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Midori had been peering over the selection of dictionaries, lost for several minutes, before she remembered that someone was waiting for her. A very nervous little someone. She quickly grabbed one that she had surmised had "Korean" printed on the spine, and clutching it tightly in both hands, ran back to the ballroom, pausing only to curse and adjust her mask as it threatened to fall off.

She glided through the door, trying to be a little more elegant than usual, and looked around for her little unicorn boy. She was happy to find him sitting in the chair where she'd left him. Taking a deep breath, she approached him, opening the book too quickly, realizing she was bending the spine, and closing it a little again.

Maybe she'd been too hasty. As she looked over the words on the page, a sweet, sickly feeling arose in her stomach. Even with all of Wraith's encouragement... she could feel it slipping. She commanded herself to focus. She could do it.

"Ha--han gaji... un u nun chung... boon ha ji mo-- mot hae." The words swept around her tongue easily, and she felt a self-assuredness envelop her.

(("One language is never enough"))

Eknephias put on a face of mock affront at the woman's glance before he realized no one could see it. He watched, amused, as the poor bearded boy stumbled over himself trying to apologize for apparently offending the woman. As she went off on something to do with the Americas, he found himself losing interest and decided he needed another drink. He downed a shot of vodka that happened to be on the counter, and after mulling over it for a minute, took another one.

"Well, my bearded friend, it's been... fun. But I didn't attend to hear about someone else's history, so you'll have to excuse me, both of you." He gave a bow to the woman, arms stretched out to his sides, the shot glass still clutched in one. He made sure to insert a drunken stumble for effect.

He turned to survey the crowd, looking for anyone who was vaguely interesting. There had to be someone around who wasn't such a bore. He gave Johannes one last glance backwards and noticed the still full glass of Ouzo. "Drink and be merry! Isn't that what they say? I promise-- I wouldn't do anything to hurt a LOTUS recruit. It will make your evening much better. Maybe you'll actually be able to impress the lady after one or two instead of upsetting her?"

Where had Thasios gone off to?

Thasios was looking curiously at the two men who were standing in front of him. They looked strangely familiar...

At the one's question, he paused for a moment to think. "Yes. It has been enjoyable so far. I was hoping to meet a great many new people, but I am saddened that it has been quieter than I had imagined. I am sure the evening will prove to be more lively." The other man had apparently not considered his presence worthy of noting. "And your friend? It appears I have intruded upon something. I deeply regret it."

Ah! It was those films that they had watched! The one about the nocturnal man, and the singing one! He would have to ask Sebastien about them later; he couldn't remember the names at all.

Eianr startled for a moment when he came to realize that someone else had joined him, the mask he was wearing only allowing him to really see the person in front of him. That was one of the few disadvantages of this storm mask, the inability to see things that weren't directly before you, and for a moment he thought about stammering out an apology until he figured he had nothing to apologize over.

Everyone was masked here, so his behavior may or may not be recognized later on anyway. So instead he opted to speak like he'd seen the man all along but was waiting for him to speak first before he would decide to respond.

"No need to be sorry, I didn't see you there is all. This mask doesn't allow its wearer to see anything other than what's before it and you happened into my blind spot while you were talking."

Einar turned his head towards Thasios and smiled beneath the mask, a wasted effort. He only bothered with facial expressions because how your face was made how the tone of your voice was, and he wanted to sound as pleasant as he could.

"As for you, your friend must be lucky if you're worrying about them. I don't think I've ever had to worry over someone for anything, but then again that's just my nature. There's no point in worrying over the deceased until you see them again."

"Ah....thank you for...the drink..." answered Johannes 'indifferently' -- that is to say, he was still in 'guilt' mode as he simply turned to Ekenphias to answer and then quickly turned back to Mokoyis. He knew who Mokoyis was talking about. The irony is that, almost all of them were Spaniards.


He wasn't full-blooded, naturally. After all, he was adopted by the Ambassador after his parents mysteriously disappeared. He should think like an Austrian in these cases, emtionally detach oneself from their adoptive country. But he couldn't. He didn't know anything about Austria, why should he feel like one? He felt he was a Spaniard, he was really part fo his adoptive family and country.

Which would explain why then he felt more guilt when Mokoyis was relegating to him her side of the story. Partly because this side was taught to him in schools...only different, naturally.

Taking his handpalm and putting it on his face, he shrugged his eyes as indicating some pain, and finally said: "This is just too much." "I believe you, I do." "And yet, I can't comprehend it, can't understand it." "How are such things possible?"



When Eknephias said his statement of drink and merriment, of 'impressing the lady instead of upsetting her', Johannes even felt more like a cad. This was never his intention and yet it turned out that way.


"I feel like a coward." He drank the full glass of Ouzo after that.

She heard a thank you, and that was about all she was able to understand from the boy's reply. She ruffled through the pages of the book, stopping at a section whose pages were lined in grey, demarcated from the rest. It apppeared to be a collection of common phrases, which she was grateful for.

<"You need to learn some English. Everyone here... speaks English."> That was just a stab in dark, the result of her combining phrases that she thought might mean what she wanted them to mean. She spoke slowly, being careful to remember every word, every syllable.



