The Husband of the Hobo - Event with Percy

appearance:

The man helping Perseus Dagger get ready likely had no idea how to read the blank face on the odd-looking fellow before him. He'd have thought the man disassociated from the whole ordeal if not for the attentive hot-and-cold eyes tracking his every move. Rufus would have no idea that the baby boy of the Dagger brood was simultaneous bitterly jealous of and enamored with the magic being used to craft him the perfect outfit. Was such magic strong or useful in any way that Dagger patriarch would be proud of? Probably not, from what Percy observed. If Rufus could have commanded individual threads of fabric then he could see the unusual but favorable results. However, this seemed more like pulling clothing from a closet-like dimension that Rufus's imagination filled with outfits. It was almost like a requip...only completely useless in any situation other than the fashion industry. It miffed him a little that such frivolous magic existed and here he sat with no magic at all.

After a few snaps of his sassy fingers, Percy's attendant for his event was finally pleased with the suit he'd chosen. The scarred man's skin tingled and itched from the remnants of magic in the fabric before it became just a normal outfit. It was a white jacket and pant paired with a gray vest, black shirt, blue tie, and a pair of white wingtip oxfords. Simple enough. Being rich and from such an affluent family, he'd worn much more elaborate getups in his lifetime. Rufus wheeled a mirror over to get Percy's approval, and once the nod was given, a random lady accosted Percy's head to style his hair. She asked if he wanted makeup for his scar, to which he shook his head. He'd long embraced the imperfection on his face, and besides, Madi had already seen it. What would be the point?

As the ceremony started and he walked down the aisle lined with strangers, the two-toned young man wondered how in the heck he got roped into this. Oh yeah, because he was bad at saying 'no'. It'd been nerve-wracking enough when Madi had called him up asking him to get fake married, but now that he was standing under the floral arch in a room full of official-sounding wedding organ music, his heart decided it was time to afflict him with tachycardia. The scent of roses was somehow making him dizzy...or was he just dizzy from the nerves. All eyes were on him from now. A hundred strangers anxious to watch him wed the formerly homeless child of his family's nemesis were staring holes in him to the point that he was relieved when the organ suddenly sounded the alarm of the bride's arrival. The relief was short-lived as he suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to start at his feet. This was a bad idea. Terrible. How much force would it take to break that brightly beaming stained-glass window behind the priest? Escape screamed his name, yet he knew it was far too late to back out now. He knew this was all fake, all a simple business demonstration, yet at this moment it felt too real and now he thought he might hurl on his shiny dress shoes. It was as if he was staring down a venomous viper poised to kill him, and in a way, he was. One rogue picture from this event and he was dead meat with his parents. His grandfather would probably have an aneurysm. Oh god, this was a really bad idea.

The paleness of his total panic had him nearly trembling where he stood, which was quite awkward since he was far from weak looking in appearance. Between the scarred face and the muscles shaping a nice body under the suit, he looked much tougher than his otherwise soft face and expressions allowed. Percy's skin tone was approaching that of his white suit until he finally glanced up at Madi. His mismatched eyes did a quick scan before locking on her golden eyes behind the blingy veil. The color rushed back into his face fast enough to give him a little of a wobble backward, though it was subtle and he caught himself before he could fall or anything else irrecoverably embarrassing. If someone could look like a stutter, Percy had just managed it. He swallowed hard, flustered by how nice she looked. He should have broken the window and ran. In hindsight, it hadn't been too late until just now.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..." the officiant began once Madi was standing across from Percy, but the groom couldn't hear it for the heartbeat drumming in his ears. He may have taken her hands in his own slightly shaking ones, but the sheer terror in his eyes made him look more akin to a rabbit in the middle of a hunt than a husband-to-be.

[817/4000- Outfit activity complete.]

The member 'Percy' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

The member 'Antoinette' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Too real. It was too real. Too close to someone attractive. Too many people looking at him. Too much commitment. Too many layers. Very hot. Had the air become thinner? With every word, Percy became more nervous. This was a bad idea. Why had he agreed to this? Even though it was fake, it only brought up his personal decision to never get married. He was married to his work, his research, his pursuit of magic. It was up to Artemis to produce a Dagger heir, so if anything came of his weakness, it was that that burden wasn't on his shoulders...as long as Pandora or Artemis had a male child. His family was antiquated, so someone would have to have a boy.

