Re: Entrance, ~7-7:30 PM
Against her better judgment, she was here. When she'd first heard about the party, Brighid had decided she had no real interest in attending. Parties had never really been her thing; she was much more prone to sit in a corner and observe those around her than she was to actually getting up and carrying on. Besides which, a party hardly seemed a proper token of reparation for the changes to the building that had wrecked her feeling of security. And perhaps it was that same damaged sense of security, or maybe just some kind of ingrained superstition, but there was something about the fact that the party was being thrown on this night in particular that unsettled her. Time and reading through others' forum posts and the general sense of excitement in the building had weakened her resolve, though, so she'd gone with Kami to get a costume. The blue dress and white pinafore were more of the classic Alice than many of the costumes they had seen; both were full-length and fell below her knees rather than stopping short a foot (or more) above. She also wore white stockings and black Mary Jane flats, though she had passed on the blonde wig. Still, Brighid thought it a reasonably good costume for all it had been a last-minute affair.
She'd been sitting at a table situated so she could observe comings and goings at the bar, on the dance floor and near the entrance. Kami, with whom Brighid had shared a cab ride to the party, had done her best to make sure the younger girl was comfortable and happy before she'd headed off for the dance floor. Brighid had watched her companion's dance with Samuel with some bemusement, hoping the flirtation was purely innocent; there was something about Samuel and Lia which kept the sometime foes inexplicably linked in Brighid's mind, and she was more than a little relieved when Kami's attention shifted after a single dance.
It wasn't until some time later, when she observed Navid and a woman she assumed was his Zara enter that Brighid relinquished her spot. She had spent the minutes pondering the costumes of those around her, and now added the couple she was approaching to her mental speculation. There was another man standing with them, a Western cowboy she thought might be Rick, another neighbor from her own floor whom she believed she had greeted on the forums though perhaps not yet in person. As she stepped closer and heard him refer to Zara as "the little fish-lady," at least part of the costume clicked.
"A mermaid, then," she said when she reached them. "And Uncail is a love-struck sailor?" Brighid smiled a bit shyly at them before encompassing the third of their party. "You're Rick, yes? You live across the hall in 706, I think."