Masquerade Waiting

Posted on Sun May 14th, 2023 @ 9:22am by Leiddem Kea (*) & Delaney O'Callaghan & Mykaia Kylo-Zahn & Curtis Vaan

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Hysperia Palace
Timeline: Ball
1807 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

At a masquerade ball of Earth or Betazoid, a man might be dressed in an elegant and formal outfit, such as a black tuxedo or a dark suit, paired with a crisp white dress shirt and a black bow tie but Lieddem had none of that. He was wearing what made him look like a Hysperian knight that guarded the royal palace just instead of the gold, his outfit was black.

But the best part was the striking and mysterious mask that covered the upper half of his face. The mask has delicate feathers, with sparkling jewels and sequins adorning the edges. He had to admit it was Delaney’s best work which made him a little annoyed at himself that he had been so short-tempered the last couple of days since Jax had come onboard.

He was trying to move with an air of confidence and intrigue through the crowds but it was very much not how he felt as he saw Delaney and Curtis standing together. He smiled relieved that she had not been hanging around waiting for him but it gnawed at the sinking feeling in his stomach about not being enough.

“Hey!” He called out to them. “Sorry… I got a bit late. Handover took a little longer. Good evening so far?”

Delaney, who had watched her boyfriend like a hawk but stopped short at badgering him for an explanation of his irritation, was a little too preoccupied to tune into his current feelings of inadequacy. Primarily, it wouldn't have occurred to her to anticipate a lapse in confidence, it wasn't really Leiddem's style, but in secondary and tertiary competition for her attention was a mounting impatience with a certain Risian's similar lack of assertiveness, and considerable frustration in trying to move in heels. Her mask was a feminine match for the Betazoid's, though the emerald green gown she'd eventually decided on was the most frivolous of the options she'd been contemplating all week. She'd spent longer on her hair than she normally bothered with too, and whilst it was nice once in a while to dress for appearances sake, it was hard to surrender the freedom of movement she had grown accustomed to. She looked up as Leiddem spoke, the frown on her face clearing immediately as she paused her current lecture to slip her arm through his and pull him over. "Well, mine just improved considerably. Now all we have to do is convince this dolt to go ask his new friend to dance." A pointed look pinned Curtis before Delaney craned her neck around to search for the other woman in the crowd. "Not that she stands still for very long."

"I look like an idiot. And if I just go walking in there I'll sound like an idiot too," Curtis whined, rocking on his tiptoes. Unconsciously he'd noted that Delaney, in her heels, was now slightly taller than he was and it bothered him to feel small next to her. "Unless your boyfriend is going to play wingman..."

Delaney, admittedly, had been a little more short-tempered with her friend than she normally would have been under the circumstances. She had enough to worry about second-guessing her own relationship, a fact not exactly helped by Leiddem's predictable lack of priority for anything that wasn't work-related. She'd been this close to dressing as an archer again and had switched to an actual dress because she thought the effort might have helped. So far, all she had to show for it was a slightly aching ankle and goosebumps.

"After she watched your entire short-lived career as a dragon-wrangler without so much as a snicker, you're honestly still going down the 'she'll think I'm stupid' route?" The redhead glared daggers that she doubted would make a lick of difference given her current capacity to surround herself with self-absorbed men. "She clearly doesn't think you're stupid, but she must be one masquerade ball away from thinking you're not interested."

Leiddem frowned and weaved closer to touch her hand in a gentle attempt at connecting to her. "I have my wing woman so no you can do that all yourself but you very much do not look stupid." He added. "We all look good but someone looks especially beautiful." Normally he might have teased both of them by saying Curtis looked beautiful but he was getting the impression that Delaney might be mad at him.

Out of sight, slender fingers, slightly chilled, wrapped around Leiddem's but the fiery impatience of a single Irishwoman's determination hadn't released Curtis from its grip. She would deal with the compliment, the evident effort from her boyfriend to put on a brave face, and her own concern that insisted on translating into frustration just as soon as she'd marched her friend to where he actually wanted to be for the evening. "Do you want me to go get her?"

"No!" Curtis blurted. "No. Yes? No. I mean..." He flip-flopped through the pros and cons of letting Laney do the talking. Which was definitely one thing she could do. But that brought with it the pitfalls of her actually talking. "Maybe?"

With no effort to disguise what the end of her tether looked like, Delaney fixed her friend with an elongated deadpan and then squeezed Leidem's hand before unwinding her fingers and stepping away from the pair. "Wait here."

