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Hurley wasn’t exactly one for fancy balls, and yet here she was, in the fanciest ball thrown in all of Neverwinter. Although to be fair, this wasn’t entirely her choice.
See, a shindig like this has all the fancy elites and powerful people from Neverwinter’s and then some, and something like that needs security. And since the event was being thrown in Goldcliff this year, it was their police force that had to deal with that particular issue. Normally Hurley wouldn’t have any sort of issue with this kind of gig, since they tended to be more boring than anything else.
But apparently some of the rich and famous had complained about all of the visible security in past years had left them feeling ‘unsafe.' So, Lord Artemis Sterling had requested Captain Captain Bane find some way to keep the security ‘out of sight and out of mind’ this year.
Really, it hadn’t been a hard issue to tackle, considering one of the apparent biggest allures of the yearly event being the fact that it was a masquerade. Apparently the most upper of the upper class got a real kick out of pretending no one knew who they were for the night. Still, it was good news for them. They just had to rent some clothes fancy enough to pass off as if they belonged there, and throw on some equally fancy masks. It all came out of the station’s budget anyway, so there was no skin off her back.
The issue was that instead of being a silent guard paroling the edges of the party, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, Hurley was stuck roaming around amongst all the socialites. Desperately trying to avoid getting too deep into small talk with anyone while simultaneously looking like she belonged there. It was a difficult balance to maintain.
Oh, and look out for any suspicious activities and individuals and the like. She also had to focus on her actual job on top of all of this.
Still, this entire situation was stressful and so very out of her comfort zone. So if the little route of mingling throughout the guests she set for herself had a stop at every food and hors d'oeuvre table there was, no one could blame her. She never got to eat any of the food at these fancy parties they were forced to watch over anyway. If she was going to put in extra work here, it wouldn’t hurt to snag a few snacks.
Keeping a relatively close eye on the clock, Hurley could see that it was only about 10pm now. Another unfortunate reality about these sort of events, they tended to go very, very late into the night.
“These sorts of places don’t have much going for them do they? Aside from the food I guess, but even that’s a little to rich for my taste, you know?” a voice said. Hurley quickly looked up, having to swallow the fancy shrimp appetizer she currently had stuffed in her mouth before she was able to speak. She doubted it was the most elegant looking thing in the world.
“I guess it is all a little dry,” she agreed. Hurley had to force her way through a few awkward conversations by that point, and she hoped this one wouldn’t take too long.
The woman standing at the buffet with her was wearing relatively simple clothes in comparison to some of the other people here, but she still managed to look almost unnaturally elegant. She had a long black dress on that shimmered when she moved, probably made out of satin or silk or something. Hurley didn’t actually know the first thing about fabric. The jewelry she had on was simple, no particularly extravagant gems and the like. Just a few tasteful silver bracelets and a matching necklace.
She also had a very realistic raven mask on, what looked to be real feathers fanning out from the beak and covering her entire face save for her eyes. They were pretty eyes, a bright blue.
Alright Hurley, there were plenty of very pretty girls at this party, now was not the time to focus on that. She was on a job after all, and these people were all high society anyway. She doubted she had much in common with any of them.
Still, this woman definitely stood out with the simple elegance of her completely black outfit and mask. Even Hurley’s own outfit was a bit more extravagant, her ram’s mask with detailed etchings in the horns and tan and yellow gems accenting the eyes. Her actual clothes were edging a bit too casual for the black tie air of the event, but it was still a very nice and flowing pantsuit (that did very well to conceal her weapons in case of an actual emergency).
“Yeah, I was hoping for something a bit more interesting my first time here but I guess it’s just a bunch of rich people in fancy clothes,” the woman said, and Hurley gave her another look over. She didn’t look like anyone from the militia (she would remember someone like that, for sure) but she was speaking like she didn’t quite belong here either.
