Numerous members of the Utopia Committee were busily at work setting up tables for information, sign up to attend, and formal discussions. They wanted to help you but they also were keen on finding some mutants to help them. Devon was still waiting to hear them ask for good weather at Utopia. Hopefully it was clear to them that his place was here.

"Good afternoon, Commander," Devon said in a more formal tone as he approached Cail. They'd met about a month ago when Utopia had made its first appearance at Sanctuary

"Devon, things are looking good!" he nodded, gesturing over two a couple people speaking with one of the Utopia workers. "Thank you for letting us have a space here."

"Not a problem, thank you for being agreeable to the terms. I appreciate you keeping most of the business and administration side here. People might still come in anyway for the cold foods like the ice cream and there's plenty of seating too."

"Oh we quite understand," the Commander replied. He walked alongside Devon, "This should be a fun endeavor, put people at ease and comfort. You are making a community happen again. We appreciate your help."

"And we appreciate the donations, but thank you," Devon smiled. "I'm glad we can work together even if I'm not bound for Utopia. Not all can be."

The Command grinned and nodded, "I'll talk to you later." His attention went to a young woman in a floral blouse and navy skirt. "Did we get all the copies we needed made?"

Devon made sure there was plenty of water set up as well as cutlery for anyone who came in. The ice cream bar was at the far wall. Utopia had helped pay for that and it got some more traction into the Dining Room. Worked for everyone.

Grabbing a bottle of water for himself, he opened it quickly as he took a quick chug. Had he remembered to take his medication this morning? Past few days had been a blur, but he was feeling great. One day wasn't so bad.

((OOC: This thread represents the majority of the Dining Room activity. Feel free to post here and splinter off to private threads as necessary. Anything major that would be noted by all should be posted here as an FYI. ))

Juliette opened one of the huge golden doors that led into the Sanctuary and held it open slightly so Sam could step through behind her.

She glanced around; the place looked good. Devon had really done a good job of getting the place ready for the event. When she had heard about it, she knew that she wanted to attend. Even if she hadn't been able to volunteer as much as she had initially intended, she still cared about the place and what became of it.

The woman stepped all the way in and decided to head to the dinning room. The yard had seemed like a lively place, and she figured that they could check it out later, but the dinning area seemed like a good place to start. 

There were all sorts of people standing in the dinning room. She noticed Devon and an officer, and she waved to him quickly, not wanting to distract him from a potentially important conversation. 

"Sam..." She sighed as she noticed a familiar metal container in his hand out of the corner of her eye. "Put that away."

She wanted the party to go well, and she didn't think that having Sam drunk would be a good way to ensure that.

The icemancer frowned when he was told to put the flask away normally it would cause him to drink it out of spite but he liked Juliette and he didn’t feel like upsetting her, so he did as requested. Besides there was an open bar around here somewhere it was a charity ball right? That meant booze somewhere… Sam looked around then stopped when his eye caught his date again. Sam smirked and then reached his hand out for her and gave her a little twirl.

”Did I tell you how stunning you look tonight?” he asked smiling pulling her in a little close so he could whisper in her ear. ”I also want to point out I’ve arrested a small percentage of people in this room before, no telling how many others in the building. Inviting X-Men to a Sanctuary thing is dangerous. I’d feel better if I saw Geo or an Abyss but…” he didn’t see either and they were the bruisers from back in the day that did the heavy lifting for the Order. They at least had rules and guidelines Sam agreed with, they could be reasoned with.

On cue his sixth sense pushed out a little cold around them, a chill. Nothing more Juliette would notice it but most people wouldn’t. Only because she was standing so close to Sam. Giving her another spin and a kiss he raised an eyebrow. ”I’ll try to be on my best behavior for you though. Don’t want to embarrass you.” he said giving her a sly grin.

Juliette blushed a little and twirled when Sam extended his hand to her. Her skirt and top billowed slightly as she moved closer to him. That was one thing she wasn't certain about with the party. There had been no mention about how dress of an occasion it was supposed to be, so she had gone with something that wasn't incredibly casual, but not overly dressy: a green maxi skirt and a black sheer top.

"You don't look bad yourself," she grinned at him and glanced around. There were a great number of people there, and she wouldn't be surprised if not all of them aligned with their ideals. However, she had been to the Sanctuary many times, and she wasn't worried about the people that occupied it currently. "I'm sure it'll be fine," Juliette assure him, "it's a party, and Devon's done a great job with things. Just enjoy it and don't worry about who's here." She frowned slightly to herself, knowing she would have to eat those words if she turned out to be wrong.

"Good," she nodded to his final comment. She wrapped her arm behind him and snatched the flask from where he had put it away. She then opened her little purse and stashed it in there.

"Do you want to find a seat?" She suggested, not mentioning what she had just done. She glanced around at the dinning room. Most people were either seated or finding a seat, and they were spending their time talking about things that were too difficult to hear over the noise of the area. It didn't seem quite as lively as it was outside, but they were already there, so she figured they should at least sit for a while. They could always go back outside later. 

Linely arrived on the scene , he'd actually volenteered for this one, and it was very good of Devon to allow him to be off duty, which meant he could actually have a meal with the rest of the patrons. He was also some extra muscle , I mean he could take out a few individuals with little more than a look-that had to be good for something right?

