Mindos downs his wine. He pauses for a moment. Just a bit. I don't want to wake up with that big of a hangover. He says to Kal.
"Dancing?" Seraphina looked around to take a look, and see what the dance floor was like.
I like political work the best when it's in satire. Sometimes involving animals, Gwynn said to Kek'Ra.
I'd like to meet that sister of yours and talk literature, Gwynn said. Does she have any favorite authors?
I hate tomatoes, too. Gwynn felt fit to add, quietly.
Gwynn eyes the Roarin' 20 nervously, turning to Kek'ra with a grim nod, then said. I'll partake. Give me the proper serving. I apologize ahead of time for anything I might do after imbibing.
"Three sounds good to me. Authors? Lemme see, Bel mentioned a couple authors a lot. Mark Dyad, K. K. Lewis. She talked about a lot of incredibly obscure writers and books too, but those are the only guys I recognized. Also writers of arcane tomes, spooky witchcraft and such." Kal pours what would generously be described as a beverage into Gwynns, Mindos', and his own cup. It foams heavily. He's forced to stop and wait repeatedly during the process during which Bishop and Morganna both sigh impatiently. A small splash falls onto the table, but eventually the process is complete and the aggressively blue drink is dispersed evenly between the three volunteers.
The dance floor is lively when taking into account the time of day, though it looks sized to accommodate a far larger crowd than whats present. A flat plane of marble granite as it would appear, set further into the ground than the surrounding area with a raised stage for the band to perform on. Speaking of the band, they seem to be trading out some of their instruments with the arrival of their singer. The drummer uncoils from her position, and slides on serpentine scales to interchange a few drums, two of the lizardmen wheel out a machine slightly taller than them with a green glow to it.
Lewis being an author/poet with strong religious views that visibly shaped his work, and Mark Dyad popularized through his works which brought into light the callous acts and hypocrisies of Caldaen society and those that came before it. And many quotes misattributed to him.
I am not certain that is meant to be consumed younglings, the place mat dissolved. I can only imagine what it will do to your stomachs
Seraphina watched the mat melt. "Yeah, I suddenly feel a lot more comfortable with juice." She watched the puddle for, waiting to see if it started to melt the table varnish too, but that wasn't exciting. Taking a sip of her own, only slightly corrosive drink, she moved to the dance floor, bare feet gliding across the marble, and closed her eyes to listen to the music before she began to sway.
Oh, I've read all of K.K Lewis's works, though my personal favourite author is Nile Gamen, specifically Caldean Gods. I like a lot of his work for children, too. Gwynn said. Has she learned anything from those tomes? Do we have a budding mage?
Gwynn finally lifts her drink, takes a quick whiff. Do humans actually... survive this? She asked, watching the melting object. What is this cup made of?
"She picks up a few things every once in a while. I wouldn't call magic her strong suit, though. She mostly likes her quiet time, and books have this way of being silent." He balks at the apprehensiveness of the party by the time Morganna turns to raise her eyebrow at the now fizzling mat corner.
"Alchemically treated silver lining on the insi-Oh come on now, it's just a mat. I've tried this drink a few times, and I'm fine. It's merely... potent. Truth is I, well, I haven't been able to finish one on my own, and I was hoping we could finish it with the three of us. Watch I'll go first." He takes a sip of the Roarin' 20, exhaling sharply as he finishes his first gulp.
"See? Still alive. More importantly, get a load of the dance moves over there." Kal nods his head to Seraphina, who's taken off to the dance floor a good 20 feet away.
As attention turns in that direction, the waitress reappears with salad round 2. This time it looks like it's probably the right thing given the vague vegetable parameters given. Morganna takes a look at it "...Thank you." When the waitress leaves she makes a mission of marching down to the kitchen, pushing past Kal as she does so. Despite his earlier protests, he makes a point of making sure none of the 20 splashes on her.
"..." Bishop watches momentarily before following suit, stopping outside the door himself.
Mindos's eyes widen. Oh. How much did they bribe the health inspector to be allowed to serve this? He sees Kal take a sip, and, not one to be outdone, takes one himself. My stomachs going to regret this... He then follows Kals gesture, and looks at Seraphina. Wow. How does one learn to dance like that? If I tried that, I'd fall flat on my face.
