21:05 <banana> Now that the dance is mostly over, there's a lot of empty space between the roughly rectangular space created by three lines of tables. The Tatterdam's green-red shadow falls over fading firepits and post-revelrous drunks, still gathering to chat or eat or posture. There are lines for the toilets. 21:07 <banana> In a moment alone, Willie catches sight of Sumiya, who has accumulated Boys. Four of them are slinking around her, passing her drinks and hanging on her words and cackles. 21:08 <banana> She looks up at the same moment Willie does, beckoning frantically but with an easy smile. 21:11 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hell yes. Willie does not need a second invitation. Once she's close enough: "I was so worried I wouldn't get to see you before the party wrapped up, Sumi, darling." 21:14 <banana> Sumi: "It's her! She's here! The closest thing to a summer's day that's available in this season." 21:14 <banana> Several of the male changelings make noises of protest. One of them actually says, "I've suddenly got to be somewhere else." 21:14 <banana> Sumi: "Go on then, Arse Dan." 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's strawberry eyes dance between the cowering boys. "Now now, don't scatter on my account. Sumi's radiance can encompass us all." 21:17 <banana> 'Arse Dan' is kind of big, strong but not fit. He's wearing workout gear, a tank top and sweatpants, which have been adapted into a costume with the use of painted straps; the glamour has given him far too many belts. The Alpha Strikes would identify him at once as being from Final Fantasy Something. 21:19 <banana> Arse Dan: "But you're not one of us, are you?" 21:19 <banana> Sumi: "You can define your us as narrow as you like, as long as you do it somewhere else." "Willie, this is Cvlt. The Maraschine. Riann." 21:19 <banana> Sumi: "You can define your us as narrow as you like, as long as you do it somewhere else." 21:19 <banana> "Willie, this is Cvlt. The Maraschine. Riaan." 21:20 <banana> The other three offer more-friendly greetings, although unfortunately it seems Riaan is seth efrican. 21:22 <banana> Accent aside, he's also pretty solid, a little older, with a face that would be a football players if it weren't for all the smile lines. No glamoured on at all right now; he's holding a mask by his side. 21:23 <banana> Cvlt is apparently the Stig, but with even the helmet made of leather; the Maraschine is a small and trim man in something like fencing gear, velvet stitched with glowing silk and a rapier-hilt at his side which seems to be scabbarded in thin air. 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> Not going to hold nation of origin against someone; Willie's hero is a white Zimbabwean. "I won't insist on your company, Dan, if you're uncomfortable." She beams at the braver men. "Cvlt," pronounces with a hard V and no vowel, somehow. "Riann. The Maraschine. I am so pleased to meet you all. Do call me Willie." 21:27 <banana> Cvlt's voice is unmuffled despite the face-covering helmet. "Will do. How do you know this vision, Sumi?" 21:27 <banana> The Maraschine: "Perhaps they're goddesses of the same pantheon." 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie beams. 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> Being flattered... it's good. 21:28 <banana> Sumi: "That is correct. We're myths from the legend of G.S.D. How goes your hunt? Find any good coffins?" 21:29 <banana> Riaan: "You don't look the slighest bit undead... ah!" Something clicks; Willie thinks he knows her, presumably via the Nameless House rather than the society pages. 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> "The work continues. Would you believe they don't come in doubles?" See it's funny because it describes her current mission, her sex life, and her looming fate. Willie looks at Riann. "Not the sort of 'ah!' I'm used to. Am I right to guess that's an 'I know Bob' 'ah!'?" 21:35 <banana> Riaan: "We have a mutual friend. Two, if I may count you as a friend, Sumi." 21:35 <banana> Sumi: "It's not the term you used last night, but this is a family-friendly pagan ceremony." 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. 21:36 <banana> The Maraschine: "How cruel, Sumi. Flaunting how much of your time you give to Mr. Spreadsheets." 21:36 <banana> Riaan: "I was certainly spreading the- or perhaps more like cheeks are- no, the joke's dead." 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> More like Mr. Bedsheets, heh heh. 21:37 <banana> Arse Dan: "Who's in the coffins?" 21:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks around a bit before replying. Sergio went off to capture some tableau in his mind for future art work; can she see him? "Nobody yet! The night is, at worst, adolescent." 21:39 <banana> Cvlt has a beer in his hand, which he raises to the helmet, opening it; for a moment, Willie sees brown hair and sharp teeth. 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> Nice. 21:40 <banana> Sumi: "We're just getting to the good bit. Unfortunately, none of you get to to play." 21:41 <banana> The Maraschine: "I'm sure what we get up to under the hill at Beltane is much more fun than than the weeping you've got planned." 