entrancelogs | OPEN | the "Lost People" mingle!

OPEN | the "Lost People" mingle!

Who: Every lonely person with a story to tell! (Check out the OOC details if you haven't yet!) Oh, and Peter Pan (

boyhood), too.
Where: Mingles are out on the mansion grounds.
When: June 4th-6th, night.
Rating: PG-13? We'll see.
Summary: Peter is up to old tricks. Using his influence as the Pied Piper, Peter gathers together everyone in Wonderland he can for a celebration. Are you ready to make some new friends, sad sacks? This doubles as a convenient excuse to see how many vulnerable children there are.
The Story:

So you heard a little tune on the air and you've come to play! The more, the merrier. Night 1 isn't strictly an action event, but if you'd like to have your characters react, or just want to thread something out for that time, go for it. Night 2 and Night 3 are where the action's at. The prompts are general ideas of what's going on!

Anyone who isn't invited is going to find they can't figure out where everyone's disappeared to, exactly, and if they do go to a location, it's going to look like nothing's going on. Strange, huh? For those who are invited, he only rule is this: mingle to your hearts' content! Make new posts, tag into things, do what makes the most fun!

After each night, everyone will be free to disperse before the sun comes up. They'll wake up in their beds feeling refreshed, with the pleasant, surreal sense they've just had a sweet dream.

Except it wasn't really a dream, was it?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[As far as the food went, Integra had gone her entire life never eating finger food. It wasn't by choice, she was just never offered it. When you were a lady of high status, you had to eat a certain way and that meant only certain foods were allowed on a dinner table. She didn't have any happy memories of bonfires since in her line of work of monster slaying it meant someone had died and the bonfire was there to burn the corpse.

Still, she was curious to see food surrounding a bonfire. Must be an American thing or maybe even a 'normal' thing because she wasn't normal. She saw a man standing near there and almost wanted to keep her distance. They had been brought here unwillingly and she was keen enough to know this had all been magic. Magic with a touch of truth. She hesitated for a moment before moving forward.]

Some gathering. [No, she wasn't happy about it at all.]

_{[Did someone say corpse burning? Adam had never asked how he'd been put to rest after the ghouls had finished with him, but if he'd known he'd been burned on a pyre like hunters in the monster-slaying business, that would go a long way to explaining why a roaring fire makes even his soul uncomfortable. He'll take magic over hellfire any day of the week. It helps that the kid calling himself Peter Pan is right.

That is, if he'd been telling the truth about why some people can hear music and some can't, and if he had been, that makes for a lot of unfulfilled people. A strange comfort, to be able to look at someone and assume they're drawn in for the same reason. Like everybody's wearing name tags they just can't see on the surface.

He's taken something to eat some distance from the fire by the time Integra comes around. The first thing that draws Adam's eye to her is her fair hair, and her tall, straight-backed figure. She makes for an impressive sight, not really the company someone like him looks fit to keep, even if he hadn't been in the middle of eating a hot dog.]}

Yeah... yeah.

_{[He stops himself mid-bite in order to answer her. She doesn't sound over the moon about the affair, but Adam can't summon much to say about it. He's been dragged out of the mansion for worse reasons.]}

You must have heard it, too?

[Integra was perhaps prettier than what nobles normally tended to be. She was the product of an English noble man and an Indian princess so the naturally tanned skin and the natural platinum blond hair with those brilliant blue eyes was a rare combination in her neck of the woods. It definitely caused heads to turn even if Integra wouldn't particularly call herself good looking. She considered herself intimidating but really, after fighting monsters of all types and being alone for so long, you sort of lose reasons to smile anymore.]

The music, yes. [She eyed his food. So, that's what a hot dog looked like. Strange they would be serving American food here.] We've been lured by some strange magic it seems.

Same. Like it just won't get out of my head...

_{[Adam sizes her up as surreptitiously as possible. Some of the others in Wonderland are just as curious as pipe music that curls around inside his head like smoke, and the woman seems like she could easily fall into that category.

Frankly, though, the lack of an ecstatically friendly greeting is more of a familiar comfort than a turn-off for him. A boatload of cheerfulness is great, it's just... not what he's used to. On the other hand, someone who gets right to the point gives him an excuse not to explain himself, why he's lurking around enjoying finger food.

Integra doesn't smile much, Adam doesn't smile much... they've got something in common already! Misery loves company?]}

Magic's not my thing, but I kind of figured. _{[And after months and months in Wonderland, he's getting used to it.]} If it got you, too, then...?

