Lotus Grand Opening

[Helen Kingsley]

"Eh, don't mention it."

Is the good conversation a hint regarding her and Chris ? Good question. No idea. Next question ! She nods as Jack Alex introduces himself. Still allergic to last names even in mixed company, eh, boss ?

"Helen's the name, nice to meet you... Alex." Another "Good evening." to the old man sitting down for a bit. At least Chris doesn#t look like he's going to make long stuffs of thing. Is she the kind of asshole to poke him just to see what happens ? Damn right she is ! "Long time no see, Chris, how's the bookclub ?"

"Thank you ?" Yes, Helen isn't really sure the Prince Sofia means her really.

[Jennifer Hazelton]

A man who looks rather ordinary, yet dressed in a reinforced suit, arrives at her elbow. Most would recognize Liam, Jennifer's ghoul. He is on hand to accept with great care the gifts presented. Jennifer indicates the swallow with a finger. Before Liam left, Jennifer mentioned.
"Do bring flutes for the campagne, if you would."
"Thank you, Mr. Krait. I will take you up on your offer." Jennifer smiled at the handsome man. "Please, call me Jennifer." She assured the clever man.
In a few moments, Liam returns with a tray of flutes.

One hand brushes her ear, gently checking the new jasmine earrings. She liked them a great deal.
"Good evening." Jennifer greets Dr. Baker. She realized that she was unsure if he went by an alias in public. "Thank you for attending the grand opening of my Salon. Ah, thank you for this gift." She states in her Cursed voice that slithers. The Nosferatu accepts the heavy gift, gently hefting the weight of it experimentally while it was in the wrappings. Jennifer set to carefully unwrapping the gift, taking care not to let it fall out of her hands.

"That is a perfect message." Jennifer replies to Alessandra as she shares the meaning for the gift. "Very thoughtful, Sofia. I appreciate that."
As Alessandra Sofia mentioned a remarkable grand opening, she turns and looks around the small ball room. The setting was just as she had designed, which pleased her greatly. She looks to Sofia.
"Thank you. I hope to have many happy occasions at Lotus."

As she does so, her autumn eyes glance towards Chris briefly. Helen is engaging Chris, so she does not add anything. Although she is intriqued.
Book club? That sounds like something interesting. Jennifer thinks, glancing to Chris.

"I intend to have a official salon with a theme sometime after July. An open discussion with people from various backgrounds will be an enlightening conversation. I have always enjoyed conversations around meaningful works of art. Such as what one may see when they look upon the painting ofThe Young Martyr."

Jennifer wore a tailored dress in green, a bit more creative in design with an illusion neckline. She wore on her wrist a green garnet bracelet one might find quite similiar to the one worn by another Lotus attendee.

OOC

I forgot to include the outfit in earlier posts. Thats what I get for worrying more about describing the salon.

[Albert Baker]

Albert nodded with a smile, hoping Jennifer would like the gift as it hadn't been easy to find.

"I have to thank you for this invitation. I hope you find the gift... useful."

He then listened to the buzz around him, trying to connect the names and pseudonyms of those present. Apparently Her Grace preferred the name Sofia when not in exclusive company, the Seneschal was either Alex or Mr. Krait and that gentleman in that oddity of a dinner jacket was called Chris. Good to know.

"This salon sounds interesting and enlightening conversation is always good."

content of the package

When unwrapped the gift is revealed as a copy of the I Ching in Mandarin

[Jacque]

Alex flashed a coy grin to Chris, "I might have one or two. I've always enjoyed the style and feel for as long as I can remember," He works a finger through the loop of the muselet and twists until it is removed.

His eyes lingered on Helen as he pressed his thumb against the curve of the cork, "I might be a bit rusty, but I can't tell if you're being coy with sharing your name or just uninterested in meeting new people." *pop* The announcement of the cork's removal shifted Alex's expression to a pleased smile to dull any edge from the end of his statement. Alias' were a thing to some Kindred and he didn't want to assume in public.

"Book club?" he plucked from conversation. "Any particular genre?"

[Crystal]

Crystal's mind went into autopilot when the savage beauty introduced herself. He had the sinking feeling that he was out of his depth here, but he has been through worse. He knew how to rock an opening. Heh. "Nice to meet you Sofia. Yeah, I'm Chris." A quick glance around the room - Jennifer luckily called for glasses, so it'd just be a matter of time before he could get some champagne into him. Looking back at Sofia, bright smile on his face. "You're friends with the hostess?"

The bad thing about the autopilot? His mind went to naughty places when Alex talked about how great suits felt. There was no doubt that men almost always looked better in suits - fuck, there was a reason that style survived for as long as it did. "You have the most interesting guests, Jennifer. Have you decided on a theme for your Salon yet?" That's it. If he could just talk his way through this he could fake out even himself and how intimidating those people felt.

Like that Helen. Was he going crazy or was the light acting up again? "Oh hey. The book club is doing splendidly, how are your.. things?" She apparently remembered more things about him than the other way around. Which was freaking him out. "So how about a toast in honor of the gracious host?"

