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Can be arranged. It had sounded somewhat like a business matter - one in which a transfer deal had inevitably been sealed. In a way, it was such a thing. A request and a deal - he was thinking too hard. Again. About silly things at that! There was simple happiness underlying such unruly thought. It was as if Rodney had found gold to hear it was not an impossibility - and he had happily taken the small glass bottle once it had arrived. As polite as he ever may have been, he had thanked the bartender for the drink. What the other concoction was, Rodney was uncertain.

"I greatly appreciate this; I hardly remember what this tastes like." Oh, sweet fondness. He remembered them from occasional trips or treats when he was a boy. The thick, syrup-like nature of the drink was almost heavenly. His mouth was dry thinking of it.

Slowly, Rodney had slipped the sack up a bit to place the bottle to his mouth and have a sip. His thin lips had curled satisfactory as he hummed a little after. "Beautiful." He'd set the bottle down; one hand had continued to hold the sack up just a bit. Eventually he had tilted it back, balancing it as well as he could until it again slipped down over him. He should have cut a mouth hole.

At the sound of Shee's question, Rodney hadn't been able to contain the bit of laughter. He had set his hands on the bar, heaving a sigh. His shoulders had lifted in a shrug. "It seemed like a good idea earlier today." He had wrinkled his nose somewhat, pulling the sack up over his mouth again to drink. "I was so busy, I'd actually forgotten to come up with something. It's easy to get lost in something once you've started it; I only wish I was managing something life-sized. Little things are a wonderful hobby." He was rambling, and as he realized it, he had cleared his throat. "I wish I had thought of something nicer. I've never been to one of these before. They always seemed like something for the Queen to attend."


"How about you, ma'am?" He had added as an after thought. His eyes seemed almost quizzical as he took yet another sip from his cola.

Lai smiled at the girl who's shoulders he had a grip on; a warm, easy smile to help calm the girl down even more. Just taking off his mask seemed to have had a positive effect, so a smile, the international sign of friendship and joy, should help more. He was really glad she had stopped screaming.

When Hyo had spoken first, Lai cocked his head to the side, not understanding. He took the words for "I am afraid" though and decided that the girl's best bet to calm down was to leave the room entirely and sit down in the hallway for a time. Lai nodded and, despite his nervous tendencies around women, helped Hyo up.

"Do not worry, you will be okay soon." He picked up his mask in his left hand and put his right arm across Hyo's back, though over his arms, and started to lead the Korean towards the door and the hallway beyond it. "I think the best bet would be for you to sit down and calm yourself for awhile. That way we do not have to worry about you having a heart attack or something." He was so concerned with getting Hyo out he did not hear his broken English 'thank you' attempts.

Lai heard the metal banging sound and followed Einar for a ways before guiding Hyo and himself around the man. He glanced over his shoulder at the Norwegian as he grabbed the backing underside of a spare chair with his left palm. He decided to avoid using 'sir' this time as he spoke.

"Comrade...? Comrade you do not have to leave entirely. Come, sit in the hall with me and this girl, I shall try to explain you are not as frightening as you look in your outfit and mean no harm. I just hope the language barriers will not be a problem...We all need to cool down after that." He tossed his head back a bit as his hand were full. "And I apologize for manhandling you before, but the situation was getting out of hand."

With that and not waiting for a response he turned back and brought Hyo out the doors, turning left and walking down the hall a bit before placing the chair down. Lai took his arm off from around the girl and pointed to Hyo then the chair.

"You. Sit. Okay? Sit down. Here."

The kind spirit was taking him away somewhere?
For a moment, Hyo felt afraid again. All that happened recently was just...just too much for the boy. But then he told himself that this time it's the kind spirit, not the foul demons. The kind spirit wouldn't hurt him! He was taking care of him, and had such a nice voice, and seemed to really care about the boy's well-being...

...but then he said something to the ice-cold demon again. And judging from his voice, he wasn't banishing it to the depths of hell.
Just what was the kind spirit doing? Did the demon throw some kind of an ugly spell on him..?

But then they passed the demon, and kept walking. That's good, Hyo was a bit worried... But everything is going to be fine now.
The spirit led him to a weird item, a bit similar to the one he was asked to sit on last time, but a bit more fragile. Not sure if he was thinking correctly, he held the item, raised it, shook a bit, and looked questioningly at the spirit. Then he let it down again, and carefully sat on it - but this time in the formal position, so he was sitting on his feet, hands on the knees. He was in the presence of a spirit, after all.
Too bad that the item didn't seem to be too comfortable for such a position.

"I...don't really see the need of me hanging around here. I've got better things to do then pander to a crying figure in a mask."

When Lai spoke to Einar the man had thought for a moment about following the pair to wherever they were going just for a chance to continue speaking with Lai, but after those seconds past his thoughts turned back to the fact that the figure with Lai was a simpering crybaby and that turned him away.