_{[Then is she part of this demographic he's been hearing about, the misfits?]}

[Misery definitely loves company. She wasn't much for socializing but mostly because people in general weren't worth her while. She had a horribly rough life and people tended to make it more complicated. She relished the silences of solitude despite how much she hated the feeling of being alone but it was better for everyone. No one got hurt.

At his unfinished sentence, Integra frowned.]

-damaged as that Pan individual claims? I slay monsters and fight wars for a living, you can't expect me to have acquaintances when I carry such heavy burdens.

[Yeah, she was going to stick to that idea.]

_{[Adam's expression mostly stays the same; he just lifts an eyebrow at the answer. Maybe he's reading into the kind of information a stranger's liable to drop on him in a place like Wonderland, but asking for his opinion--even rhetorically--seems a bit on the defensive side like she's ready to argue the fact.

How someone could guess his innermost feelings and do something like this isn't as surprising to him as maybe it should be, so he doesn't bristle at the implication he's a sad sack in the same way. It's not like he wear his "damaged" banner proudly or anything, but it's there, not a secret or a skeleton in his closet. Over the months, he's kept to himself, he's struggled a lot. Wouldn't be hard for someone to see that.]}

Maybe he picked up on that. The wallflower vibe.

_{[He quirks his mouth thoughtfully, trying to keep it from sounding too personal or accusatory.]}

[Wallflower? It wasn't like integra not to get involved in most things. It wasn't an interest in being the center of attention that had her dealing with all sorts of things, she was just the type of person that figured she knew what was best so her opinion mattered. If there was some truth to it, Integra didn't want to know. She gave the man a look but remained silent for a bit.]

Is that the airs I give off to you?

_{[Uh oh.

This is exactly the hot-button kind of thing he wants to avoid with a stranger. Adam makes a motion that's both a shrug and a shake of his head, the very picture of noncommittal. If he's going to put his foot in it, it's at least going to be around the devil he knows, not someone who could be, or could do, anything.]}

I don't know you. Not my place to say.

_{[Mostly because he's a human who can be easily killed and he'd rather not give anyone a reason to get their idea in their head.]}

You're wise to be afraid of a woman's wrath. [And yeah, she's a virgin but she knows all about men, especially those afraid of her. Which is every man she's met aside from Walter and Alucard.] But I assure you, me being here is far more incriminating. Try me.

_{[A woman wouldn't be so bad. Just a woman. Hardly anything is just what it seems in Wonderland. His gaze roves around aimlessly before he finally settles on an answer, lifting his eyes back to hers.]}

I try to keep an open mind around strangers.

_{[Wrath comes in all shapes and sizes. Adam doesn't discriminate after a balding man in a suit had proven even the most harmless-looking people could rip you a new one. At least tonight, he has less to worry about.

Tomorrow, the dangers might push back in, but tonight it seems all right. Safe enough to provide an answer if she's asking for one.]}

I wasn't going to say you seem like the shy type, but...

_{[Try as Adam might to choose his words, he doesn't really dress his thoughts up, or dress them down.]}

A lot of us have a screwed up stories. I die a lot for a living. _{[There should be something after that, like maybe an explanation, but after a moment he just shrugs as if that's all there is to say about it.]} Looks like the people who don't fit right got an invitation. Maybe it's just that. Everyone's got a reason to be sad or pissed about something.

[Okay, now you're going to make her ask.]small>

What do you mean you die for a living...

_{[When almost every hunter in this joint knows who he is, or at least how he'd died fucking up a war of his own, it's really not a big deal to say it. It's not. Adam brings his lips together for a moment before deciding to take another bite of his hotdog.

One would think he'd be disgusted by meat after what's happened, especially the smell of it cooking over fire like human flesh in Hell, but it's oddly the other way around--he's missed the food, the feeling of needing food and enjoying food.]}

The monster hunters I know didn't do the slaying fast enough. People died. Me, too. If he's being straight, I kind of get why I can hear it.

It's unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear this.

[Integra won't blame hunters. As a monster hunter herself, she knows she can't save everyone.]

Consider this your second chance Mister-

_{[He has other reasons to blame them. He can come to terms with his own death(s), but not their circumstances, not who had been responsible and why. Anger is his primary emotion when the topic is brought up, not sadness, and he looks away for a moment and sniffs, making a mental effort to brush it aside.

He's all but done talking about second, and third, and fourth chances.]}

Adam. It's just Adam.

_{[At this point, he wouldn't be at all surprised if a hunter recognized the Winchesters by name. He keeps his last name to himself.]}

I am Sir Integra Hellsing.