Speaking of antiquated families, that brought up a valid point for him to freak out even more over. If someone saw this, if pictures were taken and published...oh no. His eyes broke away from their frantic dance between Madi and literally anywhere else to actually search for photographers. There was a professional in the back, snapping away. Everyone in the audience seemed to have their iLac trained on them. Not good. His mind finally had a way to distract itself, working on the problem at hand. How to make sure all of these pictures stopped existing. The easiest way would be grabbing every device capable of taking pictures and destroying it, but that would not go over well, obviously. That would make more trouble for him and his family and their precious reputation. So whatever he did, it'd have to be discreet. If he took his own iLac and rewired it, he could possibly send out a modified EMP wave to wipe all the iLac memory lacrimas within a small range. That was his best bet, one he'd have to start on as soon as this part of the wedding was over. The cameraman...well, the destruction of his camera would have to look like an accident. With Madi's help, he could swing that...

His mind was brought back to the terrifying moment at hand when he heard a stutter come from the bride before him. Right. Back to freaking out. His eyes snapped back to her, his face flushing a little more as he felt a sweat coming on. It was his turn. The officiant had asked him the question. It was time for him to speak. Maybe he could still break that window behind the priest and escape. Probably not. Swallowing hard, he parted his lips to speak, but nothing came out. Just a small wheeze, then a strangled clearing of the throat, then he tried again. "I-I...I...d-do..." his voice shambled out because he knew the worst part was coming.

The kiss.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may not kiss to seal the deal," the priest muttered blandly, clearly over this whole farce and the two unstable people standing in front of him. Percy just stood staring at her like a deer in headlights. Kiss. How to kiss? Someone as smart as him should know how this works. He'd been kissed before, though not nearly as often as his brother. If anything, that inherent Dagger charm should be oozing out of him...but he'd never had it, as far as he knew. Between his circumstances robbing him of his confidence and a few terrifying encounters with Artemis's more forceful lovers, Percy was utterly inept with romance and all its interactions.

The crowd grew restless in his pause, spurring him to get it over with. He leaned forward a little, giving her something of an apologetic glance, then closed his eyes and waited. It wasn't in him to go all the way and kiss her. She'd have to come to him. If he leaned any more, he'd probably fall over, since every bit of his blood was in his face.

[1462/4000]

Madi's laugh grated through his soul, opening his eyes so he could stare and cringe. Somehow he turned an even brighter shade of red, like the tip of a thermometer about to pop. He'd forgotten all about the veil. She was right. How stupid could he be? It was letting his nervousness run away with him, but there really wasn't much he could do. Before he could even resolve to at least kiss her properly now that she'd done it herself, it seemed she'd be taking over in his stead. Oh. Oh no. He wasn't ready! Before he could even try to backpedal out, she had lifted, grabbed his face, and pulled him in for what everyone had been waiting for. Madi went in for the kill, pressing her lips to his without reservation now as the crowd cheered. Thankfully, it was over as quickly as she'd initiated it. If it had lingered, he was sure his heart would break a rib.

With stiff, robotic movements and a fair helping of stumbles, Percy was dragged away from the priest. It was all a blur to him. His brain had stopped working, so he just stood in some sort of stupor as she paused half-way through running away, left, came back, threw something that flashed and exploded, then proceeded to drag him away again. It was only after they had left the people behind that her question started to rouse cognitive thought within him again. "F-Faces?" he asked dumbly, some of the heat and redness starting to drain back to the appropriate places in his body. "Uh..n-no.. I didn't see anything.." he answered truthfully, sputtering back to life a little bit. Enough to walk like a living person and not a zombie.

They busted into the reception area, which was pretty standard. A white, multi-tiered cake sat in the middle of a long table, cake cutter and fluted glasses of champagne waiting. Muslin was draped elegantly from pillar to pillar, tied in bows to hold them in place. Each bow had a small arrangement of pink flowers, as did each table set for guests. Since they'd beaten the crown in, it was thankfully quiet and offered the socially awkward male at least a few minutes to calm down. "Cake?" he said, seeming to have lost the ability to craft full sentences for the moment. All he could think about now was taking his phone apart to make an EMP to wipe all evidence of this away. "Ah...M-Madi..?" he asked, pausing to grab a steak knife off a table, taking it with him to the cake table. "Gotta wipe out the evidence...the pictures..." Percy said, using the knife to pry off the back of his iLac to expose its guts. "Our families will kill us!"

Without properly explaining himself, he basically got to work on rewiring the device, shocking himself every now and then with a quiet "ouch". Nerding out over his techy plan comforted him enough to return him to as normal as he could get. Every so often he muttered to himself, walking himself through the process and swapping wires around carefully. This is where Percy thrived, where most of his talents were concentrated. Science and technology had rules to follow, a set way to do things to get certain results. It was familiar. "There we go..." he said quietly, smiling and snapping the back of his phone back on. It was only then that he lifted his eyes to Madi, finally actually considering the cake.

