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Etho was already overwhelmed and he had barely walked through the doorway into the building.
The building wasn't exactly a show from the outside, though he guessed that maybe it was to keep it from being overwhelmed with people, or turn it into a habitat for hostile activity.
On the inside it was more like a club or a casino, a few tables against the rightmost wall for people who wanted to play games. Bdubs pulled him forwards into the establishment, letting Tango through from behind him, and Etho came to realize he wasn't going to be allowed to leave anytime soon.
Bdubs grabbed brought the three of them to an empty table before spiriting himself away again. Tango said something to him but he couldn't make it out over all the yelling from the nearby tables and the music from the dance floor.
His attention ended up drifting to one of the gambling games being played. it looked like Poker to him at first, except instead of trying to get the highest score, they were trying to empty their hands of all their cards. Like some kind of rip off version of UNO.
Bdubs came back and handed a card to Tango. Etho peeked over his shoulder, taking note of the rules behind betting on the ongoing games. He didn't intend to play along, but he knew it had been one of the main factors that had convinced Tango to come with them on this excursion, not that Etho had done any convincing.
If Bdubs decided they were going somewhere, they simply were.
He managed to order a drink from one of the waiters passing by, just a simple soda, and by the time the drink was empty, Bdubs and Tango had gone off to waste themselves away. Etho looked around sheepishly. He felt so out of place in the building, especially with the mask covering his mouth. He wouldn't have been surprised if the reason he had been avoided for so long was because they thought he might've been sick.
Eventually, the lights went dim, and Etho's attention was drawn to the stage. He recognized Grian from the first time that Bdubs had dragged him here, and his Ariana getup was just as entertaining as it had been the first time. She lip synced the song so well that Etho found himself forgetting that it wasn't her singing a few different times.
Immediately after she left, another performer took the stage, and Etho averted his eyes. He wasn't here for the performers either, though he wouldn't mind watching some of them. He glanced towards the tables he had last seen Tango and Bdubs at and saw no one there.
For the first time since he had first gotten there, Etho stood up, searching around for the two idiots he had attended with. Judging from the lack of Tango's bright blonde hair at the gambling area or the bar, the only other option Etho could think of was the dance floor, and he would have done anything to not end up on the dance floor. There was alos the chance that they had escaped to a nearby bathroom to makeout, but Etho didn't exactly want to walk in on that either.
The bar seemed like it would be a nice safe place from the entropy of the rest of the building. He'd just settled down into one of the chairs toward the end of the bar when some of the people further down broke out into a fight. Etho groaned, his annoyance steadily growing, and pulled his headphones out of his pocket. They weren't noise cancelling and didn't do much, but the feeling of them in his ears by itself was already doing wonders.
Well, they did wonders right up until someones hand ended up on his arm. He jolted backwards into the counter, surprised seeing as no one else had even bothered coming close to him, and found one of the drag performers from the show in front of him.
He took out one of his headphones, already straining in order to hear her talk, but instead she grabbed Etho's arm and started pulling her towards the doors at the back of the establishment. Etho stuttered his way through words, trying to find a way to say that whatever she was looking for from him was not what she was going to get, but by the time the thought even occured to his brain, they were already passing through a door into-
Into what looked like an extended dressing room. At one of the stations, A lady was doing a performers makeup, and they both glanced up. Etho realized he could actually hear everything in the room, and not just a blur of sounds like he had been hearing for the past hour or two.
"Is there anyone in the chill room?" The performer who had dragged him here asked.
The boy getting ready to perform shook his head no, and the fire haired woman glanced towards Etho before outright saying no.
She let go of him, walking even further into the backrooms of the building. Etho glanced around confused.
"Just follow him. He'll explain it." The lady said, and Etho let out a quiet thank you before hurrying off towards where the performer had disappeared.
They made their way through a few corridors, around a few corners, before she stopped in front of a door and pushed it open, inclining her head at it to tell Etho to move. The room was filled with couch cushions, pillows, and blankets, strewn about all over the place, but still coherently organized.
She settled herself onto the couch and then gestured across from her. Etho didn't sit down.
"Why am I here?" He asked.
She laughed a little. "You were overwhelmed. Usually when we get customers who don't want to be on the floors, we just direct them back here, but you wouldn't have listened."
Etho blushed, and finally sat down. "How could you tell?"
"How could I tell?" She asked, and he nodded. "I'm entirely too sure. Maybe it was the dissacioated look on your face, the fact that you were sitting at the bar alone, the expression on your face. When you've been doing this as long as I have you pick up on it." She held out her arm. "You can call me Scar."
"Etho." He took her hand.
It turned out that Scar was actually rather nice, if not a little strange. The conversation he had been planning on the journey over had been forgotten. They got on surprisingly well, and Etho forgot why he had originally come here in the first place. Tango and Bdubs could handle themselves.
"So, you got a job as a performer?" Etho asked, and Scar grinned.
"I did! And it's one of the best professions I've had thusfar. Not only is it fun, but it pays decently."
Etho snorted. "You don't strike me as someone who would be in it just for the pay."
Scar nodded her head slightly. "No, it's just so that I can pay off the remaining bills from when i was convicted for tax fraud." Ethos mouth dropped open, and she started cackling. "Let me guess, you assumed that I could do no wrong either huh?"
"Not- Not exactly." Etho stuttered. "More so I just wasn't expecting the tax fraud."
Eventually they switched from just asking each other questions to playing truth or dare. Which ended up more like truth (Etho) and Dare (Scar) since neither of them chose the other option. They both got tired of it rather quickly, reverting to simply talking about their life experiences and wishes with each other.
They kept talking for what Etho thought was another 10 minutes, and then someone came and knocked on the door. Etho could recognize the loud voices from the otherside, and he wasn't ready to end the conversation and go back to their home just yet.
Scar clearly picked up on his dilemna, as she stood up quickly made she way over to Etho, and then pressed their faces together, just barely off of a kiss. The door opened, and then immediately closed, the intruders shocked into silence and fleeing the scene. Scar pulled back once their footsteps started to fade, and Etho finally took in a deep breath. His cheeks were on fire.
"Well." Scar chirped. "That was a close one."
Etho was having a crisis.
Bdubs had mocked him before for not experiencing any kind of wants for the kisses that he happily shared with others, and Etho had been sure that it was just an absent feeling for one reason or another, but Scar had just broken that dam. The thought of kissing her was so very enticing, and she was so pretty.
Maybe it jsut depended on the person.
Again, Scar caught on quickly. "Are you thinking about if we had actually kissed then? Don't worry I won't do it if you don't ask." Ethos flush only got worse and she started laughing again.
Etho steeled himself to make a decision and sat up straighter, mustering up all of his confidence to look at her and mumble, "Put me out of my misery, and please just do it."
She smiled.
"Whatever you ask for, Etho!" and then leaned down and kissed him hard.