shut your mouth and see;

SMEE: Didn't get a chance to say it at the reception, but congrats. It was... nice.

It wasn’t really something that was precedent of her, to just show up this way. Especially when it wasn’t even the frat house she had been so used to going to in order to find the boy. Manu was usually the lucky guy that got to deal with Sydney showing up at his door at all hours of the night in need of his company, but tonight seemed more of a Charles night. Tonight she needed some direct criticism and love from someone who she knew would never blow smoke for her or sugar coat things. Quickly she texted him, urging him to open the front door and come outside so she didn’t have to knock. Sure she may have been fine bugging Charles whenever, but she was considerate enough not to do that to the actual forever residents of the home. @charlessmee​

It had been a pretty lowkey break for Smee thus far. Minus having to attend a royal wedding with his girlfriend, he’d just been staying in, reading and focusing his efforts on finalizing the accusations that would ideally mean the reinstatement of the greek system. In fact, he was in the middle of writing out some thoughts on that very subject when he saw the screen of his phone light up with a message from Sydney.

One that she was lucky he’d read in such a timely manner. Carefully setting aside his work, he only read enough of her message to get the gist of things, making his way to the front door of the apartment with a few easy strides.

“Please tell me that you don’t have cue cards here to help you profess your love to me. I’ve just seen that movie and I found it to be wildly unrealistic,” he greeted as he opened up the door.

Finn really wanted things to go well between him and Smee, even if he wasn’t making the best impression in the world. He was good to Freya and that was the only thing in the world that mattered. As long as he was good to her, Finn could muddle through awkward small talk in the kitchen in the middle of the night. She’d helped him clean up after the 50 nugget situation after all. It was the least he could do.

“Oh no, no dude no worries. Not sure if you noticed but I’m not exactly holding the crown for one on one chit chats myself. I spent most of my life just talking with the FAB fam and we sort of all have to like each other by some bizarre cousin blood pact.”

He drank some of his water and tried to figure out the best way to continue this conversation. He wanted to do his best to at least get along with the guy, maybe learn a little bit about him. Finn was the definition of a walking open book, which he knew wasn’t how most people were, but being his usual awkward self might help clear some of the air between them.

“You’re a psych major right?” Brilliant way to start, pull out the tried and true what’s your major question. “That’s pretty tight. Sorry man, don’t feel obligated to keep talking with me. I appreciate you being around and Freya really likes you. So don’t worry, I won’t razz you. Partially because I know you could probably kick my ass, but also it’s not really my thing. I’m just glad you’re around.”

Smee actually wouldn’t doubt that there had been some bizarre cousin blood pact between the Bjormans, Fitzherberts, and the other one who had yet to come crashing into the male’s life unexpectedly. It was the strangest of cliques, and due to his association with one member, it seemed like he was for the moment entangled with all of them.

That night was just evidence of that.

“Surely you have friends, though, yes? Outside of your family. Because my socializing is just fine at normal hours,” Smee pointed out, needing the clarification from the other male. With how awkward things were presently, he actually might’ve believed it if Finn said he had no friends... but Zeus, he hoped that wasn’t true. Ideally, Alpha Sig brothers would have friends.

“Yes,” Smee answered to the Psychology question, knowing that he’d never personally revealed such a thing to him, but figuring that he’d left his textbooks out enough that it was likely obvious. “It is... tight. It’s fascinating too,” he continued, not giving in and asking Finn about his major just quite yet. Instead there was another topic he wanted to pursue that had just presented itself quite nicely.

“Really?” he asked, immediately clarifying. “Not the kicking your ass part. I don’t doubt that, nor do I doubt the part about your sister liking me, since that’s been established. But you’re perfectly fine, glad even, that I’m around even though I’m essentially a stranger to you beyond being former fraternity brothers and current roommates? And it doesn’t bother you whatsoever that I was born and raised on the Isle? Because the more time I’ve spent in Auradon, the more people have gone through waves of taking issue with it and all of its implications.”

She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but honestly Sydney had been excited for this the moment it was announced. Call her a traitor, but she had been sucked into the fun and excitement of dressing up and going to actual balls - seemed Auradon had quite the influence on her. She had been pretty sure most of her friends wouldn’t actually be there, but she was fairly certain there would at least be one she could latch onto. Spotting the familiar face, she rushed over, looping her arm through his before even saying hello. “Charles I’m so glad you’re here. I was worried that I wouldn’t actually know anyone and everything is so formal and everyone here really knows each other. But everything is so pretty, I couldn’t just avoid coming.” She finally took a step back then to look at the male. “You look so cute. Who knew you could actually clean yourself up to look presentable.” @charlessmee​

“You’re chatty.” Smee wasn’t quite sure why that was the first statement out of his mouth, but fully prepared to run with it. He had just arrived at the ball and had only moments before began to scan the crowd to take stock of who was and was not there when he had felt the girl taking his arm. Her sudden appearance didn’t mean that he was going to stop his scanning, but he did put it on pause to give Sydney a once-over. “Nervous about a date or did you come alone?”

