20:42 <Crion> Well, you're dressed now. Tony is dressed now, that is. He kind of looks like an influencer. Maybe two of you know what that is? 20:42 <Crion> Anyway, it's nearing time for the Wherehouse to...go to a college party. 20:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart didn't even get to pregame. 20:45 <trenchfoot> Nels has been to parties before, but never a college party. Are they super different? I mean, other than the fact that the last party she went to was in 1919? Hoo boy. 20:46 <Crion> Now that you're all together and your fits are correct, what is the game plan? 20:46 <banana> Melanie will reassure her: "It's just like going out to the Sidereal, but people are weirder and meaner." 20:46 <VoxPVoxD> Pre-Prohibition Americans and modern undergraduates probably have a similar units-per-capita rate of alcohol consumption. 20:48 <trenchfoot> Nels: "That's... okay. I can handle that." 20:48 <banana> Melanie: "So I guess.. we're not there to have a good time, it's fine if anyone has a good time but what we wanna do is meet people who knew those three and learn anything about their past connection to each other, to the sun cult, amp-c." 20:49 <CBN> Tony: "I feel like I look like the kind of guy that vampires eat. Both genders." He minimally fidgets and picks at his sleeves. 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I did a little research, and good news: this apartment building is the only facility on campus that houses grad students. So no one's going to be outrageously out of place." 20:50 <banana> "Oh yeah, if anyone's looking suspicious just.. evince despair and fatigue." 20:51 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I'm not really built for that, but I'll give 'er a try!" 20:53 <trenchfoot> Nels checks: "It's still considered bad to bring a guitar, right?" 20:53 <banana> "I think more.. inevitable than bad." 20:55 <banana> Melanie: "And yeah that implies people are trying to avoid it but it's not like they expect to succeed?" 20:56 <banana> "As a really rough plan.. let's go in there together so that we look legitimate, then maybe split up into pairs to mingle.. otherwise we'd just be some sort of crasher crew doing their own thing." 20:57 <CBN> Tony: "Who do we say we know? You don't go to a party if you don't know anyone, that's a party foul." 20:59 <banana> "...Sean?" 20:59 <Crion> It's a nice night. Warm for February, and there hasn't been snow, so it's just crisp out. Not much wind. 21:00 <banana> "No- Steve." 21:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart points at Melanie and says very firmly, "Yes." 21:01 <Crion> From the kitchen: HONK! 21:01 <Crion> It's of approval. 21:02 <CBN> Tony: "But they wouldn't know----oh we're lying ok. Okay!" Hollers to the kitchen. "Thanks Steve!" 21:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart brings the car around. "I'm gonna park us in the garage." 21:06 <banana> Did we swing by a liquor store, or are we picking some up on the walk over? 21:08 <Crion> Perhaps unsurprisingly given everything you know about Catonsville's relationship with this school, you'll want to buy beer in the city. 21:08 <Crion> Or bring your own. 21:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's good to buy booze. He's going to drive a bit out of the way to do it, though, because the people at the ones nearest his apartment recognize him. 21:10 <dammitwho> Two sixers outta do it for Maggie. 21:17 <Crion> Well, the night is young, and the Walker Avenue apartments are bumping. This is the only student housing that doesn't clear out for winter break, and so there are kids hanging out in the central courtyards, in the stairwells, getting in and out of cars at the reserved parking spaces-- 21:17 <Crion> How familiar are you all with vaping? 21:17 <trenchfoot> With what? 21:19 <banana> Walking downhill toward what are basically offsite dorms, with a pack of beers and friends.. it ought to feel more familiar to Melanie. It's not just that she's the one who walks slowest, now- this experience is gone, one of the memories that got overwritten or obsoleted and isn't coming back. She knows it's a place someone called Melanie has been before but it was just too long ago. 21:19 <banana> Have to treat it as a new thing and remember that people can't see. 21:19 <Crion> Okay, so a bunch of these kids look like they're putting the sparkplug from a car into their mouths. And vibing off it. 21:19 <dammitwho> Plenty! Remember, Stewart introduced her to it so she wouldn't smoke in the Wherehouse anymore! It's pretty fun - makes her feel like a robot from the future, which is probably less fun for the Stewarts and Laurens of the world. 21:20 <trenchfoot> The future is hecked up, man. 21:20 <dammitwho> She brought her own vape thing whaddayacallit, so that's another thing she can bond with these grad students over. 21:21 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's been off weed since he became completely disconnected from reality, but if he starts up again he's probably gonna get a vape. It's just so much nicer-smelling. 