"Yes Ma'am," Leiddem said quietly. He had seen the woman hyper-focused and he knew better than to get involved or try and to stop it. "He will stay here too," Leiddem added smiling at Curtis.

"Ooooh yes he will..." Curtis sighed.

There was no way to move, Delaney realised, in a gown of this type without adopting a gait that made her appear far more graceful than she felt. There was also no easy way to navigate through the crowd without crucial parts of her hemline running into problem with people's feet, and so it was challenging to make the pace required for catching up with the nimble Risian but eventually, having lost Kaia once already, Delaney caught up to the other woman by the food.

"Hey," she started, pausing in an attempt not to sound like she'd just squeezed through a multitude of very small spaces to make it this far.

Mykaia, her mask quite a simple one to match the pretty peacock blue of her flowing dress, looked up in surprise as she realised the greeting had been for her, and took all of several seconds to recognise the other person. Admittedly, the masks didn't do a lot, but there also just weren't that many people with flaming hair who'd have any reason to approach. "Oh, hi. Delaney, right?"

The human nodded. "I come with a message. Well, really it's more like an endless stream of whiny self-pity." Delaney shared what she expected was a look of knowing, unable to see Kaia's eyebrows rise behind her mask, and concluded, "Curtis really wants to see you but he's sulking about his outfit."

The Risian's attention turned immediately to the crowd.

"Why? Where is he? What is he, more to the point?," Kaia asked, a faintly amused quirk of her lips obvious.

"Over the other side. For the love of all that's holy, come save him before I feed him to a dragon." And with that, Delaney lead the way back, glancing behind only once to smirk to herself that it had barely taken any convincing to get the other woman to follow.

The Betazoid had spent several minutes convincing Curtis that it was for the best but it did not stop how silly it must look. "Look sharp Curtis. Your wingman had completed her mission." Leiddem had said quietly.

"If you mean a mission to completely-" Almost without missing a beat Curtis skipped sharply into a forced grin. "Heeyyyyy. Been a hot minute. I hope she didn't pull you away from anything vitally important, she has a way of being so socially awkward about these things. Honestly, can't take her anywhere. Leiddem, control your woman."

"Would not change her for the world." The Betazoid declared quietly.

Whilst the redhead pinned her friend with a look that would have left scorch marks from a reasonable distance, Mykaia looked momentarily taken aback and, for a brief second, somewhat lost for words. There were times, and she'd always put it down to his sense of humour, where Curtis' claims never quite matched up with her own interpretation of events and it became just a little bit disconcerting when dealing with things where he ought to have been the wiser. Delaney didn't seem socially awkward. If anything, the other woman seemed entirely comfortable being assertive and now that she knew the other person present was likewise more of an expert than her on the matter, the Risian flushed at her own indecision. "Uh, no, I wasn't doing anything much."

"And I was assisting in the not doing anything much," Leiddem said brightly as he switched allegiance and moved to Delaney's side taking her hand in his. He knew exactly where to go in a situation like this and it was not helping Curtis.

"Well, that's good," Curtis acknowledged to Mykaia. "I guess we're rescuing you from the monotony of nothingness then. You're welcome." He offered her a hand, bowing a little. "I should be honoured to accept your first dance..."

Unable to shake the feeling that she'd somehow missed a vital aspect of the conversation, Kaia spared a fleeting glance for the other couple and rallied her composure to accept Curtis' offering as if nothing at all seemed out of the ordinary. "I'd like that." As the pair disappeared, the young Risian's voice could be heard just above the din, "I was wondering if you'd come tonight. I thought you might be a little sore after falling off the dragon like you did."

“Let’s go and have our own dance.” Leidden murmured in Delaney’s ear tugging, on her hand. Now that Curtis was sorted maybe they could have a few chances before having a walk in the palace gardens.

Without Curtis to direct her frustration at, Delaney deflated considerably and turned her attention instead to the large ballroom, and the central showcase that featured a plethora of locals who actually seemed to know how to waltz. Thankfully, the outskirts seemed populated by people with less of an idea, which was definitely where Delaney felt at home. She allowed herself to be lead, preoccupied with trying to figure out how so many pairs managed to navigate such a sweeping, twirling circuit without ending up on each other, and reached the conclusion that she had long suspected; she wasn't cut out for the royal life.