She looks a little surprised anyone’s noticed or speaking to her, but that doesn’t translate from behind the mask, thankfully. “You don’t like slow dances?” Aria asks, turning to the stranger with a tilt in her head. She can count exactly one person she really knows at this place and who knows her in return, but Ginny is nowhere to be found and so Aria’s on her own. “I think the theme’s fun, right?” she tries, chuckling a little nervously, but eager to appease so she quickly adds, “But, I mean, I can also see it being so… lame.” Just like this attempt at a conversation, Aria.
“I guess I don’t mind when they’re spaced out.” All that he can think is about how dumb he probably sounds right now. Waiting for her to find something to say that’ll give her an excuse to walk away from this conversation she certainly didn’t ask for. “Yeah, the whole mystery thing can be pretty interesting.” If you’re a more social person than him and can go around meeting a bunch of strangers. He’s only spoken to her thus far and he can already feel his hands getting sweaty. “Your mask is very...cool.” Everett immediately bites his tongue after that sentence but it’s out there now there’s no taking it back for something that sounds at least more coherent.Â
      minjeong knows  better  than  to  listen  to  the  first  random  man  there, but how embarrassing for her would it be to prove him right.  shame,  she  does  like  her  sweets. she’s  in  a  mood,  and  he  looks  harmless  enough  to  be  talking  about  cookies  out  of  everything.  that  should  help  her.   ❛   lucky you didn’t  come  up  with  a  choking  hazard  evaluation  as  well.   ❜  minjeong lets him finish his critic before poking a little fun.  ❛   i helped make these.  ❜  she didn’t, but it’s going to be something to see him try to scramble his way out of this.
“Oh....” You can see the way any sort of a smile he might have been trying to offer immediately fell. It’d taken him quite a bit of courage to talk to her in the first place and apparently he had only done so to insult her. The flush on his cheeks was undeniable. “Maybe, uh, maybe it’s just because they’ve been out here for a bit.” It’s the best Everett can offer right now.Â
She is one of the few people here that he actually knows or has at least spoken to before so there’s a certain level of comfort there. As much comfort as Everett could be allowed to have with anyone, he supposes. “I’m a little bit disappointed in the floral arrangements of this place.” His tone is light, he’s joking. “I think we could’ve certainly come up with something a lot more interesting.”Â
“I think you’re the only person here who doesn’t look like they’re about to pass out after an hour of dancing.” Everett tries to comment casually as if he doesn’t know who she is when clearly the truth is the opposite. He means it as a compliment but he’s not the best at letting that come across clearly.Â
“If you’re going to get a snack just don’t get whatever those cookies are.” He’s been standing there as if he were in charge of guarding the food station when in reality he just doesn’t know how to actually talk to anyone. “They taste like they’ve been standing out here for days.” Much to his dismay and to his surprise when he’d first tried them. Minjeong wasn’t someone that he would usually have the nerve to strike up a conversation with but the buzz of the party helps and he really doesn’t fuck with those cookies.
Normally, he’s fine with being on his own or standing on the outskirts of a crowd and doing his own thing. Mostly because other people make him nervous or they bring out a side of him that could be considered shy (ew). This is a party, however, and the masquerade aspect probably helps a bit. “You think it’d be considered extremely lame to dip out of this early to go study?” He’s seen them around campus constantly studying themselves so he doesn’t think it’s too farfetched of a question to ask.Â
“I think this is the third slow song that they’ve played in a row, they’re really trying to drive up that mysterious masquerade shit.” Everett looks over at the girl standing near him, he’s glad to attend the event so he has something to do but it isn’t exactly what he’d consider fun.Â
[ JACOB ELORDI, HE/HIM, CISMALE ]  —  [ EVERETT KAELBER  ]  is a child of  [ DEMETER ] with the power of [ CHLOROKINESIS ] .  they were born in [ 1995 ]  and have been in nemean lion since [ 2022 ] .  with the change, they [ TRAINING IN ]  the  [ AMBASSADOR ] role which makes sense since they’re usually  [ reading self improvement books and training in the gym ] .  if you’d like to meet them try the  [ MOON ] building . // @nlupdates
tw: violence, death, murder, etc.Â
everett as born and raised in a rather traditional home. his parents had the picture perfect life of being a “traditional” american family. he has an older sister who went off to study engineering which was their father’s major while their mother had always worked for a nonprofit. everett was set on being an engineer like his father when he was younger but life had always had other plans for him. despite wanting to lead a normal life, he always knew about who he truly came from and that he was possibly destined for something bigger, something heroic.Â
he was raised to have perfect manners and respect for those around him. despite his appearance he has always been quick to offer help to someone or attempt to befriend anyone who seems like they’d want to reciprocate said friendship. at times, he tends to be awkward or say things that don’t exactly make sense because he becomes increasingly nervous talking to people that he doesn’t know.Â
instead of running of straight to college or even straight to nemean lion, everett decided to take those couple of years to travel. maybe it was in an attempt to find himself or maybe just for the sense of adventure but he wishes now more than ever that he could take that decision back. on one said trip, everett met a girl named margaret that he quickly fell in love with, the feelings were mutual and she decided to join him in his temporary adventures. there was nothing that could go wrong, nothing anyone could say that would make everett feel anything other than ecstatic.Â
until, of course, everything did go wrong. not because of either of them but because one night a group of drunk men were about to hit the couple with their car, everett managed to move out of the way but his attempts to push margaret out were in vain. he lost her that night and he lost a huge part of himself as well. at the moment, it felt as if he lost all of himself.Â
he often has nightmares of the accident and of the drive in the back of ambulance where she was still trying to hold on to her life. about a week later, everett ran into the men responsible for it all. he recognized the car immediately and the men recognized him. they began shouting at him, thinking that he had followed them. they approached him with clear intentions, getting more than a couple of punches between all of them before everett reacted and although everything felt like a blur that he was watching from the outside, he remembers at some point someone pulling out a knife and after that all he remembers is ending up in jail.Â
he spent almost three years locked up before the court ruled that the man who’d been found dead after the entire incident hadn’t been killed by everett. while he was content for his freedom, he isn’t so sure that it wasn’t actually his doing. as a last resort, everett decided to come to nemean. he tries to keep almost every part of his past a secret, not trusting even those closest to him with that information. it matters to him how people see him but he also torments himself every day for being absolutely humiliated by his own past.Â
