Jeremy walked up to the door, his twin sister Ellie he had not seen for years on one side, his girlfriend Izzy he had missed for so long, on the other. He flashed his ID and said
"Back off. This is my sister and my girlfriend. They got specail permission to be here on Toledo. Calm down. This is a motivational ball; how can I be motivated if the ones I love cant enter?
and they walked in. The guards shifted a bit. Hunter was Order Guard, which meant he had worked hard to be able to enter O-100. Most here where guard. But still, they had to admire the nerve of Hunter.
Jeremy looked over and spotted Lovejoy and Katie. He led his friends over.
"Hey Lovejoy. Meet my twin sister Ellie and my girlfriend Izzy, the base for my AI. They got special clearance to be here to visit. Might as well treat em to something before I dont get to see em fora long time. Wana dance sis?"
The two went off. a couple minutes later Ellie returned and let Izzy have her man back. Ellie sat down beside Katie and Lovejoy and asked
"So. How's your life in the Order? Jeremy giving you an trouble?
Sebastien LaHoue enters the ballroom, a rare smirk on his face, wiearing a clean, good looking uniform, even though it obviously pre-dates the 800's. He didn't often get the chance to leave the Necropolis, relieved that for maybe even just one night, he could leave his duty and have some fun. He wasn't formally invited, but he thought he could blend in the crowd...
He slowly reaches the bar and gets himself a glass of red wine (''One glass a day is good for your health'', he thought, having a slight chuckle as he remembers his ex-wife yelling at him for ''drinking too much''.) and examines it intensely before tasting it. Not the best wine he had, but it's still better than the junk they served at the Necropolis' dinner hall. He knows he wasn't a well known member of the Order organisation, as he tends to stay apart from everyone. He still scans the room with his eyes, trying to find a rare friendly face.
Katie's mood was lifted even higher than it already was by the arrival of Hunter and Lovejoy.
"Good to see you guys!" She said in an excited tone to nobody in particular...
"Hey Lovejoy, you promised me a dance mind?" Katie smiled at Lovejoy as she offered him her hand to dance. Begrudgingly, Lovejoy took her over to the floor, and started to dance with her.
Gil didn't bother spending all night cleaning up, however he throws on a fresh suit, his best hat, and makes sure his hair was in regs. He walks up to the entrance and stares at his reflection in a glass case that held many sparkling, beautiful ancient artifacts. After adjusting himself until to his satisfaction, he turns around walking carelessly past the doorman saying, "I make it a habit te be fashunably late." He then follows the sounds of chatter down the halls embellished with ornamental lights, standard red carpet, and exceptionally old paintings... some of which Gil had never seen before. Once he reaches the crowd, he imediately locates the bar. The only place Gil feels he can fit in. He never really cared for dancing and mingling in crowds. No. Gil was a man that can sit on a bar stool and tell stories for hours. He even enjoys playing piano for folks. 'Perhaps after a few drinks, and some small talk I'll relieve the current piano player and play some 'pianee!" Gil thought. He walks over to the bar noticing some familiar faces in the crowd. He doesn't like crowds, otherwise he'd mingle with the other folks and say hello to some of the pleasant looking women, including the ex-Liberty Navy Admiral Porter, whom reminds Gil of his days at the Liberty Naval Academy. Instead, Gil takes a seat next to Ensign Fionnlagh and asks the bartender for the finest Molly whiskey. Gil pours a shot and sets the glass down on the bar as quickly as he had drunk the shot. After the clank of the shotglass on the bar, he turns to Fionnlagh and asks for a story while still squinting his eyes from the whiskey.
"The same poison I see." His slurred speech gave it away clearly.
He then stopped talking and smiled a happy drunken smile.
"Stories huh? I never was good with them." He thought about it until he found one. "I don't know if you remember, but there was this time when we tried to force ourselves past the Alaska gate, and the person who was meant to be hacking the codes for the gate fainted. Fainted. Can you believe it? Hardcore, that one. Now, that, was funny. It was before this new "understanding" situation developed. We were guaranteed death if caught. I remember fleeing with battlecruisers chasing us. They sure have a lot of resources don't they?"
Fionnlagh stopped to take another swig of his glass.
"So, what has been happening with you recently?" Fionnlagh asked Thatch as his eyes drooped some more.
Lovejoy took one of Kate's hands in his and placed the other on her waist. He had never formally danced before, but he had watched a few instructional holo-vids which had assured him that by the end of the lesson he would be an expert. Lovejoy wasn't so confident at the time, but as he danced with Katie he began to relax and feel more comfortable, allowing his scant knowledge of the steps take control.
"I never danced like this with the Junkers, let me tell you that," he said as a conversation starter.
Thanks to MikeyH for the banner.
Reverend Del Wrote:I was going to turn your ship into something that would have been better named "Lada" but I was told to be nice.
"Fainted ye say? I'm suprised ye got outter there in one piece with them battlecruisers on yer tails. I'm glad yer wingman woke up in time. Speaking of Alasker.. I've got one fer ya."
Gil turns and takes another shot of the Molly's finest, squints his eyes and takes a gander at the lovely ladies again.
"I've been sent out te hunt them Nomads in the middle of Sirius bout one week ago. I fergot which pilots I was with, but we slipped past within 4 kilos of a Liberty battlecruiser in Alasker. After we had jes gotten past visual range, the commander woke up and spilled his coffee on his trousers when he saw a number of us. He 'gave' us permishun to pass after we was almost te the jumpgate, ye could see him wiping his pants with a small napkin in the comm image. I think he ain't wantin te get caught sleepin' on the job. What a joke!"
'Hum' Thinks out loud. He get up and walks to the door to his cabin. He pauses by a picture.
