92/Summer Dance

Summer Dance
Date of Scene:	15 July 2023
Location:	Sports Pavilion
Synopsis:	It's the event of the summer, Radiant Heart Academy's summer dance!
Cast of Characters:	Nanoha Takamachi, Haruto Sano, Cho Konishi, Stern Starks, Chiyo Sakai, Lana Voselle Miata, Hannah Steiner, Ikiko Hisakata, Mamoru Chiba, Kazuo Saitou, Tori Morte, Amanda Faust, Kyouko Sakura, Ren Morimoto, Fate Testarossa, Takashi Agera, Usagi Tsukino, Misaki Sanjou, 54, Kyouka Inai, Coco Kiumi, Zoisite, Jadeite, Michiru Kaiou, Aki Kurosawa, Wako Agemaki, Rei Hino, Nephrite, Haruka Tenoh, Pyrite

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Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Welcome to Radiant Heart Academy's Summer Dance! It's been put together by a wide variety mix of grades and students. The sports pavilion has been put into stage mode! and a dance floors been rented and put out onto the floor of the normally indoor sports area.

A small, student run DJ booth is basically an ipod onto a speaker system and the local PA system, spouting some hits most folks expect at a dance in modern times, except for some cheesy 80's hits.

Such as Kool and the Gang's 'Celebration' which is what you're all walking in on right now.

"Oh, I am!" says Nanoha, who has helped out up some balloons and decorations in the form of streamers on the walls. She's walking down from a ladder being held by Suzuka and Arisa, who are keeping a CLOSE EYE on Nanoha this whole time. Like she might disappear between blinks if they don't.

Look, it's a thought, right now, okay!?

Welcome to the Dance! Flood on in!

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
(There's also punch, and snacks out on a large table that takes up the wall on the opposite side of the entrance. It's mostly punch, sodas, and salty snacks, and things like that, but it's a veritable buffet of the stuff at least.)

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto Sano is not one to shy away from an event like a school dance. Having taken part in similar activities in schools before he came to Radiant Heart Academy, he's no stranger to them, either. But, it's his first time actually attending a dance at the Academy.

     A good impression must be made.

     Haruto comes in, wearing what is definitely some kind of suit. It's likely visible from miles away (perhaps even in space), due to the bright neon green color, with a white undershirt. Around his neck, he wears a baby blue tie, with images of ice cream. He has an ugly purple fedora on his head, with a peacock feather sticking out of it. No single piece of the suit was entirely his idea; the idiocy was a group effort, of himself and his parents trying to decide what would be the best suit to leave an impression on his fellow classmates.

     The fact he is (poorly) moonwalking onto the dancefloor is entirely him, though. As is the fact he is clapping to the music as doing so.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi had done it. It hadn't been easy, but she would NOT seem like a total loser on her first ever... and likely only... dance. While nobody had asked her (as she expected), she'd discovered the secret. Ask. A friend. And while she didn't have anyone who she thought would consider her a friend.... She DID have someone who she could bribe! Kyouko! And so, for the meer price of a weeks worth of peach cakes each lunch, she had a friend who would be willing to acknowledge the fact that they were 'friends' and had come together.

... Yes, it was a bit much, but Cho... Cho used to be *really* lame in her opinion. And when she walked in... She nodded to Kyouko. "Okay, you can go have fun now, okay? Thanks," she said.

Yeah, that was... really all she'd asked of her. She just... didn't... want to be a lonely loser this time. She didn't want to waste any more of Kyouko's time than she had to, anyway.

She was a little surprised to see Coco wasn't fairing much better, possibly behind her... Of course, she headed towards the snack bar. Drowning her awkwardness in salty snacks.

See, she was wanted to be outgoing and friendly and all of that. And she could manage it! In... small... bursts. But there were a LOT of people here. And... and she didn't come alone. So... so she'd done what she needed. Now she could hide in the corner, drink some juice, and just play on her phone like the shy girl she was.

Granted, a part of that... shyness... was because she'd TRIED to get her makeup and hair right... and botched them both. Finally just giving up and washing all of it off and out, then just getting her hair straight before tossing on a cheap dress she'd picked up, a bargain bin red thing that was a little too poofy and just... Yeah. She had no idea what she was doing.

On the upside, there were likely to be enough bombshells here that her awkward disaster self wouldn't be noticed.

Stern Starks has posed:
Stern Starks was co-opted to help with this thing. Not to organize or to talk to people. No, she's here as tech support and, for the moment, DJ. Her expression at the song playing is flat, unenthused. It was requested, and she can't say no to requests.

It's DJ law.

So she lets it go. She's dressed in a knee length haltar dress that's dark enough purple as to seem black until one of the roving lights hits it, black tights and, oddly, red low heels.

She sips a drink and bides her time until she can inflict musical tyranny upon the dance.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai regrets so many things as of late. For the attempted setting up of her new friend Usagi with Darien. For not having gotten the chance to properly apologize before the dance. Most of all, she regrets this FLUFFY PINK ABOMINATION that her mother sent her as a dress for the dance. Sure, it was 'stylish' and 'en vogue', but it was more akin to something you would see on a fashion runaway or red carpet premiere--Not on a fifteen year old Japanese girl.

The sheer level of tule in hot pink is enough to make her face remain perpetually red in shame. All she has to do is make a quick appearance and apologize... Then she could flee and find a fire to burn this mess of tule to ashes. With a small bag clutched in her hands she tries to keep her head held up while seeming as small as possible at the same time because she was so very, very embarassed.

All she does is look around hopelessly for familiar faces to make her suffering as breif as possible. At least in this, perhaps, her sincerity in her apologies would be made obvious.

(---> this dress: )

Lana Voselle Miata has posed:
    Lana arrives alone in a satin dress, red around the bodice and lower edge, but fading into black in the middle. Embroidered red vines run up and down the sides of her dress, blending in with the red but standing out most against the black, creating an eye-catching effect. Her normally messy brown hair is tied up into a single ponytail, with a big red and black ribbon tying it together. Her black elbow gloves complete the look. She has a black purse hanging at her side, and a paper fan covered red and black rose patterns.

    The dress is wide and long enough to hide her shoes as she walks into the dance room. Cooly her eyes scan across the room, making note of who is with who, and who has shown up. Her eyes stop on Nanoha for a moment, but she wordlessly looks away pretending not to see her.

    Lana raises an eyebrow at Haruto's... wardrobe choices. There's no pretending she doesn't see that.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah made sure to show up to the party on time, but very much /not/ too on time that she looks like she's one of the first here. A proper Noble arrives exactly as they should, and in shining fashion! One of the first things Hannah did upon having a roof over her head was to get an expensive-looking dress or two. This, of course, required quite a bit of discrete pawning of trinkets and a bit of leaning on her capitalist nature, but here too she has a dress worthy of the heir to Tharkad.

The royal blue of her House, several golden laces at the chest and about the ankles and wrists, several tasteful ruffles down to the end of her knee-length dress. About her neck? A black feather-boa as well as a yellow shawl tied about her chest that matched both her laces as well as her brilliant hair. Her hat has a flower attached to it this time, her heels are extra-spit-polished, and she has tasteful black leggings on. She /exudes/ status and money - or at least someone used to such things - and walks with a confidence such people so often posses. Even the lead of Lyra's leash has a bit of gold to it.

If you can't dress for what you are, dress for what you were, and fake it until you're there again.

She taps her way in, Blauer Greif in one hand and Lyra's lead in the other, humming her world's anthem before she immediately has Lyra sniffing out the refreshments table as she's prodded by /so/ much 80'!

"By the Sankt Kaiser! What wahnsinn greets mein ears?" Comes Hannah with just a touch of distaste.

The 80's are /not/ her thing. Time to get drinks and meet people! To the punch!

Dress: Palette swapped version of - https://safebooru.org//images/3544/d49f7b7f3df984722e4a69ce77c9683682fd39c0.jpg?3686749

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko Hisakata might not have a truly 'formal' outfit, but a nice-looking blouse, ankle-length skirt, and cute little hairdec is close enough for an elementaryschooler. She's skipping along with her friend Tori Morte (and, by extension, Sayo-chan), arms hooked as if they're links on a chain.

Of course, the reason she has both arms in the 'hooked' position is so that Tori doesn't look as out of place with her arm hooked for Sayo to hold on to -- or even give Sayo the option to hold onto Ikiko -- but other people don't need to know that, right?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien Shields, popular 10th grader and commonly seen as somewhat overdressed when work and school intersect, does not disappoint: he comes in with a couple of equally tall and beautiful young men, checking the time on a bright golden pocketwatch, overdressed to the nines. The guy's wearing white tie, and as soon as he's in the doors he puts the watch away, tips off his top hat and collapses it, then sleight-of-hands it away in probably the only magic trick anyone will see tonight. Probably. Possibly. Maybe.

He tugs on his gloves and asks Nephrite, just loud enough to be heard over the growing chatter and the overly loud music, "Did we lose Py? I told her it would be a lot of people, but I'm not sure how many she might have thought 'a lot' was--"

He's got his free hand on Jadeite's shoulder, and he looks to the blond, checking to see if there's a case of deer in headlights going on, or if 'Jason' looks all right for now. "You good?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There are so many people who are Making An Effort. (Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but efforts are being made!) And then there are the people who are clearly present so that school staff does not note their absence and wonder what they're off doing.

Kazuo is clearly in the latter category. Date? None. Outfit? School uniform. Enthusiasm level? Find a wall and attach self to it; proceed to endure. He came in the door looking annoyed and bored, and probably intended to keep doing so, but ... well ... there's Haruto; despite everything, the corner of Kazuo's mouth turns up.

Tori Morte has posed:
    Victoria 'Tori' Morte is, of course, here.

    She doesn't really want to be, but her friend Ikiko invited her to come, and after a brief misunderstanding of her intentions, Tori decided it sounded like fun to hang out with her and watch the older kids trying to act cool.

    Tori is dressed in a black dress with multicoloured dots that, on closer inspection, are grinning skulls in various colours. It looks more like something you'd wear to a Mexican Dia de los Muertos festival, really. Her long black hair is tied back with a salmon pink hair ribbon, flowing in a long braided ponytail that reaches her hips.

    On one arm is Ikiko. On the other arm is a white-haired girl with blank white eyes, dressed in an outdated version of the Radiant Heart Academy uniform. Of course... most people can't see Sayo, since most people can't see ghosts.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'Amanda Faust' only just heard about this dance an hour or two ago. She wasn't sure if she was going to go, not like she has a date, but Mio-san offered to lend her a fashionable dress and one thing just kind of led to another, which has led to Amy arriving here, wandering into the sports pavilion and looking around as if in wonder, *completely* lost and out of her element.

    Once directed to wherever people can put their coats and stuff, Amy leaves her too-big army surplus jacket and messenger bag, now able to be seen clearly in the dress Mio suggested for tonight:

    A white sleeveless dress, with a little black belt around the waist, and some black ruffles or frills that hang from the scoop-neck collar over her upper chest and shoulders. The dress's skirt is short, not even knee-length, with a slightly longer, more ruffled black shirt underneath -- the skirts and the ruffles have a gradient of grey dots fading into visibility on the bottm several inches. She's got a little chain bracelet on her left wrist, and normal sneakers on her feet with ankle socks. Heels were a bridge too far. She's also got a little pink bag for her phone with a shoulder strap.

    Her hair's also been done up, drawn back with a little bun behind her head from which hangs the rest of it, made all wavy with curlers.

(Dress reference: )

(Hair reference: )

    Well, at least Haruto alleviates any and all fears that she could look ridiculous. She tries not to laugh, wondering whether this is a prank or a dare or something.

    Like Cho, at a loss for dancing she wanders over to the food to see what there is, suddenly wondering how she's supposed to juggle holding things without pockets.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Now Kyouko is not a school person, or a dance person, or, for that matter, much of a *friends* person. So it certainly did occur to her to half-ass her appearance here...but she *is* a food person, and she was promised food--both in the form of snacks here at the dance, and peach cakes for lunch for a week afterwards. So she'd better hold up her end of the bargain.

Which is why she somehow looks pretty good, all things considered. She actually washed her hair and put it up in an extra-nice floral-patterned bow (though she didn't bother getting it styled), and she found a nice white sundress with floral accents that match the bow reasonably well. No makeup--she never learned how to use that stuff, and she's not about to go get it done by someone else. But she's not embarrassing anyone...yet.

"Yeah, fine," she says to Cho, but she's still frowning a little. It's annoying, but she feels kind of bad for the poor girl. Cho does not look like she's going to have a good time here. But, Kyouko decides, that's not *her* problem. What is her problem? Well, she's going to find out in a minute.

Sure enough, as soon as she's hit the snack table, she complains, "Hey, where's dessert?!" She's still grabbing handfuls of salty snacks and eating them, mind you.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    A group of students has taken it upon themselves to cluster at one end of the buffet table, just a few steps away from it. Makes for easy refills of punch cups and snackies, that's for sure. Anyone who keeps up with Radiant Heart's sports culture will recognize several key members of the baseball club, including Ren Morimoto, the team's shortstop. They're all in very similar black suits and white shirts, but with bright orange ties to harken back to their team (and the school's) colors.

    Very coordinated. Lots of school spirit. Maaaaaybe too much enthusiasm about baseball?

    The group is chattering amongst themselves, not dancing, for a variety of reasons. Some of them are just too baseball-focused to get dates. Others are just kind of hopeless. They're here more out of basic obligation than any intent to participate.

    But Ren is paying attention to the comings and goings as he sips his punch, moving strangely stiffly as his weight shifts from foot to foot with great care. And he spots someone making their entrance that he's been meaning to talk to.

    It's not hard to spot Chiyo in that dress, after all, and he makes a beeline to her, which causes some heads to turn in the baseball group.

    "Hey! I don't know if you remember me..." he starts off with, beginning to lift his hand with the intent to rub the back of his head. Then he winces, and lets it fall to his side again. "Chiyo, right? We kinda met last week just outside here? You threw a heck of a fastball." An easy smile flits onto Ren's face. "It was pretty incredible. Have you ever considered joining the baseball team?"

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    Earlier:

    "Faaaaaaate you didn't come home!"
    "I was... Busy." It's a lie. Fate has spent most of the course of a day showering, and showering, and showering again to try and rid herself of the smell of meat broth. Why she smelled like meat broth-- that doesn't matter, as she doesn't smell like meat broth NOW, while being harassed by her faithful wolf-woman Familiar, arf.
    "Well... I guess it doesn't matter, I've picked out your dress for the dance."
    "... Dance?" Fate asks, voice soft and incredulous.
    "Yep! You're going!"
    "But I have to look for the Jewel Seeds for moth--"
    "Ah ah ah ah ah no buts, you're going to rest, relax, go to the dance, and make friends your own age."
    "But-"
    "I said no buts!"

    Now:

    Fate Testarossa arrives, wearing a simple yet stylish black dress trimmed in red, long blonde hair done up in black ribbons.
    She does not look too happy to be here, as she has other, more important, things she could be doindg.
    She could be hunting Jewel Seeds for her mother, right now.
    Glancing over her shoulder out the door she entered through she glowers.
    Arf is out there.
    Arf shoots her a thumbs up and a HUGE, doofy, dumb, dog grin.
    Sigh.

