Songs: Dizzy Gillespie - Good Bait; Nancy Sinatra - Summer Wine

"I can't believe I'm doing this. This is scary as fuck." I muttered to myself, as I slowly made my way towards a big mansion-like house. I had to be really careful, because the ground was uneven and I was wearing high heels. And while I used to be an expert on walking in high heels, that had been a long time ago. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that that shit was difficult.

"Stop panicking, Nova, you got this. Just smile and look nice. Make small talk. Look stunning." I heard Anouk's voice through my earpiece. Smile and look stunning? That was easier said than done. The heels were uncomfortable and the dress I was wearing? I don't think I ever wore something this fancy. It just felt wrong after I had been digging through blood and dirt for over a decade on Pandora. My hair was all tied up into a bun and it was heavy.

"It's not that easy, pulling this look off. Anyway, here we go. I'm about to head inside." I said and took a deep breath. Time to smile.

I walked up to the main entrance and smiled at the two guards standing at the entrance. One of them gestured for me to stop. I would have panicked, but Anouk told me I could expect them to check for my invite and see if I had any weapons on me.

"Sorry, Miss, I'm going to have to ask you for your invite." he said to me. I smiled a little more.

"Not a problem." I answered and reached into my cleavage to pull out the invite. We had figured it would be a bad idea to bring a bag, since they'd be checking much more thoroughly for any weapons. I just hoped they wouldn't get any ideas about my hair. Or my leg for that matter.

It didn't feel right for any of us to be completely unarmed, so I hid a small knife in the massive bun of dreadlocks on my head. Plus, I could materialize a gun anytime with the microchips in my leg, but that was just for an emergency. The plan was going in and getting out without having to resort to violence and bringing back a whole lot of information - the owner of the Vault Key piece, the location, possibly blueprints, codes to get in, any details we could get.

The guard quickly scanned my invitation and nodded, folding it back together and handing it back to me. He proceeded to wave me through. Huh, seemed like he had no concerns I might be carrying a weapon. Thank God, he didn't. I mean, it was unlikely he'd be checking my hair, but still. What if he did?

I really couldn't have thought of a good excuse for why there was a knife hidden in my hair. But for now it didn't matter. I shoved the invite back in my bra and walked into the mansion. It was like a fucking palace. Honestly, no one should be that rich. There was a massive winding staircase leading to a second floor. The whole lobby had marble flooring. There were tables with little snacks and glasses of - what I assumed to be - champagne on them. Most people seemed to be mingling in the lobby area.

I had no clue what to do with myself. There were servants coming around with trays full of snacks and champagne glasses as well. I saw one of them approaching me and I gave him a smile.

"Would you care for a glass of champagne, Ma'am?" he asked. I took one of the glasses off the tray. This felt so weird. I grew up in a family working in hospitality like this, but it was really strange being on the other side of all this.

"Uh... thanks." I replied. The servant bowed slightly and moved on. At least I had something to hold onto now. It didn't really help me much, but it made me feel slightly better. I wished Mordecai had already arrived, then I'd at least know someone. I mean, we were supposed to talk ro people other than each other, but still.

"Anouk, what the hell am I supposed to do now? It's been ages since I've been at a fancy party like this and when I was at one, I was usually supposed to just shut up and look good." I whispered.

"Relax. Look around, walk around the lobby, grab a snack and see if anyone notices you. You got this, I'll tell you if they're a good target or not once you've done some small talk." I heard her say.

This didn't really help me one bit. I took a sip of my champagne glass and looked down on myself. I was wearing a long, burgundy dress that was tight-fitting and had a slit going up to above my knee.

Honestly, it was a really nice dress. And I was happy to have a change from the same dirty old Pandora clothes for a while. Or rather the Aeres-clothes. But being thrown in a completely new environment with all... this? It seemed pretty stress-inducing. And stress-inducing it was.

