Internet-Degenerate

Fun fact: A group of hippos is called a "your mother."

Also, 100 readers? What??

With all the chaos and what-not, it was well into the night by the time "Woo with Oeuf" had finished. By the end of it, I was done.

I was just done.

Leaning against a wall, I cover my mouth as I let out an unusually long yawn. 

"Are you feeling sleepy?" Sapphire questioned me upon seeing my sleep deprived state. "It's still early yet."

"Mmhm," I murmur, not really listening to whatever she was saying. Truth is, I've been up for a little over sixty hours now. 

"Look," Sapphire directed my attention to the rest of the crowd. "Everyone is still bursting with energy."

"They sure are..." I mumble. The "Woo with Oeuf" had ended, and the Soirée Dansante had properly begun. Basically, it's just a dance party and people were dancing with their own choice of partners. The orchestra played as elegantly as ever. I'm beginning to think those girls are superhuman. They're that good.

"In the end, I think they all wanted to dance with their preferred partner," Sapphire said. I don't know how to respond to that, so I don't. I stare out into space for a minute, then wiped my eyes. I was very tired. Maybe it was a release of all of that tension. I'd had a succession of partners: Rosalia's sister, Rosalia's dog, and Rosalia herself. All beautiful, all very, very different kinds of girls. It's only been a day, but it feels like months. I can't stop yawning.

"Participation isn't mandatory, is it?" I drowsily ask Sapphire.

"It is not," she answered me.

"Cool," I mutter, and begin to make my way to the exit. "I'm going to b-" Before I could take two steps, I find my left and right arms pinned.

"Seraph." I hear two voices speak in unison. I look quickly between Chloe on my left and Sol on my right. I was so sleepy, it took me a second to grasp the severity of the situation I was in. They were each pulling at one of my arms.

"Hey, it's like a tug-o'-war." Tabby spoke my mind shortly after joining us.

"Ah..." Sapphire murmured, seeing the resemblance. "I wonder if they'll tear his body in half  like bread..."

I ignore the disturbing conversation and address the two ladies on my arms, a teeny bit irate. "Whaddya want?"

"It's still early. Let's dance!" They answered me. They answered me at the exact same time. They said the exact same thing at the exact same time with the exact same tone of voice. They either shared some kind of hive mind or I'm hallucinating. 

"No." I stand my ground. "I'm going to bed."

"Huh?" The hive mind incredulously snorted. 

"Seraph," I heard Sapphire giggle. "You appear to have obligations at the moment."

I click my tongue in frustration. "Fine..." I relent, when I'm suddenly struck with an epiphany. It was an ingenious idea of a way I can leave. "Who first?" I ask. 

This is an absolutely genius move on my part. These two share the same competitive nature; always vying for first place. If I pose the question "who's first" to the both of them, they'd have no choice but to decide the turn order amongst themselves. Since the two girls are civilized ladies, they will settle this in an appropriate manner with a game of rock paper scissors. Common sense dictates that they both let go of my arms to properly play the game, and since the two of them share one mind, they'll be stuck in a stalemate. Once they're occupied with that, I will sneak out and head back to my room. 

Contrary to my expectations however, Sol and Chloe begin to glare at each other while still holding onto my arms.

"Chloe," Sol spoke first. "Would you mind unhanding him? I grabbed him first, after all."

"What? No!" Chloe was stunned by Sol's suggestion. "I invited him first!"

"I doubt that claim," Sol responded.

"Hey, Seraph! Say something already!" Chloe tugged at my arm and dragged me into the argument. "I invited you first, right?"

"No, I am certain that I did," Sol said, tugging at my arm. "Tell her, Seraph."

"I just wanna sleep..." I whimper. 

"You little...!" Chloe rebuked, tugging me harder.

"Really, come along already!" Sol yanked at me harder, growing impatient.

"No, he's coming with me!" Chloe jerked me towards her. It sounded like she was child about to have a tantrum. In response to Chloe's pull, Sol heaved me towards her, which caused Chloe to pull on me, which, in turn, caused Sol to pull harder.

"Hey!" The hivemind complained. "Who goes first?!"

Before I'm ripped in half, the little quarrel is interrupted by a silky smooth voice coming from in front of us. "I'm sorry ladies, but if you'd excuse us for a moment..." the voice said. Standing there was a dazzling young prince with a ponytail who looked at the three of us with warm, gentle eyes. No, wait. That's Nina. I had some idea as to how handsome she was, but now that she was this close to me, I could see how feeble my imagination was. Her sparkling aura had me stunned. She wasn't almost as tall as me - She was taller than I was (but only by a little bit. I'll get taller). Her bright, princely charm was enough for Sol and Chloe to loosen their grips on me out of astonishment. I take this chance to reclaim ownership of my arms. As I do, Nina gets down on one knee, places her right hand on her heart, and extends her left towards me. "Seraph Thorne, would you give me the honour of having this dance with you?"

For a split second, I question her intentions. But I could see that her true intentions lie behind those kind eyes and gentle smile of hers. Underneath her slanted eyes were faint, dark circles, and her maroon coloured irises were ever so slightly quivering with silent desperation. She wanted to be here just as much as I did. It was almost as if I could her voice saying, "I can get us out of her. Let's go, quickly!"

