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Normally this was the time that Quinn decided she needed a drink. Okay, usually multiple drinks. Instead, she glanced at the bar, then at the snack set-up, then back at Clarisse. "Y'know what..." she said, her lips pursed as she thought about her options, then split into a wide grin. She took the other girl's hand and allowed their fingers to easily intertwine before leading her towards the stairs. "Let's go where the real party's at and dance."

Did she know how to dance? Absolutely not. Was she intoxicated enough for that? Absolutely not. But you bet your a** she was gonna dance with her girl on New Years Eve regardless. Because that was what normal young people did, damnit! And maybe being a normal young person was better than being a psychotic legless murdering nutjob.

When they got to the third ballroom, Quinn practically dragged Clary to the centre of the dance floor and laid a big huge kiss on her. In that moment, it didn't matter what the Negaverse was up to. All that mattered was the girl in front of her... So she did her best to ignore the bodies randomly dropping to the ground and being dragged to nursing stations. Focus. Ignore everything else.



Quinn - Black Nega Mask

Luca would not have been much help, as not long after Jeanne dropped, she dropped too, and the two ended up leaning on each other in what might have been a sleep cute pose in any other context. Sure enough, Luca woke up on a cot in the nurse's station, still a bit sleepy and thoroughly confused. "Jeanne? Where are you? I think we fell asleep on each other." She looked around lazily, not quite looking in Jeanne's direction yet.



----

Silas awoke in the nurse's station with a fresh mask and an explanation of overheating. Well, it had seemed a bit warm, but not hot enough to boil a person unconscious. Much to his surprise, Kaida had followed him. "Oh, hey," he said as he sat up. "Thanks for following me here. That was nice of you. Sorry 'bout that; I'm not sure what happened back there."

"Look, we were just at the coat check, he told us to check with you. We just. Want Our Coats!" Xanthus was reasonably sure he wasn't overheating, though he was getting a bit hot under the collar as he argued with the man with the bland expression who, he was guessing, was secretly a non human entity that fed off of other people's annoyance. There were others as well, muttering behind him that they too had been shuttled back and forth, by the sound of it some of them more than once, and getting no luck.

If he'd been less tired, he might have put it together more quickly, but instead he was just having trouble not getting upset... and keeping his head on straight. Everything just felt... weird... and a bit like he was standing off to one side watching himself argue with the Usher. Then the universe suddenly got bored watching the Xanthus channel or something, because everything tilted like a television screen loosing the signal, and went to staticky black.

When things next came into focus, he was no where near the muleish usher, but being dismissively consoled by a nurse, or someone who passed as one, because her gaze wandered nervously as she explained it must have been the heat, and she didn't quite sound like she believed her own patter. Mostly she just looked like she wanted to be somewhere else.

His head was still foggy... and maybe he was wrong, but he thought he only saw red and purple masks among the few people groggily shuffling around making their exit from the nursing area.

"...Sure... sure..." He agreed, as the hair on the back of his neck prickled.

Crap, Where was Laney? He must look like an i....she'd fainted too... not that long ago... and they'd heard all those thuds.

His mask felt different. He couldn't see anything different, but it felt... different.

"I... gotta find my date..."

He half hoped she'd found a way to sneak out, coat or no coat, but suspected he would turn her up waiting for him, as he had for her.

"Laney?" He called, as he made his own way out of the Nursing Station, nudging elbows with more red and purple masks than seemed like coincidence, even with his head still cottony with lack of energy. "Laney?"

He almost caught himself calling for her by "Hvergelmer", or whatever pronunciation of it he would have managed under the circumstances, adjusting his loosened tie instead as he tried to get his head on straight.



Xanthus/Kairatos: Red mask Leaving Nursing station.

And there it was. He'd figured it'd only be a matter of time. Emory looked around and, seeing that the revelers were becoming increasingly panicked, decided he'd best play along. No sense in trying to calm people who were beyond calming at this point.

"Lee?" He knelt beside the girl and took her hand, doing his best impression of someone who was genuinely concerned; his studies in social work and the practice he'd gotten with his friends served him well now. "Lee?" he said again, gently patting her cheek. "Are you okay?"

He knew full well she wasn't.

