Allana Solo (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sanguinesolo) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} wariscoming, |
Allana edged in the door and paused in the entrance for a moment, eyebrows arching slightly. The scene in Cade’s house was nothing she hadn’t seen before (Vegas and then a friendship with Jennifer Check was a surefire way to get a crash course in partying even after an adolescence spent traveling with grandparents) but she hadn’t expected anything this crazy, not with the way her cousin’s Force signature had been spiraling into desperation and edging towards a level of darkness that was making her uncomfortable. She’d expected drinking and music loud enough to crack a skull, had been looking forward to it even. She ventured into town more than most of her family, and had pretty much haunted the local diner in the late hours since her arrival. After the first shock of the massive spike of despair and death in the Force she’d realized that some of those snuffed lives had been familiar: Loren, the waitress with the scumbag boyfriend she was always swearing she would dump one of these days and Toby Jennings, a night-shift security guard who had asked her last Christmas whether she thought his daughter would like a gift certificate to the Gap or Forever 21 better had been among Alema’s second one hundred. The fast-talking coffee cart owner who had once told her not to “worry about the math” had died before them, in the first influx of the bugs. Then there was Anakin’s disappearance from the Force, her fault for teaching him, and the mind trick Alema had played on her mother which had faded now but still troubled her. All in all she had been as eager as anyone to have a couple drinks, obliterate her ability to think coherently, and just let go for a little while. She’d expected other people from among the displaced and maybe a few locals Cade knew. This, though? This looked like half of Lawrence had shown up and brought every pill and powder they could get their hands on.
Well, she reminded herself, this is Cade after all. The guy lives alone in a, like, five bedroom house. Ostentatious is just part of his thing right? She’d come to the party at least partially to keep an eye on her cousin, but she was still hoping he’d manage to bring himself back from the edge the way he always seemed to.
As if on cue she saw the aforementioned cousin taking a Force-cushioned leap from the second floor and laughed, shaking her head slightly as she turned around to shut the door behind her. Well, brooding about things that might or might not happen is useless right? Probably worse than useless given how well Cade responds to people tsk-ing at him, she decided, and when she turned back towards the crowd she’d brightened from mild surprise/concern to appropriately enthused and impressed by the chaos around her. Worry or not there was still a certain thrill just in being at this kind of party. She had seventeen years of grandparent monitored travelling to make up for and fifteen variants on the waltz to un-learn after all, and so when someone offered her a filled shot glass she downed it without hesitation in a motion she’d finally learned to make fluid, letting the liquid hit the back of her throat before she could gag on it the way she had her first couple attempts back when she’d gone to Vegas. The guy who had offered her the shot took her elbow and started to tug her towards the dancing, the rules of party-noise communication excusing them from any small talk. She started to shake her head, she wanted to see if any of her friends were around (not one in particular, she told herself firmly, not at all) but reconsidered at the last second, embarrassed by the impulse to hang around waiting, and followed along instead. Any friends who got here later were perfectly capable of finding her after all. The trajectory towards the dancing on the first floor would take her by Cade anyway and it would be polite to at least say hello. Because this place is all about the polite and ‘hellos’ can totally be heard, she thought wryly, laughing to herself.