2019-11-18 - Ladies Night (Oh, What a Night!)

Ladies Night is overdue. Lilith arranges it and makes it happen, she knows she's not the only one that needs to cut loose with a little uhn tiss uhn tiss uhn tiss (and a lot to drink). She arrives via Byron's car when he drops her off that evening and before she goes inside, she hangs in the driver's side window to kiss the hell out of him in front of everyone loitering outside the club. Heaven bless colorstay lipstick, honestly, because it's practically a standing lean of makeout session there for about a minute straight. The two of them are just like that these days.

Not to mention, because she's currently made up to be a walking sex kitten, he might be wanting to publicly stake his claim there seated in the Rolls while dropping her off, and while the outfit might have given him an eyebrow moment when she was finished getting ready, it's not like anyone in their right mind is going to tell Lilith what she can or can't wear, c'mon now. Besides, Byron's a confident man, it's probably fine.

Lilith is wearing a silver and black minidress that is as much skin as it is attire for the heat of dancing in the club, cut low with hang between breasts to bare some of her midriff as well. The sides and back are also bare, as it's a halter tie under her dark curled and riotous hair, and the skirt barely covers her ass, leaving her lower half presented as all lovely legs that culminate in tall strappy silver heels with embellishment and ankle tie. Her makeup is on point, flair over accent tonight, lips red and eyeliner sweeping with the line of her lashes in sultry swatch. And the first thing she does is get two rounds of lemondrop shots ready to do back to back with the girls when they arrive to prime them immediately for a trip onto the dance floor.

Warm up, set out, dance your ass off. Talking can come later. Besides, it's hard to talk in a club and all the out of the way corner tables around the dance floor are taken.

Slowly, but surely, she is catching up on all the liquor she did not drink while in the middle of her thesis crunch, but with only ten thousand words to go in the document sitting in her laptop (and backed up painstakingly in a cloud and about two other drives), Isabella has been cutting somewhat loose in the last few days. If anything, this is about the third subsequent time she's gone out drinking with someone, though admittedly, she hasn't gone out with a group since the funeral - a failing that she intends to fix tonight.

Unlike Lilith, she doesn't have a fancy ride to the Firefly Club (Oh my god, she thinks, it's still here), but courtesy of an Uber driver, she arrives at the venue after a brief wave to him before slipping through the doorway and marveling at the glimpse of all the lights and the beats of the house music blaring from strategically-placed speakers. Her refusal to wear a skirt or a dress unless she absolutely has to still holds, clad in black snakeskin-leather pants that molds to almost every curve and line on her lower half, a pair of shoes with heels thin enough to punch through someone's jugular, and a loose, translucent top dyed a deep red and ruffles cascading in the front, hinting at the outline of the criss-crossing straps of the body cage brassiere she wears underneath. All kept modest with a tailored blazer with three-quarters sleeves, but that she removes the moment she's in warmer confines.

She hardly ever wears makeup, but she does tonight, or at least some hints of it - just eyeliner and lipstick that enhances the shape and color of her lips, nothing scandalous. Her hair is in its usual messy twist and save for a pair of hoop earrings and her moonstone pendant, she wears very little accessories. No satchel today, but a small wrist purse she keeps strapped to her limb - big enough to carry her phone and cards.

"As always, you're the belle of the ball," she teases Lilith when she finally finds her. "I haven't done this in-- " And she is cut off when she's pulled to the dance floor, laughing all the way.

That's the beauty of being a single one in the bunch. Not even an occasional piece or anything! BE PROUD OF HER she's no longer seeing the cop except as friends. It suits her too. She looks as if there's new life to her, a sparkle in her eyes and a spring in her step.

Dressed up? You bet she is! She wears a slinky little club dress, because she's going out and she's not really gone out drinking in far too long. The dress is aqua colored and forms to her curves and the short skirt flutters when she walks. Her heels steeple her height right up there from 5'9" to.. all those legs. Her skin tone, her dark hair and dark eyes, it all goes great with that dress and the confidence in which she enters the club.

First things first.. she's looking for her.. "Ladiessss" dancing her way over, she whistles as she gets near them both. "You're both so gorgeous!Turn around in a circle. I want to see the whole outfit." She makes a circle motion with her finger.

Lilith was a regular Miami nightclub rat for a lot of years, and while Gray Harbor is hardly the sultry and rambunctious heat that comes with the old city nights, it's a club and there's lights and there's music and there's drinks. Not to mention, there's very good security considering who owns the place, so everything is fine and fun and dandy (probably). When the brunette is done with the pair of shots back to back, she pinches the back of Isabella's pants at the ass, then reaches out to swat the woman into motion to come dance with her like a giddyup before the tug. Her other hand goes out to Erin and she does a dance twirl a few times for inspection, apparently getting into the groove while on the way out to the floor, informing with yell through the music, "Isabella is wearing murder heels! And your LEGS are weapons, JESUS!"