Takashi Agera has posed:
In what was probably one of the most casual, least stressful or thought about invites to the dance amongst so many here, Zoisite pretty much invited himself to the dance at the school he didn't attend, and Takashi Agera just went along with it. It was only a few days later, that Takashi Agera actually realized that he was going to a dance, with one of Mamo-Darien's close friends, and given the particular friend, probably should try more than 'rolled out of a cot in the science facility' lab coat and tie. Luckily for him, he's at least the same height and somewhat relatively similar proportions as the afforementioned Mister Shields, and went to him to borrow a suit. And it fits, decently. It's not perfectly tailored, but frankly, he was expecting to look a little scruffy next to 'Zoey' anyways.
    But he's here in the dark blue suit, the dress pants, the blue tie. The long silver hair running down his back and actually doing a great job of being under control. He's as close as he ever gets to immaculate and while it's not perfect it is a testament to how much he respects the person who is on his arm - or at least respects their capacity for ire if he didn't put full effort in. (It's both, really. He wouldn't be as fond of Zoisite if Zoisite wasn't as dangerous as they are, anyways.)
    But when he walks in, he fully expects all - or at least most - eyes to go right over him and to 'Zoey'. And he is rather happy about it, not out of a lack of desire for attention, but because having the prettiest partner at the dance is a form of attention all its own. It's the right kind of attention for the dance, and for him.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi's never actually been to a school dance - they didn't have those at Juuban Public Middle School! She's done her research though (watched a number of cheesy American movies with subtitles) and found the perfect dress (she had lost the fight with Luna about using the magic of her disguise pen to give herself a pretty dress, because of one simple reason: Naru-chan), and she's confident this will be a 'wonderful' night. She's going to make it one, even if she isn't going with any friends from school and even if Inai-sensei roused her temper earlier and even if she's feeling just the littlest bit awkward! She's going to see Rei-chan at least, she invited her! She said she should come!

There's nothing to worry about! Nothing else matters! Nope! She's pretty and eager to have fun!

Usagi's dress is one she'd found at a thrift shop, simply cut with off the shoulder ruffled sleeves and a skirt that falls to mid-thigh, the fabric a shimmering mix of black and two shades of purple, dotted and shining with silver stars to resemble swirling galaxies. Her earrings are silver stars suspended from hoops, and her hair is in its usual style for lack of anything better. It's a look that fits her usual style, an important detail because Usagi is debating what to do with herself to make this dance fun when she sees a quantity of pink that puts even her to pause. Especially when she recognizes the wearer, and how unlike 'their' usual style it is.

"Chiyo-chan? What are you wearing?" Oh that was RUDE, wasn't it?

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
A little late, Misaki comes trundling in. She looks a little sheepish arriving alone, but at least put in the effort to choose a dress. Hers is a plain and simple sundress in RHA orange, chosen more for comfort than fashion. Of course, for the insecure teenager, her half-assing was a definitive fashion statement: 'I care a little, but not that much, so whatever!'

Maybe it was the shame of arriving alone and looking like a total loser, but she looks a little deflated today, lacking her usual polemical fire. Those who knew her knew it never took much to get her started, but for now she wasn't looking to pick a fight.

Instead, she wanders listlessly until her eyes lock on Haruto, his outfit, and his dancing. She blinks a few times and stops in the middle of nowhere to... Admire him? Was it admiration? For now, she watches him in stunned silence. Then her eyes lock on Chiyo, and she contemplates the both of them, still in ponderous silence.

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
"Mom! Dad! I'm going to be late!" Amu exclaims as she has gotten all dressed up for the dance. "Its my first dance at Radiant Heart, I gotta be there on time!"

"We'll get you there, Amu-chan. Just be patient." Amu's mother states as she drives the car to the school. Sadly they would not arrive on time. They would be late to the party.

Amu is frustrated but at least she is finally here. She exits the car and makes her way into the building. Already she can hear the rumors flying. "Hinamori-san is late to the party. Oh my she is fashionably late! She is so cool and spicy." Cool and Spicy. How she hated that phrase but there was no escaping it.

In she walks wearing a jet black dress trimmed in red and wearing fishnet gloves. Unseen to most is a small chara flying over her shoulder, wearing a cheerleader outfit complete with pompoms.

((Dress: https://safebooru.org//images/1935/4b34fa4dd3fd8e4982c12e3ec4a1ab1ea2bcb79d.jpg?2016900 ))

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    There's students everywhere, as one would expect of a school dance. There's also faculty, as one would expect of a school dance. It's one thing to say a function is student-led and student-run, but that doesn't mean there aren't going to be teachers present. They are relatively few, compared to the students, and run the gamut from the old and crusty to the trying-too-hard-to-be-hip.

    Kyouka Inai is, thankfully neither of these. And don't you dare contradict that statement or you're getting an F. At least she looks closer in age to the students than the nearest teacher, though she hasn't dressed up or anything. She's wearing her usual work attire- a button-down white women's dress shirt with a collar and pressed black slacks. She is also, for some reason, wearing her narrow, rectangle-lensed sunglasses in the gym, as if she can block out the flickering lights of the dance. Or maybe so she can keep an eye on certain students unobtrusively. It might be you. or YOU. Who can be sure.

    She looks... extremely bored. Her arms are folded as she leans against the wall behind the punch bowl. Her finger taps idly to the beat of the music on the elbow of the other arm. She looks like she wants a cigarette, but she's not supposed to leave the gym without alerting the senior faculty here, and she's only been here like 10 minutes and that would just make her seem desperate to escape. Which she is. But she's not about to admit it.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai hears the chatter of many a girl who had looked over to the men coming in the door. The very well dressed, handsome men, of which one face in particular stood out to her: Darien. Oh and that other guy, that one that had been at the sports day in the sports car and OH GOD she stuck out just as bad as that guy on the dancefloor. At least he was wearing it with the sort of pride that made him seem confident. Not her.

Ren's arrival to speak to her causes her to freeze in place staring wide-eyed at the boy. It takes a few moments for it to click where she'd seen him, and the mention of the fast ball does it. "O-oh no I... I haven't. I just..." She fidgets a little awkwardly at the question of joining the baseball club, and shakes her head. "... I'm just kind of strong for a girl. I work with my ojii-san a lot, and... You're Ren-san, right?"

The sound of Usagi's voice catches her attention to divert as her friend calls out to her, and she turns to face her wearing an expression that looked as if she were about to start crying any second now. The urge to do so is repressed with a quickly sucked breath of air held in her chest a moment to calm herself. "... My mother bought the dress..." is all that she can weakly get out looking mortified all over again. Had she ever actually mentioned her mother before? Usually she only spoke of her grandfather. "It's so horrible isn't it!?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
At the prospect of a school dance, Coco had been really excited, only to realise she wasn't really equipped for a dress. 'Not that I could do anything better, considering the limited freedom of movement I have had up until recently', she had thought with regret. The best she ended up procuring was a simple yellow blouse she had laying around and the detached sleeves + skirt from her formal underwater dress, as well as a pair of yellow flats. She didn't think it was the best she could manage, but it wasn't that bad, either. With the make-up, that was when she actually fared much better. She is going to go out there and slay the competition.

Fast forward to the dance, the evening air is fairly nice, and she likes what the actual pavilion looks like, its pillars, anyway.

The building is packed full of students, Coco realising all of the others had come in pairs. 'I should have asked my roommate, darn', she thinks, reprimanding herself for this faux pas. 'Well, the event is young, I will enjoy it to my best'.

Peeking at the drinks table, Coco realises there is nothing here that wouldn't get her drunk as far as she can see. 'Maybe I can find some water later?' she hopes. For the time being, she checks the food table.

While doing so, she notices Cho by the snacks bar, alone. 'Huh? Wasn't she with a redhead earlier?'. Deciding to go greet her roommate, she heads towards that direction, smiling at the girl and waving her hand to get herself seen.

Lana Voselle Miata has posed:
    Lana spots a wallflower. In fact, she spots several wallflowers, and wallflowers are often too timid to tell you to go away. However, they tend to not gather in groups, so Lana has to pick one. Her eyes settle upon a bored-looking exceptionally tall boy whom she'd probably mistake for a teacher had he not been wearing the school uniform.

    As Lana glides towards Kazuo, she gives him a stern glare, as if she had a Problem with him. When she gets close, she makes a show of eying him up and down and saying, with a tone that parodies being impressed, "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is wearing a simple white and blue sundress. Nothing fancy, it has a ribbon with a bow tied around the waist, at the back. She had help with that. Arisa and Suzuka, happy that there's too many people here for Nanoha to go missing now, leave her alone as Nanoha is free from being stared at as she 'whews' and explores the dance, as she does a little shimmy dance across the floor and a tiny jump.

She's excited to have helped set things up, nevermind that her older doppleganger is taking over the music and she still hasn't met her in person. It's a night not for youma or Jewel seeds but just to, you know, be a kid. In a school!

A shock of blonde however, catches her attention is that....?

She squints from somewhere behind Fate Testarossa but she gets lost in the crowd... could that be her? She follows from behind and looks from behind Lana V. Miata, using her as 'cover' for a moment before continuing onwards and oh. oh it is her. It's Fate-chan. Here. Is it a Jewel Seed?

She asks Raising Heart, telepathically, if there's any signatures of well. Anything.

None. Nada. Nothing. Everything is clear, it reports.

She shifts a bit, but not uncomfortably so.

"Fate-chan?" she calls out from behind Fate, maybe only a few meters away now. It isn't a disgruntled one. More like one of complete surprise. A call of 'i did not expect you!' as opposed to 'what are you doing here'.

Zoisite has posed:
    It's amazing the kind of difference some attention to wardrobe can make. Also a Glamour, but it's the small-changes type. Aside from adding a noticeable bust that isn't ordinarily present, little else of Zoisite's appearance is different from normal. The twin ponytails, the earrings, and the change to a blouse and skirt are enough when combined with affecting the right mannerisms, pitching the already-very feminine voice slightly higher, and softening typically cruel expressions. Zoisite plays a really good game of pretend.

    Zoiey practically glides across the floor, missing not a step as she moves in perfect synch with Takashi. The Glamour will make sure no one connects the name 'Zoiey' with 'Zoisite', not that the latter is yet known to the Humans, and it's the one element of this identity that the Shitennou is willing to go low-effort for. Otherwise... Well, this isn't the first time that Zoiey has taken the dance floor. She has had to play this role dozens of times while growing up, when 'her' father decided that saying he had a daughter instead of a son was preferable to the embarrassment of introducing the effiminate Yoshimitsu as the heir to the Zaibatsu family name that has been so prominent since before The War.

    "My, my~..." Zoiey lilts with practiced ease. "What a lively audience we have ready for our arrival. You clean up well, you know, Takkun."

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto notices the stares. Mission, accomplished. People are looking at him, impressed with his outfit. All of the hard work and planning on what to wear has paid off completely. The outgoing teen smiles, continuing to dance to the music, clapping along and swaying from side to side. His head is held high, a smile on his face. After a bit of clapping to the music, he clenches his hands and moves them in circles in front of him. And then he moves into doing the Hustle.

     The fashion disaster keeps his movement through the crowd, moving in and out from between people. He is keeping an eye through the crowd, for his typical social interaction mission: find those who look left out, and reach a hand out to them. His eyes look through the crowd, and near the edges of the area, looking for loners.

     He does take a moment out of his search for loners to look at Chiyo, catch her eyes, and nod in approval.

     There are a few people, in particular, who he notices standing on their own, or looking dejected. Cho. Kazuo. Misaki. After a few moments of considering them, he decides that one of them looks more down than the others.

     Haruto has an eclectic taste in pop culture. His grandparents, who were fans of American pop culture in the 80s, introduced him to Michael Jackson. So, attempting to continue moonwalking through the crowd, he makes his way toward Misaki, does a Jackson-style twirl (while accidentally bumping into a couple of people near him, but only lightly), and then tips his fedora at Misaki.

     "Want to dance?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Looking around at all of the arrivals, Ikiko contemplates what to do. Most of the people, she doesn't recognize, while the few that are recognizable seem a bit... busy. Saying 'hi' to Usagi and Chiyo might be a good idea normally, but... well, it sounds like Chiyo's feeling a bit mortified, and giving her additional attention right now might cause her to join Sayo-chan!

Thinking for another moment, Ikiko spots another duo, and gets a grin. "Come on, Tori-chan!" she beams, silently mouthing 'and Sayo' while nodding towards the invisible (to her) ghost. "Let's get some snacks, and say hi to Hannah-senpai!"

Sure, Hannah is here with Lyra, and most normal animals are usually unnerved by the presence of a ghost... but then, Lyra isn't a normal animal, is she?

This should be fine.

Jadeite has posed:
    Some people attend a dance for fun. Some attend for socializing, or political maneuvering or even, in the case of some odango-headed blondes, for the party food. Jason Dite is here out of spite. Also because that's a lot of Humans gathered around expending a lot of energy. Maybe an opportunity will arise to siphon it away. Jason hasn't done much for his appearance. He is wearing a basic suit, popped the collar of his jacket and his boyish good looks are ruined by a lip-curl and look of disdain as he sneers at anyone who comes too close to him.

    He's in a poor mood, and isn't wanting to act like he enjoys these types of gatherings. "Darien... Is this even a thing that Japanese schools do? Who arranged this? Is this because Radiant Heart is rather.... International?" he asks under his breath.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah winces inwardly as someone is /already/ calling out another's fashion choices. "Don't allow such vile slander of your fashion's honor, Frau Chiyo! No doubt there is enough room here for both a dance AND a duel!" Comes the noble-girl with mirth rather than ill intent. She's clearly joking. High schoolers don't duel each other for honor or any other reason. Certainly.

Definitely not her. Definitely not trying to make the evening Interesting.

She's being directedly towards the ambrosia that is Punch thanks to Lyra. A little tappy-tappy of liz-dog claws, and soon she has a snifter full of punch. She discretly taps a finger into it, lets Lyra do a Lizard Lick. Just in case it's spiked. Or poisoned. Or just awful. Luckily it's not going to kill her, and so she sips it, then swishes it around like it's wine as she tucks her cane under one arm while doing so and keeping to her companion's lead.

That, Amy Faust, is how you juggle things without pockets. Have a servant, and creativity. Speaking of, Amy is the one who she gravitates too mostly by accident. She nearly bumps into the other girl, pausing by instinct as Lyra growf's and pulls back a bit.

"Acht, mein freund, deepest entschuldigung! Is the music in Tokyo always so....ah, /eccentric/?" Comes Hannah to Amy.

Ikiko-chan approaches with friends! Hannah's slightly distracted momentarily with Amy, but Lyra turns to peer at the wandering group. Whether Lyra knows there's a ghost amongst them? It might be hard to tell. Because Lyra is still staring like the combination guide and guard dog she is. Quiet, very very large, and with the poise of something that's either your best friend, or about to rip you to pieces. Growf-iss! That's to Ikiko. She's a known quantity, and basically 'greeting' Ikiko in that odd very-not-Earth Razorhound language. But the intent doesn't take a canine-speaker to figure out.