[And she contemplates allowing him to call her by her first name but she's not used to it. How do you make friends? She keeps her mouth shut instead. Does her last name sound familiar?]

Sir? _{[Adam gets stuck on that part.]} Like... a knighted Sir?

_{[Is that how it works? Adam doesn't look sure.

The rest of her name doesn't set any bells off for him, but then there's no way it could. He has no idea who's a part of the hunter club, or if they rub elbows with his brothers. Though last time he'd checked, they hadn't had a title attached to their name.]}

That's correct. I am a protestant Knight of England.

_{[Holy shit. Is he buying this, or is he laughing this off? Adam needs a few moments to decide. On the list of weird things, this doesn't really rate that high, does it?

They're talking right now because the Pied Piper had put out a musical invitation for half the mansion, so really, how much is he going to linger on the fact he's talking to some kind of hunter with a royal background.]}

I thought hunting monsters was a secret sort of side business. Or is the knight part a separate thing?

_{[It's the only thing he thinks to say at first. Comparatively, he hasn't met that many people claiming to hunt things that go bump in the night.]}

The fact monsters have been in existence has never exactly been kept secret. Folklore, legends, and mythology exist for a reason. Most were written as a type of warning for any smart hunter looking to slay. Every good hunter knows that when in doubt on how to kill something, old literature is the best place to start. That being said, I come from the old world. For decades, civilizations as old as Europe and Asia have been fighting these monsters. The easiest and most common title of monster slayers probably belongs to the Catholics. The general public knows them as exorcists but they're real duties are monstrous.

My family was not always part of English nobility. My ancestor; the famous Abraham Van Helsing was a German hunter. He was called upon by English men to come slay a beast known then as Count Dracula, the first vampire. It was by his service that the English crown then hired this once renowned German professor of the occult as a monster exterminator for the country. People were very superstitious back then for a reason and while hunters spend their time in the shadows, we only do it for the sake of the monsters at large. You don't want them ringing your door bell... even though that has happened to me on several occasions. The Hellsing organization is not know to exist, but kill enough vampires and other beasts and they'll spread the word.

_{[Exorcists? Those are real, too? Adam listens, surprising even himself with how intently he takes in what she says.]}

Van Helsing and Dracula? _{[His eyebrows climb high on his forehead.]} That's all real, too?

_{[He remembers the story, practically everybody does, and if he stopped to think about it, maybe he shouldn't be surprised to have famous vampires and vampire hunters ringing his proverbial doorbell when he's had ghouls do the same in the past, just like she'd said. It's ironic that monsters had beaten hunters' best efforts and destroyed his life twice over, and yet... what does he know about them? Monsters, hunter organizations, the truth in fiction... what does he really know about any of it?

Not much.

Adam finds this so strangely funny that he bites back a laugh by the end of it. Despite all of the hunters he's met and his own half-brothers, none of them have ever talked this much to him about any of it.]}

Jesus. You know, I think that's the most anyone's ever told me since everything started. About monsters and the hunters. I went through Hell and back, but no one ever stopped to fill in the blanks.

How tragic. That sort of information could have saved your life.

[It's okay, Adam. She'll take care of you.]

If you ever need any assistance, or perhaps just for a talk, you can always find me.

_{[Tell him about it, Integra. It's such a profound understatement that Adam finds his lips curling upward, even as he toes the ground, unable to meet her gaze for a moment.

Plenty of things could have saved his life, but here we are. Life's funny that way.]}

Withholding things kind of runs in the family.

_{[And that's the closet he comes to bringing up his own hunter roots.]}

Probably will, it's a small world... but thanks.

Don't hold them to harshly against it. Sometimes they truly believe it is for the best. My own father did the same before he passed away.

_{[Oh, he will hold it against them, and plenty of other things, as well. His half-brothers in particular have given up any right to talk about family values or how they though they'd been doing their best.

Doing the best for themselves, maybe.

But the moment Integra brings up her own family--a father who'd lied about monsters to her?--Adam frowns, nonplussed. Her dad... had been like John?]}

What happened to him?

_{[Had his work taken its toll on him like it had for John, too?]}

He died when I was twelve. Before then I knew nothing about monsters. I was a normal only child: loved and sheltered. When he died I became the head of the organization and became consumed by all that was supernatural. It became my life.

[She sounds a little sad, however. It has taken such a toll on her. Sure, she was only twenty-two but she has killed more and seen more than a normal person in their lifetime.]

OPEN | the "Lost People" mingle!

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