party post } { fool and king, ghoul and ghost

[mayoralty]

On the evening of the twenty-ninth, the ballroom on the main deck of the boat is decked out in lavish black and gold, thanks to Carol and Sophie, and the assistance of the very strong men they enlisted to help (thank you, boys). It's been a while since Carol has thrown a full out ball, and she liked the chance to stretch her event planning limbs again, even if those attending are mostly the ghost robots in their cater waiter wear.

A soft music is playing over the guests as they enter. As they pass through the threshold, there's a table with simple masks for them to choose from, in case they've forgotten their's. Once they pass through the main archway, they'll find their way to the large dance space where the ghost robot band is sitting, because live music is so much better than a recording, and they actually don't sound half-bad, all things considered. They also take requests, so feel free to tell them that song where you always wondered what it would sound like with a full orchestral backing. There's a large, expansive dance floor in the middle, and you're welcome to get out there and shake your groove thing whenever you see fit.

Tables with food line the far left wall of the room, as well as clusters of tables for the guests to sit when they so choose. There's also an open bar nestled into the far corner, for all your alcoholic needs. There are also plenty of dark corners to slip into, if you don't want anyone to see what you're doing, however the narration suggests watching those dark corners carefully. Rabbit holes lurk in pretty much every shadowed area of the ballroom and while they won't always drop you into a strange location of your choosing, there's a high chance they will. There's probably a high turnover of people arriving back in the ballroom, looking like they've gone five rounds with a bull.

Probably because they have.

The boat seem to want to promote this event as much as possible. While not everyone loves a good ball, some non-attenders may suddenly find themselves in attendance, completely dressed and no idea of how they got there. Trying to leave? Might not go so well either. For some, socializing isn't so much a choice as a punishment, but there are probably plenty of people to help you have a good time.

Or you could go on a trip to Narnia. One never really knows.

[OKAY BALL IS GO sorry I was late getting this up. Rabbit Holes are to be used at your discretion, but if you need suggestions or want me to randomize something for you, just shoot me a PM/private plurk/ping me (iluvroadrunner6) and I will give you a scenario. Otherwise, mix, mingle and have fun with all the pretty formal wear. o7 Actionspam/prose/whatever floats your boat for this, it was easier to just write up the top part in prose.]

Comments

[aleksandar]

"Probably not," Alek admits. It's part of why he has a chip on his shoulder, not that he'll admit it.

"There's four main supernatural species where I'm from. You got vampires, angels, demons, and then you've got us. We're at the bottom of the food chain along with the demons, though you got some places with treaties in place that mean we all have to co-exist peacefully." He might as well have put quote marks on 'peacefully.'

[impetere]

She shakes her head, trying to take that all in. "We don't have all of that. Just shapeshifters. The shape you take depends on the person that you are, but it all comes from the same place." She pauses for a moment. "Our fight mostly comes with the hunters. But my family was an old werewolf line. We'd been around for centuries."

[aleksandar]

It's Alek's turn to take it all in, and he does. He listens, brows lifting slightly in surprise. It's not what he's accustomed to, but it boils down to the same thing - someone wants to hunt them, finish them off like they're nothing but animals. "I don't ... really know much about my family, but we're a pretty old werewolf line, too," Alek says, shifting uncomfortably for a moment. He doesn't say he comes from the oldest werewolf line in his world.

That his father is the werewolf king, and he's a psychopath. He tries not to think of it if he can help it.

[impetere]

Cora knows all about having family members who are psychopaths, unfortunately. She's not going to be present for Peter's next downward spiral, but considering the last one cost her sister her life, she's not looking forward to there being a repeat. Ninety-nine percent of the time she isn't entirely sure what to do with Peter, mostly because there's a large part of her that just wants to welcome him back as family, as pack, and let it be that. They've lost too much to really be picky about it now.

(At the same time, he killed Laura.

Oddly enough, it's not the rest of the murder spree she cares about. They were all people who hurt her family, who destroyed her home, killed her mother, and it's probably unfair but she's okay with them dying for that. It'll never balance the scales, but at least it means they can't do it to someone else.

Laura is the one that hurts, Laura invokes that stab of betrayal and it's Laura that will forever leave the question mark in her mind. He killed Laura because she had something he needed. Cora doesn't have anything to offer - what's to keep him from doing the same to her.)

"What's the name?" She asks, just out of idle curiosity, because the narration is assuming they haven't swapped last names yet. Mostly for the fun that will come as a result.

[aleksandar]

Oh, it will definitely be fun.

Alek isn't expecting it, and he lifts his gaze at the question, realizing they didn't exchange those during their last meeting. Then again, the name he is going to give her is his mother's surname, not his father's - he doesn't know that one, and he doesn't care to. The man can keep it, as far as he's concerned. (He wonders more than he'd care to admit.)

"It's Hale," he answers easily, setting aside the flute of champagne as he fixes his tie distractedly. "Alek Hale."

[impetere]

There's a moment where she stops at the name. It's hard not to, when it's hers as well. It's hard to really hide the way the word hits her when it's something so simple. It must be the fact that she comes from a world where Hales have been burned to the ground, and the once powerful family is now few and far between.

Needless to say, she doesn't say anything for a while, just staring at him in shock. But eventually she manages to find the words and stammer out.

"Me too."

[aleksandar]

Alek's eloquence is really kicking into gear, right about now. No, really. He's a master wordsmith among men.

He stares at Cora and blinks once, then twice, almost as though he can't be sure he's just heard right. "Wat."

[impetere]

She pauses for a moment, still trying to process this, before nodding again. "Yeah. Cora Hale." This is beginning to be a bit too weird for her, and she has to ask. "Have you ever heard of Beacon Hills?"

