[Activity] Festival of the Atom

[Katarina Karkov]

"I'm fairly sure we can sneak as many of you in as we want," Katarina smiled "I believe I can handle a crowd if it's all you."

Katarina stood up, taking a Jez in each hand. "I am sure there is an exhibit or a show or an experience if they are trying to show off their mutant stuff here. We will find one."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

The lap-Jez hopped off as Katarina moved to stand up, the other two hanging off of her arms like she was Tony Stark or something.

"Whether it's a show or an exhibit, I'm sure it'll be an experience."

[Katarina Karkov]

With some of her confidence regained by being practically supported by a pair of Jezii, Katarina...well, she didn't quite strut like a Stark, but a little of that air of control and poise had returned. She just had to keep herself focused on something that wasn't the glances and glares of the public, as someone wearing a mask being escorted by a set of triplets definitely brought with it.

"Back home," Katarina said, carefully keeping her eyes on the Jez walking in front of her, "the evening would close with a dance or a ceremony, and I'd probably be expected to judge it. I do not get to just watch, let alone participate, in anything. I think I prefer it, this way."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Well, there's a live band on the concert stage. Sounds like we should go check them out." The Jez in front turned her head back to talk to her girlfriend as she led the way.
'I don't think they play waltzes though.' Said the one on the right.
"It'll be fine, Kitty's a fast learner." Reassured the one on the left.

[Katarina Karkov]

"'Kitty?'" Katarina asked, as they followed the sound of music.

[Emilie]

"I'll start bathing in syrup, for the proper effect.

Time to cut a rug?"

Vic fidgeted just a little bit. "Well..."

"... Is there nothing else you wanna do first? I mean, I don't wanna take up ALL our time here with dancing." Seems he was thinking he might lose track of time or something.

"Welp, I could always go for a beer. If you're down." She replies, motioning to the beer garden with a tilt of her head.

[Victor Freud]

Victor glanced over at the beer garden. "Well, when in Rome. I suppose it's about time I sampled one of these 'pints of bitters' I keep hearing about." He interlocked his arm with Emilie's and headed in that direction.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"'Kitty?'" Katarina asked, as they followed the sound of music.

"Well, Katarina shortens to Kat. And kitty is another word for cat." Jez explained as the quad group passed by an oddly-dressed pair as they made their way toward the dance floor. If they played their cards right, there'd be enough oddballs like those two around that no one would look twice at the gay girls in their hoodies.

[Katarina Karkov]

"No, I understood that, I was just...surprised," Katarina said, following along. "I suppose if you are a guska, it is only fitting."

[Emilie]

Victor glanced over at the beer garden. "Well, when in Rome. I suppose it's about time I sampled one of these 'pints of bitters' I keep hearing about." He interlocked his arm with Emilie's and headed in that direction.

"That's the spirit!

Though bitters are a bit late-oughts-IPA hipster for my palate, truth be told." She replied, guiding him towards drinks.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez tried not to laugh at that. "That sounds like a cartoon pairing, a cat and a goose. Nu guska, nu pogodi!"

[Victor Freud]

"Honestly, I've got like hardly any experience when it comes to this stuff. So I guess I'll just have to go with whatever everyone else is getting and hope I like it." He reached into his coat pocket and retrieved his passport as the pair got to the entrance for the beer garden to show it to the volunteer in charge of checking IDs.

[Emilie]

"I mean, former yous of have all liked Tom Collins... but that's because you're kind of a basic and you've seen them mentioned in old films." Her nose wrinkled on 'kind of' and it was clear her ribbing was goodnatured.

"A Pimm's Cup might be a reasonable facsimile though, and no decent pub goes without one."

[Victor Freud]

"There's A LOT of drinks mentioned in old movies." Vic was quick to point out with a smirk. "But I will take senpai's advice all the same."

[Katarina Karkov]

Jez tried not to laugh at that. "That sounds like a cartoon pairing, a cat and a goose. Nu guska, nu pogodi!"

"Uđi u moju pećnicu dok nađem nadjev.," Katarina laughed. "But you are too easy to catch for me to be the predator, I am afraid!"

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

One of the Jezabelle's blushes while the other giggles, the third leaning in to whisper into Katarina's ear. "You... didn't mean that as an innuendo, did you?"

