undergrounds | Magical Innovation Centre: The Grand Opening

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Magical Innovation Centre: The Grand Opening

It's evening in Richmond and the grand opening of the Magical Innovation Centre is about to begin. Doors open at 6.30pm with the event closing at 10pm. This is a black tie event, so get out your evening gowns and tuxedos. You won't be allowed in if you're wearing trainers or jeans.

Fae are forbidden from entering. Any fae who wish to sneak in must do so under a glamour and are likely to be discovered and kicked out if they linger for too long. Alternatively, they could pretend to be in service to one of the witches attending the event, if they have any witch allies willing to do that. Fae already in service to Circle Daybreak are the exception to the rule and this will be the first Daybreak event where a number of witches in attendance will be accompanied by their familiars in various forms. Ever since Samantha took her crown as Mother of Witches with a certain cat on her lap, familiars have started to become fashionable again.

Order of Events
6.30-7pm: Doors open
The first half hour allows time for guests to arrive and mingle. There's strict security around the centre: everyone who enters must sign in and get a name badge at the reception desk.

7-7.30pm: Samantha's speech
Standing on the staircase in the foyer, the Mother of Witches will address her audience with a speech to announce the opening of the centre.

7.30-8.30pm: Tour of the centre
During this hour, guests can join a tour of the centre. There will be three tours of around fifteen minutes each. Guests will be shown the following:

• Starting in the main foyer, the tour guide will give a brief overview of the centre's purpose.
• Next, the Potions Lab, which looks very much like any modern lab except that the bottles on display are magical rather than chemical.
• Then, the Pentacle Room which is an empty classroom with several intricate pentacles drawn on the floor. Cabinets along one wall hold shelves of herbs and charms that are used to strengthen or protect the pentacles, as well as shelves of spellbooks. An empty iron bird cage sits on one of the cabinets. This room is where witches can work together to perform powerful magic or to summon fae from the Other Realm.
• Then, the Botanical Garden which is what it sounds like. Herbs and plants of many kinds are grown here, and there are tables where witches can cut and dry the plants to prepare them for use in spellcraft and potion-making.
• Finally, the Magic Lab which looks very much like the Potions Lab except that there's more space. This is where witches will experiment with creating new spells.

The tour is guided and guests may only spend a limited amount of time in each room. They can't go back to the rooms after they're closed; security is tight and anyone trying to sneak around will be quickly spotted.

8.30-10pm: Networking
The rest of the event is open for mingling. There are information stands in the main foyer where witches are handing out leaflets outlining the purpose of the centre and inviting witches to join. If you're not a witch, you can still look and ask questions, but you can't register your interest to work or study at the centre. There's also a screen playing an artfully shot video of Samantha and several young witches looking alternately mystical and windswept on a moor, then clever and industrious in one of the laboratories. Tradition meets the modern world.

Coffee, champagne and canapes are all available, and are served by handsome fae waiters dressed in sparkly blue tuxedos. Despite several setbacks (none of which will be mentioned by Samantha or any of the staff) including the recent loss of Croydon to the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, it seems that Circle Daybreak is still intent on portraying an image of success. The Daybreak fae here are tame, well-mannered and subservient. Everything is under control.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's easy enough to pretend this is all interesting and exciting when there's someone to bounce off, and Eames easily masks his conversations with Arthur behind smiles and affectionate touches.

It's a lot harder when the fae servers come out, and Eames immediately bristles at the sparkly tuxedos that come out with trays of drinks and canapes. It's fucking abhorrent, and Eames has to bite back his scowl. Even worse for his inability to do anything — no amount of anger is going to make him stupid enough to lash out in a room full of witches — and he turns a little to Arthur. Puts a hand on his chest in an affectionate enough gesture to look like they're sharing an intimate moment, and tilts his head to murmur in Arthur's ear.

"Talk me out of doing something stupid."

Arthur can sympathize, at least. He knows parts of this must be hard for Eames, even if he can't sense exactly what's going on. The waiters make him wonder if Samantha would be so brazen as to flaunt bound fae right in front of her guests, but that's not his focus right now.

He smiles warmly to keep up the facade of an intimate moment.

"There's no point in blowing it now," he says softly.

"Fucking servers." He ducks his head, hiding his expression for a moment until he's got his face under control. "I don't know which part of this to be the most insulted by."

No wonder fae were banned.

Arthur noses at Eames' temple, affectionate and soothing. "It's just a show of power," he says. "This won't be how it looks in the end."

God, he wants to believe that.

Eames deflates a little, sighing. He doesn't even know what he would do if he did anything, but that doesn't make him feel any better about all this.

So he tries to change track instead, looking at Arthur with his eyebrows raised and a smirk tugging at his lips. "You sound pretty sure of that."

Arthur gives him a wry look before he glances around at the rest of the party. He knows the best thing to do would be to distract Eames from the terrible reality right now, even though he's not sure how good he is at that.

"Do you doubt my faith?" he asks, all coy and smooth.

Eames snorts, shaking his head.

