I really need to stop writing these summaries right before bed.

I swear, he is such a baby. Linao stalked into the club, taking a few minutes to glance around. She wasn't used to this. It was disconcerting somehow, to stand there amid a cluster of human noise and heat swarming around, bumping into each other, losing any sense of purpose in a drone-like quarry of peer-pressure. Her nose wrinkled softly. What the hell did I say? Nothing she didn't usually say. It was always this way. She wondered what exactly was different now. He better not leave me here...

The throng of human compulsions dulled as a new voice erupted over the noisy swells. She didn't hear most of his speech; it was dramatic and full-throated, producing several new crests of shouts from the slowly gathering masses of the dance floor. Something about a new band. Jim's favorite band. Ugh. "Welcome Cursed to Wander!" How had they gotten so popular anyway? They weren't on any radio or TV shows she'd ever seen. Their name never appeared in web-news, or even in the local coffee shop she visited. They were an underground... thing.

...There he is. Her thoughts changed as she noticed the back of Jim's head. Aha. New momentum pedaling her legs forward, she twisted through the last puddles of human flesh, sliding into the larger mix. "Excuse me... Pardon me..." Gods, was there no end to this cluttered human menagerie? Push, shove, squeeze... She worked her way through, pausing as someone hit her shoulder.

"Ouch!" she wailed over the screams around her, pulling back. She glared at the man, feeling suddenly awkward. He was staring at her... Or was he? She couldn't tell; the large, browned fedora kept half his face hidden in shadow. How annoying. "What are you looking at, you freak?!" She didn't have time for this. Stepping to the side, her eyes only followed him a few seconds, until he disappeared into the crowd.