"Well, she did order something custom, Ginny has a stubborn streak that way."
"Oh dancing's more about having fun than practice. You just gotta want it. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too. Come on."
Kal waves Mindos over to the dance floor, melding surprisingly well into the crowd. Maybe having one less appendage makes it easier to avoid sticking out. The band's next song has a slightly different sound to it. It's not that the instruments are different, but they're more artificial sounding too. The lead singers' voice is definitely a natural touch. "~The ballrooms packed with cocky girls;
Satin frocks and shining pearls~"
As the song kicks in with a bouncy energy, Kal shifts over to Seraphina.
"So, is this dance taken? Either way, I'll be doing it next to you."
Oh... Ok... . Gwynn says, taking her first gulp, just as much as Kal had. She grimaces, makes a pained noise, then forces a laugh. Mmm, She said. You can tell it's good because of how much it burns going down. She said. It still hurts...
Gwynn smiles at Kal and Seraphina as she tries to regain clarity in her left eye. Dance with 'im Sera, She said. It'll be a hoot.
Serephina laughed as she swayed and moved. "Not at all. Everyone should feel free when dancing, and dance with everyone they can." She gestured over to the table, to see if anyone else would move up to dance.
|
"I will not be labelled as a bore, I'd rather be called a disastrous dance partner." the paladin says with a stern face that quickly turns to a smile as he stands up. Azrael meshes a bit with his clothes before extending his hand towards Gwynn "May I have this... Dance? Jump? Honestly I'm not sure." he chuckled.
Abel stay's sitting, watching, and listening as he is want to do. Occasionally chuckling at the madness and fun of the others.
Mindos gets up and walks over near Kal and Seraphina. Might as well dance before this drink burns a hole through my stomach. He tries to clumsily imitate the moves of everybody else.
... and he dances surprisingly well.
Gwynn turns to Ke'kra. My good friend, do you wanna get jiggy with it dance? She asked, gesturing for the floor and taking cues from the rest of the room and unwinding on the floor.
The waitress Cheryl returns to the booth and glances at the contents of the beverages. She observes the three parts of the Roarin' 20, and over to the crowd. "Huh. They out there?"
Seraphina moves with an obviously well-practiced grace, Busting plently of moves. For his part Kal catches up quickly. He also sings along with the band for a bit before refocusing his efforts to keep up with Seraphina and her various move busting.
"~Swings a thing with a ringa-ding-ding"
"I get wings when I sing"
"Ragtime, reason and rhyme"
"I'm the reason you're divine"
As Azrael enters the scene there are no more moves left to break, for they have been distributed and the Paladin, banker and Oracle have taken the lions share over their knees. And busted them. A couple of the onlookers whoop and holler. One of the Nagaji bartenders starts looking over.
Cheryl speaks up next to Abel again. "Yer friends uh, know what can happen if you move too quickly right after downin' that?" She points to the three partially finished portions of the blue creation known as the Roarin' 20
i do not think they do, i warned them against the drink in the first place though it fell on deaf ears. Abel sighs
That's the spirit, birdy! Gwynn said excitedly as she continued to dance, not caring how much she looked like a librarian on the dance floor. Get freaky!
In a brief moment both Gwynn and Mindos feel their stomachs rumble with an unnerving force, but the feeling passes as suddenly as it hits.
The next songs begun, Morganna doesn't seem to have returned from the kitchen yet.
Spinning to a stop, Seraphina glanced at the table and saw there boss was missing. She tapped Kai on the shoulder and pointed towards the table. "Should we be concerned she's not back yet?"
Just before attempting some kind of move that required him to lift one leg over his head Kal turns to look at the booth, then to the kitchen door. Bishop continues to stand nearby, provoking aside glances from some of the wait staff as they pass in and out of the room. "Eh. Hmm. It looks like it has been a while, hasn't it?"
Yes, it has. Shall i go investigate?
Mustn't 'ave been too long, Gwynn said, attempting not to slur her speech and snicker at her dancing bird-friend. I c'n f'llow you if y'wan't, Abel.