[aleksandar]

Alek shakes his head slowly. "Pretty sure I haven't," he says. Not once in his whole life. He's trying to process it as much as her, before he grows increasingly skeptical. They're both Hales. They're both werewolves. He doesn't want to ask, but. "You don't ... think this means we're related somehow, in another world or something, right?"

Because that would kind of suck, universe.

[impetere]

That would kind of suck, but she shakes her head. Hales take care of her own, and if they were related somehow, Derek or Peter would know. "Except for my brother and uncle, all of my family's dead. I think if we had cousins or something somewhere else we would know about it."

Which is a bit of a relief because that would really suck. Alek's attractive. If she was willing to venture into her teenage girl feelings, she might even go so far as to say she likes him.

[aleksandar]

Alek lets out a breath that carries relief of his own, before he nods in agreement.

"It's complicated, but at least in my world, there was only six of us. I never met the guy - " Alek is never calling him a father, because he wasn't, " - but I know for a fact he wouldn't have been interested in having more children."

It's hard to admit, but it's true. He wasn't born into a loving family. His two parents weren't married, and they weren't looking to raise a big family. Alek and his brothers were made, because Lucien decided one day he needed a werewolf army of his own, made by his own design.

[impetere]

She pauses, shaking her head a bit a that. "No, that's not my family. We've been around for hundreds of years. Big families lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. My mom was one of the strongest alphas on the west coast."

So ... a completely different experience. She's not saying it to brag, just to make the distinction. She's sorry your sperm donor was not more like her mom, Alek.

[splinted]

It sounds nice. Alek can't say he'd know what that's like - it's been him and his brothers for the longest of times, but he can't complain. They've always stuck together and if he's felt alone, it's never because he's actually been.

"She sounds like she was a badass," Alek says softly. He hears that 'was' and he's lost his own, mother. He doesn't have to excel at social interactions to be sensitive when it comes to certain topics, and his mother is his own weakness.

[impetere]

"She was."

And now she's gone. She has been, for years now, but there's a part of her that things with a place like this ship, maybe, just maybe. It's something she shouldn't tempt herself with, the idea that her mother might have walked through the door and gotten stuck here all those years ago, and one day she might find her as she rounds the corner of the main deck or opens the wrong room.

The way she misses her mother is like the way she misses Laura. It sits like a weight in her chest, a kind of anchor that's far too heavy for her to be able to bear. She wants to let go of it, to give it away, but in some ways that means letting go of them and she isn't sure she's ready to do that yet.

"But she's been gone for a while."

[splinted]

Alek can feel a tightness in his own chest.

It isn't anything he's forgotten. His mother wasn't a werewolf, after all. She was human, skin and bones and something extraordinary in spite of that. If his she'd never met Alek's father, if he'd never used her for his little experiments, maybe she wouldn't have gotten so sick. Maybe she would still be here, but maybes don't count for much.

"Mine too," he says after a moment. He's not good at this; words, relating to people, expressing himself. But it's his way of saying he's sorry, that he's been there, and he knows that it sucks.

[impetere]

She glances back at him for a moment and nods. She gets it. Losing your mother is still huge - it doesn't matter how you lost her or why, but it's always going to be a loss you feel in a huge way. Then she swallows hard and there's a deep breath, before she gives him a small, shaky smile.

"I haven't been to a lot of these, but I'm pretty sure dead parents fall under terrible party talk."

Or something.

[splinted]

Alek snorts. If Cora was seeking to lighten the mood, she succeeded.

"Probably not, but I suck at dancing and socializing," he admits to her with the tiniest smirk. Alek glances around, and then turns to her almost conspiratorially. "I haven't finished exploring the buffet, though."

It is an impressive array of delicious finger foods. Sophie made sure even popular choices would be served nicely.

[impetere]

She was, and she's glad that it worked. The smile brightens a bit at the mention of food, before nodding in agreement. Yes, food is good. Because she's pretty sure she sucks at dancing and socializing too.

"Food sounds good to me."

[splinted]

(Alek is actually lying like a lying thing, Cora. His mother made him take ballroom dancing - along with the rest of his brothers - when he was little. So he can dance, he's just horribly and grumpily shy about it. She should figure this out somehow down the line, clearly.)

He grins a bit at that as he leads the way. "Food always sounds good to me."

[impetere]

(Yes, yes she should. At some point. Silly, Alek, don't you know lying liars can never really lie about things for long.)

She follows after him, peering at the piles of food to try and determine where to start. "They could probably feed an army with this."

[splinted]

(He's only half-lying! He thinks he's worse than he actually is.)

Unsurprisingly, he's starting with the mini-burgers, loading a generous amount onto his plate. "I don't know," he says with a bit of a smirk. "If all my brothers were here, I'm sure that's the only army that would be needed."

[impetere]

She laughs a bit at that. "I'm pretty sure if this pack I knew back home was here, this wouldn't be enough. But I guess that's the problem with teenage werewolves." They will eat you out of house and home before you can figure out what's happened.

She picks up her plate and takes a little of everything, knowing the value of trying new things, now that she can take the time to try them. She doesn't know if she's going to like everything, but at least she's tried it.

[splinted]

"So there were a lot of you guys? 'Cause you're one of the only other teenage werewolves I've personally met," Alek says. He's sure there were more of them in Chicago but not in his close vicinity, at least.

[impetere]

"There were a couple." She pauses as she grabs one of the fry cones and then moving on. "My brother is here on the ship. He's not a teenager, but he was an alpha for a while, and he had a pack." A pack that's mostly dead too, but she tries not to think about that. "There was four or five of them? Plus actual human teenagers who can put away just as much."

[splinted]

Ooh, fry cones. He's definitely getting one of those.

"How does it all work in your world? The whole alpha thing," he asks curiously. He notes Cora said 'for a while' so it's clearly something that you can lose.