For the altar I have flowers, oranges, bread, and mezcal (Backdated Dia Mingle)

[fingersandteeth]

Who: Steven Durante + (most of) his friends and found family
When: backdated to November 1st and 2nd
Where: Goldenrod
What: Steven celebrates his first Dia de Muertos out of fairy captivity: a mingle log. Please feel free to put up toplevels and tag around!
Warning: Terrible language and drunken shenanigans entirely likely to ensue.



If he didn't live in Goldenrod, Steven isn't sure if he'd have been able to do it. As it is, there's still not a lot of shops that sell imported goods from the region where Hawlucha and Sigilyph come from—but there's one that Steven swears by, where he's been getting his pokeworld Abuelita's for months. It's there that he gets the familiar foods and spirits and all the supplies he needs for Dia.

Both halves of it.

If it were up to him, he wouldn't need to split it, but unfortunately there's still too much bad blood between Hythlodaeus and Tyler and Lydia—not to mention all that's between Hades and Lydia—that it's not really practical to do Dia with all of them together. So instead he builds the first, smaller altar that night in his ghost basement and he invites Lydia and Tyler over, to celebrate with him and his ghosts.

The second is at the House of Hades—and it weirdly seems right to have it there. Maybe just because since Hythlodaeus negotiated that peace between Steven and Hades, going over feels so much less like sneaking into enemy territory and so much more like visiting family across town. There’s a queer sense of safety that Steven gets visiting the house now, one that he doesn’t really get so much at home with Jack anymore.

(It’s-- odd and disconcerting, now, to be at home with his boyfriend. As far as Jack is concerned, nothing’s changed between them in the last two weeks. And it’s-- hard, sometimes, when it feels like everything’s changed for Steven since Armin hinted at what happened to Angel. He finds himself doubting and second guessing Jack all the time. It’s easier, sometimes, to claim he has projects to work on and go hide out in his ghost basement for a few hours.)

As much as he’s quietly annoyed at Jack for refusing to take part--although to Jack’s credit, he’d made the refusal polite, just saying it wasn’t really his thing--there’s part of Steven that’s relieved he won’t be there. That he can spend time with everyone else he’s close to in this world and not have to worry about the secrets he’s keeping from his lover. Maybe he can finally relax.

Steven’s made arrangements with the little old lady who runs his import shop of choice, paying her a truly astounding amount of money to make food for both Sunday night and Monday during the day. Mole negro, tamales, sopa azteca, red pozole… not to mention two large boxes full of sugar and chocolate calaveritas. He’d also secured a few bottles of the good mezcal, as well as atole for teetotalers like Dirk. Copal incense, bright tissue for him to cut papel picado out of, and more cempasuchil flowers than he ever expected to find in Johto… Steven realizes, quite profoundly, how very lucky he is this year, to be able to do something for his favorite holiday.

And if he can’t spend it with family, if he can’t go to the graveyards and tend them, if the spirits of his dead won’t find their way to this world… he can be with friends. They can get drunk or high and laugh and eat good food and tell stories together.

Because that’s important. The stories that they all tell of the people they’ve lost, those are important. But not sad, tragic stories. Happy, funny, heart-warming stories. It’s a celebration, after all. Not a day of mourning.

They’ve got the rest of the year for that.

[TL;DR: Steven built some altars, got Hythlodaeus to draw pictures, and covered ‘em with offerings that the ghost pokemon are probs going to take away after this is over. He’s laying out a spread of food and also booze, and honestly, if you’re a Rocket or an ecoterrorist, you can probably handwave an invite to the larger daytime party if you want. Eating and telling happy stories of the dead are the order of the day. Treat this as a mingle, baby. Apologies for my wordiness.]

Comments

[fingersandteeth]

Steven's eyes light up and he's smiling at Thace with pure, unfiltered delight. "It is," he says. "Let's do it again."

[insidegalra]

"Of course." Thace takes a moment to stretch, now that his muscles are warmed up and then nods to Steven to begin.

"Dancing was an important part of Galra culture once," he says as they're dancing.

[fingersandteeth]

"Really?" Steven asks, delighted. "Your local Galra culture or the whole species?"

[insidegalra]

"A large portion, and my mother's ancestors at the least, but with the loss of history it's hard to say if it was universal."

Thace's expression goes a little distant but in a happy way. "My mother taught me when I was very small."

[fingersandteeth]

"Your mother was a lovely woman," Steven says, because even as tipsy as he is, he still remembers Thace talking about her before.

"I had to learn formal dances for my cousin's quince," Steven says. "That's a party girls in our culture get when they turn fifteen. Maybe I can teach you someday."

[insidegalra]

"One person I wish I could see just one more time is my mother."

He goes silent for a moment, just focusing on the steps of Steven's dance. "I would love to learn more of your dances. Would you like to learn one of mine? It's quite appropriate for the setting."

