought I'd find a knight in shining armor type period.

[comeandfindme]

[ And Peregrine turns, startled. She'd let herself get a little too lost, hadn't she? ]

F- Farrah! Oh- shoot. I'm...sorry, I didn't know...anyone else was up here.

[ She glances back to where she was looking and— yeah. Yeah, it figures. She doesn't even get to see him walk away. ]

forty minutes late

[fourbutts]

[ Janis spots her jacket in the crowd and, under the assumption that there's no way Per would do that, just wear her jacket like they might be cool, it takes her a second to attach the face to it.

But she's not exactly dressed to hide in her red sequin jacket, so she just sort of. Gently tries to catch Peregrine's attention and wave her over. ]

[brokeforgood]

Sorry! [She cringes as Peregrine looks back, at that expression on her face— She can sort of piece together what probably happened there.]

I scared him off, didn’t I? I’m sorry— I didn’t mean to.

[brokeforgood]

Tell me something extremely unattractive about her, quick!

[fourbutts]

That's the problem, Farrah, I got nothing! I'm fucked!

punch

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Strolling on by:]

You're welcome~

[comeandfindme]

[ There she is, there's—

oh god this is a lot more awkward than she thought it would be when she decided to do this ten whole minutes ago.

Peregrine hesitates for but a moment. ]

Janis, uh— hey, can we- maybe somewhere a little more...?

[brokeforgood]

Forget about you! You’re already dating her!

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine quickly shakes her head. ]

No, it's— don't. He... It's not...even really him. I should just try and remember that.

[fourbutts]

[ Yeah, it's... definitely not the least awkward conversation they've ever had. ]

Right, right, uh... where do you want to...?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Honestly, how are they supposed to deal with this???]

Neither did I. I never thought I'd have a type in general. But... [Almost shyly, she looks in the direction where she last saw Cass.] It really is a good type to have, don't you think?

[comeandfindme]

Just... Like, there's no one- the stairs, the ones to the—

[ She gestures over toward the stairs leading to the parking lot. Just a little ways away from the courtyard, just a little privacy. ]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis nods. ]

Yeah, uh... sounds good.

[ Time to just sort of... head over there! ]

[brokeforgood]

...Yeah. [She wanders over to Peregrine’s side, ignoring how winded she feels from the short walk.]

It’s nice to pretend, sometimes, though— isn’t it?

[fourbutts]

Yeah! And every part of her is hot!

[comeandfindme]

[ And so they do!

...Heck! Now they have to actually do the talking!! ]

I, uh... You... Your jacket...?

[fourbutts]

[ awww hell yeah she's going to use her narrator powers to torment bob iger until he lets you be gay when this is all over, elsa ]

You know I wasn't super into the idea before, but it's really working for me.

[fourbutts]

[ Oh. Right. That. ]

That... is my jacket, yes! I left it after uh. We talked. Sort of.

[comeandfindme]

[ "C-can— can you...stay with me...right now? Please?" ]

...Mm. Mmm, yeah, I— I get that. [ She almost wishes he would show up here. That she could pretend he was coming for one of those father-daughter dances she stopped getting to go to at the age of eight, but—

But no. Howl's... Howl wasn't that kind of person either. ]

It's like...like good and bad, at the same time.

[comeandfindme]

Yeah. Yeah, I remember. ...Sort of. I— [ She presses a hand to her head. ] I think I... I was...really out of it, I'm...sorry.

arrival

[fourbutts]

[ well that certainly is a lot, isn't it? uh. after a break and multiple threads of yelling about how gay she is for maya tendo, janis gets the gumption to actually meet up with her horse-riding girlfriend once she's sure at least some collection of real words is going to leave her mouth.

but then she kisses her hand and just. ]

Jesus, I— you win, holy shit, I am yours.

[fourbutts]

I owe you my life.

[fourbutts]

[ Janis chuckles a little. ]

I... was kind of having a time, too, but... you definitely seemed less present.