"Hayden," she waves a quick hello, "Not to hustle anyone along, but these two," she points at JJ and pats Deirdre on the back, "are going to be much more interesting to get into the party in a few minutes. And I'm kinda cold. Oh! Refreshments?" She holds out baggies of red and green bears.
"I'm Deirdre. It's nice to meet yoooooOOH!" Deirdre's eyes suddenly widen, her pupils dilating. "Oh! I think that gummy bear is starting to kick in!" She looks around in a daze, the world going slightly out of focus.
Jess will introduce everyone. She leans in for a hug with Jaime, holding it perhaps a bit longer than necessary, and giving her a bright smile as she pulls back. "Nice ta meetcha, Nina. How do you two know each other?" She closes her eyes for a moment, then slowly opens them, enjoying the feel of the drugs starting to hit her system.
Jaime takes a red gummy, glancing at Nina a bit awkwardly. "Thanks. Um... we used to date."
Nina takes a green gummy and pops it into her mouth without even looking up from her phone.
"I guess we should start heading in, then, huh?" says Jaime.
You're inside the lavish home of Gavin Dennison, heir of Dennison Technology. The place is packed with Summerwood's most privileged students, partying their asses off.
You don't know Gavin especially well, but you get the impression he's aware of your family's wealth and already considers you worthy of his inner circle of peers. You haven't seen him yet tonight.
"So pretty... Deirdre murmurs, looking around the house. She reaches out and grabs Hayden's arm, inadvertently caressing it as they head into the party.
The security guard glances up and asks for your names as you approach. Jaime and Nina give theirs, and the guard looks at the rest of you expectantly.
"They're with me," says Jaime.
The guard shrugs and lets you all through.
The inside of Gavin's house is very different from the outside, all modern sculpture and high-tech gadgets. A DJ is playing pounding European dance music. Some sort of elaborate robotic contraption appears to be dispensing drinks.
The place is packed. You might recognize a few of Summerwood's more elite students among the crowd, but no sign of Gavin at the moment.
Deirdre: A pale pink butterfly floats down from the ceiling, leaving a trail of glitter behind it. It dances near your face.
JJ: A spot on the floor under your feet appears to glow and expand into a path. It leads out of the foyer and into the next room. You hear a deep, welcoming male voice say "Follow."
Hayden: Your connection to Deirdre and JJ's inner dreams allows you to observe their hallucinations. You don't, however, hear the voice speaking to JJ; it just sounds like static to you.
Everyone else: You see and hear none of this.
"Ooh! Do you see the butterfly? Come here, little guy!" Deirdre laughs and gently swipes st the empty air in front of her face.
Hayden gave a little giggle as Deirdre took hold of her arm, She really does have a great smile.
"Okay Dee, let's get you inside. Don't worry, I'll stay with you tonight, keep an eye on you, yeah?"
Once inside, Hayden gave the place a once-or-twice over. Not bad. I guess even if money doesn't buy happiness it does buy you some pretty nice stuff. The butterfly flitted past in Deirdre's vision, and JJ's line began to form. Eh, I can shop later, let's see where this goes first.
She was curious about the line that JJ was following, but the butterfly was more her speed. She snagged a beer from Ashton's armful, took a long sip and then passed the bottle over to Deirdre.
"I think the butterfly wants to go dance." Now that she'd got an arm free, she stretched out a finger for the butterfly to land on, and pointed the glittery bug towards the dance floor. "See?"
Jaime takes a drink from Ashton. "Thanks." She turns to Jess. "So, uh, do you want to go dance?"
Nina rolls her eyes.
The pink butterfly that Deirdre sees does appear to drift in the direction of the dance floor.
You mentioned this to your "parents" during your monthly examination and they encouraged you to go, saying it would be an excellent source of data.
It's currently Friday night, and you're at the party, standing in the foyer. You haven't run into Gavin yet. A group of people just walked in. One of them wandered off into the next room, and two more are headed towards the dance floor. You've seen one of them before; her behavior has been most intriguing.
Two of the group seem to be making their way towards the dance floor. One of them, a dainty girl with laughing eyes, has an unusual scent about her; it's positively intoxicating.
Across the room, an athletic-looking dark-skinned boy locks eyes with you and smiles.