Lilith is all glow of smiles and animation, clearly ready to be in an element and state of mindless exertion, music, and dance she hasn't been in for a long time. It's not a way she typically gets to be around others, more or less, especially with circumstances all around tending to be how they are on the daily with life here. The crowd is mixed and female heavy given drink specials tonight, so that's a little fun too and nice for their own personal setup of dancing as a trio. Once they're out on the floor, Erin and Isabella have a brunette busting a sexy move or two or three between them, and she takes turns dirty dancing with each of them at grab without apology or permission, hips at undulation and breath as much laughter under the club beat as it is quick breath.

Eventually, a waitress comes with some of those test tube shots in bright fruity colors that glow with the lighting and naturally, because they're on the way to white girl wasted, Lilith fans her over so they can all do a shot without hands right there on the floor. She personally pulls it off, but there's a tiny sputter at the tail end that almost makes her lose the drink before it's swallowed, because she's clearly thought of something dirty and funny while mouth-handling the boozy double shot to add to her warm buzz and tip it toward a fun level of rawr. There's some bouncing and clapping encouragement for the other woman to shoot the same way after she's had her bit with a joke, "All you have to do is open your throat and let it go down!" Sage advice Lilith. And yes, she means that exactly how it sounds given the amusement sparking in her made-up eyes. In fact, she does another to demonstrate. Oh boy.

Then it's back to dancing. The songs change, they're attracting some attention from guys nearby watching them do shots, but they don't approach because women are more intimidating as a deliberate trio, though the second one of them strays a little, they'll no doubt get dance pounced when separated from the herd.

Lilith Winslow just goosed her, and Isabella laughs, even turning up the curve of her backside for that slap before she trots as happy as a clam with her dangerous heels towards the dance floor, expression effulgent as she immerses herself in the rare experience of being able to cut loose and dance the night away (and not care if she's not any good at it). Erin's arrival prompts a grin, and she pivots around on said homicide heels, before sweeping a flamboyant bow that...well, has her shoving her hip into a dancing couple and sending the guy right into the girl. Eyes widen, lifting her hands. "Sorry, sorry!" They don't seem to mind, however. Everyone's having a good time.

"You look absolutely stunning," she tells the ex-Addington heiress. "Ugh, I love and hate the fact that you're so tall!" There's envy there, because those legs.

Dancing commences, and somehow, the archaeologist manages to shake some of the rust off. She gyrates in loose, sinuous movements with Lilith, rolls her hips back-to-back with Erin, and otherwise works the dance floor with a surprising amount of agility given her dangerous footwear. When it's time to take a breather and take shots with no hands, her lips curl around the glass and she tilts her head back, letting the liquor burn down her throat. She even pops it out of her mouth, and arches her back in an attempt to catch the damn thing with her cleavage, only it bounces off the top and rolls away, leaving drops on the valley accentuated by the cut of her body cage brassiere - she's always been fond of Parisian lace.

"Yeah, that's right," she tells her girls as she points both index fingers down her chest. "These things can repel bullets." ...okay, maybe not quite, the scar from Sheriff Addington's shot is faintly visible, still under the black, white cutting thin into the otherwise sunkissed complexion. But she's obviously just joking and she's grinning like an idiot.

Laughing as she walks to dance with the others, she whistles again at the heel defying Isabella. "Check you out. You're amazing! Gorgeous!" Erin doesn't reach out and touch either one, but she appreciates the way both of them look! "Are you kidding? Sometimes I wish I was just petite. Men prefer that, I think. It makes them feel like the protective, big strong man."

The music was fun and she moves her hips, her feet, just enjoying the entire dance. She loses herself in it for a moment, not even noticing the side candy watching them.

Taking one of the shots, she bites her lip impishly. "Ready ladies?" With them, she dips her head down and lifts it, the test tube shot in her mouth as she tilts her head back. The liquor was as good as it looked and it burns and she "mmmmm" s all the way down. With it there between her lips, she passes it off to someone nearby, letting them take it with their lips.

"They can dodge bullets but can they dodge lips?" Of course she's teasing too, and she moves her body all sensually.

Well, Lilith is drunk-ish and Isabella is talking about her bulletproof titties, so naturally, she has to flick one a couple of times like she's testing a cantaloupe for ripeness in the grocery store before turning and starting to do the same to Erin's like comparative test with a dancing turn. Then she shamelessly yells through the music, just as shamelessly as she took to flicking their chests with thump while dancing, "Mine only destroy worlds! I wanna be bulletproof!" Melting into a bubble of laughter, the club-dressed brunette doesn't notice the shift of their atmosphere right away with company at hand and drinks in her system making her flushed as much as the dance, which is probably why she opted the very-little-clothing route. It's hot in clubs when you're drinking and dancing! It's not just about sex-kitten stylings!

