Well, the things I planned for this act didn't quite pan out, but they definitely will next act. It should be awesome. (I already have that part written anyway.) However, in regards to this act, I have this headcanon that Nepeta knows the words to every Macklemore song and likes to dance on tables as she sings them.

Many thanks to RandomAnonymous, crimsonkoteto, LinkinPark X, Bitblondetoday, iDreamBig, CatastrophicAquarius, and thepeopleofthecrysis for your reviews to the last act.


After The Great Gatsby finished (John and Aradia sniffling over Gatsby's death), the party transitioned smoothly with the assistance of alcohol to an impromptu dance party. Feferi hooked her iPod up to the auxiliary port and started blasting Ke$ha, which made Eridan cringe at first, but by the time he finished off his third Redd's Apple Ale, he was singing along with just about everyone else. Most everyone with the addition of alcohol seemed to loosen up—Equius was smiling, for example, which was a rare occurrence, and Kanaya danced more exuberantly than Dave. The only one who grew more withdrawn was Sollux, who took to standing near the wall and downing bottle after bottle of mead. Eridan wondered how much mead one could buy for forty dollars.

Dave and John cleared out a space in front of the TV and Dave announced that the two of them had somehow managed to choreograph a dance to "Your Love is My Drug." Eridan had noticed that the two of them had vanished for awhile, but hadn't bothered to wonder why. Now, it seemed the unasked question had been answered.

Feferi giggled and obligingly put on the song, and as the music began, Dave and John got into position in the middle of the space they'd cleared. This promised to be interesting.

"Maybe I need some rehab, or maybe just need some sleep. I got a sick obsession—I'm seein' it in my dreams..." Ke$ha started to sing, and John and Dave did a complicated-looking stepping movement in mirror images of each other. As the song went on, Nepeta pulled out her phone and started taping the shenanigans, only encouraging the boys to overly-exaggerate their choreography. This ended up being a mistake, though, because toward the end of the first chorus, John flung his arms a little wider than they'd rehearsed and ended up smacking Dave in the side of the face. His sunglasses flew off and hit the wall about ten feet away, but Dave barely noticed—he'd put his hand to the side of his face and doubled over.

"Shit! Fuck! God damn it, John!" He hissed and rubbed his temple, keeping his eyes closed. "Can someone get me my fucking glasses?"

John started for them, but Eridan said, "Maybe if you opened up your fuckin' eyes an' looked, you'd see 'em right there."

A flash of anger crossed Dave's face and he straightened up, lowered his hand, and opened his eyes.

Well, shit. Apparently Sollux wasn't the only one with a freaky eye thing going on—Dave's irises were a deep, blood red. No wonder he wore those sunglasses. He probably received a lot of stares as a kid. Eridan's eyes were unusual, too, but he could at least acknowledge that purple was a really cool color of eyes to have, whereas red, especially that shade, was almost terrifying.

"Sorry," Eridan murmured as John handed Dave his sunglasses back.

"No, it's fine," Dave muttered. He slid his sunglasses back on and stopped the song, which had gone on playing in the interim. "It was stupid anyway."

Eridan really did feel like an asshole. It wasn't the first time he'd said something only to regret it later.

John was apologizing profusely as he and Dave melted back into their small crowd and things had become quiet and awkward until Feferi switched the music over to Macklemore, and by the time "Thrift Shop" finished, the party was back in full swing. Even Dave had managed to forgive Eridan's douchebaggery and join in.

Around ten-thirty, the party degenerated into half the group playing drinking games (including John and Nepeta playing beer pong against Dave and Karkat with the PBR and Terezi acting as judge—no one apparently realizing how flawed that idea was except Karkat, who seemed to realize that she would rule in his favor every time) and everyone else in a circle on the floor (Eridan's back against the sofa with the rest of them lounging there as well) playing Truth or Dare with Aradia's favorite band Abney Park now playing on the sound system. He had to admit, as he lifted a can of PBR to his mouth (which he'd broken into since he only had two bottles of Redd's left and he wanted to make them last), that they were pretty catchy and really unique. His inner and outer hipsters were both pleased. He'd had a feeling that this was how the night would end up, though. No lame barely-not teenage party was complete without an immature game like Truth or Dare.