Clueless to her schemes but having nowhere else to turn, I take her hand.

I don't know why others hail me as an empath. I am not empathetic in the slightest and, honestly, I don't believe empaths even exist. I was just raised in a household where I had to anticipate the emotions of everyone around me. Early childhood life for me was like floating on a wooden raft in a raging black ocean full of people I knew. The raft would sink any second, and everyone was shoving and fighting each other amidst approaching storms. There was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run to. People had to be thrown off and left to drown so everyone else could stay afloat until the next sacrifice was forced to be made. If I so much as did the wrong thing or say something that could be misconstrued the wrong way, I would be the one that was hurled right over the side. 

All I've done was develop a heightened sense of awareness to body language and voice inflection as a self-preservation mechanism. I had to learn how to sense a bad mood by so much as the weight of a person's footsteps, or even an irregularity in their breathing. I'm not empathetic in the slightest. It's like a sixth sense I've developed that will tell when someone is about to snap. Other than that, I couldn't tell you what someone else was feeling for the life of me. I just decide how I think they feel based off of all the little subtle things their body gives off that most likely mean nothing at all. It's not a healthy thing to constantly be making assumptions on other people's moods, but I can't help it. And the worst thing about it all is that I'm always right. 

Tonight was no exception. 

Across the gym, I hear a somewhat noisy squabble concerning who got to dance with who first. This wasn't a rare occurrence in the slightest; it happens every year. Seeing Soleil De École¹'Sun of the School.' Sol's titleinvolved in the quarrel was a little surprising, but ultimately nothing to write home about. What concerned me most was the pitiful looking Seraph, being pulled between Sol and Chloe. I don't know if it was obvious to everyone or just to me, but he clearly wanted to leave and go to sleep. Honestly, I can resonate with him. I want to leave, as well. Last year, I spent the entire night stuck in dance after dance without a single moment of rest. I was still tired after an entire week had passed. Do you want to know what title the other girls have given me since I've entered Intermediary Course? They call me 'Prince Charmant.' Literally just 'Prince Charming.' It's not that I hate my title per se... It's just that... Well, I'm a girl too, you know? I'd wouldn't mind a fairy tale Prince Charming to sweep me off of my feet as well. Although that's kind of hard to even imagine since I'm taller than most men...

Daydreams aside, Seraph looks like he's at his breaking point. If nothing is done, he'll snap any second. I don't know what'll happen if he does, but I highly doubt he'd turn violent, so there isn't any dangerous risk in leaving him alone. That being said however, I don't want to risk seeing him break down and cry. That will be awkward for everyone. Besides, if I go about this just right, I could use this opportunity to get us both out of here. If I act now, this may very well work.

Resolved, I stride over across the gym and enter the fray to bring down the confrontation between Chloe and Sol the only way I know how: with my charm. I know how arrogant and full of myself I sound when I say this, but I'm very handsome. Everyone tells me so, and I'm reminded of this fact on a near daily basis. Just earlier tonight, I made an underclassman break out in a nosebleed and swoon just by dancing with her. I make girls giggle and squeal just by smiling at them. I'm fully aware of the effect I have on other women just by existing. This is the first time in memory I'm actually using my charm as a tool. I don't know if it'll work, but common sense would suggest that it would.

After making my presence known to the group, I give them as natural a smile I can make at the moment. Sol and Chloe both stare at me, stunned. I thought I'd have to do more than smile to get them to loosen their grip on Seraph, but I'm not going to waste this moment. As Seraph freed himself from their grasp, I kneel down and extend an over-the-top invitation to dance with him. Through my eyes, I try to convey my intentions to him through some kind of telepathy. For a split second, he stared at me dumbfounded, and I panic a little. I really should have thought of this earlier, but it escaped my reasoning. I have no way of knowing for certain, but from what I've seen of Seraph, I was fairly certain he was on the spectrum. I don't fully understand what it means for a person to be on the spectrum, but I think a problem that they have is difficulty reading other people. If that was the case, then this plan was doomed from the start. Luckily, after another brief instant, Seraph's befuddled face changed to one of determination. After a quick nod of his head, he took my hand. He may have understood me. As soon as he places his hand in mine, I whisk him away onto the edge of the dance floor closest to the exit.

"You want to leave here, don't you?" I check with him as soon as we're out of earshot of everyone else, maintaining a waltz to make it look like we're just dancing.

"Yeah," he said, observing the onlookers. "You wanna leave too, right?"

"That's right," I reply. "It's good to see we're on the same page. But we can't leave just-" as if right on cue, Grand Fleur²'Great Flower.' One of Marie Monette's titles.took to the dance floor, drawing everyone's attention. I wasn't expecting this to happen so quickly.

"No witnesses on my end," Seraph informed me, seemingly already having figured out what I planned. I look back at the girls that Seraph was with. I was expecting Chloe and Sol to be glaring at me for taking Seraph away from them, but it looked like they were bickering amongst themselves about something. Nobody was watching us at the moment. It was the perfect time to sneak out.

"Good. I don't see anyone watching us, either." I say. "Let's leave now while Grand Fleur has everyone focused on her." I break away from Seraph, and after a dozen rushed steps (give or take a few), we successfully escaped the gymnasium undetected, and made our way back to the dormitory.