A SAVAGE LAND FOR A SAVAGE NIGHT

[professorlionface]

WHO: EVERYONE OF ALL AGES
WHERE: The Xavier Institute
WHEN: June 15th, early evening to all night long!
WARNINGS: Who knows! Language is likely, violence is possible, dancing is mandatory.
SUMMARY: prom night prom night gotta get down on prom night
FORMAT: MINGLE

As you enter through the doors of the Danger Room, the sound of cicadas chirping clues you into your arrival to a tropical paradise. Red and orange lights show a room transformed, vines all along the walls and trees that seem to reach the beyond the ceiling. There's no doubt now, you're deep in the heart of the jungle. You can almost feel the heat of a distant volcano, the humidity wafting in from a river just outside, but that's only your imagination. Luckily, someone had the foresight to bring an exterminator into this jungle beforehand, as there isn't a bug in sight.

Fierce papier mache dinosaurs look down on your throughout the room, some perhaps planning their next meal, others regarding the intruders to their home with something not unlike fear. From the stage, the gleaming jaws of a downed Tyrannosaurus look on at the partiers, hungry even in its taxidermied stated.

But there's one ornament that stands above them all: the mirrored surface of what appears to be a pterodactyl man, reflecting the lights all across the room in ways most disco balls only wish they could.

Welcome to the Savage Land. Hope you survive the experience!

quick links!
DANCE FLOOR
REFRESHMENTS
SIDELINES
OUTSIDE

Comments

(closed to rose)

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya doesn't get far after storming out. she can't focus enough to pull open a portal home, not between the headache and the adrenaline. she feels like her heart's about to burst out of her chest, so she takes a seat on the edge of the fountain.

her hands won't stop shaking. her breaths are short, disturbed. she can't trust herself to be around people right now. she doesn't want them to be around her. luckily the glow will serve as some kind of warning there. ]

[nitidus]

[She had been torn on who to approach first. Davesprite, at the punch, or Kanaya, glowing furiously. Davesprite hasn't been all the humiliated publicly. She goes out with Astral for a bit, before she excuses herself to find Kanaya.

It isn't, after all, that hard. She hesitates, lingering just a few meters away. ]

I thought I could see the bright light of the wild Kanaya outside of her natural habitat.

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya just stares at her for a long moment, trying to find her voice. her bangs still hang wet over her face, so she pushes them back with both hands, trying to slow her breathing, to ease her glow. she can't shut it off, she can't get her head straight enough to. ]

I can't go back in there.

[nitidus]

I didn't ask you too.

[She gathers her courage and sits down next to her. She has no idea what to do. She wishes she had some sort of cloth, to at least minimize the stickiness on Kanaya's skin. ]

How are you horns?

[glowsferatu]

[ if her heart and mind would settle down for a moment, she might consider just falling back into the fountain. or something smarter, like just washing her face off. ]

I can't tell. My head hasn't finished ringing yet. [ she glances over at her, still far too bright for comfort, looking more than slightly shell-shocked. ] I'm sorry you had to see that.

[ because there's literally no way everyone didn't. ]

[nitidus]

Well, I would say it's alright, but isn't.

[She sighs. ] I had no idea things between you had gotten so bad.

[glowsferatu]

Neither did I. It isn't as though I've even spoken to him in three months.

[ but that doesn't mean she's been any less bitter for it. nill certainly caught enough of that. ]

[nitidus]

[she feels a little embarrassed. she probably looks incredibly embarrassed. she tries to look comforting, however. she isn't the one covered in punch, after all. ]

That long? I would congratulate you both on your ability to give one another the silent treatment, but it seems to have made things much worse.

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya seems to start to spasm, her midsection shaking in labored convulsions. she's trying to laugh, but it looks more like she's hyperventilating. her hands are still hanging in the air, the shakes not worked out of them yet. ]

That's what it tends to do, isn't it? Bury something alive, and it will thrash and fight to break free. It'll just be worse if it has to let itself out.

[nitidus]

[She considers a well meaning hand on Kanaya's shoulder. She isn't sure Kanaya won't flinch away from it. Instead she clasps her hands on her lap. It's hard to imagine Kanaya having a breakdown. The reality of seeing it happen in real time strike Rose almost dumb. How does one comfort a hysterical troll? How does one comfort anyone, really? ]

Are you going to be alright?

[glowsferatu]

I would really, really like to say yes, but...