They decided that Tavros would be first up. He looked around nervously. "Uh, Feferi?"

Fef grinned. "Yes, Tavros?"

"Uh, truth or dare?"

She looked up at the ceiling with an expression of such exaggerated innocence that Eridan knew it was faked. "Dare."

"Uh... I dare you to... uh... take a shot of Everclear."

Her eyes widened and Nepeta, thanks to her supersonic hearing, spun around. "Did someone say 'Everclear'?!"

"I'll do it." She stood up and Nepeta excitedly called a time-out for the game of beer pong while she scampered away to set up a shot of Everclear for Feferi.

She took the shot glass and a can of Coke in hand, knocked back the shot, and chased it with a long swallow of Coke. After about ten seconds, she slammed both the glass and the can onto the counter. "What the glub was that?" she asked, but she was laughing. "Holy shit, Aradia, I have no idea how you did that!"

"Very carefully," Aradia joked.

Feferi laughed and skipped back to where she had sitting next to Eridan. He took a swig of beer as she grinned at them all mischievously. "Alright, my turn! Hmm..." She made a big show of looking around before her gaze settled on Eridan.

"W-wha'?" he asked, telling himself he did not slur as much as he thought he did.

"Eridan. Truth or dare?" She continued grinning, prodding at him with her foot.

"Um. Truth."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Uh, okay. Have you ever kissed a guy before?"

Reflexively, his eyes flicked momentarily to Sollux, who had his third bottle of mead to his lips and wasn't looking at him. "Nope."

"Do you want to?"

"I dunno. Maybe," he said before he could think over his response or realize she'd asked him two questions now. Everyone else seemed too drunk to notice except for Kanaya, who opened her mouth to say something. Rose elbowed her hard in the ribs and shook her head.

"I dare you to make out with... Sollux," Feferi said, smirking.

The sound of his name immediately attracted his attention. "Wait, he said truth!" Sollux protested suddenly, pointedly not looking at the other boy. His face was turning red again. Next to him, Aradia giggled at his lisp, which had grown more pronounced with the addition of alcohol. "You can't do that!"

Eridan looked at him again, trying not to feel a little hurt. He hadn't really expected Sollux to want to kiss him or anything, but the way he had immediately flown to argue the dare made it pretty clear that he really didn't want to kiss him. That stung a bit.

Plus, Sollux's lips looked impossibly full and sweet, just begging to be kissed. And, really, he wasn't gay, but it was really difficult not to want to press your mouth against his. A guy didn't have to be gay to want to kiss another guy, right? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. It wasn't like he wanted to make out with Short And Yelling or Clown Makeup or Bull Nose or Too Strong For Anyone's Good. Sollux was different. He was clever and cute and really fucking distracting right now.

"Alright, fine," Fef said, pouting. "It's your turn, Eridan. Make it reel good!"

Eridan half-grinned, wondering what to do. He really did want Sollux to kiss him, but he wasn't drunk enough to challenge him to Truth or Dare right now. "Um. Kan. Truth or dare?"

Kanaya leaned back against Rose. A look of steely determination appeared on her face and she raised her chin. "Dare."

"I dare ya to..." He had to think it over so he ended up saying the first thing that popped into his head. "Jump in the pool."

"You have a pool?" John asked from the beer pong table.

Dave scoffed. "Have you seen the size of this place? Of course he has a pool."

"Naked or clothed?" Kanaya asked demurely.

"Uh, I don't care. W-whatever."

She nodded once and, without further ado, stripped off her shirt.

"Oh, my God," Aradia said, hiding her face.

"What? My only change of clothes is pajamas and I don't wish to ruin these with chlorine anyway." She stood up and shimmied out of her skirt, shoes, and socks.

"Uh." Eridan quickly averted his eyes.

"How do I get to the pool from here?" Kanaya asked pleasantly, as if she wasn't standing in the middle of someone else's basement in her underwear with twelve people in the same room.

