all_inclusive | Gathering: Summer Party

Gathering: Summer Party

Outside of the Nexus Hotel, waiters and hotel staff had begun to set up the umbrellas and the tables in the middle of the day. Soon, it became clear that something was happening in the shadow of the Nexus. White tablecloths were draped on the tables and drinks and food were brought out with the help of several waiters and servers, staffing tables with hot and cold foods beside bartending stations. Summery drinks in bright, neon colors are laid out one by one and soon, the afternoon light casts a radiant look on the scene.

Music plays faintly in the background and a note at the front desk invites all the Nexus guests to head outside and join in on the summer party, which promises to continue going as long as there are people to stay and continue keeping the warm atmosphere rolling.

On the lawn, social games had been set out -- lawn bowling, croquet, and tables were set up with chairs for anyone who didn't quite have the will or the spirit to get into such games. Soon, a small number of people had begun to mill around, but as with all parties, there's always room for more.

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Lawn parties were a big thing in New Orleans, especially where his former boss, Kyrian, lived. Not that Kyrian had been able to have any kind of party like that considering over half the people he knew couldn't be out in sunlight, but he'd had his share of nighttime ones. And Nick, in his former life as his squire, had had to arrange all the details for them.

He hadn't had to lift a finger for this one, but that didn't mean it was still his kind of scene. Still, he was here. Seemed a decent enough gathering and he'd had enough anti-social during the spring here, it was actually kind of nice to be around people again.

He'd come, he would stay for a while, then leave the partygoers to their fun and go check on the vampire to make sure he was behaving himself.

Martha had arrived a few days before, had spent a good chunk of it recovering (time she would have spent at home, to be honest, recovering with endless cuppas) from a rather unpleasant Torchwood mission, and finally found herself facing the world. Well, inasmuch as the Nexus was the world. Perhaps it was more than the world.

One sundress, two gin and tonics, and a strict avoidance of croquet later--she was pretty sure she could see the Doctor over there, making friends and influencing people, but the last time she and he had played croquet had ended in blood and tears--she sank into a chair off to the side next to Nick, just ever so slightly squiffy.

"Hello, mister," she said, with a faint self-deprecating smile. "Been a while."

Edited 2014-07-12 21:19 (UTC)

Nick looked, blinked, then blinked again. "Dr. Jones, I presume," he said, a smile pulling at the bored edges of his mouth. "Yes, it has been a while. I was sure you'd gone back home."

He hadn't seen so much as a glimpse of her since February and after three months without a sighting, he'd become positive that once again, island/hotel fuckery had played it's hand in the game of his twisted, fucked up life.

"There and back again, to borrow a turn of phrase," said Martha, looking sheepish. "My stays lately have been kind of short--I'm really sorry." Brow furrowing, she pursed her lips around the straw in her drink, because she'd never got used to this kind of thing, not like the Doctor was--going in and out of people's lives, barely a blink or an apology.

"No offense, but hobbit is absolutely the last word I'd think of when you come to mind," Nick grinned back. "Don't worry about shit you can't control, Martha. I've heard a lot of people mentioning trips home that seem to last months but no time here seems to have passed, some that are gone home as long as they're gone from here. Just another slice of fucked up with place offers like cake at a party."

"One thing I've learned is to never underestimate the free cake," Martha drawled with a wink. "But...yeah. I should have come looking for you, when I was here before. But when I did, I didn't seem to get very far." She kicked out her legs a little, kicking off her shoes so she could scrunch her toes up in the grass.

"No one should. Free cake is free cake," Nick agreed with a sober nod. "It's fine, really. I still haven't managed to find my way back through to a home that's anything but a shell of the one I normally live in, and to be honest, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. I don't think I'm ready for it yet."

"Definitely. Though always ask why you're getting it," said Martha with a wink, though she was pretty serious about that. She always looked in the horse's mouth. "I'm really sorry, Nick. But you're right, home is sometimes...bigger and harder than it should be."

Sometimes she wished she could end up off travelling again just to avoid the expectations.

"Home for me is dangerous with it," Nick nodded in agreement. "If I find myself back there, I'm not sure if I'd be able to come back to the Nexus, and there's a good chance I wouldn't be fit to be around humans if I did."

It was the fear that kept him up nights; well, the night's Melanie wasn't staying with him, anyway. Her solid presence had a way of keeping the dark-of-night worry at the door.

"You'd probably be tougher than you think," said Martha. She cocked her head in consideration, slurped a little with lips pursed around the straw in her glass. "I take it you'd definitely want to come back here, then, if you did?"

