Don’t worry about the future.

[mansionstaff]

Who: EV ERY ONE
What: Graduation. Prom.
When: The evening of May 31st.
Where: The Stadium.
Warnings: WHO KNOWS

It's a beautiful spring evening at Smash Academy, the barest hints of summer just beginning to touch the stadium floor, which had been rearranged into a platform overlooking neat rows of chairs meant to seat the gathered crowd of faculty and students. Towards the other end of the complex was the arrangement for the prom that was to follow. Food and drink, chairs and tables, each with a floral centerpiece, and, of course, a dance floor.



Before everyone could get their party on, however, there was the main event of the evening. From his place at the podium, Master Hand watched students and staff alike find their way into the stadium. With the recent shadow bug invasion, there seemed to be tensions in need of dispelling. If the Headmaster knew one thing, however, it was that some silly antics were not going to ruin this esteemed event. Not tonight. Not if he could help it.

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HEY DUDES! Here's how stuff is going to work. We kick off the log with GRADUATION. This part of the log will be divided into separate threads. I'll post them all at once, so feel free to hop around, mingle, post whenever, wherever.

HOWEVER, once the PROM starts, it will be up to you guys to post your own threads. Please check out last year's log if you'd like an idea of how this works. Everything after the thread titled "DISMISSAL" (I will post that in a bit, so don't post prom threads until I have that up!) will be considered prom, though don't let that stop you from continuing to post in the graduation section.

Please label all your threads appropriately! (Examples: "SHENANIGANS AT THE FOOD TABLE", "DANCE-OFF", "THE PUNCH IS SPIKED", "BOTHER X" In general, a location + what is going on in the thread is the way to go. Obviously, more than one thread can take place at the same location. 

Linking back and forth when and if you thread hop is very much appreciated. If things start to look a bit laggy, we'll bump to the next page. Most importantly, TAG YOUR DUDES, HAVE FUN, and let a mod know about any problems or concerns you might have!

Comments

[raced_god]

"I'm not surviving prom on shitty liquor, if that's what you mean." Only the best to sufficiently numb himself to yet another graduation ceremony. He topped off Samus' cup and concealed the flask once again, lest good chaperones discover and confiscate it. Even if someone spiked the punch anyway.

"Besides, I'm not setting foot on the dance floor without a few drinks in me."

A few. Perhaps three. Or five.

[icequeen_aran]

"A man of good taste and ambition." Her brows rose with mock surprise. Without fail, this time of year with this particular event with alcohol mixed particularly with him immediately conjured up memories of, well, their first dance. It was a troubling time, plagued with mutual relationship strife and drama, followed by even more, yet both bounty hunters ended up in each other's embrace.

That was a good thing. Samus hooked a finger around an exposed belt loop and tugged him an inch or two closer to her. "You must be ambitious if you're thinking about dancing already."

[raced_god]

"I will hit the dance floor exactly once tonight," he replied, pretending to not be turned on at all by the fact that Samus was tugging him by his belt loops.

"I am ready for it whenever you are."

[icequeen_aran]

Pretend all you want Falcon she's gonna get what she wants and his butt exactly once dance was it.

"Let me finish my drink first." Said drink was knocked back fairly quickly, a testament to her fortitude andor the adorable tininess of the punch cups.

"I already have an unfair advantage." Of not being as liable to step on toes when it came to the dance floor. Then again she's had pretty good luck with him which was nothing to complain about.

[raced_god]

"In that you're not as drunk as I am or just that you're a better dancer?" It was an important distinction, after all, and Falcon would argue that both of those things gave her an unfair advantage. Would argue it, if not for the fact that they were sort of migrating onto the dance floor.

He had, at least, become practiced at settling his hands on her waist, and swaying back and forth to whatever song the DJ was playing.

"Remember the first time we danced?" A rhetorical question, because of course she remembered. It was awkward and kind of terrible and he kissed her and then ran away. There were certain things you just didn't forget, and that was probably one of them.

[icequeen_aran]

"Bbbbbbboth." The drawn out slur of her answer was on the precipice of 'drunk enough'. As to his question, of course she remembered. It was awkward and kind of terrible and he kissed her and then ran away and probably puked somewhere and she was pretty sure she puked somewhere by the end of that night too.

"It felt surprisingly natural despite the circumstances." She paused to consider elaborating but she didn't really need to. He knew. How could they forget. Her hands hooked comfortably behind his shoulder blades. "Ever since we first met we've sort of been... dancing with each other."

