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

[legendthatwas]

It was kind of adorable, in a way, Martha thought--or at least from a distance, it was. A cross between Benny Hill farce and a children's story, The Dinosaur Who Came to Tea, or something like that.

She watched, frowning a little in thought, feeling slightly guilty for not stepping in to help. But her skills, while varied, didn't really extend to dinosaur wrangling. Even if this one seemed content to eat flower arrangements rather than flesh and bone, she was still wary of the entire branch of the evolutionary tree after the door that had dropped her into Jurassic Park.

Pursing her lips, Martha tried not to smile as an enterprising staffer tried to tempt the dinosaur by dangling a stalk of gladiolus in its face.

[boldly_going]

Jim has explored a good many of the doors in and out of the Nexus and while he has experienced the jungle full of dinosaurs, he hasn't ever seen one of them outside that particular environs. Being the adventurous sort that he is, he can't help but try to corral the thing himself and keep both the animal and the hotel's residents safe.

"C'mere, little buddy," he calls out, jumping out in front to distract the dinosaur. "Come to Jim. That's it, come over to Jim."

[speedy_queen]

Thea barely manages to get out of the way of an entire tray of champagne flutes as it comes crashing down but her shoes aren't as lucky as her dress in that regard. She slides them off and grabs a napkin, furiously trying to dry them.

"These are satin," she says ruefully. "I could have worn the Louboutins but oh no, I had to go and wear the cream satin Manolos before Easter and now the fashion gods have smote me."

Still, she says it with a smile because it's a lot better to be concerned about shoes than the next guy hellbent on murdering her brother - shoes are a nice, normal concern.

[lip_service]

Lip doesn't usually belong at any fucking garden tea parties, but this one feels like a special kind of lack of belonging. In the middle of stealing as many miniature sandwiches as he can jam into a tupperware container (gotta keep the family fed somehow and this is pretty much his contribution for the month), he catches sight of the dinosaur chowing down on the flowers. "Huh," Lip comments, yanking up one of the bottles of champagne before it spills.

He salutes the creature and shrugs before taking a swig. "And here I thought I was the strangest fucking thing in the ten mile radius."

[phrynefisher]

Where she stood watching with avid interest splashed clear across her face, hat tipped and the white silk of her dress as clean as when she had stepped off the tennis court, Phryne had to think that whatever the creature was it was surely an improvement upon one of Aunt P.'s garden parties. The fact that she held a mimosa in one hand rather than a drink the teetotalers might better approve of made the scene all the more appealing, although she couldn't say she didn't miss dear Dot's presence at her side at that moment.

"However did it manage to get into the hotel in the first place?" she found herself wondering aloud, the question one that tugged at a minor mystery but one that did not send her chasing down the answer quite yet. It wasn't as if it were a murder or some other crime in need of solving, after all.

Perhaps she might've wished for Mac instead of Dot, as however sweet the younger woman was it would be certain that Dot would be busy wringing her hands or standing with her eyes wide. Mac would likely have just asked for a stiff drink and joined in for a little color commentary as they watched the staff attempt to wrangle the creature and keep it from demolishing the garden.