Gathering Post - Christmas Eve Party

[londoncallingmods]

Merry Christmas!

You are invited to celebrate the season with Finlay Flynn and Willy Silver.

 

When: Christmas Eve (5pm – Midnight)

Where: Making the Modern World - The Science Museum

RSVP: By Email (SBMNGR@ldnmgmt893.co.uk) Before 19/12

 

Upon entry you'll be given a ticket for one free drink. All drinks after that are 5 each. There will also be a free buffet in the dining area.

 

Dress code: Casual, but tidy please!

 

Raffle: Come wearing a festive sweater and you will automatically be entered into a raffle to win a 65 inch TV.

 

Donate: Bring three tins of canned food to be donated to the local food bank, and receive an extra drink ticket.

Look forward to: A live DJ, live music, an appearance by Santa, gift bags with deluxe swag, and the company of old and new friends!

 

(OTA! Happy holidays! If you know Fin, Willy, Phouka, or Winter, feel free to assume they gave you an invite. If not, you can say your pup got an invite through a friend of a friend, someone who knows someone, ect. It IS invite over (no gate crashing pups please, Fin's a giver and would want everyone to feel included), but the pups hosting the party are pretty active and I believe they know almost everyone in the game. And the people they don't know surely know people who do. Even if you only met them once, you got an invite somehow! This gathering post is open all week, and beyond!)

Comments

[harrowgate]

And Felix knew -- if not in as great detail -- about Hannibal's dalliance with Kersen. Well, really, he suspected more than he knew, and had made a pact of secrecy with Kersen, so he couldn't even hint at it in conversation. Such a pity.

His mis-matched eyes lit up in delight when he saw the doctor, nonetheless. "Io Saturnalia, albeit a bit late," Felix offered. "My word, doctor, you look like the very Devil himself -- and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. I don't know a single other person who wears a suit half so well, outside of my Shannon, of course. Are you acquainted with Misters Flynn and Silver as well?"

[anamusebouche]

Kersen was certainly part of the reason why Hannibal didn't judge Alcuin for his affair. He would not expect of the other what he had no intention of keeping to himself. The look was thought through. Red is the colour of Christmas, though the absence of red did give him a devilish look. He smiled coyly, therefore, to Felix' observation.

"I know Finlay." Though of course, he wouldn't speak of the therapy sessions. "And I've heard of Mr. Silver quite a lot, though I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet."

[harrowgate]

"I've met Mister Silver once or twice," Felix honestly couldn't remember which, but such was the nature of the Fae, "but I've not even caught a glimpse of him here tonight. He's desperately handsome, and something of a charmer, but I'm sure he'll be on best behavior tonight."

Felix had the ability to chat extensively and drink at the same time, which he managed with aplomb. "Do you celebrate... all this?" he inquired, with a vague gesture at the seasonal decorations. As a fellow man of science and reason, Felix didn't expect Hannibal to have much attachment to the religious holiday. Hence his own semi-sarcastic Saturnalia greeting.

[anamusebouche]

"I don't think even God celebrates any of this," Hannibal replied to that. Not to put himself in that same category, but not quite being modest about it either.

[harrowgate]

"I very much doubt that any all-powerful Creator intended the birth of its mortal child to be celebrated with animatronic Fathers Christmas," Felix agreed dryly. "Still, the parties are enjoyable. Have you tried one of these festive concoctions?"

He lifted the martini glass in his hand, which appeared to be some sort of white drink with cinnamon sugar rimming the edge. "Not half as elegant as your wine cellar, I'm positive, but a very enticing blend of sweet and... not."

[anamusebouche]

"I've stuck to more traditional drinks so far. The wine is quite good, though perhaps not as festive as your snow white drink," Hannibal said, agreeably.

[harrowgate]

"Never fear, my heart is still black as ebony," Felix promised, amusement in his eyes and at the edge of his smile as he quoted the fairy tale. "I'll feign festivity tonight, and in two days' time return to my wicked ways."

[anamusebouche]

Hannibal assumed that held more truth than the fairy tale manner in which Felix spoke. "Will you be able to manage?" He asked, amused enough.

[harrowgate]

"Manage festivity, or manage wickedness?" Felix chuckled. "I've never had a problem with either. At times, I've even managed concurrently." He cast a glance out into the party-goers, but he'd lost track of his companion somewhere among them. "Less so, these days."

[anamusebouche]

"Oh? How so?" Hannibal asked following his eye and not finding Shannon at the end of his gaze.