A+ eloquence. Please have another drink, Samus.

[raced_god]

Drunk enough to dance. Falcon could get behind that, just as long as there was no puking.

He laughed a little, because he remembered it feeling a bit more awkward than natural, but that could easily be attributed to the awkward situations they were both in at the time. Here, at their sixth prom, swaying back and forth to the music with his hands on her hips, it seemed impossibly far away, like something that happened to other people, not them.

"Better to dance with than to dance around, I guess." Though maybe a long time ago they did that, too.

"Before that, though. When I told you how I felt, after it snowed that one summer."

[icequeen_aran]

Yeah that was kind of awkward and not entirely natural. Then again it might have been the fact they talked at all about things like that, awkward or not, was what made the important difference for her.

"You came over with beer and we argued." She leaned into him. "Ended up drinking the whole six-pack together by the end of it."

Samus wasn't really interested in talking about exs, or airing comparisons and grievances, but she likened Snake to a wall that, as far as romance was concerned, she did far more dancing around than she ever did with Falcon. "It took me a long time to figure out what I really wanted. And needed." Both were important. "Right, Captain?"

[raced_god]

"Yeah." Not that he really doubted whether or not she remembered that, just like he really doubted whether she remembered things like the time she came to his apartment on his birthday, or the cruise, or even that one time in Master Hand's office when he was trying to discover her birthday.

In lieu of retreading all that, however, he rested his forehead on her shoulder, perhaps not unlike the first time they danced. This time, however, it felt much better.

"I think I always knew," he replied, because he did, in a way. There was just a lot of crap to work through, first. "Probably since we met."

[icequeen_aran]

"Sometimes I wonder what things might be like if we met before coming here." She tilted her head against his and comfortably swayed to the tune of the music.

"On a bounty or mission or something." She clarified. Probably wouldn't be all that much different. She was somewhat surprised they hadn't, but then again space was a huge place and Smash Academy was a weird anomaly in said place, so she wasn't all that surprised.

[raced_god]

"I would've thought you were a dude," he answered without missing a beat, laughing at the notion. It was, of course, assuming that she'd be in the power suit, which was pretty gender-neutral, and he could imagine that there might be some confusion.

"And you would've pissed me off."

[icequeen_aran]

It was hard not to laugh at that. "You wouldn't have been the first. Or last." To both; that went without saying.

"If you tested my patience enough I'd probably go for the bounty on your head."

[raced_god]

"Yeah, good luck with that one."

Good thing it was only hypothetical. "Nothing I'd put you through would possibly be worth the bounty on my head. Which is astronomical, by the way."

He was pretty sure she already knew that, but Falcon was going to remind her, anyway. "If we're ever strapped for cash--" which they wouldn't be, of course, "--just turn me in, collect the reward, and then I'll bust out."

[icequeen_aran]

"That sounds like a fun time." While dryly delivered there was faint purr of actual consideration. Samus wasn't primarily motivated by money (not that they'd ever be strapped for it like he said) and found the most pleasure in taking jobs that sated her own moral compass... or simply for the challenge of it.

"If your ego can take the hit." Subjective, but she left the comment open to interpretation. At best it might get under his skin.

[raced_god]

"It could be, depending." Depending on who she turned him in to, the extraction could be the trickiest part. Nothing he couldn't handle, though.

"I'll think of it as less a hit, more a challenge," he pondered--because that's what it would be. If they botched the operation and it ended with Samus saving his ass, then yes, he would consider it a hit. If he did most of the busting out on his own, he'd view it as a test of his abilities, which, of course, he was always up for, because it meant he could exceed expectations.

"You know me. I give Houdini a run for his money."

[icequeen_aran]

"Who-deeni?" Let it be said, she's made leaps and bounds when it came to pop-culture stuff but some things still slipped under the radar now and then.

Either way he said the magic words; challenge, so perhaps they could plan this at some point in the future. But not now. Now she was enjoying post-birthday drunkery and dancing with him.

[raced_god]

"Harry Houdini," he said with a flourish, smiling a little. "Escape artist of nineteenth century Earth."

Falcon was well aware that most of this was flying over Samus' head, but he found it an apt comparison. Not that he had any plans to bust out of tanks filled with water anytime soon.

"He's got nothing on me."