21:23 <banana> Melanie: "Someone's got a subwoofer in there. Good stuff." 21:24 <CBN> Tony's keeping quiet and trying to keep his mind off the last time he went wandering around outside, at night, with friends, and beer. At least this isn't the woods. 21:24 <Crion> One of the vaping boys they pass, in a group, blows smoke up in the air and then shouts out: "Ayo! Mami!" He's clearly talking to Maggie. "How YOU doin this fine evening?" 21:25 <Crion> "Welcome to the Univeristy of Maryland!" His buddy prods him. "Baltimore County!" 21:28 <dammitwho> She laughs. "Evening, fellas." They aren't sincerely asking how she's doing this evening! Holding them up to talk about the weather and nonexistent health troubles would be funny, but counterproductive. 21:29 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Hello!" She might linger longer than Maggie. 21:32 <Crion> "Eyyyy! Nice to see you all out here. Nice to see more of you when the weather's--" He gets distracted by one of his buddies. "I was just being outgoing!" he says to one of them. The boys continue the other way. 21:34 <banana> "A mere social overture. Highly forgivable." Melanie's saying this about the guy once they've passed, not to him. 21:35 <Crion> There's a couple more kids smoking and laughing around the closest entrance to the apartment towers. They're basically square constructions with stair towers on each corner, four floors of apartments connecting each square tower, and a courtyard in the middle. 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> These short brick buildings, the wide, paved walkways with no cars... Stewart's swept up in silent nostalgia for the year he spent in college, huffing and puffing from class to class, the library with pale wood fixtures far as the eye can see. Meeting Maura for lunch... 21:46 <Crion> Now, there's not just one "party" going on -- basically everyone who is still here is out drinking, smoking, vaping, mingling, etcetera. These are dorms, after all. 21:46 <trenchfoot> Golly. 21:48 <dammitwho> Wonderful! You only live once. 21:48 <dammitwho> Ghosts aside. 21:49 <trenchfoot> Don't forget vampires. 21:54 <trenchfoot> Nels flits off towards whatever groups are nearest - hey, do you know where ... is? My friend said to meet here to take us to them but she's not answering her phone... 21:56 <Crion> Nels gets information pretty quickly -- the lacrosse players have 3A through 3C, a block of four-bedroom, shared common room, kitchn and bath apartment pods on the west side of the complex -- closest to the Walker parking lots, farthest away from the main street, which leads north to the campus police station. The pick of the positions. 21:57 <banana> Let's keep up some kind of bullshit patter as we head in. If Nels is going to introduce herself, the rest of us should be chatting, rather than waiting silently like a bunch of Operatives. Everyone saw the game, right? And what's up with those fires in australia. 21:57 <Crion> Now that you've been pointed in the right direction, the sound of bass coming from there is unmistakable. As is the lighting from the windows. 21:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart just finishes watching this new tv show. It had a baby Yoda in it. Messed up. 21:57 <trenchfoot> What's a yoda? 21:58 <dammitwho> A hobgoblin. 21:58 <banana> "It's that thing they do in the Swiss Alps, with the horns." 21:59 <trenchfoot> Anyway: she will thank the person who told her where to go, and then lead the motley to Partytown. 21:59 <trenchfoot> "I thought that was yoga?" 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Yoga was the catcher for the Yankees in the 50s." 22:00 <banana> "Isn't that the bear from the Flintstones?" 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> "There're no bears in the Flintstones." 22:01 <Crion> "Flintstones didn't have a beaaaar" chimes in an incredibly stoned girl leaning against the bike rack. 22:01 <Crion> Then she wanders off. 22:02 <trenchfoot> Nels, confidently: "She's right." She has never seen the Flinstones nor has any idea of what it is. 22:02 <banana> Melanie: "..the Jetsons then..?" 22:02 <CBN> Tony, under his breath: "Back in my day there's no way we were this weird." 22:02 <trenchfoot> Nels: "That means you were boring." 22:03 <Crion> You are of course tasked with getting into the building now -- it's secured by magnetic locks tied to card key readers. 22:03 <Crion> But then, you're changelings. 22:04 <CBN> Tony is taken aback but also nods, resignedly. 22:04 <dammitwho> By the way, it turns out that saying 'actually, the WORLD is a prison and inside this building is actually the outside' and then trying to portal through doesn't work. 22:05 <dammitwho> Maggie took a shot at that one early on once when she locked herself out of her apartment. 22:09 <trenchfoot> Nels simply places her hand on the card reader and opens the door for the others. C'mon. 22:10 <Crion> Did you do this at the nearest door? 22:10 <trenchfoot> First door that didn't have people looking at it. 22:10 <Crion> Then you're good. The whole of the Walker Avenue apartments is open to you. 22:11 <Crion> Smells like weed. 22:12 <trenchfoot> People live like this? Jeepers. 