5:43

Shaun gave a sigh as he set out seven wine glasses, sitting an uncorked bottle of red wine next to them, letting it breath. The bottle gleamed silver and green in the flickering firelight and bore no label. Instead, what appeared to be words were etched directly into the glass, though the letters belonged to no human language on Earth. The room around him was even dimmer than usual, the light of a roaring fire in the hearth and the multitude of candles was still not as powerful as electric lights, but Shaun believed that there was a time and a place for all things. This was a night where fragile glass bulbs had no place, and dancing flame was king.

"Are you sure you delivered the letters to the correct people?" he asked with a small smile, his attention seemingly absorbed by arranging the wine glasses to his liking. There was a muted sound of a cloth ripping, though it was eerily similar to the sound of a soft cry and suddenly there was a woman, barely five feet tall, standing on the seat of the booth next to him, her face drawn into a feral snarl. Her hair, which had been pin straight, shoulder-length, and yellow-blonde, was quickly going white at the roots and tips, twisting itself into thick coils, and drawing to sway threateningly toward his face with the faint sound of hissing snakes.

"I am not an imbecile!" she snapped, exposing small white teeth. Shaun glanced up at her out of the corner of his eye and chuckled. The woman growled, and reached out to shove his face, hopping primly off of the seat. She swiped one of the glasses and poured a liberal amount from the strange wine bottle. "You may be, however," she said as she sipped, and Shaun produced another glass and put it in the other glass' place. "Court business is not your business. If you were not blood to her..."

"But I am blood to her, and more, I hold her daggar. I may have left, but I never lay down the daggar. Which kind of does make it my business, doesn't it?" Shaun crossed his arms over his chest, fiddling with his glamour, aiming for an ever elusive tan. He lounged easily against the side of the booth, watching the fire. "I know your concerns."

"And my name will not be said on Court grounds? Anyone's Court."

Shaun smiled again. "I won't even think it. You have my debt for this. I never would have been able to bring them together in time. This was the only way I knew how."

The woman snorted and tilted her head back, draining her glass. "Should I have a knock on my door in the coming months, I will collect my debt in heads," she said plainly. That done, there was another faint, barely discernable sound that lent itself to despair and she was gone. Shaun collected her empty class and stowed it behind the counter to be washed later. The restaurant was empty once more, the already small room made smaller by the circle of light cast over eight chairs arranged in a circle around the fire. With another sigh, he went to the front door and posted a note next to the large sign marked CLOSED.

'Sorry, we are -CLOSED- for a private meeting. Invitation only.'

It was 5:48.

5:43pm

"Sigh... another day has gone by... each one getting longer and longer..."

Alone, walking along a sparsely populated street, Rissandra was heading back to her apartment. Ever since she had settled into one of the most crowded cities in the US, Rissandra had been looking for friends, something that would be very important to her, if she had them. Today's efforts had resulted in a few nice people that had chatted with her for a bit but other than that, she had only gotten a few wolf whistles from passing group of overconfident human males, who were fifteen times too young for her maturity wise. She wondered what it was that kept her from finding that best friend, that fun guy to go about the days with, or that younger brother or sister relationship. Rissandra knew it wasn't her physical appearance, as there was definitely nothing wrong with her looks. She settled on believing that it was her beauty that was intimidating, causing no one to wish to be compared to her, but when Rissandra approached who she thought were equally beautiful people, it was to no avail.

"I know I could 'speed' up the days with my powers... but where is the dignity in that? I don't care how long it feels, I will do this the right way. Now... time to eat..."

5:48pm

Walking past a small Italian restaurant, Rissandra glanced at a man flipping the sign, marking the restaurant as 'Closed'. Slowly coming to a halt, she noticed a shimmering quality about him and after focusing a bit, Rissandra realized that the man had a tint of blue, almost like he was victim to hypothermia. Her face lit up as she looked again and her first impression was confirmed. It had been a long time since Rissandra had contacted any other faery and she wondered how it was back in the faery world, assuming that he has been keeping up with the going-ons. After all, he might be just like herself, deciding to live life in the human world. The sign said that only the invited could enter, but perhaps she might be an exception, as her being a faery might change things. She would have to try.

"Hey! Excuse me!!" Rissandra shouted through the door, while using glamour to constantly change the color of her eyes, alerting the other that she was more than human. The restaurant was empty so her flashy show of colors would go unseen by any human witnesses. "Hellloo!!"

5:43 pm

Miriel was bored, she had traveled for a long time and seen the sights, had the experiences. Recently she had decided to move to the human part of new york, as she was walking down the street towards that restaurant her new neighbor had told her about. Then she saw two faeries standing outside of it. *Hmmm it has been a while since I have had news from the faerie realm.* Miriel thought. Her reason for coming to new york was that she had been taking one of her brief attempts at a quiet life, At least as quiet as life in new york city could be. And as such she had not been talking to others from faerie much, and it had been a few decades since she had last been in new york. She only ever stopped for a month at most during such stops, usually only two or three weeks in fact, but even she admitted that it was good to relax occasionally. Aka every couple hundred years.