[Alessandra]

Was Helen not used to compliments? Or not used to compliments from someone in Ale’s position?
A small smile, a gentle laugh, “The color looks good on you. No backhanded compliments from me.” She’ll just out right tell you if she thought you looked bad. But was it surprising that the Savage could be nice? Had she slipped that far into her Beast already?

There was a bow of her head. Nothing more really needed to be said.

“I have a feeling you will.” The Domain could use some happy occasions.

The mention of the painting piques her interest, “As someone who displays that piece in her office, it is quite the conversation starter. Numerous interpretations, none of them wrong, but each insightful.” Or so it was for her.

“How have you been Dr Baker?” he seemed a man of few words.

As Jacque opens the bottle, and the ghoul appears with the flutes, it appeared a drink was soon to be had. Champagne had never been a favorite, but this was a special occasion.

Back to Chris, “Then pleased to meet you, Chris.” She knew some were uncomfortable around her. But that usually once they figured out her place within the crime families of the city. A nod, “I am. She’s been a wonderful source of advice since I’ve met her.”

[Helen Kingsley]

Yup, salon, art, this really isn't a place Helen's going to get too accustomed to. But then, that's not that big of an issue for her.
Aaand another of those name thingies !

Dammit !

"Lots to see, a lot to be heard, some people I don't know well... Guess I got sidelined, my bad. I'm Helen."

She gives a sly grin as Chris does what she sees as deflecting the question, not that that was hard to see coming.

"Pretty well, I'm almost at a point where taking the examinations start to look like an option."

She's not going to force him deeper down the rabbit-hole. Yet.

"I don't wear stuff that people like to compliment on a lot, is all." And this is one of the reasons for that. Not that she doesn't like being complimented, but with that sort of stuff ? It always catches her off-guard. "Erm, I mean, thank you." What the fuck do you even say to that ? Your dress looks great too ? Of course it does, would the Prince Sofia wear it if it didn't ?

[Jennifer Hazelton]

“Thank you.” Jennifer inspected the I Ching carefully, carefully turning it over to look it over. Imagining the possibilities.
“I have been thinking about our conversation on learning languages.” Jennifer states to Dr. Baker. “Perhaps this is a push in the right direction. It would be lovely to have the proper translation without losing any of the meaning of the original.”

Jennifer’s eyes were drawn to the sound of the *pop*. This was going to be quite an experience. The little experiment of trying different drinks was going to come against something that she imagined would make the other drinks pale in comparison. Brown eyes tick between Helen and Jack.

At Chris’ remarks on interesting friends, Jennifer smiles at him. She smothers the prompt to say ‘you have no idea’.
“Yes, they are so very different than I in some respects. I do enjoy celebrating the differences.”
These mixed friend groups were exciting.
"I plan on having different themes for each Salon that I host. I feel strongly that the next one will be focussed on art, such as one's personal interpretation of the Young Matyr.
Yet I was thinking of having different people host discussions, sharing what interests them. I believe a discussion between people with vastly different backgrounds could be invigorating."

At the mention of the toast, Jennifer was slightly surprised. “Oh, my.”
Jennifer looks to Alessandra. Jennifer appreciated the other Kindred’s words. They affected her, knowing that her advice had value. That affected her for a moment, leaving her quiet. Thinking.

Liam was at her elbow to carefully accept the gift of the I Ching, leaving her hands free to accept the Seneschal's gift when it was time.

[Albert Baker]

Albert seemed a bit surprised when Her Grace adressed him and it took him a while to formulate a reply.

"Quite well, thank you. I'm not as socially active as I'd like to be, but I do hope that'll change in time. How have your days been, if I may ask?"

When Liam appeared with the glasses, he took a glass with a smile and a nod, ignoring the short memory of his doctor prohibiting a long list of things, alcohol among them.

"You're welcome. A fitting present I thought. Though I have been told that the Chinese languages are more difficult to learn than most other languages..."

As he felt it was not his right to invoke the toast he waited for someone to do so.

[Crystal]

Crystal offered Sofia a bright smile and looked between her and Jennifer. There was more than met the eye with that wallflower-ish lady and her cursed voice. "Is that so? I gotta admit that I only got to scratch the surface of her insights, but I can see where you're coming from. So what do you do for a living?" There was no reason to assume that anyone else here knew about Jennifer's nocturnal affinity. And frankly Crystal didn't want to consider the possibility of there being more than a handful predators out there. She must be an artist or something, judging by the tattoos. Yeah.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-17 17:12:04	Crystal rolls 7 to act as if he knew what Helen was talking about (Man 4 + Subter 3) (10 Again)	5, 5, 9, 6, 7, 3, 8	2 successes

"Right, good to hear." Crystal nodded along the vague explanation of Helen's plans and aspirations. It wasn't the first time he had to bullshit his way out of a conversation, so chances were he could pull it off. And fuck him if it wasn't typical that for every interesting man you meet there is a nosy-yet-uninteresting person you meet again and again instead. "Friend of the hostess?"

So Jennifer really planned to have this place host a many different artists. He could hook Moira up with her.. although he hasn't seen her around for a while. Huh. "I don't know that piece of work, but sounds like you have a plan for the future." Wasn't that nice. "If you need anything feel free to ask me." And yeah, he realized how empty sounding this offer was. But hey, at least he offered.