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Forever wants something...

For the second time that evening, Susan found herself being bumped into. At least I don't have my camera in hand, this time... She thought to herself as she turned to view the woman that had managed to collide with her. Immediately, a certain tingly warmth exploded within her stomach.

"T-Temperance?" She squeaked.

She'd recognize her anywhere, in anything.

Susan's heart fluttered within her chest. A blush spread its away across her cheeks. She hoped she looked alright, she hoped Temperance hadn't seen her being tugged around by Isobel, she hoped- oh, what was she hoping for. Temperance wasn't interested in women, after all.

"You're here, t-too?" She asked, eyes wide beneath her mask. It was a stupid question. She wished she could pull the words back into her mouth but it was already too late. She did her best to cover it up with some more words, but they came out sounding pretty stupid too. "I, um- I... it's nice to see you... well, sorta... I mean, I- I wish I could've seen you somewhere else and not here because here is, well, it's a little n-nuts don't you think?"

"W-well my new boss got an invitation and I sort of j-just followed him through the door and I... I ended up here... and it's been, well, it's been very... odd." She fidgeted nervously. She felt hot again. Too hot. As though all the heat in the room had begun to form a tight bubble around her and melt its way past her skin. If only she had brought a fan. It wouldn't have looked out of place and it would've been really, really helpful. She made a mental note to bring a fan to the next murder masquerade she decided to crash.

"You- you look, um-" Gorgeous. "- n-nice." Nice?! Inwardly, she berated herself. "I like u-um-" Every single damn thing about you. "- your mask..." Stupid, stupid, stupid!

And then, just like that, a hand was offered. Susan took it without even the slightest hesitation. Her fingers wrapped around Temperance's greedily. Her heart thudded hard in her chest. Her ears were red-tipped and fiery hot. Were her palms sweaty? She really hoped not. She did her best to keep her breathing even as she was pulled towards the crowd's edge. Calm down, calm down, calm down. She tried her hand at small talk as they moved.

"Did you, um- s-see that burning guy? He's pretty, um, weird- r-right? And the guy... the g-guy with no face... I had to tell him a story.." She was terrible at small talk. Absolutely terrible.

This was a very special sort of torture. Susan's breath caught as soon as Temperance made the move to tuck a lock of navy behind her ear. Her fingers squeezed the blonde's hand involuntarily. She was one hundred percent sure that her heart was about to break free from her chest. She'd had a crush on Temperance since day one of high school. Then she'd graduated and not thought about her with so much distance in between them.

And now... now . Susan was very aware of the lack of distance between them.

She was flustered. Very flustered.

She closed her eyes. She took a breath. She took her hand from Temperance, shakily, and adjusted her mask. "Uuuummmmm." She couldn't make eye contact, not without losing her train of thought. "A space worm huh..." This place was full of surprises. But of course she'd help. How could she say no?

"Where do you th-think a good place to find, um, sauce would be?"

Susan jumped at the eyeball's sudden outburst, the large orb burning a fearful memory into her brain as Temperance quickly pulled her away. "Th-This place is s-so weird... do you, u-um... do you kn-know where we even are?" Because Susan definitely had no ******** idea.

One minute she'd been following Al out the front door, and the next minute she'd been in a gown outside the Ivory hall's gates. If she thought her brain could've come up with all this she might've thought it to be a dream, but her dreams were never this detailed and tended to focus on mundane things like showing up to an interview naked or falling off somewhere high up.

"Other Ashdown? You m-mean we're in l-like some kinda... S-silent Hill place?" Susan regarded the bathroom with a frown. It was disgusting, and she wasn't all too enthused about having to enter it- but she did. Because Temperance did. And if Temperance did then Susan had to. Right? Right.

Still, she really did hate to think about all the germs that were crawling around the place. And... had no one bothered to flush in the last few years? Susan paled and looked away from the open stall. She was glad she hadn't eaten anything, because she was sure she would've puked otherwise. Even so, she felt a little bit faint. The smell was horrendous.

She lifted her hand to point at the bottle-lined shelf.

"Ch-check there." She couldn't bring herself to touch anything in the place, even if she did want to look cool in front of her crush. She just couldn't.

"N-no, I don't... I don't th-think s-s-so... I m-mean. I've heard the rumors about all the w-weird stuff here but I th-thought... well... I di-didn't think they were true. T-til now, I guess..." Susan hugged herself and watched as Temperance sorted through the bottles, doing her very best not to gag when a roach crawled out from beneath one and across the wall before it wiggled away into a grimy crack.

When Temperance indicated a bottle, Susan squinted at it. The contacts she'd been supplied didn't bother her eyes, like most did, but they also weren't all that great when it came to aiding her vision. "U-um, if it's what the w-worm asked f-for... then, y-yeah..."

Before she could answer with the information she'd received from Pax or the man with no face, the toilet bubbled and belched. Susan's stomach did a backflip.

"Oh my ******** god, that smell! I've gotta- I've gotta get out of here..." She pushed her way back through the room's entrance, desperate for some fresh air.

Susan tensed, only slightly, when Temperance placed a hand on the exposed bit of pale skin on her back. Her fingers sent a pleasant, tingling sensation down the freckled woman's spine and it was almost enough to make her forget how disgusting that bathroom had been. Almost.

Her skin still crawled when she thought of just how grime-covered that toilet was.

"I'm- I'm ok... we can go down... it was j-just... it was bad." She glanced at Temperance with a soft, embarrassed frown. "I'm s-sorry... you must think I'm a wimp..."