5:47 pm


Seeing that the male faerie was putting up a sign that said private meeting, and the female one was clearly following him Miriel looked around to make sure that no-one was watching. Then she closed her eyes and faded away, completely invisible and insubstantial to the living, even other faeries. In this other-world things were a little less clear, more fluid. It was almost as if a fog was everywhere. She could still hear though, although she had to be closer then normal. Miriel then walked straight through Rissandra going through the door. Miriel knew Rissandra would feel a slight chill, but that was all. Private meetings were always very interesting to watch especially when other fae were involved. Although the concentration required to stay here tended to be a bit distracting, and if it was important enough they probably were going to use magic powerful enough to detect her. Still, it was a meeting in a dingy restaurant in new york, all the really important stuff usually went on closer to the courts. And even if they could detect her she had yet to meet someone who could pull her out against her will. *lets see, I have about 3 hours tops till I have to drop out, I hope this meeting is not too long.*


((*Gulp* my first post in this rp. I hope I did not mess up somehow. pretty much I need an excuse to get miriel involved fairly early >:) although I admit it would be easier if she met everyone in faerie.


I would imagine few would trust her since she is court-less and all.))

Shaun was about to turn away from the door when a sharp rap sounded from the other side.

"Excuuuse me!"

The girl on the other side of the door was beautiful, there was no doubt about it. Even more importantly, Shaun noted as he watched her eyes shift in color and her appearance shimmer ever so slightly at the edges, she was not simply a girl. Shaun shot a glance at the clock on the far wall, his brow wrinkling in confusion. He hadn't known she was comming... he had known every detail of this evening for days, but he hadn't known about her...

Still, if he just turned her away, he would raise suspicion. There was a certain code among the fey outside of the courts, and hospitality was a large part of it. Still, he was dreading how long the dumb ritual could take, how long she would want to stay, to whom her allegiance lay. All of these thoughts passed without registering on his face, which fell easily into a slow smile. He pulled the door open and stood back so that she would have room to come in. "Stranger," he acknowledged, dropping his glamour momentarily to reveal his pale blue skin and pale eyes. He tilted his head back to regard her lazily, waiting to see what her next move would be. "I've got a couple of bottles of wine, if you'd like." Please, take a rain check, he thought desperately, even as he pushed the door open wider, as if hoping to entice her.

She was certainly beautiful, and most likely strong. He could barely see through her glamour, other than to see that it was there. What he saw was a young woman, with willowy, graceful curves and clear, watchful eyes. He didn't feel as if her prescence her was wrong, but then, he wasn't exactly sure it was right either. While he ws puzzling over it, he felt a strange chill, quite out of place in the warm, fire-heated room, but quickly disregarded it.

This was way earlier than Em wanted to be here. Waaay earlier.

He had expected to be cutting the timing pretty close, actually. He did have to fly from Boulder to New York with only a day's notice, after all. It made for a cheap plane ticket, but that didn't do much to ease his travel stress. If it wasn't for his 31-year-old bachelor cousin being cool with him crashing on the couch for a while, it could have really been a nightmare trying to work out the logistics of dropping everything and heading to New York. All because of the letter.

Em looked down at the card in his hands, handwritten with the address of a restaurant. He had googled the address before leaving home and not gotten any results (except for a little arrow on a map), but now that he was here, standing in front of it, he could remember it clearly. His cousin's apartment was only about 7 blocks from here, and they had stopped in for dinner when he was visiting several years ago. Gianni's was the place, a little out of the way but with an atmosphere that made him feel... at home. He didn't actually remember the food at all, but he did remember staying and laughing with Michael and his friends until the place closed, and being disappointed when they turned down his suggestion to go back the next day.

He had destroyed the letter and kept the card, just like he was told, but its words still rang in his ears. As crazy as he knew it was to believe a story like the one he had found in that envelope, there was something about it that just felt... true. And, perhaps more importantly, the cards had agreed. So in a matter of hours after returning from his jog with the letter in-hand, he had packed a duffel bag, booked a flight, and taken a bus to the airport. Now, barely an hour after disembarking in New York and dropping his things off at Michael's apartment, he stood cross-armed and confused across St. Paul from Gianni's Italian Restaurant.

It was only 5:50.

Shaking his head at himself, Em heaved a sigh as he removed his backpack and dropped heavily onto a bench. He couldn't go in yet; besides, it looked like there were still people -- or at least one very attractive girl -- on their way in, and he had a suspicion that this would either be a very private party or a very public prank. Setting his bag down beside him, he reached in and pulled out his thin deck of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. Each card was decorated with a raw, tribal image (he had always thought they looked a little like faeries, but faeries the way early Native American cave paintings might have depicted them) painted over a subtle and elaborate backdrop. The juxtaposition of brutality and elegance seemed appropriate for him, a young man dressed in trendy athletic wear but black nail polish.

He propped one elbow on the top of his bag and began to shuffle the cards, the simple, repetitive motion giving him something to focus on as he passed the time. Maybe he could show up a little bit early, but a full forty -- okay, now it was thirty-eight -- minutes? No way. He would wait here for a while. There were certainly enough thoughts whirling through Em's mind to keep him occupied for a little while, and maybe spending a bit of time just watching would help him figure out what was going on.

And so he sat on the bench, shuffling his cards and watching the restaurant. One foot rested across his knee, its blue flip-flop shaking as he tapped his grounded leg with restless energy. Only thirty-seven minutes to go, now.