However. As noted, Lilith is old hat when it comes to nightclubs. So a bro hand snaking her ass? She's got a bit of a second sense for that on the dance floor, and the second she feels it start to skim with intrusion, she whips around and goes for the shin with a heeled foot because it's more subtle than throwing a punch and she TOLD herself she wouldn't get in a fight because it's Felix's place. Except... her heel sticks some, like the dude's shin is gummy instead of bone and she stumbles a little to yank it back before noticing the trio of bro-leaders starting to dance like a flash mob to try and woo/attack them.

She doesn't know what to do with that, suddenly, because alcohol, "... what the fuck is this Night at the Roxbury shit?"

So first Julia had to get a drink and then Julia had to go to the ladies and you know the ladies line is always long and once you're in there you gotta do the shimmy so you can squat and then there's the wait to get to the counter and washing your hands and checking your makeup and reapplying your makeup and fight-dancing her way across the dance floor because it's time for another drink and oh shit is that fingers brushing against her ass? She whirls to try and get her ass out of grabbing range. "Hey, pendejo! Just because it's bubble-licious don't mean you can pop it!"

Lilith's field test of the youthful buoyancy trapped within her bodice earns her a laugh and a playful swat of her fingers. "So before I completely forget with how much of these we're packing away," Isabella says to her friends. "I told Alexander this afternoon if he was willing to pick me up in my Jeep, and he said that he'll drop off anyone else who needs a ride before taking me home." She isn't sure about Lilith and whether Byron will retrieve her after tonight's festivities, but she directs the invitation to both her and Erin.

Even as inebriated as she is, she can't help but notice that things don't look quite right; cursed with a good memory, and one that, strangely enough, gets even better when she's addled or hurt (if past hospital visits could attest), her earlier grinning self starts to taper off once she realizes that there are no other women left in the club with the exception of...well, her party and one other.

With one of the men getting reaching to test the integrity of her snakeskin pants, she twists away, because she still has her wits about her, various memories of different encounters while a student in Boston and Oxford suddenly pouring fresh into her memories. This is not her first rodeo, and having been raised by a navy-man commander of a father who has done everything he could to ensure that his baby girl was as armed as she could be, there is absolutely no tolerance in her for such shenanigans; fury stitches over her expression and not just at the offense levied at her, but also her girls. So there is no subtlety whatsoever when she cocks a fist back and outright attempts to punch the offender in the face.

....and while she connects, she gapes when the dudebro's face starts to absorb her fist, and that is when she swears. "Are....you..." She plants the ball of her foot into the man's chest in an attempt to keep herself from getting sucked in. "...fucking kidding me right now?!"

With her chest being thumped, Erin cheeses a grin. "That's the most action I have seen in months!" It doesn't stop her from dancing though, and she's had a drink or two before she came and a shot since she got here, that no hands thing that was really fun. Now she's just dancing. Hearing the invitation for a ride, she gives a grateful look. "I didn't drive tonight, I'd love a ride home. Thank you. Look at me being all responsible and stuff."

She's so into it that she doesn't really notice the hand at all. Not until it actually makes firm contact. "Hey!" she protests, moving her hand to hit his out of the way. It hits his crotch and sort of springs back at her. She actually laughs at first. "What have you got in there? Wait, no. I don't want to know!"

It registers the others are having issues as well and Erin looks at the guys and she just laughs. Oh yes she laughs. "Of course." It's a dream. Wasn't it always?

Okay, so punching and kicking and swatting these guys sucks, and while Lilith's natural inclination might be to set them on fire, man there is a LOT of them, and she's drunk and still thinking that she'll get in trouble with a dirt nap for picking too big of a fight in Felix's club. Burning it down on accident probably gets you dead twice. But she has a revelation after swatting at Brock-bro's hand when he comes in after Chad #12 and alternates with Kyle #14 afterwards, all of them grinning like undeterred morons that just don't GET it. While she's turned and swatting at them like flies and tempted to break into a windmill, she sees Julia being herd jostled their way and reaches to yank the other female over with the trio for safety measure, "Julia! Did you do this?!"

I mean, she has to irrationally alcohol blame something, right? She probably doesn't mean it, though, because that'd be stupid, then she kind of realizes how they might have a fighting chance without fighting. There's ways to get out of strange and not all of those ways are by wrecking shit, as much as she hates to admit that. But to be fair, this is the first time a Dream hasn't tried to kill her so hell, why not? These dancing bros are the pack leaders and they just keep dancing like it's You Got Served meets Magic Mike with a little bit of Night at the Roxbury. So suddenly, she yells at Erin and Isabella and Julia alike, "Dance fight them! It'll probably stop it if we win!" What if they lose?