If you want you may. Abel gets up to go check
I'm sure it's nothing. Might as well go ahead and check, seeing as, you know, she's the one that pays us. Mindos follows Abel into the kitchen.
Bishop stays at attention rather than interfering with Abel, Gwynn, Azrael and Mindos' entry.
"Look, it is a very simple dish, I don't know why you find it so difficult." Morganna stands with one arm crossed over her chest, and the other gesticulating. This first sight of the Ainsworth heir stands out with bright red contrasting the white walls of the kitchen, and the hustling people weaving around both each other and her. The lizardfolk man she's speaking to is clearly losing his patience.
"An' whaddya want? We don' have what you ordered!"
"I can see that isn't true. You have all of the ingredients in here."
"Which ya can only see cause you barged in the kitchen and started giving orders!"
"Look, it's like this," Seraphina explained, moving in and assembling the dish from the various ingredients. It seemed like the fastest way to resolve the situation.
Seraphina moves into the kitchen, immediately feeling the grease from the floor on her feet as she does so. Vegetable oil. Probably.
Collecting the ingredients and the dish assembled she presents a bowl to Lady Morganna.
"There. Thank you Seraphina. Now that didn't look so hard, did it?" She gives the chef a long glance on her way out of the doors.
"But that isn't the- RAHH!" he swings his hand up against a serving tray placed on a nearby ledge knocking it into the air and lashing his tail to the side in the process as the short-tempered reptilian gets back to work.
Morganna makes her way back to her seat with a light hum.
Abel returns to his seat, a confused look I will never understand youth today.
Serephina patted the chef on the shoulder. "Trust me, this was the fastest option. Enjoy the rest of your night." She turned and followed the boss. She wanted to clean the oil off her feet before she slipped.
...well, she really hoped it was oil. There were occasions when barefeet in public places were somewhat problematic, but shoes were just so...dead feeling.
You should apply for a job here, Sera, Gwynn said, snickering. It looks just as risky and haphazard as what we do.
"Oh, no," Seraphina replied, finding a napkin and raising her oiled foot to be cleaned. "Cooks have a temper. Have you see how hard a clever can be thrown? And they have chilli on them, half the time, so the cuts really burn. Kitchens are much more dangerous than adventures. And hotter, too." Wiggling her toes for a moment, she nodded and put her foot down.
Morganna applies a napkin to her lap and seems to enjoy her food in relative peace.
"That incident being taken care of, I do think it would be an enjoyable change of pace for one of you to ask me a question next. Do keep in mind you are technically on the clock regardless of the nature of our outing."
At some point, Bishop seems to have returned as well resuming his previous post.
Have you ever ventured outside these lands?
Mindos chuckles at Abel's comment about youth today. Come on Abel. We were all kids once.
He sits back down, wondering if he should take another sip of the Roaring 20. At Morganna's prompt, he shrugs his shoulders. Well, I'm more used to asking the "Where were you the night of the murder?!?!" sort of questions.. Hmmm... you got any hobbies?
"I suppose I'll be a little self serving," Serephina noted as she pondered. "What do you get out of the Festival? I mean, it's why we've all been hired, right?"
Morganna regards the questions asked in turn with professionalism.
”Oh, certainly. I have made trips to the less fortunate countries on occasion. One Dacian bastion, though only on the outskirts of the lands mind you. I would never venture further into a place like that. The Abashiri had an ambassador that invited me to our embassy. Interesting architecture, but rather humorless officials even by my standards. If you want to know about other cultures the festival is a perfect opportunity for that. Much more practical than leaving the comfort of our walls.”
”I haven’t had much free time in recent years. Unfortunately I’ve had my hands full managing the Ainsworth assets.”
“What I get out of the festival? Well, *chuckle* When we have you sign your contracts at the end of the day you can learn more details. They are somewhat sensitive matters. If you’re curious about your place in this you may consider yourselves private security in a loose sense.”
Looking blank at the names, Serephina shrugged. "Then I shall wait until I sign my contract. I look forward to finding out a bit more."
Looking forward to that, too, Gwynn said. She wasn't a huge fan of being kept in the dark of anything, but she was patient. Never thought that I'd make it into the security business m'self, honestly. Interesting feeling.
Those names sound familiar...