Anita's Studio Apartment, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City

[Sunny]

"Iiiiiiiii'm hooked on a feeling!" With an excited fist pump Anita slides across her wood paneled floor, wearing nothing but some thigh high socks, a pair of striped panties, and a loose tank top. She stops in front of a mirror perched on the wall near her kitchen. The loud music reverberates through the lofty 5th floor apartment, as she sings along, shaking her hips as she contemplates over her dyed blue hair. She musses her hand through it, resolving on the slightly messy, spiked look. She grooves her way across the room to her wardrobe, flipping through it as she shakes her butt to the beat. Settling on an outfit she quickly changes, returning back to the mirror, smiling as she slips her customary shades over her eyes.

Spoiler:

She flops over onto her messy bed, opening her laptop as she lays on her stomach, flipping over to Skype and pestering one of her best friends, Emil. They might as well have been brother and sister. She typed away quickly as she swayed her feet in the air.

Heeeeeeey. Emil.
Emiiiiil.
Hey I know you're still awake. It's only like midnight for you.
Anyways Happy Birthday, im really cutting it close and all thanks to timezones but hey
I didn't totally forget. Its my birthday too.
I think I'm gonna spend a night on the town, send me messages about how your day's been, I'll read them when I get back.
Laters.

She flipped her laptop closed, rolling off her bed and collecting her phone, headphones, and wallet. She draped the giant headphones around her neck and slipped her phone and wallet in the back pockets on her shorts, the cord of the headphone dangling. She grabs the remote off the kitchen counter, flicking her home sound system off and tossing it back onto her bed. She locks her door behind her, immediately pulling her headphones up over her ears and flipping through her playlist, settling on good walking music as she descended her building, intending on partying hard.

Spoiler:

She flips through her phone as she walks, turning on the Skype app.

Ok so I totally forgot I have Skype on my phone.
Keep me company while I walk to the club.
It's gonna take like a fucking hour to get there with all this traffic.

[HRH Luna]

It's been a long day but he was finally allowed to head up to his room so he could greet his online friends. As much as he loved his family, he needed time to wind down so he could actually fall asleep in a decent time. His family was going to let him sleep in tomorrow as a final gift for today and not wake up at 6 am to take care of the animals, but that didn't mean he was going to stay up until morning. ...Not tonight.
The stairwell creaked with every step as it always did but he didn't mind. The house was old, covered in worn white paint and sounded rickety from all the wear and tear. The house looked and sounded worse than it really was but with the barn having burnt down 3 times in all of the years and the farm house hadn't even been scorched once.
The family joked it was blessed by the gods or something. He din't really believe it. He just wished his father would actually paint the house again, so it at least looked better. The whole house needed some renovating, really. Other farms had been doing but... Ah hell, he didn't care about that right now.

Emil walked into his little corner of the house and closed the door. He could still hear the rest of the family talking and laughing, as they continued the drinking in his place. He'd had a few beers and a customary shot of aquavit. He was a little buzzed and he didn't mind at all. He pulled off the woolen sweater and threw it into his clothes stash that was his corner chair and sat down at his desk, where his desktop computer had been waiting for him in sleep mode. He woke it up and typed in the password. He quickly booted up Spotify and clicked on his playlist.



He just smiled and walked over to his window. He stared out and admired the night sky for a moment. Maybe it was the alcohol, but something about it was just... beautiful. Since he lived away from the city, the night sky was much more covered in stars than it would be in the light-polluted city. He'd always been fond of the night sky and the moon. Oh, especially the moon. He can distinctly remember the 5-day long camping trip with his brother and Anita in the middle of the woods. Ever since then, he really loved the sight of the moon.

As the song hit the chorus, he stood up and stretched out a bit. The man was 25 now. He was a big man, a large frame with a round face and blond, curly hair up top. He had wondrous blue eyes and usually a big smile on his face. ...He sighed as he sat back down. He felt old. He tended to on his birthdays. He looked even older in his red striped shirt and his blue jeans. Not to mention his gray wool socks. Oh well. Time to check his Skype for hopefully happy messages.

He smiled at the sight of Anita's chat and typed back.
Hey, Anita. Sorry. I've been away all day. The family was going nuts over my birthday for some reason.
Thanks for the congrats, though.
I'll catch you later

Heading out to a party was she? Oh well. Time to check Youtube for the usual subs. Time definitely sped up because before he knew it, Anita started talking again.
an hour to walk? why are you even walking at all? are there no busses in new york? He mused about walking around in a city, before he went back to checking his subscriptions on Youtube. ...Oh, Achievement Hunter. When will you ever get something done without problems?

