Semi-open: May 05

[knightscode]

Who: Lancelot and friends!
What: It's a birthday party! With both regular people and supernatural types. What could go wrong?
When: May 05
Where: Lancelot's flat & garden, Richmond!
Warnings: Gratuitous doggy! Probably a punch up later. Possibly some drunk kissing.



Lancelot's garden is not exactly an acre-large tented paradise.

He's not made of money.

It's big enough to just about fit the people invited across the patio and grass, with Lily variously herding them and rolling around, and he's flitting between them and the kitchen and living room and generally doing his best to butterfly around all of them making sure they're happy. The garden is relatively tidy, as tidy and well kept as a garden that suffers an enthusiastic dog can be. The hedges are neatly trimmed, the tree in one corner healthy and big enough to throw a little shade, and the one flowerbed border seems to mostly have some roses that are yet to fully bloom.

For those who he's only known since the incident last year he's given them a warning: not everyone who will be there is aware of the supernatural side of things, so try not to blurt it to people you don't know.

Despite it being his own birthday Lancelot is, of course, playing host. There's a table set up outside with finger food, salads, drinks and all sorts -- and food strategically inside for those who can't be out in the sun too. He appears to still be checking on more in the oven every so often too, but Lancelot does like to cook -- and he seems quite focused on making sure everyone has something they could eat.

Some of the drinks are alcoholic. The punch isn't that strong, but he has a few other drinks along the side for people who want them and some bottles of beer in an ice bucket. If someone decides to do a little mixing of course then it might wind up stronger.

His sound system is playing the soothing strains of Dire Straits through the place and all in all, for now at least things are going smoothly. So long as nobody says the wrong thing to the wrong person, it will probably be a nice evening. With the mixture of factions present alongside those who have no idea what a faction is, of course... that may be difficult.


[ OOC: Feel free to mingle away on the post with others here! ]

Comments

Arthur | OTA

[specifiercity]

Arthur's not really here because he's one of Lancelot's close friends. They met once months ago and then ran into each other at the supermarket a couple days ago and Arthur found himself invited to a birthday party. If anything he came just to drop in and scope out the network opportunities.

Yeah. Super fun at parties.

No, really, he's perfectly amiable once he arrives. He nurses a drink and strikes up conversations with people quite easily, asking them about themselves and how they know Lance, introducing himself as an accountant more often than not. Even with people who he determines are supernatural, it's better that they don't know he's a hunter right off the bat.

[knightscode]

Lancelot flits between letting people in, handing people drinks and trying to variously rescue people from Lily and Lily from other people. He hadn't expected Arthur to come, in truth, the man was a little standoffish, but the fact that he has is a pleasant surprise. He grins as he finally loops back for Arthur, reaches out to pull him into a quick hug.

You can't escape the hug, it's a normal sort of greeting for Lancelot.

"I wasn't sure you'd come -- please, let me get you a drink! Beer, punch, something stronger?"

He pulls back and Lily bounces around their feet, tail swishing up over her back. Hello, hello new person! What is going on? Are you here to play too? She lifts her front paws and drops them repeatedly, desperately fighting the urge to jump up but wanting greet Arthur. He is so tall, so high! Can he not come down so she can say hello?

[specifiercity]

There's a lot happening at once. Arthur's not a touchy-feely person, so the hug comes as a surprise, but he accepts it in good nature and tries to pay attention to the dog while also listening to what Lancelot says. This just results in him looking a bit clueless back and forth as he scratches behind Lily's ears and absorbs what the host is asking him.

"Oh, yeah a beer would be fine," he says after a moment. "Honestly I don't want to intrude, I just wanted to stop by..."

[knightscode]

"You're not intruding, I promise! I wouldn't have invited you otherwise. This is Lily, by the way."

He gestures to the dog, who trails after him as he makes his way through the flat. She pauses every so often to look back at him, studying him. She does not know Arthur! Is he safe? Should he be there? Should she be worried? There are so many people today, she does not know who she should be watching!

[specifiercity]

Arthur follows a few paces behind, smiling hesitantly at Lily when she looks back at him. He likes dogs well enough, but they're always a little unpredictable at first. Lily seems fine though.

"Well, I shouldn't be in your way for long," he says.

[knightscode]

"You won't stay?" he prompts, tugging a bear out of the fridge and fishing out a bottle opener. "You aren't in the way, I promise! Not any more than she is."

Lily sits patiently and gazes up at Lancelot. Is the bottle for her? She isn't sure what it is, but it has come from the fridge where there are many good things. Sometimes if she sits and waits she is rewarded. She will stay sitting just in case.

[specifiercity]

Arthur takes the bottle opener and the beer with a thank you and then pops off the cap.

"Just don't want to overstay my welcome," he says. Time to switch the topic off of how much he feels like he's intruding though. "Does, uh... everyone here know what you do?"

[falsify]

Arthur's a weird one to see in social situations. It's really easy to picture him as an awkward recluse who hates everyone and can't talk to people, but that's clearly not the case.

She lets him be for most of the day, since it's a little unfair not to actually let him enjoy himself before coming to ruin his fun, and it's that point in the evening when people are starting to peel away and head home when she wanders over to say hello.

"Hey," her smile is, as always, broad and friendly, "I've been getting to know everyone here, and I realised I haven't spoken to you yet-" and she offers a hand in greeting along with her name, "Kathryn."

[specifiercity]

Arthur's too old and well-dressed to be clumsy with beautiful women, so he gives her a charming, soft smile and takes her hand.

