trust, give it time, no matter how long it takes

[floozyfacade]

The dress is red. Scarlet, actually. It seems like an important distinction. When I saw it in the clothes box, that seemed to matter anyway: one last chance to thumb my nose at what I left behind - symbolically, of course. I've been here more than a month and, okay, no, I'm not over what happened but it's time to be, to let it go. I can't fix

Comments

[pointzerothree]

It's probably not the sort of thing he would usually think, or at least let himself give voice to. Olive has only just barely started her song when Eduardo realizes that she's the one up there singing, though, and for a few seconds, he finds, rather unexpectedly, that he actually can't take his eyes off her. The way she smiles, the way she moves, it's so uninhibited that he isn't sure how there's anyone who couldn't be watching, and yet he isn't sure he'd want them to be, either

[dualites]

The hand on his shoulder isn't one that he expects, but it only takes Thomas a moment to shift to better accommodate (he's standing with his hands on the bar counter, ankles neatly crossed, a glass - presently empty - in front of him. He isn't entirely steady on his feet at the moment, he suspects, but no one needs to know that.) At the question posed, his eyebrows immediately arch, his attempt at stifling a laugh manifesting instead as a low noise in the back of his throat.

"I don't see why not," is his answer. If Eduardo were Thomas' age, perhaps, but he'd guess that Eduardo and the girl currently singing are only a handful of years apart. (That said, he thought he knew what the other man was getting at; there was something distinctly free about the way that she moved, the sort of quality that grabbed a person's attention. The sort of thing, he supposed, that he'd first commented on in regard to Lily.) "Do you know her?"

[pointzerothree]

It's a conversation he would probably be having with Mark, if he were here. Eduardo has been distinctly aware of his absence all night, the loss of inhibitions - not complete, but noteworthy - enough to leave him missing his erstwhile best friend in a way he wouldn't otherwise let himself. Like this, notably buzzed, it's easier to remember how good things were, problems with Facebook and the way things wound up seeming a million miles away. At present, Thomas is the best he's got, not necessarily a substitute, but serving the same sort of position, the main difference lying in the answer. (He can practically hear Mark in his head, telling him that yes, of course it is wrong, and calling him a hypocrite for it, not caring that Olive is more than legal on the island.)

"She's my best friend here," he answers with a slight nod, sounding almost helpless for it, his gaze wandering briefly back to where Olive is still singing before he takes another swig from his bottle. "And she's seventeen. I don't think for much longer, but - still."

[dualites]

At that, Thomas doesn't even bother trying not to laugh. It isn't that the matter itself is particularly funny, but the alcohol he's had so far in combination with the slightly hapless way that Eduardo is speaking are enough to set him off. He couldn't really put a specific reason for his laughing into words even if he tried, but still. "Sorry," he says, as soon as he's able to speak again. "I just -" He refrains from continuing, figuring that anything he might be able to contribute at this point would just come across as creepy. (Drunk as he is, he is still lucid.)

As such, he settles for a shrug, shaking his head slightly, eyebrows rising slightly as the corners of his mouth pull down.

[jokermayor]

Odd as the thought was, Des found himself wishing that the whole party would be wilder. For all the things he hated about Jokertown, it had been his home for longer then he cared to remember and he found that he missed it. The masks and the reveling, they couldn't help but bring back memories but the differences were even more marked. The faces behind the masks were too normal, the celebration missing that air of debauchment you only got from the desperate, when a party was the only thing that made life bearable.

Even the girl singing looked normal of course, with no noticeable deformity, and when she sang nothing more happened than the sound of music filled the air. His own nightclub, the Funhouse, had never staged nat singers, his little form of affirmative action, and it was an odd thing to watch one.

Still, he applauded anyway, hands clapping together politely with his glass held in his trunk as she walked off the stage in his general direction.

"You have a good voice," he told her as she passed close by.

[floozyfacade]

"Thanks," Olive said, a hint of embarrassment in her smile now she had finished. She wasn't accustomed to all that much attention, though part of her enjoyed it. It was better here than it had been at school, at least, and the speaker proved to be unlike anyone back at Ojai North (but then, weren't most of the people here radically different from her old classmates?). She was taken aback by the sight of that long trunk, the hand at the end, and there was a moment in which she thought it might have been the most elaborate mask she had seen here tonight. It didn't seem to be anything of the sort, however, and she found herself wanting to ask all about it, but not sure how to begin without being rude about it. "I've, uh, I've had it for a while now."

[jokermayor]

"That does tend to be the way with voices," Des agreed dryly. "They're far harder to change than faces, and even the best of masks can't hide them."

He wasn't wearing a mask himself, it was a point of pride that he'd never worn one.

"Des," he introduced himself with an offered hand, "I owned a nightclub in New York."

Which should go some way to explaining why he'd bothered to offer the compliment.

[floozyfacade]

"So I guess you know a thing or two about voices," Olive said, reaching out to give his hand a good, firm shake. "Olive. I, uh, attended high school in California." Hers was hardly the most interesting story on the island. There were times she couldn't help being jealous of the rest with all their adventures and times she remembered that living in exciting conditions wasn't always a blessing. Tonight, she was having too much fun to care either way. "Do you mind if I ask about the..." She gave a little upward wave toward her face. "I mean, not to pry, I've just never seen..."