Letting his mild offense be known through his facial expression alone, Smee contained the roll of his eyes before speaking up again. “I always look presentable. But we both know that this is not my first ball, so I would hope that I chose something appropriate for the occasion. You look... nice.”

TATI: so far the only one i can tolerate is ela, she's harmless. idk about any others because i haven't really...spoken too often with them.

TATI: my idea exactly, he was at the party after all. but what did he expect to gain from it? chaos?

TATI: ........sometimes i wonder how you function on a day to day basis.

SMEE: maybe we start with speaking to them. because another option is throwing a pity party for one and that just sounds... sad.

SMEE: if it was him? maybe he didn't even think it through. wouldn't surprise me. we can work both angles at once. magic to find the literal culprit and a trail of stupidity and chaos to see if more than one person was even involved.

TATI: right.

TATI: with royals? yeah, alright, when hell freezes over maybe they wouldn't look at me like i have two heads when i walk down the hallways.

TATI: i think it was supposed to be a stupid prank that didn't sit well with the council. so we have to think of who would pull a stupid prank like that and think it was fine.

TATI: riiiiight, right. natural charm. mmmhm.

SMEE: you do know they're not all bad, right? some of them are pretentious and prejudiced assholes, but some are not. and those ones are the only ones worth knowing.

SMEE: you say stupid, my mind goes josh gaston, but i do recognize i am biased. who pulls pranks?

TATI: But at the end of the day, having one friend doesn't mean much when everyone else hates you.

TATI: fair enough, im just trying to figure out what exactly he gained from it. i didnt even see him at the party, so i think it was a two person job.

TATI: I think people would be suspicious if I was the good cop anyways so, probably for the best.

SMEE: means you have one person that doesn't? better than having no one.

SMEE: you are aware that it is possible to MAKE friends, right?

SMEE: who would have anything to gain from it? it doesn't feel like this was a plan specifically constructed to demolish the greek system.

TATI: ...I mean Ela Porter is tolerable on most days but, that's about it.

TATI: so we start with yzma's kid, then who's next?

TATI: and we also know i would not make a great good cop.

SMEE: so you have (1) friend. beats no friends.

SMEE: depends on where yzma's kid points us. if there's no magic required, just knowledge, the field is way more open than magic-users-only. nautilus and thana don't even go to our school anymore, so maybe we'd then bounce to aurelie.

TATI: i mean...idk, i feel like no matter what i do i've made more enemies then friends out here. not only with royals but vks now too..

TATI: i mean, not really, but you do need to access resources. so who knows, maybe he has the tools and hasnt told anyone. i have a total of three suspects so far so?

TATI: i'm taking it, im the bad cop?

SMEE: you have to have made... one friend.

SMEE: so let's do a shakedown. toss some accusations. see where it lands us.

FITZ: ...yes? We're family, why wouldn't we have?

SMEE: Family doesn't mean spending time together.

SYDNEY: Yes, Smee. I'm aware.

TATI: at this point, to be honest, doesn't sound half bad to me.

TATI: yeah, he does...yzmas kid or whatever. but does he have the resources here to do that, ya know since he doesn't have magic?

TATI: what would he get out of it too? i don't understand why it was even fucking done in the first place.

SMEE: you'd really want to permanently be sent back?

SMEE: do you necessarily need magic to make a potion? maybe we start with questioning him about what it would even take.

FITZ: I figured.

FITZ: Oh...yeah. Give Finn a break. He's kinda got the chatterbug issue from Aunt Anna. And my mom.

SYDNEY: Possibly? I mean, that would also depend on if he wants to do it again?

SYDNEY: Unless you mean the drugs, then probably not.

TATI: yeah....i need to focus my energy on something before i burn all of auradon to the ground so, count me in.

TATI: um, let's see. the only people i know who have any abilities of sorts would be manu, aurelie, nate....i think that sums up most of it. nate graduated and doesn't seem like he had the balls to do something like this, or has a reason to. so you could probs count him out.

SMEE: advisable. if you burn it all to the ground, you'd be heading right back to home sweet home.

FITZ: Yeah yeah, I'm looking into it. Chill president.

FITZ: You know why.

SMEE: I will chill after we get the Greeks back.

SYDNEY: It was, yes.