Welcome to Gaia! ::

This was casual. Friendly. Not supposed to be serious or anything.

But there really was no such thing when it came to Thackey and kitsunes. His ideals surrounding them were solidly rooted in formalities and chivalry; anything less would truly just be insulting to Tomoko, and he would never be able to forgive himself for that. He had no plans to be remembered for generations of Cerberus demons to come as King Thackery, Kitsune-Trust-Ruiner.

So he intended to do this right. More than right. The most right. He'd spent hours after the announcement of the Masquerade poring over his books and research, compiling all of the necessary requirements and information.

And maybe borrowed a little something from one of his romance novels, but he would leave that part out if anyone asked.

His over-eager responses to Tomoko were, perhaps, beginning to become a bit predictable. As much as a teleport-to-kitsune power would appeal to him, he lacked it; he made up for it by heading towards her room before even asking, more often than not.

Today was no real exception. Thackery had bundled up all of the necessary supplies, coaxed a minipet to leave alongside him, and set off down the corridor towards his destination, pausing to double-check via text along the way.

So there wasn't much time between that little giggling midi chime that indicated he'd received a new message and the knock on Tomo's door, quick, quiet, and polite. This was important, after all! No time to waste!

Palms sweaty and shaky with nervousness, the Cerberus did his very best to refrain from dropping everything he held. A pile of glass on the floor would probably not make a very good offering.

It took a great deal of restraint to not just drop everything and scoop up the adorable little critter circling his feet, but there were more important things at stake (even more important than minipets, as unbelievable as it sounded).

"Yes! Thank you." And as soon as he stepped over the threshold, he was handing her things. He removed a bouquet of purple flowers from the jar that he held and offered it towards her, proudly extending the jar in the moments to follow. It was coated with streaks and splotches of glowbug juice, and though it had its own luminescence from its decoration, the glow was even brighter from the creatures circling within. Slowly, they began to emerge, realizing that the flowers that had served to keep them bottled up inside were no longer restraining them.



They flew in every which direction for a few seconds, which nearly sent Thackery into a panic attack. All of that time spent training them and they were going to ruin this!? But they pulled together after all, clustering to form the very core of his inquiry.



With a smile, he waited for the little lightshow to cease before holding up his minipet companion - a kitsunanar twin to the one already comfortably residing in her room. On a ribbon tied around its neck was a carefully decorated paper cutout that read "PLEASE".

He waited just long enough for his extravagant theatrical entrance to properly sink in before diving into the speech he'd prepared. Overboard? Surely not.

"Well, I was. Let's see how to...um." He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, it sounded very obviously practiced and rehearsed. "I would like to cordially extend an invitation to you, Tomo. It would be a really great honor to escort a ki-...you to the upcoming prom. I promise to be good company, to dance as many times as you want to, and to get you punch when you get thirsty."

He paused.

"And...to test the punch...to make sure it's safe." He remembered last time.

"It's okay...if you need some time to decide!" he added hurriedly, suddenly worried of potential rejection. He'd had enough of that as of late, thank you.

Barely, just barely, the sound of a tiny, gleeful 'eeeeeee' came from the boil, his eyes wide with excitement. It was not unlike the moment when he'd finally met her, The Kitsune, except that he somehow managed to not completely freeze up in need of a brain-reboot this time.

He pulled Tomoko into a hug, laughing, both thrilled and heavily relieved. "Thank you, thank you Tomo! This will be the best ever! And we can pick out our outfits and masks together and everything, and..."

As much as Thackery wanted to explain how much it really meant to him, how he didn't know if he could manage going alone, he didn't want to scare her or ruin the moment or leave the impression that she wasn't his absolute first choice. Because she was, with all of her smiles and contagious happiness and unending friendship in spite of the weird things that he did to protect her.

She accepted him for everything, even though he really messed up sometimes. Not everyone could do that.

"Oh. Um. The glowbugs should go back in if you...leave the jar out...I think. Sometimes they're finicky," he admitted sheepishly, once he'd finally let her go again. "I'll help you catch them again if they give you trouble."