Why...why was he so irritated right now? Was it the clothes? This stupid mask? He'd never felt comfortable in his storm suit no matter how much protection it actually provided; he always felt naked and exposed when in reality he was so covered. He liked his pilot uniform better even though those clothes most certainly could not stop a bullet.

"I won't leave the party if that'll make you happy, but I'm not going to stand around while you try to buffer my reputation. It's not up to you how others perceive me."

so with those as his parting words Einar skimmed his memory for the location of where he'd seen alcohol being served. He wasn't one for drinking although he could hold his own should the need arise, and with all this drama in the air caused by a giant meal with legs and his own temper he was ready for something to drown it out. His metal shoes clinked against the ground as he made his way to the bar, ready to ignore all else until he was swimming inside his head.

"Hey, can I get whatever you have that's the strongest and works the fastest?"

"Oh no. You could not possibly be men. I know from those lovely voices that in there hide two mesdemoiselles."

Sebastien looked through his mask steadily at the hamburger, blue eyes the only respite from his golden image.

"For a ball, it is a pity that no one appears to be dancing. Is is possible to detach yourselves from each other? I would like to ask for a dance, although I am not sure that it is possible to dance with four legs." He made sure to stress the French accent, which otherwise was faint.


Eknephias had made his way back to bar, after a long and fruitless meander through the ballroom. He had run into Thasios again (literally) and knocked over an assortment of people. He was tired of acting stupid. The hamburger was getting all the attention by acting stupider.

His mood lightened upon hearing the latest request. Something strong... that he could get on board with.

"Finally. Someone who's not afraid of a little something with an edge."

He leaned on the counter and stretched exaggeratedly. "Absinthe? Not as strong as I would like, but it looks appealing. Perhaps a little personal adaptation should be made."

"Eh, the stronger the better. I'm ready to test and see if my family really does have a legendary tolerance for all things alcoholic or liver threatening."

Einar slipped pushed his mask slightly to to the side, allowing enough that his mouth was finally visible and he could get some drink into him. Even though his mask had moved his face remained for the most part covered so no one could see that only a few inches away from the corner lurked a completely blank eye socket.

He waited for a drink to come to him instead of simply grabbing at any bottles that happened to be close enough, and as he leaned against the bar he sighed and thought back to what Lai had snapped at him as he walked away.

Better an a*****e than a murder. 100x better.

"you got anything over there that can erase memories too? I have a feeling something like that would come in handy before the night's over."

Two glasses of a clear, green liquid appeared on the counter, and Eknephias, motioned to the bartender wordlessly; he was handed back a slotted spoon, cubes of sugar and two small glasses of clear liquid.

He got to work, placing a cube lovingly onto the spoon over the larger glass, and pouring the clear liquids alternatingly over it. He paused, and repeated the procedure, deciding instead to use the liquid from only one of the smaller glasses this time. No use in killing his new friend, after all.

He pushed the second glass in the man's direction, and the fragrance of anise and fennel was exuded from the drink's now opalescent depths.

"I'm sure you will do your family proud."

He grinned as the man continued. Seemed he'd had a bad night already. "Absinthe has been known to have some... interesting side-effects. I'm sure you are able to handle it, though."


Sebastien blinked, surprised. He'd thought he'd be dancing with Estrelas, but apparently he had underestimated her penchant for romance. Or something.

"You are French as well? Ah, puis c'est parfait! Nous danserons pour la nuit entière! Si vous voulais, mademoiselle."

He nodded towards Estrelas, as if to take her leave, and then held out his hand expectantly to Eponine.

(( Ah, now it is perfect! We will dance the entire night. If you would like, miss. And that's an absolutely literal translation. xD))

"That is right Miss. 'Lai'. You got it right." Lai patted Hyo on the head again to show that he had gotten it right. The Russian wondered what the girl's name was when she did the same motion and spoke.

"Hyo? Your name is Hyo?" Repeating it would help it stick. He wouldn't want to forget it like he did that time with Einar's name. He smiled pleasantly and nodded at the girl. "Nice to meet you Hyo."

Judging by the smile the girl was feeling a lot better and Lai was pleased with that. She seemed to have fully stopped crying so no worries for Lai who was without anything but a faintly sweaty handkerchief in his breast pocket. Though, what to do now? He looked up and down the hall, nothing there, and shrugged out of his black jacket before tossing it down on the floor. Lai moved and sat down next to both the jacket and Hyo, not caring much about the coldness of the floor seeping through the back of his pants as he stripped his gloves from his hands. He pocketed those in the jacket's outside pocket and in a quick motion brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

"Bed would be good right now. Though I probably would not sleep too soundly."

He turned his head to the left and smiled at Hyo. With such a strong language barrier, the awkward would set in quickly, but he held out hope that body language and tone would help see him through.