"Arthur," he replies. "I didn't expect to stay this long, but I guess I should count myself lucky that I did."

He is, of course, talking about the fact that he would not have been spoken to by this very pretty lady otherwise. Oh if he only knew.

[falsify]

"Oh stop." She shakes her head with a broad smile, clearly charmed already, and quirks an eyebrow, "you probably say that to all the women."

[specifiercity]

He grins and looks down at the ground like he's bashful. He certainly does not have any line that he uses regularly to pick up women; he's just his charming self and things usually sort themselves out. But that's not a fun topic of conversation so he changes direction.

"So, how do you know the host?" he asks, gesturing vaguely in the direction where Lancelot might be.

[falsify]

Oh it's almost enough to make a person feel bad. Not this one, obviously, but some person. This person however, glances down at the floor a little awkwardly, "we met at a dinner a little while ago." And that's all there is to say on that topic.

Her smile is back when she looks back at Arthur's face though, "what about you? How do you know the man of the hour?"

[specifiercity]

"I've worked with him before," Arthur says, intentionally vague and totally uninteresting. He's not great at outright lying, but he can deflect interest from a particular topic with relative ease.

"We don't know each other that well, honestly I didn't expect to stay this long."

[stauncherhearted]

Oh Aaaarthur, time to say hello to your pint-sized problem. When Nancy spots him, she makes a beeline for him, holding a drink in one hand.

"Arthur!" It's been a while, and she stands up on the tip-toes of her wedges to give him a kiss on the cheek. Look at her, out of the hospital and looking pretty decent. "How are you, love? I didn't know you knew Lance, too. Or are you just here for his dog?" Everyone knew Lance, gosh, he was popular. But Lily even more so.

[specifiercity]

He smiles and glances around the party, to see if anyone caught Nancy kissing him, but then he remembers he's just kind of stodgy and no one cares. He shrugs at the question. "I didn't even know he had a dog," he says. "Actually, I barely know him. We've just met a couple times and he invited me to come having a drink. I thought it'd be polite to drop by."

He frowns when he realizes it's strange to see her here, even though she seems to be everywhere when it comes to supernatural matters. "How do you know him?"

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy takes this information in stride and nods appreciatively. "Lily- she's a sweetheart." Nancy, of course, had a weakness for furry things.

"I do! met him sort of the same way I met you. Except he tried to avoid giving me a verbal warning." She nods sagely. "and it wasn't in a bar. Oh, and I didn't ask him, he wanted to know if- it wasn't anything like how I met you."

[specifiercity]

Arthur nods, giving her a tight smile as if to tell her she doesn't need to elaborate. "Same general context," he says, to show that he understands and they don't have to get into this. Time to get back on subject.

"So how does a Midnight witch make friends and stay friends with a Night Council Guardian?"

[stauncherhearted]

Are you uncomfortable with how you met, Arthur? Well, don't be. Nancy adores you and is happy to have you as a friend. Especially as you are cute and she is drunk.

"Oh! D'you remember when I was cursed? I ran into him off duty and he bought me chocolate. He's nice." And they'd discussed his politics, though his position did have her a bit wary. "He's helped me out more than once. That's how."

[specifiercity]

Arthur nods in understanding. "That's good," he says. "It's nice to know they're not all bad."

He still feels a little burned by the Faolan situation, but he's mostly over it now and he believes Lancelot is probably a good guy. He doesn't know him very well, but Arthur's generally pretty good at spotting an ulterior motive a mile away.

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha says inside out of necessity, which on a sunny day limits her options some when it comes to circulating. Nothing wrong with that. She didn't really come to make new friends—but she didn't come to sit on her own either, or force Lancelot too take time away from his other guests because he's worried she's not entertained.

So strikes up conversations here and there when people wander in, eye contact and a smile before she meets them.

She'd be very bad at her line of work if she couldn't mingle.

"I don't think we've met," she says, just a hint of an accent on the words. "I'm Natasha."

[specifiercity]

Arthur comes by small talk pretty easily, even if his skills are mainly in logistics and pointing guns. He smiles smoothly when Natasha introduces herself and nods.

"Arthur," he replies, his American accent far more obvious, "and I don't believe we've met either."

[outstandingbalance]

"Since we both believe it, I'd say there's a reasonably high likelihood it's true." Said with obvious humor as she offers her hand to shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Arthur."

[specifiercity]

"And you as well," he says, taking her hand and shaking it. Her appearance gives nothing away about why she's here, so he goes with the safe question first: "So, how do you know the host?"

[outstandingbalance]

It's a good question. One that could be probing for whether or not she's supernatural, or could be polite. The answer, unfortunately, might not be very helpful.

"I ran into him not long after I moved to London. He was walking his dog; it's quite the icebreaker, having a dog like that," she says, glancing to one side as though the animal might be there. "I actually don't know him all that well, but he still invited me when we bumped into each other again."

[specifiercity]

Arthur knows that there are a good number of oblivious people here, so he's playing it safe. He's 100% human so even those who can feel magic won't know that he's part of the 'community' right off the bat, and even if they figure it out he'd rather not tell everyone right away what he does. Hillingdon may be a non-entity for most people, but Arthur knows some people resent them for harbouring the kinds of people who do exactly what he does.

"Sounds like you know him about as well as I do, except I didn't know he had a dog until I showed up today. I'm probably one of the few people who aren't acquainted to him because of Lily."