Mariusz had to admit that it felt rather nice to be out flying in clothing that wasn't a full on three-piece suit like he normally wore when out and about. Since he knew that he was heading to a mutant hangout tonight, on a mission no less, he had been able to dress considerably more casually without worrying that his state of dress, or lack thereof, would be a problem when he arrived at his destination. Tonight he was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans and a New York Islanders T-shirt, clothing he practically never wore.

Spotting his destination far below, a mutant friendly bar called Shadow's Light run by a mutant woman by the name of Melissa Xilx with a penchant for making alcohol, Mariusz brought in his wings and dove the short distance to the ground before landing and walking into the bar. It was a still fairly early in the evening, past the dinner rush but before all the late night drinkers would arrive so the bar was pretty empty when he entered but he quickly spotted the bar's owner at work behind the bartop.

Crossing to the bar Mariusz seated himself on a stool and then tapped the bar gently with one taloned finger to make sure that he wouldn't do any damage to the bar. "A Pilsner Urquell, fish and chips, and a moment of your time when you have a moment, Ms. Xilx," Mariusz said, turning his attention to the playoff hockey game that was on one of the tv's behind the bar.

It had been a very boring day. The dinner crowd well never large to begin with, had been almost non existent. She should have been happy for the time off, but instead she was just board. SHe sometimes questioned being open at all during the day but she was never entirely sure what she might do otherwise. Opening a bottle of Budweiser, she put it down in front of a customer and while walking back to the center of the bar top to recount the bottles of booze she had stocked, a voice who knew her mentioned her name and more.

She knew not the voice that spoke to her, but it was hard to forget a man with feather's and wings. She stopped bothering to count and bent down grabbing the man's beer brand and set it before him. SHe put his order back into the kitchen. She considered his word's and found them interesting enough to bite.

"You got my attention" she said interesting and brushing her hair behind her shoulder. It only now registered he called her Ms and she thought about telling him to simply call her Melissa but she decided to wait to see what he wanted besides his order.

"I think I have a rather lucrative one time job offer for you to cater all of the alcohol needs for a rather large party that my father is throwing," Mariusz said, taking a sip from his drink. "I imagine it would net you several thousand dollars in profit. I think I recall telling you that my father is the Czech Ambassador to the United States." He paused for a moment to take another sip of beer.

"He is hosting a major Embassy event, a large party at the Waldorf Astoria here that will require renting both the Grand Ballroom and Starlight Lounge. I do not know exactly how many people will be there, other than probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand plus. The event is also a masquerade ball, so you will need something suitable to wear but you can bill it to the Embassy. Are you interested," the feathered man asked over the top of his beer.

To say the offer surprised her was an understatement. She had not recalled that particular fact about the birdman but it did sound like an offer that would be profitable in more then just money. Th exposure would tell many about her bar that may not have heard about it which she knew would bring in customers. She waited for him to Finnish before she offered a reply, though she was fairly sure her excitement on the idea was showing through.

"I am quite interested in your offer and i think your right about the prophet involved as well. I'll need a list of any specific types of Alcohol you want. I don't have much from that part of the world, other then some of the beer your drinking" she said. Honestly this was roughly the third of the brand she had sold in the past few months. "I am honored you thought of me for this, when is it?" she asked curiously. SHe had never done an actual event since obtaining her own bar.

"Very high society, I think that wine of all varieties will be in high demand. Reds, whites, and sparkling. Champagne too, I would imagine. Dom Perignon, rose and blanc. I would also think that the higher end mixed drinks will be popular, such as martini's. A wide variety of scotch and whiskey would also be good, and I believe that some of the Americans that will be in attendance are bourbon drinkers," Mariusz said, thinking on the subject a bit as he finished sipping his beer and put the empty bottle on the bar, pushing it in Melissa's direction.

"As for beer, there will be no bottles. Only kegs. We will need several kegs of Pilsner Urquell, Starobrno Rezak, and Gambrinus Premium. Starobrno and Gambrinus are a Czech beers, you may have to special order them," the bird-like mutant said, trying to be helpful rather than snobbish.

"I think, perhaps, five kegs of each will do. After that we will need kegs for a variety of beers from around the world. This will be an event with guests from the entirety of the global community. Three different styles of German beer will be needed; a Berliner Weisse, a Schwarzbier, and a Maibock. Maibock will, of course, be in season since they are usually brewed in the spring. At least two kegs of Guinness Stout. A single keg of Kirin Ichiban Shibori, it is an especial favorite of the Japanese Ambassador. Also a keg of Kolyani Black Label as there will be a sizable Indian group at the party as well. As for American brews, I was wondering if I might be able to sample a few of the beers you have on tap? Not full pints, of course, just little tasters will be fine."