21:41 <banana> Riaan: "There's no weeping." 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "A loss, to be sure, but what a consolation prize this is!" 21:41 <banana> The Maraschine: "An exchange of solemn secrets?" 21:41 <banana> Riaan: "No secrets." 21:41 <banana> The Maraschine: "Whatever you do, I'm sure everybody is very cold the whole time." 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I find it increasingly imperative thesenights to stay frosty." 21:42 <banana> Cvlt: "Ha." 21:43 <banana> Arse Dan: "These-nights. Hmm. Do you drink... wine?" 21:43 <banana> Sumi: "Arsey, you're not here to pump her... for information." 21:44 <banana> "We do have wine though." 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Ah, I didn't even catch that. The influence of my boyfriend, Daniel. He's off somewhere... absorbing some of this staggering beauty." 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> "I shouldn't partake, so close to the end of the evening. I have to drive home." 21:46 <banana> Arse Dan: "Christ, another fangfucker. No offense." 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> Coolly: "Oh, certainly not." 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> Her voice is much softer than her eyes. 21:48 <banana> The Maraschine: "Arsiel Daniel doesn't know what he's talking about. It is the vampires who are obsessed with our beauty, and the magic in our blood." 21:48 <banana> Riaan: "Anyway, if you could get one in bed you can just open the window next morning. Sex is one of the safer plays there." 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Safer than a business deal, for sure." 21:50 <banana> Sumi: "A vampire saved my life once." 21:50 <banana> "Completely random good Samaritan thing." 21:50 <banana> Cvlt: "That's about as plausible as everything else that happens to you. Nice work, somehow." 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie wills the Arse out of her mind. Pictures him fading away, leaving her in the company of these fun and sexy people. "That means I owe the company of two of my favourite people in Manchester to the Kindred." 21:52 <banana> Sumi: "I was crossing the street late at night, just trying to get to the bus stop. There's this blur of motion, a lorry - and then another blur, faster. I would totally have been willing to give the dude a taste in thanks, if I still had proper blood." 21:53 <banana> Riaan: "When was this? Did you send a card, at least?" 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Was he cute?" 21:54 <banana> Sumi to Riaan: "You know the story though? It was that one time with the street signs." 21:54 <banana> Sumi: "I didn't get a good look, but maybe. Looked young!" 21:54 <banana> Riaan: "Right, we don't know for sure that was a vampire. I mean most likely... it doesn't matter." 21:55 <banana> Cvlt: "I'd have been more concerned with getting the driver's numberplate." 21:55 <banana> Arse Dan: "A little vehicular manslaughter? Not worth getting the cops involved." 21:55 <banana> Sumi: "You're right about that." 22:02 <banana> The Maraschine: "I have to assume there are interesting people in GMP. All those shows about intelligent inspectors and their spunky assistants can't be fiction." 22:03 <banana> Riaan: "Yes they can?" 22:03 <banana> The Maraschine: "Then this is why we have fanfiction." 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie absorbs the milieu a bit. God, even after having some of her emotion bled off it's still so exquisitely nice to be around people in a fun and reasonably comfortable way. "Civil servants can be very interesting people, in my opinion, but it's not a career that invites heroism." 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Is there a party like this at the cusp of every season?" 22:07 <banana> Sumi: "There is an event, but they're different. At Samhain, we wear the masks of the Gentry over our own, and renew our sacrifices that keep them from the door. In three months - Candlemas - we'll celebrate fertility and divination. And fertility!" 22:08 <banana> Riaan: "Nobody but Lensburg's cult understands the link between the two, but they seem to work out individually." 22:09 <banana> Cvlt: "Beltane, on May Day, will be a bonfire feast where we receive tributes. Much like a daytime version of this shindig." 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh! A Summer man!" 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> She sounds very pleased. 22:10 <banana> The Maraschine: "Proud to have chosen both." 22:10 <banana> Arse Dan: "The fire is also in my heart." 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Summer men." 22:11 <banana> Sumi: "They've got some good dudes, or at least dudes who keep it real." 22:12 <banana> Riaan: "Technically, there has been no truly good dude since 1967." 22:12 <VoxPVoxD> She lets Dan fade back in. "If I may pump you in a reciprocal manner... this is all quite a new side of the night-city to me. May I ask: what would you say is the nature or character of Seelie Summer?" 