[He vastly miscalculated here. He thought it'd be fun and nice and that he could tell Dylan later that it was him and it could just be a little fun thing they did and Dylan could laugh about it being someone he already knows. They could think it was fun they'd sort of play-acted at being mutually dashing, like out of a story.]
[But if he's getting carried away, he's feeling something, and if he wants to hang out outside of this he thinks Hunter's actually charming or something. Like...for real. Not just for fun. And that is an absolutely incorrect thing to think.]
[Hunter has at times had to be confident and unflappable. That confidence had sometimes had to be a sneering confidence, due to backstabbing being the primary past-time in the upper ranks of the Emperor's coven.]
[But confident's not the same thing as suave.]
[For some reason, trying for the confidence, minus the condescension, has actually charmed him, but since he had to throw away the Golden Guard persona, he's never been even close to charming without the mask. It's a stretch to even manage confident, especially since he'd been terrified when facing Belos.]
[He'd tricked him into thinking he could be like this outside of here. By accident, but still. And if he admits it now, Dylan will feel deceived and it'll explode a growing friendship and send it right to the depths of the boiling sea.]
[He needs an exit strategy.]
[And he doesn't want it to be something that tarnishes the...the feeling that'd been there. Maybe it's selfish but he doesn't want to remember this as a time he wound up mortified at the end by his own social awkwardness. And if Dylan did feel charmed and delighted, he deserves to have felt that way - even if it's kind of fake and not something Hunter'd ever be able to keep up.]
[He deserves to not feel rejected. If he disappears, it has to be a part of the moment.]
[He tactically withdraws. They were still holding hands and Hunter's hand is very loose in his glove, so it slips off when he steps back, still in Dylan's hand. He doesn't ask for it back or try to grab it again.]
Maybe.
[He shrugs as he walks backward, off the balcony into the building again.]
If you want to hang out, I guess you'll just have to find me first.
[And then he bolts and doesn't even consider how cool he's about to look, because this is just... it's just movement. He does this all the time if it feels necessary, because his way of compensating for a lack of magic during his witch's duels was making himself terribly hard to hit with anything. Speed and agility meant everything if everyone else had to keep drawing circles in the air and aiming things at him.]
[To bypass people walking down stairs that lead to the greater ballroom, he jumps up, runs along the railing, straight up skidding down the steepest part attached to the stairs, then kicks off, grabbing a curtain and using it to slow his fall as he slips down to an even lower level.]
[He lands on steady feet and looks back up.]
[There are now two levels and a whole crowd of people Dylan would have to shove past to beat him to the place where they have to give back the masks, so he can try to see Hunter's face.]
[He gives him one last little sassy wave with the hand that lost a glove. It feels like the thing someone would do in one of the books he's read. Dylan might get the sense there's some kind of mark - maybe a birth mark? - on his right wrist, but not what it is.]
[The next part he says more out of imitation of his Golden Guard attitude than out of attempt to look cool. It's audible even with him being that far down.]
BYEEEE!
[Then he disappears into the crowd, racing to give back the mask, and then slipping away from the theater as fast as he can.]
no subject
[Oh no.]
[ABORT MISSION.]
[He vastly miscalculated here. He thought it'd be fun and nice and that he could tell Dylan later that it was him and it could just be a little fun thing they did and Dylan could laugh about it being someone he already knows. They could think it was fun they'd sort of play-acted at being mutually dashing, like out of a story.]
[But if he's getting carried away, he's feeling something, and if he wants to hang out outside of this he thinks Hunter's actually charming or something. Like...for real. Not just for fun. And that is an absolutely incorrect thing to think.]
[Hunter has at times had to be confident and unflappable. That confidence had sometimes had to be a sneering confidence, due to backstabbing being the primary past-time in the upper ranks of the Emperor's coven.]
[But confident's not the same thing as suave.]
[For some reason, trying for the confidence, minus the condescension, has actually charmed him, but since he had to throw away the Golden Guard persona, he's never been even close to charming without the mask. It's a stretch to even manage confident, especially since he'd been terrified when facing Belos.]
[He'd tricked him into thinking he could be like this outside of here. By accident, but still. And if he admits it now, Dylan will feel deceived and it'll explode a growing friendship and send it right to the depths of the boiling sea.]
[He needs an exit strategy.]
[And he doesn't want it to be something that tarnishes the...the feeling that'd been there. Maybe it's selfish but he doesn't want to remember this as a time he wound up mortified at the end by his own social awkwardness. And if Dylan did feel charmed and delighted, he deserves to have felt that way - even if it's kind of fake and not something Hunter'd ever be able to keep up.]
[He deserves to not feel rejected. If he disappears, it has to be a part of the moment.]
[He tactically withdraws. They were still holding hands and Hunter's hand is very loose in his glove, so it slips off when he steps back, still in Dylan's hand. He doesn't ask for it back or try to grab it again.]
Maybe.
[He shrugs as he walks backward, off the balcony into the building again.]
If you want to hang out, I guess you'll just have to find me first.
[And then he bolts and doesn't even consider how cool he's about to look, because this is just... it's just movement. He does this all the time if it feels necessary, because his way of compensating for a lack of magic during his witch's duels was making himself terribly hard to hit with anything. Speed and agility meant everything if everyone else had to keep drawing circles in the air and aiming things at him.]
[To bypass people walking down stairs that lead to the greater ballroom, he jumps up, runs along the railing, straight up skidding down the steepest part attached to the stairs, then kicks off, grabbing a curtain and using it to slow his fall as he slips down to an even lower level.]
[He lands on steady feet and looks back up.]
[There are now two levels and a whole crowd of people Dylan would have to shove past to beat him to the place where they have to give back the masks, so he can try to see Hunter's face.]
[He gives him one last little sassy wave with the hand that lost a glove. It feels like the thing someone would do in one of the books he's read. Dylan might get the sense there's some kind of mark - maybe a birth mark? - on his right wrist, but not what it is.]
[The next part he says more out of imitation of his Golden Guard attitude than out of attempt to look cool. It's audible even with him being that far down.]
BYEEEE!
[Then he disappears into the crowd, racing to give back the mask, and then slipping away from the theater as fast as he can.]