5298/Externals - Duck Soup

Externals - Duck Soup
Date of Scene:	04 September 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Black Queen, Ekaterina Vespucci

---

Black Queen has posed:
There's not much to the place from the outside. It's a Chinese restaurant, and there's lots of amazing smells coming from it. Really there's not anything special about the place except for the fact that it's packed, and has nothing but 5 star ratings on Yelp. No 4s, no 3s, nothing but 5s. And hundreds of them. It's a place that Selene has cultivated over many centuries, starting in China a few thousand years ago, she started a family off and taught someone some cooking that would later begin to spread. The family members that ran off to do other things than cook? Dead. Every last one of them. The rest, cultivated more, to meet top chefs and pass on their skills to their children and so on. This place is literally thousands of years of Selene's labor. It helps that much of the staff are also her thralls at this point.

Today she's mingling with the mortals. Downstairs. Instead of upstairs past the sign that says employees only like she usually does. And yet, despite all of her work, what is she doing? Drinking a glass of wine and looking out the window. She's not even got pot stickers or anything else to eat. Just here, sitting, watching as people go zipping past out of the window, come in and out of the restaurant. Sometimes it pays to be immortal, you can dilly dally with your other projects from time to time and not feel at all guilty.

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
Into this environment walks another immortal. Contessa Ekaterina Vespucci as she had come to be known in the Renaissance. A title she had secured by marriage. Kat's original birth name had not aged well so she was glad for the switch. She'd heard good things about the food but had not the slightest idea whom she would happen across here. At present Kat is dressed in casual winter wear which is frumpy. She is short with large cornflower blue eyes looking much the same sort of girl next door attractive as when Selene saw her last. Some things never change. Kat or Artifice as she came to embody was always well intentioned despite the various and manifold disasters she had inflicted on the world. Her motives different from Selene's even if the outcomes were often similar. When her large eyes catch Selene's form she jumps an inch or two - but merrily crosses the floor towards her. Regardless of Selene's attitude towards Kat the elder mutant was the closest thing she saw to family. And probably a better conversationalist than Apocalypse. She's heading towards Selene now smiling sweetly as she always does giving the woman mere moments to decide whether to flee or endure a possibly annoying encounter with the ever exuberant Kat.

Black Queen has posed:
It's almost like sunshine walked right into the place. Selene isn't one of those mutants who avoids using her powers. And she was here before Apocalypse so boy does she know how bad of a conversationalist he is... she blames his generation of mutants for much of everything. In mid-sip of her wine she glances toward the door to see... who? "Oh..." To herself she says, though it's probably heard by the super sense Ekaterina. And when Kat gets to the table that Selene is at, she holds out a hand in the direction of the other side of the booth, so inconveniently taking up much of the side she's on. She smiles lightly though it doesn't quite reach her eyes, "Ekaterina. Please, sit, on that side, there." She mentions pointing to the free side of the booth. "And, what on earth, brings you to... this place? This day? At this exact time?" There's still that ever present socialite smile on Selene's face as she's trying to head off the 'happy' one before she's able to share.

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
Kat is almost unnaturally happy to see the other mutant - so much so that she beams it. Her psychoprojective abilities pound any sensatives with this particular emotion to the point of nausea. She takes a seat adjacent Selene as indicated. She does not hug her - small mercys must be taken where they can be found. "Selene! How long has it been. You look gorgeous as always - and that's a whole lot of always where you are concerned. I heard the food in this place is delectable - and well you know that I can experience it on more levels than most people. This is your place? I did not know..." It's hard to tell whether Kat is telling the truth about that last statement. She was as always at once clueless and all knowing like a 1200 year old child.

Black Queen has posed:
"Let me see. I would say about 132 years. Give or take a decade." Selene offers dismissively, and there's a slight psychic pressure in the air now. A small trick Selene does whenever she's talking to another meta who isn't shy about talking about their meta abilities. Yes, any one in the entire restaurant who might overhear the conversation, now doesn't remember Selene's voice or mention of her. Though things Ekaterina says about herself or others does not necessarily get erased. But it's a busy place and the low rumble of noise would likely keep their conversation secret anyhow. "Not my place. Though a place, that I am due thanks for its existence." And she offers, "If you want some food, do not mind me. I hear it is quite perfected." Despite her ability to consume food, and the thousands of years she took to make this place a possibility, Selene hasn't eaten here?

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
"You mean to imply you had something to do with this particular eastern expression of cullinary excellence?" Kat had to dig she was curious - and Selene had been around for oh so much longer than she had. "I wonder if I am ever around for as long as you have been whether I'll kick something off like that? Do you think I'd change? Have you over the years?" Making immortal small talk - Kat orders her food. As usual it would appear to be way too much. Kat always did this - overate without any sign of it affecting her diminutive figure. She is having a feast for four which widens the eyes of the waitstaff even though they are assuming that she is spliting it with Selene. Such would only occur in the unlikely event Selene wanted some. "I don't know why you bother with the magic mind wipe. If anybody caught us talking about the Dark Ages and what we were up to they'd just assume we were Larping or something nowadays."

Black Queen has posed:
There's some wisdom to Kat's words about them being assumed to be LARPing, or something similar. Though it's not without it's credit, Selene still keeps up the minor mind wipe. "It is not about what the people in the room assume. But the pieces that fall together in a hundred years." Selene offers, shaking her head just a little bit, "You will likely change. Why would I change? Can the square become anymore square like?" She looks at all the food that Kat orders and Selene sighs a bit. "And yes, I had something to do with this. In, well, before you, I began this little project. Though I did not know exactly what it would turn out to be, it was a good social experiment. You have to keep yourself busy after all, else the years will seem like centuries."

Ekaterina Vespucci has posed:
Kat begins to eat and her trable manners are probably just as bad as Selene remembers them with her angelic little face stained with soy. "Wff elsf do youf do for hobbies?" Kat manages to mumble out through mouthfuls. Even a psychic would have trouble understanding her. "I've recently taken up bowling. You should join my team. I bet you we could trounce the X-men if they had a team." That would be a sight Kat and Selene bowling against the X-men in a league tourney. A hint of amusement in Kat's eyes suggests that she knows the idea would seem too ludicrous to contemplate for Selene. Unless she upped the ante and said yes. That would really surprise Lady Artifice.

Black Queen has posed:
"Bowling?" Selene grimaces at that idea, and just sort of stares at Kat with an incredulous look. When there's a moment's pause in the other woman's eating talking fest, Selene says, "I am very busy watching as my plans come into fruition, or torturing someone. Though I have a lot of little projects that are ongoing." She stands up from the booth though and mentions, with a smile, "Feel free to have whatever you want. Maybe you can come by the Hellfire club another night and we can talk more."