22:12 <CBN> Tony, to the group, quietly enough to try not to be too embarrassing: "Did they legalize grass while I was gone or something...?" 22:12 <dammitwho> What, near weed? N-no, never. 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "In some states. Here it's just 'decriminalized'." 22:13 <Crion> As you make your way through the complex -- the doors INSIDE the stairwell are keycarded too, good lord, but they open to Nels all the same -- the party starts to come into clearer volumetric focus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtV3pZJdOuw 22:13 <trenchfoot> Still, she holds the door open to let the others in. "C'mon, be quick about it." 22:14 <CBN> Tony tilts his head at the music: "Stewart it sounds like they're playing one of your pongs." 22:14 <banana> Melanie: "Huh. To me it smells like.. literal grass, like it's just 'a plant'. I guess there's something physiological missing." 22:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "More danceable than most video game music." 22:15 <Crion> Inside it's a lot less...population dense, until you get to the third floor on the west side. Some people are just sitting in their apartments trying to enjoy a nice lame Saturday night with the books or whatever. 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> Solidarity. 22:19 <banana> Right. The lacrosse people should be pretty identifiable by appearance... 22:19 <Crion> As you make your way up to the third floor, you come across that most hapless of wanderers in the modern world: a pizza delivery man who was buzzed in the first door, didn't count on having to get through another card reader on the second floor, and can't get signal on his phone. He's got three piping hot 'zas... 22:20 <CBN> Tony nudges Nels, "Tell him we can take this," forming a plan despite knowing in his heart he lacks the ability to execute on it. 22:21 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Hi, where's that going to? We're heading up, we can take it the last bit of the way." 22:23 <Crion> "Your pizza? Your pizza?" Guy might not have the most English. He just seems happy to have found someone who looks like they can open a door around here. He presents a receipt: 28.78, before tip. Looks like he needs cash. 22:23 <banana> Melanie: "Hey it's not Rhonda's order is it?" 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gives him two $20s. 22:25 <Crion> He is very happy for this, and hands over three larges and some bread side. 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Take it easy." How hot are they? 22:27 <Crion> Piping hot 'zas. 22:28 <banana> Then we've got to move fast! 22:29 <trenchfoot> Do they have a label for where they're supposed to go? Because we're already In, we don't need to steal pizzas from people... 22:29 <VoxPVoxD> There could be a name on the receipt, but also, it's not stealing if we paid for them ourselves. 22:30 <trenchfoot> And tipped, too. Okay, we're fine. Let's party! 22:54 <Crion> The name on the receipt is for a "Chet P." There's no other details. 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> Chet's definitely a lacrosse guy name. 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> Anyway... where's Nels leading us? 22:56 <trenchfoot> To the lacrosse team she knows of. Frankly if 'Chet' isn't a part of them, he deserves to lose these pizzas. Come on. Chet? 22:57 <Crion> As you approach the nexus of the bass, the song changes over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-gvIeNWAPo 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> Nice. 22:58 <trenchfoot> This isn't as good! But also she can't tell anyone that. 22:59 <banana> Melanie, quietly: "Kind of makes you wanna dance." 22:59 <trenchfoot> Nels makes a frustrated noise. 23:01 <Crion> There's a couple clean-cut guys and athletic girls in sweats vaping in the hall as they approach the west end of the building. All the doors here are open; people are coming and going, mingling and moving. 23:03 <trenchfoot> What the heck is this 'vaporing' thing all about. They just do this openly?? 23:03 <banana> To the world: "Hey, Chet around?" 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart agrees with Melanie. But it makes him think about college, and how he had to be goaded to dance. One time someone whose name and face he no longer remembers dragged him from his spot on a couch to dance in a too-crowded apartment living room. He *does* remember that Maura was mad at him the whole following Sunday and he couldn't understand why. Was that a month before he was taken? 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Two months? A week? He can't piece a timeline together. 23:05 <Crion> "Huh? Oh, yeah. 3B, in there. Y'all...delivery?" The tall guy with good hair looks benignly confused. 23:06 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Nope! Just lost and ran across the pizza guy on our way." 23:06 <Crion> Door's open. Party's proceeding. 