Practice Makes Perfect | Research Phase

Malcolm didn't dance. He never found the need to dance. At the most, he would sometimes write about dancing, but he could never imagine doing it himself. He thought that perhaps he would get the courage to dance during the festivities at the masquerade ball... but he still hadn't gotten the courage. Not only would he have to try and understand the movements on the spot, but he would have to find a partner to dance with. That might involve using his voice to ask for a dance, which might get him recognized, and who knows what kind of scene that would end up being.

Instead, he found himself at the end of the room, notebook and quill in hand as he watched the cossetlings on the floor of the room dancing away. He wouldn't be able to use the research he made immediately, but it would be good for him to write down some notes on how to dance just in case. After all, there was some chance that someone would come over and ask for him to dance, and he was a bit too shy to deny someone a dance if they asked...

He watched the movements of the others carefully, writing down notes and drawing little scribbles that attempted to follow the way their feet moved across the floor. He grimaced a little under his mask when he tried to draw out some of the movements. It would be nice to have diagrams to go with his words, as it truly did help to learn something when you both read about it and looked at examples of it. The only better thing would be to have someone teach you personally, but Malcolm truly would much rather curl up into a ball and never move again than ask someone to teach him in such a manner.

When he had heard of a ball, he expected slow dancing with minimal hoof movement, but some of the cossetlings in attendance were moving in such bizzare and quick ways. He tried to keep up, but got lose halfway through when he made the attempt. How can anyone remember a dance that was this fast? How could anyone even come up with movements this quick while in a reasonable state of mind?

He eventually gave up on trying to keep track of the faster dances, instead focusing on the slower dances that he was familiar with. Admittedly, he was nervous while writing down the steps- if he got it wrong he would not only be embarrassing himself, but also embarrassing the cossetling that he ended up dancing with. He knew one man that wouldn't mind if he stumbled a bit, but the man in question wasn't here- wasn't a fan of fancy things like balls anyways.

Malcolm just hoped that if he was put on the spot, he would know enough from the notes and drawings to survive a dance. He wasn't even expecting to be good at any of the dances, but at the very least he could be good enough to not make an absolute fool of himself.