Name: Aria Leland.
Location: West Manhattan.
ARP'ers: None.
((Sorry for the long intro post! These two will bust into the scene proper in my next post but there was some stuff I needed to set up. Also, yay Social Justice Aria.))

The costume wasn’t perfect. Aria had started with a blue morphsuit for the base, cutting off the head of it so that even with the feathery masquerade mask she’d cobbled together, she’d be able to actually see while she wore it. A hooded midriff jacket and a pair of jeans, both white, would complete the look. She’d embellished the jacket a bit, adding some white frills and a few blue designs made to emulate pinwheels and gusts of air. It wasn’t a bad costume for Aria’s resources, really, but it looked kind of silly. The ridiculousness was part of the charm, no one would recognize the normally-demure Foram in a costume like this, but was it really what she wanted?

She groaned. This was stupid. The brightly-colored, downright gaudy costume, was ridiculous, and Aria was ridiculous for even designing it, much less considering putting it on and going out with it. Lashing out was only going to make this worse. That was how it had happened back in every wave of riots. She’d studied movement after human rights movement, but Foram were different. Women, LGBT people, ethnic or religious minorities - all of them had been, or still were, thought to be a threat to the ethos, dogma, and/or political power of the people in charge. Foram were a very real life-and-limb danger to everyone. Not much more dangerous than the average gun owner - and in some cases, like Aria’s, a lot less - but she’d noticed that fear and hate had this remarkable propensity for feeding on each other and themselves and growing way too strong for anybody’s good.

Vague dreams of campus rallies, political science class revolutions, and maybe a jailbreak or two, floated through Aria’s brain as she toyed with the fabric frills on the costume’s sleeve. Honest-to-God, what as she even trying to -

“Hey, kid, dinnertime.”

As Tam knocked on the door, Aria fumbled with the closet. She had to be careful with this; the fabric paint might not be quite dry yet, and the stitching she’d done on the sleeves wasn’t one hundred percent secure. “One second!” she shouted, her voice just a little too urgent. There was another knock on the door; Aria shoved the bundle of clothes back inside and slammed the closet shut.

Tam was waiting in the hall, so big that her mohawk nearly touched the doorframe. She gave Aria a grin with too-sharp canines. “You should be more grateful. I slaved over a hot stove all night.”

The smells of molten cheese and pepperoni traced through the apartment. “Homemade delivery pizza?”

“Hell yeah,” said Tam, walking back toward the dining room. “It’s catching on. C’mon, sit down and have a bite, yeah?”

The pizza was good, but neither Tam nor Aria said much of anything. For Aria, that wasn’t really abnormal; for Tam, it was almost disconcerting. Aria considered asking Tam what was wrong, but just as she opened her mouth to talk, Tam said, “I’m going out tonight.”

Aria nodded. That much was familiar. Being a bouncer, a socialite, and not exactly a teetotaler, Tam was out a lot of evenings. It worked out for both of them, since Aria appreciated her quiet time; in fact, tonight, it just might be an opportunity…

“How long will you be out?” Aria asked carefully, taking a bite of pizza and trying her best to seem generally nonchalant.

“Long enough for you to clean up after the wild house party I’m sure you’ve got planned.” Tam licked her lips, flashing oversized, bright-white fangs. “Just don’t take too much of my cocaine stash for your little friends, ‘kay?”

Aria laughed. “No promises,” she joked. “Have fun.”

“You, too.” Tam was gathering up her dishes, but she glanced up to look Aria straight in the eye. Despite the stark differences between the two, Aria couldn’t help but be reminded of her father’s eyes. Pitch-black, running deep with understanding and concern in equal parts. “And, Aria, listen. You need to be careful. I don’t really know what’s gonna happen with this Demon’s Run and Impact *****, but this isn’t the same as the FRC. Maybe their motives are good, maybe not. Right now, we don’t know.”

Aria nodded. “Yeah, I know. Er, I know we don’t know.” She smiled weakly. “You be careful too, okay?”

A quick hug and a goodbye later, and Aria was alone. She hurried into her room, heart pounding. The opportunity was too perfect. She could finally do something and try to make a difference, leave her mark -

As she hurriedly grabbed her costume out of the closet, she paused. There was a flash of motion, something like a big, dark-colored animal. It almost looked like…

The rush of the situation was getting to Aria’s head. There was no way it was Tam out there.