nonchalance.

hc + 🤝 for a headcanon about a connection with one of the receiver's mutual

hc + 👪 for a family-themed headcanon

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hc + 😃 for a happiness-themed headcanon

hc + 😨 for a fear-themed headcanon

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hc + 🚶‍♂️ for a habit-themed headcanon

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hc + 🌍 for a travel-themed headcanon

hc + 🗡 for a weapon-themed headcanon

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hc + 🔞 for a nsfw-headcanon

“Being a lightweight doesn’t mean you can’t have fun." Typically, James wouldn't push. But his answer was very definitely an excuse, not at all an outright refusal, and she was bored. “And you said it yourself, it'd be a lovely time. Just one round. Drinks on me. If you hate it after that, then you're more than welcome to bail with no hard feelings, one free drink fuller."

How pretentious it must look for her to read a book at a bar, but here she is anyway, doing just that. She’s halfway through when she decides it might be time to pack it up, but her plans are otherwise moved, because Lav can seriously never turn down a little game. “Oh, I’m so in,” she replies, turning towards the other, eyebrows raising in curiosity, “what are we playing?”

James was happily surprised at how easy it was to convince the reader to join in on her game. “Up to you to decide. Are you more interested in getting hammered, being physical, or making connections?” She prompted.

What a comment, to not think about the stars much. To look up and see science and know the constellations, and still being able to not think about them much despite knowing them. The opposite was true for Jenny — ever since she learned about the science and the images of the sky, it took all of her energy to not think about it. “What’s that like?” Maybe an odd question, possibly from an odd girl, to a definitely odd sort of man.

theo could have played it off. he could've simply went with it, given her an out because he knew how keyed up she could get. but that just wasn't theo. he missed her. they were friends before they'd been anything else. sure, their recent missed connections were just as much theo's fault as they were his own, but it sort of felt like the universe was giving them an opportunity here. so, instead of moving on to the nearest partygoer, he propped his elbows on the bartop and quirked a brow at her. then he realized the expression was probably obscured by the mask he was wearing and cleared his throat instead. "i'd recognize that laugh anywhere."

he paused to snag a bottle of her preferred drink from behind the bar and poured her a glass, sliding it across to her. a peace offering. "don't act so surprised, jenny. you know i make a mean cocktail." among other things. his small but genuine smile was still visible beneath the mask as he drummed his fingers against the bar. "anything i can do for you?" that was vague on purpose. if she wanted, she could ask for an alternative drink and he could play bartender dutifully. or they could open up the floor to talk -really- for the first time since everything had gone down. maybe it was time.

I’d recognize that laugh anywhere. A telling comment, meaning she wasn’t going to squirm her way out of this one unnoticed, but also a comment that flooded her with so much warmth, Jenny couldn’t help but finally turn to look at him, immediately recognizing his features despite half his face being obscured. It was a warmth that only spread as he slid over her favorite drink, even more still as her eyes caught on his smile. And that was part of the problem: the questions that warmth prompted. Would she have felt the same way prior to their last encounter, or is she only feeling this way because they had sex and some part of her is now attributing more meaning to it than the situation called for? Did the situation call for meaning? People had one night stands all the time, so it doesn’t have to mean anything. She should be able to let this go. But then again, Jenny wasn’t people. She didn’t do that with just anyone, but she did with Theo, her roommate, her friend. So what the hell did that mean for her? And more importantly, for him? Even more importantly — did she want it to mean something for him?

She didn’t have answers for any of it. She desperately wanted answers. She’d only get answers if she talked to him and dealt with this.

And she wasn’t ready to do that. To deal with this. Confront these feelings and what they were and weren't, what they could possibly mean and not mean. At least, not right now.

“No, this is enough.” Her eyes dropped to the drink in her hand, mind racing. “I’m, uh, supposed to meet someone in a few. Sav, my roommate — my new roommate, you don’t know her I don’t think, we live together now, after I moved out from our old place, obviously — she’s waiting for me to do a TikTok together outside." Lies, lies, lies. "Something about spooky vampire aesthetic thirst traps and all that. She needs a second person in it, so I told her I'd help her out, and she's waiting on me." Did her voice have a frantic edge to it, or was she just imagining that? "Just had to get a drink for the video. It's like a thirst trap and one of those like drinking games kinda videos, where the purpose is to look hot and also get drunk. So, I should go!” Such a coward.

