come_sailaway | JUNE EVENT: CAMP

JUNE EVENT: CAMP

early on June 10th, Friday's morning announcements end with a request for everyone going on the latest excursion to meet her in the atrium. she seems in noticeably better spirits than she had been last time, and she leads them cheerfully to the tender. once they are all aboard, and the door is securely shut, the interior fills with gas, and, perhaps, their last thought before they slip into unconsciousness is "oh shit, not again."

passengers wake up on a rickety old school bus, driving down a dirt road surrounded by woods. what is it that they notice first? that, no matter what they were wearing before, they are now wearing a camp t-shirt and legitimately horrifyingly short shorts? the overstuffed backpack between their knees? the words "take one down and pass it around" dying on their lips? the fact that Friday is absolutely driving the bus?

or, maybe the fact that it's already slowing down, pulling up in front of a massive wooden sign, saying:

CAMP AION

when they get out of the bus, Friday is the one to divide them up into their cabin groups, and she is the one to give the counselors their very official-looking clipboards and whistles. she explains that they are in charge, and that she will be back to pick them up in a week, and... very little else. she responds to nothing outside of whatever is on her unseen little script, and she gets back on the bus shortly after, leaving them there.

welcome to camp. let's make some summer memories!

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He shakes his head at the compliment because he feels like he looks like metal sticks holding up a body. The figure he cuts in a fine suit is loads better than this nonsense. No one shold be seeing this much of him unless they're both naked.

"Relax, this will be easy." He says as if he doesn't have years of practice and is teaching someone who has trouble touching people without going intangible. Granted if she does throw him down he will still teach her how to dance, more as a punishment than a help though.

"Correct. Well, not just stand there, you will have to move eventually, the goal of dancing is not that we are statues at each other." He puts his hands out palm up, "Slow dances are simple, you will mostly sway back and forth. This hand we hold and your other goes on my shoulder."

Time to do this Ava.

Relax, okay, she can do that, a slow release of breath through her nose to show just how much she's relaxing. Her stance remains rather frozen though, braced as if waiting for a blow. Until he remarks about not being statues and she becomes painfully aware of how stiff she is, bouncing slightly on her heels to loosen up. Swaying, she can do swaying.

Placing a hand on Max's shoulder, she looks at him uncertainly, the other one squeezing his hand a bit too tightly. "How close are we supposed to be?"

She is relaxing the same way that a boxer would in the ring. Which is to say: not at all. That slow breath is convincing no one, least of all the Omnic standing there. He chuckles and squeezes her hand. "You're doing fine so far."

This is proving to be both harder, but far more endearing, than he'd expected.

"About this far." He puts his other hand on her waist, closing the distance until there's only a respectable gap between them. "Generally when humans do this you would slowly get closer as the song progresses, but we don't have to practice that part."

For further date tricks she'll have to look elsewhere as Max is not a master of the yawn and stretch to wrap an arm around someones shoulder.

The reassurance is enough to allow Ava to lower her guard somewhat, even as Max steps in closer. It's not indecently close, of course, but certainly closer than she typically allows anyone. It helps that it's him, and she squeezes his hand back appreciatively.

"Oh," she comments, tucking that little tip away for the actual night of the dance. "So other than not stomping feet, is there anything else to avoid?"

Ten minutes late with nary a Starbucks in sight, in sweeps this guy. He doesn't even say anything, just plops himself down on the nearest available surface for him to sit on. At least he isn't too late!

"Don't mind me," he says, "It was either this or staring at another fake maple tree for hours on end."

"Not really, avoid feet and colliding with anyone else. Don't overthink this." He says reassuringly, before they suddenly have a visitor. Max manages to stay right where he is and not spring back from Ava like they've been caught red handed doing evil villain things. Instead he glances over at Skulduggery, just waiting for him to say something snarky, but you know what - world's okayest wingman over here is going to help Ava learn to dance whether or not a sarcastic skeleton gives commentary.

"Do you have any advice to add?"

"I overthink everything," Ava protests, except those times where she panics and acts out impulsively. But. She overthinks that after the fact, so it still totally counts.

She gives Skulduggery a bit of a wave, except her hands are occupied with holding Max's, so it's done with her head and swing of her pigtails. "Thought you might've gotten lost in the infinite forest loop," Ava accuses, clearly pleased to see him.

Skulduggery would be utterly offended to know Max thinks so little of him! He's here as a friend, okay, and a friend who used to be pretty familiar with the fox-trot at that!