[Sunny]

OKay so I may have exaggerated a bit for dramatic effect. It's like a... 20 minute walk.
She quickly typed out a response as she banged her head slightly to the beat, subconsciously matching her footsteps to the beat. Something clicked suddenly and she quickly flipped from Skype to the SMS app, quickly tapping out a message to Georgia.

Hey, it's my birthday punk. Lets have a wild night at Verboten, you know the place. Over on 11th. I'm walking there now.

With her message sent she flipped back to Skype.

Hey, not to be a downer or anything, but how're you holding up?


She quickly tapped out a followup in Norwegian, figuring it'd be more familiar. People do that when they were trying to be emotional, right?

Du kan alltid snakke med meg, jeg er her hvis du trenger det?

She smiled a bit as she recounted all the fond memories she had of Emil, of them as kids. They got into a lot of trouble. Thinking back on it, she would totally watch a show about their childhood. Hell, it'd probably win an Emmy or some shit.

With her lapse back into Norwegianness she flips through her playlist, landing on a specific song.

Spoiler:

[HRH Luna]

Emil just shook his head at Anita's reply.
your such a drama queen
Okay, so his spelling could use some work, but it wasn't much worse than the Americans spellling, so he... didn't entirely care.

He smiled and continued watching the Youtubes, glancing out the window every now and then. Before he knew it, another reply appeared.

Hey, not to be a downer or anything, but how're you holding up?

He stared at the message for a good 10 minutes, watching the follow-up appear. He'd been living in New York with Anita for a year or two while he was going to school to study mechanical engineering, but after a year and a half, he got a call that his mother had collapsed during the daily farm work. He immediately rushed home to help the farm stay up and running, since his older brother had moved out and his father wasn't in the best condition either. He could work, but... he needed time to rest as well. So they asked Emil to come home. ...Multiple times he wondered if this is all they wanted out of him. To run the farm. Tradition was important after all. ...He sighed and turned to the keyboard.

im fine
mom is getting better, but the doctor says she should rest as much as possible. so while me and dad takes care of the farm, she makes all the food in the house
doctor said that was fine so...
hopefully i will come back soon

He couldn't deny he wanted to go back to New York and finish his degree. But leaving right now would be selfish and would surely make the farm go under. ...He couldn't do that to them. Of course he'd been trying to help them get back on their feet for... almost a year now. ...Time sure went fast.

...He quickly switched back to Youtube to take his mind off it all.

[Pinkie]

Georgia hopped into her chair, spinning it in a circle. A long day necessitates longer play time, but that doesn't answer the question of what to do.

She opened and closed several websites, desperately searching for something to do, when her Skype Dinged.

A party? Not a real, like, planned party, of course, but still, should be fun. And she had already decided to reward herself... Hell, why not?

Yeah, okay, just give me, like, ten minutes to get ready.
What kinda night we talking, anyway, we gonna drink and chat, dance, or... ?

She considered waiting for a response before prepping, but then decided it would be wasteful, and ran off to a bathroom for a quick shower to prep. After all, work stank is the worst stank.

After that, she did her hair up(She settled on leaving her long hair falling across her shoulders, but curled the front in what she thought was a fetchingly adorable way), and threw on a slight dress, grabbed her shoes, and checked her skype for replies.

[Sunny]

It's my birthday. What kind of night do you think it's gonna be?

She snickered a bit. She had met Georgia shortly before Emil moved back to Norway. There was maybe like, a month long overlap. Her and Emil had met Georgia when Anita was DJing for a club over in Manhattan. It was a pretty sweet place. Payed well too. The girl came right up to the DJ stand, chatting it up. It had been pretty much instant friendship between them. Though she didn't get long to get to know Emil before he left. Whatever, it seemed like they got along well enough.

She flipped back over to Emil.

Hey, take all the time you need. America isn't going anywhere... probably. Tell mom I said hi.

She's always called Emil's mother mom. Don't get the wrong idea, her own mother was great, but Emil's mother was just as sweet as could be. Whenever her own mother was away for a business trip, she'd spend entire weeks living with Emil, she even had her own bedroom in their house at one point.