23:06 <Crion> "Oh. Uh. Cool. Yeah he's in there." 23:06 <Crion> "I think." 23:07 <trenchfoot> Is he like this all the time or just some times. 23:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's holding the pizza with one arm. Not really focusing on what the guy's saying. But his balance is impeccable. 23:10 <Crion> Guy With the Good Hair -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRviuL6vMY I was told when I got older all my fears would shrink; but now I'm insecure, and I care what people think. 23:11 <trenchfoot> Okay. Weirdo, but okay. 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Once we're moving again Stewart snaps back to reality (oh, there goes gravity) and is alert enough to bring the pizzas inside, with any assistance others offer. 23:14 <banana> Melanie takes a pizza box to get them unstuck from the doorway and steps inside, wondering at the atmosphere. There's such incoherent emotion here - not carefree but still free. 23:15 <Crion> Inside is semi-packed. There's a big TV in the common room, and they've got...some reality show on. Seems to be about ostenatiously insufferable people barely sustaining relationships, in ways packaged for cable. 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> Same. 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't recognize this. 23:16 <trenchfoot> Why do people watch this. Just do it yourself. 23:17 <banana> Performative insufferability is so fake though. 23:17 <Crion> A guy who lifts but doesn't do a lot of cardio looks over from the screen. "Oh yah, just put it on the table. Where's the facking money..." Sounds like he's from up north? 23:17 <banana> "Someone paid the guy already." What kind of crowd are we looking at? 23:17 <Crion> There's a GIANT bong on the centerpiece table that the couches and TV are organized around. 23:18 <trenchfoot> Oh my god. The future is amazing. 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> Is it clean? 23:19 <CBN> Tony stands transfixed at the show on TV. It's like looking at the shittiest durance for the worst people. He can't look away. 23:19 <Crion> Probably about a dozen, fourteen in the room? Some girls over in the corner talking, pairs of guys and girls on the couches. The mayor of Quincy here looks confused. "Why'd someone a done that?" 23:19 <Crion> Yeah, looks pretty well kept. Lots of empty longnecks but, it's a party. They look fresh. 23:21 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Prolly 'cause the guy had to get paid and couldn't get past floors of security." 23:21 <trenchfoot> God she hopes her slang holds up. 23:22 <banana> Americans probably all sound the same to this guy. 23:22 <Crion> Guy -- Chet -- just stares blankly, then nods, because that makes sense. "Oh. Huh. Well uh just put in on the counter PIZZA'S HERE." That last is bellowed to the entire apartment. 23:24 <Crion> *put it 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> Down it goes. 23:25 <Crion> Absently: "Oh yeah help yourself to a slice." He turns away to the rest of his friend group: "Who paid in? You didn't pay in you're not facking getting a slice--" 23:25 <Crion> You seem to have successfully infiltrated the party, such as it is. 23:25 <banana> Idly but audibly: "Anyone know if Steve's here tonight? Was he at another thing down the hall?" 23:26 <Crion> A girl getting out plates: "You mean Zastudil or Stevey Pete?" 23:28 <banana> Melanie: "Oh shit, that's a great name for him. I'll have to use that one. Did we do a vegan order here? It's okay if not, cheat day." 23:29 <Crion> "Yeah! I mean, hopefully." She rolls her eyes. "If Chet ordered right. One should be half cheese, half olives." 23:29 <Crion> She seems maybe not to know what vegan means? 23:30 <Crion> Or she just heard vegetarian. 23:30 <dammitwho> Idly, to Nels: "I used to know a Stevey Pete. Before all the bad business." 23:30 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Was he like that the whole time?" She doesn't miss a beat. 23:33 <banana> Melanie: "Ideekay Chet but the driver had a worse accent than he does, so it's probably not an issue." 23:33 <Crion> Everyone's got a really good read on the party, which is: dance/make-out/maybe fuck zone over in 3A, Chet's Pizza and TV emporium here in 3B, and then in 3C it's quieter with chill vibes. There's some lacrosse girls here, but they're mostly underclassmen; presumably, most of the wild ones are over in 3A with boyfriends or hookups, but-- 23:34 <Crion> Nels is the one who hears the girl in the Towson sweater -- that's what caught her eye first -- muttering to two other girls as they grab pizza about "well I guess she's not really missing, is she, if she's showing up to parties. Coach should throw her off the--" 23:35 <trenchfoot> What the heck. 23:36 <trenchfoot> She'll elbow whoever's closest - probably Stewart - and tell them what she just heard, because WHAT??? 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "Good lead. You wanna take that or should I?" 23:42 <dammitwho> Maggie'll take her beers to the chillvibes room, start vaping and encourage the others there to tell stories, chuckling merrily. 