Go around back of The Crater into a cloud of vape

"The regulars," Julie says to you. "As to the regulars, I guess they might be in the Rainbow Center Coffeehouse on campus, or back behind the Crater, hanging out and smoking."

You laugh. "Just like high school," you say. "My high school, anyway."

"Mine too," Julie says. "Smoking behind the dumpsters. Or toking."

You laugh. "Oh dear," you say. "You know, I don't actually know what they were smoking back behind the steam plant. Ah, youth. Let's go look."

"C'mon, mama," Julie says. She takes you by the hand.

You hesitate for a moment at "mama", then realize what a complete deviant you are already. You shake your head and laugh at yourself.

"Lead on, Julie," you tell her. She's had a crush on you for a long time.

You give Julie's hand a squeeze as she leads you back along the wall of the old brick building that houses The Crater, what passes for a college lesbian bar in this town you'd thought of as behind the times, until you had your moment on what Mary Forbes would have called the road to Damascus. But for you? The sapphire-blue waters of the ferry to Lesbos, the beckoning hands of the mermaids sporting in the tides beside the sea-caves, calling to you to join them, to be born again of the foam of curling waves.

Roll +COOL(1) as you try to sneak round the back of The Crater. MISS.

As you round the corner from the side into the back alley, the sourness of stale trash and rancid oil shifts abruptly into a cloud of cotton candy, vanilla, caramel, and sandalwood. At your first breath, your nose tingles, your eyes burn, and your head swims.

Two young women stand there, a little ways back from the back door of The Crater. The kitchen door, probably, there's a fire exit further along the wall. One's wearing the common uniform of denims and Doc Martens, a lot like the staff member you saw through the door, or like Sarah Forbes was wearing. The chromed business end of a vapor inhaler sticks out of her breast pocket next to the corner of a colored handkerchief. The other one wears a coverall constructed with big triangular patches of brightly colored nylon, like salvaged offcuts from some colossal rainbow flag.

The young women look up curiously at the two of you.

"Oh hey Jule," the one in the nylon coverall says. "Where's Cara?"

"Coco?" Julie says, recognizing her. "I thought you'd left town. Nobody knew where you'd gone. Cara had to finish early, she went back home."

"Ha, no, just took a semester off," she says. "Quit working here. Dropped Bio. Switched to Art." She spreads her arms wide to show off the sleeves. They're oversized, not quite clownish, and gathered in little pleats at the cuffs and shoulders. There's intricate, obsessively detailed hand-embroidery on the bands where the pleats are gathered. "Like it? This was my audition piece. Handstitched." She glances at you, standing behind Julie. "Who's your friend, Jule? You bring your mom to The Crater?"

Bring your mom. Julie has you down cold. Or maybe it's the regulars at The Crater that she has down cold.

Julie laughs. "You've met my mom, Coco," she says. "Did you get nearsighted doing all that stitching? No, this is my friend."

"Hi, I'm Gloria," you tell the young women. "Julie and I know each other from work."

"Columbia," the jumpsuited artist says. She's definitely giving you some curious looks.

"Nicky," says denims-and-Docs.

"Pleased to meet you, Columbia and Nicky," you greet them.

Nicky elbows Columbia.

"Thanks, mom!" they say in chorus.

What would your daughter Jillian say? "You kind of walked into that one, Mom."

You let go Julie's hand, moving one foot to center your balance. There's a snap! under your foot. The cloying, sweet vapor smell intensifies. You think you can taste it now. How could two young women, only one of whom holds a vapor inhaler, have created such a dizzying compounded scent in the open air?

You shift your foot off the uneven lump under your shoe. A jagged piece of jewel-toned plastic skitters away, trailing an oily smear.

A broken inhaler reservoir.

Oh.

"Uh!" you grunt. Your stomach twitches, not quite a heave, and you sway on your feet, clutching at Julie's forearm for balance. "Oh dear."

Julie looks round. "Gloria?" she says. "Are you...?" She frowns. Then her brow clears and her nurse on duty face snaps into place.

You raise your other hand. "I'll be all right," you tell her. "Sorry, it's a little heavy for me. The juice?"

"Yeah, looks like Sally dropped one exactly the wrong place," Nicky says.

"She's a klutz," Columbia says.

"They're a klutz," Nicky says.

"No, Sally told me..." Columbia counters.

"Are you going to be okay, Gloria?" Julie says. "Do you want me to take you back round front?"

You have 4 XP, +1 Hard, +1 Hot, +0 Cool, -1 Control, Lesbian, and Truth.

What's your next Move?

• "No, just let me stand over there." Roll a custom move on +CONTROL(-1) to hold yourself together. On a Miss, the cloud of cloying vape juice is too much to endure. On a 7+, you stay with Julie. On a 10+, you may take +1 Forward on your following Move, perhaps TRUTH to find out more about how Julie and Columbia know each other, or TELL HER to make out with Julie in front of the younger women.
• "Julie, let's sit in the car..." Tell Julie you'd like to get touchy-feely somewhere more comfortable, like the car. Roll +HOT(+2) (+1 Hot, +1 Lesbian) to TELL HER you want to EAT HER or GET FUCKED.
• "How about we try going..." Roll +HOT(+1) to go somewhere else, or wait elsewhere until The Crater opens. (Skip using Lesbian for a change of venue). Perhaps use TRUTH on Julie to ask about Columbia or other Crater regulars if you wait out front.