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    One last glower is sent Arf's way as the door closes and Fate is left to utterly fend for herself.
    And then someone calls her name.
    Someone she did not expect to see here, as she turns.
    Vivid scarlet eyes lock right on to Nanoha and for a beat- for a long beat- Fate stares like a doe caught in the headlights of an oncoming mack truck.
    "... You."
    There are no Jewel Seeds here. Just a very awkward and caught-off-guard Fate staring Nanoha dead in the eyes.
    "Mn..."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo observes Haruto, tonight aka the Moonwalking Riddler, for a few moments - then there's another flash of white hair, and his attention's diverted to Takashi and his companion. Takashi for about point-three seconds. Then his companion. Definitely his companion.

He is saved from outright staring at Zoiey by Lana's approach. And commentary. Eyebrows quirk upward, and the flash of amusement returns. "And here I didn't know we had any princesses attending. Aren't you supposed to be wearing white?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
This week has been full of firsts for Michiru Kaiou. It is her first time out in the public eye since her parents' presumed death. It was all over the news just a few months ago, shipping magnate Masaru Kaiou and his wife Minato Kaiou vanished without so much as a trace while flying over the Phillipine Sea. It is also her first time attending a school, making this her very first school dance.

She shows up both late, and fashionable. Never doing anything by half measures, she arrives wearing a dress that anybody else would reserve for a special occasion such as a wedding (https://imgur.com/V1CfyEc). It is a strapless dress made of wispy, billowy fabric with an ombre from blue to white that evokes waves rolling off the ocean. Her aqua hair cascades down over her shoulders like a seaside waterfall.

She steps through the doors and her eyes widen. So many people. That's what she's here for, though, right? To meet people? That's why she came to RHA, to escape the grief-ridden solitude of her home. Steeling herself, she heads out into the midst of everybody to mingle.

Stern Starks has posed:
Stern peers around the DJ booth. Okay, it's a table with a smartphone hooked up to somebody's streaming account. Her fingers dance on the touchscreen, glasses getting that Villain Gleam as she flips through lists and albums and crafts something terrible.

Depending on one's point of view, anyway.

Celebration ends and a new song begins.

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

What has she done.

Tori Morte has posed:
    "Hannah?" Tori asks aloud, not really talking to Ikiko. "Is she English too? Or... no, that's a Hebrew name, isn't it, she could be from lots of places..." Still! She likes meeting fellow foreigners, so she has no objections. Plus, you know, snacks.

    As they approach, Tori's eyes widen at the sight of Lyra. Are... are dogs supposed to be allowed here? "<Good doggy...>" she mumbles in English, holding out a hand towards Lyra. She brings her hand within sniffing distance, ready to snatch it back if Lyra tries to bite her. She seems to be far more focused on Lyra than Hannah at the moment!

    Then the music changes. Tori looks up, and giggles. "Ooh, I like this song~"

Lana Voselle Miata has posed:
    Lana feels something brush past her, looking behind her to see... someone. It's a busy place, and Nanoha's brief use of her as 'cover' goes unnoticed and unimpeded. It's a very poofy dress she's wearing, easy to hide behind, and it's wide enough to brush against several people as she walks around. Even if she had known the full significance of Nanoha being right behind her, she would have remained silent.

    Nightmare Chain isn't coming out tonight. Not unless things get really bad. Unless something funny happens with the punch bowl, Lana will likely not be getting drunk enough to send out a Perfect Bit.

    Kazuo, on the other hand, has her full attention for the moment. Lana raises an eyebrow. "White? That seems more like your color. Besides, I don't see myself as a princess." She fans herself of lightly, giving her hair a slight wind effect. "I'm really more of a queen."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi was, slightly, beginning to relax. Sure, hiding in her corner was... easy enough. However, she wanted to... She wanted to... what did she want to do? She didn't know. Not be who she used to be? Her eyes scanned over the people. Some of them... did well. They looked cute. Pretty. Gorgeous. Some took her breath away. They looked like they belonged.

She felt more awkward than ever. Could they tell? Could they see that... she didn't know what she was doing? That everything she tried to do, pretended to be, was jsut an act? That she wasn't-- NOPE! She tried to shove those thoughts away. Bad, bad mental assaults. She was a... it didn't matter who she was. What mattered was who she IS now. Then... her eyes wondered over Chiyo for a second. WOW. That dress looked AMAZING! Sure, overdone. But amazing. She wished SHE could wear something like that. She'd never pull it off, though. Then, for the first time, she found her eyes ACTUALLY drawn enough to Kyouko to actually look at her and... found her cheeks going rosy red again. Kyouko was SO much better at this than her. The bow, the dress. They matched. And didn't look... terrible. She wondered if her parents had helped her pick them out. Probably. Kyouko seemed like the kind of person with amazing parents. Or maybe she was just talented. Probably. She--

She was torn out of her self flagelation by someone approaching her. She glanced to Coco. "o-oh, hey! Coco! You look great. Where, uhhh, did you get that?" she asked nervously. Ohhhh. While Coco's dress may have been cobbled together, it matched and looked rather nice... At least, to Cho.

Cho's dress really wasn't the worst thing ever. Just an overly flowered... thing. the thing that looked her look worst was most likely the fact she was so nervous.

"S-sorry, that's a dumb question, isn't it?" she asked. "You get dresses from... places... with dresses. S-sorry," she said. "I-I don't really... I'm not..." She wondered if there was a rock she could hide under. That sounded pretty good right now. She stuffed some nuts in ehr mouth just so she could stop talking.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien manages not to laugh, but doesn't manage to keep the amusement off his face and out of his voice and he answers Jason, "I don't know. It's the thing this school does, though." His face goes all fond, though, and his tone is gentler, "If you're this miserable you can go back, no one will hold it against you. You made an appearance and everything. I'll probably go back once I've done a round."

From anyone else at Obsidian that would be a challenge, it would be a setup. From Hematite, it's always been genuine.

He glances around the room, then, mapping out the circuit he'd be taking before fleeing, and his eyes fall on Takashi and Zoiey, and his mouth opens and shuts. He doesn't quite elbow the other guys as just gesture vaguely in their direction. "Besides, Zoi can handle it."

He looks startled for a half-second, then, but does not let his gaze linger on the white-haired student against the back wall; he does let his eyes fall on Usagi Tsukino and stay there. If she looks, he grins.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Aki Kurosawa stands outside the dance in a normal T-shirt, a skirt. Nothing fancy as she narrows her eyes...

She hopes into a nearby bush.

"ROLLING MIRROR CHANGE! D-D-D-DANCER.......!" goes the transformation and out steps Aki Kurosawa is a fancy, blue colored dress with white trim, it's frilly, and ultra fashionable and has danceable heels. She crosses her arms again and narrow her eyes as she runs up the stairs, kicks the door in and slides across the floor on her knees, and then steps up into a quick little run and spin. Because the dress also gives you dance powers you see, when you're a Precure.

She closes her eyes and smiles just a moment, despite the terrors of last night.

She stops in front of...

Cho Konishi. Totally by accident as she danced across the dance floor. She blinks and looks down. Oh. Oh.

She rubs the back of her head after that entrance. "Uhm. S-sorry..."

"About last night." she says quietly. "But uh. Stuff." she says as she looks over to Cho's friend-slash-roommate. "Hi. Aki Kurosawa." she says.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako's feeling a bit like she's made a mistake.

She's hardly someone who's intimidated by social events - if she ever had been, Sarina's ideas about promoting the drama club would have cured her of any shyness. Still, this is turning out to be a much bigger crowd than she's used to... and it's a singularly disorienting experience to look out on this small sea of people and mostly see faces she doesn't really know.

At least there's refreshments. So it is that Wako, in a cute knee-length yellow sundress with ruffled cap sleeves and eyelet trim, has sidled up to the snack table and is piling up a tiny paper plate with finger foods.

"I think there were cookies and chocolates at the other end of the tables," she offers Kyouko-wards, gesturing by way of illustration.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    "Hah? /You/ want to dance with /me?/" Misaki's eyebrow quirks up, disdain reflexively creeping in at Haruto's approach. She had been punched in the face and then flipped recently, and was still reeling from the humiliation. By now, the only visible wound was to her ego: had she been in a more usual mood, she would have gone stalking for a loner of her own-- to pick on! Definitely!

    She hesitates, glancing left and then right to see if anyone is watching before shoving her hand in Haruto's direction for him to take.

"I -suppose- I could dance with you," she says, trying not to sound too happy about having someone pay attention to her. Despite the content of her words, she doesn't sound all that reluctant. "But you know, it's just a dance so don't get the wrong idea or anything."

    She gives her long, dark hair a flip once for good measure. Just so he doesn't get the wrong idea or anything.

    For her, the music was something alien. She was completely unfamiliar with the 80s as well as Haruto's style of dress. Still, she had a decent to middling grasp of how to dance, and could manage without stepping on her partner's feet-- if he was even still interested.

Rei Hino has posed:
    Out of everything going on right now, in terms of upheavals in her daily life, the two biggest have been meeting Usagi Tsukino and discovering she is the reincarnation of the Princess of Mars and a warrior who will defend the world from dark foes. Usagi is a bundle of surprises in and of herself, and Rei is still trying to wrap her head around the fact that this is humanity's second time around after an ancient apocalypse. However, what inspired her to come to a dance was not just Usagi's invitation, which was... Sweet. She supposes. She also received a phone call from the office of her father. Not even him personally, just his secretary or whatever.

    Something about a letter of concern from the nuns who run the school Rei goes to about seeing bruises (she'll have to make sure to cover those up going forward), and a request for her to think more carefully about the image she presents and the affect it could have on her father's reelection campaign if a reporter saw her and blah blah blah blah.

    Needless to say, she thanked the secretary kindly for relaying the message with some choice words at a very loud volume and some recommendations of what her father could do and then gently slammed the phone down hard enough to break the cradle. She is now here. At this dance. Because she has some steam to work off.

    At least it was a girl who asked her out. Otherwise the answer would have been a resounding 'no'. She doesn't even know any boys her age who would ask herout. They all seem scared of her for some reason. It's a mystery.

    In the end she bought a pair of black heels and a tight, backless, sleeveless red dress, and wore them here to this school she doesn't even attend. And it's not until she is just now walking through the doors that she is having second-thoughts and realizing this is a far departure from her typical outfits. She hesitates just inside, debating with herself whether she should leave before anyone spots or recognizes her.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    All mentions of Chiyo's dress go over Ren's head, because he looks at it and sees... a dress. A pink dress. Beyond that he's not got a lick of fashion sense himself, so he has no idea if it's a good dress or a bad dress. And rather than comment on it, he just... continues on with the baseball talk.

    One track mind, this kid.

    "You should definitely think about it, you'd be a great pitcher!" he points out over his cup of punch, which he starts to bring to his mouth for a sip before stopping halfway and lowering it again. It looks pretty full, as if he's been trying (and failing) to get a drink of this whole time. "Yeah, that's me. I'm the shortstop. Come by sometime when we're practicing, okay?"

    And then with all the subtlety of a teenaged boy, he disengages with a "Nice dress! Have fun!" and off he goes, back towards where the rest of the club is still assembled, all of them looking at him with wide eyes and shocked expressions.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi Agera has... actually been staring occasionally at Zoiey. Not in a rude or lewd way, but just the way someone might admire a painting, and spend longer than they expect considering the work. He actually visible shakes his head a little bit, his long hair following belatedly, bringing himself "Well, there are two reasons to go to these kind of social dramatic things. One of which is to enjoy the company of your partner, though that would be pretty easy for us given that we're coworkers and teammates. The other reason, of course, is to look good in front of everyone else. And there's no point in doing something unless you're going to do as well as you can. For me, that's always quite well." He says with a sort of smug smile that makes it unclear if he believes his own hype or not.
    "Like anything else, all it takes is planning, focus, and effort. If you don't succeed you lacked one of them in some form. Clearly, you and I are possessed of great quantities of all 3."
    Michiru enters, and Takashi actually does give her a wave. He's probably one of many, but waves at her in a friendly manner rather than one desperate for attention from the celebrity. Then he looks back at Zoiey. "If you like we can also make everyone else look clumsy and inelegant by out-dancing them; I practiced for that as well." But then, Stern changes the song to... that... and Takashi looks up to the DJ Booth with an angry glare. "Maybe... maybe not right away, perhaps we should await a song change first." He looks over to, where else, closer to the other -ites. When the room is full of random people, faces, poofy dresses, whatever the hell that riddler-looking kid is wearing, go towards what you know, right? To your comofrt zone. Assuming Zoiey lets him, and doesn't try to challenge the idea of not dancing to the audio assualt that is Rick Astley.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nibbles on some snacks and sips a cup of punch (which now occupies her left hand.) She comes THIS close to wiping her right hand on her dress before diverting it to the table cloth, then finding a napkin and setting her cup down so she can wipe the salt and grease off her hand.

    Well, Mallory. You're here now and you have NO IDEA what to do. What now?

    Oh hey, there's one of your coworkers. You should go say hi!

    Inai-sensei is pretty close by, also at the snacks table, so Amanda takes a few steps towards her and waves, offering a polite smile. "Stuck with chaperone duty, huh? That's rough. What was it, ah, 'Inari-san'?" She starts to lift her right hand as if about to offer a handshake.

    Only then does the rest of her brain rise above the chaos of AAAA WE ARE AT SOCIAL THING WHAT DO WE DO to remind Amy of her present status.

    Her eyes go wide. "A-a-a-a-I mean I have you confused for someone else, nevermind!" She turns and swiftly strides away. *Smooth*.

    She is then accosted by a STEINER SCOUT. Fortunately, this one isn't in her Atlas today. She was so distracted by her own mistake she almost bumps into the girl. Amanda focuses on her and blinks at the unexpected... <English: "Is that German? Ah, I don't--"> "[Er, No sprechen sie Deutch.]" She explains, before Hannah switches to Japanese and she does likewise. "Uh, honestly I don't know?" Wait, that will beg more questions OH RIGHT this time her brain keeps up: She did only get her invitation yesterday, and she's obviously a westerner! "I'm new here! I don't know what's popular here..."

    And then someone RICKROLLS the dance and she can't help but giggle when she hears those opening beats. Good to see the youth aren't forgetting the classics! "...I actually kinda like old music like this, though! Stuff from the 80's had a nice sound... though I like modern pop, too..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Oh, it was a rude thing to say. It was mean too, clearly, because Chiyo-chan looks on the verge of tears and - "You - you look good?"

But her words wobble and she can't quite make it believable, because even ridiculous clothes could look good if someone wanted to wear them, look at the guy in that ridiculous suit, but Chiyo-chan was obviously miserable about the dress, and if she weren't talking to someone she would maybe rush her away, but she can't so - "I, um - I have to see if my other friend, Rei-chan made it, but - come find me when you get a chance, okay?"

She couldn't use the disguise pen for her - but maybe she could use it for Chiyo-chan's sake. She could make it work, really. But only if Chiyo-chan comes find her, later. Because for now? She is going to book it in search of Rei-chan, and away from the awkward scenario she caused.

But hey - she said other friend, which means Chiyo is still her friend, in her eyes.

As Usagi disappears into the crowd, she catches sight of Darien, looking - awfully good, with a pair of guys she doesn't recognize. Inai-sensei's voice, talking about not-so-nice friends, comes to mind, and Usagi forces herself to smile anyway, offering a little wave.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"They're good people, Lyra," Ikiko says reassuringly to Hannah's guardian beast, with a small gesture of her hand indicating that this include both Tori and Sayo. Oddly enough to those who have seen her around other animals, Ikiko is talking to Lyra in... Japanese? And not Canine?

