A Club, Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday Evening

[stringstothesoul]

Hey, look, it was some college kids, doing normal college kid things! Like sneaking into clubs with fake IDs Arden's brother had somehow procured for them! Erasmus wasn't asking questions. He felt like his momma was going to sense his malfeasance from Mississippi and ground him at any moment.

Well, now they were here, and, uh... "What do we...do in a club, anyway?" Dance? They should probably dance.

(For them who knows who they are, but if anyone else wants to be in the club tonight, sure, why not?)

Comments

[mindofageneration]

"Dance," Riri suggested. "Drink?"

Oh yeah, because Erasmus was going to convince the bartender to give him a drink. Sure.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Dance," Arden said quickly. "I don't drink."

Sorry, Erasmus, Riri. You were both wonderful people, but you were also not Nephilim who could rescue her from a bunch of grasping, uhh...desire zombies? Living desire zombies? It was hard to explain and also a whole thing. "Dance and flirt, mostly, I think."

Doing so great at the 'normal teens' thing, y'all.

[stringstothesoul]

Hey, Riri, Erasmus's ID said he was 21!...it also said he was from Idaho, so he was in trouble the moment he opened his mouth regardless. "We can dance!" he agreed.

Could he dance? Questionable.

"And you don't have to drink," he assured Arden. "I'm sure they have non-alcoholic stuff."

[mindofageneration]

Erasmus probably had the best chance of dealing with desire zombies of any variety since magic and all. But don't count Riri 'catch these hands' Williams out just yet.

"Dancing sounds fun," Riri agreed with a firm nod. "Depending on the music, of course. Bad music and I'm sticking to people watching."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"For real," Arden agreed immediately. "There's no dancing so well it can save bad music, that's just facts."

She looked around. "Wanna grab a booth?" she suggested, pointing at the seating areas around the floor.

[stringstothesoul]

Yeah, but these were alive desire zombies, so, not under his purview.

"A booth sounds good!" He was a little overwhelmed, okay? He'd never been to the clerb before.

[mindofageneration]

Boo, very specific magic. This was why tech was better.

Leave it up the the five foot nothing one to take the lead! Riri was already making a beeline for it before someone else could lay claim. Do try to keep up, folks. She was in Chicago mode.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden was only too happy to follow in Riri's wake. Like, listen. She might be from a city (technically), but her experience with people was still pretty much maxed out at the island, and this club felt like it had more than that many people on the floor.

She was very glad to be following Riri was what she was saying. "Oh! I think those other people have the same idea!" she called, nodding at a group of four girls heading towards the booth from the other side.

[stringstothesoul]

Look, it was a good thing they had Riri to balance out all the polite Southernness over here, or they would totally be losing out on that booth. "Should we let them have it...?" There were more of them!

[mindofageneration]

"Hell no," Riri scoffed. "We saw it first."

And it was just that simple, right? Riri lifted her chin like she might actually fight them for it as she closed the distance to the booth, trusting that Arden and Erasmus wouldn't be far behind.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Hmm. So Arden could challenge Riri over the validity of them seeing it first, or she could do pretty much anything other than that.

Well, that was an easy decision! She hurried after Riri, figuring that she could provide numbers and (some) additional height to their group, in case those other girls glanced over at them to kinda size them up. She still figured that Riri's general Chicago...ness...would carry the day, but at least it was something, right?

"They can probably find another booth easily enough," she said to Erasmus, totally not trying to mitigate any guilt or anything, really!

[stringstothesoul]

"They're fine!" Erasmus assured Arden. And himself. "They'll be fine."

Oh, no, what if they were mad at them? (Erasmus, they're total strangers.)

[mindofageneration]

Did Riri have to tug off her totally winter appropriate hoodie to toss into the booth before sliding in after it to complete the whole laying claim?

Abso-fucking-lutely she did!

"Now we can get drinks," she announced loudly. "Which includes water."

Suck it, randoms.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

In what way and/or universe was that hoodie 'winter appropriate'?

Giving the other girls one last, apologetic glance, Arden slid into the booth, too. "Sodas might be good, too? I don't think they have snacks or anything..."

Because this was a club, not a damn restaurant, Arden. Your brothers were all shaking their heads at you.

[stringstothesoul]

Please hold while Erasmus de-layersed himself. This booth was going to be thoroughly claimed by winter gear by the time he got through. "You could get a ginger ale," he said. "I hear it's having a moment." Thanks, gay hockey show.

They should have brought Gray. They probably would have already lost Gray to a hookup or a nap, but he could have been useful!

[mindofageneration]

It all worked because she had layers underneath. The layers being a crop top, sure. But it was layers!

"Oh, snacks are for after. At whatever is open at 3 am around here." Not White Castle, sadly. "Maybe a Waffle House?"