Awesome Night at the Mist Club

So tonight at the Mist Club there was a fashion show, Victim a la Mode, which was organized by the Social Sphere of HELP College. I've had my ticket for a while, and I know two of the models, so I was going to be there for sure.

The night started off a bit rocky when I couldn't find a nice collared shirt to go with what I was wearing. I had visited the club earlier and they had a pretty strict dress code. Eventually I settled for a shirt that I had seen my younger brother wearing a few Sundays ago, but I assumed that since he's wearing my stuff all the time that the shirt probably belonged to me, too.

I planning to take my motorcycle to the club, but it had been raining like crazy so I decided to drive my maid's Kancil instead. She said she needed it back at around ten, which is when the show would be ending.

I arrived at the club a little past eight. I was told that the age limit had been lowered from 23 to 18 for the occasion, but since that still left me a few months too young I waited outside for a few minutes before gathering up the nerve to try and get in. Turns out I was worried for nothing. They didn't ask for ID, just my pass. On my way in, I got a UV stamp on my wrist. I thought that was pretty cool, even though I couldn't see it.

When I got in I saw some of the organizers. They asked me why I was so early, and I told them that I arrived at 8, like it said I should on the pass. Apparently the show started at 9. 8 o'clock was scheduled for "arrival of guests". Since the only people I knew who were there so early were busy organizing stuff and getting things ready, I decided to find a place to hang out and watch people come in. Before I could, though, I was interrupted by Joshua and Ashley, two of the organizers and my seniors at college, who got me to unbutton my shirt a bit and roll up my sleeves to look less formal and more cool. I had only buttoned up because I was worried about the strict dress code, but I guess I overdid it.

Once I had found a place to wait until the show started, I texted my maid and told her that I didn't know when I would be coming back, but it probably would be after ten. She replied telling me to let her know when I got back.

I spend the next forty five minutes sitting and watching people come in. Right when I stood up to explore the place, El-Hanan, my friend, neighbour, and occasional poker opponent walked in. He and his friend, Nick, were here to see Andrew, another guy I play poker with sometimes, who was modelling that night. We talked for a bit and hung out on the upper level of the club, where there were UV lights and a good views. I checked my wrist and found my stamp wasn't showing, so I went back outside to get re-chopped. When I went back upstairs with a cool glowy guitar on my arm, the show was just about to start. Hanan asked me a bit about Juria, who was the other model I knew at the show. I asked whether it would be better to stay at the upper level or go to the floor to watch. When the show started, our decision was not to move.

The Giordano collection began with a dude showing off a design that some would call daring, most would call gay, and everyone would call illegal in any other context. After that, thankfully, things got a whole lot better. The second design ended up being one of my favourites of the night, and everything else looked pretty great. I almost didn't recognize Juria on the catwalk, but the look she used when she reached the end was unmistakable. Right after her was Andrew, who I had a lot less trouble identifying. Each model did a couple designs for each collection, so I was equally impressed with the designs as I was with the models' ability to switch between them so quickly.

About halfway through I told Hanan I was going down to check if the view from the floor was any better. I got a place right between the catwalk and bar. The floor was definitely better. I got to get a much better look at the models and outfits, plus leaning against the bar made me feel pretty cool. My position was also very fortunate during one Rebellz design, which I dubbed the space empress, which happened to be devoid of fabric on one side under the waist. I had not intended to see that much, but I regret nothing. It was around that time that I sent a text to Hanan that said "Yeah, it's better down here".

A few designs later I was asked to move. Apparently I had been leaning in front of the service area the entire time, as evidenced by a sign saying "Service Area: Do Not Lean" sitting on the bar underneath where my elbow was. I was now in an awkward spot between photographers and the catwalk, so in between designs I was glancing about for a new place to lean against. A spot on the bar opened up and, after checking for signs prohibiting leaning and finding the area clear, propped myself up against it.

As the Rebellz collection was wrapping up, I suddenly noticed Juria walking past, headed towards the backstage. I tried to say "hey" to get her attention and tell her how awesome the show was, but the music was too loud and I am too ignorable. She didn't stop on the way back from the backstage either. For the purpose of my ego I shall just assume here that she was on an important errand with a very focused mindset.