Anyway, time for introductions! "Hannah-senpai, Lyra-chan, this is my friend Tori Morte, grade 4; Tori-chan, this is my Animal Care club senpai Hannah Steiner, grade 10, and her protector Lyra," Ikiko smiles. And while she's certain that Hannah is used to a certain degree of oddness just from how smart Lyra is, trying to explain Sayo-chan in a crowded situation like this, well...

Maybe Tori (and Sayo) can clear things up if needed.

Nephrite has posed:
    Masato Sanjouin is dressed in a white jacket and pants, with a blue shirt. Both the jacket and the shirt are unbuttoned at the top, and he appears to have done little else for his appearance. He already has the hair, the looks, and the deep, gravelly voice. What else is needed? He does look with amusement at Zoisite and Takashi without needing to be coached to do so as he follows along behind Darien and Jason. His eyes also pass over Kazuo briefly and... Go back.

    Hm. Another giant in this sea of shorties. It's surprising how many of them there are given how rare people of their size are supposed to be. Well, statistically, they all have to meet each other at some point, right? Kazuo continues to hold Masato's attention a bit longer before he continues on. "Once I've had a look around we can think about withdrawing. I don't want to miss anything interesting that might pop up."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha is called, 'you'. She seems taken a-back by this. Still, she approaches slowly, walking. "I didn't think you'd be here!" she says, pleasantly surprised! She smiles. "I helped setup the dance!" she says. "We finished just in time..." she says quietly.

"...there's. uh. No 'things' here. So. There's no reason. To be angry right now. Right?" she says as she smiles.

"Do you. Want to dance?" she asks.

Then Stern changes the music and she looks to the DJ booth and smiles and waves. She likes this dumb song!?

"Come on!" she says, offering her hand.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka watches the endless parade of people in endlessly ridiculous outfits (by her estimation anything that isn't a suit, uniform, or jeans and a t-shirt is ridiculous) from behind her sunglasses, her expression somewhere between 'I am at the zoo' and 'I am a prison guard', vacillating between the two with quantum-fluctuation-like randomness. She takes note of several arrivals, but it's not like she's going to barge through the crowd to talk to anybody- nothing she has to say is that important.

    Amanda approaches her and greets her, and Kyouka looks her way, opening her mouth with the requisite 'Uhhh who are you?' (no offense, but it's not like she actually reads student files until she has a reason to) but before she can even get that far the girl reverses course and takes off again. She gives a shrug, then, and sighs, pushing off the wall.

    Walking along it, she finds the nearest other teacher, and leans over to be heard as she says, "I'm going outside for a smoke. Back in a few." She doesn't like crowds, especially celebratory ones. Invokes bad memories.

    She sidles her way to the side door of the pavilion, pushing it open and exiting into the cool night air.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai glances after Ren, and then back to Usagi putting on a brave face. She hadn't meant to get so overwhelmed... And oddly she swears she hears others calling out to her about her dress being nice? Maybe it wasn't as bad as she feared. Maybe.

It was still far too much for her to tolerate though. She'd thought if Koji was here, maybe... But she couldn't rely on him for help, either, given their arrangement. It was likely time to end that and let him be open to meeting people for real. Not someone who looked like a confectionary from her shop. One of the ones that dropped on the floor, maybe.

Seeing where Usagi was heading she spots Darien out of the crowd again. It wasn't hard--He was tall after all.

She'd seen Usagi. She'd not really had it in her to apologize as distracted as she was. That left one person left she had to touch base with--Then she could escape.

Gathering up the length of FLUFF that is her dress she makes a beeline for the line of Handsome Boys. One in particular. The pink mass that she's become is likely to be spotted by Usagi again as she suddenly pops out in front of Darien abruptly. The bag she'd carried so carefully in with her is THRUST at his chest, the box of candy within being obvious should he reach up to take it.

"I'm really, really sorry I -- I'm so sorry! I have to go but I am sorry so you should go talk to her or... Here!"

Right, the box was out of her hands! Whirling away toward the door she throws herself at the throng of people coming in seeking escape in the fresh air of outside where she could find a place to hide.

Maybe she could swipe some scissors from the art room.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto takes Misaki's offered hand, and gives her an earnest smile, with a tilt of his head. Her words are confusing to him. The denial. The arrogant attitude. He's torn on whether he was right in her looking down in the dumps. He's not the kind to second guess himself, though. She looked alone, so he is reaching out. So, he pulls her along, squeezing her hand, practically dragging her to the dance floor itself.

     While Haruto has some half-practiced 80s dance moves, it seems his doubles dance moves are less practiced. He could likely manage with a slow dance, but this is a poppy song from the 80s! You can't slow dance to those as well. So he improvises. He takes both of her hands, dancing face to face, moving their hands together in a somewhat random and jumpy style. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, occasionally swaying his hips more akin to a salsa dance. It is obvious, he needs a lesson in style.

     It's only after a moment of dancing that he realizes a poor choice he made: he forgot to introduce himself. "Oh! I'm Haruto Sano, by the way! You can call me Haruto if you want, though!"

     He then lets go of her hands for a moment, and does a solo dance move: pointing his hand up to the side, and then down to the other side, diagonally. Yes, he is performing a disco move to an 80s song.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"White? My color?" Kazuo tilts his head a fraction to one side, considering the possibilities. "Maybe if I want to try to get out of classes by turning up as a ghost. It might be bleached enough for the teachers to overlook my not being dead yet."

Then he turns the amusement back on Lana. "Your Majesty must be bored indeed tonight, then, to come slumming here. Nothing more important in your realm? No impending navies, no peasant revolts?"

It's past Lana that he's watching improbable blonde twintails move through the crowd, waving to ... more tall people. One actually in white. Masato studies Kazuo; Kazuo studies Masato in return.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco makes no sign of having noticed Cho's nervosism. She remembers her first time at these kinds of event, 7 or so years ago, and could fully understand the pinkette's nervosism. "You could the skirt and the detached sleeves are a family heirloom", says Coco, opting to answer the original question.

"You look good too, if there weren't so many distractions, you would attract suitors exactly like bees on flowers. Who was that redhead you were with? She doesn't know what she is missing if she ditches you like this." Coco adds as a bit of encouragement. Moving to Cho's left and giving her a smile, Coco starts imitating Cho, snacking a bit on nuts.

A girl that calls herself Aki approaches them then. "Hello, I'm Coco, nice to meet you, Aki. I love the dress, it seems perfect for a dance party. I would love to buy one just like yours. Which shop did you buy it from?"

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    In fairness, Fate didn't even plan to come to this dance, let alone run into the girl who has stood in her way twice now.
    And of all things... She's asking to dance.
    To this song.
    A slow breath and Fate squeezes her eeys shut.
    "I'm. I'm not angry." She says after a beat, before Nanoha turning to wave at Stern draws Fate's attention to the DJ booth.
    "Dance..." She murmurs, frowning slightly.
    "Your older sister... Has strange taste in music."
    But then Nanoha holds her hand out.
    There's a clear moment of hesitation. Before Fate slowly reaches out, as though waiting for some kind of trap to spring. But no trap comes as she takes that hand.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Siiiiiip. Hannah catches her name on the wind, and has just enough gall to bothering unhelpfully answering. "'Hannah' is indeed a widespread name, mein freuend, however 'Steiner' certainly is not!" Comes the young woman proudly in non-answer with a grin beamed one-thousand-watt friendly towards the sound of Tori!

Hannah shrugs a smidge at Amy as the matter of language passes between them. "Close enough." She offers, before they settle on one Hannah's only recently become...fluent would be a lie. More like she's bludgeoned Japanese into a shape that's understandable, elegant, and somehow still very Steiner. An Alpha Strike of verbiage, if you will.

"Must be far before my time!" Comes Hannah warmly, then taps one heel to the other, and dips into a proper noble bow without so much as spilling a drop of her drink.

"Frau Hannah Steiner, if you would allow, Frau....?" She asks, make a judgement call there clearly with just enough audible question marking to let all of it in doubt.

Twitch!!!! "I...much prefer...how do you call it? Jazz? Not....this..." Actually rick rolling. Her noble heart is in /pain/!

Oh, and then she pulls that same formal bowing trick out of instinct as the voice of Ikiko greets her! A name is noted, and her smile doesn't stop.

"Frau Morte, Frau Ikiko-chan, it is mein distinct pleasure to make your acquaintance and to once more find your most curious and pleasing voice upon mein ears once again, respectively!" Offers Hannah with that ever-presence level of noble formality.

Lyra is distracted. Not by Tori's pets, which strangely are being ignored, and Ikiko only gets the faintest of 'growf-iss' as she speaks to her. No. Its' that spirit that Lyra is staring directly at. She doesn't growl. That would be rude and terrible manners at a party.

She, instead, flexes her very large claws. There's this quiet scratching sound on the floor. Just so the spirit knows to be polite, too.

"Lovely party, hm? Punch isn't bad! Acht, would any of you like to dance!? Not really my type of music, but I'll not end this night without at least one lovely girl at mein arms!" Griiiin! She has absolutely zero shame!

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
She always was a bit aloof, this Haruka Tenou. Charming of course, and now was no different - wearing a handsome smile and a tuxedo that perfectly framed broad shoulders, with a golden vest that subtle threads that caught the light and glittered. A amber vest, with whorling designs that seemed to have actual gold embroidered into the same. ()

And one had to wonder what the famous racer was doing in a place like this. Normally, they could be found running, or on the track, or driving and racing. They had an intense focus set on chasing after... something. But occasionally, occasionally... one had to take a break.

Even if they were feeling... fabulously overdressed for a school dance like this.

So. Fabulously late to the party, and heralded by a scent of bergamot and oak moss, a cologne that carried with it a subtle tang upon the wind, Haruka Tenou strides into the party as a whole, brightly blue eyes tracking along the gathered students. There was... *something* about that small group of gathered handsome boys that makes Haruka's lips press into a thin line.

But one musn't dwell on such things. With calloused fingertips atop short-nailed fingers, Haruka brings her grasp down to pick up a glass of punch, smirking wryly at the contents before a sip is taken.

"My, my," Haruka's voice, soft and firm and fervent - leaves her in her statement to no one in particular, before she takes a sip of the punch. "Sometimes... simple is better."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi blinked a few times as a girl was... dancing... towards her? Ohhhh! Aki! Of course, it was then that she turned to Coco. "An heirloom?" she managed to ask around the nuts before coughing. Of course, her cheeks went absolutely SCARLET at the compliment.

And then the *suitors*. There was a sharp inhalation, her eyes going wide, pupils almost to pin pricks...

And then Aki was there! And Cho just flailed and just... just... After Aki spoke, she nodded and... Oh crud she was choking. She was choking. Not on her FIRST DANCE! HER?! ATTRACT SUITORS?! HER?!!

Aaaaaand then as Coco talked to Aki, well... Cho... tried adamantly not to die. Her eyes wide, dropping her drink and remaining snacks as she held her hands up to her neck, trying to cough up the nuts and uhhhh...

Yeah. This... oddly is about how she expected it to go.

Pyrite has posed:
    "Hm." says a small, quiet voice as she watches Chiyo flee. "So that is how one dresses for a dance." Standing there like she just appeared out of thin air is a very small, pale-skinned girl with long black hair and red eyes. She is looking up at all the older girls, but was focused on Chiyo when she spoke. There is no sarcasm in her voice. She just looks... Thoughtful. What is she wearing to this dance? Just her school uniform. Nothing special. Out of everyone else in the room, the bright pink fluffy dress is the one that held the girl's attention. However, she turns to whomever is nearest and also pink, which turns out to be Usagi probably.
    "I am Himeko Soryuu. Have you seen my brother?" she asks in the same quiet monotone, with the same Mona Lisa-esque smile on her lips. She was right next to him a moment ago. How did she get lost so quickly? Now she's by some... What even is that? What do you call that hair style? Hair loopies?
    Tokyo is a strange place.

Lana Voselle Miata has posed:
    "Oh, I don't know," responds Lana, thoughtfully pursing her lips. "I mean you wouldn't want to overdo it, but you might look good in white. Maybe some black to break it up, lest you be mistaken for the dead."

    She snaps her fan shut, and gestures towards the DJ booth. "Besides, if they didn't want me to be bored, they'd play better music."

    Lana notices that Kazuo is looking at something, but when she turns to follow his gaze all she sees is the churning mass of dressed up students. Masato Sanjouin? She doesn't know who that is. She's met Maxwell Stanton before, but that's a completely different person.

    When Lana turns back to Kazuo, she raises an eyebrow at him. "You seem interested in something, though."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
She looked! She waved! Darien's grin is bright and infectious, and he waves back-- but he's on the job, still. His steps speed up, and he nods to Masato. "I've been acclimating myself to the school's culture a little longer," he says mildly, "so I'm keeping an eye out, but I'm also likely to get distracted..."

...he says as Chiyo pops up in front of him in a dress that looks like something a competitor's sweet shop might sell, and his eyes go comically wide. He almost fumbles the bag of candy as Chiyo books it right the hell out the door, and leaves behind, in her place, Himeko, now turning to Usagi who's also making tracks out of the fire hazard number of people room. He laughs, then claps Jason on the shoulder with one hand and Masato on the shoulder with the other, and he steps over and around the little girl.

Crouching down in front of Himeko, he says, "I'm here! Would you like to share candy? We can go over by the wall where it's a little quieter."

Tori Morte has posed:
    Tori gives Lyra a strange look, then follows her gaze to her ghost friend. Said ghost friend is staring right on back at Lyra. Sayo then reaches out, and pats Lyra on the head.

    Her hand passes right through, of course, but still, it's the thought that counts right?

    "Oh, um, my name is actually Victoria, but... eheh, everyone calls me Tori, 'cause... Vs are hard, I think." She beams up at Hannah with an easy smile, now that she's sure Lyra isn't going to try to maul her. "Oh, I, uh, don't... really know how to dance, sorry," she admits, with a light giggle.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Frau...? Ah. "I'm... Amanda. Amanda Faust." She briefly hesitates before giving a full name, but that's what it said on the invitation, after all, even though that should be IMPOSSIBLE. "I'm from America. And jazz... jazz can be nice!" She smiles.

    A couple of little girls come up to them. "Oh, hello!" Amy offers a little smile and wave to Tori and Ikiko. <English: "'Victoria'? Oh, where are you from?">

    And then Hannah is asking if anyone wants to dance, and she's the one closest in apparent age of the little group gathered here. "Uh... um... I uh... I don't know anything about dancing... I didn't go to my school dances... I mean... back in America..." She looks uneasily at Hannah, but... it *would* be kind of nice, to dance with someone, for once...

Wako Agemaki has posed:
For a while, Wako occupies herself with grazing and people-watching from the sidelines. There's definitely no shortage of Things Going On; if nothing else, this dance provides plenty of interesting happenings for a student of the human condition.

Gradually, though, the pace of her snacking slows. The food is good, but this place - this crowd - this sea of the unfamiliar leaves her awash in an unexpected tied of homesickness.

