Open: it's time now to sing out though the story never ends

[vineleaves]

[This is being posted early, but it is meant to be occurring on the one year anniversary of Dionysus arriving at the mansion.]

There's a room in the mansion Dionysus discovered somewhat recently that is, for lack of anything better to call it, a dance studio. Shiny hardwood floors, one long wall of mirror, the opposite wall featuring a mounted barre. If anyone happens to be walking by it today, the open door might catch their attention, as Dionysus has his cd player set up playing music, which he is dancing to at the moment. He's wearing a pair of gauzy, loose pants that sit low on his hips, complete with a gold belt with dangling chains that serve to help emphasize his movements. His hair is pulled up into a messy bun, finally long enough that he can get all of it up with only a minimum of strands sticking out oddly.

He has been here for a whole year. To be fair, he's only slightly certain he's got the date correct, but even if it hasn't been a full year to the exact minute or whatever, it's close enough. A whole year. A year trapped, held prisoner for some unknown reason, unable to break out, kept away from all of his friends and family. A year in which he has been given the wonderful opportunity to meet people he couldn't possibly imagine living without now, in a place where anything, even stopping death, is possible.

Dionysus is fairly zoned out as he dances, so if anyone decides to duck in and say hello, it might take him a while before he notices.

Comments

[vineleaves]

"I would love to!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She smiles at him. "I shall let you take point on envisioning the outfit, as I'm not certain what might truly be best, whilst I focus on my size."

[vineleaves]

"Very methodical! I like it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Come along, then," looping her arm through his and heading across the hall toward the closet, which she looks at sternly before jerking the door open.

[vineleaves]

When the door opens they'll find a couple of different outfits (Dionysus has trouble making up his mind sometimes, okay?). One is a red, heavily beaded outfit, and the other is a little more casual. "Ooh, options."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan can tell at a glance that the red would be tremendously eye-catching, but she isn't certain of the dip under the belt. She selects the other one. "My thanks," she says, and indulges in the whim of pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I shall change and meet you back in the dance room."

[vineleaves]

"Great! I'll see you there!" and he heads back to the dance room to wait.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's a tremendously queer outfit. The skirts feel like nothing, especially after Susan removes her nylons. The hem of the shorts sewn into the skirts brushes against the marks left by her garters, but this, too, feels light and airy. The top is another matter entirely. Even though it's ostensibly in her size - and she does retrieve an option in the next size up to confirm - it fits rather poorly as constructed, both with and without a brassiere underneath it. Eventually Susan settles for jerking the closet door open again, now that she knows what the top ought to look like, until it yields a mostly-identical one with a lace-up front that she finds a little more accommodating; this she wears over her brassiere, then folds her dress and nylons and carries them all back across the hall, her shoes in her other hand.

[vineleaves]

What was the phrase Susan used? 'Tremendously attractive'? Well, yes. Dionysus tries not to let his eyes linger too much when she returns, he's supposed to be teaching her, for crying out loud, but he may or may not be only half successful in that. "Beautiful!" he says, cheerily. "Oh, you changed the top! I like it better that way."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

His attention is obvious, and Susan basks in it. "It improves the fit," she explains, setting her items down by the door and then crossing over into the middle of the room. "Right. Where do we start?"

[vineleaves]

"Okay, so you want to stand with your knees bent," he demonstrates the proper amount.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan bends her knees to the appropriate degree!

[vineleaves]

"Great! Now, the main thing to remember is you're aiming for isolating your movements, so try to keep your ribcage still even if your hips are moving. Right? So -- we'll start off by straightening one of your knees," Dionysus is demonstrating as he talks, "Keep your heel on the floor, just straighten your knee out, and imagine there's a string pulling your hip up toward your ribs. Not going back, just going straight up. Then bend that knee back down and do the same on the other side."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You make it look so simple!" says Susan, attempting to recreate the movement and finding it rather difficult to isolate her movements.

[vineleaves]

"Is it okay if I touch your shoulders?" he asks, because it's polite to ask this sort of thing¹.


1. Pay no attention to the Grantaire thread. That's different.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You may touch me anywhere," says Susan firmly.

[vineleaves]

"Alright," he says with a smile, and places his hands on her shoulders to help steady her upper torso. "Keep trying. Go really slow if you need to."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And I'm... lifting my hip?"

[vineleaves]

"Yep! Try to keep everything aligned straight up and down."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan frowns and concentrates, but it's much, much more difficult than Bacchus made it look, and her whole body moves. "Show me again?" she asks.

[vineleaves]

"Alright," he says and moves so she can see him better. He starts slowly lifting one side of his hips, then lowering it, then lifting the other. "When I straighten my knee, the extra length is going up," he mimes like there's strings attaching his hips to the ceiling, like a marionette or something.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Might I touch your hips?" Susan wouldn't normally ask; she'd just do. But he'd asked her to touch her shoulders, so. "To get a better sense of what you're doing."

[vineleaves]

"Of course! You may touch me anywhere," he says, parroting her earlier words back at her with a grin.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I'm inclined to take you up on that," says Susan, archly, but she's a task-oriented woman and only places her hands on his hips for the time being.

[vineleaves]

He repeats the motion. "Like this."