LOCATION: Masquerade Ball, ballroom DATE & TIME: October 31st, 2178; 9:01 pm STATUS: @cvairo
It was like being in another world. Guests dressed in opulent fabrics, wide-eyed despite themselves, swept across the floor in pairs and trios, chatting about nothing and everything, glasses in hand. Back straight, mask covering all but the last remaining hints at her healing head, Alyx stepped through the groups, careful but courteous. Accepting a drink with a polite but distant smile, she swept the crowd with her eyes, looking for one person in particular, but unable to spot their hair among the masked figures. These things were not new for her, and though she was not at home in such circles, she’d spent more than a few hours chatting with the wealthy at galas and balls in hopes of acquiring funding for her latest study project. This, however, was something else entirely. The scale, the stakes, were far beyond anything she’d had experience in, and it unsettled her just a little.
It was this uncertainty that drew her to the side of the room, glass carefully held in one hand, and gunmetal nails tapping rhythmically along its edge. She could see the patterns in the room, each person, no matter if they were synthetic or organic, the resemblance to the creatures she studied was uncanny. They were, after all, nothing but animals, no matter the segments that were replaced with technology. (With DATA as the exception, of course.) It was this analysis that clicked through her mind, a way of seeing a situation just on the tipping point of unfamiliarity through a lens that made it all as easy as breathing. Alyx was so lost in the science of it all, distracted by the whirl of gowns like the plumage of some exotic bird, that she barely noticed the familiar presence of another, dressed almost in starlight. Cairo’s face was one that Alyx was just barely able to pick out of a crowd, and the glittering mask that sat atop perfect cheekbones disguised it, but Alyx knew her gait, recognised her despite the minimal information about the other woman. Their chef?
“What a night, is it not? So beautiful for your first excursion. I confess, I don’t quite see the use in the presence of all of us. Some, I’m sure, would have been better suited to remaining at home... Though you seem perhaps at home here?”
It’s a question more than a statement; Alyx hell-bent on learning information about one of the two newcomers in hopes that she can decide where to fit them in her mind.