Either way, when she starts to dance, the men around them stop grabbing, but she slips on some rogue hair gel that one of the men apparently has started leaking. Great start.

"Are you out of your mind?" Julia yells back at Lilith as she's pulled inward. And then she's advised to...dance-fight? Well, okay. She can manage this. She knows how to dance, yah? Except...she's just too weirded out by all of this, and her moves are maybe a little too close to the lambada for comfort or something? Because as she dances, one of them just slides all up on her. Julia is very grossed out, but does her best to keep on dancing. Occasional looks of panic are cast in the direction of the other ladies. What. Even.

The look on Isabella's face is absolutely indescribable when Lilith tells them to dance fight the crowd. "...is this revenge after all the years I've heckled the Step Up movies?!" she calls back, groaning a little bit as she points at her dance opponent from across the way, green-gold eyes narrowed. If there's a fight to win? She'll give it all she's got.

She waits for Kyle to perform his moves first, before she steps towards him in those dangerous heels, and with a soft groan, because she can't believe she's doing this, performs an old, but classic choreography that she remembers, pulled directly from Paula Abdul's Cold Hearted Snake video, because she watched it repeatedly when she was young and that's all she remembers. And it ends up being an appropriate choice, because it necessitates kicking Kyle down into the ground before planting her heel on him, tugging his head back by the hair and raking her fingernails upward along his chest in a slow, gentle drag as she gradually straightens up.

"I just want you ladies to know that I definitely need more tequila for this!"

They get surrounded and Erin looks surprised when she notices Julia being shepherded towards them by the guys. Oh boy. I mean.. stretch guys challenging to a dance fight? How sobering!

This Addington is used to the dance club scene from before in her slightly younger days and she goes on the offensive. Using the beat of the music to her advantage, she advances on Chad, Hands in the air, legs taking longer steps due to their length and she manages to push him back. The shimmy she offers as she gets closer hopefully sealing the deal.

Julia lets out a yelp as she's grabbed, and it takes her a second to realize it's Lilith. Her brain momentarily freezes - oh shit, what does she do, and then suddenly she gets it. There's a crook of her finger as she tugs Lilith to her, looping an arm around the other woman's waist so Lilith can lean back at her leisure. What exactly is going on? Hopefully, the power of Swayze. Cuz someone's gonna have the time of their liiiiife. And the strutting starts, along with the twirls, and pas de bourees. BEHOLD THE POWER OF SWAYZE.

So. Lilith watched Dirty Dancing a lot because she's a girl and most girls have this routine down pat mentally, at the very least. Enacting it while keeping balance in heels with hair gel on the floor and a swarm of bros around cramping space, though, it kind of puts a kink in what starts fairly smoothly. Once the brunette catches on to what Julia is throwing down for them to work with and taking up the Patrick Swayze mantle, she leans into it with a sudden delighted encouragement, because yes! Of course this will work, how could it not? They go through the steps, she spins and does the footwork, then backs up to do the lift like some kind of final coup de gras. Brock's moves don't have shit on Swayze.

Except. Hair gel. Lilith takes off, tries to leap into the lift, then skid slams right into poor Julia and her great idea, and they both go down. Brock yells HOT! because he got a flash of panties in the tumble down, then all the other bros start to chant too for a few rounds. HOT! HOT!

Let's hope Isabella and Erin are better at Tanner.

Let's face it; when they were in high school, Britney Spears was still a queen, so it's probably not surprising that after a brief conference with Erin, Isabella and she decide to pop up the choreography for one of her most famous hits (and dance breaks): You Drive Me Crazy.

But it doesn't go well for the archaeologist because of those damn heels, and there is gel on the floor. She slips at a turn, and nearly breaks her leg in the process. But she's able to twist her body away to give Erin the room to knock them dead with those long legs. "Get them, Erin! Move on without me! I believe in you!" How many shots did she drink? Way too many for any of this to make sense, but strangely enough, she's starting to have a really good time attempting to beat these stretch-men in their own game judging by the laughter in her eyes.

After all, she's always up for competition.

Oh so it was like that? Erin so loves to dance. With the music playing she totally gets into it and she glances over at Isabella with a wink. They start dancing in unison. A fist pumps in the air and she lifts a leg, turning then doing three hip thrusts as she bounces forward with each. Arms extend in front of her, crossed at the wrist or just above and she drives him backwards, managing to stay on her heel covered feet. SHe's got practice in heels. Lots of practice. And she dances him back and back, with a triumphant middle finger towards the end of it.

Julia manages to get to her feet, helping Lilith up as well if she can. "Erin! Think of something! Hand jive! Lambada! Spice Girls! Something!"