"No offence, Arthur," he starts, straightening the lapel of Arthur's jacket a little while he talks, , "but you're not a man I know to operate on faith."

Arthur's only response is a coy smile; the truth of the matter is that he was just saying whatever he needed to to keep Eames calm, but he doesn't want to get into that discussion or argument right now.

"Well, I hope you're not having too terrible of a time."

Eames' response to that is to raise his eyebrows at Arthur with a blank look on his face. Because looking at your potential future of servitude is a pretty awful time, he has to say.

"Well, Keiran, just let me know if you want to leave," Arthur says, slightly reluctant in his tone because there seems to be a lot left to learn.

"Not yet," he says it with a hint of a smile because he hears that tone, "just... Try not to lose sight of me, alright?"

Simultaneously because he might snoop around a bit and he can't watch his own back, but also because he's worried about what could happen to him in a place like this.

Arthur knows Eames must be worried, but he decides not to call him out on it and gives him a wry smirk instead.

"Well, seeing as I'm having such a hard time taking my eyes off of you..."

Wow. Eames snorts and thumps Arthur lightly with a fist, shaking his head at the line.

"Aren't you supposed to be a professional?"

"A professional what?" Arthur says, a grin on his face as he pretends to be slightly taken aback. "A professional date? I think you have the wrong idea."

Eames shakes his head, rolling his eyes for emphasis.

"When we get back to yours after this..." He starts with a warning tone that really amounts to nothing. It'd be more of a threat ("threat") if he didn't actually really appreciate Arthur taking his mind off how awful this all is for a few minutes.

But still, the implication is there.

Arthur gives him the most self-satisfied grin and briefly puts his hand on Eames' waist before he pulls back and puts both hands in his pockets. He likes flirting with Eames; it's fun, but they have to be appropriate and they should actually do some snooping while they're here.

Eames shakes his head, casting a brief look around to see if anyone's looking at them, and then back to Arthur with a raised eyebrow.

"Remind me why I brought you here again?"

Technically speaking, Arthur brought him, but that's semantics.

"I think it was for my excellent company," he says dryly, looking around the room. There has to be an opening somewhere for them to just go look around for a little while, let Eames' sense for magic try to get a better handle on the situation. He knows some of the other rooms are a little less populated, and maybe from there they can slip away from the pre-approved areas of the Centre.

"You think Samantha will mind if we try and find a quiet corner in this place?"

"I get the feeling security's a little tight for that." It'd certainly be nice to get a look around though, if only to get a vague idea of what's around.

Worth a shot though, isn't it? Eames slips a hand to Arthur's back with a hint of a smirk, the kind one would wear when sneaking off for the reasons couples usually sneak off to be alone, and nods in a direction that looks a little less watched.

"Let's give it a go anyway."

Arthur smirks right along, partly to sell the idea that this is about sex rather than reconnaissance, but it's also because he's always excited about the prospect of learning things he's not supposed to learn.

He follows Eames' lead, setting a casual pace so as not to call attention to the pair of men trying to slip away from the party.

Eames leads them in a direction that he thinks would be a fair assumption of where the bathrooms are. He knows they're not this way, but a casual frown and glance should do enough to disperse any suspicion from other guests. Who's really gonna think two guys looking for a bathroom are up to anything worse than a quick hookup?

"I saw a fancy looking door this way," he murmurs in Arthur's ear, "if we can get away from any watchful eyes I should be able to pick the lock."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Arthur says, giving a casual glance around to make sure no one's watching them go. It's well in line with a man who's doing his best to make it Not Obvious that he's going to go hook up with his date in a secluded area.

Eames curls his fingers a little where his hand is on Arthur's back as he leads him around a corner, a mix of excitement and anxiety; it's hard to approach this with his usual lack of personal care all things considered, but he's always excited about breaking and entering and knowing stuff he's not supposed to know.

This hall isn't on the tour, and Eames slows his steps a little to try and get a feel for what's here. He wishes he could feel out with his magic, but that would be like a beacon to every other magically inclined person in the building.

He spots the door he'd looked at earlier, not 100% certain why it stood out to him at the time but he happens to put his hand on the frame and pulls it back like he's been shocked with a hissed curse.

It's pretty much the same reaction he has whenever he accidentally touches one of Arthur's iron pans, and he looks at Arthur with a frown.

"I don't think I'm picking this lock."

Arthur looks at the door with a sigh, disappointment clear on his face. Of course she'd put iron everywhere; it's such an elegant solution. It's not always cheap but it's effective and doesn't create a level of complexity for the people she wants coming and going as they please.

He puts his hand on the door handle and tests it gently, just in case. The door is indeed locked but he's not about to give up. "Is it anything you can walk me through?" he asks.

For a moment, Eames actually considers it; takes his lockpicks out and everything. He glances down the hall and back, a frown on his face because it's too risky to walk him through this right now. There's too many variables and in a situation like this they can't afford for anything to go wrong.

(It's driving him a little bit mad how much he wants to just use his magic, he could have that door open in seconds.)

"I don't know anything about this lock," he says, shaking his head, "and even if it's absurdly simple, I don't think we have enough time."

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