multiversallogs | new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind

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new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind

Who: Any and all Hellsing Staff & guests they invite.
What: Fall dinner.
Where: Hellsing Guild Hall
When: Shundi evening.

At some point during the week, Sebastian posted a brief notice up on the staff bulletin board:

Autumn Dinner
Sunday Evening. Dining Hall. Potluck. BYOB.

When Sunday rolls around, Sebastian has brought along a tray of fruit, cheese, some preserves, and fresh bread.

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Lucius smiles, politely. "I don't mind wards. It's just that I'd no plans to specialize, prior to Baedal. What about you? What's your weapon of choice, if you're in the field?"

"No, but I'm used to it. It's become second nature to me at this point."

How do you respond to that? 'That's nice' is a bit too dismissive, and probably not the truth. Fortunately he is saved from too much conversational stickiness by Velcro helpfully snuffling at Buffy.

"Oh, uh, he's friendly."

There's a five second pause, as Brie tries to estimate Sebastian's age. She didn't mean to pry, and if Sebastian wasn't proud of being a soldier, then this was not the right time to talk about it. Brie did make a mental note however, to ask him about it later, if the right time ever came.

Then, unexpectedly, Brie realized who exactly it was she was speaking to. But just to make sure, she'd ask.

"On the other hand, I think you've already met a young woman here who comes from the same place I do. Jones?"

"I am quite fond of knives, actually. They're easy to hide beneath a lady's skirt or in her boots."

She smiled, and you could tell many targets died after such a smile.

"But physically attacking monsters isn't my speciality, though I'm competent enough to not get killed. Instead, my focus is on breaking and entering, so to speak. I can go nearly anywhere undetected."

"We've met, briefly." They've run into each other a few times and he even worked up the nerve to call her and invite her out to Réjean's post-disaster party. He's not really sure what else to say about Jones, other than she's a lovely young woman, but that's a bit too stodgy to actually say aloud.

"I see." Unlocking muggle doors doesn't impress him, terribly, but he assumes there's more to it than that, if Hellsing finds her worthwhile to hire. "So I keep the monsters out while you go in the back window."

"Something like that. I usually prefer the front door. But I guess the back window has a certain noir feel to it."

She probably should have specified that undetected meant hidden in plain sight, but she's sure Lucius will find out soon enough. If they get paired on a mission together, she'll want a much better exchange of skills info.

Not the eyes-lighting-up reaction Brie was expecting, but a neutral reaction isn't bad. It meant there was potential, and seeing how much Jones tried to hide her interest, well, it was probably safe to bet that these two would eventually figure things out on their own.

"Ah. Jones and I are roommates now. She's spoken of you once or twice."

Be necessity, Sebastian has become an intensely private man and is now only slowly learning to offer his opinions. There is a short list of men and women he's willing to be entirely frank with and currently they're all somewhere in the guild, if not in the dining hall.

"I don't think I've done anything too terrible in front of her."

Brie lets out a laugh.

"Probably not. From what I've heard, you've been a charming gentleman."

She scratches Velcro a few more times behind the ear before asking, "So Mr. LeMat, why Hellsing?"

"I've worked with them before, I trust and respect Sir Hellsing and the Princess a great deal." It's all true and there's a marked softness to his tone when talking about Nuala -- he really does care about her. Unsaid, there are other reasons for working with Hellsing: he likes the structure of it, that they're doing good work, that they include people of all different walks of life, and so on.

"And you?"

"Bold." He considers her for a moment. He's not sure just yet quite what to make of her.

"Which is your focus, goods or information?" Once she's in.

It's probably best. She knows that field work can be a bit of a conversation killer, so she's happy to segue to dog. Dog is a good place to go.

"I can see that," she replies, dropping down a bit to pet him better. "What's his name?"

"Hey- thanks," with a grin, surrendering the salad and keeping a grip on Conan's leash. (He's on a harness, as Liesl occasionally still is when Sol takes her out into the city - she's getting bigger, though, and better at not wandering off, and he's phasing it out.)

Sol's greeting is equally friendly - probably slightly moreso, being the one of them a bit better at this 'connecting to other people' thing - and with the salad since surrendered, he lifts his free hand amicably. "Malfoy, you too."

"This is Conan," Liesl says, tugging on Lucius's sleeve to draw his attention down to the little monstrosity she's clearly smitten with. "Conan the Corbarian."

Above her head, Sol's expression is frantically telegraphing 'find this funny'.

Lucius smiles gamely, even if he doesn't get the joke. "Hello, Conan. Can you tell me about him?" he asks Liesel, in the grand tradition of grown-ups who don't get something a child is enthused about.

"No trouble and that's a lovely dog you've got, is he new?" Velcro seems a little bemused, but generally willing to go with it -- dogs are dogs, space corgis or otherwise.

"His name is Conan," Liesl interrupts, holding onto the length of Conan's leash beneath Sol's hand with both of hers, swinging on the balls of her feet while Sol attempts to direct both dog and child with his feet, away from turning him into a human maypole. "He's the Corbarian."

"We got him this week," Sol confirms, long-suffering.

"He's a corgi from space," she says, looking as though she'd been bursting to say exactly that. He may not be a hellhound, but space is (apparently, after some coaching) the very next best thing ever.

"He'll live longer, the breeder said," Sol contributes, with the air of someone who has resigned himself to this.

"Remember the female crime-fighting group I told you about before? Hellsing was the closest thing I could find here. I think the group and I, we're trying each other out for now, and seeing how we fit."

Brie glances around at the other guests.

"It's a way for me to meet and work with people who share common beliefs."

Brie ponders for a moment. She's was extremely handy with security systems, but only what was around during her time. She imagines that anything in Baedal has far exceeded the technologies of her day. She'll need to brush up on those skills. That said, all she needs to do is get someone to open the door for her, and she's in.

"I can get to either, and I'm fast. And you? No intentions to specialize in wards, so all types of magic then? I have to admit that I'm only slightly familiar with what mages are capable of."

Mage is the right word, right?

"Wizards," he corrects not unkindly, "though I suppose I'm a type of mage." It wasn't a term that came up much, at home.

"I don't work, where I'm from. Didn't. But I served on the board of a school, supported various political causes, that sort of thing." If it sounds like old money, there's a reason. "A wizard is what I am, it wasn't how I made a living." It's an odd thing to have to explain.

"Well, that's certainly an advantage." He considers Conan. "Are you training him yourself?" In real terms, this probably tracks as 'Is he behaved, probably Sol's doing?'

"Hey, big guy." Having thoroughly chased herself out of corner hugging, Mabel is still pretty chagrin about associating with the Hellsing regulars.

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new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind

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