Lilith gets up with Julia's aid and starts to make a terrible whine noise because this is NOT how her night was supposed to go and she has hair gel (hopefully) all over her clothing and legs and hands now and it's sticky and slimy and gross. She's way better at things like blood and fire than she is snot and slime and hair gel, apparently, and it takes her a moment to compose herself. She tries to think as Julia yells out dances, but then Sexy Back starts to play, as befitting the moment with the dancing JT wannabe that's morphed into a megabro.

After watching Isabella and Erin take Tanner down with Britney moves, prompted by the song, she quite visibly takes a drunk moment of inspiration and thinks, hey, just bring sexy back, no need to overthink it. So she starts to imitate the moves he's doing himself with some lady sexy flair with hip pops and small poses before drag of undulation through her midsection. Choreography be damned, she's going full stripper, just about, there on the dance floor, and it slows him down some to stare before he notices the other three women starting to challenge him at the same time. He can't stop, won't stop, he's bringing sexy back too.

Julia looks at the other women, looks at Brock. The women, Brock. "Oh, mierda." she mutters, and then her hands go up so she too, can help bring sexy back. Cleary she needs to bring out her Inner Shakira.

Let the record show today that Isabella? Makes for a poor stripper, if not just because she can't actually strip. There's no way those snakeskin pants are coming off, when they cling so tightly to the long, slender lines of her. But she gives it as good as she has it, but Sexy Back is playing on the speakers and it is taking everything in her not to just simply collapse laughing, because how else can she deal?

...and then Brock transforms into an alpha-bro, compete with that cock's comb of a fauxhawk as he struts. He is killing it, it is incredible, but the entire production of it becomes too much and after one final slip on the gel-greased floor, the archaeologist just goes with it. She collapses, and she doesn't get up, her arms banding around her middle as she utterly loses her shit watching Brock. Because it's amazing and she doesn't care what's in those shots, she wants more of them.

Bring Sexy Back? Erin tries oh she does, but there's a Justin Timberlake guy bringing it back himself. It was distracting or she was drunk! Maybe both. Dance, dance, dance. She struts herself but she doesn't do a very good job of it this time. Tonight? There's no bringing it back for Erin. She's lost sexy. He's got far more stamina than her and she joins Isabella, a hand on her back while her own chest was rising and falling as she tries to catch her breath. "You okay?" Noooope. Isabella loses it and Erin skitters away just in time.

Oh noo. No more technicolor fruity shots for Erin. She hails the waitress. "Bottle of Patron." That's Tequila, folks. Though they likely know. "And three tumblers." Because they aren't doing this by shots. Handing over her credit card, she grins at the girls, but then turns to watch the lumberjack. She whistles. Manly men were hot! "I love manly men." Swoon and stuff. She looks back at the girls. "You are both doing good in the man department. I am so so single. SO single." With a soft laugh, she slides further into the booth. "Bella will you trap me in. I kind of like staying single for a bit."

Abruptly, when it's all over, and Lilith just can't stand and stare anymore, her eyes track the departing man to the bathroom, their lumberjack mystery hero of the hour. She watches Julia take off straight for the bar and is tempted to ask for a whole BOTTLE of tequila, but there's the waitress with the fruity shots nearby and she wants something right now to swallow down the fact that they just got served by a fauxhawk alpha, among other things. After batting her mascara-thickened lashes a few times fast, she leans, does the shot straight down the hatch with spill down the throat (no hands guys, that's ladies' night rules for the test tube fruity things, seems), then she starts to laugh with bust into giggles.

"That's the first time I haven't almost died!" She pauses, yelling that in celebratory fashion, which gets her a look from some girls having their own girl night nearby now that things are normal again. Who yells that? And why is Lilith's dress so tiny, gawh. Judgemental girl eyes, ahoy. Lilith downright flips them off after they look her up and down, but she's still laughing, then Erin is going for the bottle she didn't order and seating too. And she's right along like a little tagalong at trot to go SIT because she is worn. And giggly. And weirded out. And giggly.

"Guys. Guys. Guys." Girls, actually, but... "Byron will NEVER let me live this down, oh shit. Shhhh. Secret dance offs! Pinky swear? Pinky swear, c'mon."

With the dance fighting over and Isabella's laughing fit subsided, she manages to get up on her killer heels, wobbling slightly, but there's a grateful smile to Erin when she asks. "I'm alright, I'm just..." She winces faintly, but it's obliterated again with another bout of laughter. "That was ridiculous and kind of twistedly amazing."

She follows the rest to the table, dropping on a seat in the booth, crossing her legs by the knee and dragging the bottle of tequila that she had ordered from the counter in passing. She pours her own shot, and downs it with her fingers clutching the glass receptacle. She agreeably extends her hand for a pinky swear.

"Alexander's got enough on me this week," she grouses, though affection and good humor lace the words. "I won't tell Ronnie if you won't tell him." She drapes an arm across the booth, tilting her head back as she takes another shot. "Because despite whatever fraught history they have together, they still talk to each other, so we all have to agree." She winks at Erin. "Sorry, Erin, but we're dragging you into this conspiracy of silence, now."