[fingersandteeth]

"I'd love to," Steven promises, happy to have that taller presence moving in unison with him. "Please."

[insidegalra]

"As soon as this one finishes, then."

Steven's dance doesn't have a particularly long set of steps, so it won't be more than a moment, even if Thace is suddenly very eager to share.

[fingersandteeth]

"Of course!" Steven says—and he performs the final steps with a flourish.

[insidegalra]

Thace smiles, so bright, and holds out his hands to usher Steven a step closer. Then he starts demonstrating steps, the movements falling somewhere between ballroom, ballet, and modern dance.

"This first part is meant to be mirrored, without touching, but it's easier to learn the steps with contact."

[fingersandteeth]

Is anyone watching them? Maybe. Do they care? Not one bit.

Steven lets Thace direct his body. "We'll do it properly once I understand them," he says.

[insidegalra]

The movements involve a lot of reaching and turning, giving almost a sensation of yearning, at least if there isn't contact involved. The dance itself has a slow beat to it. Thace goes through the moves twice, making little corrections and giving advice.

Then, "Are you ready for the second half?"

[fingersandteeth]

It's nice and Steven definitely gets that sensation of yearning, but then again, it's not entirely easy to untangle from his own attraction to Thace.

"Think so, yeah."

[insidegalra]

"This part is celebrating what's been passed down to us, after reflecting on the loss of death. It's a little more athletic."

Thace is glad, at least, that he's learned the moves for several different levels of skill because he's not sure his human body can bend like the more advanced steps call for. He starts by taking Steven's hand and circling, each third step with a high knee and a stomp at the end, in time with the slower beat of the first half, even if this half is certainly a faster tempo.

[fingersandteeth]

Maybe Steven's body could have when he was younger, but maybe not. He doesn't have the right build for high flexibility moves. The men of his father's family have always been brick shithouses and that and his eyes are one thing Steven does get the Durantes--even if the rest of him looks like being an Espinoza.

He smiles as Thace takes his hand and copies the steps, even as they circle each other.

"Really? I love it."

[insidegalra]

At Thace's signal, the direction of the circle reverses. "I'm glad. Ideally there'd be more than just two people, of course."

The next steps involve stepping back, and then faster steps back in, hands extended to grasp. Each dancer brings one hand down, and the other up so both have arms crossed slightly above the wrists while holding onto their partners' hands. Diagonal step in, step back, then diagonal and back in the other direction. Then a spin, each slightly leaning back to counterbalance.

[fingersandteeth]

"A lot of older dances are like that back home," Steven says, doing his best to follow along with Thace's demonstration. "Meant for more than just two people, in more complicated formations, I mean. But the stuff I learned was mostly for with partners."

He's doing awfully well for learning this while tipsy. Probably won't remember any of the steps tomorrow, though.

[insidegalra]

"There's a dance similar to this half for celebrations. Some of the steps are different, but it involves switching partners at points. There are partner dances too, dances for parents and children, dances for courting..."

Thace trails off as the spinning gets a little faster. "Trust me, and leap."

If Steven does so, Thace uses his strength and their momentum to help Steven get higher and farther than he could otherwise. All without letting go of their joined hands.

[fingersandteeth]

Steven's tipsy enough to not even hesitate at the instruction. He leaps--eyes wide with pure joy when he realizes that Thace is helping him.

[insidegalra]

Thace is grinning too. He could do his part without any help at all, but he trusts Steven, so as he takes his turn of the leaping he just says. "Guide me."

So he does the leap, trusting in just that.

[fingersandteeth]

And Steven does his best to help Thace through his own leap, wanting so much to return that trust.

[insidegalra]

The rest of the steps are pretty simple as the dance comes to a close, and Thace is beaming the whole time. When they're done, he sounds almost breathless, even though he's showing no signs of physical exertion. "You're a very good dancer. Thank you; I didn't realize how much I'd been missing things like that."

Then he leans in and affectionately presses their foreheads together, much like he often does with his Pokemon.

[fingersandteeth]

Steven lets him, laughing softly under his breath. "I like dancing," he says, simply. "And you're a good partner. I'll do Galra dancing with you whenever you ask."

(It occurs to him that Thace is nearly close enough to kiss and a spiteful part of him that's still furious at Jack for not doing Dia with him almost hopes he will.)

[insidegalra]

"I'm so very glad to have someone to dance with..." Thace says that in a whisper, expression fond and open. This is very nice to share, and he's reaching up to groom a little before he thinks better of it.

So his fingers card through Steven's hair once, and then he pulls back with an awkward cough to clear his throat. "Got caught up in the moment"

and cut?

[fingersandteeth]

Steven's face feels like it's on fire and yeah, shit, he's definitely disappointed that Thace didn't steal the kiss when he had the opportunity. "Yeah," he says, awkwardly. "Me too."

Let's just... sit back down on the couch and maybe have another shot. That sounds good.