Gathering: New Guest Reception

[concierge]

The black sign positioned in front of the Dining Hall's main entrance reads:

New Guest Reception
TODAY
6 PM - 8 PM

All guests welcome

In the Dining Hall itself, the chairs have been pushed up against the walls and the long dining table turned into a buffet stocked with finger foods. At the far end of the room is a small bar serving beer, standard cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks.

Comments

[vikingvamp]

"I can imagine it arises out of some pathetic need to manufacture normalcy in a not-so-normal place. It's a comforting mechanism among human populations. Luckily, you seem to have risen above the rest of your species."

That, in and of itself, was somewhat of a compliment. Eric had determined this place seemed not to care that he was a vampire and the humans didn't seem to have the long reach and resources of the VRA.

[onamissiontocivilize]

"Yeah, I don't really care for the social niceities of--wait. My species?" What the fuck does that even mean? Granted, they are on a floating island in the middle of fucking nothing here, but Will's still operating under the basic assumption that if it looks like a human and talks like a human, it's a fucking human. Anything else is playing around in the realm of Neal's kooky pitches about aliens and Bigfoot and shit.

[vikingvamp]

Eric laughed lightly and flashed his fangs. "Vampire. There are some slight differences in what we consider social niceties."

It seemed some of the people here came from worlds where vampires were decidedly not out of the coffin.

[onamissiontocivilize]

Will pauses for a moment, bottle halfway to his lips, then slowly lowers it again. "Okay," he says. "Okay. Vampire. Right." He'd heard that hallucinations could be a possible side effect of sudden discontinuation of the variety of meds he's been on for the last few months, but this is really just too much.

[vikingvamp]

"You're not from a place that knows about them," Eric assumed, disguising his fangs again. "I have found that to be the case here, strange as it is. We fight all this time for equality and now we're back to square one."

He laughed a little. "Then again, I had no problems conducting business and living my life when my kind was hidden so I wouldn't have a problem going back to that."

[onamissiontocivilize]

Will's still pretty firmly on the side of the argument that's going with this is a fucking hallucination, but since he's not really in the mood to get bitten or killed or whatever vampires do, even in a hallucination, he's just going to go with the plan of pretending to take the guy seriously and not piss him off. "Yeah, no," Will says. "I have a staffer who's into the fringe stories--Bigfoot, aliens, Occupy Wall Street--so if there was even a hint of vampires on the radar, he'd have tried to pitch it to me already."

[vikingvamp]

"Clever staffer. He's probably going to be eaten alive someday," Eric mused. "But clever right now, certainly. Where do you come from, then?"

Eric wanted as clear a picture of the humans in this place as he could get so he knew exactly who could be exploited and who was best left alone.

[onamissiontocivilize]

"New York City," Will answers. "2011." Normally he wouldn't add a year, but since this place seems to run on its own schedule, it can't hurt. "You?"

[vikingvamp]

"Louisiana. 2013," Eric offered in kind. "I think I prefer your version. Your year is a much better one for me."

He wasn't entirely sure how someone traveled through time but then again, he wasn't discounting it. He'd seen weirder shit.

"This place is a whole other level of fucked up, though."