[Katarina Karkov]

"You should prefer to I mean it literally?" Katarina said, raising her non-masked eyebrow. "Moj Bože, but your Western cartoons are stranger than I thought!"

"Sram me je i stidljivo. Ali ja još nisam kip," she said, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, more comfortable in Symkarian and hopeful that there weren't any language buffs in the crowd.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

The likelihood of someone in the immediate vicinity other than Jez understanding Katarina's foreign tongue were... remote, to say the least. "Well that's good, 'cause I don't think statues make very good dance partners." The girls gave the redhead another little squeeze as they came to the stage with the live music performance, with several couples dancing to the rather... eclectic music. Probably not the kind of stuff that ever got played in the royal ballroom.

[Katarina Karkov]

Katarina had a grin on her face at the music -- a dance party! Like one of those she might have seen in a movie once! She had missed the Battle of the Bands, on account of being kidnapped and all, so this was a very new experience for her.

She did, apparently, know how to move with music. She did not, by any stretch of the imagination, know how to dance, however, so there was a bit of bouncing on the balls of her feet more than anything graceful.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez just took it all in for a moment. Sure the dancing couples were a treat to watch, and the band's stage presence left little to be desired; but right now all of her many eyes were on Katarina.Seeing that smile, an honest smile of delight, and how her body moved to the music... that helped to reassure the girl that she'd made the right decision in bringing her here.

[Katarina Karkov]

Indeed, Katarina seemed to, at the moment, be distracted from her country in turmoil, her facial disfigurement, her looming clash with Doom, or her internalized self-hating homophobia. Music! A party! For a few moments, at least, Katarina could just be a normal girl; like the kind she had tried to pretend to be when Jez first met her.

Yes, it was a good decision to bring her out, certainly.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jez was quite content to just watch Katarina enjoying herself and didn't want to ruin the moment, but she eventually lean in closer to whisper something.

"Would you like to learn a few moves?"

[Katarina Karkov]

"Very formal moves, passed down for years, I am sure. You may teach me, Madame Sherlock," Katarina said, mock-seriously.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"If by 'passed down for years' you mean 'I watched a video about it on Youtube' then yeah, I'm an expert." One of the Jez's took Katarina's hands and tugged her onto the edge of the dance floor - not quite into the thick of things, but a better surface.

"Right, watch my feet, okay?" She said as she started into an almost comically simple 2 step.

[Katarina Karkov]

"Right," Katarina nodded.

This was not her first rodeo, nor her first dance lesson, and while this isn't exactly analogous to the steps she had been drilled into memorizing for years, two steps was well within her ability to pick up quickly, even if she stuck her tongue out a little while trying to concentrate.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Hey, that's really good!" Jez beamed. "Now try moving your arms, like this."
'Or like this.' Another Jez chimed in.
"Or maybe this."

That... might not have been the best idea, 3 teachers all showing her different moves at once. But it was basically just combining simple repetitive motions in time with the music.

[Katarina Karkov]

Katarina hesitated for just a moment, the arm movements at first looking a lot less natural and smooth than the footwork, as she tried, badly, to copy what all the Jezes were doing. The footwork was solid, the handwork wasn't.

And so Katarina paused for a second, and blew some hair out of her good eye. And then she lifted her left arm out in front of her, hand at about face level, palm outward, and tucked her right hand behind her back, as she got back into time with the footwork, adding extra steps to slowly advance on the central Jez in a sort of Z-pattern.

"Chasse, chasse, side step, together, side step," she muttered to herself a little under her breath as she tried to figure this thing out. The dance style wasn't...I mean, it wasn't right, thematically, but Katarina's sense of timing was really on point, and she was moving in time to the music, swaying a little bit as she found the groove.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

The Jez's watched curiously before smiles crept over their faces and they looked at each other.

"Oooh, that's really good!"
'What do you call that?'
"We gotta try it."

Now the student was the master, as the trio of dirty-blondes tried to mimic Katarina's movements.

[Katarina Karkov]

"Symkarian Cotillion," Katarina said, with a smile. "A sort of quadrille. Far less scandalous and controversial than a waltz, especially for young couples."

Jez could probably be fairly certain that any dance with hip movements like that would not have been considered scandal-free, but perhaps Katarina was improvising.