After a while, taking her plate with her, Wako edges along the wall to quietly slip out of the dance into fresher air.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    She kind of knew how to dance, but this was something else. She had seen dancing before, and Misaki was pretty sure this wasn't it. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? She follows Haruto's dance moves, though her own motions are slightly off-beat and very much confused. When he does solo diagonal hand move, she stands by his side and mirrors him as well.

    "Is that so? Haruto-senpai. You may refer to me as Misaki, then, if you like."

    She still sounded a little glum. This dancing! It was goofy! She definitely looked stupid-- but so did everyone else and they weren't even doing anything, so it was fine. Fine! She's quiet for a moment, reaching for something, anything to talk about. It was only polite.

    "This absolute gorilla of a woman punched me a little while ago," she finally offers up, apropos of nothing. She was gossiping about Makoto, whom she didn't even know the name of! "And then, using her brutish ogre mitts, she flung me to the floor. I had to flee. I've never been so embarrassed in my life," she admits. "So I haven't been feeling my best lately." Dark eyes turn expectantly up to Haruto, as if waiting for him to somehow resolve her dilemma.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Aki Kurosawa blinks a little and looks around. When asked what shop she merely answers. "Amazon-dot-com. Good prices." she lies through her teeth. "It was a custom job. Not many left you know." she continues lie, to Coco about where she got the dress.

She's talking and Cho is now choking and she looks down and blinks and suddenly gets behind Cho and grips her just under the collar bone on the front and starts doing the Heimlich maneuver. Pump! "BREATHE DAMMIT!" she commands as she keeps this up. "BREATHE!" PUMP!

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru sweeps through the room toward where the refreshments are. That's what you do at one of these, right? She sees Takashi wave and offers him a smile and a dip of her chin. Her smile falters for just a moment, easily missed with a blink, as she turns her attention elsewhere. She sees another familiar face--Lana's--and should she meet the other girl's gaze, she offers a smile and a wave.

"Almost always, in my experience," Michiru says, as she steps up to the table to retrieve her own glass of punch and then turns to look up at Haruka. Her eyes take a minute to get there, though, taking in the other girl's tuxedo and vest. She laughs lightly. "You came to the same dance _I_ did," she adds, before taking a sip of her punch.

She looks thoughtful for a moment, as she lowers her glass, her eyes turning back out toward the room at large. Her nose wrinkles just a little and she looks thoughtful.

Zoisite has posed:
    Well of course Zoiey goes along with Takashi! She wouldn't be much of a dance partner if she just wandered off on her own, would she? Like Masato, her eyes fixate on Kazuo along the way to Darien and his motley crew. However, in Zoiey's case, she is looking speculatively over the white-haired giant. Hmmmmm... A treat to look into later. With great difficulty, the strawberry blonde tears her gaze away as she smiles towards Darien, Jason, and Masato. "A dance... May be best left for now, yes. Gatherings like this have ever been a source of intrigues and subtlety. Manipulation lies beneath the surface everywhere you look, and the surface itself is part of the deception."

    Aside from the choices in fashion and music, nothing much has changed from the balls of all, when nobles curried favor and schemed against their rivals in open sight under the guise of celebration. It's one of the few things Zoisite can say that humanity has done correctly.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi seems confused by Fate's statement. "We're not related." she says softly. "I know we look similar. I don't know why that is!" she says as she shrugs a little. Wait. Fate. Isn't angry?

Well that makes her feel even better about things! Still, she takes Fate's hand and!----

Nothing of note happens. She smiles and tugs Fate along into the dance floor and releases her hand and starts dancing, moving her feet awkwardly, and turning. She's---not good at dancing. But she's having fun and that's the important part, right?

"Come on Fate-chan, dance with me~" she says. Yes Fate. Dance with this disaster of a dancer! "Let's no worry about things tonight!"

Stern Starks has posed:
Stern peers out into the crowd and smiles slightly as Nanoha waves to her. She really needs to talk to the younger girl sometime. Probably not in this mess. Especially since she's busy doing this.

Speaking of, she's moved on to YouTube. She queues up a new song. It's ... Unique.

https://youtu.be/qMZIg0btqMU

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko leans over to Tori. "I don't know how to formally dance, either," she tells Tori with a stagewhisper. "I just generally move however the music inspires me, and simply not worry about what other people think."

The arrival of Amy solves one problem Ikiko had been wondering about; namely, who should dance with Hannah. "Shall we dance?" Ikiko grins, seemingly offering both hands towards Tori in an off-centered way -- but it's actually one hand towards Tori, and the other hand towards Sayo-chan! After all, why should the ghost be left out of the fun?

Tori Morte has posed:
    "<Oh, um, England>," Tori responds to Amanda in English, then switches back to Japanese. "B-but we should speak in Japanese, it's rude not to..." she trails off, because now she's being asked to dance by Ikiko.

    Well.

    Tori actually blushes! "Well, uh, I guess!" she agrees, taking Ikiko by the hand. Sayo, however, doesn't take Ikiko's hand - Ikiko might feel the sense of refusal from the ghost. "..I don't think Sayo-chan wants to dance," Tori whispers to Ikiko.

    Sayo is, instead, mostly interested in watching.

Rei Hino has posed:
    Oh, is that Usagi? Siiiiigh. Rei was hoping maybe Usagi has opted out of this mess, but she isn't about to leave the one who invited her stranded. Standing up her friend is not the type of person Rei Hino was raised to be. Even if she raised herself. Making her way through the crowd, walking fast, not heading downtown, Rei closes in on her prey. She reaches out a hand to tap Usagi's shoulder as the raven-haired girl calls out, "Hey, Usagi-chan! I made it!" She looks over Usagi's dress and takes a moment.

    "That's very..." Adjectives. Adjectives please come to me now. Adjectives? Damn you unreliable bastards! "...Pink!" Usagi looks good in it at least. Her head also snaps around suddenly, distracting for the moment when she notices a small pale girl has just popped up. Where did she come from?

    "Uh, who is your brother?" Rei asks the obvious question. Probably someone with black hair and pale skin and... Red eyes. Right?

Coco Kiumi has posed:
At the sight of Cho suffocating, Coco's brain starts going idle. She isn't prepared at all for this kind of scenario, what is she supposed to do? Luckily Aki moves before her, and she seems to know what she is doing, so Coco opts to rush at the drinks table to get something for Cho to drink.

Quickly grabbing a glass of soda, she goes back to the corner as quickly as possible, taking care not to spill anything. She waits anxiously for Aki to finish her maneuver, her hand ready to give Cho the drink as soon as she can get it. 'Come on, Aki...", she thinks, watching with worry the girl's weird movements.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka had that wonderfully androgynous look. There *was* something softened about her, but in the strength of her chinline, and the broadness of her shoulder - alongside the fact that she was binding to fit into the men's-cut shirt, Haruka turns her attention, her eyes narrowing. There was that voice there, and it reminded her of something vital - something important - something...

That shivered to her very soul.

Haruka turns her head to regard the woman in that dress that spoke of the infinite ocean, her eyes narrowing a bit as that alien feeling - was that anxiety? It was so rare in her heart - thrums in her spirit.

She drowns it with a sip of that syrupy-sweet punch, those eyes of blue glancing over the woman's dress, before settling on Michiru's face. The easy smile returns to Haruka's lips.

"I /did/," says Haruka, that voice light with cheer. Another moment, an uncharacteristic awkward pause from the tall tall woman. A pause that Haruka breaks with a laugh. "I'm sorry - do we know each other?" she says. "Like... have we met before? You seem so..." another pause, the puzzlement fetching across her features.

"Familiar. And I suspect that even if you like simple things..."

That smirk, confident, tugs up the edges of her lips.

"... I get the feeling you aren't so simple yourself," she adds, her blue eyes locked upon the features of the violinist as she takes a sip of her punch.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Unlike Misaki, Haruto completely lacks shame and embarrassment at his dance moves. A somewhat dumb smile stays on him. He nods as he learns her name. His eyes go up, as he commits the name to memory. He's repeating it three times in his head, and unknowingly mouthing the name. His eyes look back at her, and he adds, simply, "Well! It's nice to meet you, Misaki!"

     When the venting starts, Haruto visualizes. When he hears 'gorilla', the image forms in his head of an actual gorilla. When 'woman' is added, he pictures an office lady gorilla, before the hair suddenly leaves the body as it has to be human. He blinks, and suddenly decides that this sort of thing is really serious. He smiles, but the look in his eyes shows that he feels bad for her. He knows nothing about Misaki, and is taking her at her word. Why would someone lie about such a thing? He lifts a hand, brushing the back of his hand along her cheek, and whispers, "I'm really sorry that someone did that to you...! Where did they hit you? At least it looks like your cute face is okay."

     Then, making a fist, pumping his bicep, and placing a hand on it, he smirks, "Look, just call me if you need help with her again! I mean. I'm not /that/ strong, but I'd still come to help and do what I can! Even if I might get my butt kicked! I'm not as tough as a gorilla, but I'll take a punch for you! What's the name of the woman who did it, so I can keep an eye out for her?"

     To Haruto, this is just the kind of guy he is; he'd be willing to help someone out, male or female, in a situation like this.

     Suddenly, the music changes, he pauses, and just looks at the speakers, "...What the heck is this song...?" A pause, and then a smile, as he takes Misaki's hand again, "Hey! Let's go ask the DJ for a song. What kind of song would you wanna hear?" He's already pulling her over.

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    That's right, Fate isn't mad. But right now she's bewildered and a little flustered.
    And then her brow knots when Nanoha reveals that she has absolutely NO relation to Stern.
    So... So why do they look so similar?
    It's a thought that dominate's the blonde's mind as she's tugged to the dance floor. The touch... Makes her flinch slightly. There's a tension to Fate's entire body for as long as Nanoha has her by the hand, as though the girl simply was unused to physical contact of any kind.
    And then Nanoha starts to dance.
    Oh god, dear sweet Lord in Heaven, she's a disaster.
    "Um."
    Fate stares for a beat before.
    [SIR.] Bardiche pings so that only she can hear, bolstering her resolve.
    Biting on her lower lip, Fate begins attempting to dance with Nanoha. And it's not the type of dance she's used to, either.
    This means the poor girl is equally a disaster in this scenario.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah isn't too bad at v's, as it turns out, even if it's all tinged in Space German. "Frau Victoria it shall be, mein freuend! Hah! All the better to learn amongst those you trust, hm?" Ponders aloud the Hanno!

As for Lyra? Well, Sayo may be a spooky ghost, but she swiftly proves herself to be Friend Shaped. Perhaps even more weirdly, she leans into the pat despite it passing through her skull, and then tries to lick at Sayo's hand. Several times. Lizard licks...denied!? Lyra looks slightly grumpy for a second, then proceeds to gently take up the lead from Hannah's hand. And then plops her fuzzy-lizard rump down right by Sayo.

Sayo has a new friend and fellow guard-thing.

Amy agrees, and gives a name. "Again, Frau Faust..." She pauses briefly. Despite so much cultural drift, that name sounds ominous for some reason. Almost familiar, but not quite. She shakes it off, lets her Device slip into the light belt she has at her wait for just such an occasion, and downs the snifter in one go. It gets passed off to some other dance-goer like they were serving staff.

"One merely need try and learn in the company of friends. How better to learn about one another than through rhythm?" She offers.

Ikiko gets a fond smile. "You shall /both/ do wonderfully!" She compliments, before focusing on Amy as she hunts for an arm.

"Please do me this honor of a dance, mein frau! Be my eyes, and I shall be your feet." Offers the young woman, before she bumps them both towards a spot on the dance floor. Of course, she's trying to be Proper here.

Finger snap towards Stern Starks! "Sie Dee-Jay! Please put on acht, Air on the G Strong or Fugue in G minor or something!" Suggests the young woman. How german. And noble. Clearly she's done some mahougling.

Then she's having one arm at Amy's waist with a little help. Which. Proves to be really, really small compared to her. She doesn't seem put out though! She soon has /Amy/ to be the one holding to her taller form, and gently starts to sway, lightly spin, and easily dip in tune to the music, no matter what it is. She's well practiced. Very well practiced, in fact, like someone who's been going to formal balls since she could walk.

"Elbow me gently if we're too close to someone. Follow mein steps. One. One two. Step, turn....dip!" Comes the girl in a whisper gently to Amy's ear. Her smile is warm, easy in the presence of another person. A natural people-person, really. And she's having fun!

"And improvise. Surprise me once you have the tempo. Don't worry, I am not glass, I will not break, hold me." Encourages the Steiner to Amy as she leads into dance time! Despite the fact she nearly has a foot on the short american, well, Hannah almost feels like she's back home right now. Cute girl on her arm objective? Complete!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo returns his attention more visibly to Lana, still relaxed against the wall. "I was interested because you suggested a white outfit, and lo, one appeared. You might try suggesting music. On the other hand, you might not want to risk filtering your suggestion through the DJ's brain. Who knows what horrors could be unleashed on the world?"

Visible attention is not sole attention. If he notices Zoiey's returned study, he keeps it off his face and out of his eyes. A different source of movement, though, does get a reaction: a flicker toward Michiru's wave, then back to Lana. "Looks like at least someone here's pleased to see you." One up on him, so far.

Jadeite has posed:
    Fair enough. "There's a purpose, I know. It's not like I've never been to one before." He's vaguely European. Europeans dance all the time, right? Probably, he doesn't know. He went to business school instead of kindergarten. He doesn't stare at anyone, but does glower at Zoisite with his/her partner. Making a scene is all well and good, but this is... Just some gathering of school children. What's the point in putting in the energy if they aren't getting any energy out of it? Jason can't help it. He thinks in terms of efficiencies, marketing, exchanges and trades, and how to get the most out of a situation before he cuts and runs. But he is also not about to sacrifice his place among 'his' people.

    If this is how Darien and Masato and Takashi, and, yes, even 'Zoiey' and tat godawful little nightmare that keeps popping up all around the room like a jack-in-the-box from Hell, all want to spend their time, then this is where Jason will be found. He will not lose out of on influence by being the one to leave.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi Agera is one of the few people there who regards the tall man with white hair (not him) and doesn't fixate on his presence really at all. He notices Zoiey doing it though, and his eyes betray any attempt to pretend he didn't. But his words, at least, don't strike of jealousy. "Well, with that kid in charge of the music we may have to shelve that dance until another... day, at thios rate." Takashi says, moving into the group. "I think the only intrigue we're likely to see is how long it takes someone to rush the DJ-" he begins before being stopped by a girl shoving chocolates at Mamoru and ducking out.
    "Well, that's one way to make a confession. Too bad you're already going on dates with Odango blondes, eh?" he asks, nudging Darien as Takashi (and likely Zoiey) take up residence in the pack of boys, but like Zoi, he's not just watching people, he's watching for WHAT they do and HOW they interact. So he also notices Haruka and Michiru interacting, Fate and Nanoha... he sees a girl getting taken care of by others, maybe she's alergic to nuts.
    "There are too many humans here. This school is too damn big to just invite everyone from all the grade levels to a dance, pack them in here like sardines, my eyes glaze over just looking around." he says. And then, much lower... "we should have come here ready for work, honestly." Thinking in a way similar to Jadeite, but less strategic and perhaps more grumpy.

