cyclicality | The White Swanfish Gala (Open to All, including party-crashers)

The White Swanfish Gala is this evening - A VIP-only event where invitations are only sent to the likes of the heads of industry, Mover stars, avatars, and their guests. The host is Wil Zan (Slade's affable civilian alter ego), and he is dressed in a fine white and blue silk nehru, smiling broadly and chatting with what seems like every patron there, one at a time. He has brought in the finest chefs to provide an unlimited stream of fine food and drink, popular musicians provide entertainment and lively music to dance to, and this gala is sure to be an event worth talking about for years.

Interestingly, Zan has set up some rather unusual security measures. Though your average riff-raff will be kept out, he has intentionally left strategic security gaps that can be bypassed by the bold and the cunning. Zan actually has men covertly watching these gaps, but instead of stopping these party-crashers, their instructions are to inform Zan. (This serves as a sort of test for potential apprentices that Slade may try to recruit in the future.)

((NOTE: This is an event log, so not every reply has to be toward Slade. Feel free to write what your character is doing at the party or how they snuck in, etc. "Zan" is likely to give you his attention, but others can too.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not sure I could charm the pants of anyone. Or that I'll get another date.

[Or that he wanted another one if they were going to be like this.

Big, lopsided, genuinely unsure grin.]

Really, I know it's easy for you to say all that. You have something to offer. You probably get lots of women asking you to date them. It's really nice of you to say all this, but you don't have to do that to make me feel better.

[Maybe now he'd be left alone to wallow awkwardly at the edge of the party?]

[If you wanted to be less alone you should be less attractive and easy to talk to, just common sense.]

Attitude, pal. You're never gonna get anywhere if you keep shooting yourself down.

Trust me. It may be hard to believe, but I haven't always been as fabulously wealthy and irrisistable as I am now.

[Wan gave him a very disbelieving look.]

You were poor?

I was born in a one room igloo in the South Pole. I don't know if you've ever had to survive a winter on seaweed alone. I don't recommend it.

Oh.

[A pause before:]

No. Not a whole winter. But several months of travel between all the trips. I've been to both poles. And seaweed is pretty good. It keeps well. So if you were born in the south pole, then you're from the Southern Water Tribe?

Personally, I find seaweed really looses it's appeal after the first three months. And every subsequent winter for the next few years after that.

[slightly bitter about his upbringing? Nope, what a ridiculous idea.]

Yeah, would have thought it was kind of obvious, pal.

[he is decked out in the customary blue tonight, after all.]

Sorry. I didn't know if that meant you were from the Northern or Southern Tribe.

[Wan wasn't exactly familiar with the differences.]

Lemme guess. Fire nation?

[Wan's got the eyes for it.]

Ah. No... no. I'm not really... any nation.

[Except that everyone was a nation. Wan hurriedly added]

I was born in a Fire city, but I... left. When I was eighteen. I've been traveling the world since. I don't really identify with any nation.

Ah, a traveler! I know how that is, pal. I got the hell out of the arctic tundra as soon as I could.

[oooh, a waiter walks by with some drinks and Varrick snags two. One of them is for you Wan, here you go. Bottoms up.]

And a word of advice, the ladies LOVE travel stories.

[Wan took the drink and gave it a quick sniff before making a face and holding it out away from himself. It was more of that stuff that tasted funny.]

Travel stories. Right. I'll keep that in mind.

[He started looking around for the next waiter so he could pass the glass over to him.]

Do you think if I asked them to bring me a water instead of this stuff they would do that?

Sure, it's their job to bring you whatever you want. Haven't you ever seen a waiter before?

[And yonk, if you don't want to drink he'll take care of that for you.]

[Wan let him have it.]

Yeah, I have. I just wasn't sure. None of them are carrying water right now. I didn't know if they could.

Hey! Yeah you, in the otter-penguin suit!

[Very elegantly getting the waiter's attention.]

A glass of water for my friend the lightweight, here.

[Hey!

...it just tastes funny.]

Thanks. But you didn't have to insult his outfit.

Who said it was an insult. I happen to love otter-penguins.

[An eyebrow raise.]

It sounded more like you were making fun of it.

Subtly of language, pal. It's a specialty of mine.

[Varrick takes a moment to prop a hand up on his hip and give Wan a good long look. He's certainly one of the more intreging people he's met tonight, maybe someone good to ~~collect~~ keep as a business contact.]

I don't think I got your name, pal. You one of the people in this city by choice or by Spirit-related circumstance?

It's Wan. And Spirit-related. I was in this really big swamp on the other side of the western mountains that divide the west coast of the Earth Kingdom from the Si Wong Desert, and then I was here.

[He replied honestly. And with enough knowledge of what things were now named from his library trips to actually sound like he was from the current era.]

It was pretty odd, but I've realized I'm not the only one who got dragged around the world from where they were.

You're telling me. I was in Zaofu before this. Do you KNOW how much time I'd put into developing this new magnetic rail for them. WEEKS! LOTS OF VERY LATE NIGHTS! And then POOF, back in Republic City without so much as a 'sorry' about it all.

Oh wow. Zaofu's pretty far from here, too.

[The waiter came back with water and Wan thanked the man politely and with a quiet smile.]

You're in the train business? I think trains are pretty amazing.

I'm in the everything business, buddy. Mostly in international shipping, but we've been branching out.

[And trains are cool, Varrick's always wanted to build trains.]

The world is a very different place than it was twenty years ago, gotta keep up with in innovation.

It is a very different world.

[Wan agreed whole-heartedly.]

You must be pretty busy. If you're in the everything business.

[Hey, look, he was starting to relax a bit and feel more comfortable talking now that they weren't discussing dates and women.]

[He'll just have to spring the dates topic back on him unexpectedly at some point.]

Busy's where I live, pal. You don't build an empire up from one canoe into a world wide conglomerate by taking it easy.

Especially since my assistant disappeared.

Your assistant? Maybe they're still back in Zaofu?

The White Swanfish Gala (Open to All, including party-crashers)

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