Does Luke dance with Elliot at parties?
I thought I would answer some IN OTHER LANDS questions in honour of having just come back from the North Texas Teen Book Festival!
I was out of the game for a few years, and I still don’t have a book that I wrote post being sick, so it’s odd to be back and I am like ‘How… do panels… work?’ MY FRIENDS: ‘They never worked the way you do them, Sarah.’ (Panels: a group of authors collect to talk to an audience about a topic! At North Texas I was blessed to hear Leigh Bardugo and Cinda Williams Chima talk about worldbuilding, and Cindy Pon and Renee Ahdieh talk about makin’ up stories.)
IN OTHER LANDS even being out sometimes surprises me, and I would’ve fully understood if I didn’t have anyone to sign for. But many lovely people came and talked to me, and had me sign their books–the book pusher with the beautiful hair, her friend who said she reads my tumblr, the kind lady who told me about her aunt–and so I send out all my love and thanks.
BUT! To answer the question, which is about the magical power of dance.
I think Luke sometimes dances with Elliot at parties, yes.
However, I think he’s never going to be as enthusiastic about dancing as Elliot is, any more than he’s ever going to be as enthusiastic about reading as Elliot is. (He could be more enthused than he is with more encouragement, looking at you Elliot J. Schafer.) Nor is Elliot ever going to be as enthused about physical fitness as Luke is - Elliot gets into running, and he’s fast for a normal human, but he is never going to run or train the way Luke does.
Luke is a diffident dude socially, and dancing is a social activity–here he is in a crowd, if it’s an athletic performance he can do that, but it isn’t exactly, is he meant to be talking also, oh lord–and then he freezes up. Plus I think he has bad associations with dancing, because their world, like ours, presumes heterosexuality, and so he’s felt pressured to dance with and romance girls. Being both gay and shy is tricky for him, too, as his family have this big reputation for being lovers and fighters–and Luke IS a fighter, so people often presume he would also be up for dancin’, romancin’, moonlight and music. So I think dancing is both something he doesn’t have a natural affinity for, and which he associates with social pressures.
But Elliot does like dancing, and Luke enjoys Elliot enjoying things. (IT IS SO RARE. - Luke) And there’d be joy in getting to do a romantic thing with Elliot, which Luke didn’t think was a possibility for a long time. Also, Elliot dancing with Luke means he wouldn’t be dancing with anyone else, which as we see in the book - Adara, Louise - definitely makes Luke jealous.
At most parties I think they would probably dance for a bit, then Luke would get self-conscious and want to slink off. In the early days of the relationship, there would probably still be some jealousy about Elliot dancing with others, but Elliot could pop by in between dances to assure Luke of his enduring affection. (I mean, make out with him.)
I COULD HAVE JUST SAID YES BUT WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT, FRIENDS.