Stern Starks has posed:
A request slip hits the table by someone that Stern didn't see. She frowns thoughtfully at it, tapping away at the smartphone. She's never heard this song, so she hopes it's appropriate!

She hits play, the new song starting up. She takes this moment to recruit one of the Computer Club juniors to fetch her some snacks. She can't leave her post!

https://youtu.be/WbkQJbskgvg

Nephrite has posed:
    Masato is fine with whatever. He either follows languidly behind or looms over everyone nearby like the back-up to a short yakuza boss who is trying to intimidate someone into handing over loose change. He is more of a Tinman than a Flying Monkey. "I have seen... Prospects." he utters casually. Hm. There's that Cho girl. The athletic one. Maybe he needs to find a way to take her aside before the night is over and learn more about her. That kind of strength is worthy of a second look.

    He is peripherally paying attention to Darien, Jason, Zoiey, Takashi, and also Himeko. Especially that last one. If she pulls out a knife, he is going to be grabbing her and teleporting away and letting one of the others handle the memory modification. This isn't the place for a slaughter.

Lana Voselle Miata has posed:
    Lana's glancing around does allow her to spot Michiru for a brief moment, and she waves in her direction. Well, she doesn't so much wave as tweedle her fingers, but still.

    "Indeed," she says to Kazuo, regarding Michiru. "A nice girl, that one. Plays music. Sometimes birds steal her food. I think she's famous."

    She says it like that despite knowing full well who Michiru is and what her music is like. Lana wishes she was listening to that instead of whatever nonsense this DJ is dragging out. Lana rolls her eyes at the next song and starts to fan herself again. "This music is killing me. I believe the queen will be taking her leave. Good luck enduring the rest of..." She gestures around the room with her fan. "... whatever this is."

    She gives Kazuo a smile, but her Resting Villain Face makes it seem a bit more evil than it would otherwise be. Then she waves to him with her fan as she leaves.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The two little girls pair up to dance together, which means--

    Amy finds one of the much taller girl's looped through her own. Do her the honor of... Amy blushes and unconsciously tries to make herself even smaller. Be her eyes? Wh-what?! Suddenly she's being led to the dance floor oh god what this is all happening so fast. She slips one hand behind Hannah's waist but the taller girl swiftly takes the lead and what what what what WHAT is happening, Amy just tries not to fumble her footwork and make Hannah look like a fool.

    But, the small teen does have a good sense of rhythym, and especially with Hannah apparently having some experience teaching less-skilled dancers and no doubt going easy on her, she's soon able to get into the swing of things and keep up! Although she blushes again when dipped, FEELINGS she isn't sure how to parse jolting through her. At Hannah's urging to not be so timid, she nods slightly and steps a little closer, lets more of her arm as well as her hand make contact with the back of the other girl's dress.

    It's a little while before she's calmed down enough to do anything but follow, but she does try to have fun with it, turning and stepping to the music, and even indulging in a little spin if Hannah lifts her arm over her head! Hannah's warm, easy manner is comforting -- just for a little while, Amy can just... be here, in this moment, enjoying pleasant company and moving her body to the music and not worrying about all the crazy stuff going on in her life.

    Amy smiles.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha does what is clearly the 'Snoopy' dance for a second as she notices Fate dancing with her. Yes! See! This is fun! Dance like no one is watching! (Except everyone is watching and Arisa and Suzuka are giggling at this from the sidelines, unbeknownst to Nanoha, they may be recording her, for good natured joking later.)

Still, she stops and grabs one of Fate's hands and smiles a little, and dances with her a little more properly. It's a little less of a disaster, but it's clearly from someone who has never dances a lot regularly.

"This is fun, Fate-chan." she says softly. "Right?" she giggles a little sweetly. No Jewel Seeds. No Youma. No anything except having fun tonight.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi is gonna die. Oh, she's gonna die... she's... And then Aki is behind her and HUG! Breathe! BREATHE!

She coughs up quite a few nuts on the ground, then , when she can breathe, starts coughing ,sputtering, then takes the drink and drank it quickly, before burping. And just... free... crumbling to the ground, on her knees... she just... sighed.

And fortunately, when she looked up? So few people even noticed. Well, at least she only almost died to the late 70s music. What a way to go.

The sheer silliness of the whole situation just finally hit her and she just began to laugh/cry. "I... I'm not any good at this. God. I'm just... can... can you believe I've never been to a dance before? Or... or any of this?" and then... then that music started and she began to laugh/cry harder. "So, choking to death. Worse than the spears, definitely better than the fire," she said, in a joking tone. As the adults started to move over to uhhh... put up 'wet floor' signs and clean up the mess, she wobblyingly got to her feet. "A-and Kyouka didn't ditch me. She's... kind of my friend. And I asked her to come with me so I wouldn't just... come alone, you know? Heh.... but.... yeah. She's done all she needed to. I don't, ummmm... I'm not good at these kind of things... with... people..." she said. "And trust me. Nobody's going to ever want to, ummm, court me," she said, her cheeks going even redder saying that. Possibly one of those reasons was because she said things like 'courting' her. "T-thanks, though. I uhhh... probably could have reacted better."

She reached out and gave Aki's arm a squeeze. "And uhhh... about yesterday... Trust me. I don't... entirely know what happened. But... but we're ummm..." And there her cheeks went bright red. "K-kind of like... friends, right? A-associates, at least? S-s-so, ummmm, I... I'm there if you need me. S-so... you're... um... not alone. S-sorry, is that too much? UHhhhhh... I-I mean, maybe... colleagues? I-is that okay?" And now she was nervously poking her fingers together, her eyes lowered to her hands and wishing the ground could swallow her. Please.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko gives Sayo a small nod of acknowledgement (and gives Lyra a grin of encouragement), then heads towards the dance floor with Tori in tow. The groove of the music is pretty energetic, so Ikiko is doing a bit of fancy footwork, and occasionally twirling Tori and/or spinning herself. It's not so much that she's leading, as it is that she's demonstrating her take on being an audio-kinetic dancer -- no skill needed; just move to your inspiration!

"It's good to see Lyra and Sayo-chan getting along," Ikiko whispers to Tori during a brief lull in the music. "I knew Lyra was smart--"

    --and more than a bit unusual--

"--but I'm still glad it went well." Wait, she wasn't certain beforehand that the meeting would work out well?!?

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
    Cute? Her? She was cute? A tinge of pink colors Misaki's cheeks when Haruto compliments her, but she only purses her lips and plays it cool. She WAS cute, she assured herself, but he was probably just playing with her! He was dressed like a hooligan and putting the moves on her!

    "Do you work at a host club or something?" She asks suddenly. "I was just letting you know because I feel bad about being such a loser. Anyway, I don't need your help. I was just letting you know!"

    Nonetheless, she follows along like a lost duckling over to the DJ station.

    "DJ!" She shouts to Stern Starks after being prompted by Haruto for a song choice. How was she supposed to know what she wanted to listen to? It was ridiculous. She places the burden on the DJ: "Play something good! A good song! Play it now!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien, getting elbowed by Takashi, nearly has to touch the floor with his pristine white gloves to keep from falling over since he's crouched to talk with Himeko. He sighs, beleagueredly, and straightens up -- switches the bag of chocolate to the other hand, then moves to offer Himeko his hand to hold if she wants to. "My roommate probably told her how pissed off I was that I got ditched. You escaped the explosion of wrath because you gave me an out."

He elbows Takashi back, jostling. "Anyway she's nice. She actually got through the last ten questions all on her own..."

And then Darien realizes that literally only Takashi is invested in this and his voice goes a little less animated, a little flatter. "It's fine, this dance is all ages, you're not going to get an awful lot of interesting intrigue," he tells Zoiey, one shoulder shrugging. He nods to Jason. "There's a purpose, but it's a little difficult to fulfill through the haze of crackers and fruit punch and bizarre old American pop. So..."

Then Masato speaks up and Darien's eyebrows climb. "Good. If..." And his gaze lands on Cho. "Oh shit is she okay?"

Tori Morte has posed:
    After several seconds of awkward shuffling, Tori finally starts to relax, and does her best to dance along with Ikiko. She is, to put it bluntly, not very good. She has energy, but she doesn't really have much in the way of physical dexterity - but she tries, and she's clearly having fun!

    "Everyone's having fun," she says, laughing. "Well... mostly." Some people are actually melting down into piles of social anxiety, but details. "So many important memories are happening right now..."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
The sound of Haruka's voice snaps Michiru out of her little reverie, her eyes turning up to meet Haruka's gaze so fast her hair flips around like the crashing surf on her shoulders. "No. I would remember meeting you," she says. She sounds so certain of this fact. But she doesn't look away. She barely even blinks. Because there _is_ something familiar about this woman.

"But, I feel what you're feeling," she says, taking a half step closer and leaning in a little. Then with the lightest laugh, and a tone of utter whimsy in her voice, she suggests, as if it were obviously a silly thing that nobody would think were actually true, "Maybe we met in a previous life!"

She finally looks away out toward the dance again. "What do you think of this music, then? Does it inspire you towards dancing?" She takes a sip of her punch, then, glancing aside toward Haruka with an amusement in her eyes.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Aki Kurosawa knows how to dance without the special powers of the Dancer Precard, but the Dancer precard makes her ten times better with it. Still, she saves Cho from dying at a dance and she relaxes as she breathes out. She blinks a little. "Huh?"

She trails off and listens to Cho. Now Aki frowns a little hard, before hugging Cho properly- not to squeeze out food stuck in her throat. "I'm s-sorry. No, We.. we can friends. Not just. Acquaintances." she says. "I'm sorry about last night. Just... look we'll talk about it later. When..." there's people staring. "When- there isn't a whole lot of more people around." she says. "But it wasn't your fault. I'm sorry." she says quietly. "Last night was just..just a lot."

She looks to Coco and rubs the back of her head apologetically at her. She isn't sure if Coco is in the know or what. So she just acts casually as she can about everything. "Heh...Sorry." she says to Coco.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Sometimes birds steal her food. They have a famous version of Snow White at the dance? Fortunately, Kazuo's dubious expression can be mistaken for the shift to the dance-and-party song. And then Lana makes another announcement, and he actually straightens up long enough to bow to her. "Your Majesty's wisdom is a thing of legend. Or at least of survival instinct." More than he has, anyhow. He settles back in place against the wall in Lana's wake, being duly physically located where the teachers can spot him. At least for a little bit longer.

Stern Starks has posed:
The song ends. It was a thing. Stern sighs, looking back down at her phone when Misaki yells at her. She peers down, her face unreadable, her glasses shining with Villain Gleam. She taps the screen. A, hopefully, familiar song begins to play.

https://youtu.be/Z85lxckrtzg

Sometimes she is a benevolent goblin.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko turns her attention was from the bunny and onto the shrine maiden. She stares into Rei's eyes unblinklingly and doesn't say anything. There is a mix of familiarity and... Animosity from Himeko's side. There are memories here, associated with someone like this girl, but also...
    Enemy.
    She knows for a factg that this person is her foe. She knows nothing about her. But this girl needs to be destroyed. There's many shadows here. If she can just concentrate, then she can--Oh. There is brother. "Darien-oniisan." She reaches out to tug at his sleeve, losing interest in Rei immediately. "There are too many shadows." A mysterious statement, especially paired with her perpetual faint smile. But the full context is only available to the seven of them and maybe Tori, but she's probably not looking at Himeko right now.
    "Hm." The wall is it? Himeko >does< like walls. She nods after a moment of consideration. "Candy. Then wall." There will be fewer shadows by the wall. She won't have to worry about falling into them over there.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     The comment throws Haruto off. He blinks a little, tilts his head again, and explains, "Oh, no, I sell ice cream." He doesn't think of himself as the type to be a host club worker, but he feels a little flattered at the comment. He isn't picking up that she is viewing him as acting like a playboy, either; he's just trying to be outgoing and friendly, and was trying to check her for injuries. When he gets punched, his face tends to get all bruised and stuff!

     As Misaki asks for a song, he gives a smile, and slides his hand into the pockets. He's taking another glance around. He saw a few people who were alone earlier, that now seem like they have people with them. Still, he wants to make sure that he offers a friendly smile to every person who seemed lonely at first! He considers Kazuo, since he was thinking of offering him a dance earlier, too.

     But then he looks over towards Cho. Who looks like she might have just choked on something, is staring at the ground awkwardly, and despite talking to people, she look... Terrified? Is he reading that right?

     So, turning to Misaki, he smiles, "Well, it was fun dancing! Even if you don't need anything from me, hope to see you again. Maybe we can dance more in a bit!"

     And then he moves through the crowd, approaching Cho. Arms up, hands behind his head. He is approaching practically out of nowhere, and looks at Cho. A wide smile on his face.

     "Want to dance?"

     He does give nods to those near Cho, too, like Aki and Coco. He also doesn't realize that he basically just ditched his dance partner in a slightly rude manner. He is under the impression that a 'school dance' means 'dance with everyone you can'.

Tori Morte has posed:
    Tori is not looking at Himeko right now! Which is a shame, really. She could probably tell something is Up With Her if she actually paid any attention. Ikiko has all of her attention right now, though. :(

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco is relieved Cho is fine, only to get worried again as she starts comparing her close experience with suffocation to spears and fire, the former especially bringing Coco's mind back to Cherry Spear's fighting style. 'What does it mean? Is Cho a magical heroine too?'. She tries to piece together who Cho might be, but it's like trying to grasp fine sand with her bare hands. She feels like there is something very obvious she should point out about her days in Cho's apartment, but she just can't tell what. 'What is with me, why can't I focus?' She shakes her head, giving her full attention back to Cho, deciding to voice some of her thoughts and worries, both about her having fully recovered from almost choking and about the spears and fire she mentioned.

"Cho, are you alright? Do you feel lightheated or weird anywhere? And what is this you are saying about spears and a fire?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko nods in agreement with Tori. "Sometimes even a possibly fun time can be outdone by trouble," she notes.

Then the song changes, and Ikiko grins.

"Oh, this is one of my favorite songs!" she beams, grooving extra hard, occasionally doing the actual dance steps... and, of course, howling along with the wolves.

Hey, it's a school dance; if you can't be at least a little silly during that, when can you be silly? Although she does seem to be able to harmonize quite well with the song's howls...

Fate Testarossa has posed:
    The Snoopy dance...
    Fate has no idea what a Snoopy is. But what she does know is that Nanoha has her by the hand again.
    And again, Fate tenses. It's brief, but impossible to miss, but when Nanoha starts dancing better, Fate actually has to try to keep up.
    This is... Fun...
    Or it would be if Fate didn't have a mission. A duty she was supposed to perform. A duty she was shirking just by being here.
    She gives Nanoha just a moment longer before pulling her hand back gently.
    "... I... Shouldn't be here." She says after a breath.
    "I'm sorry." Said so softly it might be drowned out by the music as she backs away towards the nearest exit, leaving behind one of her glass slippers.
    --Wait wrong story, no glass slippers are involved here.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah doesn't let any actual fumbling put her off, just gently correcting with practiced steps! One of the lesser-appreciated parts of learning how to do a dance in public with many, many important eyes on you just waiting to call you a fool? Is covering up for your own and your partner's mistakes. She's good at that. Any stumbles just...kind of smoothly move into 'quirky' little elegant movements. Amy proves to be excellent when one is giving little tips, and finally decides to really cling to her. There's this...little sigh.