She frowned a bit, the full reality of the situation descending upon her. She really wished she could have gone back too, but she simply didn't have the means.

[Pinkie]

Georgia rolled her eyes. Flippant responses, because obviously.

Well, I did give two options, so, ya'know...
Anyway, I'm heading out, I'll see you when I get there!

She jumped back up, grabbed her purse, and left for the bar.

[HRH Luna]

He saw the reply and sighed. His mind started to wander, rummaging through all the possibilities of him getting back to USA. ...He just shook his head.

i will
can we talk about something else? like where your going or something?

He kind of had enough with the whole not-being-in-America talk. He'd figure it out. He swore he would find some way to keep the farm up and go back to school. Dammit.
Back to the dang Youtube clip. ...Was he really only fifteen minutes in? ...Thirty to go. Oh well.

[Princess Celestia]

As Emil sits there, watching the long video, he starts to zone out, finding it harder to pay attention.

His thoughts drift to...

Anger.

Fear.

A need to protect those he loves.

To protect...family.

And then getting struck with...something, which makes him snap out of his reverie.

He wouldn't know why his emotions had suddenly switched like so, in such a sudden way.

But what's known, in the land of the midnight sun, is that Emil has a new splotch of ink on each hip...with a crescent moon in the center. And he doesn't realize it just yet.

For most others in his homeland, life carries on in the sunlight. For one man, the night is (be)coming...

[Sunny]

Oh yeah, sure. It's some club over on the Northern end of Williamsburg.
Don't think I've ever been to it, actually.
Some place called Verboten, I've heard a few good things about it.
Bar's endless too once you pay your admission.
Perfect birthday spot.
Oh Georgia's coming too. I texted her while I was walking.
Girl doesn't need a reason to party.

She shivers a bit, rubbing her bare arm with her free hand. She probably should've brought a jacket or something, but whatever she looked sexy so that's all that mattered. Crossing the street quickly, she makes it up in front of the club, a small line outside the door, a beefy bouncer at the door taking people's money for admission and giving them wristbands. She pauses for a moment, thinking if she should go in now, or wait outside for Georgia.

A gust of cool air blows across her significant amount of exposed skin.

Right, inside. I'll hang out at the bar until Georgia shows up.

She steps into the line, four or five people in front of her. She taps out one last quick message to Emil.

Alright I'm in line outside now. I'll message you in the morning.
Or afternoon.
Whatever.
Whenever I wake up after getting blackout drunk.
You know the deal.
Happy birthday bro.

She shuts off her phone screen, sliding it into her back pocket as the line slowly advances. Once she's up front she pulls a little money clip out of her other back pocket.

"Hiya, havin' a good night?" She glances up at the sign behind the bouncer, who's standing behind a little podium. She counts out 40 bucks, handing it to the man, who drops it in a lockbox in the podium and motions for her to hold out her wrist.

She holds her wrist over the top of the podium.

He nods his head a bit as he fastens the band to her wrist. "Yeah, it's been pretty nice so far. Enjoy your night ma'am."

Anita smiles to him as she withdraws her arm, pushing open the door to be greeted by booming music and a foggy haze, courtesy of some smoke machines set up.

Spoiler:

Anita smirks, bouncing her head to the beat as she grooves her way over to the bar, weaving through a few people.

Spoiler:

With a quick and experienced grace, she orders herself a drink, a nice minty Mojito. She passes an ample tip to the bartender, smiling as she sips on her drink, waiting for Georgia.

[Pinkie]

There is a nack, or rather an art, to the perfect surprise glomp. The first thing one has to remember is rather simple- they're expecting it when they first arrive. After that, they'll just watch the door, but when they arrive they're scanning the room for you. So, obviously, you have to stay hidden- get into the crowd, move with the flow of the song, and above all, don't lose the mark. The third, and final, thing to do is to remember not to spill their drink- nothing like a pair of wet dresses(or suits, as the situation might show) to ruin a perfect opening. So, with an eagle-like eye, Georgia stalked her pray as the drink slowly lowered.

closer...

closer...

a little more, and...

Counter! Success! Victory Dance of Victory!

With a single Tigger like leap, Georgia flew from the shadows(or, more accurately, from behind a well-humored patron who had easily eclipsed her petite figure) and attached herself to Anita's waist, all the while emitting a stream of high pitched noises that a well-trained ear could recognize as words.