Jise knew that something big was happening, he could feel it in his faery bones, lie, in fact he was simply across the street from a restaurant leaning against a lamp post with his hood pulled up. A few strands of purple hair escaped it to cover his eyes. He hadn't been in town long, having had to travel from England to get there, so wasn't entirely sure as to what was going on. But the fey activity seemed to be coming from this particular area more than any other so he supposed that this was where he had to be. A pretty girl, evidently Fey but on what side he could not tell, had already gone in and it seemed that a human on a bench was waiting to do the same thing.

Jise couldn't help being curious as to what was going on, obviously some sort of plot but who for? One or Other? Casually the purple haired boy pushed off of the lamp post and sauntered over to the kid on the bench. He settled himself beside the boy, sighing at this moment of rest. He could have just gone over to the restaurant and entered with the pretty girl but he knew that if there was a side to be taken here then he wouldn't be trusted as he was not yet prepared to take any sides.

He looked to what the boy had in his hands, "Pretty cards." Jise commented as he leant back and folded his hands in his lap. He looked the boy over, there was certainly something faery in him, but he was also most definitely human. Now that was interesting. Jise could not see what any fey would want with a human, especially in the way of making a child. They were quite plain and boring to Jise. He looked at his watch. 5:57. Jise thought about going home for a nap and coming back a little later. A few more minutes sitting on the bench wouldn't hurt though. Perhaps he could ask the guy to move and just nap here.

Miriel sighed a bit as she sat down within the restaurant without letting her concentration fade, part of the reason it was hard to maintain yourself there was because of how cold it was. A fact that was not reduced in the slightest by the constant wind. Still, she was quite used to it by now. Was it a mistake to come in before most of the people arrived though? She had no idea when this meeting would start, for all she knew it was three or four hours from now, by which time she would be forced to come out. As the male faerie, and owner of the restaurant greeted the other one she saw two people standing outside, one was clearly yet another courtless faerie, but he felt quite young barely out of his fifth century. Still a teenager. The other certainly seemed to be human but there was something slightly off about him and his cards. *Probably a changling or a halfling unaware of the fact* Miriel mused. Such as him were rarely told about their heritage, usually living their entire lives with a faint nagging feeling of being different, but never sure exactly why. This meeting must be at least in part to tell him, considering the way he was eying the restaurant he was no doubt uncomfortably early.


It would have been politer to simply talk to the owner of the restaurant for information on what was going on in faerie instead of spying on the meeting. But Miriel doubted there was another way to join in on this meeting and her curiosity had been piqued. Other faeries, even courtless ones rarely trusted wanderers like her. When you traveled everywhere and stayed nowhere people did not get to know you, and therefore were less inclined to trust you.

6:07

The twins pulled up in a regular taxi as opposed to something much more grand, as that was their usual way of travel. William paid the cab driver as Wanda climbed out and followed after her. There they were, Gianni's, albeit a little early, they were there in any case. The twins quickly glanced around and noticed two guys sitting on a bench, one of them shuffling cards. Curious, are those playing cards? Wanda mindlessly asked. If you don't know, then I certainly don't, her brother replied. Not bothering to worry about it anymore they saw that someone was already inside the "closed" store. Not bothering to wait around until the last minute, the twins walked into the restaurant, Hello? They said with a slightly raised voice as they stood in the doorway, patiently waiting to be greeted.

The time was now 6:08

"Stranger, I've got a couple of bottles of wine, if you'd like."

The restaurant owner momentarily dropped his glamour to reveal his true self, which gave Rissandra a sudden chill. A bit befuddled, Rissandra tossed aside the thought that his blueness could make her literally feel a bit cold. As if the last split second didn't happen, she felt the warmth from his words and the inside. He had offered her wine despite her intrusion, as expected from the faery code of hospitality, but she couldn't really sense any underlying messages. Smiling from his kindness, Rissandra clapped her hands together and thanked the restaurant owner.

"Am I allowed to know what is going on here? I was just curious because I haven't seen another fae since... well a mere hundred years ago but as the 'Time Maiden', I am bound to go through life at the most reasonably slow pace... I don't know why I do but I do."

Rissandra blushed as she realized how stupid she sounded, calling herself 'Time Maiden' or telling him about her self assigned policy regarding time. He was probably really annoyed with her intrusion and hadn't rejected her because he didn't want to be rude. But, he didn't seem to be annoyed at all, on the contrary, he seemed delighted to meet another faery. Perhaps she might make a friend today.

"Hello! I'm Rissandra by the way..."

"Hello?" A voice asked out. Turning to see whom it belonged to, Rissandra saw twins, both of around age eighteen, enter.

"Oh, hi!" Rissandra exclaimed with a smile, suddenly feeling stupid again for seeming so excited for two strangers to come in, as if she was waiting for them for a long time. She tensed up as she waited for the restaurant owner to either kindly ask her to leave or to just completely ignore as he attended to the newcomers, who most likely were the invited.

Damn! Damn! Dammit! Damn! Umeko kept cursing herself, staring at the black, metal studded wristwatch upside down on her bony wrist.

18:02

Shiiit! She cursed again as her heavily booted feet carried her down the middle of an almost empty alleyway in New York City, New York. It would have been nice if the old broad had given it to her earlier! How in the hell did she expect someone to get a plane and travel across the planet in a friggin' day? This was not at all how Umeko wanted to make her first impression. No, in fact, Umeko had thought she would be early, showing off her psychotic fashion, her crazy hair (which had fallen down a little from its voluminous spikes) and the nasty attitude she could have when thoroughly prepared.

Mary Anne's a bitch.