She turned her back towards him to leave, but found herself pausing before she fully walked away. She couldn’t deal with this right now, but she also couldn’t leave things like this. Jenny missed Theo too much to let her jumbled up rollercoaster of emotions about him allow her to brush him off, especially when he was actually trying. She really, really didn’t want him to stop trying. “Do me a favor though?" The words were out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying, quieter and more hesitant than her previous frenzied ones had been, her body turned halfway to look back at him across the bar. "Recognize me again the next time you see me?”

Truthfully, tonight, when Jenny looked up, she found herself most drawn to the moon. It how it always was for her, ultimately. She loved to stargaze, to find familiar constellations and bright planets, but to also spot the rarities as well when they were visible, her much worn, much beloved pair of binoculars on hand in her bag for that very reason. But even then, her eyes always drifted back to the moon. She blamed being a Cancer. Nonetheless, given the playful answer she was given, she opted to follow suit with something similar, eyes finding the shape Alexander pointed out to find something else out of it. "Really? I'm definitely seeing Littlefoot from Land Before Time." She pointed out the disproportional star near the top, and rose upwards, towards another star even higher then it at a diagonal. "See, go up instead of over, and those stars make up his long neck. The animators definitely stole his design from the stars."

Killian looked over at the other as she started speaking to him, a grin appearing on his face the second she said drinking game. "Oh-- I'm down, please I love drinking games."

"Pick your poison. Want to do a personal drinking game - two truths and a lie type style - or want to do something with one of those?" She lifted the straw out of her drink, using it as a pointer as she directed it towards the unoccupied dart board in the corner of the room. "Drunk darts?" She redirected her straw to the giant jenga nearby. "Or giant jenga?"

She knew she shouldn't, she's in the middle of a medical treatment and she's been incredibly throughout thus far; a little night off shouldn't hurt so bad, right? She had been told it was alright to skip a couple days off the treatment and well, she had always been competitive.

"What's the game? What are the stakes?"

James smirked, happy to have a potential taker. "Depends on how daring you're feeling." She slipped a quarter out of her pocket with her free hand, holding the coin up. "Wanna play it safe, we can do a game of probability. Call heads or tails, loser drinks. Easy-peasy, no stakes, drunk before we know it." It was great when she was looking to get hammered, but James had a sneaky suspicion her opponent might be down for something a bit more challenging. She dropped the quarter on the bar in front of her. "Or, if you're up to getting a bit more personal, Two Truths And A Lie is always an option. Can't identity the lie, you drink. Then there's Never Have I Ever, of course, but only if you're not scared to confess anything." Her mind wandered to one other game, less common, and one she'd played only once: Suffocation. More personal than the rest, but potentially not as comfortable as the others, given the point of the game was to ask uncomfortable questions the other didn't want to answer to make them drink. The game had less drinking opportunity than the others if played by people who were open books. She'd leave it out for now. "I've got more, too, if those don't do it for you. Your choice."

theo hadn't actually planned on coming to this thing, but when one of the organizers had put up a reddit thread asking for bartenders, he'd decided to (anonymously) volunteer to help out. that was why he was on the other side of the bar, wearing a dark suit and an ornate mask that covered half of his face as well as a top hat that hid his recognizable curls from view. he thought people would be able to recognize him -he'd clocked one of his bandmates on sight and had seen several of his clients as well- but everyone was either really bad at guessing or playing along. as he handed off a drink to a guy with fake fangs, theo turned to look at jenny.

because, yeah, he knew it was jenny. he could recognize her voice. he briefly considered trying to mask his own voice, but ultimately decided against it. "i dunno," he said, reaching for the beer he was nursing and taking a sip. the peeled off label would probably give him away even if his voice didn't. "i kinda recognize you."