"ANITA! Ooooh, it's so good to see you, and I mean, you ALWAYS know I have time for one of my Gal Pal's birthdays! Not to say I wouldn't have time if it wasn't your birthday, but, ooh, this is just coming out wrong, so here! This is for you!"

Another trick that a well-trained overwhelming personality quickly learns is how to confound the brain with one stimulus so that it misses another, and Georgia was a master, so by the time anyone paying attention even noticed her arms had let go of Anita, she already had a petite, 9"x9"9" box with music note marks and a polka-dotted bow, all tied together by a length of twine, and was holding it out to her friend.

[Princess Celestia]

Perhaps the reason Anita was so easily snuck up on was because she had somehow entered a daze...

Something about setting up the equipment for the latest rave, and then it came through the ceiling...seeing a friend helping try to fend it off, she tried to run and hide, but her glasses fell off, and she got hit with the shock anyway...

...and that's all she remembers, before coming back to seeing a familiar face and present before her.

[HRH Luna]

Emil just stares at the screen as time passes and his thoughts float around. He subconsciously clenches his fist as he feels anger flood him. Anger over being stuck here? Anger from being forced from New York? Or maybe simply frustration-born fury? ...No. This felt different... somehow. It's true that he wasn't really the type to let his emotions show that much, but... This was the strangest anger he'd ever felt. it felt like it was pouring out from a crack somewhere in his head. And suddenly from the same crack, fear. Gut-wrenching, bone-chilling, spine-twisting fear. If that anger was of a volcano, this fear felt like he was standing on a glacier. He felt himself gasping for air and then just as suddenly as it came, it was gone.

He started to shivering a bit as he stared blankly into the screen. Why did it feel like something non-existent was scratching at his memories? And then it all ended with the sound of an impact, left echoing in his head. He just stares at the screen, blankly. He... felt lost for a moment. What had just happened? ...When did Anita post so many messages? He rubbed his face a bit. Maybe he'd been drinking more than he thought... That's it, he was sleeping as soon as he replied to the Skype messages.

that sounds pretty cool
its about midnight here so im gonna sleep
i feel like crap, probs too much to drink haha
you have fun with gorgia
tell her i said hi
god natt, anita

There. Sent. He was just gonna collapse on his bed now. Maybe he'd dream about being in New York. ...That would be nice.

[Sunny]

Anita gasps in shock, jerking forward instinctively from the assault on her waist, her glasses sliding off her face and dropping onto the bar, thankfully undamaged.

"W-woah I..!" She looks over at the girl.

"O-oh. Hey Georgia." She takes a calming breath, letting the goosebumps recede. She quickly sets her glasses back over her eyes, quickly scooping up her drink and taking a liberal gulp.

She looks down at the present. "Heh, thanks." She looks up at Georgia, smiling slightly before turning her eyes back down to the present. "Wow, nice wrapping paper." She chuckles a bit as she rips open one end, sliding it off to reveal a signed copy of an album that hasn't released yet for Anita's favourite unnamed band.

After a few moment's of complete shock, "Fy faen..." She looks up at Georgia in disbelief. "How in the hell did you get this!?"

[Pinkie]

Georgia giggled in precisely the most infuriating way possible.

"I know a guy~! Well, okay, it took a few guys to pull it off, but I did, now don't you worry your pretty little head about that! Anyway, what'cha think? It took some doing, but I thought you'd appreciate having the chance to get some great remixes going before anyone else even had a chance to start, right?"

Georgia paused for a moment, and signaled the bartender to get her a drink- virgin rum and coke, of course.

[Sunny]

Anita stares at the case for a few long moments, a smile plastered on her face. She silently stows it, leaning over and pulling Georgia into a hug.

"Thanks. Really." She sniffs a bit.

"Well, now that you're here what say we get this night started right? I know just the thing to kick this night into overdrive."

She turns to the bartender, pulling her glasses slightly down her nose and giving the bartender a stern glare.

"Two Instant Deaths."

The bartender looked hesitant at first, but the woman's stern gaze left no room for questions. Within a minute two deceptively ordinary looking glasses were laid out in front of them.

"Bottoms up."

Spoiler:

[Princess Celestia]

Georgia is having quite the party time, yeah...in fact, her mind starts to wander, thinking of those who would try and make sure no one else could have fun but themselves...those sadistic, insane jerks who would make life much less of a fun party and more like a living hell...and hurt her long-time friends in the process, which is certainly no fun for them...what good is fun if it's by yourself?