He'd enact the rest of his plan after a snack. "Are you wanting to smash it in each others' faces?" the two-toned man asked, knowing full well how these things usually went. He didn't care either way, but he didn't want to cut and smear it all over her face if it was going to make her angry. Not all brides enjoyed it.

[2111/4000]

At least the cake seemed to relieve the awkward tension he'd been crushed under before. Percy had no time to react before a handful of cake was smeared all over his scarred mug, some getting in his mouth but most just obscuring the whole bottom part of his face. He stood, blinking dumbly at her for a moment before his face cracked the tiniest bit. Seconds later he was snickering, highly amused and just generally relieved. He could never anticipate what Madi was going to do.

It wouldn't be right if she got to have the upper hand, right? Reaching out, he also grabbed a healthy handful and smeared it in her face in revenge, full-on laughing now. Yes, they both looked utterly ridiculous. Yes, everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. Percy would have been more stressed if he didn't have a plan. "Perfect and Beautiful Angel of Estelathrad? Ha!" he challenged, pulling his hand back and admiring his artistry, "More like 'Cake Shenanigans with Socially Elite Party Animal Rivals'," corrected the grinning man, glad she was being such a good sport. Even though this was her idea. He proceeded to lick the cake and icing off his fingers and at least some of what was smeared on him, though a napkin would have to do the rest. Perhaps if Percy had been more of a cake person he'd have gone back in for more. It didn't taste bad, he just wasn't much for junk food. A little was fine, but his concern over his figure came first. "It'd be really funny for me to be labeled a party anime. Then I'd be like Artemis used to be," he mused, remembering his brother's wilder days. The younger brother had never really gone through that faze. Sure, he'd gone out with his brother when he turned eighteen, but it just wasn't his thing. His family circumstances had pulled the Dagger charm right out of him and replaced it with uncertainty, inferiority, and awkwardness. He'd much rather be in his lab find solutions to his problems.

Once his face was properly cleaned and he waited for Madi to be done with her cake, his eyes drifted toward the dance floor. "Alright, so...I have a plan to zap these pictures off of everyone's phones. But we might have to dance so I can get close enough to everyone. My phone's range is only about three to five feet..." mused the nerd, mapping out their path as best he could with everyone starting to mill about. "Somehow we've got to destroy that photographer's camera and make it seem like an accident..." As he thought about that one, he picked up one of the glasses of champagne and sipped at it, wrinkling his nose a little at the low quality of it compared to what the Daggers had at their parties, but using it to wash down the sweetness of the confection all the same.

Now that they'd done the official thing, event workers emerged to cut slices for everyone and began filling lots of glasses with champagne. Despite his distaste for it, he did grab up another to make sure he got that overly sweet frosting out of his mouth. Percy had a strange relationship with alcohol. Due to all the high-class parties, he'd had his fair share of it. He could drink a surprising amount and feel hardly any effects...until a point. Once the tipping point was reached, it'd hit him like a ton of bricks. He had no plans to get to that point at this event, especially since he needed his wits about him to nuke the evidence. "Shall we?" he asked, holding a hand out to her.

[2728/4000]

"Oh, I feel so very special. I know how you are with food," he quietly jabbed back, referencing their first encounter and the torture of a poor diner's line cook. Percy took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. He'd start in the middle, which was actually the perfect place for the bride and groom to be. Everyone else was doing that basic I-don't-know-how-to-dance-so-we'll-sway sort of motion, but Percy was having none of that. He'd been forced to learn to dance to near perfection as part of his family's high standards and appearances. He was actually quite surprised she hadn't been taught as well. "So, you mean to tell me that the Bradfords didn't force you to take dance lessons from a mean old woman with a long, thin stick? I'm surprised my legs don't have scars from being whacked when I messed up," he said, assuming a professional post and beginning to whirl her around. Percy had danced with plenty of people who sucked at it, so he hardly thought her worst would keep him from making them both look good. "You can stand on my feet if you want and I'll do all the work," the two-toned boy added. He didn't often look it (while clothed) but he was actually quite physically strong. Dancing wasn't the only thing he'd been extensively trained at. If he'd wanted to lift her off her feet for the whole dance, he could have easily, but as it was, standing on his feet wouldn't hurt him.

