Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

[concierge]

The annual Nexus New Year's Eve gala began at 8 in the evening. Too grand to be contained by the lobby or dining hall, the gardens at the front of the hotel were employed, with long strings of white lights forming a twinkling canopy from the front doors all the way to the hedge maze. The weather was temperate and calm, and the night perfectly clear.

Drinks were served at various bars set up throughout the gardens and lobby, with champagne cocktails being the specialty of the night. Wheeling through the crowd was a bartender with golden cart providing warm drinks on the go: Tom and Jerrys, rum punch, negus, and Irish coffee.

Crisply-dressed wait staff wove through the collected guests with an abundance of hors d'oeuvres for all different tastes. The Bistro remained open with a limited selection of items for those who were wanting something more substantial.

Above the front doors was hung a large, gold-rimmed clock counting down the last hours, minutes, and seconds of the current year.

Comments

[sawny]

"Home is Scotland," Jamie says easily enough. "Though I've had the pleasure of living in Paris for a while as well. Tis a fine city, Paris, and the wine's much better on that side of the ocean."

Jamie isna fond of the boat he had to take to get there but the city itself is verra fine.

[averygoodshot]

"It is," Aramis agrees with great emphasis. Wine now seems so ... well, not very good.

"I have heard of Scotland, though I cannot say I have had the pleasure of seeing it." Why, he'd rarely been out of France, alas. "I have heard it's quite lovely."

WHich isn't entirely true. He's heard it's cold. And quite craggy. But no sense in alienating a potential new friend, is there?

[sawny]

"Aye, she is, in her way," Jamie says. He thinks he could talk on Scotland for hours but the only man who can truly appreciate the beauty of Scotland is a Scottish man; he doesna expect a Frenchman to truly understand how much he loves his country.

"Tis a hard place to live, aye, but lovely all the same. I miss it dearly."

[averygoodshot]

"I understand how you feel. I don't seem to be able to get to Paris as often as I would like," Aramis admits, though half of him wonders if there is anything but the monastery waiting for him. "Are you from a time very different from today, monsieur? I have had a time adjusting to the ... well, I suppose you'd call them advancements." The lights, for one. He misses the warmth of candlelight.

[sawny]

Jamie nods. "Aye, I'm from the year of our Lord, 1747. I ken about time travelling, though, but this is the first time I've been able to do it myself. It's something strange, to be in this place with all its strange bits and bobs. I dinna think I could ever come to a place like this, though my wife told me about it. She travels through time, ye ken. Not to this place, though."

[averygoodshot]

"I am from the year of our Lord 1632," Aramis says, though something else catches him. "If I may ask: is your wife here?"

How terrible to be separated from her? Though if she can travel through time ... well, that's another kettle of fish.

[sawny]

Jamie shakes his head. "Nay, she's not. I had hoped she'd come through, ye ken, but she hasna yet. I have to keep hoping, though. I'd sent her back through to home before I came here. There was a battle at Culloden, horrible casualties, and I dinna ken if I would survive it. Sent her home ahead of time, made sure she'd be safe. Havena seen her since."

[averygoodshot]

Right.

Give Aramis a moment to parse all of that.

Big Battle, potential death, wife sent away to safety. "So," he hazards. "If you go back ... you will go back to a battle. One you do not know the outcome to."

That's more than a little stressful.

[sawny]

"Nay, I know the outcome. We lost, terribly, and I damn near lost my life. I'm an outlaw," Jamie points out.

"So staying here is probably better for everyone involved."

[averygoodshot]

"Ah." And with that, Aramis smiles, raising his glass in a toast. "I have also found that my being here seems less problematic than at home."

So, cheers to that, Jamie.

[sawny]

"Aye? What's keeping you here, then, if you dinna mind me asking it of you?" Jamie knows a man might need a secret and he's not one to grudge them. Even still, seems a strange thing to agree with for the most part. Most men want to go home again.

[averygoodshot]

"Suffice to say that I ... have perhaps ventured beyond my station," Aramis says. Even here, he feels the compulsion to protect Queen Anne and what they had, even if it is in the past.

"And in that, I endangered not only myself, but my closest friends and colleagues, only just escaping with my life."

[sawny]

"That'll about do it," Jamie says, wincing in sympathy for that. "Sometimes ye make the best decision ye can, in the moment, and it turns out to not be the right one. It's not the fault of the man, ye ken, but the situation."

[averygoodshot]

"Oh, some would disagree," Aramis says, seeing Athos across the room. Aramis is responsible for much of what has gone wrong, Athos would say and he'd be right.

It has been what as guided much of what Aramis has been thinking about since being in the Nexus.

"This Hotel is an entirely different situation, isn't it? I hope your wife finds her way here, monsieur."