She wrote down the brand's he wanted. She had a good memory for somthing like this, simply did not wish to miss anything. She wnated it to go off perfectly. When he got to the keg's she found he was right. Most of it she would need to special order as such foreign brands were just not to popular here. SHe had never heard of some of the brand's either which did not help, but she knew she could find them. "I will, but that should not be an issue" she said thinking.

It sunk in further how high class this party actually was when he mentioned the Japanese ambassador of Japan being there as well as an Indien group he mentioned. The beer she knew better and though she wrote that down as well though. Guinesses was mildly popular though she hated the stuff herself. She was still considering all this when he mentioned about sampling American brews.

She nodded and turned to the tap. She had budweiser, bud, light, Heinikin, Molsen Canadian and Labatts on tap. She would start in roughly that order for him to Sample, although she poured him more then he requested. He had just become her most profitable customer. "We can certainly do that" she said as she turned and slipped a glass of Budweiser in front of him.

She breifly considered what to wear to such a party. It was easily higher class then anything she had been to. Still it sounded like fun, to go to and to watch. "All of this seem's easy enough to have done. I keep about 6 on tap, though i think the Heinikin is German" she said not really sure on that.

"Yes, Heineken is German," Mariusz said, sipping at the offered beer and trying to refrain from making a face. How on Earth could this possibly be called beer? No self-respecting beer would taste like this. He had noticed, of course, that Melissa didn't keep any things on tap and he was sure that there were other bars and pubs with a much greater variety. However, most of those other places weren't owned by a mutant, and he wanted the mutant community to get the business.

"Well, this is certainly different. In Europe the EU has made Budweiser a protected regional trademark. Just as champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France, Budweiser only comes from a handful of breweries in my homeland and it is considerably different from this," he said, sipping at the beer again. He didn't really want to finish the Budweiser but, since she had given him a full glass instead of a taster, it would have been rude to reject it.

"There was another matter I wanted to ask you about as well, if you have the time," Mariusz asked, abruptly taking the glass of Budweiser and downing it all in a few gulps. When the beer was weak it was much easier to pound it like that.

She had never heard what Talon was telling her before, but it made sense. Though she was embarrassed to say she had not realized Budweiser was a foreign brand at all. "I had no idea about that, but i would guess theirs something different they do to it here. Law's differ a lot by state as well." she said having no idea what the difference might have been.

"And that would be?" she asked curiously. It was already turning out to be a wonderful day and she wanted to believe this next matter would be more good news.

SHe took a look around the bar again, it was still mostly dead. A drunk found his way to his feet and stumbled toward the exit, but nothing to be worried about. The place was standing much to her surprise. When she had come to new york, she had half thought her parents were right and the place would wind up in rubble.

Turning her attention back to Talon she smiled and waited to here about this other matter, which she could not begin to guess at.

"You have to keep it to yourself, for the time being," he said, leaning over the bar just a bit in a conspiratorial manner. "I have gained American citizenship and I am planning on running for the office of Mayor here in New York in the coming election. I believe I am the first mutant candidate to run for the office. Obviously, I will need to announce my candidacy somewhere and I cannot truly think of a better place than this bar. Not the most traditional, but still a bar run by mutants for mutants."

"I expect, though, that it will be a bit of a media circus when I make the announcement and given the recent events with the riots and everything it might make your business a bit of a target if I made the announcement and held the press conference here. So, if you would prefer, I can do it elsewhere. Still, you would be missing out on a great deal of free publicity in the press by being the host site for the announcement." Mariusz leaned back and settled back on the barstool and decided to changethe topic.

"Also, do you have something on tap that is stronger than this?" He gestured to the empty glass that had, a few moments before, been filled with Budweiser. "It is not much of a beer."

To say she was caught off guard was an understatement. He was running for mayer and wanted announce the speech at her bar. It made sense, for a mutant candidate to announce it at such a place, but the suddenness was a bit overwhelming. She had top agree it was a non traditional choice as well but she assumed he would be trying to appeal to the mutant vote.

Normally she would have rejected the offer politely. Politics were no good for business, you tended to alienate some people while improving relations to others but the end result was usually a loss. Still, a guy like this might alienate Humans which were never in the bar anyway or if they were they never admitted it.

" Before i can accept or decline that, i would like to hear about your policies. It's not that your idea does not interest me, it does, but i dont want to risk my business not knowing what you plan to do" she said honestly but seriously. "If i agree with what you have to say, you can announce it here" she went on believing no matter what the Bird Mutant would make it sound good, if he was half good politician.

She took the glass and set in the sink, to soak before, filled another glass this one was. This was Heineken it was a fairly big seller. She served it while she took interest in Talon's reply.