When she came back out, Bran was still sitting on the end of the bed looking, if anything, even more wide awake.
“Seriously, people generally want to talk about something like their first costuming night,” Bran said.
“If you’re sure,” Doris said, grabbing a chair. She’d changed back into her “street clothes” and felt mildly uncomfortable in them. As if even as street clothes they weren’t what she’d choose to wear. “Well, Mandy sent Traxa down with me but she took off almost immediately. Which left me hiding in a corner.”
“I hope you climbed out,” Bran said.
“I did,” Doris said, dimpling. “With some help. I ran into a girl named Daphne…”
“Pirate costume?” Bran asked. “Big hat? White feather?”
“Yes,” Doris said.
“Did that costume,” Bran said, smiling.
“You did that?” Doris asked. “It was awesome!”
“Hey, I do this for a living,” Bran said, shrugging. “Lots of pictures?”
“Oh, everybody loved it,” Doris said, pulling the pins out of her hair. She’d taken the time to get most of the makeup off in the bathroom. “Daphne convinced me to climb out of my corner and it was just picture city. She made like I was her captive and everybody just ate it up. We stayed in the Hilton and just talked and got pictures taken until, well, now. It was great! I never thought I’d enjoy attention so much!”
“It’s called ego-boo,” Bran said. “Ego boost. Duncan can lecture on it for hours. It’s about status, basically. If people are giving you positive attention it feels like a rise in cultural status. Generally it means there is a rise in status. I’ll let Duncan complete the lecture and go on about how the gene is selfish.”
“The one thing that kept throwing me was that there was this enormous black guy in a Blade costume that, like, followed us around. He wasn’t acting…stalkerish. He didn’t actually spend that much time watching us. But every time I looked around, there he’d be, usually with his back to us. Actually, it sort of looked as if he was watching out for us. Which is weird. And he totally ignored people taking his picture. If we moved, he moved, pictures being taken or not.”
“Yeah, that would be weird,” Bran said. “Going to do the same costume tomorrow?”
“I could,” Doris said, frowning. “I don’t want to put anyone to any more trouble…”
“But you’d rather do something else,” Bran said, nodding. “Makes sense. Come to the panels tomorrow and we’ll see what we can come up with. You should think about showing more skin. You’re probably going to have to when the Dawn contest comes, and you need to get used to it.”
“After tonight I think I can get my head around that,” Doris said. “One guy did try to grope me. I don’t think his wrist is broken.”
“Glad to hear you’re getting some assertiveness,” Bran said, yawning. “You’re going to need it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m actually getting tired again.”
Doris smiled and then shrugged.
“I was half expecting a come-on,” she admitted.
“You’re…not really ready for that, unless I’m mistaken,” Bran said. “Maybe later in the con.”
“Until then, then,” Doris said, standing up.
“Have a good rest of the evening.”
Doris knew she should be tired; she hadn’t slept at all last night and it was after midnight, but she was still charged up from the evening. She wandered down to the lobby of the Hilton, but most of the costumers had packed it in and everything was closed up. The Marriott wasn’t much better.
However, the Hyatt was still going strong. She flashed her badge to the security on the back steps and found that the “smoking area” outside the back door was just about packed. There were still vendors out there but she wasn’t going to spend her limited amount of cash on drinks.
However, besides the various people, in various clothing ranging from street clothes through corsets and miniskirts and schoolgirl outfits to one guy in a leather thong and body paint, there was a group of people banging on drums down at the far end. And girls doing belly dancing in the middle.
Intrigued, she walked over to watch. The rhythms were catchy and pulled at something in her. She knew she liked to dance, she just wasn’t usually someone to do it in public. Her dancing was all done in her room to the radio. This was different. Different dancing and a completely different environment.
Could she, maskless, walk out there and join in?
No, but she didn’t have to be maskless. She considered her location then walked to the nearest ladies’ room.
“Is that her?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” the man at her side answered. “We should kill her, I tell you.”
“And risk the penalties?” the woman asked scornfully. “She doesn’t know who she is or where she is. She is no risk to us.”
“Her friends search for her. They’re gone now. But when they find her, that is a much larger issue.”
“She has to win the crown to defeat us. There is no chance that that dormouse can beat me.”
“Let’s hope so. I am tired beyond words of this prison.”
“I’m tired of these losers. Let’s go find a party.”
“You just want to find someone to torment.”
“That’s what we do, precious.”
Once in the ladies’, Doris entered a stall and pulled off her shirt. Going shirtless was out. That, she couldn’t quite handle yet. But it was an old shirt and worn. And she had a small pen-knife in her bag.
Five minutes later she walked out. It wasn’t a great costume but she at least could be a tad anonymous. Call the costume “The Dread Pirate Roberta.” She sort of remembered a movie with a character, ‘The Dread Pirate Roberts,’ who always wore a black mask. The sleeves were gone from the ratty old shirt, and it was now a midriff shirt. The lower part of the shirt was the mask.
All the girls in the circle were in such beautiful costumes, she didn’t want to get in there in her holey jeans and beat-up running shoes. So she chose a quiet corner off to the side and started dancing.
Just the hips at first, warming into the rhythm. What was that line about “Dance like nobody is watching?” She knew almost from the first that, ratty clothing or not, people were watching. Men were watching.
And she liked it.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Have you had any sleep at all?” Duncan asked as Doris sat down at his table in the restaurant.
“Nope,” Doris replied, grinning. “I’ve been having too much fun.”
“Is that a faint sheen of glow about you I detect?”
“If you mean am I pregnant, no!” Doris replied, hotly.
“Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow,” Duncan said. “You appear to glow. Your hair is wet.”
“I was dancing,” Doris said, shrugging.
“This early?” Duncan replied, chuckling. “Shouldn’t you at least wait until the sun is over the yardarm?” He paused and looked at her. “You don’t mean you were dancing all night?”
“Until about an hour ago. The last drummer gave up, the loser.”
“Good God, woman!” Duncan said. “Pace yourself. No sleep, and dancing all night? Were your shoes on fire? What happened to the little wallflower?”
“I am the little wallflower,” Doris said, shrugging. “Until I can put on a mask. Then I get to be the mask.”
“Well, seriously, you need some rest,” Duncan said. “Food, at least. My treat.”
“I accept,” Doris said. “I feel sort of bad about the fact that I’m living on charity. But I sort of got over it, partially, last night. Guys kept giving me bottles of water.”
