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Location: Entrance Hall ==> Ballroom ==> Entrance Hall (Longway)

Kaosu's grin only broadened as he listened to Dorian talk. Yup. The doctor was definitely compensating for something. Secure men did not feel the need to brag about their bedroom exploits, especially those with women who quite literally worked under them. How curious. If the quirky drunk did have a weak spot in his sex life, then what was it? The redhead's question was answered promptly as the stranger winced while talking about his wife. In past tense. Well, that explained a lot.

Dorian continued to rant on, explaining that he why and when he employed meprobamate. This time Kao half ignored him, growing bored. He had already established that the loon was insecure. All of his boasts only reinforced that fact. Absently the impostor wondered what his acquaintance would do if he knew that all of his threats were empty. He would have a hard time coming up with a sedative Kaosu was not immune to and a hard time cramming the enough "old school drugs" in that needle of his to overdose him. "I guess this is what they call dramatic irony," he mused to himself.

When the topic changed, Kao scoffed. "Thanks for the advice. I'll try to remember that next time," he replied pleasantly with but a touch of sarcasm. He did not really intend to crash any more parties any time soon and did not particularly care if Dorian knew he was a fake, so the intended insult missed its mark. Blinking as the guy finally departed, he jokingly added, "Have a nice night!"

For once, after that, Kaosu remained quiet for a while. His attention was absorbed in watching Claudia's little freak out session. Apparently, the cheeky feathered Essentic had accused her of being a "thing". Quite a bold statement for an Essentic of all creatures to make. After all, the twerp and his friend were nothing more than "things" themselves. Fortunately, before the "toaster" girl managed to heat herself up, Dorian intercepted her and, as far as Kao could tell, hit her reset button. That scientist... he was doing an awfully good job of attracting attention himself.

With the show over, Kaosu swaggered off, deciding to explore the manor more before returning to pick a real fight with Dorian. He had concluded that all he needed to do to cause the alcoholic to snap was trash either his toy or his dead spouse, and those were cards he could play later. His first destination was the massive, lavish ball room. For a ball room, it was pretty typical. It had a band. It had a chandelier. It had a dance floor. Kao noted that it was actually a lot smaller than the one his parents owned, but Banning probably did not live to host events every weekend. Heck, he had barely even shown his face at this one. With a mild shock, Kao realized that he might be wrong. He did not even know what Banning looked like. He might have passed him six times in the hall and not noticed it. But that was unlikely, right...?

At that precise moment, he saw them. A human woman and Essentic. Waltzing. Immediately, Kao's stomach turned. The sight dredged up a slough of memories he'd rather not think revisit. He knew the waltz... he knew those steps... he knew how awkward it felt to teach them to someone without feet. Put off, Kao abruptly turned away. Snatching a glass from a passing servant's tray, he downed the fizzy drink without checking for rum, attempting to drown his dangerous thoughts. Unfortunately, he would get alcohol poisoning or liver failure long before he could ever feel the champagne's warm, consoling buzz.

Desperate to escape to recollect his nerves, Kaosu returned to the entrance corridor. He did not bother to carefully mind the crowd. As a result, he bumped a number of people as he passed through. Ignoring their curses, he sought refuge along the wall, alone and out of the way. In a few seconds, he calmed down. "Yeesh, this is some party," he muttered to himself. He was annoyed -he should have not allowed himself to be shaken up so easily.

Fully recovered, he glanced around. The scenery was mostly the same, with the exception of an odd woman he had not noticed before (Longway). She appeared to be off somewhere on cloud nine. She was undoubtedly having a better night than he was. Kaosu laughed weakly. On a whim he called her out, "I want some of whatever you're on!"

[[Location:]] Ballroom

"Oh, it was, um, nothing really. I had a blast, too." Why was he acting so shy, so nervous? He could still feel the warmth on his face as he picked up a plate and served himself a slice of a mouth-watering mousse cake. He tasted the mousse and smiled brightly; the taste was exquisite! The strawberry juice used in place of food coloring made it pleasantly sweeter than he was used to. "Shade, you gotta try this! It's amazing!"

Verdant turned when he heard his name. "Hm? Elst! Aoi! How're you guys doing? You two are looking great; good thing some of my style rubbed off on you guys, eh?" He waved with his free hand now that he'd relinquished Shade's hand. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Shade. He's a good f-friend of mine." Was he blushing while he said that? He hoped not. "Oh, Shade, these two are my best friends and employers. This is Elst"- he pointed to the tall plant man - "and this is Aoi." He pointed to the little flower being resting on his shoulder. Verdant then looked at the glass in Elst's hands and at the strawberries growing on his arms. "Jeez, how many of those have you had, Elst? I know they taste good, but don't you go turning into a strawberry plant now!" He chuckled to himself as he reached for one of the mojitos Elst had brought with him.

