five. spam & video. thank you for dancing 'til the end

[indispensible]

spam } throughout lost in translation

[Unlike during some floods, Vin isn't hiding this time - not even close. She's fascinated by the varied languages she's hearing and is scouring the ship to hear as much as possible in the time she has. Admittedly she spends a greater proportion of her time above deck, in the gardens, and in the CES than anywhere else, but the only place she doesn't visit once is Zero. Everywhere else, she's watching and listening and occasionally muttering quietly in the language of Scadriel.]

video } public

[This is the Public Address voice/face, in which Vin is about 10% more social adept than at other times. There's eye contact happening, and that's pretty much all you can ask.]

Mark's gone, you know that, but before he left he . . . mentioned dancing. Dancing lessons, specifically. We talked for a while, and I still want to do them. There's only so much I can teach, because there's only so much I know, but I can start and other people can - teach other things. Later.

I'll be on deck later this afternoon, unless there's a better space.

[And what was the other thing.]

Wear comfortable clothes.

spam } deck

[Vin is, in fact, on deck, starting at around four in the afternoon, and even if nobody shows up she will at least be practicing various calisthenic-type exercises she learned from Ham. Once a small group gathers, she'll demonstrate a few simple steps - brusquely but effectively - of very old-fashioned ballroom-ish dancing. It's pretty clear she's not the best in the world at this teaching crap, but she's an excellent dancer (in part, but not whole, because of Mistborn cheating).]


( ooc; feel free to use the second spam as a somewhat-mingly thing!! i am cool with whatever, threadjack all over the place, do your thing, xoxo )

Comments

spam

[indispensible]

They're my favorite.

[She still doesn't really know what to say.]

You made -

Thank you.

[This is so impossibly perfect. She is so awkward. Help.]

[action]

[megamind]

I'm sure i can help. I -- sometimes need context too.

[ Because who grew up in the least normal life ever on earth? This blue jerk. ]

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

[He may have asked more - would have asked more, he strives always to understand, to know, and she is someone he understands better than most, who seems to understand his hunger for knowledge - but she begins to hum. He isn't exactly startled by it, he knows enough from past floods and breaches and from his reading to know that music accompanies the movements, but he only realizes it's necessary once she begins.

And in turn, suddenly he understands the first part of what she said. Because she is not a musical person and because he has been studying the technicalities of it in order to learn from the ground up, he can tell that it's something from the heart; he can tell that there's using words to communicate and then there's speaking. Ben learned three languages before he was five years old, but the Blue Lady taught him to speak; he could recite information and data and answer questions asked of him accurately quite young. The words were only his own when he spoke as Ben, though.

Which adds a layer to his curiosity, because now it's not just about learning a dance that he's likely never to know the name of; now it's a piece of Vin, as well. She's showing him something he has not reciprocated, something vital only to her. Not that he wasn't before, but he pays better - keener but more careful - attention than before.]

What can you tell me about it?

spam

[myironeyes]

[She likes it. He smiles.]

Good. That you like it.

spam

[indispensible]

Thank you.

[She can't say anything more intelligible than that. Unbidden, she blurts out:]

I have a favorite flower now. And you made . . .

It's so pretty. You're really - really good at this.

[action]

[indispensible]

Then - if I have questions, can I ask you? Since you've been here longer. And I don't like looking stupid.

[ Spam ]

[indispensible]

[Before she answers, she lets the music wash over her - not just what she's humming, but the fullness of it, the quartet or quintet or full orchestra, at some places, particularly House Venture; the memory of the music, the feeling of it in her bones. The scent of sweat and perfumed nobility, of fine food, of expensive fabrics. Knives in backs.]

[She never stops dancing. Never falters a step.]

It's a dance of nobility. The upper class, in my world as it used to be. The ones that were considered really human. The most formal, though there were only a few dances - they didn't let skaa dance, at least not in public. A courtship dance. I . . .

Sazed told me it's slower than other dances to give the partners time to speak. You can make alliances in between the steps, he said. Or you can . . . just dance.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[Iris listens when criticised, her head tilted attentively like Marsh's cockatiel, and is happy to execute the same step over and over till she has it perfect.

Vin's remark on dresses evokes a broad grin, and she hitches her own skirt up to show the slender thigh holster with her staser.]