(TXT to Byron) Lilith : you are the hottest man in teh whole world and your eyeballs (eyeball emoji) are sex (three heart emojis)

"I won't tell." Erin also extends her pinky and makes it a threesome of agreement. "This has been so much fun. Dreams or not." The other bottle shows up with the tumblers and she passes each a glass before pouring the bottle between them. "To girls nights, secrets and lumberjacks." A brow waggle as she waits for the others to add their own toasts if they like.

Lilith takes a moment to text after pulling her phone from uh. Somewhere she had it tucked next to her breast with security of bra-apparatus tuck, apparently, as Isabella agrees and they settle. Girls come up with all kinds of wily placements for their phones in absence of pockets when they don't want to bring a purse, it's kind of a talent, or at least one Lilith seems to have from her time in clubs. Apparently talking about Byron made her want to text him, presumably to suck up since she's talking about hiding the true event of the night from him for her own damn good and so she doesn't have to punch him repeatedly every time he brings it up. There's some hearts flashed in duplicate at the end of whatever she types, then the phone is down and she's going for one of the poured tumblers after a double-handed pinky swear reach between Erin and Isabella.

Then she says, out of the blue, "Let's play..." Oh god, she already wants to play a drinking game, but maybe that's just how you move on from dancing bros to distract away from the fact THAT JUST HAPPENED, "Never have I ever! I'll go first!" And she apparently wants that first slug of tequila considering she's starting and drinks herself guilty right after starting, "Never have I ever made a sex video!"

"Here, here," Isabella laughs, knocking shot glasses with Erin before taking another gulp of tequila.

Lilith's texting has her grinning faintly, though she doesn't touch her own phone. Instead, she leans back on her seat and swirls the clear liquor on her shotglass absently until her suggestion rings out from the fair brunette across the table. "Never Have I Ever?" she wonders. "I haven't played that since-- "

Never have I ever made a sex video.

There's a pause, and slowly, she tilts her shotglass into her mouth.

"Okay, before anyone asks, it was an accident and I didn't even know it was happening until we both looked up from the hot tub and some guy on the next door boat had a videocamera pointed at us," she explains. "It was Spring Break, alright? In Greece. The next-door boat's name was Poseidon's Chariot, if that doesn't tell you perverts and nudists were onboard, nothing will!"

Mmm Tequila! Erin doesn't bother texting anyone. There's no one offhand she's got any inkling to text. The declaration of the game though, has her looking over at the other two. "Never have I ever made a sex video also! Nor have I ever played this game! How is it played?"

And then she sort of finds out when Isabella gives it up. She laughs, "Oh my God, that's funny! Kinda. I mean drunk funny. Kinda sure it wasn't funny at the time. Maybe."

She takes another drink of her tequila. "I've never made one. But I made out with Easton when we were younger." Ha! She doesn't know if she ever told anyone that before.

"Poseidon's Chariot? Wow. Also creepy, but woooow. Hah!" Lilith is highly amused with Isabella's drink because she didn't seem to be expecting it, but it's probably not all that surprising that her own glass lifted with kickoff like that, blunt as she tends to be here and there. Then she squints at Erin speculatively, as if trying to figure out whether or not she's telling the truth, because SHE expected things to be the other way around with that particular bit shared! Also she doesn't tell who her sex video was with or the circumstances, but it's mostly because she forgot and is trying to explain the game to Erin helpfully with turn in the booth and gesture point to correct the phrasing about Easton.

(Probably Byron though. You only do that with guys you trust because internet revenge is a THING.)

"Okay, first of all Erin, I'm going to need to know how you got around his popped collars to get at his mouth. Second of all! You'd take your turn with that and say 'Never have I ever made out with Easton...' and if anyone at this table HAS made out with Easton, you drink! So drink!" Erin actually drank, but Lilith seems to be promoting a double drink because HAH. She does not drink, and she looks at Isabella probably not drinking too as if prompting her to throw something out there for them to drink-fess with, "Izzy's turn to challenge us!"

Isabella laughs when she's taken to task, waving a hand. "I haven't played this game in years," the archaeologist tells her friends, mirth and inebriation brightening the color of her eyes as she pours herself another shot. "Let's see. Never have I ever..."

She looks in between Erin and Lilith, tapping her finger on her shotglass. "Fantasized about a friend's significant other."

And she takes another shot, the devil's own mischief burning in those vibrant, virid eyes.

"And before anyone asks." And a grin is flashed to Lilith, waggling her brows at her. "No, it wasn't Byron."

"So I say Never have I ever, then say something, anything. And drink if anyone has. Got it!" Erin drinks because the others have, to catch up.