"Uh. Up the stairs, turn left, tow-ward the back a' the house, an' outside the slidin' doors."

"Thank you," she said, and sailed toward the stairs. Rose scrambled to her feet and chased after her.

"I really thought she was gonna get completely naked," Aradia laughed.

"Perhaps we should have a towel ready for when she comes back?" Equius suggested.

"Shit. Yeah, you're right," Eridan said, climbing to his feet. He hurried to the bathroom and grabbed a thick, fluffy towel from the rack. He followed the path to the pool he'd memorized at two years old and heard a loud splash, followed by giggling and a second splash.

When he finally caught sight of the pool, both Kanaya and Rose had jumped in. Rose had left her own clothes next to the pool—all of them, by the looks of it. Eridan immediately closed his eyes again. "Uh," he said, covering his eyes with one hand and holding out the towel. "I brought you a tow-wel but I guess Rose needs one too, now-w."

"Not really," Rose said cheerfully. "We can share a towel!"

Kanaya laughed and pushed down on Rose's shoulders until her head went under the water. A few moments later, she reappeared a few feet away, laughing and spitting out a mouthful of water.

"Right. Okay. W-we'll be dow-wnstairs w-when you're ready," he stuttered, heading back inside.

"What happened?" Feferi asked as he took his seat again.

"Rose jumped in, too."

"Looks like we have to wait until they get back then, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Or," Feferi said, "you can pass your turn to someone else!"

"But it's Kan's turn, not mine."

"Fine. We wait ten minutes, and if they're not back, someone else takes her turn."

Eridan reluctantly agreed and they settled in to wait. Fortunately, Kanaya and Rose dashed in, dripping wet and giggling, with seconds to go before the five-minute limit ran out. Still, it took them another few minutes for Kanaya to towel herself off thoroughly, and while Rose had put her clothes back on, Kanaya deigned to stay in her underwear, sitting on the damp towel.

"It's your turn, Kanaya!" Feferi said, determined to keep the game going.

Kanaya nodded slowly, and she and Rose put their heads together to whisper conspiratorially.

"What are you gills doing?"

"Coming up with a plan of attack," Kanaya said smoothly. "There is to be method to this madness."

Eridan had to admit that it was pretty impressive that Kanaya, five mixed drinks through her vodka, was still able to enunciate and actually still sound wise and serene. She went right back to conferring with Rose, and everyone else waited impatiently until Kanaya sat up straight. "Aradia. Truth or dare?"

Aradia bit her lip, grinning. "Truth," she said finally.

Kanaya and Rose exchanged three words between them before Kanaya asked, "Have you slept with Equius yet?"

This attracted Nepeta's attention in the middle of her ball toss. She turned as the ping-pong ball went flying and completely ignored Karkat's frustrated groan as it sank neatly into the red Solo cup in front of him and Dave. "What was that?"

"I asked Aradia if she's slept with Equius yet," Kanaya explained.

"I—" Equius started, but Nepeta pounced on his shoulders and covered his mouth. "Shoosh!"

Aradia blushed but grinned. "No, not yet. But soon."

An awed, "Ohh!" went up from the group and even Terezi cackled.

"Okay, my turn!" She didn't even miss a beat. "Sollux, truth or dare?"

"Fuck," he muttered, taking another swig of his mead. "See, I know what you're gonna have me do if I pick dare and I know what you're gonna ask if I pick truth and I don't like either of them and you suck."

Aradia just grinned mischievously. "So pick the lesser of the two evils."

Sollux groaned, setting down his mead to hide his face in his hands. "Fine. Um." He sighed. "Dare."

"Excellent!" Aradia took a moment to dance in place and Sollux wondered just how drunk she was right now. "Alright, Sollux Captor. I dare you..." She let it hang in the air, letting the anticipation build and her grin widen until it practically fell off her face. "To make out with Eridan."

The only sound in the stunned silence was Sollux groaning, "Fuck."


ARADIA YOU LITTLE SHIT YOU ARE SO DRUNK. She definitely wouldn't have dared Sollux to do that if she had been sober. She knows he's sensitive about it, but she's drunk and let the excitement of the night sweep her up.