“Right, parties tend to be a bit more fun when people actually let the alcohol loosen them up,” Hurley said, before quickly adding, “within reason, of course.” She was still a cop, and on the job, and there was a slight chance this pretty lady worked with her so she wasn’t going to condone reckless drinking. She laughed though and nodded.
“Of course,” she echoed, not sounding sincere in the slightest. This was around the point where Hurley would’ve politely excused herself from the conversation and hurried off to look busy doing nothing. That was what she should be doing. After all, she wasn’t actually here for a party, she was security and needed to be keeping a close eye on things.
But instead of doing any of that, she found herself staying at the table despite her better judgment.
“This is my first time here too, most of the people here aren't real approachable,” she said. The woman nodded in agreement, and Hurley was getting a bit tired of calling her that in her head. “What’s your name by the way? If you don’t mind me asking?”
“I think that ruins the whole anonymity of the masks, don’t you think?” she said, and the beak of the mask covered the bottom half of her face pretty well, but it was still clear that she was smiling. “But I guess if you need something to call me, how about we go with Raven?” she added. Hurley found herself laughing somewhat as well at that.
“Raven, well that’s certainly appropriate. I should be able to remember that,” she said.
“And what about your name?” Raven asked, and Hurley felt a smile spread over her own face now.
“Uh, I’m pretty sure that would ruin the anonymity and all that,” she joked right back. “You can call me Ram though, keep up with the whole, the whole theme here, of the masks and all,” she added. It felt a little silly saying it out loud now, but this Raven was the one who started it so she really couldn’t judge.
“Ram, okay, sounds good,” she said, seeming content to play along with this. “Well Ram, why don’t we go uh, check out some of these other fancy food samples?” Raven asked, and Hurley quickly nodded. Right, right, needed to keep moving around, have an eye on things. If Raven felt like joining her for a bit there wasn’t much she could do about that. Or much that she particularly wanted to do about it either.
Hurley had already been to this table, but it looked like they had switched out the fancy trays she’d thought were cheese and crackers but ended up being some kind of weird fruit. Which had been an unwelcome surprised when expecting to eat cheese. Right now there were these tiny mini sandwiches out that looked safe from any too strange surprises.
“So, what brings you here? You said it was your first time too?” Hurley asked, not too sure how to do this small talk party thing. With a pretty girl.
“Work mostly, you know how it is,” Raven said casually, and Hurley nodded at that.
“I do actually, I’m in the same boat,” she said, trying a sandwich and doing a quick sweeping glance of the crowd. Still the same boring pleasantries between people as before. Honestly, she doubted anything bad would happen, especially inside of the party. They had guards on parole around the estate making sure no one broke in, and that was the main threat. Them on the inside were to have a second line and active protection in case anyone got past that. Which was important, but didn't quite required a constant vigilance. “I’d rather not be here I guess, but job’s a job,” she added.
“I mean, we could always head out,” Raven suggested, and Hurley wasn’t sure if she actually saw the wink there or imagined it.
“Oh no- Uh, no I mean, I would love to, but my boss is actually, still around here. Somewhere. He was wearing this big metal mask and uh, he’ll notice if I leave,” Hurley said, stumbling over her words slightly. She didn’t actually see Captain Captain Bane around at the moment, but he said he’d be keeping a distance for the most part.
“That’s too bad, maybe later?” Raven said, and Hurley found herself nodding.
“Yeah um, I have to stay pretty late, but maybe,” she said. Normally in this situation she would doubt that the Raven would still be interested if she found out Hurley wasn’t some super rich and well connected socialite, but that didn’t seem to be an issue. She wasn’t sure what job Raven had to bring her here, but it didn’t seem like this wasn’t her typical crowd.
That impression only increased throughout the night as they talked, mingling between the crowds of people and moving with no real need for a destination. Hurley might’ve started neglecting her watch job a bit more than she should have, but nothing was going wrong.
And Raven was a much more interesting thing to pay attention to. As they talked there was a bit of a game not to tell too much personal information. Neither of them said exactly where they were from, or what jobs had brought them here, or things of that sort.