It didn't seem to be going too badly. Hopefully he understood her alright.


Thasios smiled at the-- Joke man! That was it!-- as he turned towards him, visible beneath his mask that only extended to the bridge of his nose. "My apologies for drawing quick conclusions, then." He looked back and forth between the two men as the conversation continued, taking a more sombre tone. "With time in ruins, my friends, it appears that even the deceased walk the earth. I would venture to say that may be a justifiable cause for worry, according to you both."

It was cold. Why was it so cold? Maybe because a fresh snowfall had just coated everything in sticky whiteness that morning, or maybe because her dress offered poor coverage. She hadn't worn any jewelry, not wanting to give herself away, but her bright, turquoise mask more than made up for the lack of sparkle anywhere else. Her hair (or rather, not her hair, but a wig she appropriated) was a mass of curls, piled on top of her head and spiraling down to her waist, the light powder blue a contrast to her bright red lips. She hadn't been able to decide between dressing up as Marie Antoinette or something ocean-related, and so stood there as a strange amalgamation of both. She stood, fan in hand, waving it nonchalantly as if she was warm (which she most definitely was not).

Mokoyis stared at the boy and let her breath out in a big woosh that fluttered the feathers on her mask. "That is just the over view- there are stories that would curdle your blood. But it is hard sometimes to blame the soldiers." Only sometimes though she noted privately. "Religion is the root of the evil. Savages have to be saved from themselves for God, and those who can't be must stop poisoning the minds of others."

She was saved from further explainations by the arrival of the over-sized hamburger containing- she assume at least- Estrelas and Eponine. To Mokoyis' knowledge there were no Russian recruits had she even been able to place the accent but she tried to hide her amusement behind her hand as she forced her giggles into a cough. "Oki Giant Hamburger...how do you purpose to drink through you costume?"

"Oh my..."

A feeling bubbled up in the pit of Lai's stomach at the idea; a two mix cocktail of one part a worry/fear blend for Einar (whom he did not realize was in such close proximity to him, and in reasonably fine shape, that Lai could actually reach out and take his hand if the thought struck him) and one part blown away over the idea of those long since interred breathing once more. Did that mean his own kin; the likes of his father's father Ivan Gorgonroff II was alive and well in Moscow? It was such a strange concept to wrap one's mind around.

Lai would have thought more about the very idea of that happening, he had seen an actual Roman chariot the day after time had snapped so that held the 'dead back to life' idea to the light, but the 'hamburger' was on the move and Lai couldn't help but watch it move from the scarecrow man to the bar. He inwardly groaned, what would alcohol do to that thing? As if it wasn't boisterious enough at this point. The Russian was occupied with watching the movements he did not see Einar's tapping motions on his mask. He did hear Einar's comment and nodded, not going to say a thing, but when he heard what sounded like...a Russian accent? he had to speak up.

"Did...Did that food thing just do a Russian accent?" He sounded taken aback, looking to Einar and Thasios for clarification. The voice of the speaker was loud enough so the sound carried to the group with ease despite the distance and mingling voices of others. "You did hear it right? A very, very bad Russian speaking English accent?" Lai looked back over to the bar and before he could stop himself;

"I do not sound like that. At all."

"Eh, so you're Lai?"

Einar couldn't help but try and go along with the charade, a sneaky grin crossing his face behind his mask, as he pointed a finger towards Lai. The motion was still yet teasing and he did his best to not chuckle. After a moment his finger swung towards the hamburger with the same point, his head tilted sideways.

"Or is that thing Lai? The only Russian I've heard about when I actually moved around was a guy named Lai, and that voice sounded pretty female to me."

Don't push it, Einar.

He decided to drop the subject there then and look towards Thaosis to respond to his question about his uniform, if he was addressing him.

"Oh, this? It's all the rage where I come from. Men and women were it when they go out regardless of the weather since it's almost like their second skin. It comes a wide variety of colors too, but I like muted colors most so that's why mine's a shade of brown."

Partly a lie, mostly the truth. All people wore them because they were the required storm uniform and they all came in brown. The only part that was unique about them was the female uniforms had skirts instead of pants and the women's boots ran higher up their legs to their thighs.

"How about you? Either of you?"

Inside the hamburger costume, Eponine winced at Estrelas' politically-incorrect shouting. "Ah... Estrelas?" she whispered.

"YAHHH YAHHHH VERY GOOD FOR HAMBURGER, MISTA LAI ARE YOU HEARING US HERE, YOU RUSSIA PERSON?" Estrelas shouted, then peeked through a tomato at Mokoyis. "Oh, Ah plan drink like this- ah, zis..." An black-clad arm reached out from under the side of the lettuce and snatched someone's drink. The whole thing disappeared into the hamburger with a few glugging noises, and the arm placed the empty glass back on the counter. "OF COURSE WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE TOILET!"

Eponine stifled a giggle. Tucked away safely under layers of styrofoam, she did feel rather safe. If the Manager came in, he wouldn't even suspect her! "Good thing I don't need to worry about that! And maybe we are Lai!" She giggled again. This was fun!