Elegance is Key

[Vlad Masters]

[ooc: Date is September 10th, open to all who are taking Vlad's manners class. Also offering new students. Be warned, dance lesson involved] 


The classroom was not as it normally was. In fact, most students would call it rather bare for the manners class. The desks had been moved to make a big clear space around the room. The only thing that wasn't moved was the teacher's desk. Vlad knew that many students, especially the green haired boy (who was a rather big prick in his opinion,) would be surprised or angry at what he was going to teach today. But Vlad couldn't care less. This was important, he was hoping that Pinkie Pie would take a liking to the class. Considering that she was one of the more well behaved students. 

Vlad was dressed in his finest suit to boot, today the students would learn the beauty of dance. One student had already entered the room a young lady with white gloves on her hands and green hair with a moon on her hat. 

[Sync]

"...What the shit?"

Sync didn't bother censoring himself. He'd walked into the classroom half expecting another day of boring lectures. When he'd walked into the classroom, however, he was greeted by the sight of moved desks and a big, open space. Sync brushed his hand across his nose and frowned visibly. What on earth could Vlad have planned for them this time? Whatever it was, it sure didn't look good. He wanted nothing to do with it at the moment, though. Sync shifted his miserable excuse for a bag from one shoulder to the other and looked around the classroom once more. The whole classroom looked so... Bare without the desks in their proper places. Maybe no one else would really care about that much, though.

"It'd be too much to ask for a fighting lesson," he mused aloud, "so I'm guessing we've got something unpleasant to look forward to." What that unpleasant thing was remained to be seen, but Sync had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. He really didn't want to do any sort of physical exercise. While Sync was as physically fit as they came, minus not having a prominent set of muscles, he didn't think any sort of physical exercise in a manners related class would be fun.

[Vanellope]

"Well, this looks entertaining." Though clearly amused by the change to the room, there wasn't much in the way of sincerity in her tone as Vanellope strolled into the classroom, then stopped to fidget with the collar button on her shirt. Once again, she wore it done up to avoid getting into trouble over something so small; but the black-haired girl wasn't at all comfortable with it like this, and the fact that her tie itself wasn't quite high enough to touch the top of her collar still gave that much away. She would very much have liked to wear the topmost button open, the way she had her first week here - you know, because it helped breathing - but after one or other of the teachers had called her out on that, Vanellope figured she just ought to grit her teeth and bear it.

Besides, compared to how much some of her bruises from yesterday still smarted, it wasn't all that uncomfortable in the end.

Vanellope sidled up alongside Sync as she noticed the green-haired youth had entered the room just before her. For reasons probably incomprehensible to anyone else, the little glitch had managed to take a liking to the grouchy boy in their last class with Prof. Masters - she supposed she saw a little something of herself in him - and so figured she'd seek his companionship to make the otherwise-useless class a bit more tolerable. Leaving her tie alone as she made it to his side, Vanellope craned her neck to look up at the male.

"Hey."


(ooc: I'm assuming no lasting damage was done by Sunset, since I wanted to throw Vanellope in here; if it turns out she suffers more than just a few bruises in that thread, I'll edit accordingly when they occur.
Also Sync, are the scratches on his nose from the fight still visible? Because I reckon Vanellope would point them out if that was the case.)

[Sync]

It was strange, indeed, but Sync seemed to have taken a liking to Vanellope as well. One wouldn't have expected that from the teen, especially since his attitude was about as bad as they came. There was just something about the girl that he liked, and that was all there was to it. He was actually fairly glad to see her there. How long would it take before Vlad grew fed up with the two of them sneering and jeering at the uselessness of the class? Probably not that long. Sync wouldn't have cared either way. He just was glad to have someone in the class that he could stand so things weren't entirely unbearable. So, as soon as he heard her voice, Sync looked Vanellope's way and decided to acknowledge her.

"Hey," he greeted. The scratches across the bridge of his nose had had a bit of time to heal, but the scabbed traces of their existence were still there to be seen. He'd taken the bandaids off just because they'd been a bit itchy. Besides, Sync didn't want to walk around with bandaids on his nose for the rest of the week. So it had only been a few days since the fights had occurred. Bit deal! Sync had survived, and Vanellope would probably ask whether or not he'd been in the fights in the first place. Might as well get that much out of the way while they were thinking about it.