"I'd want to, yes, but that want would be shelved if I turn into what I'm meant to be," Nick said, with only a trace of regret. "If that's what it would take to keep everyone here safe, then I would do everything I could to stay away, even if it meant leaving behind those I care about."

Especially then, he vowed to himself.

"By that you mean a demon," Martha asked, or maybe it was less asking and more a statement. "I...it's rubbish that you can't really go home, Nick, that that's the choice you'd have to make even if you did. I know, life's not fair, but that seems a pretty raw deal."

She turned, smiled at him, softly--not pity, just concern.

"I'm always a demon. But if I came back, I'm afraid the demon would be in control and that would be all kinds of not good for any human, especially humans close to me." He leaned over and gave her hand a little squeeze. "I've been handling so many raw deals, I should be a sushi chef." He smiled a little. "I can cope with it."

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Buffy catches sight of Nick at the party and wanders over with a smile. Lawn parties aren't really something she's got much experience with, but this one is harmless enough and she's trying a new thing where she does the socializing. It's only going so-so, mostly because she forgets to actually do the socializing.

In any case, she's here. That counts for something. Right?

"Hey. Long time no see."

"Hello yourself," Nick commented, thinking he was hearing that a lot tonight. "Did you bring your dress stakes for the party or are you off duty?"

Really, it wouldn't be that horrible to have someone else with a deep dislike for all things vampire keeping an eye on Eric.

It was easy to get lost in the hotel, to maintain one's solitude. She chuckled a little at his question. "Would me having one strapped to my leg under my dress make me a paranoid or awesome?"

In her experience, parties generally equalled fighting. She wasn't about to show up to one unarmed.

"I don't think that question is an either or situation, so maybe awesomely paranoid?" Nick offered, but the smile didn't quite make it to his eyes.

"Have you met any of the other vampires here?"

She grinned. In contrast, her smile did reach her eyes. "I'll take that."

She took a deep breath. Angel was still pretending to be a vampire. "A couple. Bella and one of the vampires from home are here. He's good though so no staking necessary."

Her eyes narrowed a little. "I'm guessing you've met more than that? Gonna give me the 411?"

Nick nodded and filed away the information, making a note to find out the guy's name and description at least, in case he ran across him.

"There are two others here. One, Adrian, seems harmless enough from what I've heard. Bella's met him and said he's pretty benign, or at least as benign as vampires get, and he's got a human girlfriend and she's as straight arrow as they come. The other one. Eric."

He said the name like he was spitting out some thing foul.

"Eric is a different story."

Buffy would give the information fairly easily. She trusted Angel not to cause any trouble and him becoming Angelus again wasn't an issue anymore so she wasn't worried about Nick hurting Angel.

She nodded, taking in the information and filing it away. She hadn't met Adrian, but he did sound fairly harmless as far as vampires went. He wasn't a danger in any case. Her eyebrow arched at the way Nick said that name.

"I love a good story."

Nick gave himself a moment, collected his thoughts, and decided to take the moral high road. "Okay. I might be a little biased, and he's not hurting her, so she says, and she's agreed."

He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "He's feeding on a friend of mine and she's...she's the epitome of innocent, wet behind the ears, completely clueless about deceptions or the way humans can lie to someone's face. And...and I'm doing a shit job of explaining this."

Buffy took a sharp breath, holding it for a moment when Nick revealed what his friend was doing. Her brow furrowed as she tried to put aside her personal opinions on what was going on and apply her experiences in a helpful way.

"Okay." She let that breath out in a sigh. "I understand why you're worried. I would be too, but if she's agreed...I think you just have to keep an eye on both of them. Is she an adult?"

Because whether those things mattered in Nick's world or not, she didn't know, but they mattered in hers.

"That's a matter up for debate," Nick sighed with another run of his hands through his hair. "It's kind of complicated. Physically, she's about nineteen, maybe twenty. Her body is anyway. Wanderer's...she's an alien. So she doesn't see things the same way a human would. As I understand it, she's only been human for about a year, maybe a little more now."

Buffy's expression gets obviously thoughtful and she takes a deep breath. "But she's able to make her own decisions and she knows the risks, that sort of thing?"

Because Buffy might not agree with it, but she also has a scar on her neck that's old and faint, but still obviously a vampire bite from a vampire that she willingly fed (goaded him into it even). She understands why someone would make that decision.

Nick looked about as sheepish as any overprotective demon could look. "Yeah, so she's told me about a dozen times since she dropped her little bombshell on me. Doesn't stop me from wanting to keep an eye on her, and Eric. I figured another pair of eyes wouldn't hurt anything."