12 [Location: Central/Josef's place] Party Post

[loveawkward]

Entrances had been made. The people of Taxon, some of them at least, had arrived. As the sun was setting and casting the room into shadows, the lights began to come up. Twinkling white lights on the balcony around the pool, mood lighting throughout the room to separate the loft into differing areas for different events. Light music played throughout the main room, though at poolside was a section set aside for dancing as well.

Pausing to overlook the affair, for a moment, Josef felt like he was still back home.

Well, minus the bevy of beautiful women offering up a vein at the snap of his fingers. He was still getting used to that loss, which hurt more keenly than most.

((ooc: Come one, come all. Feel free to set up your own posts or use the starter areas. Josef's place is a massive loft, with three separate rooms including a bedroom with an oversized freezer in it. There is also a rooftop pool area with a wide wall overlooking part of the city.))

Comments

[location - pool]

[imperial_long]

Long glanced up and offered Azkadellia a smile. Unlike Paul Smecker he did not offer any sort of judgment upon her wedding cake of a dress. Or if he did he kept it solely to his own head.

"Miss Azkadellia, good evening," he murmured politely and stood. Apparently he's missed the memo regarding her glitch.

R[location - pool]

[azoftheoz]

Her name! Oh how she perked at the man using her name. And such a charmingly, though oddly, dressed man he was. She swept into a curtsey, careful to not let the hem of her dress dip into the pool water nearby. Such a foul scent from such an utterly clear pond.

“Good evening to you, Good Sir. I admit, you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name and yet I can’t seem to recall your own.” Or that they had ever met, but she was learning better than to admit that.

[imperial_long]

"No?" Long said after a blink, head tilted to one side. He studied Azkadellia a moment, then nodded, ah yes, he understood.

"Forgive me, then. Mayland Long. How do you do?" He offered a bow to the young lady.

[azoftheoz]

"I am aware that I have forgotten many I knew here, though I'm not exactly certain why I have forgotten," she admitted. "So please, Mr Long, do forgive me for not knowing."

She smiled at the bow, curtseying in return. "I fare well, Sir, and thank you for asking. How does this night find you?"

[imperial_long]

"No apologies needed. It is part of the nature of this city," Long said with a shrug of one shoulder. "You are not the only person to suffer... lapses."

He studied the water of the pool a moment, mulling the question over as literally as he always did. "Content enough. Which is probably unwise."

[azoftheoz]

She nodded. "So others have told me," she admitted. "It leaves me a bit confused because I don't remember anything. Just the time with my mother when I was much younger. Now though, at this age, I should remember so much more than I do," she noted in a soft voice.

"I keep trying though and eventually, eventually I will remember," she said with a nod, not believing otherwise.

"Why is content unwise?"

[imperial_long]

"Because contentment is complacency, and both are a state of a lack of preparation for the pain the universe is likely to inflict upon one," Long said with a shrug of his slim shoulders.

He did not answer her confident statement that she would remember. He knew better.

[azoftheoz]

“Is there such a way to prepare for whatever this universe may do to you,” she asked, genuinely curious at his words. “From the things others have said, I had thought that perhaps there was nothing one could do. We are trapped and at the mercy of another. Is this not true,” she asked, taking a step closer to him. The very idea she might well be able to find a way home if he was right was not escaping her attention, even if her mind currently could not remember the truth.

[imperial_long]

Long shrugs again, returning his gaze to the water, letting his fingers trail through it in a looping eight.

"Whether we are trapped here or not, whether we are at the mercy of our captors or not, the fundamental nature of the universe is unchanged: existence is suffering. It stems from our attachments to things. We cannot 'do' anything to our captors, but we may do things to ourselves.

"You must understand, I approach this from a position of philosophy, not action. It is probably not the answer you are looking for."

[azoftheoz]

Her fingers tightened against the fabric of her skirt, white knuckled, wanting to believe there was an answer to be found here for all that none of this made sense to her.

“If that is all existence is, then why do people go on,” she whispered, not liking that answer, not at all.

“I don’t know what answer I’m looking for. I just want an answer. This place, all that occurs here, I don’t understand.”

[imperial_long]

"People go on because it is human nature to do so. They.... we... are creatures of some persistence," Long says with his eyes on the unnaturally aquamarine depths of the pool.

He sighs a little to himself, looks up at the girl and offers her a quasi-apologetic smile.

"I am speaking cosmology, philosophy. They are not really relevant in the now. Please, don't be discomfited. What a charming shade your dress is."

[azoftheoz]

Given she was pushing through to be the best she could be, despite not knowing just where she was or why, Azkadellia could certainly agree with that sentiment.

"You are quite brilliant, Sir. I merely wish I was of proper companionship to provide adequate conversation." She tried well to smile at his words. "It is orchid, though I had been trying for a shade a bit closer to a sunset pink. Those machines are not reliable," she said with a sigh.

[imperial_long]

Long laughs a little, shaking his head, then stands up from his poolside crouch fluidly.

He offers her his arm, ever the gentleman.

"They are a trial upon the spirit but an excellent way of getting one to focus one's mind. Would you care to walk with me, princess?"

[azoftheoz]

Oh but those manners she was so familiar with, they go a long way to helping relax the perpetual state of confusion and anxiety she had felt since finding herself in this place.

“Is that what one needs to ensure the proper garments? I’ve tried it a couple of times and have yet to get it right.” Her hand slid around his arm, smiling brilliantly. “I would enjoy that immensely, Sir.”

[imperial_long]

"That and practice, madam; that and practice."

They talk of pleasantries as they circulate among Kostan's party. Long is perfectly capable of putting the displaced princess at her ease.

And end?

[azoftheoz]

And he is delightful in that, helping her to enjoy one of her last night’s in Taxon. Something her true self shall be immensely glad to see ending.