Among the students here, you recognize Fahed. You were at a party with him on move-in day when he abruptly collapsed. You drove him to the hospital, but when you went in to check on him, you found that his family had abruptly transferred him somewhere else. This is the first time you've seen him since then.
The next room seems to be some sort of living area, with bookshelves, couches, a huge flatscreen TV, and a grand piano in the corner. The glowing path leads towards the piano, where a man in a dark red suit is playing a haunting melody. He's older, maybe in his forties, and seems very out of place at this college party. He glances in your direction and beckons you closer with one hand; the other continues playing.
There are other students in here chatting with one another. No one seems to be paying any attention to the piano player or the path leading to him.
Even though JJ is in the next room, you still have a vague sense of the dreams he's experiencing, a glowing path leading to a man in a dark red suit at a piano and music in the air. You don't, however, see the man's face; it appears to have some sort of strange blurry distortion over it.
Eva stands in the foyer, carefully examining a vase of fake irises that stands atop a fluted wooden pedestal drawing curious sideways looks from many of the partygoers, due to her clothing, which consists of knee-length red and white striped socks, black converse hi-tops, a black, broad-brimmed hat and an oversized white t-shirt worn as a dress, which bears the word "nice" in large red letters across its front. She looks up curiously as the group enter her eyes following the colourfully-dressed girl as she heads towards the area where a crowd of people are gyrating in time to the noise. Turning, Eva follows and taps the girl (Hayden) on the shoulder, thrusts out her hand and smiles. "Good evening," she says in an accent that has a curious lilt to it, "my name is Eva and it is very nice to meet you. She waits for a response for a moment before looking down at Hayden's exposed navel, her head tilted slightly to one side. "Do you know you have a hole in your shirt?"
"I'm not here for Gavin. I'm here for you, JJ."
The boy takes your hand; his is unusually cold. "Xavier. Me too, sort of." He grins sheepishly. "I'm not supposed to be here."
Xavier shakes his head. ”I’m actually more interested in... you.”
The blur-faced man in JJ’s vision seems to be saying something, but it’s indecipherable, like a bad cell phone signal.
"It's not a hole; a hole's where something isn't and it's supposed to be. That's just a perfectly placed doorway to my bellybutton!" She gives Deirdre a little squeeze as she complements her knifework.
She reaches out to shake Eva's hand with a quick firm grasp and a dazzling smile. "Hayden. And are you just doing the rounds with everyone, or just the people in the best outfits?"
Jess takes Jaime's hand in hers and leads her out to the dance floor. She sidles up to her, moving and swaying (and occasionally grinding) in time to the music. At one point during the dance she leans in and nips Jaime's earlobe. "It's good to see you..."
"A doorway to your bellybutton?" Eva looks a bit uncertain for a moment but then breaks into a broad smile. "That is a joke. Yes? Doing the rounds? Talking to people. Yes, I am talking to people who are interesting and you are interesting because you are dressed differently to everyone else. Are my clothes appropriate? I asked a girl I met called Amy what i should wear and she said I should wear a "nice shirt". This is a nice shirt but no-one else is wearing one."
Hayden grins back, "I guess maybe it's more of an upstairs window. Designed mostly for looking through, and it's only lovers that need to climb on in."
She gives a quick shrug and continues, "It's funny, but it's not quite a joke. 'Cause words matter, right? What you Name something changes how you think of it. Like, until you told me that you were wearing a Shirt, I thought you were wearing a dress. And when I thought you were wearing a dress, I didn't realize you weren't wearing pants." Her eyes twinkle, "Not that that's a problem. I like an outfit that's unconventional. But your friend Amy probably didn't mean the Nice Shirt to be exclusive. Unless she just really likes your legs."
"Okay Dee, let's get you inside. Don't worry, I'll stay with you tonight, keep an eye on you, yeah?"
"Do you promise?" Deirdre asks innocently, not realizing the weight of the question.
She takes a sip of the offered bear, the beat of the music thumping in her chest.
"I think the butterfly wants to go dance." Now that she'd got an arm free, she stretched out a finger for the butterfly to land on, and pointed the glittery bug towards the dance floor. "See?"
"Oh! Yes, it's time to dance. Come on, Hayden, let's go!"