Indeedy-do! She would always laugh. Yes. Mary Anne was quite the bitch, and she was Mary Anne more often than she was Umeko. Even as she ran out of the alley and turned left, Umeko felt the screaming words of some new, dark song flying into her heart. Something about be late to a funeral. A funeral of zombies. Damn! If only she could write that down! But not right now. That damn letter was still in her stomach. A reminder of what she'd read and believed. Instead of just burning it, Umeko decided to eat it. She was weird, yes, but the ink on that page had smelled so good. For some reason she just wanted the black words to fall down her throat and soak into her capillaries. Umeko found herself eating a lot of weird things lately. She'd tried to eat an American quarter just the other day. While at her parents, they'd caught her gnawing on a butter knife.

The zippers and chains on her tight fitting mini-skirt smelled so amazing she almost stopped just to get a little lick. But even that didn't sway her from the path. That letter... That crazy old hag. Well, maybe she hadn't been old, but Umeko still thought of her as a hag. Something reached out and caught hold of her fishnets and she cursed loudly in her native language. A few Koreans looked at her in shame, one Mexican smiled sickly, and an American girl giggled. Umeko flipped them all off, fixed what she could of her torn fishnet and crossed the street.

This was the block she was looking for. Gianni's. An Italian restaurant. Her band had gone there for their first real taste of Italian food. They'd been out for a cosplay convention, and had even played one night. The entire weekend was a dream, and eating that real, fresh, Italian food was a huge cherry on the top for Umeko.

She slid to a halt, the rubber on the bottoms of her boots catching on the concrete and she almost fell forward. Catching her balance, Umeko bent over, not caring much what part of her secret anatomy she showed off in the back, and tried to regain calm breath. She looked back at her studded wristwatch.

18:09

Her strange, "unjapanese" (as her mother called them) blue eyes caught sight of a tattoo she had running down just to the inside of her elbow. Her black, pleather jacket sleeves were pushed up and uncovered just a small part of it. For a moment, it felt like the ink was trying to push out of her skin, but after a moment of willing it not to happen, Umeko stood up and walked to the door.

Two people stood outside of it and she poked her head in the middle of theirs.

"Konnichiwa!" Umeko spoke in a low voice, her smile huge. Mary Anne wasn't here right now. Umeko would have to fend for herself at this point.

"Thanks," was Em's brusque reply to Jise's compliment. He had nothing more to say to the stranger; in fact, he was a little irritated that he had to share the bench. It was just... uncomfortable... to have to sit here next to this guy who didn't seem to be doing much of anything at all. And it was even more uncomfortable knowing that he was being examined by him, inspected like he was some sort of oddity. Like Em was the weirdo with purple hair, instead of this guy.

Aware that his tapping foot was shaking the bench that he now had to share, Em uncrossed his legs and straightened a bit. With a nonchalant flip of his thumb, he flicked a single card from the deck in his right hand into his left and glanced down to see what the cards had to say about this guy. He scoffed under his breath as he saw the round circle of the Moon staring back at him. He quickly replaced the card in the deck and began shuffling again.

He shouldn't really have been surprised by that... the Moon card had come up in almost every reading he'd done since he received the letter. Unfortunately, the Moon was one of the less specific and more difficult of the cards to interpret -- it could represent illusion, fantasy, dreams, the cycles of life and nature, in any possible manifestation. He only wished he knew what it meant now.

He would find out soon, he imagined. People continued to stream to the restaurant, slowly gathering for this mystery meeting. He did feel better knowing that at least he wasn't the only person here; none of his friends were going to jump out of hiding with a camera and ridicule him for the rest of his life. He turned his wrist over to check his watch and saw that he still had twenty-one minutes until the meeting was supposed to start. Had everyone gotten the same warning about not being late, or was it just that everyone except him was that excited about dining at Gianni's?

Em smirked to himself at the thought of this restaurant being enough to attract everyone together, but his face fell a bit when he realized that he was actually looking forward to being back in the restaurant. As mundane as it seemed three years ago, he still remembered it. He couldn't say that about most of the other places he and Michael visited that summer. Maybe there was something special about it after all -- it certainly wouldn't be the strangest thing going on in his life right now.

Fifteen minutes early would be acceptable, Em thought. Especially if this guy was still crowding his bench in a few minutes. The door was pretty busy right now, but surely everyone would end up settling inside in another minute or two. And if not, it might make it that much easier to join the crowd without drawing attention. He cast one sidelong glance at the kid beside him, then began to slowly gather up his things. He tucked the cards back into one of his backpack's inner pockets, then zipped it and lifted it to his lap. He made no move to leave his seat just yet, but he was ready to go when he decided to.

Unexpected. Unexpected, and uncertain. More than anything, Shaun was perplexed by all of these unexpected events and the uncertainty they cast upon an almost perfectly planned evening. But this was no time to let the rest of them on on the secret.

"You are all welcome," he said loudly, including them all in his smile, even, for some reason, Rissandra. Before he had taken a breath to continue, he knew that he had far too few glasses and that in a few hours time, she would be important. His face twitched towards a frown for only an instant before he smoothed his features over once more. "Come in and be comfortable. It's only," he glanced at his watch, "6:10, which means we have a bit of time left to spare." He stepped aside then to let each of them pass by. There was no need to ask to see the cards he had enclosed or to ensure in any way that they were those he had sent for. He already knew their faces intimately. Umeko, William, and Wanda. Outside, he had caught sight of a young man, slight, with a mop of brown hair, Em. Hopefully, he would enter soon, but Shaun could do nothing to compel him. He had to make the decision himself.

