Walking Awkward Moment

[Katie]

She hadn't wanted to come in the first place.

Atalanta sat very uncomfortably on a purple couch, far straighter than the piece of furniture had been designed for. She was pretty sure you were supposed to lie down on them. Everybody else using one was doing that. But lying down made her feel vulnerable, and this was already bad enough.

It had been Case's idea (which ought to have tipped her off in the first place, because people being nice to her when she wasn't paying them to be was Unquantifiable and therefore Very Suspect). He'd said they should go someplace sometime, and she'd asked why, and he'd said it was because sometimes it was nice to talk to people off the clock and anyway she needed to get out more, and somewhere in there she'd ended up agreeing to this. Somehow.

So now here she was. Case had disappeared, ostensibly to get a drink, but that had been twenty minutes ago, and she had a sinking feeling he had accidentally-on-purpose left her in order to get her to socialize like he was always saying she should.

Balls.

[Anonymous]

It wasn't Zoe's turn on stage, so she was making her way around the floor, dressed rather mundane for her. She tended to keep her cosplay outfits for the stage and wore her really adorable underwear, currently a ruffly set with vivid apple green skulls against cream.

Her attention was drawn to the golden girl sitting on one of the couches. She had curves everywhere, which Zoe adored, an exotic look and had the mannerisms of someone out of place in social situations. All in all, Zoe's favorite type.

Beaming, she sauntered over, sliding onto the couch, "This will probably come off a little weird, but I love your hair. Is that natural?"

[Katie]

The appropriate response to an attractive woman sliding onto the couch next to her and complimenting her hair was not "llp". Atalanta was pretty sure about that.

Unfortunately, that was what came out of her mouth first. She made a sort of coughing noise to cover it, and reminded herself that was okay that the woman was being nice to her, because she looked like she worked there, so she had to be nice to customers. So it was Quantifiable. She could do this.

"Yeah," said Atalanta. She tucked a strand of it behind her ear, because this might be Not Suspect but she was still bad at things like this. Also she should probably acknowledge the compliment. "Uh, thanks. Yours is nice too."

[Anonymous]

Zoe gave a short laugh, smiling and bright, "Thank you! Mine's not half as interesting as yours is. I love that coloring." Zoe moved closer on the couch, "What's your name? I'm Bliss!"

[Katie]

Atalanta wasn't quite sure what to say to that first part, so she swallowed and tucked her hair back again and then remembered she'd just done that and put her hands in her lap. One pretty girl and you go all splah, she told herself. What kind of functioning adult are you?

Then she realized Bliss had asked her what her name was. "Um," she said. "I'm Atalanta."

[Anonymous]

"Atalanta! What a pretty name! I think names say a lot about people! Hey, have you ever had your fortune told? It's so crazy how much fortune tellers can know." Zoe wasn't really put off by the girls odd behavior. She was used to way worse and it just made her want to hug her.

[Katie]

"Thanks," said Atalanta. "And, um, no?" It was a good thing Bliss was carrying the conversation here, because she was pretty much a dead weight.

[Anonymous]

"Really? Oh man, you really should! I know this great lady you should see. She's amazing and you can learn some really amazing things. Like I learned my lucky color is gold and I have the best luck when I'm wearin-hey!"

Zoe suddenly laughed, leaning over and stroking Atalanta's arm lightly, "You're like my walking good luck charm!"

[Katie]

She's getting paid for this, Atalanta told herself, but that didn't make the feel of Bliss's hand on her arm any less nice. Or distracting, couldn't forget that, especially because she was supposed to be saying something here and she couldn't think what.

The first thing she thought of, and therefore what came out of her mouth because apparently she was completely unnerved by pretty people now, was, "I dunno, I don't feel like I'm lucky." And then she realized exactly how that could be taken, oh shit. "I--oh, god, I didn't mean--sorry." She pulled back a little, feeling a blush creep up her cheeks. At least Bliss wouldn't be able to actually laugh at her for that anywhere she could see.

[Anonymous]

"Really? I bet that's not true! I mean, after all, you were lucky enough to find this place and get to talk to me right?" Zoe gave a short, light laugh and scooted a little closer, her hip bumping against Atalanta's, "And you are really pretty, plenty of people aren't that lucky! We just tend to focus on the bad and not see the good."

[Katie]

"This was actually my friend's idea," Atalanta pointed out. She swallowed. Her mouth was kind of dry, which was silly, because this didn't even count, just like it didn't count when Case did it. She looked down at where Bliss's hip touched hers and swallowed again. "Um. Can you--can you not...?"

[Anonymous]

"Well, that's okay. You're still here, right?" Zoe moved back a little, so they weren't touching, but she stayed close, "And we got to meet, also lucky. I bet you are lucky in plenty of other ways."

[Katie]

Atalanta could feel a blush coming on, which kind of really sucked because her blushes were super embarrassing and made her look like she'd been attacked by a rogue makeup artist who'd run out of everything except the red face powder. Or possibly like a junior sports league uniform. Either way, they were not a good look on her.

"I, uh," she said, and then wondered how she'd been planning to finish that sentence and realized she hadn't, actually, so she'd better say something else. Preferably something semi-intelligent. "What kind of ways?"