"So, what uselessness do you think we're going to be taught today?" Sync asked. He didn't care if Vlad could hear them. Speculating about what on earth they were going to learn was something they were bound to do. At least, they would do so until Vlad actually gave them an answer.

[Vanellope]

"I dunno, movin' tables back to their proper places?" Vanellope eyed the way the desks had all been dragged to the sides of the room to clear a big open area. If it had been a drama class or fighting class or something, she might not have been altogether surprised at the need for a huge empty space in the middle of the room. But manners class? Manners was just... all about how to be polite, and how to behave at those fancy parties she and Sync were never gonna get invited to anyway; what did that even have that needed this much room?

"Maybe he's gonna get us acting out one of those dumb fancy parties or somethin'?" That was just about the only thing Vanellope could think to speculate, at least. It seemed like that would be a pretty big waste of time to her - even more so than the rest of the junk they were bound to pick up in this class - but maybe the prof thought it was a good idea. She couldn't figure out why, though; and she would have figured that he would at least have tried to teach them a bit more before getting on to something like that. Still, speculation - especially with her limited experience of such social functions - would only get her so far.

"So what happened to your nose?" the girl enquired as her attention returned to Sync himself rather than the room around them. She could see the scratches quite plainly; but not having been witness to the fights, Vanellope was clueless about their origin. For that matter, she figured she had to look pretty worse for wear herself; though she wasn't sure if Sync would care enough to comment. Or even if he'd notice; Vanellope hadn't taken the time to consult a mirror since her battering the previous morning, and so wasn't altogether sure whether or not she sported any blatantly obvious bruising. She felt sore enough that she figured it must show at least a little, though.

[Sync]

(ooc: Was going to wait to see if Vlad posted again, but screw it. xD)

"Ugh... Gag me," Sync said at the suggestion of Vlad preparing them for some party. Pinkie's party had been more or less fun, but an actual party like the nobility attended? He'd pass, and he'd make sure the world knew of his decision not to go along with such an idea. Before he really got a chance to reiterate just how much he didn't like the idea, though, Vanellope had pointed out the scratches on his nose. They were rather hard to miss, though, so he didn't blame her for noticing. Hell, Sync would have been surprised if she hadn't noticed. Truth be told, Sync was more thankful that Vanellope hadn't seen him with those bandaids going over the cuts. Sync, ever the casual sort when it came to injuries he had obtained, just shrugged before speaking again.

"I was one of the guys they had fighting in the arena last week. Got out relatively unscathed," he said. "That's mostly because my opponent was a pushover. I mean, she did do this to me but apart from that... It could've gone worse."

Vanellope knew more or less what Sync's opinion of himself was, and he'd mentioned to her that he had been looking forward to fighting. It shouldn't have been so surprising, then, that he'd wind up in a fight before too long. The only thing that bothered him was that it hadn't been to the death. At least, it had bothered him initially. Now that he had at least started to bond with Johnny, Sunset, and Vanellope, though, it was becoming apparent that maybe he did have some attachment to his supposedly pathetic life after all.

"I'm not complaining, though. If the world wants me to survive for a while longer, that suits me fine. ...Even if we have to keep enduring this pathetic excuse of a class."

[Vlad Masters]

 

"You are close Miss Vanellope. But not quite." Vlad said calmly. Man he wanted to push these two kids in a closet and lock it for a week. But maybe that wasn't going to be the best idea for a teacher to do. "Today's lesson is a bit more elegant, and shall be considered a very important part of your grade. Today's lesson is the waltz." he said calmly. Waiting for reactions.

The little green haired girl clapped her hands. "Oh, the waltz is a lovely dance. I have seen many adults at parties do it at parties. It is quite beautiful." she said. Though it seemed she was talking more to herself than the other students. Vlad was at least glad to know that one student was excited

[Vanellope]

"Oh, okay." Again, she missed her hoodie pockets, so where Vanellope would normally have stuffed her hands into them, she now just plucked at the waistband of her skirt instead as Sync spoke. After everything that had happened - her friendship with Angel, bugging Ralph, and narrowly avoiding getting pounded flat by that fire circle girl - she'd almost forgotten that the fights had been on last Friday and other people would be fighting in them. "Sounds pretty cool, I guess."

Well, okay, that was a lie, and maybe her tone gave it away. Vanellope didn't think much of the fights at all, in all honesty; but since Sync was apparently pumped from his victory, she wasn't going to go about bringing him down. She didn't get the chance to say anything else, however, before their professor decided to make his intentions known.