She reached down to grab one Jez's hand with her outstretched palm, raising it up to about the same position of her own, and then let go, their fingertips lightly touching. With the arm behind her back, she reached around to grab a second Jez's arm. "Like this, hand in hand. I don't believe I've ever led before, so excuse me if I'm a bit rusty," she said, as she began to link the four of them together.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

It took the Jez's a little while to catch on, but their experience in Symkaria had included at least seeing similar dances before, like at the festival where she'd fought to get passage to Castle Sablinova. It wasn't long before the four of them were dancing in a manner totally unsuited to the music, and at least three of them couldn't care less how well it matched the theme; they were too busy enjoying themselves.

[Katarina Karkov]

Katarina was at least keeping them on beat, if not on theme, so while the dance wasn't right, they weren't tripping over their own feet or anything; just working as an odd mashup of cultures. And if a pair of Jezii occasionally fell behind when Katarina took one solo to spin around, well, they could always catch up later.

As the song neared it's end, Katarina was pulling the Jez's in and out the square contracting and expanding to the beat, bringing them closer and closer with each iteration, grinning like a madwoman as she brought her face centimeters from the Jez's across the square, only to draw back.

[Narrator]

"There's A LOT of drinks mentioned in old movies." Vic was quick to point out with a smirk. "But I will take senpai's advice all the same."

Like with others who exited the beer garden, the couple were greeted by a pair of people passing out fliers. They wore matching steampunk outfits that seemed to be themed to The White Rabbit and Caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland.

"You two look like fun." The female stated, handing them one of the fliers. A look over it proved that the reason they were being so cagey about handing them out is that they were promoting an adult club called "Miscreant". The M in the advert stood out, an indicator of not only it being a welcoming club for those present at the carnival, but an indication about what kind of talent was working there.

"You should come and visit us. We've got something for everyone. Even couples."

[Victor Freud]

Victor took the flyer and, upon a quick glance and hearing the pitch, gave a brief chortle before looking at Emilie.

"Well, I don't know about you, but this'd be a first for me."

[Emilie]

"I've worked a club before." She replied, snaking her torso back and forth a bit as she said it.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Katarina was at least keeping them on beat, if not on theme, so while the dance wasn't right, they weren't tripping over their own feet or anything; just working as an odd mashup of cultures. And if a pair of Jezii occasionally fell behind when Katarina took one solo to spin around, well, they could always catch up later.

As the song neared it's end, Katarina was pulling the Jez's in and out the square contracting and expanding to the beat, bringing them closer and closer with each iteration, grinning like a madwoman as she brought her face centimeters from the Jez's across the square, only to draw back.

At least one of the Jez's let out a squeal followed by giggles every time the group got close to each other, that brief fear that they were going to crash causing a rush in adrenaline only to be followed up by the jubilation of the "near miss". Oh, so this is what people did before there were rollercoasters.

[Victor Freud]

"I've worked a club before." She replied, snaking her torso back and forth a bit as she said it.

"Well, that sounds like a story that'd go well over a pint or two." Victor said as he folded the flyer up and put it in his coat pocket. Hey, he wasn't going to rule anything out.

[Emilie]

"Well, that sounds like a story that'd go well over a pint or two." Victor said as he folded the flyer up and put it in his coat pocket. Hey, he wasn't going to rule anything out.

"You weren't interested that time, I needed money, and Mal didn't care what I did for work as long as I came back to him at the end of the day."

[Katarina Karkov]

At least one of the Jez's let out a squeal followed by giggles every time the group got close to each other, that brief fear that they were going to crash causing a rush in adrenaline only to be followed up by the jubilation of the "near miss". Oh, so this is what people did before there were rollercoasters.

And, on the final beats of the music, Katarina pulled the Jezii in just that little extra bit, brushing her lips against the one across from her as she held them in for just that extra half-beat.

So, apparently she was fine with a little PDA, so long as there was literally a stage set up to draw people's attention away.

[Victor Freud]

"Well, that sounds like a story that'd go well over a pint or two."

"You weren't interested that time, I needed money, and Mal didn't care what I did for work as long as I came back to him at the end of the day."

"... or a quick shot I guess." Victor said, as the pair hadn't even yet reached the serving tent.

[Emilie]

"That's the thing about stories, Vic.

When you got thousands of them, most end up as clifnotes to make space for the others.

And still more get lost completely."