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If there was anytime Marlo wanted to punch Tate, he sorely resisted the urge to do so and she stated ho he'd been.... admiring Jada and her assets. He was male and she was the flame to his moth. She also... thought him the devil, he could work with that. "Jada..." his voice trailed into a sigh as sh grabbed Tate and geared her over towards the fake blood.

Looking at Kess he shrugged. "On a scale of one to ten, how sloshed is she? Tate is about a 9 I think." A glance back at the drunk duo. "Trade drunks?"

Something had gone terribly wrong.

Jada looked alarmed at this realization, as Kess stopped her and Tate from going to the blood jugs. And then Kess- all Beelze-Satan, yes, Satan? And Jada dropped Tate's wrist, no longer beaming. Instead she shook her head, looking horrified, skin pale even under her greying makeup.

"Not his." she said, and took a wobbly step back. Marlo was just going to yell at her again, and hurt her again, and Kess wasn't going to keep her safe and Marlo had eaten her soul and it was too late, but- "He won't take me alive."

She looked genuinely concerned, shaking as she scurried away from the other three partygoers, towards the kitchen, looking for her treasure chest.

She wouldn't leave the booty behind.

Oh no no no! Tate did not want to get her clothes even bloodier, because that would be messy, and also she was bloody enough already just from coming into contact with Jada. "Marlo," she said, indicating the man she was leaning on. It was a good thing he was so short, because it just was. Also she could use him as an armrest. Win-win situation all around, right? Aaaaand then she was being dragged off to get blood on her hands. She did not want to have a sexy blood fight, and she would have informed Jada and Marlo of this if interrupting wasn't rude. What was he even talking about? Oh, wait, they were trading! Excellent!

Tate smiled at Marlo, feeling very fond of him, suddenly. Even if he said she was a drunk, she felt very charitable towards her dear friend, and decided she would let him win next time they played Battleship. It was only fair, because he was letting her go touch Kess's face (all over.) Her smile turned from friendly to delighted when Kess snagged her wrist, and she beamed all kinds of rays of sunshine as she shook herself free. The smile faded and she cupped Kess's face in her hands, running her thumbs over the shorter girl's cheekbones.

"Oh," said Tate, sounding more than a little puzzled. "Wow, butterflies." They were in her stomach, and she was pretty sure from years of experience with romcoms that she was supposed to do something here other than consider how very nice Kess's skin felt. Only she couldn't remember what for the life of her, and figured she might as well smile at Kess again. So she did, a bright and sunny smile. "How do you do that, it's like magic," she asked, dark eyes wide.

Jada looked upset, and she was hurrying away, and then Marlo was following, and Kess frowned, turning back to Tate as she tugged her hand free to--

That smile.

It was enough to stop Kess from moving, finding that for once, she didn't need to bend for someone to get a look at her. It was strange, different, to tilt her head up, dark eyes flicking over Tate's face, as the younger girl studied her just as intently.

"Butterflies," She repeated, a little dumbly for someone not shwasted. It was an innocent word for the tingle, the tightness in her chest, and it seemed appropriate, despite this being, of course, the moment when Kess would typically lean [down, of course] to kiss a girl.

But Tate was smiling again, and Kess was forgetting what she was typically supposed to be doing. "What? Oh," Her brows knit together, though she didn't think to pull away. "You caught me." The blonde's answering grin was lopsided. A recovery. "Magic."

Commonly known as chemistry.

At least the party was crowded enough for it not to be incredibly noticeable, and awkward, that Kess had found herself a little starstruck.

What was in this bloodbath, again?

It was light enough that Kess would have thought she'd imagined it, if it wasn't for her body's immediate, strong response. Breath that'd been held while Tate examined her piercings [and there were plenty to inspect], came flooding back out as the brunette pulled away, straightened, her face reddened.

Kess wasn't prone to blushing [perhaps she'd gained another freckle or two, though, who knew], though she was hard-pressed to drag her attention from Tate's mouth and back up to meet her earnest eyes.

"The library," Suddenly she remembered her teasing promise. Her laugh, then, was warm, and she looked toward the the group of party-goers dancing closer to the sound system.

"Yeah," The fingertips of one hand brushed against Tate's where they rested on her shoulder, and the blonde shoved away the odd, compelling urge to grab them and pull Tate to the music. A hand she'd examined so thoroughly in the aforementioned library. No, she would be normal about this.

"Lead the way." That was better.

"Drank too much," Jada explained to Venice. "I brought-" here the heiress paused, opening her treasure chest and showing the other woman her Booty. There were two empty bottles of Everclear and a mostly-full one in the dead (and very bloody) pirate chest. "It is making my tumbly very roily. I promised I wouldn't drink this much again, but I am." She shook her head, confused. "I don't normally get drinking this fast." Did she mean drunk? "But this, this water is 75 percent alcoholistic, and the one I put in my punch was 90. And that was before I saw my almos-ex-cutie."

She had to leave before she tried to win the Blood-Drinking contest and got poisoning. But then she realized she had been talking to a wall, and Venice was behind her, talking to Marlo. Did she think Xanis was going to hurt her? "He won't kill me." she said it urgently. Marlo was a soul eater and a pretty person, but he wasn't a murderer. "He might beat me up and kiss me a lot, but I'll live to puke a lot more than he beats me up."

There were a lot of possibilities in tying up Xanis and sitting on him. She could torture the truths out of him, all of them. And maybe get her soul back. Purple eyes gleamed speculatively. "He's a Naval officer and I am a pirate." she pointed out to someone nearby. Oh, that was a table.

"Don't leave me in his hands!" Jada looked appalled. "His hands are wicked. But not killey hands."

She didn't want anyone thinking he was a killer. Nope nope nope. Xanis is a lot of bad things, but he isn't gonna kill me. she sing-songed her thought, before perking up and saying, "I'm a lot more likely to be the death of him."

It had arrived, and Jada stayed put, right where she had been, with the Venice-shield between her and her arch-nemesi(s? She would have to look into that. Was the plural of arch-nemesis arch-nemeses? Or arch-nemesi?) "I'm not going to be passing out." the heiress sounded quite indignant. "And of course I keep running away from you! You-" she lowered her voice, realizing even in her drunken state that ladies do not get in altercations at a party, "You were mean, and angry, and didn't listen to me."

One pointy boot made a stab at his ankles. And now he was being pat- partonu- partonusizing. Where had her treasure chest gone? She was going to brain him with it. But the booty had been taken away from her, and she didn't know where it was, so all she could do was stomp past the hostess and glare up at the Admiral, bloody hands on her hips. "Annow you are talking to me like I'm a child. 'I got some candy, come to my van.'" it was hissed, so her opinion of his offer was known only between the two (maybe three, if Venice was still paying any attention) of them, and her cheeks were flushed, and she felt really, really hot and sick. "I don't want you to cook for me." In fact, actually, the thought of eating anything made her look suddenly green at the gills. She could still feel the brains sliding down her throat, still taste the eyeballs on her tongue.

She'd taken the bait, but completely the wrong way.

"I want more blood." she said abruptly. "And you're not going to stop me, Admiral Poopypants. This is a party, and I'm gonna... party!"