There's an expectant look given towards Isabella, curious what her own challenge will be. Then there's the obvious one and she laughs outright before refilling her drink and taking a whole entire shot while considering another one..

"Does it matter that we weren't friends at the time?" Erin grins wickedly. "Now, we kind of are. And I did more than fantasize.." Everyone knows who she's talking about.

Lilith has to think for a long moment, then she just kind of shrugs and eyes her glass after she doesn't get to drink again. She clearly can't think of a friend, for one, really, and not one with a steady significant other to speak of. Her pals over the past decade have been pretty... well. She had very unique circles for acquaintances from her job and self-isolated as a habit, so really, she can't even think of a good technicality as an excuse to drink.

Then abruptly, she starts to laugh at Isabella, then she shrugs again to lift her glass toward the air in salute, "I mean, get them mental rocks off by any means, girl, I won't tell even if it was! I know you guys were about to go to prom or something at some point, you think I didn't pay attention while I had him on the shutdown list, just like he paid attention to everyone I was talking to?" Then she pauses and thinks again before clarifying, "Okay, I wasn't really talking to much of anyone then, it was probably SO boring to keep tabs on me or whatever."

She looks at Erin, then with a tilt of her head, then while she might not really know she knows, she remembers suddenly what she picked up on from bits and pieces and perception before realizing with look around the table of who they're missing that was invited. Then she 'ohhhhhhhhhh's and snort-laughs, "He saw my tits. Goddamnit. I wonder how much he thinks of that when he sees me now, shit is awk-ward when I remember that. Fever Dream fuckery. Pretty sure Byron HATES the idea of that but is being a champ about it."

Then she lifts her glass, like she KNOWS she's about to drink hard on the next one she throws out, "Never have I ever tied a man up and choked him."

Yeah. Like fifteen hundred of them. No shit. Elaboration on that might get interesting at some point.

She laughs, inclining her head at Erin. "I'll allow it," Isabella declares, magnanimously, because she does know who she's talking about. And with Lilith's words, there's a brief grin flashed in her direction. "We competed about it," she tells the brunette. "Prom, we can never agree as to who was going to ask who first. I keep saying I was, he kept saying he was - but that was the usual, I think, between us back in those years." She tips the tequila bottle into the shot glass. "But my imagination never really went there, because it didn't know to go there. All this stuff? I was always a late bloomer. The latest." It took nearly thirty years for her to finally fall in love, and with the oft-declared town crazy.

She always pays attention when her friends give up tidbits of their histories, so when Lilith gives her a glimpse of those lost high school years where she spoke to no one, she listens with rapt interest despite the clear inebriation on her features. "Clearly a phase," she teases. "But that's the great thing about second chances, right?"

As for Ruiz? "He was the one."

What?!

"My mother had just died, and he invited me out to go shooting. He wanted to check on me - he had only met me once before, when Alexander was staying with me in the houseboat because of the Ring." There's a glance at Lilith there, a more significant look. "I thought all he wanted was to ask me about what I knew about what happened to Mom, but it wasn't just that. And I was..." She takes a breath and laughs. "Fighting at the time with Alexander, too, well before we were even how we were. So while we were shooting bullets, he tried to teach me how to adjust my aim mid-shot. He got behind me and..." She grins. "I was this close to asking him to bend me over and not to stop, right there in the range. Definitely torn at the time between fighting and fucking. Chose the former, though. Even then, saddled like I was, I couldn't get Alexander out of my head. I just didn't know what it meant, at the time."

She chokes though, when Lilith tells them that he saw her, and she laughs again. "Like I said, I suspected the man was good. I didn't know he was that good, adjusting his Dream trajectory that way so he could see you in your mostly-naked glory."

The last challenge earns her pause, before she sets her shot glass down. "It doesn't count if you did one but not the other, I think," she says ruefully, though she pauses, and gives Lilith a look. "Explain."

Erin drinks a few shots between, without having to, but she wanted to. So she does. And her tongue gets looser. Oops. So, she elucidates after seeing the realization from Lilith.

Erin gives her a sort of drunken smile. "I learned too much about him. I mean.. when he was all dark and mysterious and everything it was great. Even learning some was good, felt like we were getting closer. Then I found out he's bi-sexual. And while that doesn't bother me in anyone else, to each their own, I don't want to be in a relationship like that. I've seen what it does to Sutton. I don't want to be in a battle I'm not equipped to fight."

