Gathering: Garden party, interrupted

[concierge]

From grand galas to informal gatherings, parties of one sort or another were not an unusual occurrence at the Nexus Hotel. Today was no different, a low-key affair erected in the rotunda of the Italian gardens with the aspiration that tea sandwiches and mimosas would facilitate mingling of the hotel's ever-shifting population.

What was unusual, however, was the inclusion of a wayward, bipedal lizard courtesy of a door standing open on the hotel's facade. Green, spry, perhaps five feet long and roughly as tall as a man, this new guest featured a curved, hard plate across his (or her) forehead that was perhaps indicative of the stubborn nature lurking beneath -- Perhaps because the foliage was so tasty, this little dinosaur resisted all attempts by the staff to corral it back to its home. It would run away from ropes and outstretched arms, knocking over bottles of champagne and destroying the decor before settling several feet away to chomp on some accommodating flowers.

Comments

[lip_service]

Lip glances sideways, a weird feeling of deja-vu hitting his peripheral vision because it's sort of like Helene, except a little off center, like looking at someone in a funhouse mirror or something. It's a little less hair and darker, but it's a lot the same. So, you know, yeah, he kind of likes looking at her. Life's all about the aesthetics.

"What kind of weird are we talking about here? Because I thought the universes pressed up against one another was the height of this."

[iwillnotsettledown]

"More or less," MacKenzie says, "But there are few things that can really surprise me on this side of the door anymore. I think I've gotten a little touch jaded over the last two years."

She laughs a bit and steps to the side, avoiding the crash of a serving cart. "At least I'm a little more athletic?"

[lip_service]

Lip feels like this is the sort of thing you need drugs for or it's the kind of thing that you only see when you're on drugs. Either way, it's not what he's become used to at Chez Fancy-Fucktown. "Jesus christ," he mutters, at the chaos around them. "It's like a Friday night at the Gallaghers," he mutters. "Just replace Frank with a dinosaur."

"Two years, huh? This place have a date when it was established? Or are we all assuming it's just been here forever?"

[iwillnotsettledown]

"I don't know about an establishment date," MacKenzie admits. She taps her lips a bit, thinking out loud. "I want to say that it felt like the place had been here for quite a while when I showed up two years ago. I think it was here before I ever started coming here...but I think I'm one of the first of this current group to have arrived. Does that make sense at all?"

[lip_service]

"Not in the fucking least," Lip replies, but given that he's standing about thirty feet from something that's supposed to be both prehistoric and extinct, he's not sure he has much room to talk about what is and isn't supposed to be. "Two years? What, do you not go home or something? Or is this place just that much better?"

He could get that. Fiona probably does even more.

[iwillnotsettledown]

"I go back and forth a good bit," MacKenzie clarifies. "But the first time I showed up here, I wound up stuck here for a few weeks. Has that ever happened to you before?"

[lip_service]

"What, getting stuck? No," Lip scoffs, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure me getting stuck here would actually constitute good luck, so this place always lets me go back home. Trust me, this place definitely has a leg up on there." Even if Lip feels out of place most of the time, free room and board is kind of hard to argue with, especially when he doesn't even have to pay attention to a hall's worth of kids for the room.

[iwillnotsettledown]

"And where, precisely, is there? I've come from New York," MacKenzie explains. "Not originally, of course, considering the accent, but it's where I consider myself most at home. There's something comforting about the sounds of a city."

[lip_service]

"South Side, Chicago," Lip boasts, the proud air of a boy who's lived a fucked up, shitty life and lived to tell the tale about it. "I mean, I'm at college now," he clarifies, "but that's pretty much where I spent the majority of my life." And it hadn't been all bad. He had his family, even if they'd had to suffer through Frank and Monica for large parts of that time.

[iwillnotsettledown]

"Chicago is a nice town. I've not been since I went to lecture at Northwestern several years ago." That had been one hell of a lecture, considering, but that's a story for another time.

"But Northwestern is hardly the only school in Chicago. Which do you attend?"

[lip_service]

"I'm at Chicago Polytechnic," he says. "Robotics and engineering." He couldn't exactly head out to MIT with the full ride, not without leaving his family behind and that's one step too far that Lip's not exactly ready for, even if he's started to get a little distance from them, step by step.

"Northwestern didn't exactly have what I was after, y'know."

[iwillnotsettledown]

"You know, I failed maths in primary," MacKenzie says. She shares it like a secret, voice low and full of amused intimacy.

"I can't even add with a calculator. Numbers make no sense whatsoever to me. I have to pay someone to balance my checkbook."

[lip_service]

"Don't worry, you and the rest of my family are pretty much in the same boat. I tried to explain compound interest to my kid sister once and I think I broke her brain," Lip jokes, digging through his pockets to search for a cigarette, feeling like he might as well enjoy a smoke if he's conversating in the shadow of something from a cretaceous era.

[iwillnotsettledown]

MacKenzie laughs softly. "I produce television. Surprisingly enough, one does not need to know how to count to do that. Well, a little, but only to three. I can manage counting to three on a regular basis."

[lip_service]

Lip looks her up and down, trying to figure out what kind of television she produces, because there's a whole lot of shit on the airways and while he might be a little crude sometimes, he doesn't think launching into a tirade about the idiotic drivel that most crap on TV is these days is a good idea. "Yeah? And what happens when you hit four? Does the TV explode?" he jokes.

[iwillnotsettledown]

"Usually, yes," MacKenzie says, laughing warmly. "News s a pain in the ass to produce, I assure you, but it's worth it in the end. There's always some fire to put out and at least three more to report on. It requires a certain fortitude. But, luckily, not much in the way of maths. I would be fired on my first day if I tried to be an engineer."

[lip_service]

"Trust me, I don't want anywhere near the fucking news, so I'm not asking for a trade," Lip guarantees, since he'd probably try and blow his brains out if he had to sit there and talk about all the bad shit happening in the world. "I mean, you couldn't even bribe me with science correspondent. That shit is just ... " He gestures to say 'beyond me' as he lights up his cigarette and inhales deeply.

[iwillnotsettledown]

"Stressful and not terribly rewarding?" MacKenzie ventures. "I can't say I blame you for taking that position. I've contemplated it myself. So, what does one do as an engineer? Build rockets? Work for the military? That kind of thing?"

[lip_service]

"Right now? Write way too many papers and attend so many labs that your brain starts to rot from overuse," he mumbles from around the cigarette in his mouth. "I mean, true, being in college has other perks, but the school part is pretty much an endless loop of interesting shit followed by the kind of crap you have to endure to get the piece of paper."

[iwillnotsettledown]

"I did a stint in Pakistan," MacKenzie says. "Flight engineers oversee all the helos, you know, though I can imagine it's a bit different than what you're doing. Getting the piece of paper is good, though, opens up a lot of opportunity. I've always been a proponent of hard work and copious education."