"No, this time it was the infinite edge of the lake." He's joking! Mostly. Really! "As for advice... Don't think too hard about it." Which is what Max said right before Skulduggery showed up! Look at that, they're in sync. "And don't look down at your feet too much."

Right? That's all there is to dancing. Honestly, he's surprised she doesn't just settle for the slow-sway-in-the-middle-of-the-room maneuver. It's a classic.

"You see? We both have the same advice, and we know what we're talking about." Just trust two of the best dressed people on the ship, they're good at these things.

"I'm not teaching you something complicated, we're going to basically spin around in a circle. The main thing is we move in sync in a way. I move my foot back," which he does so, taking a half step back, "and you move yours forward. You're just following what I do with my feet as we go."

He does expect his feet to be stomped on, but he doesn't mind, destroy those horrible shoes he's wearing.

"There's nothing at the other side," she tells Skulduggery teasingly, because maybe he shouldn't be thinking so hard about it either!

"Well of course it's not complicated," Ava insists, it's just dancing and anyone can do that even drunk, right? She can do this. But when Max moves his foot back, Ava catches herself before she can glance down at her feet. Skulduggery just said not to do that! See, she's learning already.

So she hurriedly moves a foot forward and stomps on Max's instead. "Oh oops." Her expression is rather apologetic.

Anyone can do it, even drunk, but there's a massive difference between the wine aunt at a wedding and someone who wants to not be embarrassed the next day. He's going to make sure that she doesn't end up with any embarrassing stories after the dance. At least not about the dancing itself.

"Slowly, this is just practice." He does the same again, taking a step back with his other foot. Assuming she follows along with him they're going to make a vaguely square shaped move back and to the right. "And then we slowly turn as we do this and end up right back where we started."

Back, to the right, forward, to the left while slowly spinning. Nice and easy to remember. You got this Ava.

She would much prefer not to embarrass herself, it's true. And Max isn't scolding her for the misstep, so she relaxes again, nodding. This time she follows along with the proper foot, not quite in time, but at least she's able to anticipate the next few steps as she figures out the pattern. It isn't overly complicated at all, but she still stumbles a few steps as she forgets which foot she's on.

"This might be easier with music," Ava admits, getting comfortable with it at the slow pace.

"It will be. I looked in the craft area and the cabins and the main area but I couldn't find whatever they're going to be using for music. I assume that speakers and a stereo will show up the day of, because it won't be much of a dance without anything to dance to."

They'll try some advanced maneuvers like spinning her once she gets the feet movements down. "You see? You're doing splendidly."

"I'll spare us both my humming along," Ava glances over at Skulduggery from over Max's shoulder, making a face at him. "And I don't think that bag of bones can carry a beat. Look at him." Said so affectionately.

But now that she's not thinking about it as much, focusing on other things, Ava finds the steps do come along much smoother, more naturally. "So can we try one of those spins? Or a dip?"

Skulduggery makes such a face. Oh, wait, no he doesn't. He does, however, say, "Hey," in a highly offended tone. "I have a fantastic voice and near-perfect pitch." Well. Mostly perfect pitch. Well... whatever, he's good at singing but that's not the point here. The point is, "Maybe if you'd have asked nicely, I would help out."

He is going to help out, though, because he's a good friend who is very attentive to his pals' needs. Even though he's literally just like, I assume lying on a bottom bunk with his feet stuck over the end because the beds are too small for him by like, four inches.

"Let's see, the atmosphere seems to scream 80's movie, so..." Oh, he knows exactly the slow song from the '80s! So don't mind him if he just starts humming a straightforward rendition of Careless Whisper, the date-night classic of 1984. Emphasis on the beat, obviously, because it is literally designed for slow dancing.

Like the two of them can't feel that expression.

And Skulduggery can feel Max's because, wow. That sure is a song choice, one he knows which is kind of a miracle because it would be almost a hundred years old in his time. But even in the year 2076 there's nothing quite like the ballad of someone cheating on their partner that still brings out the slow dancing. He's never been to a school dance (or school) but that song is definitely played at every prom in America even a century later.

Humans are so weird, getting all romantic with each other while listening to someone croon about never dancing again because of crushing guilt.

It does make keeping beat a little bit easier though, and he pulls the hand that's on Ava's waist back, "But of course. That's the fun part."