But they did end up talking about how boring everyone here was, about increasingly ridiculous hypothetical ways to liven up the party. The topics trailed from that to more interesting things you could do in Goldcliff (and even though neither of them would say where they were from, Hurley had a feeling she was also from this city with the amount of obscure hole-in-the-wall places she knew). Which somehow led to them talking about cars, and that was probably the moment Hurley forgot she was on the job.
She had already possibly been just a smidgen infatuated with Raven. And that was before they started sharing tips on slightly less than legal car modifications. She was pretty sure if Raven had suggested leaving at that point to show her the car she was reportedly working on at the moment, Hurley couldn’t be certain she would say no. She hadn’t seen Captain Captain Bane in quite a long time, it probably wouldn’t be an issue.
Thankfully she didn’t offer that, just a vague ‘have to meet up some time to trade secrets.' Which was yeah, okay, Hurley could say with relative certainty that she definitely wanted to follow up on that.
They never quite stopped moving throughout the floor of the main room, and even ended up going to explore a couple of the halls that were done up for guests to walk through. It was nice, a lot nicer than Hurley had expected it to be. She wasn’t suppose to be drinking here but the fanciest of alcohols were pretty much the only things available.
She barely noticed when the vast crowds of elites started thinning out and it began to edge close to 3am.
“Well, that’s probably my cue to get out of here,” Raven said, also seeming to notice the time. “I got a feeling I’ll be seeing you around sometime though, right Ram?” she asked, and Hurley found herself nodding. She kind of wished her mask covered her mouth so it would hide the goofy smile stuck on her face.
“I mean, not sure how since I don’t know your name, unless you’re thinking of some fantasy Cinderella situation happening,” she joked.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll figure it out Ram,” Raven said. Before Hurley could think of a proper cool line to say goodbye with she’d managed to slip into the crowd and rather effectively disappear. Hurley couldn’t help but let out a small sigh at that.
Well, at least that had been vastly more interesting than she’d been expecting. The party would end soon and they could do some last minute sweeps of the place before going home. With that she started walking through the crowds again, tired and a little tipsy and not entirely focused on her job.
So she didn’t noticed when about twenty minutes later Captain Captain Bane showed up suddenly behind her. She managed to keep calm as he grabbed her by the shoulder and pull her off to the side of the party.
“Lieutenant, we’ve had an incident,” he whispered and she instantly sobered up, switching herself back to her professional mindset.
“Shit- ah I mean,” okay, maybe not entirely over to her professional mindset, “what happened?”
“Someone must’ve broken in to the event, some of the guests have reported missing jewelry. We just had Jerry look through the store room for all these people’s fancy bags fulla jewels and money and whatever else they carry around. We think about 10 thousand gold worth of items were stolen,” he explained, and Hurley felt her stomach drop. Most of the people here hadn’t realized yet, but once they did it would be a shitshow. “You haven’t noticed anyone unusual around? Someone who seemed like they didn’t quite belong here?” Captain Captain Bane asked.
“Um, no? Noooo,” she said, because there was no way. She had been with her most of the night after all. She couldn’t have… right?
“Well, I’m gonna need you to help me corral these people once they realize their shit’s gone. Let’s get to work Lieutenant,” he said, starting off to the plundered storage room. Hurley nodded, going to follow after him. When she moved she felt something in her pocket, and reaching inside there was a small piece of paper. It was almost like a business card, but definitely not.
There were just two things on it. The name ‘Sloan’ and a little drawing of a winky raven face.
Sloan was a name she recognized. It was the name of a thief that they’ve had a few problems with recently. Nothing huge, but they didn’t have much on her besides a name.
Hurley very quickly stuffed the paper back into her pocket. She should tell Captain Captain Bane about all of this, but instead she kept quiet.
She was not about to admit that she’d been too gay to realize the master thief she’d been with the entire night had been slipping jewelry off of other guests as they passed through the crowds.
Or that she was still highly considering going out and meeting with her again to talk about cars.