In the picture is a young couple obvious in love. As Jake stares at the picture a voice from the past speaks to him " Jake you look so handsome tonight" the voice fades in the background and the rumbling of the Repentance take its place. Jake remembers other things,composes himself knowing there is duty to be done.
Jake shows a brief smile . He stops then goes thru the doors and heads to the bridge of the ship.
There he is met with all volunteers as the rest of the fleet enjoying a rare night of fun.
"XO" Tiberius calls (not his XO) set patrol course alpha.
He raises a glass of water to the party goers 'Thinks' You've earned it people. the crew and the captain go about their duties,yet Someone patched into the ball so that music could be heard thru out the ship.
The IL-Repentance goes about her patrol in a quiet manner so many on the Planet enjoy their evening of well deserved peace.
Death Before Dishonour! Honour above all!
This masterpiece was made by Calego. (Iron Legion)
There are some things in this world that one becomes so accustomed to that to see anything slightly contradictory would be so completely mind-boggling to them that they simply couldn't accept it, even if they did see it. Some famous examples of this are communists, environmentalists, and those who sell bagels and lox but no water.
Such was the case on this occasion of this ball.
The Doctor had stepped onto the bridge of the Khonsu without a limp at all. Normally he was limping, grumcling, and groaning about his leg, and how it hurt him, and how the moisture affected his arthritis and how he was going to chop it off one of these days and everything along those lines. Tonight, though, he had no such limp, merely a sort of woodenness to it as he stepped onto the bridge, wearing not only a three piece suit and great coat, which were certainly his usual attire, but also had a hat in his hand, which he often wore when he was going to leave the ship, and also was standing next to his XO, Scott Lamarck - who was wearing a similar suit - and the head Medical Offer, Mara Latham - who was wearing a basic black dress that didn't expose too much of her unimpressive flat and skinny figure to the wandering eye. She was usually clad in a basic nurse's uniform or white jumpsuit, depending on her mood that day - which could really fluctuate. She was known to be anything from bestial to vexed, and from frustrated to annoyed, from irked to peeved or miffed, and if one word had to be slapped onto the overall massive and divergent spectrum of temperaments, it would have to be "Ill-tempered."
Oh, I suppose I might drift from my point a little bit.
None of the aforementioned things that I mentioned were what I was going to mention, and they aren't really worth mentioned. What I was going to mention was the thing that was surprising.
And none of this was what was so amazing.
The Doctor had trimmed the hair on the back of his head a little bit.
He never cut his hair, as it didn't grow back too readily.
And he was ready for the next greatest challenge of his career in the Order.
Surviving the Order Motivational Ball.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Doctor stepped from the shuttle that had touched down on the snow-dusted landing pad at the southern end of Cape Hope Base, his pointed, shined black shoe tossing the light flakes aside as he let himself down, placing his black fedora upon his head.
As Lamarck and Latham - or, Scott and Mara as they would be to him tonight - stepped from the shuttle, the Doctor glanced around at his surroundings.
The dramatic icy landscape of Toledo surrounded him, rising up in its frozen tumble and turmoil, a deep bluish colour - same as the Doctor's eyes - in the fading light. The sun was setting, and the dim glow could be seen above the horizon but behind the icy formations all around, leaving them in a bowl of cold half-light, a twilight.
Within a few moments of their landing, this fragile sapphire peace was broken by the flaring of lights along the walkway, leading towards the bases' door in a cascade of white light.
The Doctor was taken from his moody reminisces and thrust more into the spirit of the moment with this light. He smiled uncharacteristically at Scott and Mara, and placed his hat upon his head, marching inside, cane swinging in his hand, no trace of a limp in his leg. This was a ball, and given that he hadn't been to one for decades, he was determined to make at least something of it, despite whatever else there might be going on.
Morphine, at least, had taken care of his normally agonizing and stiff leg. Now he was free to enjoy the night without the more serious inhibitions of the physical sort.
On second thought, that might be why he was feeling so good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Doctor showed his ID to the security guard, as his two companions did similarly with the others. THe guard muttered something to the Doctor, which was all too common. "Doctor Inpu, if you must," the Doctor replied back edgily, but capriciously, trying to stay in the mood of the moment.
He placed the ID back into his pocket, entering the ballroom, his companions catching up to him.
Mara scowled. "Bloody hell, I've never been anywhere like this." she muttered in her distinctive Bretonian accent that was diluted with Borderworld drawl.
Scott smiled. "Well, mademoiselle," he said playfully, exaggerating his covered Gallian accent, "Let me show you how to enjoy a ball. I am certainly not a stranger to these." He chuckled and walked off with her, toward the couples dancing on the floor.
The Doctor smiled.
This was all too perfect. There was no one around him, no one to keep him from the bar.
Cane hanging on his arm, he placed his gloves into his hat with an unceremonious toss, gave the hat to the waiting man who was taking people's coats and suchwhat. He then gave the then questioning man the cane, smiling as he stepped onto the central floor with less of a pained jerk in his leg and more of a numbed stiffness.
But it didn't hurt, and he was feeling so peaceful, so on top of the world tonight as he walked across the floor, a slightly forced smile on his face, nodding to an ensign he vaguely remembered possibly knowing.
"Sir, we seem to have run out of the BLU vodka," the hired bartender said.
"Thanks," remarked Magnetion. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his comm device. "Khalis, this is Magnet. Please bring down another 75 gallons of BLU Vodka to the surface. Our guests seem to be going through them like a cheeseknife throught.....cheese.......right. Over and out."
Turning off the mike, he mentally facepalmed at his bad analogy, and moved to sit in a corner for a little while and await the shipment.