As the three guests entered, Shaun stepped to the side, placing a hand on Rissandra's elbow to draw her a bit away from the rest. "I was planning a gathering of sorts here, among these humans that you may have noticed are not exactly humans. Why don't you join us? I think you will find what you hear intruiging. I only ask that you keep your glamour strong."

"Oh? I'm not late?" Her voice still had a heavy tinge of that stereotypical Japanese accent to it, but she was still very good with her English. All thanks to her once overbearing parents. They had not been happy about her leaving the way she had, but she just told them to suck it up and they stopped talking about it. Pushing past the twins, Umeko found her way into the restaurant.

"Hiya!" She chirped at the woman beside the man who'd spoken before. Umeko didn't give her much chance to reply as she walked into the candle lit area, with a table immaculately set. Pulling out a random seat, she laughed incredulously. The last time she'd come here it had been nice, but this felt like the guy was trying to seduce them all. Perhaps she should have been scared? It could have been some kind of weird cult thing going on. But Umeko shrugged off those thoughts. She wasn't scared of the outcome. The thing that told her metal was her blood, was the same thing that told her she was safe here.

"Holy shit! I've never seen stuff like this before!" The Japanese girl exclaimed. She lifted the wine glasses and tried to read the words. They were more foreign to her than Hebrew. Her eyes could see them, but her mind couldn't compute what it said. Holding it up in the light made her heart skip though. Something deep inside her felt a jolt of electricity and the woman quickly set the glass down. What the hell had that been? Her sparkling blue eyes couldn't stay off the glass as much as she tried to. There was something about those writings that meant something to her, she just couldn't tell what.

Finally, she pulled her eyes away and looked over her shoulder at the others. Moving her arm, she let it hang over the back of the chair lazily and her head tipped over to rest on her shoulder. What brought them here? That same old bitty? Most likely. Wonderment filled Umeko as she watched the people come in. Thank God she hadn't been late! Her hair was horrible now, but at least her dark-rimmed eyes were okay. She hadn't sweat on this run. Would any of these people care about how she looked?

Salina skipped happily and barefooted along the sidewalk of New York, strumming perky chords all the while. She was invited to a meeting earlier, and it elated her to no end. She had never been invited anywhere before. The passerby on the busy New York street gave her funny looks and shouted profanity at her. She oculd care less right now. Someone actually cared to think of her. Curious thoughts raced through her mind about the mysterious note given to her by a mysterious woman. Salina spun and twirled until she reached the park. She planned to cut through it so she could get to the restruant, Gianni's, faster. She had never been inside of it herself, but she has passed it a few times. A lovely, mouth-watering aroma of delicous italian food drafted in the air around it. She never had enough money to buy any of that food though.

Saline continued to strum her uke, Grangea, as she strolled through the park. She was calm now, observing the happenings around her. There were couples walking hand-in-hand, families having picnics, dog lovers with their dogs, birds singing sweet tunes, and squirrels scuttling this way and that. Then, something caught her eye, it was a group of teenagers around her age sitting beneath a tree having a drum session with bongos. Neat! Salina noted where the sun was at in the sky. It was only 6:10, she had plenty of time. With that, she skipped over with a bright-contagious smile on her face. She plopped down on the ground, her light green sweater sloppily hanging off her shoulder, and her soft-curly hair flowing over her shoulders.

"Can I join in?" She chirped happily, smiling at all of them.

They just looked at her funny and shrugged. Yet again, she was a bit misplaced. They were dressed more... modern and had shoes on. The group started up their beat again and she played along with her uke, eyes closed and at peace. They all started humming in unison and Salina was having a good 'ol time. Today was just an amazing day. The sun had set a tad bit, and Salina realized she had to go. She broke out into a uke solo and they all stopped to applaud.

"Thanks guys! I have to go now! Bye!" She waved excitedly and ran off, her dress dragging slightly on the grass.

Salina kept sprinting towards the restruant and was finally coming close. She could see two guys sitting on a bench doing absolutely nothing. She started spinning a bit and giggling to herself. Grangea was strapped to her back and made musical noises from bouncing up and down. When she finally got there, she stood in front of the two guys sitting on the bench, grinning. She waved a little bit and cocked her head to the side. Before she got the chance to say soemthing, she heard a loud llaugh come from inside. Her curiosity was peaked, so she turned around and headed for the door. Not one ounce of nervousness or anxiety was found in her being. The only thing she felt at the moment was happy. The door was open and she saw five people inside. She passed through a guy and girl that seemed to be twins and skipped inside.

"Hi everyone!" She anounced with glee as she took in her surroundings. She saw a girl sitting at an extravagantly set up table and waltzed over. Salina pulled out the chair beside her and sat down, being careful of her uke. She turned to the girl and smiled, "Hello there. I'm Salina."

Salina slid Grangea off her back and started plucking at the strings a little, nothing too loud though, and waited for an answer.

Miriel smirked, still invisibly sitting a table away from the table where the meeting was to be as Umeko examined the glasses, watching as they felt a jolt on contact with them. The glasses were made by faeries of course, and as such carried that slight feel of not quite being right to humans. Changelings and halflings both would feel like there was something they could not quite remember, even more strongly then normal, something which they dreamt of but never remembered once they woke. Fae made items always did that to them, and even some humans with slight Fae decent.