[harrowgate]

Just because Shannon wasn't visible didn't mean he wasn't watching. Felix hadn't entirely earned his lover's trust, and perhaps that was justified. "Shannon doesn't approve. And he doesn't care to join me. He is... possessive." Felix's voice lowered on the last word to nearly a purr of pleasure.

[anamusebouche]

"Hard to imagine you can be tamed," Hannibal commented to that.

[harrowgate]

Something in Felix's eyes flared in objection to that suggestion. Accusation? It certainly needled at him. "Only through very focused discipline, I assure you," he answered, gaze steady on Hannibal, certain the man would take his meaning.

[anamusebouche]

The man took his meaning. The man also took that a very extensive monograph could be written about this young man's shattered psyche. Hannibal looked back into the hard gaze with a very mild gaze of his own. An amused smile spread on his lips. "I'm sure."

[harrowgate]

Amusement in the face of Felix's harder emotions only drove those needles in deeper beneath his skin. Hannibal couldn't know that questions of control peeled back the layers to who Felix was essentially, that his soul came perilously close to bared when he surrendered. And there was Hannibal, smiling. Felix had the wild urge to bare his teeth and snarl.

He glanced over Hannibal's well-pressed suit, his perfectly-knotted tie, and knew that buttoned-up exterior couldn't be all that there was to him. "Don't we all enjoy a firm hand now and again?" Felix inquired, his smile feigning sweetness while his eyes were bright and blazing.

[anamusebouche]

Hannibal did know that he was touching a very sensitive nerve. It was his purpose. As Felix was playing the part of oversexed youngster, Hannibal could very easily play the part of a middle-aged man mildly amused at such oversexed talk. "We all have our reasons for enjoying what we enjoy."

[harrowgate]

Felix especially hated being looked at like he was a child, when he felt very strongly that he had never been a child at all. He did not particularly want to alienate Hannibal as a potential friend, when he was so very interesting, but Felix simply wasn't capable of surrendering conversationally.

"Do you subscribe to the school of thought which posits that all of our desires are cemented in childhood? Whether that be a play of power, or a preference for youth and delicacy long past our own youthful days?"

[anamusebouche]

That was an insult to his relation with Alcuin, surely, but one not unexpected and certainly not one Hannibal was going to react to. Though it did nothing to prevent Felix from seeming like a youngster throwing a tantrum.

"Not at all," he replied. "But past experiences can change and distort the way we perceive ourselves, the way we act and believe we should act. Especially when the past has traumatized." Which Hannibal knew it had, and Felix knew he knew. "And these perceptions are always fully justifiable by the person in question. Truth will always bend to a new reality. At times it will seem cemented. It never is."

[harrowgate]

Felix did not believe in unshakeable, absolute truths, either, so he could not very well challenge Hannibal on that point. He still very much wanted to pick a fight, but the dear doctor was proving more difficult to turn into an opponent than Felix had anticipated. "By that assessment, if I allow myself to be tamed -- your word, not mine, Doctor -- it is because my past experience has made me believe that I deserve it?"

[anamusebouche]

Hannibal had not meant the word in a sexual context, simply in a context of a young man enjoying a wild party, and unlikely to be tamed into moderation. "I very much hope that not everything you enjoy involves sex, as I get the distinct impression this conversation keeps dwelling into. What you enjoy in the bedroom is only a part of you, and cause and consequence when it comes to sex are never as straightforward as some of my colleagues seem to believe." If anything, Felix was proof of that.

[harrowgate]

For Felix, nearly any human interaction came down to sex, especially with men. Doctor Lecter had already perceived the effect of Felix's past traumas correctly: his past had taught him that he was barely worth anything more than what other people could take from him. In his subconscious, of course everything was about sex -- what else was he good for?

However, Felix was terrible at recognizing this unconscious motivation. All he knew was that Hannibal's comments made him angry. Not insulted, not offended, but tempted like a siren toward that black oblivion of his temper which absolved him of all guilt. His response was as cool and smooth as carved ice. "My dear doctor, while your analysis of my id is utterly enthralling, I suspect this session is about to cost me if it continues any further."

[anamusebouche]

"It's not a session, it's a reminder. Sex is only a part of any of us," Hannibal replied.

[harrowgate]

Felix's brows furrowed faintly. He hadn't thought he'd said otherwise, but there must be some reason that Hannibal would say that. Lest he truly lose his temper, Felix forced himself not to respond. Instead, he gave a formal bow. He wondered if Hannibal had any idea how difficult it was for him not to lash out. "Regardless, Doctor, I should be going. Enjoy your Christmas."

[anamusebouche]

"And you," Hannibal replied, with a curt nod of his own.