Looking down at his phone, not for the first time, he put in the password to his iphone before pulling up his contacts and selecting Fiona's name. Hitting the call button he waited, deciding to call her rather than text her. If she was in their hotel room upstairs she'd hear the phone ringing and that was likely to wake her better than an incoming text would.He just hoped she'd had a good rest and was feeling more awake and would come down and join him. He also had some shocking news for her - people passing out left right and sideways it seemed. He was sure it wasn't just drinking, heat, and how much bouncing around, dancing, and such people were doing. No, it made no sense and it was too many people. It seemed like it happened in waves...like something was planned or the people were lemmings that suddenly all at once had their strings cut. It really made no sense to him but he would be warning his girlfriend to be careful and to come down and join him on the third floor.

"Come on...pick up, please Fiona." Muttering to himself as the sound was swallowed up by the heavy music playing in the third floor ballroom turned club scene. He was hoping to rouse her and bring her to him so they could count down to the new year together - it was getting close. He wouldn't mind a dance and such before the count down started either, hence getting her up with around half an hour to go.

Brodie in his fancy pants blue suit and bowtie had his younger sister on his arm as they showed up fashionably late - due to the fact that one, he had absolutely no idea how to tie a bowtie and apparently clip on ties were completely uncool according to Raleigh. And two, the 15 year old girl couldn't decide what to wear or how to style her hair or what shade of nailpolish to put on or any of the other very trying and difficult things that 15 year olds need to decide upon.

The pair took their masks and as soon as Raleigh strapped hers to her face, she was kissing Brodie on the cheek, screaming Happy New Year at him and running off to find the ballroom with the very, very loud music playing. Video games and kids was not her cup of tea, but pretty dresses and adults and cute boys? That was very much exactly what Raleigh wanted for her perfect New Years Eve.

Brodie followed his sister upstairs to the third ballroom where he moved straight to the bar to order a drink and keep a close eye on her. And maybe pick up chicks because he clearly needed to find someone to kiss at midnight. That was, if he could even make it to midnight. He did pregame before coming to the ball, did he really drink that much? He was starting to feel exhausted already.


-----

Dani pushed through the doors of the hotel with wide, excited blue eyes. Her eyeliner was dark and her dress was sparkly and everything about tonight was absolutely perfect. Besides the fact that she knew very well that the Negaverse was up to something. Did they really have to ruin everyone's New Years? She sighed and pulled her black mask on and moved straight to the second floor. Immediately she recognized a familiar girl's long (like, really really long) flowing white hair and her face completely lit up. Suddenly the Negaverse and it's evil ploys didn't matter because Laine was here and she looked stunning and oh my god was that a boy with her!?

"Laineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~" Dani called loudly as she practically ran at the pair, the blue tulle of her dress flowing behind her. "Hiiiiii!!" She wrapped her arms around Laine from behind in a tight hug and when she released the other girl, she peered over at the guy that she was with [Kor]. "Hiya! I'm Dani, Laine's friend. Who are you? I like your hair. Super duper fitting that you're with Laine who has hair that I also like. What a coincidence! Unless you're with her because of hair which is adorable and kinda weird but whatever I totally don't judge. Are you guys having a good time? This place is enooooormous!"

Breath.

"I can't believe it's already the end of the year. Time just goes by so quickly, y'know? When you're a kid you just wanna grow up and make time go faster and then when you're an adult you desperately want time to slow down. I wonder why that is. I don't mind being a grown up, even if time is going fast. It means I get to come to fancy parties like this and wear pretty dresses! Do you guys want a drink? Ohhhh or to dance!?"

Breath.

"Wait... Is that a ring on your finger? Are you engaged!?" Dani shrieked and grabbed Laine's hand to admire the ring on her left hand. "Holy ******** that it stunning! Congratulations!"




Dani - Black Nega Mask [Outfit]
Raleigh - White Mask [Outfit]
Brodie - Red Mask [Outfit]

There was something strange going on, but as the night progressed Chris began to feel more and more dazed. Perhaps he just didn’t get as much sleep the night before…? Or maybe the long nights of patrolling were beginning to get to him.

He held Paris in his arms, resting his chin against the top of her head as they slowly swayed back and forth to the music. There wasn’t much energy left for him to do much more than that. Maybe it was the few drinks she had convinced him to have? Or maybe they really were just tired. Chris glanced down at her as she turned her head up to give him a kiss. “So do you… And we could,” he mumbled back, not minding that idea at all if only for the opportunity to lie down and get some sleep.

Still, he looked curiously around the room at those who didn’t seem to be faring very well. “You think you can even last until midnight…?” he mumbled and stifled a yawn with the back of his hand.

Black Mask