Regardless of whether she took his offer or chose to try and follow along on her own, he would move them through the crowd, making sure to nearly brush against every dancing couple. "You see," he started, eyes bright with dorky excitement, "I rigged my phone to be a mini EMP device. People don't realize that most technology can be easily repurposed for multiple uses with just a simple rewiring and restart, as long as it has a source of power strong enough," Tech Boy eagerly explained, hardly considering if the girl he danced with cared or not. From what he could tell his plan was working. As they got in range, he could see flashes in coat pockets as the phones basically shorted out. Small buzzing sounds. That was perfect. It didn't take long to make sure he hit all the people dancing. Now it was time to get the ones eating cake. Though he wasn't a flashy person, nor did he like a bunch of attention on him, he decided to take them both twirling through the tables as if it was all part of the event, waltzing by each person and hearing 'bzzt!' everywhere, though no one seemed to notice now that they were properly distracted. "I think that's everyone..." he said quietly as they shuffled back onto the dance floor to finish out the song. Percy peered down into her face, looking a little worried. "Do you have any ideas about the cameraman? It can't look obvious..." he whispered, glancing at the dude and his fancy equipment who was still happily snapping thousands of photos to edit later. That was the most worrisome. These would absolutely be used in marketing. He couldn't be associated with this business! His family would flip.

[wc: 551 | Percy's Total: 3279/4000 | Thread Total: 6384/8000]

As they danced, Percy was so focused on making sure they waltzed around every single guest and attendant that he hadn't noticed his partner was starting to act funny. Call it tunnel vision. He could be so observant when he was in the middle of a task or research, but also so oblivious to the most obvious things in front of him. Literally right in front of him. "Yeah, I think we did," he said with a triumphant grin, pleased with himself and his quick thinking even under pressure. "I do take a little pride in dancing, even if it isn't my favorite thing to-- h-hey," he stammered, just starting to pick up that something was weird. She was resting her head on his chest. So close. His heart rate kicked up again. "W-What are you doing? Madi?" he asked, trying to angle his face to get a better look at her. Maybe the spinning had been too much. If she got motion sick easily, that would explain why she was taught violin over dancing. "Are you alright?" Percy asked, but then suddenly she was talking about the cameraman and pushing away from him, leaving him standing in the middle of the dance floor, baffled. Wait. What was she going to do? That thought about her being unpredictable earlier came back to haunt him, so he rushed through the dancing crowd after her to supervise.

Watching her wobble and weave toward the poor man snapping away threw up some red flags that took an embarrassingly long time to actually formulate into the obvious conclusion. For a smart person, he could be so dumb! It wasn't just the dancing and spinning, it was the champagne! She was drunk! His eyes widened and he almost ran after her to stop her from whatever she had planned, but it was too late. She'd already reached him. He was handing her his camera. Percy had to admit that even drunk, she was smooth as ever when it came to getting what she wanted. He'd have never come up with something as simple but effective as that. It relied on too much charm, which he lacked in nearly every way. Watching her was a little like watching a female version of his brother when he did stuff like this. Maybe he was a little jealous. Why couldn't he have retained that ability to talk his way into and out of nearly anything? There had been a time when he'd enjoyed a little of that skill, though he'd always been the more reclusive and brainy type. However, how his parents looked at him for being magicless and weak, what his grandfather had done and said to him, the terrifyingly forceful women that Artemis had dated and brought around, and his natural solitary nature had all culminated into a Godzilla-sized beast he could never overcome. He'd be socially awkward forever. Charm was dead.

Just like that, the deed was done. The camera was toast in a mangled heap of plastic, glass, and circuits. Her waterworks even convinced him, as he considered that maybe she really was upset over what he'd more or less influenced her to do. Dashing toward them in sort of a panic, he still managed to work through his regret and 'accidentally' step on and break the memory card that had popped out of the camera and sat amongst the broken pieces. "S-Sir!" he stuttered, doing what a Dagger did best; whip out the checkbook. "It's alright, d-darling," he said to Madi, deliberately acting the part of a real groom while also really trying to comfort what he thought to be a genuinely upset drunk girl. "Let me...let me pay you back for your camera! I apologize, she's had a little too much to drink! Please, the amount is not an issue..."

After dealing with the devastated and pissed off cameraman and writing him a check for well above what he priced that camera at, he gently placed a hand on Madi's back and steered her away from the carnage. Once they were out of earshot, he whirled on her, a hand on each of her shoulders. "Madi, I'm so sorry you had to do that! How can I make it up to you?" he asked with pleading eyes, feeling like he needed a stronger drink after all this. At least the pictures weren't an issue anymore...

[wc: 733 | Percy's Total: 4012/4000 | Thread Total: 7898/8000]