[ but it's not alright. none of it's alright, and it never has been alright. at this point she's not entirely sure what alright even is anymore. she drops her head into her hands, takes another deep breath. ]

He's not going to stop being like this, and I've done everything I can on the matter! [ smart move, girl. your life's a shambles, so deflect it, put it on him instead. ]

[nitidus]

[She tightens her jaw. I wasn't asking about him, she wants to say, but she refrains. Kanaya doesn't want to talk about herself? That's ... it's fine. Incredibly fine.

She bites the inside of her cheek for a long second before she nods. ]

Leave him to me. I am officially taking him out of your hands. Custody of Davesprite is now mine. I'll whip him into shape.

[glowsferatu]

Are you sure? You don't think the both of us have put enough stress on you already?

[ because it's true, through that whole thing she'd been selfish, just thinking about her own stress, even if she was frame it as rose's as well. if she'd really been thinking about rose's stress, she'd have kept her mouth shut, like she's been doing since she dragged dave home in the first place.

but, more than that, is the slight doubt in both davesprite's capability of being helped and rose's sense of initiative. she certainly hasn't whipped her at all, at least, despite being given every reason for it. ]

[nitidus]

I think my dirty laundry just got aired out in front almost everyone I know and then some strangers too. But neither of you are causing me stress.

[She pinches the bridge of her nose. ]

You shouldn't have had to deal with him at all. It should have been me from the beginning.

[glowsferatu]

[ she drops her hands into her lap, pursing her lips tightly. she deserved that first part. ]

Someone had to take the initiative when he left. It wasn't right was he was doing, and you deserve better than that from the people who supposedly care about you. [ herself included. certainly tonight included. ]

[nitidus]

This isn't about me, Kanaya.

[time to be blunt. Rose is worried about her, she is, unfortunately, just very ill-equiped about going about showing it. ]

It's done. He's back. You just had a bowl smashed over your head, are you alright?

[glowsferatu]

[ her fists clench and she seems to deflate, shoulders arched, chin tucked against her chest, like someone just dropped a heavy weight on her back. she can't even hide it anymore.

all she wants to do is just let everything spill out, like purging poison from her system. she just wants rose to hold her and make everything better, but that could never happen. she's too afraid she'd just end up dragging rose down with her, and it's not like she hasn't done enough already.

even when everything else is shouting otherwise, all she can say is: ] I'm fine.

[nitidus]

No you're not!

[Her fists ball and clench in her lap. Rose does not want to lose it out here. She doesn't want to add to the prom 2013 drama by losing it outside, at the girl covered in punch. She sucks in a breath. ]

If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But don't lie to me, Kanaya. You are not fine!

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya actually recoils a little, but it isn't fear in her eyes. more like surprise, and not at the words themselves so much as their tone. it's not one she hears from rose often, neither one to take lightly. ]

No. You're right about that.

But it isn't like admitting it will make anything better.

[nitidus]

[She counts backwards from ten and nods. ]

How can anyone try to make it better if you won't tell anyone what the problem is?

[glowsferatu]

It can't be made better. It's too big.

[ she massages her temple, not quite registering how the shake has left her hand. the glow's still strong, but it's waned considerably. ]

If I fall, I can't let everything crumble with me.

[nitidus]

How on Earth can you possibly know that if you won't discuss your options!

[The frustration begins to become overwhelming. Frustrated at Kanaya, with herself, with Davesprite - Rose's fists clench harder as she tries to keep it together. ]

[glowsferatu]

I can't put this on you, Rose! You have so much to deal with as it is, and it isn't as though I haven't given you enough grief.

I've tried my options and they've only fallen on deaf ears. Empty promises of attempts never made or naive well-wishes.

[ she shakes her head. ] I'm doing what I must because it has to be done, whether I can meet the task or not.

[nitidus]

At least tell someone. Please, Kanaya - for goodness sake, look at yourself. Do you even hear yourself?

[So much incredulity. ] Do you honestly believe no one wants to help you? That no one can?

[glowsferatu]

[ she doesn't say anything. the problem is, it feels like most of the time no one really does, and the few who really might are others she's justified ways in her mind of not being able to ask.

so she just stares ahead, trying to think of some way to answer rose's question that isn't horrible, and begins to wonder if just staying silent wouldn't be the better option.

the beeping of her phone from her clutch has other ideas. ]