Verdant sipped his mojito and was surprised by the amount of booze in it. "Yeah, I won't be drinking this. I don't realy like to drink, even if it is delicious." He set the glass down and found that a newcomer had joined their group. She was pretty and was holding white wine in her hand, which was probably why she knew the white wine tasted good.

"It doesn't have as much alcohol as these, does it?" Verdant inquired, pointing at the mojitos. He hoped so; he'd rather have Shade drinking something less... capable of getting him s**t-faced.

Ah, one of the perks of planthood, no worrying about alcohol… Though Elst would need to make sure no one ate those strawberries, they were high-proof by now, would probably drop the hapless consumer into a coma if he/she ate them all at once. He frowned slightly at Verdant’s dislike of the drink; he could fix this. “Oh, no problem, I’m sure they can cook up some…what’s the phrase? Uh, oh yes, virgin mojitos for you…” He leaned over towards one of the staff, making a quick request for a few non-alcoholic versions of his precious drink. Soon enough, the young man returned, placing a new glass in front of each of them. Elst gave a quick ‘thank you’ to the man before returning to the others.

“There we go… Hey, Aoi could probably drink these, too…”

[ Location ] Ballroom

" Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dreamer Eversong. Pleasure to meet you. " Well at least she was sounding quite cheerful. " Yes virgin might be just a little better for Shade. " She'd seen her fair share of teenagers getting drunk and partying, in fact her apartment building had quite the hand full of young bachelors and bachelorettes that all seemed to want to party. " Duke Banning does seem to have quite the impressive reserve of alcohol drinks. " Nothing new here, any high end family always served the best drinks. It seemed, from Dreamers observation, that these people might not be high class like her and probably middle class. Not that she was against it, some nobles had already tried to kill her, she may as well stay with the middle class where she knew she wouldn't offend them. 'D' looked to the flower proto. " And I suppose your name is Aoi. " The question obviously directed to the proto, she knew they could speak and think for themselves and she wondered what kind of conversation she might have with one. Not that the other's weren't just as interesting, she was just leaning more towards learning tonight. She took another sip from the wine, letting it roll on her tongue so that her taste buds could enjoy it fully. The buffet beside them was starting to really get tempting, it would be nice to finally get some quality food into her system. With George gone, she'd burnt anything she made and take out was getting... Nasty.

[[Location:]] Still in the Ballroom
Verdant thanked the young man who had brought them the drinks and sipped his mojito happily now that he knew neither Shade nor Verdant would have a hangover in the morning. "Aoi would get a kick out of these, I'm sure. Want some?" He offered his glass to the little Essentic, shaking it enticingly.

Verdant looked down to see Shade smiling up at him, enjoying the non-alcoholic beverage Elst had been so kind to order for them. Verdant grinned too, a familiar warmth rising up in his cheeks. "So, you enjoying yourself, Shade?" He sure hoped so; he knew that the imp wasn't used to big crowds and fancy parties like this. Neither was Verdant, at least with the latter; he had plenty of experience with the former.

Verdant then turned his attention to Miss Dreamer, who seemed to be relishing her wine. The manner in which she indicated that she was probably filthy, stinking rich. The way she eyed everything in the ballroom seemed to Verdant as if she were comparing it to her own standards. It was a little unsettling, but at least she wasn't being rude. She was actually being quite polite, considering how rude and snooty rich people had been to him in the past. "So, Miss Dreamer, are you enjoying the festivities? The food's pretty good; try the cake!"

Ellandra had, in fact, tuned out much of what Lauss was saying, just enjoying the (perhaps a bit silly-looking?) dance. He could drone on and on as much as he liked; she may not hear everything he said but neither would she make him stop talking. After dancing for a bit, however, those dratted shoes really began to kill her feet, and she dared to interrupt the flow of information for a moment. "Lauss, have you visited with any of your siblings here yet, little one?"

She wasn't sure if she had, or if he'd even managed to meet any of them before coming here, but regardless it would be good for him to meet some of the others. Chances were he'd met at least one, the little ones seemed to call out to each other like beacons somehow, but that didn't mean he'd actually tried to associate with any of them. . .