(no subject)

[gabriel_tam]

Everything about the opening ceremonies for the new Family and Life Support Center is tastefully coordinated in order to appeal to a wide variety of supporters and clientele both.

There's a large platform stage, of course, with tables for speakers and dignitaries set on either side of the center podium. Row upon row of chairs are arranged in gentle arcs between carefully-laid-out aisles, for the ease and convenience of the listening audience.

At the same time, the event planners had been wise enough to realize that the multitude of children expected would never be able to sit still for speeches, and as a result the Center's grassy courtyard holds a small-scale fair, complete with booths and prizes, food and games and all sorts of fun.

Adults and children wander freely back and forth, enjoying the event.

It's a beautiful day.

Comments

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's nostrils flare, and his winter-grey eyes catch the light oddly as he turns his head to survey the stage and its environs.

Everything is where it should be, so far. But, as ever, the Wolflord does not trust that this trend will continue.

Particularly not in light of all the muttered whispers he and Gabriel's other particularly clever aide-de-camp have run across.

Their very contradictory nature is what makes him so suspicious--someone seems to have disseminated a few too many rumors. But which are the fabricated ones?

Doubtless before today ends, at least a few of them will have been found out.

And it has been some time since Galadan has tasted blood.

[simon_doctor]

The introductory speaker is still going on when Simon and River slip into their reserved seats in the front row, Simon murmuring apologies as they cross in front of people.

[walk_ins]

Eyes follow their progress.

[aj_crawley]

More than one set; across the centre aisle, a man with a ragged scar traintracking from mouth to right ear leans forward to shoot them a lopsided grin. It's a little cloudy, but he's wearing sunglasses nonetheless.

To nobody's particular surprise, shortly on the heels of Senator Tam's affiliation with Children's Interplanetary (and confirmation as guest speaker for the opening ceremony of the Londinium Family and Life Support Center), the FLSC received a sizeable donation from Bentley Aeronautics.

It will fund the nascent Division of Foster Care.

Andronicus Crowley has a front row seat for the ceremony, a socialite's dream. But he seems somewhat... preoccupied. He's been scanning the crowd for a while now; that he goes back to it after greeting the Tam siblings suggests that it isn't them he's been looking for.

He shifts in his seat, and something blocky in the small of his back briefly spoils the line of his suit.

(Grey static, where there should have been... what?)

[un_fallen]

Far in the back, behind the booths and lights and music and three thousand children clamoring for ice planets and spun sugar, Raguel is sizing up the opposition.

He can see most of the security Tam has dispersed around him, though they're generally hazy figures through the commotion. Some are off to the side, presumably some are behind the stage, maybe a few plants in the crowd, the aisles, the courtyard. But none, at the moment, are on the stage. Nor are they likely to be, he reasons. Decorum dictates that Tam takes those few steps from his chair unaided and stands alone at the podium for his final address, visible to all. Raguel will have the fewest security members to dispatch if he bides his time until then.

Besides, there are a lot of civilians around; he'd like to avoid them if possible, and speeches will help with crowd control. It's not like he's some kind of monster, after all.

Raguel goes to the nearest booth and buys some popcorn.

[walk_ins]

Not everybody is smiling.

There's a child scattered here and there looking slightly put out -- a long afternoon and evening, after all, and it's warm out here, and even the most good-natured child can get tired. Too, there are marital problems -- spouses sniping at each other, a little, trying to deal with their children who are tired and hungry and coming down from too much sugar. And then there are the volunteers, dealing with bureaucracy (and a slightly less than tactful project coordinator who's prone to micromanagement if left to her own devices for too long) and sometimes less than pleasant fairgoers.

Then there are others.

Not everybody is smiling, no. Most people are. But not everybody.

And people are moving, circling, waiting, milling.

[river_meimei]

River has a bag of popcorn carefully balanced in her lap; she eats the puffed kernels, one by one. Her fingers leave small smears of butter and salt and wasabi on her beaded purple sundress. Simon takes an absent handful every so often.

His eyes are politely fixed on the speaker, except for quick glances at River and at their parents.

River's, on the other hand, flicker around the stage and the sky and the audience: restless, searching, uncertain.

"Stormclouds," she whispers, to Simon or to no one. "It's getting dark."

[simon_doctor]

"Shh, meimei," he whispers back. "Not for a while yet."

[river_meimei]

"Maybe." Her voice is distant, eyes on the late afternoon sky.

