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"THAT was scary." He turned to Thoth. "Thoth, that was scary, right?"

"No." said Thoth. "No it was not."

Tom laughed. "Don't worry. He always says that." He turned to Ix. "So anyways, how have you been doing?"

She helped herself to one of the celery sticks and began munching. "That's not bad," she said around a mouthful of food. "Want to get some more food and grab a table together? Feels like I've been standing up for ages."

"Now, that's Halloween, a holiday pretty much defined by candies, and henceforth sugar."

"Well, there is peanut butter," Marina said. "i don't know what sort of thing it is on this platter, but I know there is a possibility sugar is present in peanut butter. Small doses, and not always, but... Well, guess you know irony and this place work together. How much sugar would be needed to cause a sugar rush?"

Dax pouted. "Is everything in this room not safe for me to eat?" she asked as she walked over to the food table. "Like, I know all the things wrapped in foil aren't, but what about these things?" She pointed to a platter of celery smeared with peanut butter and dotted with raisins.

"Making it a pick for me," Richard said. "You, on the other hand..."

A shadow fell over her face, and for a moment, she actually looked rather wolfish. "The one time I snapped at someone, it... didn't end well for me."

She swallowed when the others returned to the group. "I'm sorry," she said again to Derik.

((Yes, I know, it's a cliche 'shadow of the wolf' trope I did there, but it's happened to Lupin and I'm totally cribbing here. :P))

Meanwhile...

"Will you at least let me wrap up your hand?"

"No. I want to be able to bang it against something if I need another dose."

Jenni shook her head. She wasn't sure if he was quoting House on purpose or not, but it didn't matter. She contented herself with fending him off from running into anyone on the way back and detouring to the drinks table for a big cup of water. "Here. I heard your voice cracking."

Derik glanced down at the cup and gave her a skeptical look. "You'd have a harper wet his throat with plain water? The Master would be appalled."

She flinched. "Hey! Invoking Robinton is below the belt. And you'd better start hydrating anyway, or you'll be a worse mess tomorrow. Unless you want the hangover."

He sighed, resigned. "No."

And so they made their way back.

"Why're you hiding? That's nothing to be ashamed of." He paused. "Rather charming, really."

Ix raised a shaking hand and pushed her upper lip away from her teeth. They were perfectly normal, if a little large in the front.

She dropped her hand and tugged her cloak tighter around her shoulders. "Happy now?"

"Why? Are they pointy? Or just horrible? Come on, now I have to see!"

(( Gall, neither. She does not care about other people's insecurities. It's part of her... charm. {= )

(( Just to clarify, Thoth is sitting at this point? ))

Dax tapped her chin and looked around. "I think if I knew more about the holiday, I'd have better ideas, but my idea of a prank is pantsing a city guard and then stealing his keys when he's not looking. Should we just get some food instead? Those apples covered with the sticky brown substance look rather tempting."

"People get upset with me when I show my teeth," she added, fiddling with her rose. "They think I'm going to hurt them when I do."

"I really stopped believing you about your abilities a while back, Ix. You have a nasty habit of selling yourself short." He grabbed a sip of Coke. "Go on, give it a go. I'm sure you're good at it."

((You can try for an angst off, but Tom may not cooperate.))

"Why don't you suggest something to do? Way I see it, we're getting nowhere."

"Yes, we're supposed to have fun there, and that won't be working if we can't find something agreeing with you," Richard said. "Besides, not thinking too much through thing isn't necessarily bad. Heck, this is an halloween party, that's the moment or that."

"We really don't have the same view on Halloween..."

"Now, give me a sailing ship, and I can do amazing things with her, but anything more complicated than a word processor and I'm totally lost." Dax cracked her knuckles. "Man, I really didn't think this costume through at all, did I? At least Mystique can morph clothes..."

Ix swallowed. "I'm not very good at scary grins... or any grins..."

((Can we start an angst-off? Please? Pleeease? I promise I'll behave myself.))

"That's cool. Did he tell you to do the scary grin at people who are bugging you? That's always hilarious. C'mon, give us a scary grin!"

Meanwhile...

Derik managed to weave his way out of the crowd with a minimum of awkward collisions. After relieving himself, he felt a bit better; a full bladder could wreck even a sane and sober man's mental coherence. He washed up, splashed his face, and stood staring at the mirror above the sink. The symbol of the Green Lanterns stood out on his chest.

"Willpower," he muttered. "You're a disgrace to that uniform."

Leaning against the wall outside, Jenni started at a crunch of glass and a muffled yelp. She spun around, quite prepared to barge in, but the door opened before she could get her hand on it and she almost ran into Derik coming out. Startled in turn, he reared back, flailing, and they grabbed onto each other's arms.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, scowling. He'd restored the green domino mask over his eyes.

"What are you doing?" she retorted. She turned over his right hand, took in the freshly reddened knuckles, and looked up in expectant concern.

"Restoring a measure of clarity," he answered. "Don't look so panicked, it's not a habit. But it is effective."

A thousand protests were on her tongue, but she swallowed them. "All right. Now what?"

"Now I go back and apologize like a man, tell the story I promised, and go home before anything else ironic happens. Coming?"

Jenni sighed. "You bet."

(( Aaaaaaangst angst angst angst. Sorry if that was a bit on the darker side, but once the image got in my head, it wouldn't go away. Building Maintenance is going to be ticked off about that mirror. {= P ))

"Eh, when they showed the first trailer for Persona 5, the protagonist 'stole' the show for that. Killing the lights, Life Will Change playing, a perfect introduction for a Phantom Thief. You have a better idea?"

"Well, I'm out of tricking with technology, and frankly not that interested in participating," Marina said. "Still, I heard worst ideas."

Dax looked down at herself. "Normally my idea of tricking people is pretending to be their doppleganger, but I don't really have any clothes on right now..."

"He seems friendly enough, usually. I would think he gave you pretty good advice." He shrugged.

Thoth just sat there, silently watching.

"I, erm..." She took a deep breath—and promptly looked back down at the floor. "Messaged him asking how he dealt with people staring," she mumbled. "At the, at, at the scars." The last word was whispered in shame.

Shame had won out. He raked his fingers up through his hair, which had been gelled down for the occasion, and thus he succeeded only in making himself look even more disheveled. "I am being very self-indulgent, Ix," he said with the profound solemnity of the very drunk. "Very selfish. I—I didn't want you to know me like this." He fidgeted, growing agitated again, and mumbled: "I should, um... I need the necessary." He got to his feet, swayed, and put out a forbidding arm. "Nobody help me. I'll go. You stay." He staggered off into the crowd.

Jenni shifted anxiously on her feet. "I'll go after him. I'm sure it's fine, but... I'll go after him."

Gall looked around, shrugged, and took Derik's chair. She leaned forward and looked up challengingly up at Ix. "So how do you know my partner?"

(( Well, it had to happen at some point after seven drinks. Honestly, now that we've started this scenario, I'm struggling to know what to do with it. So, buying Derik some time to flip into a more conducive mood. If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes! ))