After waking up from that fade-out, she'd see Anita doing her thing at the bar...but from here on, everything changes...

[Pinkie]

Georgia winced slightly as she pulled back Anita's hair. She didn't begrudge her friend her fun, of course, but no one can be completely comfortable while someone vomits into a toilet.

Eventually the stream ended, and Georgia helped Anita over to the bed, carefully lying her on her side to avoid any risk of vomit induced suffocation. Next she went to the kitchen, poured a large glass of water, and put it on the nightstand.

Yawning widely, Georgia glanced at the clock briefly- 2:00- before grabbing a spare blanket and lying down on the couch, quickly drifting off to sleep.

[Sunny]

Anita groans as she's unwillingly brought to the land of the waking. All of her hurt. But hey... totally worth it. She groans as she cracks an eye open, staring at the clock by her bedside, 3:30.

She takes a deep breath as she shoves herself upright, bracing herself to keep from falling back over. She yawns as she groggily calls out. "Piiiinkieeeee, waaaaaaake uuuuuupppppp."

Rubbing her eyes, she pulls herself out of bed, still in her outfit from last night, albeit a lot more disheveled. She figures she might as well take a shower, she probably smells rank from an entire night of drunken partying. Gingerly walking over to her bathroom she closes the door behind her, getting the water running and giving it time to heat up. She absentmindedly checks herself out in the mirror as she's undressing, not immediately noticing any funny business. Upon pulling down her panties though, she catches a faint glimpse of black on the side of her butt. Looking down she sees a pair of bridged eighth notes tattooed on her skin.

She furrows her brow as she stands there naked staring at her ass. If it was a tattoo why wasn't there any redness or anything? And why wasn't it sore? Tattoos don't just heal overnight. Maybe Pinkie had something to do with it, she had a habit of pulling off seemingly impossible stunts.

She turns back to the mirror, scrutinizing herself more heavily. Her hair still looked pretty normal, the same blue it always was. Man, she really needed to get a haircut. More pressing though were her eyes... gone were her light blue eyes, and in their place were two vibrant magenta eyes. Her first instinct is to just take her contacts out, but all that results in is a poked eye. Right, Georgia probably did something. Whatever, Georgia's probably sleeping on her couch so she'll just interrogate her after she's done in here.

Pulling the stopper on the faucet, she pulls her leg over the side of the tub and gets under the warm stream of water, letting the warm water soothe her aching body.

[Pinkie]

Georgia snorted in the other room, her sleep disturbed by yelling from the other room. On its own, this likely wouldn't be enough to wake her, but it was enough to rouse her to moving around, and so she quickly fell onto the ground.

It's a well known fact that the last refuge of the always-prepared is pretending they planned that, so almost noone would be surprised to hear that Georgia's first, panicked shout after hitting the floor was "I meant to do that!"

[Sunny]

Anita begrudgingly turns off the shower, grasping for a towel and sluggishly drying herself off. She runs a hand through her still damp hair, mussing it up into her ususal mess. She secures the towel around her waist and opens the door, making her way down the hallway and into the living room, spotting Pinkie face down on the floor next to the couch.

"Alright, you have some explaining to do." She's standing menacingly on the balls of her feet, hands on her hip. She's very much topless, but she's never cared before and she's not gonna start now.

[Pinkie]

Georgia rolled over and stared up at her host. "Um. Hi, Anita. I fell a little off the couch? Did you know hardwood hurts? Like, a lot?"

She pulled herself up onto her feet, carefully not looking at Anita's assets. "So, are you feeling any better now? You drank a looot last night!"

[Sunny]

She narrows her eyes. "I feel like I got hit by a bus. But that isn't what's on trial here." She pulls her towel off, turning to the side and showing off the large musical note emblazoned on the side of her ass. "While I'll admit it kinda looks cool, it's temporary, right?"

[Pinkie]

Georgia whistled, and touched the mark. "No idea. If you got it last night, you had it before I saw you. You know I wouldn't let you get something like this while you were drunk. Besides," she paused, licking a finger and rubbing it across the center of the bar between the two eighth notes, "This isn't removable. Those things feel waxy, and tend to scratch off pretty easy. Whatever this is, it's permanent."

[Sunny]

She looks down at Pinkie, not amused. "Then what about these?" She holds open her eyes with two fingers, showcasing the bright, unnatural magenta irises in the place of her usual baby blues.

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