This seemed like a very odd group of people indeed. A pair of twins that were clearly linked quite closely, a Japanese girl who seemed not a little bit rebellious, a strange changeling that seemed to possess some very nice tarot cards, they probably worked when it came to telling the future, vaguely of course. And this new girl that had just walked in, barefoot and rather small. Of course then there was the man who seemed to have organized the entire meeting, along with the young fae outside and the even younger female fae that had walked in. They probably knew far more then the changelings and halflings who seemed rather confused, probably did not even know why they were here.

Honestly she was already getting a bit bored and cold by this time, it was 6:15 by the time she had finished pondering everything and she had been in the... otherspace for 28 minutes by this time. Hopefully the meeting would start soon, on the bright side it did look to be getting interesting at least. What was this strange collection of people meeting for exactly. It had to be more then bringing a collection of changelings and halflings into the faerie realm and their true heritage. There was always a reason behind that. *maybe this meeting will be more important then I thought*

"Yes, my leige." Morrigan stood up from her kneeling position in a large, deserted room. In front of her was her king, the King of the Unseelie Court - or the Other Court.

"Remember Morrigan, we must not interfere. There is a force we cannot reckon with in this time. We willl wait it out, it is mortal and we are not. It will pass in time, Morrigan. Remember." A somewhat stern bariatone came from the magnificently dark throne at the front of the stone room, matching its decor perfectly.

"Of course, my leige." Morrigan replied, dutifully. Of course, my leige, of course you would advise we wait it out. Of course we should do nothing, like the cowards we have become. Her thoughts not at all pleasent, I suppose that, as the Other Champion, I must fix this, even if it means 'stepping in' for the king.

Morrigan was dismissed, by a light wave of the hand, and quickly took her leave with a flutter of her heavy black travelling cloak. Once she was outside the room she paused, never turning nor averting her eyes from her destination. "Guard, tell the King that I will be gone for a day or so. I have business in the Upperland with those, humans..." the last word was bit out with much disgust for the race. "Tell the king that I am sorry for allowing it to slip my mind during our meeting today. Now, I bid you good day."

With that she took her leave, quickly gliding through the vast halls of the castle of the Other Court in Faeland. Once more she stopped at a door, this time leading to outside the castle and towards the stables. "Guard Baemirlan, inform the En' I' Leitha that we shall meet on the morrow. Daybreak at the Sacred Banyan. Be prepared for talk of dark times and of dark things." With that she continued on her path to the stables, leaving one of her faithful followers to relay the message.

Once she reached the stables she waved the stablehand away and mounted her black stallion bareback. He prefered it that way and so did she, less to carry and no unecissary burdens. She galloped her horse out, as a black arrow shooting into the nearby forest, to make preparations for the morning.

That old fool! Sitting and doing nothing, as if the humans could run the world, keep the balance! Hn, our king is getting on in years and has no heir, unrest is rising, chaos is forming. I have most of the Court eating out of my hands anyway. I know that more than a couple agree with me for sure. The rest, well, they will most likely try to leave after tonight. They won't be a problem...

She races through the trees, a black blur is all that could be seen against the setting sun. If only it were animals that were the dangers of such a forest that Champions make their home...

"I was planning a gathering of sorts here, among these humans that you may have noticed are not exactly humans. Why don't you join us? I think you will find what you hear intruiging. I only ask that you keep your glamour strong."

Wow, Rissandra thought, I was invited! Yay!

Until the owner mentioned that the others weren't fully human, Rissandra hadn't noticed the oddness of the others, she had just been excited that they didn't boot her out like the invader she was. The owner had asked her to keep her glamour strong but she wasn't sure why. She always looked human, albeit more celestial in appearance, there was nothing that would differentiate her from normal humans as she had all the physical traits of a human. Thus, Rissandra never used glamour unless she wanted to dazzle beyond necessity, which was rare. She wanted friends, not admirers.

"I would love to! I've been so bored lately here in New York, there's not too much to do when you don't have frien- I mean, when you don't... nevermind... I would love to join! Whatever that is going on?"

Rissandra mentally slapped herself as she reviewed the lameness of revealing her deepest regret and issue. Also, she really had no idea what was going on, but apparently it would intrigue her. Well, she didn't care much about whatever was going on, she just wanted friends. But suddenly, she wasn't sure what to do. It would be good to start with the owner.

"Oh, my name is Rissandra by the way! Thanks for having me! What is your name? Oh no... I already told you my name before that... ignore that, I mean the first part. What is your name?"

Argh, she thought.

"Hi!"
The twins were caught off guard with this exclamation but only slightly showed their surprise. Another, rather strange female, completely threw them off, though. She seemingly just dropped herself in between them as if she were a part of the family. She had a sort of rebellious quality to her. Hi. The twins replied dryly. The strange girl pushed through them and before they got a chance to regroup another female, with a more happy demeanor walked right through them as well. Must they be so rude? Wanda spoke up. Perhaps they're just excited her brother replied.. Wanda sighed, Fair enough...
The twins went to the table where the others sat and decided it would be best to sit across from the more eccentric kids until they were sure that they could trust them. However, considering that they were all most likely there for the same reason, they couldn't be too untrustworthy. The siblings were just going to have to wait awhile to warm up to them. William and Wanda placed their right elbow on the table and leaned into their hand, perfectly synchronized, and watched as the people -- maybe not people, something about them didn't seem quite... human -- entered and interacted with each other.