The sigh is slow as they pelt into that gentle spin, Hannah smiling widely. Then, less widely and ostentatious, but...well. This smile is direct at the presence of her shorter dance partner. Just for her. It's like the world means nothing, it's just her and Amy with the way she pays vague attention. Just enjoys the presence of another young soul.

Her sigh is happy, yet exhausted, as she can finally have a moment that feels almost like home. A nice new friend, this lovely girl Amy in her arms, learning about each other through comfortable dance. Beneath her dark glasses, tears threaten, then fall lightly from sightless eyes.

"By the Sankt Kaiser. How long has it been since I have had an angel in mein arms and a tune to just...acht. Like home. Amy. Thank you." Comes Hannah in a mixture of emotions bottled up finally let out, and sheer joy to be dancing with her new friend!

Then....that song. /That song/! Hannah has to bite her lip, very nearly blaspheming on the name of Olivie, only to turn her attention back to Amy.

"Time to get inventive. Trust me!" She grips Amy's wrist, trusts to her vision and then changes their movements. Long, stuttery ones, like zombies flittering around! Only for the jazzy bits to kick in! Spin, tilt, rotate, and then...

Hannah sweeps up Amy into her arms, and lifts her high like some princess being whirled into the arms of a prince! Her own dress flutters, and Amy finds out that Hannah, is in fact, rather flipping strong by the time she's manipulating the admittedly small fellow teen up into the air through balance, skill, and sheer Steiner strength by one hand on back and hip alike, spinning as she does so!

Arms flex almost audibly as she hopes people have stayed well clear for this maneuver! Else there's an Amy-flail all about!

And then deftly tosses her, gently, lightly into the air until Amy is then facing Hannah again, and tucked down to terra firma as neatly as a master of gravitics aught to when doing stupid dance party tricks like this!

Hopefully Amy doesn't get dizzy or ate too much. That might ruin the intended spectacle.

Lyra barks, giving it an eight out of ten. Also, downing some punch she's nicked off of someone. Do....dogs usually drink punch? Why is the dog offering a second snifter to the air as if there's a spirit vaguely about?

Jadeite has posed:
    "She appears to still be breathing, if barely," Jason replies while going up on his toes to get a better look at Cho. "The people around her have it handled." He notices Masato's attention is on her, but not in an alarmed or caring manner. More like the detached way one might watch a character on a TV screen. "If you wanted to make an impression with her, Masato, you should have rushed in to rescue her." Jadeite chides. He does lean towards Darien and say, "Your roommate doesn't suspect anything does he?" quietly enough to go unheard by most but still loud enough to be heard over the music.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi squeaked a little when she was hugged. "W-w-what? You do? I-I mean, of, of course you do, friends are, I mean, I... t-thanks," she said sheepishly. "A-and don't worry. We'll figure it out, okay? Cause... cause friends stick things out!" Yes. She had a FRIEND! She had an ACTUAL FRIEND! Yesssss! Someone wanted to be her friend! WITHOUT bribery! She actually SPARKLED a little. Dang it, Tadase was rubbing off on her.

"I-I feel fine. No weirder than normal," she said. "Oh, and um. It's jsut an old expression, you know? Like... well, I guess a turn of phrase? I think it's originally american, though," she lied. "It may lose stuff in translation. It--"

Aaaaand suddenly Haruto was there. Asking her to Dance. Cho jsut went entirely still. you'd think she turned into stone or something. And she stared at Haruto.

If she were able, she'd have made a wise crack about 'What? Me? Only if you don't mind me stepping on your feet' or something. But any bravado she had was now... poofed. Like smoke in the wind. So she just stared at the boy, entirely frozen in place and giving a squeak. Welp, someone... else was going to have to make the choice for her.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
"Would you still remember me if you had met me in a dream?" says Haruka, that easy little sway in her voice bringing the sense of confidence back to her posture. There was that sense of eyes on her - and Haruka lifts her own eyes, managing to glance away from Michiru to catch sight of Takashi watching them both for those brief moments. She tilts her head, a silent question...

Before the wind of her attention crashes back towards the violinist.

"Because I think that's where we may have met, once upon a yesterday," she says.

A pause more, and she tilts her head, following Michiru's eyes towards the dance. "Ara ara - is there music?" she says. "All I can hear is the drumbeat of my heart, after all," she says. With that said, however, she brings up her hand, rough and calloused as those fingers were - and offers it to Michiru. "I know you just said you like simple, lucky me..."

"...but what if I told you I like complicated?" she asks.

Had they even shared names yet? No, of course not.

Some part of her felt they didn't need to. She *was* the famous racer, after all.

Tori Morte has posed:
    Tori is caught off guard by Ikiko outright howling along to the song, but she giggles after a few moments. "Ugh, I know what the dance looks like but no way could I actually do it," she complains, grinning at her friend. Still, she keeps dancing along, trying to at least put enough energy into it to match the energy of the song.

    She didn't originally want to come, and now she's wondering why. This has been nothing but fun, really. None of the older kids are picking on her or anything, and the emotions floating around the room are (mostly) positive ones!

    This school is much better than her old one.

    Sayo... cannot really accept the offer from Lyra, but she once again pets the strange dog on the head in gratitude. And once again her hand passes through her.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is having fun with Fate. Until Fate pulls away. Huh. D..did she do something wrong? She has to go... and she's sorry.

"W..wait..." she says, but Fate's gone into the crowd. Arisa and Sukuza will have questions later about who mystery blonde was later. Nanoha won't have answers for them.

This will make things worse. But that's okay. Nanoha is left standing there, looking a little sad, but smiling still, all the same.

"I hope you're okay...Fate-chan." she says as she turns away to go walk back towards Suzuka and Arisa. Who are recording with a smartphone!?

"Huh!?" goes a shocked expression! She starts running after the two. The two run away! Nanoha will be chasing them for the rest of the night, giggles exchanged between the three of them!

Rei Hino has posed:
    For once, Rei's intuition fails her. Though the small girl caught her attention very suddenly despite speaking so quietly and being so unassuming, she doesn't detect whatever this Himeko detects in Rei herself. She does straighten up when the girls seems to have found her big brother--Wait, are those two really related? And who are all these guys? And that woman? Rei chews her lip a bit as she gets sketchy vibes off of so many Tall Handomse People in one place and also a strange little girl, and decides to go chase down Usagi.

    The blonde is the reason she came here to begin with. It would be rude not to at least meet up.

Misaki Sanjou has posed:
Misaki bristles lightly. He snubbed her right after she accused him of being a host club worker! Aaah, she was on to him! He left as soon as he saw he wasn't going to trick money out of her. Was that it?! Still, she was more pleased that she was right than upset. Surely, his was a heart that was as dark as hers. Nearly. He could be a powerful ally. A powerful youma? No doubt someone like him had talent at harvesting despair from the delicate hearts of maidens.

    "Whatever!" She declares, waving him off with a mental note to recruit him at some point. "I'll let you be my minion later if you want. Thanks for the dance."

    That sentiment, at least, was heartfelt. She had a bit of her confidence back. Her heart hurt less than it had before, and she was feeling more like her old self by the minute. Yes! It was not her, but that horrible barbarian woman that was wrong. Why should she feel ashamed?

    Smiling for the first time that night, Misaki folds her arms, unaware that her expression was trending villainous. The pieces of her plan had all fallen into place some time ago, and now that she was out of her funk, she was ready to act on it.

    "I'm out of here," she announces to absolutely nobody as she makes her way to the exit. "So long, losers!"

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Aki Kurosawa whews, okay things are clamming down now. Not a joke meant at Coco.

She smiles. "Later." Then someone approaches Cho and asks her to dance. Aki Kurosawa pushes Cho into Haruto. "Cho-chan would LOVE to dance with you! See, she's practically leaping into your arms!" she says, pushing Cho quietly as she just stands there like stone.

She whispers. "Come on, go have fun! Dances are fun!" she says, before she puts her arms up and then spins away gracefully into the dance floor like the Dancer she is.

She listens to the music, and starts doing the Thriller dance with a group of NPC students about. Look, you know the music, you do the dance.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco doesn't really buys it, but she decides to fake switching the subject then. "Oh, really? I didn't know that. Nevermind this talk about spears then, let's talk food. Do you like cherries?"

If the spears are indeed Cherry Spear's fault - Coco is now calm enough about Cho having almost suffocated to be annoyed at Cho possibly having been subjected to the redhead's relentless attacks - there is a good chance she knows of the nickname Cure Wukong gave her too. I will remember to give a word or two to Cherry Spear about possibly having hurt my roommate the next time I see her.'

Meanwhile, she looks at Cho straight in the eyes, wanting to miss no telltale sign about her recognising the allusion to the nickname. 'If she gives no sign of recognising it, that's one less thing I have to worry about. But if she does, I have to make sure she is fine.'

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko grins at Tori, glad that her younger friend is having fun. Hannah's impressive dance moves are met with applause, and Ikiko glances back towards Lyra to see how the guardian beast is doing... in time to see Hannah's 'pet' offer a glass of punch towards Sayo.

What.

Blinking a moment, Ikiko shrugs and gets back to dancing. "This has definitely been an... interesting evening," she remarks to Tori. "Good interesting, but very much interesting."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera looks at Mamoru. "Also it helps that I didn't plot it, I presume. If I'd stayed, I would have only been a third wheel between you and your new study-buddy." he pointed out.
    "Also I just have to say, if you don't think kids below 14 are capable of intrigue with backstabbing and plotting you must not remem..." and then he pauses, and stops dead. Right. He *doesn't* remember that time of his life, most of the time they spent growing up. Takashi sighs. "Shit. I'm sorry. Nevermind. Just trust me, there's stuff going on in every age range here. Just most of it, we don't actually care about." Takashi continues. He then looks warily between Himeko and Darien. He knows Himeko is kind of a volatile bomb - both quite alike and quite unlike one of his own younger associates - but he also knows that Darien is the one best equipped to handle her.
    He also sees Fate dashing out. Wait, Fate was here? Why is she running? Axion and Bardiche exchange quick information so Takashi doesn't have to chase one of his associates down. Fate's okay, she's just escaping *the socialization* which, frankly, he understands. Part of why he came over here to the looming sketchy bishonen squad was to feel more at home in the pack. At least he'll always have his best friend and his friends-of-friend to lean on. The world would be a lot tougher without them.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh gods Hannah is smiling at *her*. Amy double-takes when she notices that. What? She doesn't understand, Hannah's doing all the work, why is she smiling like that? Is it politeness?

    But Hannah speaks. An angel?! Amy blushes and lowers her chin, looking away.

    The song that's been playing in the background... 'I'm not ready to grow up, I wanna be a girl I wanna dance and par-ty!' She thought it was silly at first, but she can kind of vibe with it now. This... this is really nice. She may already have grown up, she may not really be a girl, but for a little while, she can just enjoy this...

    And then the song changes. THIS song. She remembers hearing it come on the radio every Halloween (along with Monster Mash.)

    It only takes a second for her to pick up what Hannah's going for! She follows along, shuffling like a zombie, even adding a groan and half-assing a zombie facial expression... oh okay, make that a JAZZ zombie. A DANCE zombie! Right! A smile is creeping onto her face threatening to break the zombie impression, and she starts to giggle, when suddenly--!

    WHAT THE HELL oh she's in the air. Her eyes go wide. Right, she's small now, but Mallory would have struggled to pull off this move with a TODDLER, let alone even the smallest of teenage girls! Hannah is RATHER FLIPPING STRONG, indeed!

    And then she feels Hannah's hands leave her as she is bodily TOSSED into the air, but by the time she can process that and even begin to flail and freakout she's in Hannah's arms and her feet are on the floor again. She hugs Hannah tightly like someone afraid of getting pulled or swept away. Needing a moment after that. And then she starts nervously giggling, then excitedly! She grins up at Hannah, "That was fun!"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Lucky me," Michiru says in reply, a sly smile playing across her lips as she looks up toward Haruka. She glances down at the drink in her hand, still three quarters full, and back up toward the tall drink of water offering to dance, and just sets the punch aside on a table. The closest one. That means it might very well be just back where she found it because she hasn't moved since the golden haired racer captured her attention. She reaches up to curl her finger around Haruka's offered to her, and smiles.

"I don't remember all of my good dreams, unfortunately," she says, her voice quieting, taking on a sadness as her smile falters. But only for a moment. She looks up toward Haruka as they reach their spot on the floor and she steps in closer. "So, perhaps we met in yours."

Tori Morte has posed:
    Tori nods her head in agreement, grinning to Ikiko. There's a brief moment where she considers pecking Ikiko on the cheek but decides against it. "Yeah! This is great. We never had dances like this at my old school." At least, never ones where she was allowed to attend.

    She then grabs Ikiko by the hand. "C'mon. I'm not tired yet, are you?" she eggs her on, grinning broadly in a way that seems to light up her otherwise dark appearance. And if nothing stops her, Tori will be dancing with Ikiko for the rest of the night, while Sayo watches on ocassionally offering ethereal pets to Lyra.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto remains still in front of Cho. When someone is nervous, you don't want to make any sudden movement. He recognizes someone that is shy when he sees it. While he invited Misaki to dance first due to her poor mood, Cho was high on the list of 'wallflowers who need someone to reach out to'. The poorly dressed teen is letting her take some time to react.

     And then she is pushed into him. He doesn't realize that Cho was pushed, until the moment Aki speaks. He smiles at Aki, and nods, "Well! I'll be sure to dance with her like crazy, then!"

     Haruto moonwalked onto the dance floor. He was doing Michael Jackson moves. And now, the moment that there is an actual Michael Jackson song, his moment has come.

     His moment to put an arm around Cho's lower back, take her other hand in his, and do a sort of close slow-dance, with some jazzy embellishments, to Thriller. Completely missing his chance to dance to the song properly.

     "Nice to meet you, Cho! I'm Haruto. You ever dance before? I can teach you!" His tone is nonaccusatory, friendly, and sympathetic. If only he actually knew how to dance, let alone how to teach it.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi just blinked. Blink blink. "W-what? Cherries... nice?" she said. Alas, she didn't show a sign of catching onto Cherry Spear's name right then. Normally, honestly, she would have. She probably would have flubbed it and been obvious.

Unfortunately, right now her mind was in that squeaky, confused, disoriented state of just kind of making sounds, speaking the words she's coached on and... and kind of just staring at the boy she didn't know.

She was being ASKED to dance. HER. After she almost died! Why her? She wasn't...

AND THEN SHE WAS BEING PUSHED INTO THE BOY AND AHHHHH! What did she do?!

Oh. OH! On the upside, he apparently knew how. That was... that wasn't so bad. "I... I do? I mean, I'll what? I can? Dance, yes. That's a dance. It's, exists?" she said, struggling to process what, exactly, was going on. Did she lead? Follow? HOW DID THIS OPERATE?! Oh. Okay. Right. "N-no, I've never danced. Um, s-sure, you, you lead, I'll-- sorry!" and, of course, she then stepped on his foot. At least not too hard.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
It's probably a good thing Amy doesn't make voice to her inner sentiment, as the Countess-Palatine likely has many thoughts about Amy 'not being a real girl'. Hannah has an angel in her arms, and well, that's that. A royal isn't to be contradicted, on pain of an honor duel.