When Eva starts talking to Hayden, Deirdre frowns. Her eyes are fixed on the butterfly, and she quietly tugs on Hayden's arm to get her to go.
"Of course, Dee. I promise."
***
Hayden rolled her eyes with a smile and patted Deirdre's arm gently, "I'd love to talk more fashion, but Dee here's gonna pull my arm off if I don't get her to dance floor. Feel free to join us if you don't mind shouting during bass drops to be heard, but -okay, okay- I've gotta go. Promises to be kept and all."
Abruptly she turns on her heels and sways towards the music, easy peeks of her leotard visible through her shorts to Eva and Deirdre as she trails behind.
Deirdre practically skips to the dance floor, chasing after the pink butterfly. Once there, the mix of drugs, alcohol, and thumping bass combine to drown out any lingering anxieties she might have had. She's here to dance, and that is what she does.
Deirdre runs her hands through her hair and tosses her head back and forth as she shakes her hips. She spins and shimmies, moving her body in sensual patterns. It just feels so good. After a few minutes, she turns to Hayden and throws her arms over the other girl's shoulders. She looks at the blonde with a fierce intensity to her gaze as she dances with her...
Eva looks down at herself, somewhat confused. "I like my legs." she says, examining them. "I use them to walk. And run too. And sometimes to swim. I'm don't know if Amy likes them though." As Hayden is pulled away by Deirdre, Eva frowns. "Pull your arm off? That would not be pleasant. I will join you. If she tries to pull any of your limbs off i will intervene."
Eva follows the other two towards the dance floor. Standing a foot away from Hayden and Deirdre as they begin to dance, she watches, and looks around at the other gyrating figures. Making a decision, she begins to sway in perfect time with the beat of the noise, just as the other dancers are doing.
Hayden loved dancing. Normally though she danced for the crowd, or even if she was dancing with just one person it was more of a performance. She danced for hot guys, and some cute girls, far more often than she danced with them.
So Deirdre's shimmies and spins, the flare of her dress, those were all great. Hayden's own dancing was relatively subdued; she wasn't trying to get dragged off by anyone else tonight, but even her subdued dancing had more than a taste of the exotic. So she was very surprised when Deirdre just wrapped her arms around her neck, hanging off of her like a girl with her boyfriend at prom.
It moved things somewhere she really didn't expect already, lust to love, attraction to affection.
If she's the one, you know you'll have to go further than just a night of f@!#ing each other into exhaustion...
So she put her own hands on the small of Deirdre's back, and just swayed gently. She wants a romance like she knows from high school. She wants to feel together. Well it's not a Letterman, but...
As the song wrapped up, Hayden slipped off the simple oversized shirt she'd been wearing over her sheer green leotard, and draped it over Deirdre's shoulders like a jacket.
"Always gotta keep the outfit moving. You don't mind hanging on to that for me, right?" The smile she gave was knowing rather than imploring. She knew that she wasn't really asking a favor, or at least not one Deirdre didn't really want to be asked.
Deirdre smiles and pulls the shirt closer around her. "I'll keep it safe. Promise."
A new song starts, and her body starts moving again, though the dance is not quite as intimate as before.
Fahed watch the gyrating throng from a balustrade, he leaned on the railing and looked down one the gathering like a leopard watching it prey from a tree branch. A new group of students walked into th he party and immediately drew his attention, especially a lithe young woman whose sent found his nostrils through the maze of sweat, cologne, perfume, pheromones, and some sort of obnoxious vanilla candle burning down the hallway from him, and the girl who had saved by getting him to the hospital, a bit unconventional but still a pretty girl. Fahed started down the stairs, he wished to thank her and get her name.
"Hello, excuse me but you're the one that drove me to the hospital, correct? I owe you my life, perhaps I could start by offering a dance? I am Fahed by the way, if we exchanged names previously I don't recall, you know being rushed to the hospital and all," Fahed said loud enough to be heard over the music.
Xavier shrugs. "Exploring. Lot of weird old stuff here. In this house, too, as cutting-edge as it might look." He looks up towards the second floor mischievously. "You want to take a look around?"
Jaime coos appreciatively as you flirt with her. "Good to see you t-" She stops and frowns as Fahed approaches.