Em blinked twice as a chipper hippie-chick bounced up and stared at him. He could hear the musical rattle of strings, and he could just see the end of what looked like a ukelele poking over the girl's shoulder. When she grinned and waved, he couldn't quite help but crack a little smile and tilt up his head in response -- she might be crazy, but her enthusiasm was kind of infectious. His smile only grew as he glanced down and saw that she was barefoot, even here in the city. He could appreciate that.

When a laugh from the restaurant drew her away, he chuckled softly to himself and slung his backpack over his shoulder. Everyone seemed to be heading inside, so it was probably getting close to time for things to start. With one last check of his watch, Em sighed and pushed himself up from the bench. He looked back at the still-sleeping guy who'd invaded his space earlier, then shrugged and began a casual stroll across the street. Only once did he have to break stride and hop out of the way of a taxi.

By the time he reached the door of Gianni's, everyone had abandoned the sidewalk for the subtle ambiance of the restaurant. He still felt like he was arriving too early, but as he looked down the sidewalk in both directions -- it was curiously sparse, as though no one was interested in this block of business this evening -- there didn't appear to be anyone else aiming for Gianni's. Not directly, at least.

He tugged on his track jacket and ran a hand through his hair to give it the perfect "I don't care about having every hair in the right place, because I look damn good anyway" look, then placed a hand on the door. He had stalled long enough, and curiosity was starting to gnaw at him even more strongly than his hunger. This close, he could smell garlic and spices, and it was delightful. Steeling himself for whatever bizarre story he might encounter inside, Em took a single step inside the door and let it close behind him as he took in the scene.

Everything was lit by fire, and a table was set with much nicer dishes than he remembered seeing the last time he was here. This was obviously an event of some kind; there was something special going on. Almost everyone had gathered around the table, except for the man he had seen opening the door to everyone and the first girl -- the one that was gorgeous, but (Em suspected, just based on the other girls he'd known) a bit flighty. There were still empty chairs at the table, but he wasn't sure if there was anywhere in particular he was supposed to sit. So instead, he took his moment by the door to try to make a good first impression on this crowd, reshouldering his backpack and breaking into a small but charming smile.

Surely someone would notice, and could tell him what he should do next. He dug into his pocket and withdrew the card with the restaurant's address -- the only proof he had left that he had been invited here.

When the hippy chick came bouncing into the restaurant, Umeko felt some kind of light fill the air. It was nice to be surrounded by people she strangely knew were like her. The Mary Anne side of her would have said no one was like her, she was different than everyone, and maybe that was why she and her band still had this rift between them. But Umeko was too excited and easily quelled the dark personality inside her. How easy it was to be herself. When the girl sat beside her and introduced herself as Salina, her smile made Umeko's lips turn up a little.

"Umeko, or Mary Anne. Call me whatever, but don't call me a bitch or I'll cut you." Umeko loved that line. It was so stupid but so awesomely direct. She smiled, mocking the girl's, but secretly wanting to show a real one. Eh, who cared right now? Who was to say she'd ever see these people again anyway? Hell, this bastard could slaughter them all and then the way Umeko's attitude had pissed people off really would never have matter. The Japanese woman did, however, bow her head a little out of respect.

The twins she'd pushed through came and sat down, staring at Salina and herself from across the table. They didn't trust them, that much was obvious. She could tell from the glintin their eyes that they were sizing up the two of them. Sizing them up for what? Umeko glared at them through slitted, dark eyes.

"What?" she growled, leaning over the edge of the table and resting her forearms on the top of it. She hated it when people looked at her like that. Maybe it was the confrontation she craved though. Umeko did dress like a psycho, act like a psycho, just to get a rise out of people. Her parents, for instance, always said something to her about it, and she loved the fights as tiring as they turned out to be. After a few seconds of staring them down, she childishly stuck her tongue out at them and then turned back to the door. Another new face entered, a boy in a track suit. How tacky. He could have at least wore something nice to this place. It wasn't a dive by any means.

"Take a seat, stranger!" Umeko hollered across the room, waving her arm. The table was beginning to fill up, this thing had to get started soon. Umeko wanted to break into the wine, get super drunk and go dancing. But she actually tried to be a little polite and just rested her chin in her palms, sighing in irritation.

Shaun took a moment to give Rissandra a more thorough look, realizing for the first time that she was young. She was no where near completing her first millenium, and had most likely only just left her second century behind. The realization made him smile in earnest as he shoved his hair out of his face. "Nice to meet you, Rissandra. Call me Shaun. Thank you for being willing to stay."

Suddenly, he heard the door creak open, and he was pleased to find that Em had finally decided to enter along with Salina, who breezed past. He checked his watch again. There were only a five minutes left and a few more people who had been meant to be here, but if they didn't make the move, the opportunity would pass them by. He couldn't wait.

With a sigh, he turned toward Em, gesturing with an amused smile toward the rest. "Make yourself comfortable. The evening will begin in only a few minutes. Also, despite her demeanor, I wouldn't be shy of sitting next to Miss Umeko."

"Umeko, or Mary Anne. Call me whatever, but don't call me a bitch or I'll cut you." The cute yet dark Japanese girl answered.

Salina nodded vigorously at her and chirped, "Okey-dokey!"