He grasps both her hands, leaning back and then raising one of their linked arms up and over her head. Spinning time! She doesn't have to do much other than follow the lead of his arms and feet and then she's spun around, and Max is on the opposite side of her.

It's a shame there aren't more opportunities to dance because Max is damn good at it.

"I did ask nicely," Ava claims, because she did so in a way that wasn't actually asking so he wouldn't feel pressured to do so, but was more than invited to prove her wrong!

And she's actually a bit delighted once she recognizes the song choice, hoping Skulduggery gets to the sax solo. Obviously the best part of the song.

Spinning is a much easier motion for Ava to follow, a fluid and practiced movement from all her kicks. Even if she doesn't end it with her foot to his face.

"This isn't so bad," Ava finally admits, tries lifting her arm to allow Max to spin too.

For someone who is very reluctant around the word "friend," Max is certainly fulfilling his role, isn't he? It's really a shame there's nowhere more pleasant to dance than the clubs and bars along the promenade; you'd think there would be a ballroom with a phantasmal band playing somewhere. Then they'd be able to enjoy the sight of Max... maybe, possibly enjoying himself???

"You're doing great," he offers, a little sing-songy to keep with the beat. "Malcolm's feet might make it through the night..."

He actually chuckles as Skulduggery makes that last bit match with the song, giving him an amused look as he gracefully spins under Ava's arm. It's nice they're similar heights.

"I have every confidence in you. Plus it will be easier with him when you're not thinking about the dancing part of it." You know, getting lost in each other's eyes or whatever it is humans do when they're out on the dance floor with each other.

"Things like this are easy to overthink, and are strangely more natural and fluid the less you concentrate on them." He moves his hands to her sides for a quick dip, as Skulduggery hums his way towards that sax solo.

Ava makes a tiny miserable groan at the mention of Malcolm, thought she had mostly escaped the scrutiny of her friends over it.

"Don't want a man with weak feet," she claims, right as Max dips her. Ava makes a little 'eep' but he doesn't allow her to fall, so she follows it up with a relieved giggle.

"You met him. Does he seem too... nice, for someone like me?" Because she values their opinions very much!

Skulduggery briefly pauses his musical accompaniment. "Too nice for you?" He scoffs, half-teasing but also half-sincere. "What does that mean in this context, exactly? Are you afraid he'll pull out too many chairs for you?"

Oh no Ava you are adorable. He is definitely laughing in his eyes, without making any noise.

"He was very impressed with the notes and the amount of time it took to solve them." Which may sound weird to Skulduggery because generally notes don't require needing to be 'solved.' But oh well.

He inclines his head towards their makeshift radio, "What he said. Do you think perhaps he may take you out to dinner to many times?"

"Yes, I was hoping they were complicated enough to force you to solve them together. So you could all be extra impressed at my cleverness." Because the real ones took many decades to decode. But that would have been an annoying turn around time for Malcolm to finally ask her out to the dance, so it worked out better in the end.

She gives Max a bit of a look, because she can read that expression well enough, she thinks, but at least he isn't outright laughing at her. Not unkindly.

"What? No, no. Nothing like that. But the first time anyone tried to pull out a chair for me, it was Dr. Watson. And I thought he was trying to take that seat, so I went for the other one..." Ava explains the misunderstanding, a bit embarrassed. Watson had thought it was more of a time period cultural difference, but mostly Ava's upbringing wasn't much focused on manners or how to politely interact with others. Just steal things, and kill anyone that got in the way.

Which is half the problem, but she's figuring it out. She sighs. "I just mean..." what if she's not good enough for him, doesn't deserve all that? Disappoints him? Ruins everything? "Nevermind."

The chair story? Adorable. The "aww" it elicits is only slightly teasing. Ava is an assassin in a state of quantum flux; seeing her worried over something so mundane as whether or not a boy likes her is fantastically charming. If Malcolm upsets her in any way, he's going to shoot him.

"If you aren't willing to tell us," Skulduggery drawls, "Maybe I won't be willing to debase myself with that saxophone solo." A good bargaining chip, honestly.

Wow that actually get a chuckle out of Max because Ava that is precious beyond words. "It's never too late to learn such things. Besides, he probably thought it was endearing and I'm sure Malcolm would as well."

He makes a tsk tsk noise and shakes his head, "You should know better by now that 'Nevermind' is not going to work on us. Especially with such high risk stakes as this."

Meaning the sax solo.

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