I started slowly sauntering around the lobby area trying to look at a few people to see if anyone was standing around on their own. I noticed someone studying the table with the snacks intensely. Maybe this guy would be a good target to start with. I quickly moved over there and feigned interest in the snacks.

"Anything good on here?" I asked with a smile and looked over and it was only then that I realized. This was Mordecai. I hadn't even recognized him. He looked completely different in a suit and with his hair tied up all neatly.

"Mordecai! I thought you were someone else." I said, as he looked up at me and gave me a genuine smile.

"You're looking nice." he commented.

"Same goes for you."

"Oh my God, you two are such dorks. Did you not even recognize each other?" we both heard Anouk say over the earpiece.

"I have never seen Mordecai in a suit." I said quietly.

"I don't think I've ever worn one in my entire life." he added.

"Seriously though, Mordy, are any of these snacks any good? I'm a little lost here." I asked him. He just shrugged.

"I dunno, I have no clue what half of these things are or how you'd eat them." he answered quietly.

"Guys, just grab some small snack and eat it and if you don't like it, don't get the same thing again." Anouk chimed in.

"Easy for you to say, you probably know what all this is." I replied, grabbing something that looked like a dumpling. I hoped it wasn't filled with anything nasty. I quickly ate the whole thing, only then realizing how hungry I was. It was filled with meat and some sort of cabbage, from what I could taste.

"How is it?" Mordecai wanted to know.

"It's good. Surprisingly hearty. Fuck, I'm hungry. How many of them can I eat before it gets weird?" I replied.

"As long as you don't eat more than half the plate..." Anouk said.

"Fine with me, I guess. Didn't realize how little I've eaten all day. How are Brick and Tina holding up?" I wanted to know.

"Oh, they're having a great time. They were pretty happy about not having to get all dressed up and having the day off. Tina seemed a little meh about it at first, but she's loving the sightseeing."

"That's good to hear. Now, hypothetically, if that hadn't been Mordecai - is that how you get talking to people?" I asked. I really had no idea on how to carry myself in social situations like this anymore. It had been too long since I had been around filthy rich people, trying to make conversation with them.

"You're doing fine. Just relax. If you're not too comfortable, just hang back and bop away to some music, sooner or later someone will come and talk to you, because you're an unfamiliar face." Anouk explained.

"Why didn't you tell us that in the first place?" Mordecai asked.

"Because I knew the two of you would just hang out around each other the entire time, if I had told you. Now, go and scatter a little and get talking to people or let people talk to you, for God's sake."

"Fine, fine, fine." I mumbled and ate two more of the dumplings, before I considered I might want to try some other stuff.

"You wanna take the left and I take the right?" Mordecai asked me. I nodded, my mouth full of food.

"Sounds good to me. I'll just be pining for you from the other end of the room." I told him with a wink.

"As if." he said and laughed like I was joking. I wasn't, though. I wasn't used to seeing Mordecai in a suit like that, but I had to admit that he was extremely handsome and I could have stared at him all night.

If it wasn't for that bit of work we had to do. So we could go and get ourselves killed or nearly killed. Why did we even do all that stuff? I mean, yeah, it was pretty exciting to go hunting for Vaults, but... it was such a hassle, too. And most of the Vaults just held some weird monsters from what I heard. At this point I was almost certain that Atlas just got extremely lucky with their Vault on Promethea.

On the other hand we had nothing else to do with our lives. How else would we make the money we needed to survive? Even on Pandora you couldn't survive on nothing. You had to buy ammo and ammo cost a shit ton of money, depending what mood Marcus was in at the moment.

I grabbed a snack from another table and started eating it. I didn't really enjoy this one as much as the dumplings, but it was still good. And I was still extremely hungry. When I had made it to the other end of the room and had found an unoccupied bit of wall, I could lean against, I quickly took the opportunity.

I plastered a smile on my face and let my eyes wander over the room while slightly swirling my glass of champagne in one hand. Maybe I was still able to get into that high society groove after all this time. I could most certainly look the part, if I wanted to, that much was sure.