The fact such a thing might be against Amy herself for Amy's own honor is a contradiction that only makes sense to someone wrapped up in far too many titles and traditions. No, she's happy she can just dance and show off for a crowd, just like back home!

She also recognizes when a partner need a smidge, and so as she's hugged so wonderfully, Hannah reciprocates just as adoringly, with a nod of the head and perhaps even a brush of cheek against cheek in a sign of discrete affection. A Steiner is quick to hate and quick to care, and clearly has Amy in SRM range, if not quite yet AC20.

With that brush, she very reluctantly lets go, takes up Amy's arm, and offers a wide grin and a little breath sigh. All that Amy-tossing does indeed take it out of you, even for one as impeccably athletic as the Countess.

"Come, get some punch. Acht! Lyra!"

With attempts at getting punch to a ghost failing, Lyra wanders to collect drinks and distribute them to both dancers.

Amy might feel a slight motion, as Hannah discretely prods something towards her person. It is, in fact, cardstock. A name and a number, and Hannah gives a wink as she wanders to drink punch, socialize and network, and generally be a Steiner political thing waiting to happen to someone!

Stern Starks has posed:
Finally, the epic tune ends, and Stern is back to business. She flips through the playlist as it starts to fade out, smiling grimly as she finds the next target. Especially as she glances out and sees so many people paired up.

It's time for a slow dance. She sends out the big guns.

https://youtu.be/NZGHXy1IAHM

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"The wall it is, then," Darien says, taking the candy from Chiyo out of its bag-- immediately taking one for himself, in fact, and giving the rest of the wagashi flowers to Himeko. He glances from her to Jason and then blinks, and laughs. "No," he answers quietly, frankly, "and even if he did, I sincerely doubt he'd say. I'm one of the few sane people to room with, and he likes being in someone's shadow. Apparently the one I cast is long enough."

A hand idly ruffles through Himeko's hair as Darien lifts his eyebrows at Takashi. "I wasn't mad about that. I was mad that I got ditched with no warning. I don't like being left behind. But it's fine."

Then Taka starts in about the intrigue of ten year olds, and before Takashi self-corrects, something goes briefly frozen behind Darien's expression-- but then he shakes his head. "It's fine," he says again, with a little shake of his head and a small smile.

To everyone, he says breezily, "Himeko and I will be over by the wall, eating chocolate and enjoying watching people. Masato, you have the keys. Obviously."

Then he starts over toward the wall, taking tiny bites of the confection and making sure Himeko's close by, where he can keep the shadows away.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     The teen, just a couple years older than Cho, is taking things patiently. Haruto keeps a calm, patient smile on his face. This is more to his speed; he is used to people being awkward, shy, and not approached often. It's the main reason he comes to these things: to offer a friendly smile and a helping hand. When she steps on his feet, he winces suddenly. Even if it's not too hard, it takes him by surprise. He keeps moving along, moving slowly back and forth, trying to step in just small movements.

     "Don't worry! Breath! Just, breathe in! You can do this! It takes practice. So just, you know. Hear the music? Step with it. So, with me... Step to the left, and to the right!"

     Haruto then proceeds to step with his own left foot, to the left, and then quickly adds, a moment too late, "My left! Your right. Step to your right!"

     "So, those your friends? They seemed nice. Bet they'd practice dancing with you, too!"

     Then, the music changes. He is already leading Cho into the slow dance, but the actual music being a slow dance makes it easier. As he keeps stepping, taking the lead, he's trying to guide her out onto the dance floor.

     "It's fun, right? Know it can be a little weird being this close to each other, but, hey, you came here to dance, I'm guessing?"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Whatever happened to Haruka's own glass of punch?

It didn't matter. Not to Haruka at least. It was gone away, and her hands - fingers as rough and calloused as they were, brushing against the likely softer hands of the violinist's, although the strings of the instrument probably had left their mark on Michiru's grasp as well.

But it was the grasp of the other woman's eyes that enraptured Haruka at the moment. "If you need good dreams to dance within..." she begins.

The music - the thudding, fun dance music - imported beats and peppy music, didn't matter.

Haruka danced as the wind, to ruffle the top of the deep ocean. Never to dive into the depths, but to stir the edges of those waters, and drive them towards the shore.

Athletic, Haruka danced with a grace, the gusts of her drifting legs challenging Michiru to keep up. In the dance, she was testing the other woman, perhaps - taking stock of her, how she moved with and through and to - her brightly blue eyes full of interest in that challenge as they sway.

"If you need those good dreams, then I shall dream them every night for you. You need only visit, and I will remember for us both," she says.

There was a tone of sudden intensity there, for a moment, even if the serious expression was muddled by a bit of befuddlement on the tall woman's face. Brief, brief, she had to return to that gentle smile soon. But the observant, and Michiru certainly was - probably could catch that there.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy holds close. She can hear Hannah's breathing and heartbeat. Huh. And then she is hugged back. Comfortingly. Affectionately.

    It is the best hug she's had in over thirty years of life.

    Hugs can feel like that???

    HUGS CAN FEEL LIKE THAT?!

    ...But the moment she wishes could last forever ends up terribly brief, and... and it'd be weird to ask Hannah for another hug, right? She's led back to the refreshments table, trying to hold that sensation in her mind, etch it in her memory.

    Being handed a new glass of punch (her old cup is still on the table, somewhere, forgotten) and a business card brings her to the present. "Huh? Oh um... thank you for the dance!" She smiles widely. "I uh... it was *really* nice! Really." She wants to say something more, but she's not sure what, or how. She wouldn't want to come across as a clingy creep, after all.

    She glances at the business card, and makes the motion of stuffing it into her pocket without thinking, but of course, her hand FINDS no pockets.

    Who designs dresses with no pockets?!

    Fortunately, she has that little bag for her phone, so she stuffs the card in there with it.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Having been left alone with her thoughts as Aki pushes Cho onto Haruto before dancing away herself, she is very relieved Cho doesn't actually seem to be involved in anything dangerous.

With that thought behind her, she now starts focusing about how everyone is dancing and she is here in a corner all alone. "Sara..." The name of her best friends escapes her lips as she starts to feel the loneliness. She tentatively starts moving towards the dance floor, before stopping at the edge of it, not really feeling like doing that last step. She hurries outside the building, sitting on a step next to one of the huge trees. She spends the next few minutes looking at the faraway ocean, before trying to shake off those thoughts. 'I need to react.' With everyone focused inside, she decides this is a good place as any. "Yellow Pearl Voice!", her get up transforming into that of her idol form. Having completed her transformation, she goes to the DJ. "Excuse me, I would like to sing a song. I have this strong microphone, so acoustics isn't a problem", she explains pointing to her E-Pitch. "Can I?" she adds.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi blinked a few times, staring up at him. This. This was right, right? She was doing it right? At least she got to do it as a girl, so it was... easier. And she... wasn't stepping on his feet too much.

Until he gave her bad advice. "Sorry," she said again. "And... yeah. I mean, Aki's my... friend," she said, a grin on her lips now. "Coco's my roommate. I... I wouldn't want to just assume she's my friend unless she wanted to be. But she seems nice. She's from south america," Cho said, because.... awkward small talk. "Maybe. I mean, I don't want to be a bother. I just.... it's nice to... try. I guess? I can at least say I've danced now. And that's what school is for, right? It's not weird. I mean, being close. I mean, unless you try to like, grab my butt or anything, then I'll-- I mean, errr, no, it's fine. Just nervous. T-that's all." Right, DON'T threaten the boy dancing with you.

Then... wait. Was... was that one of the magical girls? She recognized Coco. She thoguht she did, at least. Was that... the girl she knew? Noooo. It couldn't be. Could it? Nope. Nope. Probably not. "Do, errr, you dance often? I mean... With... other girls? Or boys, I guess? Did... they help you? Your friends, I mean? To teach?" Yeah, she uhhhh... she definitely stepped on his feet again then. But physically and verbally.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto is doing a better job dealing with getting his feet stood on. As Cho looks up at him, at least she doesn't need to look too high; he's only a couple of inches taller. It's not like he is one of the overly tall handsome guys present. He's taking the dance slower. Even in the lead, he's trying to make sure he is going at Cho's pace.

     He lets out a little giggle, shaking his head, "I mean, she seemed like one of your friends. So I'm going to assume that Aki and Coco are both your friends. Like, if you're just dormmates, why would Coco come over and talk to you, too? Cool that she's from South America, though."

     With the whole 'grab the butt' comment, he makes a point of moving the hand on the small of her back just a few inches up. "Ah! Don't worry. I won't do that. But hey, if someone does that to you? Just stomp on their foot as hard as you can, okay? But yeah! School is all for this sort of stuff. Heck, bet we're gonna have more fun events coming up soon, too. Planning to hit the beach or the amusement park this summer, too!"

     To the question, he blinks, and considers. He looks up slightly, eyes looking up to the side as he considers. Where did he first learn to dance? He looks back down, smiling, keeping an eye down to watch for Cho's feet, to avoid getting stepped on (and failing).

     "Well. Learned to dance from my parents! But, you know, danced before, with boys and girls. I mean, there's no problem with dancing with a lot of people, right?"

     But, he missteps, accidentally bumping into Cho with his knee, at one specific part of the question, "I mean. I don't really have any specific friends. Lots of people I talk to, you know? But just, no one to hang out with, or do things with. No close, long term friends, you know?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
It's less that her fingertips are calloused, and more that her skin simply _grew thicker_ there. She's been playing violin since she was three. What's more noticeable are the muscles in her left forearm, whenever she bends her wrist. They are developed completely asymmetrically from the others. Violinists.

Michiru never does anything less than perfectly. At least not in public. This may be her first school dance, but it's hardly her first time dancing. She moves with elegance and fluidity, the wisps of her gown crashing against Haruka's tuxedo like the windblown surf against a cliff. Her eyes never leave her partner's, except to spot as she turns and spins, her head snapping around flinging her hair about like ocean spray. She lets out a laugh as they dance, her voice lofty and light, so full of joy in this moment.

"If it brings me to such bright and beautiful shores," Michiru says, her voice just loud enough for Haruka to hear her over the music, "I'll brave the stormy seas of my own dreams to reach yours."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi is, worst of all? Not even clumsy. She just has no idea what she's doing. But hey, he seemed... nice. Able to accept it. It wasn't... so bad. She was even having fun.

"Oh, I know. I'm oddly pretty decent at self defense at least. Uhhhh. That's... not a threat." It's kind of a warning, though. "Wait, beach? Holy crud muffins. I hadn't even thought about that." She could get a BATHING SUIT! She could wear a ONE PIECE! EEEEEE!A cute girly bathing suit!

"Your parents taught you? That... that must have been nice. Maybe I should ask my parents sometime, when I visit them." however, the comment on not having friends... that made her look up at him, concerned. She... used to be like that. "I... think you'll have a lot of friends," she finally said. "More than you, ummm, realize. Probably some like Coco, then. I... I guess she is my friend. Even if it is just because we're roommates. Just... If someone like me can have friends, you can too. You're pretty aweso-- EEK!" Annnnd there she went, a bad mistep, locking their ankles... Could he recover, or would they fall?! Tune in to find out! In like... not that long actually!

Haruto Sano has posed:
     The fact that Cho hadn't thought about the beach causes him to raise an eyebrow. What sort of person wouldn't consider going to the beach? It could be a weird family thing. It's strange enough, but he decides it's best not to press. Cho is already a bit tense, no use making her more so.

     Her comments about him making friends does warm his heart. Before he can respond, their ankles catch. He's athletic, so he can react, but not enough to keep them from falling. The best he can do is wrap both of his arms around Cho's body, holding her tight as he shifts his weight. He's lifting his head up, to keep it from hitting the ground as they fall. Of course, being so close, his face is buried in her hair now. He's oblivious to romance, and how exactly such a closeness could be taken.

     As they fall together, he uses his own body to break the fall. When he lands, he winces, the air getting knocked out of him.

     And then he laughs, "Maybe I've had enough dancing! I'm starting to lose my footing!" He smiles, rolling his shoulders to loosen up the shock and slight pain, with Cho almost certainly on top of him.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi took them down. Like a boss. Slaying two dorks, one ankle, as only Cho could. Except, well, she doesn't feel that way. She squeaks, wishing she could transform or SOMETHING.

Instead... Haruto holds her and shields her with his body, making the two crash, somewhat gently, on the ground. She blinked a few times, her cheeks red, heart hammering. Welp. Poor guy. He hair... was not very nice. It was okay? She kept it clean. And it was pink. That was pretty much the best that could be said about it.

Of course... they survived. And then, well, he took the fall. "I uhhh... t-thanks. S-sorry. I ummmm... thanks," she said sheepishly, her face burning when she sat up. Then quickly rolled to her feet and off of him. "A-and yeah. It uhhh, it's really fun. I-I had a lot of fun. I... t-thanks. Thank you. Haruto-san. For... for that. This. I ummm... I'm gonna go see if I can find my room mate. T-thanks!" she said, giving him a sheepish wave before fleeing.

Oh, she was going to squeal so much when she told Wuwu about her night. It was ENTIRELY different than anything she'd imagined!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Having received the DJ's approval, Coco turns the music down, while letting her Live Stage form. "Hello, everyone! I am Yellow Pearl Voice, and thanks to the consent of our DJ, I am now going to sing a song for everyone here! I sincerely hope you enjoy it. With that said, Pichi Pichi Voice Live Start!"

Star Light!
If you gather more light,
you can surely change this world.
Even the depths of the dark seas lie in the wind ahead, but
if you never... let go of my hand."

The shine of the pearl on the E-Pitch radiates outwardly as Coco dances to the rhythm of the song, reaching the audience.

Our dreams can begin in a super live concert!
On a stage of light and shadows.
With our super songs, we"ll convey our love
and give everyone a little bit of courage... in this song of love.

Star Light!
If you believe in yourself more
You should surely be able to change your future.
In this frozen world, despite being alone at dawn
and having a small body, you won"t lose.

Love in your right hand can be felt in the super live concert!
On the stage of tears and sweat.
Just continue singing, Super Girls!
And the world will become connected with your feelings.

Having continued to sing in this fashion, Yellow Pearl Voice goes back to addressing her audience. Thank you all for listening, you have been a fantastic audience. I dedicate this song to the pinkette dancing with the dark-haired boy."That said, Yellow Pearl Voice runs outside through the secondary exit, before detransforming and going back to the dorm.

Haruto Sano has posed:
     Haruto is slow to react to Cho as she flees. The wind getting knocked out of him by the fall gave him little chance to respond. By the time he finally gets up, his suit is a bit ruffled, and the feather fell out of his hat. Still, he at least catches the song, looking towards the stage as yellow Pearl Voice wraps up the song, and makes the dedication.

     Suddenly, he blinks. Pinkette dancing with the dark-haired boy? He looked around, trying to spot anyone else with pink hair. Still, he is guessing who the idol is singing to, and dedicating the song to. He questions himself; he could be assuming completely wrong.

     Then, the idol is out of there before he can react, or approach her and ask questions. He scratches the back of his head.

     "...Huh. Yet more weird things happening, huh...?"

     Haruto goes back to dancing, with the various NPCs, for the rest of the party.