Just Dance for the Booze Spirits

Izidora, Izidora

Nemoj sada da me malo

Nemoj sada da me puno

Fast-paced brass and vocal music boomed out of the living room speakers at Vineet's sprawling, high-ceilinged house all the way out in far-flung Rafahfeld. Two bespectacled guests were kicking, hopping, and waving their arms about in a coordinated effort to match the mustached sprite on the big screen TV. Beyond the circle of onlookers, there was a cider keg next to the dining table and an indoor basketball hoop arcade game halfway to the front entrance. It was another Saturday game night, and a dozen of the attendees had just finished the latest round of the scintillating board game Poetry with Animals.

Izidora noćna mora

Nemoj sada da me puno

Popela si mi se malo

It was almost eleven o'clock, and people were eager to shift gears from gaming to karaoke as the night wore on. The party host decided to celebrate his unexpectedly hefty annual bonus that night by downing an entire fifth of the snake wine Asshai-Hulud. Well into his thirties, Vineet carried himself with the energetic swagger of a graduating Alpha Zeta Nu brother at the University of Jinnah. His alcohol tolerance and booming karaoke voice were unparalleled among the members of the Bandar Roti PandaMonium Fan Club. None of the other Kongo bros partied half as hard as he did, although a couple of the Tihamah transplants could give him a run for his money in bachata.

Šta ti bi bre?

De se dene?

Bil ti meni

Malo rekla

Kom si sada

Kolač spekla?

Be as it may, he overestimated his body's tolerance for grog that night, and had passed out in the middle of the living room while Ji-hye and Satoshi were playing Poetry with Neanderthals with some of the single partygoers. Unfortunately for the karaoke fiends, Vineet was the only person who could switch modes on the laptop and living room TV used for WhoTube karaoke and video game consoles- which meant if they wanted to exit Just Dance, the partygoers needed to figure out how to wake him up.

Proplakat ćeš ceo kubni metar

Ko kad gledaš zameo ih vetar

As he spun around in a circle while clapping his hands, Kintaro wondered how he'd gotten himself into another drunken Just Dance episode with Benazir. Like so many of the other "older" women in the Bandar Roti social group, Benazir had taken a liking to him and was always eager to do a string of karaoke duets with him whenever they were both at a large gathering. It gradually became a tradition of theirs during the half-year or so of their friendship.

Istinu ću sada reć' znaj

Ljubav naša neće imat kraj

Kintaro was young enough to have turned 21 during the pangolin plague, which meant that he had largely missed out on much of the typical United Brancaland undergrad social scene. But he was always a reclusive kid who was content with his circle of geeky friends and video games, so he didn't mind as much. At least not until he got a post-university job offer that took him out of the Baie area... Finding himself hundreds of kilometers away from home and out of his comfy Pasifikan social bubble, Kintaro joined local social groups in the hope of finding fellow Pasifikan diasporans to hang out with.

Part of him wanted to make up for lost time and get with the ladies like he never got to do during college, but part of him also resented being treated as everyone's kid brother. But he was okay with just vibing platonically with the other group members for the time being- whether at karaoke, clubs, or house parties. So long as he could harnesh the power of soju shots and wow his fellow clubgoers and 0verflotch enthusiasts with his dynamite dance moves, he was confident he’d meet his other half sooner or later.

Izidora, Izidora

Nemoj sada da me malo

Nemoj sada da me puno

He glanced towards Benazir and she faced to meet his gaze. Even though neither of them had danced to this upbeat Jugoslav-language track before (it was one of the hardest dances Just Dance had ever done), they had made it more than halfway through the two-and-a-half minute track without accidentally kicking anyone in the face or tripping over their own tipsy feet.

Izidora noćna mora

Nemoj sada da me puno

Popela si mi se malo

Another right butt-slap, another left butt-slap. They were almost at the end. Benazir smiled at Kintaro, and mouthed the word "panda", implicitly referencing the stuffed animals plopped on the carpet on each side of Vineet's knocked-out frame.

Šta ti bi bre?

De se dene?

Jel' to ljubav

Naša bješe

Il to s tobom

Drugi pleše?

As Benazir and Kintaro raised their hands and waved their hands in the air for the last twenty seconds of the song, they both understood what they were supposed to do. Instead of falling backwards like the dancing man on the screen was going to do, they were both going to fall forwards, onto the stufffed giant pandas sprawled in front.

Drugi put ćeš ipak reći daaaa

As the mustached man on the screen leaned backwards, the two Just Dancers collapsed on their bellies. Their frames collided with synthetic fur propped up by cotton, and two black fur paws flapped during the impact. The right paw of Ji-hye's stuffed panda brushed up against Vineet's cheek as it rose before lodging itself in his disheveled hair.

Ji-hye covered her mouth as a giggle erupted from her throat. She brought Pandy-pam with her to every house party she went to with Satoshi ever since he bought it for her as a birthday gift. This stuffed panda wasn't an arcade game collectible, but Ji-hye appreciated having Pandy-pam all the same. Its paw rustling Vineet's hair reminded her of the time he got someone's therapy dog to lay its paw on his shoulder while crooning a 1980s United Brancaland R&B hit. Vineet somehow managed to be the center of attention, even when he wasn't hosting a house party.

As Vineet let out an involuntary murmur, Benazir beamed with a toothy smile. "Nice work, Kintaro! We technically woke Vineet up from his slumber," she cackled as she raised her outstretched palms in a double high-five. “Now it’s just a matter of getting him to change the setting on his laptop.”