[Sodium_noir] Hell is other people

[Eric]

Dr. Lazarus, 'Sandra Scoland', Mitsuko, Aurora, Jack
Mage, Bastet, Avatar, Mage, Spirit
Lady Sinclaire's Mansion
   
  [Sandra]
"I take it you two know each other," Sandra mumbles under her breath to herself rhetorically not looking for a reply. The answer was rather... obvious it seemed.
   
  [Jack]
A bit embarrassed by the enthusiastic greeting, Jack smiled shyly and raised his glass in reply.  “Uhm... yeah, I finally got here.”  His smile grew at seeing Aurora.  
   
  “Hey, have I missed anything exciting?”
   
  The other woman and the man in the wheelchair were unfamiliar to him.  He nodded politely at them both. There was something of an attempt at extending his hand, but at the last second, the gesture turned into awkward shrug and, instead, he rubbed the back of his neck.  
   
  “Uhm, hi... name’s Jack.”
   
  [Sandra]
"Hi there, Jack," she says hoping a soft smile would help put the tense man at ease. "Sandra Scoland. I somehow get the impression you three know each other," she asks looking back and forth between Mitsuko, Aurora and Jack. 
   
  [Jack]
“Well....yeah...ah...” The gesture that accompanied this non-committal reply was equally so - sort of a combination of a nod and a shake of the head.  Truth be told, Jack had only met Aurora and Mitsuko a few hours ago and didn’t really ‘know’ either of them. Rather than admit he’d (more or less) crashed this party, had no clue as to who any of the attendees were, and was practically a stranger to those who’d just greeted him with such warm familiarity, he simply embellished the truth.   
   
  “Yeah, great pals, we are.”  Jack grinned at Sandra and took a sip of his drink. “So, some party, eh? Lots of movers and shakers.  Do you know the hostess?” 
   
  'Or anyone else here? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t.' He added silently.

[Sandra]
"I wish I could say yes, but unfortunately not. I procured an invitation through a mutual contact. A client of mine that wasn't able to attend and gave me their invitation. I was hoping I would be able to introduce myself to Lady Sinclaire at some point, but with this large of a  gathering, I'm not sure how much success I will have." 

(Perception 2 + Empathy 2) 

Sandra could tell Jack looked more than a little out of his element. She could guess he wasn't particularly used to large gatherings such as these. Time to resort to some tried and true social ice breakers.  Let's try the easiest one first, she thought to herself.

"So where are you from, Jack?" she asks.

~ One can only Tag what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind :)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://elsinore.net/pipermail/sodium_noir_elsinore.net/attachments/20061108/9fd7aa71/attachment.htm