After the Rebellz collection was over there was a brief intermission before the final collection by Julia Leong would be showcased. During this time some delicious snacks were passed around. I saw Juria and Ashley with some aforementioned snacks and tried to track down the tray they were from. When I had succeeded at my delicious quest, I returned to congratulate Juria and hang around waiting for another tray to pass. Another tray did pass and, since it had already completed its rounds without being finished or something, it was placed on the table. I found Hanan and brought him over to try some, but he apparently does not enjoy delicious bits of cake because he decided not to eat any.

The Julia Leong collection was really good. One design was basically underwear. There was a lot of cheering when that one was unveiled. Other than that I don't have much to say, except that the height difference between the models and the designers is really a thing to behold.

The event ended almost exactly at ten o'clock. I asked around and found out that most people were going to stay behind for a while, so I decided to stay behind, too. The club was redeeming coupons for free drinks that were given out to everyone who had a pass to the show, so I got myself a coke. I asked Ashley if the organizers got free drinks, too, and surprisingly the answer was no, so I let her have some of mine. I asked Hanan if he was going to claim his free drink, but he said that the line at the counter was too long.

After a bit more small talk and a lot more snacks, I followed Juria and Ashley to the dance floor. Like Orientation Night, Ashley asked me to join them, and like Orientation Night, I did. This time I tried to tone down my dancing a bit so as not to look like such an idiot, but I still got pulled out by Hanan half an hour later for being, in his words, "too painful to watch". When we got outside he told me that, as I had suspected when I was on the dance floor, my dancing sucked and the girls were mostly ignoring me. I chilled outside the club a bit to enjoy the relative quiet (Leaving the club had similar effects being shell-shocked. You are slightly dazed and everything sounds muted) before heading back inside to the dance floor to see if I could watch other people and learn to suck a bit less. I didn't get to do that for long, though. This girl asked me why I had stopped dancing, and when I told her why, she declared Hanan an idiot. She said that she was going to dance soon, and that I was going to join her. I agreed. I was introduced to her friends and we talked for a while before I wandered off to go see what Andrew, Nick and Hanan were doing.

I found them on some couches around a table. At the time, this was the best thing. I plopped onto a couch and rested my legs after almost two hours of standing about and dancing. Moments later, Ashley joined us, which changed my position from a recline to more of a mellow stretch. A bunch of shots were delivered to the table on the house. I decided not to have one because I was driving back. I was the only wuss at the table, though, so everyone else took a glass.

Ashley said she was wanted to home soon because if she stayed people would try to get her drunk. She was correct. Andrew got her to drink another shot by agreeing to go dance for a while. I went to the dance floor, too, to join the girl I had met earlier. After a few songs I got either too bored or too self-conscious to continue and went back to the couches.

At around 11:45, I got a call from my dad. He told me that I should be home at around twelve. I went back to the dance floor for one more song, then returned to the couches to see if anyone had gotten drunk yet. Hanan offered me a beer and asked me to drink some. I told him that I would if I wasn't driving back, but I was, so I couldn't. He didn't accept that response, so I told him that I would take one sip right before I left. He was still unsatisfied and told me that for every minute that passed I would have to drink another sip's worth. After four minutes I decided to drink to prevent my beer debt from growing even further. He then told me I had eight minutes left so I would have to take eight more sips' worth of beer. I told him that was unfair since I thought it only counted for every minute until I drank, not for every minute until I left. I tried to bargain with him for two shots of whiskey later when I didn't have to drive instead of eight sips of beer then, but he was adamant. Our argument was interrupted when the DJs called up five very good-looking girls to dance for free drinks. The best dancer, judged by crowd reaction, would win the best drink. During the favourable conditions of the distracting competition, I told Hanan I would drink one sip when the girls were done, but that was it, and then I'd go home. This he said "fine" to.

So the competition finished, the best girl won, I downed the last sip, said goodbye, and went to the car. The drive home was short and uneventful, so I guess that a third of a glass of beer is not enough to make me drunk. After asking my maid if she still needed her car (she didn't, my brother used his car to help her out), I got on the computer to post this in three places, getting more and more detailed each time. This post is the third one, and I started it about an hour ago.

So yeah, it was a pretty good night.