Under normal circumstances, Jenny couldn't be sure if she'd be able to easily recognize Theo's voice off a couple words. She'd like to think she would, but considering the hard time she was having at recognizing people's faces when the skin around their eyes were obscured, she couldn't be sure. Under normal circumstances. But she wasn't under normal circumstances. Because there was only one person Jenny was actively on high alert to these days, only one person she was actively avoiding. Their last encounter left Jenny so confused she decided it was better to avoid him until she could make sense of it, not recognizing how difficult it is to make sense of something when she actively banished any thought of it from her head.

So she also knew that voice. She didn't have to look over to be sure; Jenny just knew. And she was kicking herself for walking into this situation. There was a part of her, though, happy to be stuck in this situation. She liked Theo — he was her friend. It was why she was so confused about what happened. And she'd missed him in the time she was avoiding him. How very unfortunate that that happy part of her was overshadowed by the anxious part of her that wanted to run for the hills. It was all she could manage to choke out, "You do?" followed by laughter a bit too loud to be natural, her gaze steadfast in her resolve to not look over, eyes darting from random partygoer to random partygoer as she thought of some way to deal with this. "I don't really know a lot of people, and I've been told I have one of those faces — and voices too! — so you might be mistaken."

With a soft gasp, Augusta found her back against the wall and her hands automatically moving to wrap around the vampire's neck. It was almost a little natural with this stranger, almost familiar, but she was trying not to question it so much. It was a ball, for God's sake, these were what these things were invented for. It was harder to maintain composure, though, especially once she felt the other girl's hand on her neck and a shiver that accompanied the touch. "I do," she nodded, attempting to give her best doe-eyed look through the black lacy material of her mask. "There's nothing more I want. Well, actually...." she trailed off with a giggle, not sure she needed to fill in that blank. Considering how they were all but wrapped up against each other, it was obvious. "Me first, though. Kitty's can bite, too." She wasn't sure what prompted the bold move, but Augusta found herself leaning over, lips just brushing against James's before she took the girl's bottom lip between her teeth and gave a gentle tug. She lingered there for a moment before giving up on the teasing and running her tongue along where her teeth had been seconds ago before enveloping her in a kiss.

To say James was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. She was so used to being the initiator, the one doing the chasing, the one responsible for all the big bold moves — and she liked it that way. Preferred it, typically. But there was something undeniably attractive when the roles were reversed; to being pursued, to being the one caught unawares. The move she was going to use, used on her. A revered exchange that left her the one giddy and aroused. She was only too welcoming in response, her lips parting automatically for the cat’s kiss.

She indulged in it then: the breathlessness of the moment, the softness of her lips, the warmth of her. The hand that had been resting on her neck tangled in her hair instead, her fingertips grazing the cat ear mask delicately in passing. But James wasn’t one to be usurped easy. When she pulled away for a breath of air, she used that air to breathe out an amused “minx” against the woman’s lips, briefly nipping at them herself before trailing her lips down to her neck. "My turn." She’d promised a bite, after all. Yet, her teeth never did more than graze. Instead, she peppered open mouth kisses along her skin, breaking each one with gentle, but very deliberate, sucking. Markings weren’t her thing, but she’d promised a bite — if her initial surprise tactic was a no-go, then a love bite would have to suffice. She was briefly aware of the edges of her own lace mask, knowing the edges stuck out, and attempted to keep her head tilted so as to not tickle her partner's neck much as she worked on leaving her mark. Satisfied, James kissed her way back up, overlapping their lips as she captured hers in another kiss, her arms shifting to encircle her waist, drawing her closer.

When it came to children, Jenny's experience with them was almost exclusively through her work at the library. Though during her charge of planning monthly activities for the community she strove to create an array of programs for people of all ages, her most popular programs were always the ones centered around children. But even then, she had a hard time deducing the differences in taste between two, four, and eight year olds. So, the question was not one she was well suited for. Upon first hearing it, Jenny turned to look around in question. Once realizing that she was the only other person in the aisle - and thus, the person the question must have been directed towards - she hesitantly supplied what little knowledge she had as she moved closer to him. "No...? At least, I don't think so. That one on the shelf there with all the parts is definitely not good for the tiny children. It's the year of Barbie, so you couldn't go wrong with that, right? Is your kid a Barbie-type?"

