12:00 AM, Tranzylvania club in London
(this and this are some examples of what we're dealing with)

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Despite being in a club full of people, Zack felt utterly...alone. The music was pounding and beginning to press in all around him; it nearly felt solid. He was decidedly not a fan of large groups of people all packed in around him. He hadn't ever had to deal with the madness of some schools during class changes, nor did he really go to any large gatherings such as conventions or concerts. But the club was small and smoky and packed with a
writhing mass of people, not unlike the horror movies Chen had subjected him and Zhao to in elementary school. The only difference was the soundtrack, and at this point Zack was mostly feeling the music, the pounding hitting him somewhere in the middle of his chest over and over again.

There was probably some magical way to find Zhao, Chen, and Becky and get them to leave, and get out of here and home. He probably could even do it. But, obviously, he couldn't really do it. This club was full of...muggles. It was odd to think he was somehow different from these people, even though the difference had affected his life so much. He was a bit different from these people, at least, since they were for the most part all decked out in...well, to say the least, interesting clothes. Some wore oddly-colored contacts, and most were quite glittery and glowy. He felt distinctly out of place in his shirt and black jeans. No one had told him he was supposed to blind people.

He escaped the mob and leaned against the rather purple wall, hoping that one of his family members would flash by in the revolving mass of people. He didn't particularly want Becky, as he couldn't grab her by the collar as she didn't have one. His cousins and his cousin's particularly annoying girlfriend mostly came here because Chen was dating the bartender, and he could wheedle free drinks out of her. Zack didn't much care for alcohol, but it was amazing how much his cousins could put down. He spent a few minutes wondering how they were going to get home, and then remembered that he could drive. His mother had insisted he learn, even though he was pretty sure he'd be more active in the wizarding world as an adult anyway; you didn't need cars there. He was grateful for that now, he supposed. He stood up a bit and awkwardly sort of bounced to the music. Maybe some girl would want to dance with him for a laugh.

unlikely outfit | aww yeah title inspiration

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Yumi was glad her seventeenth birthday had come and gone. She was free to magically gussy herself up as much as she wanted. Sparkles, twinkles, glow – whatever she wanted. Two dozen other cybergothlings had coiled around and crooned that she looked like some kind of radioactive angel, and that was just fine with Yumi. She glowed brighter, smelled sweeter, laughed prettier than most every other girl in the place (by her own approximation) – magic was might, sure. She’d give the Ministry that.

She was tipsy on the sweet neon concoctions invented solely to separate girls from clothes and common sense. She was high on the blood atmosphere of the place, the smoke and bodies and light. It was a good night, this, and Yumiko Shirasagi was feeling beneficent.

She flitted around the outer limits of the club, skimming for the pretty things other people might have let fall to the wayside, or things that hadn’t gotten picked up at all. She wanted to collect shiny things, and Tranzlyvania was filled with so many shiny things. Maybe someone to keep her warm on the tube back to Bristol, too.

Wallflowers other sorts of human flora lined the walls, most glittering, a few just strange dark spots like burnt out bulbs in a wall full of light. Perhaps a little witchery was exactly what they needed to reignite. There was a boy all in black, no glitter to speak of that he hadn’t picked up by proximity alone. Thin and gawkish and bespectacled. He reminded Yumi of someone she once knew or maybe once was.

Yumiko rode the throbbing bass over  to him, weaving through bodies until she slunk right up on him in a wash of perfume and PVC.

"Hey, baby." Ruby smile, black nails on his boring little shirtsleeve, close enough for him to hear her plain. Her breath smelled like Cosmos and cinnamon gum. "Did you get lost or something?"

Zack mussed his hair nervously. "I'm always a bit lost." He leaned against the wall again, trying to look casual, but probably failing. Zack wasn't really all that 'cool' in the popular sense of the word, more the real sense of it. He had trouble with experiencing emotions outside of his head that weren't accidental. And he certainly wasn't smooth.

"I'm kind of literally lost, too, though. Came here with my cousins, but they...got away somehow. Not that I mind, but my cousin Chen has the car keys. I guess I could take the tube, but the closest stop to my cousins' house isn't actually that close. So I dunno." He realized belatedly that cute girls wearing tight shiny clothing probably didn't care much about what was actually going on with him. Maybe she was just trying to bum a drink off him or something. She smelled of alcohol, though not sickeningly. And she was terribly cute, and that always swayed his judgment just a bit. “I’m Zack. Zack Zhang.”