Seeing Eva swaying rhythmically nearby, Deirdre reaches out and takes her by the hand. "Do you want me to show you how to dance? Here, move like me."
Still in a hallucinogenic haze, Deirdre writhes and rubs her body over Eva's, trying to get the foreign girl to loosen up.
Jess flashes Jaime a reassuring wink and a smile. She looks over to Fahed. "Perhaps in a bit? Not brushing you off. I'm just still dancing with Jaime, here." She gives Fahed a friendly smile and turns her attention back to Jaime.
"Of course, didn't mean to interrupt," Fahed said as he faded into the crowd. He dance with no one in particular, a few women danced with him for a moment before they moved on as they worked their way through the crowd.
Hayden gave a much smaller, colder smile as Deirdre danced up on Eva. A pageboy, an odd sense of humor, and a great pair of legs, well shown. She's definitely got a type. Let's see how much...
Hayden got behind Deirdre and started to slowly grind against her, one hand keeping Deirdre's face locked forward on Eva, while the other trailed soft caresses wherever her short dress, and the loose hang of Hayden's shirt left her velvety, sensitive skin exposed.
"I don't normally make myself quite so seen, but you've provided a perfect opportunity, and perhaps this is fitting for our first formal introduction. I am Mr. Malphas, and... well, quite simply, I'm here to offer you what you want."
Xavier leads you up the stairs and down one of the hallways, past an arguing couple and away from the blaring music. There are much fewer people over here. Xavier opens one of the doors and pokes his head inside. "Oh my God." He smirks and opens the door further.
Inside is what appears to be an empty guest room decorated like a cartooonish hunting lodge. There's a bearskin rug on the floor, taxidermied deer heads on the wall, and a huge bed with a pair of moose antlers forming the headboard. A massive armoire takes up most of one of the walls.
Eva nods and smiles at Deirdre, letting the other girl take her hand. "Yes. I would like you to show me how to dance." she says, studying the other girl's movements for a moment before matching them perfectly. As Deirdre begins rubbing herself against Eva's, Eva feels a soft heat begin to suffuse her body. "This feels very good." she says "I think I like dancing!" . As Hayden moves in behind Deirdre, Eva smiles at Hayden as she mimics Deirdre's movements by pressing herself against her.
Deirdre gasps softly as Hayden starts rubbing against her. Her skin tingles wherever the other girl's warm fingers trace across it. Then Eva starts her own grinding, and suddenly Deirdre is being stimulated from both sides. She presses back against Hayden and tries to turn and look at her, but the blonde's hand keeps her face turned towards Eva.
She stares at the redhead, and she murmurs softly, "Is this what you want to see?" She's talking to Hayden, but she's not sure if the other girl can hear her over the music. Nevertheless, Deirdre does what she thinks Hayden wants her to do. Her heart pounds in her chest as she closes her eyes, leans forward, and gently kisses Eva on the lips.
Eva melts into the feeling of Deirdre's lips against her own, feeling an unfamiliar warmth suffuse her body as they grind together, kissing. In a moments pause she stares into Deirdre's eyes, breathing heavily. "I like dancing." she says, "It makes me feel warm. Can we dance some more?
In the foyer, there's an appreciative cheer from the crowd as Gavin finally makes an appearance. He steps out from a hallway onto the second floor's indoor balcony, raises his arms, and smiles, drinking it all in. Gavin is extremely good-looking, with short jet-black hair, and wears a stylish blend of formal and club wear.
The armoire seems to be locked.
Xavier looks around the guest room and makes a face. "It looks so different." Seeing the armoire, he walks up to it with purpose, drops to his knees, and starts reaching into the space underneath it with his arm.
"No, nothing like that. I've just... been here before." He feels around underneath the armoire. "There we go." You hear a click, and the armoire (and a section of the floor underneath it) lifts up a few inches and slowly slides to one side, revealing a door on the wall behind it.
"Desire is an unusual thing. Very tricky to measure, and even trickier is the potential for desire. That is what you want, yes? To know who has the potential to... want you? It is no small thing, to look into people's hearts. You may not always like what you see. But if you wish, I can allow you to do so." Malphas's eyes flash briefly. "For a small price."