I always 'ave at least one bottomless pocket so I can get to it. I once got attacked at a dance by a flipping weretiger.

...well, it was at dinner, but same difference. Once we've got this one down shall we Charleston?

[outofclothes]

Okay, now you're just getting mean. I'm not going to play with you anymore.

spam

[myironeyes]

[It helped a little, after Kelsier died the first time, making things that would have made him and Mare smile. Frivolous, wasteful, but beautiful. And it was something to do that was a little less pointless, that ended with something real in his hands.]

It was the only thing I did, for a little while.

[Solemn, but not as sad, anymore.]

And you deserve something nice. That's all.

[indispensible]

I'm sorry.

[No, she super isn't.]

[spam]

[indispensible]

[Vin's eyes go sharp as she notes the place where Iris keeps her weapon - Iris, whom Vin still doesn't really trust. But then, she doesn't assume that's Iris's only weapon, either. It's still good to know.]

[She's always felt more comfortable with weaponry at her wrists, or down her throat, in recent years.]

[She perks up at the question, nodding.]

I think you have it. What do you wear to Charleston?

[Not that it matters now, but - well. It'd be nice to be authentic-ish with it, sometime.]

[She'll have to look up what a weretiger is later.]

spam

[indispensible]

[She wishes she could do something for him in return. Really, she wishes she could take his pain away, but she's realistic: she knows it can't be done. That if it could, Sazed would have done it.]

[It would be easy, automatic, to argue with him. That she doesn't deserve nice things just for doing what felt like the right thing - what, more often than not, was the wrongest thing she could have done. But something that sounds like Elend speaks up at the back of her mind: he never said because anything. He just said she deserves.]

[Maybe she does, just because.]

[She rubs her thumb along the fabric.]

I've missed it. A lot. I could have found dresses somewhere, but it seemed like such a little thing . . .

[She misses so much. So much. Looking up at Marsh with a very small, watery smile, she pulls the dress to her chest like a child seeking comfort.]

Do you have a favorite flower?

[action]

[megamind]

Yes, if you like. I like being the man with the answers.

spam

[myironeyes]

I felt the same way, about making them. At first.

[And a while after.]

But Kelsier always championed the...frivolous things. But it's not little, if it males someone happy.

[Not just her. Happiness was rare and precious in the world - perhaps not as unusual as other worlds would like to admit, but it was certainly obvious, for them. At the question, he nods.]

I don't know - I haven't asked the name of it yet.

[outofclothes]

Don't patronize me.

I will hang up.

spam

[indispensible]

You make people happy.

[She thinks he must, more than he imagines he does. Otherwise why would Nathan love him? And Nathan does love him. She knows.]

What does it look like?

spam

[myironeyes]

[He's just. Not going to deal with that, really.]

It's a larger flower, with rounded petals but pointed at the ends, lots of them. It grows on the water, in that little shallow pool.

[It's the lotus.]

[indispensible]

I really am sorry!

[But she is not though.]

spam

[indispensible]

[She doesn't know the name of it off the top of her head yet, but she knows the flower he means. Frowning seriously, she nods.]

I'll figure it out. I'll look it up.

[She can do research. She's better at that now.]

That way you'll know.

[outofclothes]

[He hangs up. B| GET OUT.]

spam

[myironeyes]

[He doesn't need to know, particularly, or he would have asked earlier. But it would be nice, he supposes, so he nods.]

Thank you.

spam;

[silvestris]

[Selina watches for a few steps, before slowly following. She's a vain thing, really, the way all cats are vain, so she feels obligated to make every step graceful and deliberate, and to make very mistake look as if she did it on purpose.]

Where did you learn all this?

spam;

[indispensible]

You don't need to move quite so smoothly on the second step, [she says, almost absently, and then:] I was taught to dance to spy on nobility. Years ago. It was very effective.

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

[Ben gives her the time to think, mirrors her movements as best he can, which is accurately. It's repetitive enough that he's picking it up very quickly: already his movements have softened from the rigid precision of deliberate attention, and become the smoother motion of muscle memory.

She says a few words he doesn't know, presents a few concepts he is only passingly familiar with, but he merely holds those in consideration.]

Is that why you learned it? To make alliances?