23:43 <Crion> Chill vibes room has the door mostly shut to keep out noise from the hallway, but all the interior doors are open (except like, the bathroom door. Come on). The lights that are on are dim; everything's mostly in shadow, with a couple of Weird College Lanterns that were obviously like 35 bucks at a superstore providing most of the illumination. 23:44 <Crion> People are paired off in ones and twos chatting and vaping; the bedrooms seem to have been converted into hangout zones too, and the balcony door is open letting in the crisp night air, because this many people in this small space is gonna lead to humidity. 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> Fairy lights? 23:45 <Crion> Yeah, purple in color, but the main centerpieces are like...what the world's college students evolved to after lava lamps went out of style. 23:46 <trenchfoot> To Stewart, quietly: "All yours." 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart reaches for a beer and cuts over to the rude, gossipy teens. In a conspiratorial voice: "You guys talking about Jina?" 23:50 <Crion> They're visibly startled by the snappily-dressed cute guy entering the conversation. "Oh. Uh. Hi. Yeah. You know Jina?" 23:50 <banana> Melanie is going to stay in the TV room and try to follow these conversations naturally from their starting point of knowing and not knowing people into introductory chatter. It's all a lot easier when she doesn't think; just react, there's always something to say, it doesn't actually make people like her like when she's acting and carefully prepared but it also doesn't make her want to 23:50 <banana> throw up, which would be bad after even one slice of pizza. 23:52 <Crion> In that case, Doesn't-Know-About-Vegan Girl wants to know what Melanie's studying, and does she play a sport? She looks like she plays a sport. 23:52 <trenchfoot> Nels becomes Stewart's Friend, Who Definitely Belongs Here. She looks like she belongs, at least. 23:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. Have you seen her lately? I was- I haven't seen her in like a month." 23:55 <Crion> Towson sweater girl: "Me either! SO weird. Her parents filed a -- whatever. Yeah, I think she's over in the chill room now. She was going after this guy." 23:56 <trenchfoot> Nels: "She looked fucking awesome, I wanted to say hi..." Gosh this is so weird. 23:57 <banana> "Oh yeah I'm Melanie, from Philosophy, in the Pahb. I am, like, a superfan of the teams here but you wouldn't wanna see me try and jump." Unless the nonvegan is a lot more perceptive about peoples' motivations than she is about nutrition, Melanie should be able to talk convincingly about local athletics. Is she a player herself...? 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah I... think I need a word with her. Later." 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> The chill room...! 23:57 <trenchfoot> The KILL room. 23:57 <dammitwho> Oh, nice. Maggie's seen pictures of Jina just like everyone else, so is she obviously there? 23:57 <Crion> Nonvegan is indeed on the UMBC softball team. 23:58 <CBN> Tony, around a slice of pizza while still staring at the TV, to no one in particular: "Why would she trust Jax again..." 23:58 <Crion> She's not in the main room...or any of the bedrooms...which just leaves the balcony. 23:58 <Crion> Chet, to Tony: "Ah, you know how it is with these chicks." 23:59 <CBN> Tony, to Chet: "It's so obvious! C'mon!" Gesturing at the TV like he's disputing a ref's call in a football game. "He does one thing, he lies!" 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> Balcony is good. Hopefully she's not about to go full Omen. 00:00 <Crion> Chet, to Tony: "Yeah but, ya know. There's a stability to that. In a facked up way." 00:01 <Crion> There is at least one person out on the balcony, but it's gonna be difficult to go out there without directly inserting yourself into the conversation. Not too much space. 00:01 <CBN> Tony thinks about that for a long moment during one of the frequent commercial breaks. "...the devil you know, man. Yeah, I got you." 00:03 <trenchfoot> Enough space for a smoke break? Because holy shoot, Nels needs to just smoke. 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Is the door open? Ideally we'd get eyes on Jina before things went full awkward. But if not then that's just what we're gonna have to do. The beer in Stewart's hand is already empty. 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> To Nels: "Let's just stumble out there like we think it's empty." 00:03 <Crion> The door is open, and Stewart, Nels, and possibly Maggie will doorjam it...next week. 00:05 <banana> Melanie's quite surprised for a moment by memories. "Hey- maybe you know _______ -" She names a couple of players from the UMBC softball team of four years ago - athletics always used to mix a lot, and the softball players were.. interesting. There were stereotypes. She has multiple conflicting memories, here, some of which might be Belanie's point of view (or that's just an excuse).