She blinks, and looks abruptly uncertain; a quick glance at Simon, and then she focuses on Gabriel and Regan on the platform above.

"I know," she whispers.

"Chronal cycle. Planetary axis today."

[regan_tam]

Nigel Haruka's speech is up to his usual standards: witty, well-enunciated enough to hear in the back rows, and (perhaps rarest of all) concise. Already it's winding to a close.

Regan listens with a small, warm smile -- it's practiced, just the right degree of interest, but for this particular speech that interest is sincere -- and drops her hand to squeeze her husband's briefly. He's up next.

Out in the audience and at the edges of the stage wait their bodyguards and security people, and those of every other dignitary here. It's strange, she reflects sometimes at the sight of a discreet and broad-shouldered shadow, how quickly they've gotten accustomed to that.

A tangle of kids has spilled into one aisle, bickering and giggling over their green puffs of spun sugar, and it makes her smile a little more. They are, after all, what this center's all about, no matter what fine words of thanks Nigel's speaking.

[gabriel_tam]

Up on the platform, Gabriel squeezes Regan's hand back, then discreetly checks his watch.

Everything is keeping to the schedule, which is no minor feat in and of itself.

He casts a quick glance over the crowd, noting the playing children and the swirl of adults at the back looking for seats or ushering their young ones out for another bit of candy or another game, then gives his attention to Haruka once more as the man concludes his address.

Applause rings out clearly, from both the stage and the crowd below. Gabriel gathers his notes together as Anita Horst moves to the podium.

"Well said, Nigel, and thank you. I'm sure we can all agree with your sentiments; it's why we're all here today, isn't it?" A polite ripple of laughter passes over the crowd, then subsides as she continues,

"Our next speaker certainly does, and has himself been an agent of great change in the system. Without further delay, allow me to introduce the Senator from Osiris and member of the Council of Seven, Gabriel Tam."

With a smile for Regan, Gabriel rises and crosses the stage, shaking Anita's hand before setting his papers on the podium and looking out at the crowd.

"Ni hao. It's an honor for me to be here today, on such an auspicious occasion--"

[walk_ins]

Amid the dying applause, people shift in their seats and on the fringes of the crowd.

[wolflord_andain]

It is not that Galadan's attention sharpens, not quite.

But his lip curls to show his teeth, if only a little, and there is something self-contained and fierce about his expression.

The wolf is always with him, even here, where he is not wearing fur.

And he is no longer paying attention only with his eyes, or his ears. Though the tiny fairground near the rear of the festivities is reasonably distracting.

He shakes his head once, refocusing, though the skin on his neck and face is tight with irritation.

[un_fallen]

He's at the back of the seating area suddenly, watching intently as Tam crosses to the podium. The time is not quite right - there's a balloon vendor blocking part of his view and a harried teacher trying to seat twelve chattering eight-year-olds in the aisle. He can wait.

If anyone glances over they'll see just another guy on the fringes of the crowd, munching popcorn.

If they look back, he'll already be gone.

He's really beginning to enjoy this.

[simon_doctor]

Simon's beginning to enjoy this.

Because -- it's his ba up there speaking, the Senator from Osiris, and people are listening to him.

Not that he's said anything terribly unexpected yet, just the usual courtesies and thanks and some standard words about the Center's mission, but he's starting to get that gleam in his eye that precedes making a particularly strong point. And people around him are catching it too, and leaning forward unconsciously to hear him.

And what he's saying doesn't just sound good; it is good, and it's true, and he means it.

Simon catches his mother's eye, and smiles at her in shared pride.

[regan_tam]

When she's not looking at the speaker -- at Gabriel, now -- she's looking at her children.

And yes, River's attention is wandering as it always does these days, and she's eating popcorn the way she did when she was three, but it's so good to see them here. So wonderfully good to see them both.

She once thought she'd lost them forever, and she can never forget that. Every time she catches sight of them her heart swells. When Simon smiles at her she returns it, quick and warm and with the private understanding of family: I know, and isn't it wonderful?

[walk_ins]

Some people are smiling appropriately -- commensurate with the occasion. They're men in dark shirts and slacks, and good shoes, as it's not a formal occasion. One or two of them wear jackets.

They're not evenly spread out.

Three of them are seated.

Two of them are standing.

One of them moves closer.

[aj_crawley]

Even as the keynote speech builds up steam and gets under way, the crowd around the blocks of seats moves restlessly; an upper-class ocean on a slightly breezy day, not quite soon enough after lunch not to be thinking about dinner.

