Gathering: Halloween Gala

[concierge]

A large, decorative sign situated prominantly in the lobby reads:

The Nexus Hotel
proudly presents its
ANNUAL HALLOWEEN GALA

Formal Reception
Nexus Dining Hall
6 PM - Midnight

Monster Mixer
Nexus Basement
8 PM - 2 AM

Masquerade attire recommended for all guests

Most of the chairs have been removed from the Dining Hall to allow for ballroom-style dancing to the orchestra set up on the far end of the room. A polished cherry wood open bar is aligned along one wall. The adjacent Bistro is open for the duration of the formal reception, serving gourmet hors d'oeuvres.

Downstairs, the basement's largest storeroom has been converted into a spooky nightclub, complete with DJ, dance floor and cocktails.

Comments

[trulyoracular]

Olaf spins as gracefully as he can manage when he's got multiple arms in all directions. Cautious, because he's got a beer in hand, too, and that's more precious than anything. "It's a costume gala," he says, like the costume is entirely warranted. "Besides, this is the best one I've got!"

[malachai]

"And you've most definitely risen to the occasion," NIck nodded, laughing. "I think you'll be walking away with the most colorful award at any rate. If they're giving shit like that away, that is."

[trulyoracular]

"Are there beer prizes attached to rewards?" Olaf asks, turning to look to the front of the room and likely nearly taking off someone's head by the rate at which he turns and one of his appendages goes flying. "Because I could use the help. I'm a little ... job deprived, you could say."

[malachai]

"Whoa," Nick half-laughs as he ducks a flying arm. "Might want to be careful with the flying parts there, man. You might take someone's eye out, or worse."

He frowned a little then nodded when he figured out what the guy was talking about. "What, with all the changing into old men and flopping face first in board shorts onto the floor, no one was willing to hire you for beer money?"

[trulyoracular]

"Less that and more that I'm lazy and don't particularly enjoy working when the surf's up," Olaf says, shrugging. That and he also sometimes doesn't like to work when he's hungover, drunk, or high. So, really, most of the time. "I really need to make this oracle thing into a business venture."

[malachai]

That had Nick blinking. A lot. "Wait. You're an Oracle?"

[trulyoracular]

Right, he's not supposed to be talking about that. The problem with not letting on about god business is that when you're drunk and out of your mind, it's hard to remember what you do and don't say. "Wait, am I?" he replies, not sure he'd said that out loud. Did he?

[malachai]

"I tend to focus in on pantheon stuff, so I'm pretty sure I didn't make that up," Nick snorted, "but if you'd like to pretend I didn't hear it, I can manage that."

It wasn't like he didn't keep his own secrets, who was he to fuck with someone else doing it?"

[trulyoracular]

"Which pantheon?" Olaf asks, wondering if this man knows more than Olaf has given him credit for. Maybe he needs more alcohol for this, too, but he occupies himself with keeping his kraken limbs in place as he faces Nick intensely.

[malachai]

"I'm most familiar with the Greeks, but I have a nodding acquaintance with Egyptian and Sumarian," Nick replied with an easy smile. "With a little Norse thrown in there thanks to a fellow Hunter who wouldn't shut up about it."

[trulyoracular]

"And which Hunter was this?" Olaf asks, a little wary given the fact that there have been hunters roaming around Auckland and his family's safety is in the balance because of it.

[malachai]

"Guy named Wulf, but don't worry, even if you'd met him, you wouldn't remember him. Family curse," he finished with a sip from his glass. "He's also over a thousand years old, so you know, there's that, too."

[trulyoracular]

"Wulf," he echoes, not sure what that's supposed to mean. "Is he supposed to be Odin's wolf?" Olaf asks warily. "Freki?"

[malachai]

"Nothing like that, no. He was just a warrior, betrayed in battle and granted an act of vengeance and immortality in exchange for service to Artemis protecting humans from what most call vampires. He's the one that taught me what I know about the Norse pantheon."

[trulyoracular]

Olaf raises one purple be-krakened arm and gestures to Nick. "Artemis," he echoes. "Not a Norse goddess," he says, given that while he only knows what he does via weird oracle powers, he has read one or two books in his long time alive.

[malachai]

"No, she's Greek. Goddess of the Hunt, among other things. If a human summons her at the moment of death, cries out for vengeance, she hears the call and appears. For the price of your soul, the bargain is struck. Wulf summoned her, she granted his request, and he's spent the past 1200 years or so working as a Hunter."

The fondness when he spoke about Artemis was clear in every word he spoke.

[trulyoracular]

"Okay," Olaf says, sure that the gods are definitely capricious bastards, but not sure what this has to do with his specific pantheon. "Where do the Norse gods come into Wulf's little immortal mind?"