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

[haolehothead]

"Yeah, let's go back to my previous comment about winning the lottery. You know what I can afford?" Danny says, wondering why the hell he didn't suggest Mattie just become a lawyer if he was so hard up for money. "I can afford maybe seventy-five an hour. That, to me, sounds like a fair sum of money. Five hundred? Are you kidding me?" he whines.

"And I'm so grateful you have no problem with cops," he adds. "I, in turn, have no problem with lawyers who pursue genuine scumbags instead of helping them get off."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey arches an eyebrow, likely unseen beneath the hat and behind the mask. "For seventy-five dollars, you'll get a shitty deal and crap custody. For five-hundred dollars, you'll get a deal that cuts off the alimony as soon as she remarries. For my rates -" which he specifically doesn't list to avoid having a passed out cop on his hands, "- you wouldn't have had to pay alimony to begin with." Actually, for his fee, he could do a lot better than that - he might've even been able to get Danny's ex-wife to pay for him to move to Hawai'i, if he knew any of that.

Danny's lawyer comment gets an expression that's a cross between a grin and wicked smirk. He's not sure that Danny would consider a lot of his current work pursuit of genuine scumbags, so he refrains from specific comment on that front. "Of course," he says. "You know," he adds, "I hear there's an open bar. Interested?"

[haolehothead]

"Insanely interested," he insists, because if he can't go home and take Grace out trick-or-treating just yet, the next best option is to get completely and totally trashed to the point where he might have to stagger upstairs for a night before Daddy's hangover is in costume mode. "Is this the beginning of a friendship where you teach me all about the hearts of gold you lawyers have?"

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey peers around the brim of his hat, find that he actually has to turn his damned head because the fucking mask sucks away all of his peripheral vision, but doesn't see a bar - yet. Walking may be involved before he does. "'Any idea where this bar might be, because I can't see shit." This costume is getting more aggravating as the night goes on.

Danny's question, however, gets a scowl. "Bite your goddamned tongue," he snarls. "I've been called an 'asshole' more times than I can count. It's far more fitting." Funny thing, both of those statements are true, even if he is half joking.

[haolehothead]

"Yeah, I've been there once or twice," Danny admits, not wanting to sound like he spends all his time there, but totally aware that sometimes when you get stuck in a weird alternate dimension away from your daughter, you drink a little more. "Yeah, well, I got a trademark on being an asshole," he replies back easily. "So we're gonna have to learn to share it."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

He waves for Danny to lead the way to the adult beverages, because, yeah, he's going to need something to get through this party and possibly another few days before all of this bullshit settles in and starts to make any amount of sense.

"Trademark? Really?" he asks with mock surprise. "You know, I may have slept through half of my patents class, but I'm pretty sure that's not the way it works." Again, he is being an ass. It's what he does, whether as a defense mechanism or because it's how he just happens to relate to people is still up in the air.

[haolehothead]

Danny flips the cape with a little flair, feeling like he's got to use the cape if he's wearing it or what's the damn point of being a superhero? "Well, see, for me, I'm from Jersey, I'm a loudmouthed hothead, and I got a real hard-on for rules and regs," Danny explains. "I may not have the trademark, but you gotta admit, I've pretty much got the ground covered."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Harvey shakes his head. "I don't know you well enough to determine your asshole status," he says as though this is a thing that is measured on a scale of some sort. "However, being from Jersey, certainly increases your asshole points." Hey, he lives and breathes Manhattan, isn't it their job to look down on folks from Jersey? It's like a rule, right?

[haolehothead]

"Thank you, thank you greatly," Danny says warmly, like he's pleased. "I mean, currently, I live in Hawaii when I'm not in this madhouse, so I get called an asshole a lot. That and haole, I can't tell you how much I hate that one."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

"Happy to help," he tosses back - probably as 'happy' as a guy in a super-hero-comicbook costume can get when talking to a Jersey cop-guy.

A frown creases his brow. "You're going to have to run 'haole' by me with a little more context," he says, because that's a new one. He's clued in to it probably being Hawai'ian dialect, but beyond that, he's lost.

[haolehothead]

"Basically, I'm an asshole outsider who doesn't fit into their culture and they froze me out for it," he explains. "At the police station, everywhere I went, and it took a giant Navy SEAL to make an inch of difference when it came to that."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

"As opposed to a regular-sized Navy SEAL?" he quips. Hey, they've already established the 'asshole' part, no need to dwell really.

[haolehothead]

"Seriously," Danny agrees, nodding very seriously. "He towers above them like a towering pile of bricks with issues," he stresses. "Honest to god, you'd hear him coming. He practically vibrates vengeance and the American duty."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

"And this guy - this SEAL - is something akin to a 'best friend', I take it?" he asks, more-or-less knowing the answer based on body language and the vaguely reverent way in which Danny describes said SEAL. Really, you can't be that annoyed with someone you don't like - not like that anyway.

[haolehothead]

Danny sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as he musters out a nod. "Against all my better judgment, yes, Steve McGarrett resembles my best friend, which I continually wonder what that says about me. Do I take it you got one of those for yourself, then?"

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

One eyebrow arches upward beneath the black hat. "A SEAL?" He shakes his head. "I am decidedly lacking in Navy SEALs, I'm sad to say."

If Danny is asking about friends, he may have to hang up and try his call again. Not that Harvey doesn't have friends, but that he doesn't much talk about them.

[haolehothead]

"Yeah, well, you can have this one when I get tired of him," Danny deadpans, seeing as he sometimes needs Steve-sized time-outs from his life otherwise those heart conditions his Ma warns him about come into play.

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

He wags a finger in a circle in front of him. "Aren't there rules about friends and giving them away or something?" Like, you're not supposed to. Associates, sure, you can toss those over to any ole co-worker, but friends? You're supposed to keep those, right?

[haolehothead]

"Hey, when a friend gets you shot and injured as much as this one has, you give them away wholesale," Danny says evenly, not exactly fond of the way Steve keeps getting him hurt. "Besides, we can play swapsies if you feel bad about it."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

"While it is true that my associate isn't likely to get you shot, I'm not sure I want to trade. My busted out shoulder from high school is enough injury for me for the moment." Clearly, he takes Danny's point about BFF's that make sure you end up in the line of fire. Harvey would likely feel the same.

[haolehothead]

"Hey, I got a busted out knee injury from high school baseball," Danny says warmly, holding up two fingers to get a couple of beers down their way. "How'd you injure yours?"

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

Incoming beer will be highly welcome. No doubts there.

"High school baseball. Pitching." He might give Danny the side-eye for a moment. Though, really, sports are a pretty good way to bust something at any point in your life. "If not for that, I might be playing for the Yankees." Instead, he's a hot-shot attorney with a similarly insane cashflow.

[haolehothead]

"Yeah?" Danny's impressed with Harvey to new degrees, now, and hell, the Yankees are his favorite, so there's a whole lot of pleased nodding going on here. "We should get a game going sometime on the lawn, see if we can't knock a couple balls into space."

[notgivingyourmoneyback]

"There's a lawn?" Clearly he needs to look around more. But the outdoors is never a bad thing.

"Maybe we should." He takes a pull from the beer put in front of him. "I hit .385 in high school. I could maybe crack one into space."

[haolehothead]

"Yeah, but there's a lot of outer space around it, so maybe if there's a grand slam or anything else amazing involved, we might end up losing the ball to the universe," Danny deadpans, lifting up his beer when it shows up. "I was second base. .286, but I had hands of glue."