the_last_resort | Midnight masquerade Open to All.

Current Music: Black planet - Sisters of Mercy

Entry tags:

Midnight masquerade Open to All.

Who: EVERYONE
When: After Midnight
Where: The Rising Sun
Format: Paragraph, action, etc.
What: A special party held at the rising sun. Dorian has told no one what he's celebrating but all drinks are free as long as you come after midnight with the password. and wearing a mask "Layla" is the password
Warnings: EVERYTHING GOES GUYS! PUT WARNINGS IN YOUR SUBJECT LINES IF YOU GET TOO CRAZY!

[ooc; Everyone can tag into the premade threads or make your own thread at the bottom! This is a party post thread, so thread jacking is cool unless otherwise stated. The only room locked in the club is Dorian's office. And if someone pops that lock they will find a half full goblet of blood on his desk, otherwise it is clean.

He has taken care of rides to wherever drunk people need to go too. And lastly; yes there are condoms in the rooms upstairs, if that is something you want. The Password will have be spoken on with an ad about the party a few days beforehand, it does not matter but the password is Layla. Pretty much tag around and have fun guys~! ]

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I am glad that my need for a drink is recognizable through a mask. [He's amused by Belloq's recognition, and he pushes his mask up on his head.]

Bringing me a taste of home, ah? [He asks as he gets comfortable.]

Masks like these can't hide our natures. And you, you are a lonely man who drinks.

[Takes one to know one.]

I was part of an excavation in Yugoslavia as a student, a Scythian burial ground, and I had many enjoyable and very drunken nights thanks to this drink.

Oh. [He sounds almost disappointed.] I didn't know that the lonely part would be so obvious.

What is a Scythian?

[Niko knows a little bit about history (not a lot, a little), however he knows history in his language. When the rakia arrives, though, he takes the bottle to pour himself a little. The funny thing is, he never cared much for it. It's too sweet, and while potent the aftertaste was unpleasant. But now it tastes like home, and he misses that.]

The...[Belloq has to pause to switch his mind over to the Serbian language. It's been a long time since he's heard it and it doesn't come quickly. He finds and dismisses the word for "Scythian" in a number of other languages first. French, German, Farsi.]...Skit, as you call them.

[Belloq pours a bit of rakia for himself and drinks.]

As for loneliness, who but a lonely man goes out to drink alone in public? This is twice I've seen you drinking alone.

Ah. Yes, I don't know so much- [he makes a so so motion with his hand.] Only a little. We didn't exactly have the best education in our village. But uh, I remember that a lot of things got destroyed in the war.

Which is probably not a great thing to hear, sorry.

[He looks at his drink, though, and finally just sort of shrugs.] I know the guy that owns the place. I helped save him. If I come here, I'm usually not drinking alone. Usually, anyway. Tonight is a little busy for him.

[He winces at the thought of all that tangible history carelessly destroyed.]

C'est la guerre. [He says it not with the usual tone of resignation that the phrase receives, but with bitterness.]

Ah, forgive me for my assumptions then. I hope you nevertheless don't mind my joining you.

No, I don't mind. I would rather have company than drink alone. But sometimes the need to drink outweighs the need for company.

[He adjusts the mask on his head so he can better do just, careful that it doesn't fall off.] I left most of my friends behind in Liberty City. I have couple here, but sometimes I miss the old ones. They were good people.

[Little Jacob especially. He was with him through the worst of it.]

In my line of work, I travel too much to make close friends. [That and his habit of using and discarding his "friends" when his need for them was over--like the Hovito tribe--ensured he never had many.] I find people to laugh with now and then, to drink with, but I can't say I've had any friends since the War.

But I believe my work is worth it. [He takes another sip.]

I thought a great deal about what you said last time we drank together, and I have determined that when I return home I will be ending my employment with the Germans, unequivocally and permanently. I've been meaning to carry out some more excavations in the Far East, so I'll spend the course of the coming war there.

[That brightens Niko up some. He's glad to hear it- I mean, at it's most base level working with the Nazis should be something that could be pitched as a terrible idea. But having convinced someone to get get away from them on his own? Makes him feel pretty good.]

He [smiles his odd little smile at Belloq.]