Crowley's head snaps around at a slight commotion, rising out of the centre of a sudden bulge in the crowd - and winches his gaze determinedly back to the stage when it turns out to be nothing more than a skinned knee and a popped balloon.

There's no reason to - there have been rumours, of course. But there's no reason to suspect that there's anything Gabriel Tam's security can't handle.

Except a hunch, and the prickling hairs on the back of Crowley's neck. A surveillance tape showing... nothing. And a  g a p  where there shouldn't have been, and grey static where there should have been - what?

Crowley's on edge.

[river_meimei]

Simon's smiling.

Simon's smiling, and Gabriel's speaking with fluent assurance and his own smiles for the crowd -- and one for his daughter just a few moments ago, and River smiled back and she meant it then, bright and proud and conspiratorial.

But she's not smiling now.

"Simon," she whispers under a ripple of laughter at Gabriel's latest dry witticism. "I hear thunder."

The sky she's staring at is a clear and perfect blue.

[simon_doctor]

And that's enough to make the smile slip away from Simon's face, as he glances at her.

Because if he hasn't learned by now to pay attention when she starts talking like this --

"What is it?"

[river_meimei]

River shakes her head.

She squeezes her eyes closed, before with an uncertain sideways shifting she bows her head to stare at the popcorn resting in her hand instead.

"Nothing," she whispers, but it doesn't sound like a dismissal. It sounds like an answer.

[walk_ins]

There's an aisle splitting the two sides of the audience. It's very long.

The figure moving forward comes down the carpet. His very nice shoes make no sound at all.

Behind him, the other two standing figures move to the rear of the aisle.

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's attention, ever shifting, rests briefly on the man coming down the aisle.

It flicks quickly to the men who have risen to block said aisle, then settles back on the one who is moving.

His lip curls in an unvoiced snarl, then, expression smooth, he moves casually toward the stage.

[un_fallen]

A harsh clamor breaks through the hush while Gabriel Tam speaks.

Now. Do it now.

Now.

The audience is mostly silent, rapt, but the harsh voices continue. They're louder now, arguing, screaming.

DO IT NOW.

Justice is most often depicted with a set of weighing scales typically suspended from her left hand, upon which she measures the strengths of a case's support and opposition.

Raguel moves like he's been standing on a tightly wound spring. His eyes are fixed on the figure behind the podium.

She is also often seen carrying a double-edged sword in her right hand,

He doesn't have his wings out, but he's moving so fast that the streak of darkness through the aisle is hardly visible.

symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice,

A quarter of the way down, he disappears.

which may be wielded either for or against any party.

From the relative anonymity of a crowded section twenty rows back, he pauses for a split second. He grins at the speaker like they share a secret, and streaks off again in the vague direction of the stage.

[gabriel_tam]

"--and given the infinite possibility inherent in the futures of the children of every planet from Core to Rim, I'm certain you'll agree that they are our most precious resource, and as such--"

It's not that he's entirely blind to what's going on, far from it. Even as he progresses smoothly through his prepared remarks, Gabriel knows that Bajian Li's team is drifting through the fair-crowd and around the edges of things, monitoring everything they possibly can. What's more, he notes the figure moving down the center aisle, even as he notes Galadan's swift, dangerously graceful response.

He notices, but he doesn't acknowledge it openly; his smile is relaxed and his manner assured and confident. He's aware, yes, but that's why security is there in the first place. It's not the first time that there's been some minor threat or overeager member of the media, and he's sure it won't be the last.

"--we must do everything in our power to ensure that the work of centers such as this one not only continues, but is carried forward--"

fwoomp

The soft sound of displaced air is at once oddly quiet and strangely compelling. Gabriel looks out at the crowd, seeking the source, and his eyes widen sharply as his glance is met by a brilliant blue gaze.

(are you a man of faith?)

It's the sort of gaze that could see straight into a man's heart and judge it-- and it just so happens that he knows that the figure before him can do just that.

(what matters now is what you do next)

Gabriel stops mid-word and stares at Raguel, and as he does an unhealthy pallor comes over his face.

"Lăotiān, bù. Have I failed so badly a second time, then?"

It's soft, barely audible, and likely makes little sense to anyone who hears it, but one thing is perfectly clear.

In the face of this threat-- Gabriel Tam doesn't move, but stands perfectly still, as if waiting for something.