Dancing.

Dancing a waltz.

Vanellope burst out laughing.

Sync was probably going to be pissed at the very concept, she supposed; but for herself, Vanellope found it hilarious. A waltz was, like, that ridiculous partner dance where people spun each other around, wasn't it? Even if she hadn't been the reject of the game, she couldn't imagine that she would ever have had the slightest use for that. And not to mention, her stature was going to make the whole process just even more awkward for whoever ended up partnered with her. She was the shortest in the class by far; her partner would have to stoop right over to even hold onto her at all, and it would look ridiculous. She snorted out another laugh, wiping her eye with her hand.

"Hey, Prof, have you even thought about how that's gonna look when ya pair someone with me?" There was no-one in the class who was less than twice her height, and the image of anyone trying to dance while stooped to her level was just too hilarious; Vanellope doubled over she was laughing so hard. Talk about a ridiculous sight!

She had been willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but maybe Sync was right; maybe they really weren't going to learn anything useful in this class at all.

[Sync]

This time, Sync really did have to try and censor himself. The last thing he wanted was to end up in trouble for saying a particularly choice word to reflect his feelings on this revelation. Vanellope appeared amused by the idea of waltzing, as she was laughing pretty hard from what he could tell, but Sync hardly found it anything to be amused over. For one thing, he was a fighter. Not a dancer. For the second thing, Vanellope was much too short to be his dance partner. He was at least two feet taller than her, and he really didn't want to humiliate himself by having to bow down in order to dance with her. Luna appeared to be his only option for dancing with, and he didn't even know her. There was no way it would be comfortable for either of them.

"You've got to be joking. I'm not going to dance any ridiculous dance in this dumb class. I mean, have you seen the girls here? I don't have many options," Sync said. Luna was his best bet, and frankly Sync didn't want much to do with her. Vanellope was his friend, as odd as that might have been, and he knew the height difference between the two of them would just make things impossible. What was Vlad expecting them to do? Shuffle around with one person bent over ridiculously? It was insane! He folded his arms across his chest and scowled at the very idea of it. There was no way he was getting made to dance.

"If you think you're going to get me to dance, you're out of your mind."

[Vlad Masters]

Vlad kept his voice calm and a rather plastered smile on his face. "Oh, very well Sync, you can leave but something tells me that you aren't really brave enough to handle this challenge." he said. If there was one thing that he knew about boys like Sync is that they did not like being called scared or a coward. Maybe it would work on him. If not, then it didn't matter. "I guess doing a simple dance would be too challenging and hard for a young man like you."

He glanced at Vanellope and Luna. "If you don't have experience it doesn't matter. It is all about learning." Of course he had heard Vanellope's laughter and as much as it got under his skin, he would make sure that she understood how to value this class. Even if it meant making her look like a fool. 

[Sync]

...Oh hell no. Vlad did not just imply what Sync thought he had implied.

"...Excuse me?"

Politeness normally wasn't Sync's forte, but in that particular instance he thought that one word was necessary. His eyes narrowed dangerously and it wouldn't have been too far off to say that he was bristling mad by that point. No one called Sync a coward and got away with it. He clenched his fists tightly and shot his glare in the general direction of Vlad. He wasn't about to let this old man call him a coward. Not like that. He wasn't afraid of dancing. It was just a matter of being masculine and generally hating the idea of it. He was certain that, if he were an animal, that he would be growling at that very moment.

"I am NOT afraid of your stupid dance!" he snapped. "You just watch. I can do your little waltz just as good as anyone else! ...The problem here is that there's hardly anyone in here apart from us three."

That much would remain a problem no matter what. Luna was the only girl his height. Unless Vlad thought that it would be cute for Sync to bend down to Vanellope's height and attempt dancing with her, then he would be stuck with that Luna girl. They didn't even know each other! How uncomfortable would that have been for the pair of them? Hell if he knew. Sync just wanted to get the dumb class over with as soon as possible. It was then that he realized just what he'd said. Immediately, Sync regretted it. He was actually going to do the stupid waltz. One word ran through Sync's mind repeatedly, and it wasn't exactly age appropriate. Still, he didn't actively make it known that he was thinking it. He'd already shoved his foot in his mouth by saying he'd do the ridiculous waltz. The last thing he wanted to do was to stick his other foot in his mouth as well.