Blah, too serious! Erin shakes her head and it spills around her face only to have her push it back again. She looks more at Isabella at the confession about Ruiz. "He's so charismatic. When my parents were killed he was my protector. It turned into more." Another shake of her head. "We're just friends now. We flirt, sure, but nothing more." She doesn't drink this time, she's never done either or with someone. Not that she wouldn't,,,

Lilith is sitting still so it's hard to tell how hard those slugs of tequila are hitting her, but over time, there's a sense that she's competing with the club music given the way her voice is shifting into a loud blahblah talk of someone who doesn't quite know how to modulate their voice in that drunken way that just sings of going rowdy with hoot at any moment. And hoot she does, first at Isabella, distracted by the confessional details from the other side of the table, and it's followed by a bounce in place and a yelled out, "HOLY SHIT! You easy peasy slutface! It's just some back-wood when they stand behind you like that!" How many bulges has she ran into, what the hell is back-wood? Whatever, not important, she mostly just seems to be laughing and blabbing ribbing out.

And oh, she's asked to explain. But then Erin is giving her own detailing of a certain Hispanic charisma and then some and Lilith goes straight trailer park with all that tequila in her, bouncing again in place with her hand slapping straight down on the table, yelling, "HOLY FUCK ME RUNNING, WHAT?!" Then she goes quiet for like half a heartbeat, blinks fast, then says, "But he's so..." Words are hard, okay? Macho or something, they probably get it without the word filled in. Then, not because it's particularly funny as a concept, but because she's drunk and she's floored, she laughs at the timing of it all.

But finally, finally, she elaborates with her own stunner, fanning at her face because she's seriously starting to cry a little bit with drunk-shock and humor (and god they just got served by a Fauxhawk on the dance floor a while ago, what the hell!). After clearing her throat and sitting up straight to flip hair and put on airs, she informs Isabella and Erin, "I was a personal and private dominatrix in Miami for rich men for almost six years." Then she clarifies while shifting out of the booth to leave them with that, because she's apparently gotta do the bathroom thing from drinking, which will no doubt prove to be a stumble trip and a half given the way she's getting up, "No sex, just violence! I used to knee them and fine them if they went looking like they were going to pop a load getting too excited. I had ruuuuulllles, baby. Rules! Hey. I gotta tinkle."

Except when she's in the bathroom, she starts throwing up from the sheer excess and they have to call Byron to come get her on her phone when she's done because... she's trying to tell them she wants to take her clothes off in the bathroom and lay on the cold floor because she's hot when they come to check on her. Thankfully, it's just words and never happens because ew. She's perfectly kissy and giggly and huggy while being herded to the car, though! And loud. So loud. And she calls them both sluts with sheer drunk love when she's belted in and Byron's problem for the rest of the night.

"Listen, missy!" Easy peasy slutface?? Isabella is laughing throughout Lilith's reaction - all of it, and not just the initial invective that she blares across the table. "Fucking the pain away is a tried and true tradition for those who brave the seas....and pretty much everywhere, honestly, but seriously? I have a type, and he ticks off most of the boxes and he was there and...Erin, back me up here!"

But the mirth won't stop pouring out of her, and before she can even drink more tequila, Erin's own confessional opens up, and she finds herself yelling along with Lilith at the revelation dropped on the table, because while she could see it in some of the men in her acquaintance (e.g. she knows Alexander is, and can see it in August, Itzhak might as well be a pansexual lighthouse in the first two times she's met him), the Captain was a total surprise. "HE'S WHAT?!" She looks utterly floored, snapping and pointing at Lilith when she tries to explain to the table just why she's so amazed, because with her, it's the same. Followed by: "Wait, what...does that mean Byron's the straightest guy in Gray Harbor?!"

And then, Lilith tells them that she's a dominatrix. Her jaw drops open, her tequila bottle momentarily forgotten as she watches her friend vanish in the bathroom.

Slowly, she turns to look at Erin right in the eye and says softly, seriously, "We have to do this every month from now on."

Sooner or later, however, she and Erin will probably hunt down Lilith in the girl's bathroom, and help her off the floor with the other woman. She will make sure that she gets in Byron's car, and is still laughing when she waves goodbye as Byron drives off to take care of his lady. And then she'll stay with Erin while both of them wait for their own pick up, up until Alexander shows up in her cherry-red Jeep to take Erin home, and then herself.

She may have destroyed a good half of that tequila bottle, but in the end she's not too drunk. After all, she's a woman of her word, and she hasn't seen Alexander in days.

"Remember, we pinky promised not to talk about ladies night!" Erin just has to give the reminder! She's drunk but she's not out to ruin anyone's life! Not that she assumes for a second that it would ruin anyone's life. But still.

"But that's what made it easy to walk away from that part of it." She means it but not in a bad way. It's all on her and what she can handle in her own life. "Isabella's right! At least it was both of us when we were good and vulnerable about the losses of our family. Fucking the pain away!"

The whole dominatrix thing surprises her too and she widens her eyes, all former subjects null and void now. Forgotten. She watches Lilith teeter off towards the bathroom. "We'll give her a few then go and check on her." A grin. "Yes, every month. Because nothing is better than this." She heads off with Isabella to find Lilith.. Eventually, they all manage to get home.