Happy Hour

[balancingminds]

When Charles goes to the counter to get a scotch, he smiles and nods. He's glad to do a happy hour, Milliways has received a few shocks lately and if this will help then he's happy to do it. The cocktail book provides some good options as he starts to write.

Specials
Golden Friendship
Hedgehog
Dignified Iced Tea
If you've had a difficult week, share your troubles and your drink is free.

Its not a huge amount but he hopes its enough that he might make a few people smile tonight.

(OOC: Charles is listening passively so please include your character's thoughts in the narration or a reason why he wouldn't hear them. Thank you and at 1:30 am closed for the night. Open for new threads until the next Happy Hour goes up.)

Comments

[balancingminds]

"No, but it can easily be made non-alcoholic as it only has vodka added to it,"

This young man is more formally dressed than Charles has seen outside of Oxford but wears it easily. Charles is in his normal wear of a button down shirt with a tweed jacket over it with the collar of his shirt partially unbuttoned.

He does wonder about the industry paper, it reminds him of some of his own reading choices. The low level monitoring feels like a subtler version of what spies he's met does but without the same paranoia.

[04_after]

Quatre's smile quirks. "I'll have some un-dignified iced tea, then," he allows, amusement strong as he takes a seat.

He's tired (not as tired as he will be in a few weeks time), but content; there's the memory of a large family sharing an even larger meal, laid out on a series of tables in what looks to be a classical ballroom but the atmosphere is casual and comfortable chaotic. He is always glad to see his family for iftar, but he's relieved by the relative quiet of the bar.

"I'm Quatre Winner."

[balancingminds]

"Charles Xavier,"

He pours out the iced tea into an elegant tall glass with a thoughtful smile, the memory is wonderful. His family has never been that big, but to him that's what family should be, comfort around each other.

[04_after]

Quatre can't place his accent -- he thought it was English, at first, but now he's thinking maybe somewhere in North America. Or another world, entirely.

In any case: educated. Probably doesn't tend bar anywhere else.

"It's good to meet you, Charles," he says. "Is your night going well?"

[balancingminds]

"Its been interesting so far as I do always enjoy the chance to meet more people,"

His accent does seem to confuse people but he's gone back and forth from England his entire life. Jean was a pleasure though Hannibal worried him and he still wishes he knew more.

[04_after]

"Yes," Quatre says, smile softening. "People are always interesting." He mentally hesitates, before closing the mental drawer on any expansions on the topic.

"Where are you visiting from?"

There's a flicker of thought to his own home colony, suspended between the gravity fields of Earth and the Sun.

[balancingminds]

"Outside Washington DC, I'm doing some work there. I find them to be,"

That closing is intriguing but Charles won't push as its clear Quatre doesn't wish to talk.

[04_after]

Quatre tilts his head slightly, taking a drink of iced tea. "The capital of the United States," he half-asks, though he's pretty sure that's right. "Are you involved in politics?"

An international law expert, maybe. They're still trying to sort out a global system, though the United Earth Sphere Alliance made a lot of the initial progress. (The concept of the United Earth Sphere Alliance is tainted with anger, and an underlying guilt about being angry. He tries to suppress it, and succeeds, but it takes longer than previous attempts.)

[balancingminds]

"Not directly, my work is in genetics and the government has access to resources I don't,"

In time perhaps he will get more directly involved in politics if that's the best way to help mutantkind. Its a complicated situation and not an easy one, he knows Erik isn't happy with it but its their best chance for now.

[04_after]

Quatre's eyebrows raise, slightly, with a deeper-engaged interest.

In his mind the topic of genetics moves to the forefront, partially unfolded into sub-categories -- epigenetics, hereditary disease, genomic mutations, evolutionary -- but there's a sense of them only possessing high-level knowledge, not filled with details that come with expertise.

"What type of genetics?" he asks. "My sister's a geneticist," he clarifies, "but I'm only a businessman."

[balancingminds]

All the levels of detail are interesting and Charles smiles as he knows he's found a good audience,

"Mutations and their connections to evolution. When Bar is awake, I can ask her to give you a copy of my dissertation."

[04_after]

Quatre laughs. It's quiet, but good-natured. "I'd love to read it." He really would; at least the introduction and conclusion, which are the most layman-accessible parts of a science piece, but he is sure Charles assumes that. "But it may take me awhile. It's Ramadan, for me."

That Ramadan is busy enough to mean he barely has time to get his normal (extensive) business readings done is obvious to him -- it takes him a moment to remember that not everyone is familiar with it, in Milliways. "A holy month," he clarifies, a half-beat later.

[balancingminds]

"Ah, yes, I remember from some friends at Oxford how it would fill their time. At Milliways, there's time enough after. May I ask what you do?"

Charles smirks, he tries to write accessibly but his topic is complicated.

[04_after]

There's a faint relief at not having to explain.

"Oh," Quatre says lightly, and mentally hesitates -- more at trying to figure out what to explain, than an attempt to leave anything out.

(The parts of Quatre that dealt with the revolution are very firmly tucked away - he's overwhelmingly the Winner patriarch. That's not to say they couldn't be found, but rather that they would need looking for by someone who knew where to look.)

"Well," he says, after a moment. "I'm mostly a businessman. I'm in management with a corporation that oversees much of the physical infrastructure of the colony cluster I live in."

And here there are details, clustered into constellations, links all over the place. Any one piece, if examined, is linked to more -- either two, or three, or several dozen.

[balancingminds]

"Colony cluster, is that in space? That must be an interesting and exhausting job,"

From his thoughts, it seems to suit Quatre who has a fascinating mind with all of its interconnections and sections.

[04_after]

There's faint surprise, hidden on his face, that he forgot to say. He quickly rewinds the conversation and confirms, wryly, that he'd entirely missed it. Oh, well -- Charles doesn't seem to hold it against him.

"Yes," he says, with a quick smile. "It's a lot to keep track of, but it's beautiful to see everything work together. I live in L4, which is one of the stable areas in the Earth-Sun three-body system."

[balancingminds]

It was there in his head but Charles wanted to confirm,

"I can see that. That's what I enjoy about genetics, when you start to see the patterns and how they fit."