"wouldn't you like to find out?" as james' head cocked to the side, observant eyes lingered on her for a moment. there was a chase that was silently there every time that luke met her gaze. it was a sea of questions with her, him floating among them. with reading the teasing nature along her features, he was always left in a state of bewilderment. curiosity that if she did this because her desire for him was matched with the driven, innate desire within him. regardless, he puffed up his chest in a done-up manner to charm the laughter out of her. he usually came with a relaxed demeanor, one that made most question if he was always so chilled or if he was under some sort of influence. but with the calm nature he gave off, only some knew the comedic side of him. james, she could get both with the continued race they were both on. "i'm gonna pretend not to be offended that you had other guys in mind with me," he jested, pushing off the edge to where he sat as he stepped his way up to the carnival game. a hand slid into his back pocket to find the tattered, faux-leather of his wallet before picking out a five dollar bill to hand to the attendant. "it's fine though. i can make you forget about those guys by the end of the night." 

"I would, actually." James agreed brazenly, eyes meeting his as his stare lingered, her own steadfast in response. There was a telltale tension creeping up on her, one that was frequently present when she engaged with Luke like this, which sometimes surprised her. She so usually felt this way with other women, it was always a pleasant surprise when a man could spark the same interest. Perhaps that was why she so openly and frequently flirted with Luke the way she did, each conversation adding, building, to something James was endlessly curious in exploring. Her eye contact, at last, broke as his chest puffed out, eliciting the desired response as she rolled her eyes in laughter, hand reaching out to playfully slap against his chest before following him over to their game. "Is that right? I admire your ambition, Duchannes, but you'll have your work cut out for you." She continued to jest, not keen to admit that he was already the only man on her mind as of late. Her hand reached out to brush across the back of his shoulder blades as she walked around him, positioning herself beside him at the game. Her hand gestured to the array of animal plush decorating the top of the booth. "But winning me the biggest plush here might do the trick."

"Oh?" she feigned innocence, as if she had no idea what other suggestion would come up upon moving somewhere else. "Don't you want to dance with me? I haven't even shown you all the ways I can move yet." One arm wrapped around the other's waist, hovering dangerously low on her back while the other rested at her neck, thumb tracing along the path of the make-up blood stain that was dripping there. "But, seeing as how you kept me waiting here by myself for so long," she teased, a full-toothed grin appearing, "I guess I'll let you make it up to me. Where are we going? And, more importantly, do you bite?" It was her turn to whisper in the other's ear. "Because I think I'd like that." If that didn't get the point across, her lips hovering just under her ear lobe and leaving a kiss against her jawline would.

James was forward by nature. She always had been — far too confident and brazen for her own good. And though it was a behavioral trait that often led her into trouble, it was never something she could truly shake, especially when the trouble was as tantalizing and tempting as the woman before her. The especially beautiful thing about right now was that there was no trouble in sight this time, only a beautiful woman feeling the exact same way she did, and that had all the makings in the world to embolden James. "Trust me, I plan to see all the way you move," she breathed, her hands sliding down the woman’s sides before settling on her waist, "Just through a different type of dance."

If the Black Cat’s words weren't encouraging enough, her actions were, James finding herself naturally stretching her neck to accommodate her thumb’s path. The sight of the other’s full grin was stunning —and rang familiar. Yet any thought at exploring that notion immediately dissolved the second those lips closed in on their own suggestion, James’ fingers reflexively gripping at her waist as she felt her lips press against her jaw. “Don’t ask for things you can’t handle.” She taunted, taking her actions as the invitation it was to clasp the hand around her own waist and tug them off the floor. “Away from prying eyes.” A quick response, and the only answer she could give for their destination, as there was no real one in mind. James was simply singularly focused on finding the first secluded spot she could, for while she had no qualms with PDA or exhibitionism, right now she just wanted to kiss her girl in private.

Luckily, she didn’t have to search long, slotting them into a dark alcove just off the main ballroom, the sounds of music and chatter muffled but still prevalent as she twisted her company around to press against the wall. Everything in James wanted to see her previous question through, her free hand briefly cupping Black Cat's jaw only to trail down and rest at the side of her neck, sweeping her hair behind her shoulder. But given the change in setting, she paused before she did anything more, meeting the other's eyes with a coy smirk. “Still want that bite?"