multiversallogs | A toast to that invincible bunch [OPEN]

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A toast to that invincible bunch [OPEN]

Who: Mina and YOU
What: A "thank God we're not dead" party
Where: Common Room, Valhalla Inn
When: Wednesday evening
Notes: Party log; please specify if you're tagging someone in particular, or if it's open season on your character
Warnings: Angering Mina probably results in unhappiness

There were two things Mina rarely did; over-indulge and wear dresses. Tonight, she decided, was a night to throw both inhibitions to the wind. And so, as she made her way up to the common room, she made her way in style, wearing a slinky crimson gown with no back and a plunging neckline. She looked good. Classy, as any society woman of her day. Well, the 1930s, anyway, since she would always consider her day to be the 1720s, really. The only drawback of the dress was that it left both her pirate brand and her Valkyrien Amazon tattoo uncovered, but at this point, Mina was fairly certain that no one would recognize or care about either marking.

The room had been arranged to her satisfaction. She enjoyed ostentation immensely, but opted for a more low-key take on the celebrations. The lights were pleasantly dimmed and there was jazz music playing out of some marvelous contraption that Mina had borrowed. Around the room, she had a few trays of food arranged. Since Mina had no sense of taste to speak of, she hired someone to take care of the food and drinks. The only culinary arrangement she had made for herself was a special mixed drink; store-bought blood (dreadful though it was) laced with ample amounts of rum. That was being kept under a table for now.

She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, adjusting the angle of her fedora slightly. There was no telling what to expect tonight. And frankly, given her experiences in Chicago, she probably should have known better to arrange for any kind of public affair. But Mina was in a bad mood and when she was in a bad mood, she tended to revert into her flippant, false persona to spare herself of too much thought. Besides, she was in the mood to dance with someone handsome.

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Apollo looked up. Mina! Wonderful. She was attractive and friendly and kind of seemed like she'd enjoy a good tumble down a hill.

"Mina!" he said loudly and grabbed Sebastian by the shoulders, pushing him toward the woman. "Have you met Sebastian?"

"Yes, I believe we spoke on the network," he says politely and offers his hand to shake. If she appears put off by his missing fingers, Sebastian won't be offended and he'll withdraw the offer.

Eyebrows raised, Mina reached out, giving Sebastian a hearty--perhaps too hearty--handshake. "Yes," she murmured. "I seem to recall a conversation." He had thrown some rather unfair accusations her way. But lately, Mina was rather used to that around here.

She took another swallow from her drink. "I do hope you've found the arrangements to both of your respective satisfactions. I know jazz isn't for everyone, but I'm rather enamored of it."

"Sebastian has quite the ear for music!" Apollo announced, clapping his hand against Sebastian's back. Of course, he had absolutely no idea if this was true, but it was a good conversation starter.

"He was just telling me how delightful he finds the party and what an excellent job you've done with it all. And how lovely your dress is. Haven't you, Sebastian?"

He turned to look at the other man expectantly.

"I'm not too familiar with jazz," he admits, but that doesn't mean he's not fond of it. "And yes, it's clear you've put a lot of work into this and, ah, thank you for the invitation."

While he's relatively comfortable in social situations and accepting that it makes him seem a little unusual, Sebastian chose to bring Velcro along with him.

"Of course, of course," Mina said, taking another swig of her drink. "And I did warn you, no one leaves one of my parties without a good song. But I'll let you pick something other than jazz. Very few people ever get the knack for it and I've yet to meet a fellow Brit who can master it." Of course, Sonny was an expert and she was a Roman, but that was neither here nor there.

She contemplated her drink for a moment. "I think, when I open my clinic, I'll play jazz in every room." She liked that idea. There was something about jazz music that seemed in every way akin to being a Kindred. There was a chaos to it, but the chaos could be beautiful. Or frightening. But Mina preferred beautiful.

"How's work at the docks?" she asked Apollo, fully aware of the fact that she was skipping from train of thought to train of thought. "I imagine you must be busy cleaning up monster carcasses. It sounds dreadfully dirty to me. Then again, I look at people's blood for a living."

"I don't clean up any carcasses," Apollo said, slightly offended. "I work with a pen and paper, thank you."

And then, back to the original point of all this. "Sebastian, tell Mina what you do. It's very impressive."

He had no idea what Sebastian did.

"Also, you should feel his arms. They're nice." He gave Sebastian's arm a bit of a squeeze. "Arm sized, I'd say."

Sebastian does not give Apollo the sort of look he dearly wishes to, but his posture stiffens a little and he withdraws his hand from the abortive handshake and winces, rubbing at his sore knee.

