londoncallingrpg | Gathering Post

Entry tags:

Gathering Post

The best thing about London was that there was always something to do, no matter what your interests were. This weekend there was a jazz festival in Bloomsbury, an ale festival that would take you through a drunken train tour of the city, an African culture festival near Covent Garden, and several movie screenings, parties, and other pockets of fun.

Tourists were flooding in from all over, and many Londoners were slipping off to, or coming back from, their latest trips to Barcelona, Paris, or Ibiza. The weather was warm, and it had been fairly dry and sunny lately- Really, it was the perfect place to be right now. ...At least that's what anyone who wasn't heading off to some tropical wonderland would tell you at least.

As day faded into evening, bars came alive and shop windows lit up, inviting in tourists and locals alike. The city buzzed well into the night, calming only briefly in the morning, before bursting back into life again.

(Have your pup be anywhere in the city you like. This GP is intended to take place over the course of Sat and Sun, but will be open all week long! Remember to add your pup's tag after you tag in!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sunny looked up at the familiar voice, picking out Felix immediately. He was going to stand out wherever he went--something she experienced and understood very well--but here, well... yes. Yes he did.

And she was delighted that he'd decided to stand out here.

Though her bright smile easily gave way to smirking. "You live on an island which--issue of three very different countries aside--gave rise to haggis. Pot, this is kettle. He's black."

The bantering tone and challenging expression left when she turned her gaze to his companion, though. She recognized him from the splatter the tabloid press had been trying to make, and from one very brief encounter that had not lasted long enough to involve the exchange of names. "You must be Shannon."

Their previous encounter had been brief enough to have vanished completely from Shannon's mind. He decided that Sunny must be one of Felix's eclectic acquaintances. His lover did seem to collect them.

Shannon favored Sunny with a smile. "I am," he confirmed, "and who might you be?"

Felix presented Shannon like a prize he'd won at a game of utmost skill. "Shannon Teverius, Sunny Nwazue. We met in a bookshop," he added to Shannon, which very likely told him much more about his relationship with the young lady than what he actually said. And of course Felix had told Sunny about Shannon.

If she wanted to clue Shannon in about why they'd begun talking, that was her own to reveal. Felix wasn't about to publicly out another wizard without her leave.

Something that it didn't even cross Sunny's mind to do. She'd nearly been caned as a child just for exposing a hint of her magic to a bully. It had almost cost her being mentored by Sugar Cream. The lesson stuck. Lambs were not to be told. She wasn't even out to her mother. And Shannon Teverius was definitely a Lamb.

"Trading points on the fine art of punishing people for staring," was what she added instead. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Shannon eyes twinkled at the mention of books. They were the only rivals to his collection of clothing. Somehow literature and fashion managed to coexist in the spare bedroom of his and Felix's apartment, but it was a precarious peace at the best of times.

"I am sorry to have missed the conversation," he said. "And I'm impressed you managed to get Felix to speak of something other than books when surrounded by them." He flashed a teasing smile at his lover.

In his own defense, Felix merely said, "She delivered a stunning reprisal to some drooling local who felt it their right to stare at her as if she were some ambulatory zoo exhibit. It was magnetic. You can't imagine I let her get away after that."

Without warning--though Felix would probably see it coming--Sunny made a switch to a Nigerian accent that was so natural and so thick that if one hadn't already heard her speak, it would never cross their mind that she'd so much as set foot on American soil. Just as, though her surname spoke of her ancestry, her American accent would say she'd at best only visited Nigeria a few times. "I have no idea what anyone might think is so unusual about me, sha."

Shannon blinked in surprise at the heavy accent and then smiled to cover it. "I can see why you caught Felix's attention," he said. Her personality alone would catch his lover's eye, not to mention her more unusual traits.

Felix chuckled openly, his odd eyes alight with a similar mischief. "She barrelled right through a herd of reporters, that day the story came out," he told Shannon. With a few weeks of distance, Felix had decided to be frank about that day, even if it made people uncomfortable. Probably because it made people uncomfortable. "She's a menace with that parasol," he added approvingly.

Sunny shrugged. "You grow up in Nigeria looking like this, you learn a few things about vulture circles and busting them up with umbrellas. Anyway! You asked advice on lunch. West African stuff I can help you with. If you're interested in any other region, probably not so much."

"I don't think I'd know the difference," Shannon admitted. "I haven't had much African cuisine. Our introduction is in your hands, Sunny."

"Be gentle with us," Felix drawled dryly, glancing over to smile at Shannon and reinforcing his grip on the other man's hand. "We're British."

Sunny had seen tabloid photos--she could hardly avoid them--but even so it was hard to deny in person that the two of them together were really pretty.

"Relax," Sunny assured with a smile. "You're not the first people I've done this with, and I know how to do it gently. And not so gently, but I like you. Jollof rice is usually where I start people. That or groundnut stew." She sighed. "Nothing here will be as spicy as it should be, but that's probably for the best."

There was an innuendo to be had here but Shannon let it slide by him. "How spicy is African food, generally speaking?" he asked. "Is it anything like Indian food?"

Felix barely paid attention to most of the food he ate, but he had a vague recollection of enjoying a foray into Indian cuisine. He had been far more interested in the cultural alcohols. "Shannon is trying new things," he explained as neutrally as he possibly could, which meant that the effort he expended to remain neutral showed glaringly. It would be just enough, perhaps, to amuse Sunny, but not enough to embarrass Shannon.

If he wanted Shannon to continue trying new things, Felix knew what was good for him.

Sunny was prudently going to ignore the many nuances of that one bland statement and instead focused her attention on Shannon. "In terms of heat, yes." In the magical communities, both Nigerians and Indians were fond of the use of tainted peppers. It had been too long since Sunny had gotten her hands on some of those. "Will that be a problem?"

"I suppose we'll find out," Shannon said.

"As long as I still have use and control of my tongue afterward," Felix suggested.

"I promise no tongues will be set on fire. Especially if you're paying." Half a question, this directed at Felix with a cheeky smile, because joking about Sunny's student-poor status was a discussion they'd already had, whereas she couldn't bring herself to be that rude with Shannon.

Still she jerked her head as a gesture for them to follow while she picked out a food vendor.

"That's a relief," Shannon said sardonically. "So where are we headed first?" Spotting a particular stand as they walked he added, "and nothing with insects as an ingredient, please."

"We're paying," Felix confirmed, biting back a laugh at Shannon's stipulation regarding insects. Well, it was smart of him. Sunny would play tricks if given her way, he knew. He trailed half a step behind Shannon, partly to keep the little party together by herding the shorter two along, and partly to keep them in his sight so he wouldn't wander too far astray in the crowd.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gathering Post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject