softlyfalling | overflow zone;

Ah—well—

You know, I think I would? You might have to show me how you're used to dancing, though.

I'd be delighted!

[offers his hand, inviting her to take it]

[ takes the offered hand, after a half-moment of hesitation. she doesn't seem to know what to do next. ]

[he leads her out onto the dance floor, then stands by her side.]

Alright. The basic steps are actually quite simple. It goes like this:

[demonstrating the footwork in time with the music. A simple 1-2-3 waltz step]

[ okay she can do this, she can do this... ]

That seems... not too bad...

[ she can at least copy that easily, although her movements are stiff and precise, rather than graceful. ]

Yeah, there you go!

[Turns to face her]

Now we do that same step while facing each other. We join hands on this side, and on the other side, we put our hands on each other's shoulders... is this okay?

[asking for permission before he puts his hand on her]

Oh, er—yes, I think that should be all right...

[ looks a little embarrassed, but gives a small smile, all the same ]

Alright, your hand goes here...

[he places one of her hands on his shoulder, then assumes the waltz position]

... ready? Here we go...!

All right, then—

[ and they're off!

she doesn't step on feet but she doesn't per se make it look good. she stares at her feet a lot, looking like she's concentrating hard. ]

[he's using their points of contact to pay attention to her movements and match her rhythm]

There you go! You got it.

It's not so bad, actually...

[ she looks a little surprised at herself, and her posture starts to relax ]

Yeah!

I think dancing is one of those things you can build upon to make it as difficult as you like, but at its foundation, it's pretty simple.

I suppose—[ one, two, three, four ]—it's not so different from most other skills, that way. It's not even that far off of sparring, except it's working together, rather than competitive...

I'm not sure I'll ever be at Persephone's level, though, ahaha.

[laugh]

I don't know if any of us ever could be. He said it was his profession back home -- dancing to appease a god with very high standards. Being good is probably not optional, at that point.

...ah, it's true. Especially when it can mean plenty or famine. That's a lot to have people depending on you for.

Yeah. Sounds like a lot of pressure.

I'm sure dancing for us is probably a lot easier by comparison.

I'm sure it is. And—

[ a brief pause as she gets off time and scrambles to get back on the beat again: ]

—it's... fun? [ she sounds genuinely surprised to be saying that. ] to do something that doesn't really matter.

It is!

I think it's good to do stuff like this sometimes. It's restorative... like life feels a little easier afterward. You know?

[ she has never relaxed in her entire life ]

Well—I think I'm starting to, anyway.

[a goal to work toward, then!]

Then I hope you get a lot more opportunities to do stuff that brings you happiness.

Ah—me too. For you, I mean.

Here's to new changes, in this strange place, I guess.

Yes! Let's make the most of it.

overflow zone;

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