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

[malachai]

Nick made it as far as the gym. He'd stripped the trappings of his costume down to the black jeans and was beating the ever-loving shit out of the heavy bag there. The chain quivered under the strain of his blows and he moved with the speed and power granted to him when he became a Hunter. As he pounded out the residual rage - at his fate and at himself, he called himself every foul name he could think of, in every language he knew.

[legendthatwas]

It hadn't been too hard to find him, and Martha stood in the doorway, giving Nick some space--and, though she didn't want to admit it, room to leave if he told her to get out.

His movements, no longer restrained, were impressive as hell, if moderately terrifying, and she watched him, quietly, before finally speaking up. "I wouldn't go so far as camel fellating bastard," she said, because the TARDIS translation matrix had kicked in about halfway through. "I didn't even have to slap you."

[malachai]

He didn't pause in his blows. Instead, he started adding roundhouse kicks as well and he deliberately kept from turning to face her. Right now, he wanted to keep the soft look from their dance in his mind for a while longer, before the disgust or fear he was sure to see there replace it.

"What are you doing here?"

[legendthatwas]

Martha sniffed very softly, almost a laugh, though partially a little exasperated. Blame her to do the unobtainable emotionally traumatised man thing again, though it was, at this point, not too hard.

"Because I wanted to talk to you. If you wanted to talk. I'm not..." She tried to find the right words. "I wanted you to know I'm not bloody upset, and I wanted you to know I still wanted to talk with you, if you're okay with that. If not, I can go away."

[malachai]

He landed three more blows to the bag and finished with a kick. He steadied it with his hands and spoke softly, still not turning around.

His voice showing the pain of a life where no one had stuck around when things went to hell. Literally. "Thank you."

[legendthatwas]

Martha shrugged one shoulder, smiling softly, if a little sadly, at Nick. "Someone I know taught me not to give up on things, even if they're complicated or messy. Always keep talking, it's the only way you get somewhere." Unless it was about himself, but that was beside the point in this case.

[malachai]

"Complicated and messy, huh? Can't think of a better phrase to sum me up."

Finally, he turned back around to face her. And decided that straight into it was the only way to go.

"I told you about the demon, and that I'm in control of it for the most part," he sighed, "but I think I left too much open to him. The horns," he said with a wave of his hand. "I taunted the bear...and the bear attacked. Or tried to."

[legendthatwas]

"Sounds likely, but you'd know better than me," Martha said gently, and shifted to sit down on a weight bench, her suit making a slightly squidgy sound against the wipe-clean fabric. "Do you...often have that kind of problem, when you're with women? Because that's got to be a hell of a buzzkill for you."

[malachai]

"To be honest? I don't know." Nick reached for a towel and mopped off his face. "I was somewhere else before I came to the Nexus. An alternate dimension of some kind, I think. It was an island, no way off, teleportation didn't work, no one knew how we were pulled there, but there was one constant. We were all human. I could walk in the sun again, no powers, no demon. Just me as I once was."

He paused, took a drink from his water bottle, shrugged. "Before that, I didn't have the opportunity to find out. People, men and women, tended to avoid me a lot."

[legendthatwas]

"An island?" Martha echoed, though she didn't disbelieve Nick--it just was unlike anything she'd ever heard of. And she'd heard of a lot of things, by now. "That's got to be really damn difficult. Because of the demon thing, or the job thing, or..."

Nick seemed nice enough when he was human, friendly and fairly calm.

[malachai]

"Trust me, I know exactly how fucked up it sounds," he laughed a little, drank more water, "and that's before you even get into what my life was like before I showed up there. Even I have trouble believing this level of crap could happen to one person."

[legendthatwas]

"Less fucked up and more just bizarre," said Martha, honestly. "I've seen fucked up, it's not as weird." She shifted, sat on one of the weight benches a little more solidly, and adjusted her wig, which was itchy as hell. "And would you believe me if I told you I'd seen more weird shit happen to someone else? Not me. But then again, he's got the long lifetime for it so you might still win."

[malachai]

It was strange, Nick thought, the feeling of being accepted for exactly who, and what, he was. "Yeah, I'd believe it. My former boss, and a lot of my former friends are immortal and some of the shit they've been through would bend most people's minds to the point of shutting down entirely. I'm still a baby as far as immortals go," he admitted with a snort. "And I don't even like to think about what might be on my horizon."

[legendthatwas]

"So you're immortal too?" asked Martha, for whom this was only a small surprise. She considered Nick for a moment, listened to the rest of what he had to say. "I think you'll probably end up seeing a lot of weird shit," she said, a faint smile playing across her lips, "to be perfectly frank with you, mister. But then again, we're at a trans-dimensional hotel, so consider things are probably already starting."

[malachai]

Nick couldn't help the laugh, even in spite of what had happened earlier. "I enjoy you calling me 'mister' far more than I probably should," he admitted. Then his eyes widened briefly. "Too? Oh, right. The guy you mentioned earlier, right? For a second, I thought you were a part of the Peter Pan club, as well."

[legendthatwas]

Martha winked at Nick, and shifted, sorta deliberately crossing one leg over the other. "There's nothing wrong with it, in my opinion. Enjoying being called mister, anyway. Being immortal has its own problems, though I'm pretty sure my friend can die...and he's definitely Peter bloody Pan himself."

[malachai]

He decided to think about that wink, the way her body looked shifting around in all that leather, and the reactions he had to both...later. Much later. Now, he just settled on the seat next to her , half turning to face her. "'Peter bloody Pan, is it? Something tells me there's a story in there somewhere. Maybe even several of them."

[legendthatwas]

"There's a goddamn novel in there, Nick," Martha said, gently pointing a finger at him to emphasise her point. "Possibly a television series. And to be fair, I don't even know a fraction of it. He's around here sometimes, you could ask him his take and see if you get a straight story."

[malachai]

Nick's eyes narrowed because that didn't sound familiar at all. "Please tell me his name isn't Acheron?"

[legendthatwas]

The name sounded familiar--mythology, perhaps? Even so, that wasn't who Martha meant, and she shook her head. "The Doctor. And yeah, that's his name, don't ask. I never did get a straight answer."

[malachai]

Nick's back went a little less rigid than it had been seconds before. "I know the type. My former best friend could answer ten questions and all you'd come away with are twenty more questions. Normally I didn't give a shit about it. Untill he decided to completely alter my fate over one of his little secrets. Then I stopped being a so easy going about it. How did you end up with this doctor? Circumstances or was it deliberate?"

[legendthatwas]

Martha's eyes narrowed slightly at 'former', not certain what that could mean, but she wasn't sure she was close enough with Nick to ask, beyond what he'd clearly told her. "The Doctor? Long story involving the hospital I was doing a rotation in, some aliens, and being transported to the moon," she said, figuring he could cope with the weirdness of the narrative. "I got a trip out of it, and we travelled...a while, actually. But things got fucked up, a little, I'm not going to lie to you."

[malachai]

"Aliens, the moon and travelling with an eternal Peter Pan," Nick counted off and then gave her another grin as well as a heavy dose of sarcasm. "Can't imagine how any of that could possibly result in general fucked-upness. How long were you with him?"

[legendthatwas]

"About a year." Martha paused, then added, after a moment, with a faint frown, "and another year when I wasn't with him, but was, sort of. That's a very long story, though." One she wasn't sure she was ready to tell to anyone.

"Things got to the point, in the end, where I walked away."

[malachai]

He wasn't about to start prying into what he could sense were memories with some punch behind them. She'd given him that courtesy, the least he could do was return the favor. "And after that? Back to pre-alien rounds and being a doctor again?"