NEW YEAR'S BASH

[piper90npcs]

Who: Everyone
What: New Year Celebrations
Where: The Rig
When: December 31st/January 1st
Warnings/Notes: Possible drunken revelry, smooches, language.

After everything, it is the end of a long, hard year. Free from Christmas decorations, new ones fill the hall. Snow's still present, and the New Hires will have had time to curse the daily shoveling of the walkways, but in certain areas of the Rig, green onions decorate doorways. Streamers and banners are all over the place. And people are already drinking and making merry, despite the earliness of the day.

They might regret this later, but they don't yet have 2020 hindsight.

Also, with some actual, honest apologies from ol' Dick Washburn, a combined Christmas/New Year's feast is held for the New Hires in their dorm. Yes, there's a dull sheetcake, written with their names (poorly spelled) on it, but there's also stew, a roast turkey, honest to God decent serving sizes... Apparently, it seems, the kitchen staff had found out that the New Hires had been cheated, dealing with missions over Christmas, and had nearly revolted until they got permission to put together a feast for them. Which may be why there's a load of cupcakes, noodles, pasta makings, and everything else that're usually grudgingly held out as treats.

Someone's set up a tree, too. Granted, it's aluminum, but it's decorated. There's a little Jorgmund ouroboros in place of the star as well. Underneath it, the Secret Santa presents. And whatever presents the New Hires might have begged, borrowed, or stolen the money for. And it seems that the corporation also has little gifts for everyone.

Jorgmund may be a heartless machine. But it seems that some of the people who grease the wheels have hearts after all.

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan furrows his brow.

"Carved or drawn symbols. There are some that work against certain types of monsters, keeps them from getting close. And our wards don't require no power. It's just laying trails of spices or chemicals down to keep certain monsters and spirits at bay. No magic required. Never heard of using coral or coal for it, though."

[runes_brand]

Brand grunts his understanding.

"Our sigils are magic objects Atlanteans can store spells in." He gestures with a hand to indicate a small object. "Jewelry, eye glasses, cock rings, shit like that."

He scratches his chin thoughtfully. "Coral, coal, obsidian are about the only things that'll fuck up magical creatures if you don't have magic of your own. Aside from the slow way of hitting them until they can't move anymore, or hitting them in just the right spot." He tapped the back of his neck. "Brainstem will do it for recarnates as it turns out. Zombies."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Cock rings?" If Dan was shooting bedroom eyes at Brand before - and oh, he was - he's ramping it up now, and with curiosity. Has he been missing the entire possibility of magic sex toys until now? "I reckon people will put magic in anything."

Dan makes a mental note to collect coral, coal and obsidian the first chance he gets.

"Zombies in your world, huh? Definitely not jealous of you there."

[runes_brand]

Brand flashes Dan a grin.

"Rune's got a whole rant about how magic is driven by natural appetites and blah blah blah. It's a godsdamned magic cock ring and I have been giving him shit about it for years."

Recarnates are a strange choice of a secondary topic at this point, but that's why Brand doesn't usually talk to people outside his field. "Yeah, some assholes summoned a godsdamned army of them a few months back. Fucking necromancers."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Some would say natural appetites can be a kind of magic on their own, when executed right." Dan raises his eyebrows.

"Fucking necromancers," he agrees as the topic shifts, his upbeat demeanor breaking for just a second into something almost pained. If this weren't the beginning of the roughest month of the year for him, he wouldn't lose his composure at all; as it is, he quickly and almost imperceptibly picks himself back up again. "We have them in my world too."

[runes_brand]

Brand raises his eyebrows back, opens his mouth to respond...and then closes it again, huffing through his nose.

"Let's just pretend I had a witty fucking response to that," he says, the words grumbly around the edges. He can recognize flirting (and recognize when Rune completely whiffs it), but it's not something he's good at. One of many reasons he hits the Green Docks on his nights off instead of a bar or a club.

Frown lines appear between Brand's eyebrows, but that's about all the acknowledgement he gives any quick-change moods Dan might be having.

"Well, at least if you keep smacking 'em, they can't get a fucking spell off. At least that's how it works with Atlanteans, if yours don't need to maintain concentration to cast a spell, all I can suggest is to smack 'em real hard the first time."

[hallelujahjunction]

"I'm fine with pretending that." Dan grins and takes another drink. This is the level he'll keep it at, unless Brand indicates one way or another that he wants Dan to stop or escalate. Signaling interest without pressure. Flirting's the open-door policy of casual sex: I'm here if you want me.

Which is a lot nicer to think about than necromancers.

"Reckon ours are a little harder to do that with. They cast curses far as across the continent at someone." Or attach them to whole families. "But far as I know we don't got any here, so I try not to worry about them."

He tries to think of a topic of conversation that doesn't remind him what time of year it is and what necromantic magic looks like in practice.

[runes_brand]

Brand eyeballs Dan as he takes a drink.

"Just to be clear about expectations," he says, "romance isn't on the table. I'm down for sex, but wining and dining -- that shit ain't gonna happen."

He decides to just drop the necromancy topic entirely now. It's feeling awkward enough that he's tempted to steer it toward Immolation magic so that he can brag about Layne, and that's not the most trustworthy impulse he's had.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Oh, thank God!" Dan's grin widens. "I don't do romance, and I had the slightest worry that you might."

Dan doesn't know if he's capable of romance, and that doesn't bother him.

[runes_brand]

Brand makes a noise that's either a scoff or a laugh, but there are hints toward the latter in the corner of his mouth and the loosening of his shoulders.

"Nahh," he says wryly. "Who's got the time? I just don't flirt well."

[hallelujahjunction]

"I think I'm fully capable of flirting enough for the both of us." Dan finishes off his drink and neatly lobs the bottle into one of the trashcans.

[runes_brand]

"Maybe I should sit back and let you steer then," Brand says, which he thinks could sound flirtatious now that they've established it's not his specialty. His eyes follow the arc of the bottle into the trash and he nods approvingly at the accuracy of Dan's aim.

/fade

[hallelujahjunction]

"Sit back, lay back. I'm plenty fine doing the steering." He nods his head at the door. Dan knows a lot of the places on the Rig to get out of sight of security cameras.

Re: /fade

[runes_brand]

Brand follows Dan's glance for the door and smirks.

"Meet you there," he says, then forges into the crowd -- not toward the door, but to find Rune and let him know that Brand will be temporarily unavailable and that he should avoid doing anything stupid until Brand gets back.

Then the door, to see where this goes.