22:14 <banana> Sumi and the Maraschine both pull out their phones. They catch each others' eye and laugh; Riaan says: "And I don't mean Oppenheimer." 22:14 <banana> Arse Dan: "...we fight. Injustice, infiltration, defend the weak. Summer means not putting up with what's done to us." 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> It takes Willie a moment to pick apart the grammar, and realise he doesn't mean they fight: injustice, infiltration, and defending the weak. "Rose's Wasp seems most formidable." 22:17 <banana> Sumi: "You're either talking about... Basil Rathbone or Woody Guthrie." 22:17 <banana> Riaan: "What are you looking at, IMDB?" 22:18 <banana> The Maraschine: "Attlee. Clement, specifically." 22:18 <banana> Riaan: "No, no.. I mean, yes he was a good man, but come on." 22:19 <VoxPVoxD> "Che Guevara died around then, didn't he?" 22:20 <banana> Riaan: "YES! Without a trial, at the behest of the goddamn CIA!" 22:21 <banana> Arse Dan: "We'll have to settle for a good woman, I guess? The Queen is one." Sumi and Riaan both look at him. "I mean, not queen right now." 22:22 <banana> Maraschine: "The Wasp Queen is strong and fair in extraordinary degree. A survivor, and others with her also survive." 22:22 <banana> Sumi: "That's better than a revolution, yeah." 22:25 <banana> Riaan: "Only in the lowercase." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Survival is revolutionary, when nobody wants you to, I think." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Most revolutions are premised on that." 22:27 <banana> Sumi: "She's right. You've got your classic, there is no bread/potatoes. I have the bread or the potato in my enormous palace but, ha ha, you'd have to take it over my dead body." 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> Sometimes you are the bread and/or potato. 22:28 <banana> Riaan: "Isn't the point that survival itself is the revolution, without having to actually rise up? I understand, but I'm not sure I agree." 22:28 <banana> Maraschine: "I've never understood why you're Winter, Coetzee." 22:28 <banana> Riaan: "I've never understood why you were reading cops-and-docs fanfiction. The TV itself is bad enough." 22:29 <VoxPVoxD> Aaagh now she's thinking about Agatha's mothers and daughters. No. No. Focus. "I suppose it's a bit of a word game at that point, Riann. Are you really surviving if you've just found the softest bit of boot to cling to?" 22:29 <banana> Maraschine: "The showrunners do not understand that Rizzoli and Isles are in love with each other. Nothing can make them understand." 22:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Some would say so. I might not. Either way our quarrel's with the dictionary." 22:30 <banana> Cvlt: "It's also with the boot." 22:30 <banana> Sumi: "The foot within, perhaps." 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. 22:33 <banana> Cvlt and Sumi theorise whether the leg bone is connected to the knee bone of oppression. Riaan is now accusing the Maraschine of reading lesbian pornography. Arse Dan's willing to keep his mouth shut much of the time. It's late, but in a good way. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "There is so much worth fighting for. Separated by a few steps of favour and prophecy, that's why I'm here. I cannot make commitments on behalf of my House, but if you're ever in need of a second set of arms or eyes, in commission or camaraderie... we are professionals." Willie produces some business cards from inside her top. She fans them out - nice card stock, but not American 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Psycho nice, with a phone number and an email beneath a spare gray stencil of a house. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Do please keep us in mind." 22:40 <VoxPVoxD> If they don't have any questions or comments, she's happy to absorb into the conversation. What lovely people. What a lovely night. The anger at the hurt they had to endure to make this beauty necessary is still there... but it's swaddled in withness, its sharp edges hidden well away, like sharpened teeth behind full lips. 22:40 <banana> Arse Dan takes one of the cards, as does Riaan Coetzee. Sumi already has Willie's number, and says so ("For when I get lonely in even later hours"). Cvlt says: "Anything we'd want outside help for would be nasty... or just mundane and really dangerous. Not trying to warn you off." 22:41 <banana> Arse Dan: "Perhaps they're running Cannon Fodder Plc." 22:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Perhaps there are many flavours of improper blood." 22:41 <banana> Sumi: "Herbal wine." 22:42 <VoxPVoxD> "Torino vermouth." 22:42 <banana> "It was supposed to have energetic properties in battle, if you served it with the right ritual. I'm not keen to find out!" 22:43 <banana> Riaan moves to squeeze her shoulder sympathetically, but the Maraschine gets there first. 22:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie raises one eyebrow just a bit. 22:44 <banana> Almost everyone smiles generally, confirming withness, and the night continues.