She then turned back to playing her uke and humming a little tune along with it. She closed her eyes and swayed her head back and forth to the music. She was really getting into it. The things around her began to become blurry, like a dream world. Before she got lost in the music, Salina was awoken by Umeko who growled angrily at the twins across from them. She lolled her head towards them and smiled shyly.

"Yes, yes. No need to glare. We're all here for one common purpose my dears. So don't you worry." Salina told them in an ecouraging tone.

Then, she lolled her head back to looking at Umeko, "Can I call you Ume? You know... Kind of like you-me? I like your tattoos by the way."

She offered her a genuine smile once again and then quickly turned her attention to the new guy at the door. He had quite the charming smile on his face, and big innocent brown eyes. She also noticed the little silver stud in his ear. It was a nice touch. She slowly strummed a chord on her uke and smiled brightly. He was kind of cute. Salina scrunched up in her chair, putting her bare feet on the edge of the seat.

"Come sit over here with Umeko and I, handsome boy!" Salina shouted across the room to him, waving her hand frantically. She wasn't afraid to say what she thought. She could be quite bold sometimes. She continued to pat the open chair next to her, and glanced back at Umeko giggling.

She loved the feel of being around these people. Salina felt... like she belonged. For the first time in her life these people possibly accepted her. There was no judging here, not that she knew of. She loved all of them already. She wondered if it was just her that felt this deep, hidden connection with everyone in the room. Or maybe she was just over thinking things.

The twins continued to stare blankly across the table as the two eccentric girls interacted with each other. Suddenly the wilder of the two glared at them and got a little confrontational. This was followed up by some statement about no need to glare and not to worry from the happy one. The twins automatically raised their left eyebrow out of curiosity, where did this hostility come from and who was glaring? The twins didn't recall glaring and they were far from worried. If they did glare, however, it was unintentional. Before they had a chance to explain themselves, the wilder of the two stuck her tongue out and both ladies turned their attention elsewhere. The twins rolled their eyes at the tongue thing and then looked towards the door to see what was going on, a young man in a track suit walked in and he didn't seem to be incredibly.... crazy nor incredibly happy. The twins cracked a slight smile and waved at the young man, deciding that they would introduce themselves to everybody after he took a seat.

The small smile flared into an amiable laugh as hippie-girl called him over. Handsome boy, huh? he thought. This sounds like my kind of group, if they're that free with the compliments!

"You mean me?" He replied, grinning as he moved in from the doorway toward the empty chair beside the angry-looking Japanese rocker girl. She had to be Umeko, as hippie-girl and their host had mentioned. He was a little surprised to see her rather scandalous outfit -- the fishnets and mini-skirt just seemed a little... tacky. This place wasn't a dive, after all.

Em slid the backpack from his shoulder and hung one strap over the back of the chair, then slid gracefully down to sit. He nodded cordially to the other two at the table, the twins, taken back just a bit by the near-perfect symmetry of their actions. They seemed to breathe together, to move together, even to change their expression and position at the same time. They also didn't seem quite as outgoing as the two girls who had invited him to sit, so he turned his attention to them.

"I'm Emmerich," he said as he ever-so-slightly slouched in his chair, one arm hanging at his side and the other stretched forward to rest beside the place setting on the table in front of him. "Em," he added.

The atmosphere was different from what he had expected; the whole time he had been sitting on the bench outside, he could only imagine some sort of dark, oppressive board-room scenario where everyone was cruel and cutthroat. He was beginning to realize, now that he was close enough to see the group together, that they might be strange but were probably not malicious. It didn't feel that way, at least.

In fact, Em was surprised to find just how comfortable he felt here. Socializing had never been hard for him -- he genuinely did love people -- but he couldn't help feeling like there was something.... special... about Gianni's and its patrons this evening.

"You're pretty good!" Em returned Salina's earlier compliment (he had found long ago that it was the best way to break the ice in meeting someone new) with a smile and a nod toward the instrument held expertly in her lap. Even in just her casual plucking, it was clear that she spent a lot of time with her friend, there. "I imagine you play quite a bit?"

Salina chuckled softly and blushed a bit when the guy replied, "You mean me?"

He slid into the chair beside Umeko and introduced himself as Emmerich, Em for short. She smiled at him, strumming her uke happily and sang, "Welcome Em!"

"You're pretty good! I imagine you play quite a bit?" He complimented her.

Salina shrugged, and wiggled her bare toes a little. She smiled a little and looked at the ground, flattered. No one had really complimented her playing like that before. She quickly returned her gaze from the ground back to Em. Salina looked him straight in the eyes, beaming, "Yeah, I call her Grangea. I've been playing ever since I can remember. I don't go anywhere without her!" She smiled real bright at him and patted Grangea playfully, "I'm Salina by the way."

Then, Salina started strumming chords randomly and let her mind wander. She began to think of how she doesn't really have a home, but when she looked around the feeling of lonliness retracted. She shyly smiled to herself as her chords started to turn into her favorite song. She swayed slightly in her seat, back and forth. Soon she was singing and playing Jane Doe by NeverShoutNever! perfectly. Hitting every vocal note right on the dot and not missing a beat. She got up and skipped around lightly with a carefree aura about her.

She finished up the song with the last line, "Oh my Jane Doe!"

Salina giggled to herself and skipped back to her seat. Smiling at Em she asked him, "Well, what do you like to do?"