DRUMROLL PLEASE...

[latebreaking]

WHO: Everyone participating and attending the CHARITY BENEFIT. Don't forget to tag yourselves!
WHERE: One of the City's many fancy, large event ballrooms
WHEN: FRIDAY, the 5th, 5 PM onward
WARNINGS: Doubtfully any?
SUMMARY: It's the big night at last! FOR YOUR OWN REFERENCE: Bidding results have been posted here.
FORMAT: Whatever is your pleasure.


The night is here at last. Please make sure you're dressed as nicely as you're able, and take care to donate at the door if you're able -- it's not required, but it's all too a good cause. Upon entering the ballroom you'll see many tables laid out with white tablecloths and place settings; feel free can sit and order something, the restaurant is open until 11PM and the bar opens at 8PM. In the left corner is the table where at any given hour or half hour interval you can find someone signing autographs and photos for imPorts or natives alike. The schedule reads:

ERIDAN AMPORA, 5PM - 5:30PM
DEPUTY MAYOR EDWARD NYMGA, 5:30PM - 6PM
CAPTAIN METROPOLIS, 6PM - 6:30PM
MORDIN SOLUS, 6:30PM - 7PM
BEAST, 7PM - 8PM
HUNTRESS, 8PM - 9PM
GREEN ARROW, 9PM - 10PM
WILD TIGER, 10PM - 11PM
IRON MAN, 11PM - 12AM

In the right corner is the auction set-up; at 8PM sharp the auctioneer will set up a ballot for silent bids to be placed, and announce the highest bids at 15 minute intervals. Good luck! It should be wrapped, like the signings, at 12 midnight. Have fun tonight, Cityzens, eat, drink, be merry, and bid until your desired option has been pried from your cold not-dead fingers. At 12:15 the WINNING BIDS will be announced.

Congratulations, everyone; you have raised $136,022! Below are separate mingling threads to utilize as you'd like: there's loads to do, just mind the clock. As usual, don't be shy about new CR!

Comments

[incywincyhero]

Peter has seen Ruka around on the network, but they haven't interacted enough for him to immediately see through her disguise. What draws his attention is the camera, and he approaches her in the mode of enthusiast spotting another (possible) enthusiast.

"Get anything promising?" he says, once it looks like she's done taking her most recent shot.

[dragony]

Ruka being an enthusiast for, well, anything is practically impossible; certainly there's no excitement in her expression, and overall she simply seems tired, and bored. She does, however, lower the camera at the sound of a voice calling to her, and she puts on a congenial smile in greeting.

"Maybe, I think," she offers, casual, a little flippant. "I can never tell this early."

[incywincyhero]

"True art is pain," Peter said solemnly, and winked. "Or minor inconvenience, anyway.

"I don't think we've met, but you look a little familiar. Hang around the network a lot, by any chance?"

[dragony]

"Some." Admission, with her head canting a little to the side; it wasn't the easiest thing, pinning voices from a few feet away to ones heard over the Network, and the same was true of some plainer faces. She was trying to pin the man before her right now, and having little luck. "But I don't show my face too much, these days. I'm Ruka."

Though not impossible, it was difficult to see the eye patch beneath the side-swooped veil of bangs—but if a person knew it was there, it was easy enough to realize why her face was so scarce on video.

[incywincyhero]

"Oh, you're --" He frowns very slightly, his gaze flicking to the fall of her bangs over one eye before his face clears-- "Ruka, right? Didn't you used to have green hair?"

[dragony]

"I did." The corner of her mouth draws back, as though smiling, and her shoulders move in a shrug. "But it wasn't a very subtle color, in the end."

[incywincyhero]

"Well, it looks nice either way." It's one of those typical, adult-talking-to-teenager platitudes, but he manages to make it sound sincere, even if he then stumbles into an awkward pause.

"So," a moment later. "You're into photography?"

[dragony]

The compliment, for its weakness, only earns a shrug of one shoulder, rolling it away from her unacknowledged. The query was the more important thing, anyway.

"Not for its own ends, no," she answered, her head canting to the side, attention straying from his face. "It's mostly for reference, that's all."

[incywincyhero]

"Oh, are you an artist? Or is this some kind of social studies project?" Now that Peter thought of it, he was surprised someone hadn't published a paper on import social dynamics already.

[dragony]

"Artist," she said with a short nod. "It's not easy to get reference shots of people in clothing like this, that aren't from fashion magazines or shopping catalogs."

[incywincyhero]

"You could always try going to the opera," Peter suggested with a mostly-straight face. "I hear they still like to dress up a bit there, not that I'd know. Not my kind of scene."

[dragony]

"But then I'd be at the opera." Another shrug, her attention drifting—absently looking for a certain familiar person in the crowd. "If I were going to that, I would want to be there for the opera itself. Besides, I'm sure I would go with someone, and taking pictures at a place like that, I don't know if that would be very polite."

[incywincyhero]

"Yeah? What makes this place any different?" He's not challenging, just honestly curious.

[dragony]

Her answer comes easy, and incredibly blithe.

"More likely to end with a catastrophe. It's a little harder, I think, to worry too much about every level of social etiquette, when there's so high a probability that someone will wind up dead, or stabbed, or that entire wall, there, is knocked down in a superhuman brawl."

[incywincyhero]

Peter knows it probably says something twisted about his sense of humor that he finds that funny; he laughs anyway. "Hard to argue with that," he says, still chuckling. "If you don't mind, though, I'm gonna hope you're wrong just this once. At least until the auction's over and I know which friends to make fun of."

[dragony]

"Oh?" The laugh is appreciated, even if she hadn't aimed for it; regardless, the new line gets him a curious look. "Not bidding yourself?"

[incywincyhero]

"Nah." Peter took a sip of his neglected drink, and grimaced. Flat soda. "My girlfriend got ported out not that long ago -- I know this is all in good fun, but it'd still feel kinda weird."

[dragony]

Ah.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she offered, the condolence sincere. Even if she didn't know who he meant, and even if that person were someone she detested, she could only imagine the sort of pain that would come with that.

Just thinking about losing the person she loved was enough to send a miserable shudder down her spine.

[incywincyhero]

He waved it off, mostly sincere. "It's all right, really -- I'll see her back home eventually. Even if we won't remember...

"Anyway, you certainly don't need to hear me gabbing on about it. What about you, are you bidding on anything?"