Good! Good. I'm glad to hear it. You need to get the fuck away from those assholes before they get you killed or stab you in the back. [He holds up his glass then.] To freedom? Real freedom from assholes telling you what to do. [He's not going to mention what will be happening in the East, but maybe he can suggest to him India as a good place to pursue his research later.]

They pay well, but they have no real appreciation for archaeology. It's sad to see the countryman of such luminaries in the field as Johann Winckelmann and Heinrich Schliemann to have fallen so low. I will not miss them. I will miss their money very much, but I will not miss them.

Money is always a sad thing to say good-bye to, isn't it friend? [He nudges Belloq in the arm with his elbow, a friendly jostling gesture.]

But is better if you survive to enjoy it.

[Belloq laughs.]

Indeed it is, мој друг. I'm sure I will spend many nights thinking of it fondly, of the the good times we might have had together.

But c'est la vie. And I like ma vie very much and would hate to lose it even more than I hate losing the money. So in the end it's an easy choice to make.

I sense it's a choice you've made before, yourself. Or something similar, yes?

I left about a million dollars behind with my cousin when I came here. It was more comfortable there in some ways, not in others because people make a point of invading your life if you have too much money.

I needed to protect him, so I left.

I just want to fucking get a ship here. No more riches beyond imagination for me- because they usually are beyond imagination.

[Belloq spits out his drink in a spray at those three words "a million dollars." It's an almost absurd amount of money for Depression Era America, which is the America he knows.]

Christ, I think you could buy yourself a small Midwestern town with that, or build yourself a private skyscraper. And you gave it all up for privacy?

You can't build a skyscraper for a million dollars- okay, wait, you're from a very long time ago. Things are more expensive now. People earn more and a million is still a lot, but it might give you a nice house and no worries for the rest of your life if you treat it well.

But no. Not privacy. Because the type of men I knew were the type that didn't like leaving people alive. My cousin has a family. Me? I do not. If I am conveniently missing, they will leave him be. He has a good friend to help him now.

You could have gone conveniently missing with the money. [Leaving that much money behind--even if it isn't worth as much in Niko's time as his own--was mind boggling to him.]

And leave my cousin poor? No. Besides, I have gone conveniently missing before. This is probably the most luck I have had at it.

You must love your cousin more than I love mine. I don't think I would give any of my cousins a million dollars. My cousins aren't worth it.

He's a good cousin. We were raised like brothers, so maybe is different from most cousins.

I don't think I would give a million dollars to my brother, either. He already has the family vineyard.

We never had a family vineyard, friend. [He raises his rakia glass.] And if we did we would have to share the wealth.

My family is not a sharing sort of family. [Greed and grasping acquisition is a family trait.]

I'm fond of my brother but...[He gives a phlegmatic shrug.]...he would not give part of the vineyard to me and I would not give any of my acquired wealth to him.

What did your family do before the war?

We were farmers.

[And he considers it, before he decides to go ahead and tell Belloq more. Why not.]

I had very good family and very bad family. We lived poor because my father and my uncle were shitty people always in debt, alcoholics that beat their children and wives. Fucking assholes. My mother was sweet, but most of the life is sapped from her. My aunt was wonderful, a survivor, and she raised me and Roman.

My brother is dead. He died in the war. And our land was ruined and then taken over by drug dealers and gun runners. Wealth is something I can earn over. I do what I can to get it, but I don't have to have it once I get what I want out of it.

[He pauses for a long moment, hearing Niko's story.]

After the Great War, they said that there would be no more wars, not ever again. They said that no one could be so mad as to drive their countries into such horrors a second time. They said the soil's appetite for blood was satiated.

The worst thing about hearing about the future is knowing that they were wrong. Thucydides knew the truth of things. The events of the past will always repeat in the future because human nature never changes.

[His mind is feeling slow and sticky from the rakia. His face suddenly breaks into a bright smile. And if there's a hint of desperation in the smile, he won't admit to it.]

So we might as well devote our efforts to getting filthy rich, yes? Then when the next war comes, we can sit it out on beach-side villa. Or--[He raises his glass to Niko.]--sail away on a ship, far from the madness.

Far away from this madness. [He agrees, raising his glass, and for a moment pretending firmly that he isn't constantly susceptible to falling back into that madness.]

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Midnight masquerade Open to All.

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CW: Mention of child abuse

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