"I'm a handyman. I do most of my work in Sobek Croix, but I've taken jobs elsewhere." His arms are, indeed, very arm-like and show that he spends his days doing physical labour.

"A handyman?" Vaguely, Mina wondered if that was some kind of high, impressive honor in ancient Greece. Certainly, it was no such thing in 1930s Chicago. "Well, that must be convenient...for fixing up a place for yourself. I, unfortunately, seem to be stuck in this inn indefinitely."

Until Jones could build her a haven anyway.

And on that subject...

"I have a dear friend named Jones who's a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to building and tinkering and such. Charming girl, although a bit shy. Stammers when she gets nervous." And lies about her species, but that was in the past. Mina took another swig of her drink. "She'll be helping me to construct the clinic. Depending on funding, perhaps she'll contract out to you."

"Yes, yes," Apollo agreed, nodding his head enthusiastically. Now, that was something. He could work with this.

"She should. Wouldn't that be nice? You two seeing each other again and having pleasant conversations?" He looked between the pair. "Mina, wouldn't it be nice to see Sebastian again? Isn't he a handsome fellow? Likely to take him home myself."

Not quite.

Is there some reason that Apollo has made it his mission to embarrass Sebastian? As far as he knew, this was supposed to be a party and not a cattle auction. What next, will the god demand he show off that he's got all his own teeth?

"Thank you, Apollo. That's very good of you to say," he replies with an edge to his polite tone.

Mina laughed. Before, she had conjured up some biting insults to repay Sebastian for his earlier kindness, but now, in light of the circumstances, Mina felt he had suffered enough.

She'd call it even.

Although she did want that song...

Finishing off her drink, Mina set down the glass. "Yes, Sebastian is a handsome fellow," she said. "Reminds me a bit of my husband, actually." Late husband, but perhaps the mention of Tom would be enough to call Apollo off. She twirled the ring, hanging from her necklace. "He was an officer in His Majesty's Royal Navy."

A husband?

Well, now Apollo was bored. "Right," he said. "Right, that's nice."

He wasn't too drunk to figure out that Mina just wasn't showing much interest in his friend. Well, that was only one women and there were plenty of others to help Sebastian woo.

"Sebastian doesn't need anyone to speak about him in the third person," he says with a wry twist of an expression before addressing Mina and speaking in earnest, "I'm so very sorry that you're separated from him by this place."

Despite his temper and his ill-ease at social events, Sebastian truly is a generally pleasant, if a bit too honest, man. He didn't mean to offend Mina over the network, he just didn't understand her methods or why she felt the need to wait what could be years to get the money to build a clinic.

Mina gave Sebastian a bit a wry smile. In spite of the earlier circumstances, she was warming up to him. She did enjoy a good deadpan. And certainly, the drinks were helping to ease her trigger-happy temper. Her pride. "Well," she said lightly, "speaking as someone who's seen too much ever to be wide-eyed again, life really isn't worth living if you don't have someone special in it who loves you." She jerked her head in Apollo's direction. "My golden friend here seems to be looking out for your best interests. In his...way."

She turned back and forth between them. "I've seen a lot of strange things in my life. A lot of magic. But no magic compares to True Love. And I'm not speaking in a poetic sort of way. True Love literally has occult properties that defy explanations. And odds, now and again." Mina had never felt it for herself, of course, but she had seen it and looking into her eyes made that clear. "I wish you luck on this quest, gentlemen."

With that, she clapped her hands together. "And now, I believe I've had just enough to drink for my first song." She reached over and pulled out a chair. "Gentlemen," she offered each of them one of her hands, "if you would be so kind as to help me?"

True love, shmoo love.

He held out his hand to help Mina up. She hadn't been the best target, but he had every confidence that things would go better with the next woman. Women were just like sheep. Some were friendly and docile and some were skittery and ran away and some were like Cassandra and would bite your hand if you got too close.

He just needed to find one of the friendly, easy sheep.

At Mina's speech about the power of True Love¹, Sebastian's expression shutters and he loses all traces of annoyance or any emotion other than a blank politeness. Merlin wept, it's been years since he's heard such sanctimonious pontificating and he'd have been happy to never hear it again.

"I'm sorry, but I've a bad leg and fear that I'd be poor support." While it may appear that he's shunning her for her earlier refusal to shake his hand, Sebastian is telling the truth. "If you'll excuse me."

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[1] He can hear the capitalization.

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A toast to that invincible bunch [OPEN]

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