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undergrounds2017-04-21 10:41 pm
undergroundmods) wrote in undergrounds2017-04-21 10:41 pm
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.
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He goes with the subject change. Sometimes, Rorschach wonders if he should manifest without the mask. It seemed like it was the only thing people focused on when they talked to him. "Died wearing it." He pauses. "I think."
Rorschach has forgotten some of the details of his life. Mostly towards the end, when everything had gone wrong. He and Dan had come to London to look for...someone. Someone who was going to do something awful. Then he'd died. He didn't remember how, but the act carried with it an overwhelming sense of despair for him, as if his entire world had crumpled to the ground.
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Joscelin signals to a waiter for a canapé and helps himself to several mini quiches off the plate. If he's going to stay he might as well avail himself of the free food. "I remember my death quite well," he says conversationally, "though I suppose it's different for everyone." He's suddenly grateful that he doesn't have to spend the rest of eternity wandering the world in the soiled nightshirt he'd died in. Thank heaven for small mercies and all that.
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The mention of his death is enough for the ex-hunter to put the pieces together. "Vampire?" There's an undercurrent of contempt beneath the flat words said in the deep, raspy tone. There's just something about a child vampire that seems very wrong to him. A predator in a nice comfy skin, that's what is before him.
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Joss is intrigued by the ghost.
"Indeed." He smiles a little. "1349. Plague, though no one actually called it that until a few hundred years later. My father hired a nurse who wasn't entirely what she seemed. How did you die?" Violently, he should think, or else he wouldn't be a ghost haunting boring witch parties.
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"Don't remember." He shifts back and forth on his heels, the first signs of movement he's made during the conversation, a sign of agitation at the gaps in his memory. It seems like he's going to say something else, but he falls silent instead.
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Joscelin hadn't expected much in terms of conversation from the ghost, but even this is underwhelming. For a spectre with an ever-changing inkblot face, he's surprisingly uninteresting.
"How anticlimactic," he sighs, looking out at the sea of humans and non-humans all networking awkwardly amongst themselves. "Out with it, then, if you've anything else to say."
He turns to face the ghost, giving a small, ironic, bow. "I'm Joscelin Fitzthomas de Lisle, by the way, though most just know me as Joss. Your servant, sir."
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"Rorschach. Former hunter. Ghost at Hillingdon House." Which at least provides a clue as to how he died. Most hunters aren't known for living extraordinarily long lives. Joss' last comment makes him snort softly, the sound that might be a laugh in another man. "Pretty words from such a neat, little monster."
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"A pleasure sir," Joscelin says in that slightly mocking way of his. "I would shake your hand, were it corporeal, but alas."
He finds Rorschach's comment quite funny and grins. "They were pretty, weren't they? I do try to keep the art of conversation alive. The niceties must be observed, even by a 'neat little monster,' as you so charmingly put it."
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He scowls beneath the mask. Is he being made fun of? It's hard to tell with that oh-so-innocent smile on Joss' face. "Niceties from a killer. Wouldn't have thought you capable of it." Despite his flat, rumbling tone, there's a definite note of sarcasm there.
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Or, well, annoy a ghost. What's the worst he can do?
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"Done that recently?"
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"Funny. All I see is an old predator wearing a skin he outgrew ages ago."
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