He noticed Sam, who he'd met at the airport, talking to a woman that seemed quite taken with the X-man. He would introduce himself to them very soon, right after he found a seat. Food was important right? This was a Charity *dinner* in part. Sanctuary had proven itself to be very useful, and it wasn't long before he found himself a seat next to a rather eccentric looking British gentleman.

There were a couple of empty seats across the table , Joseph saw this as the perfect opportunity to call them over "Hey, Sam, there's a couple of seats free over here! Why don't you introduce me to your lady friend?" Hopefully he hadn't misunderstood the signals between the two of them...that would be embarrassing. Still, that could be taken as a simple greeting to a colleague.

He turned to the fellow next to him, who dressed in an almost Victorian manner, stereo-typically of course, it was obvious this guy was rich and liked to show off about it. Still, who was he to judge? "Sorry, They weren't meant for anyone were they?" He spoke to the man somewhat concerned at how rude he'd been.

"No, no, by all means let your friends sit! It is always good to meet new people." The man was in his middle ages, looked honestly like Penguin out of the Batman comic book, probably minus the crazy gadgets of course. His accent was British as well, but exceedingly formal, even by Linely's standards. Linely didn't know why, but this guy was somewhat disconcerting in the way he spoke.

"Joseph Linely, pleasure to make your acquaintance, and thank you for being so accommodating" He spoke carefully to the man, as it appeared the fellow was slightly hard of hearing. "Frederick Moystyn Jnr" spoke the gentleman, a posh name to fit a posh looking man. What a surprise.

Little did Linely know that he was speaking to the first horseman , Brother War, who wanted to meet as many people here as possible. NYC would soon feel their day of Judgement come, but first he would have to examine the tensions between the people here. The more likely to turn violent, the more likely it was he could cause carnage in NYC without even being detected... not here though, no matter how amusing that would be, now was the time for subtlety.

Devon looked over his water bottle to see Juliette come in. He waved back quickly and took note of the man she came in with. He looked to be in his upper 20's, excellent shape, cool blue eyes, and familiar. Devon had seen him before and recognized the man as an X-Man. Devon's eyes darkened as the two spoke quietly, closely, and from the flourish of movement: romantically.

Yes, there it was. The air was distinctly colder around the man. It was Cold Steel. Apparently Juliette was dating an X-Man. Well then, that was interesting. Devon was honestly happy to see another one visiting, one he was interested in meeting, but he wasn't quite sure how he felt about the Firefly being stuck in ice. Finishing his water, Devon picked up another before throwing the first bottle in the recycling.

Linely was fraternizing at one of the many tables, not surprising, and called them over. Good, that would hopefully make things less awkward. Devon's eyes had already returned to an azure blue before he made his way over, all smiles of course.

"Linely, Juliette," Devon called with a warm tone as he approached. "Glad you could make it! Hope you're having fun. And sorry, sir, I'm afraid I've not yet had the pleasure," he grinned, turning to the unknown horseman. "Devon Hadden," he stuck out a hand in greeting.

"Frederick Moystyn Jnr," the man replied as he returned the hand shake. "A pleasure indeed, Mr. Hadden."

"And you're Sam Johnson?" Devon asked, turning to Cold Steel. He offered his hand, "Thanks for coming. It's nice to meet you too." He nodded his head a little deeper than he would for most. The X-Men didn't always get the warmest welcomes, though he doubted Cold Steel would actually want one.

When Juliette tried to reassure him he just nodded his head not wanting to argue. She seemed to be right often so he was going to place his trust in her precognitive abilities. Sadly he wished he had some of his own seeing as she just stole his flask.”Bad.” Sam quickly returned with as he watched his flask disappear into the one place he wasn’t allowed to look… Juliette’s purse.

Sam didn’t bring up that he felt better holding onto it. He’d feel even better drinking from it but he didn’t bring that up either. Some waiters and waitresses walked by one was carrying a tray of champagne and before he could snag two one for the lighting bug and one for himself he heard Juliette’s voice. ”Hmmm? Yeah, a seat might be good. I don’t want to get separated from you, you seem sure nothing bad is going to happen. Don’t want to sit away from my good luck charm…” Sam said squeezing her hand a little tighter then loosening up giving her one more spin.

A familiar voice called his name and Sam tensed slightly. His sixth sense wouldn’t help him much identify someone with normal circumstances with Juliette right next to him and all the people a little further away he had no shot. Sam forced a smile and then turned his head to the direction of the voice.

”Lady friend hmmm?” Sam said as he spotted Officer Linley. ”Officer Linley, he has an accent… Just a heads up.” Sam gave Juliette a little playful smirk then led the way over to the table where the officer and a batman villain were sitting. ”Linley.” Sam nodded to the officer and then to the other guy, ”Batman villain.” Sam nodded to the other guy thinking he was being funny.

Sam then offered a hand to shake the ”I am.” Sam replied with a smirk, ”Don’t know if it is a good thing you know of me or a bad thing.” Sam said truthfully given the location of the charity ball. ”Seems you already know my date.” he made sure not to use the word girlfriend because they hadn’t had ‘The Talk’. ”Juliette, Officer Linley. Linley, Juliette Lawson.” Sam said.

Looking back to Devon and offering a little more sincere smile, ”Thank you for throwing this and thank you for the invites. Food smells delicious.” the icemancer said eyeing another tray of food.

Another spin was interrupted as Juliette glanced over in the direction of an English voice that called out. She silently hoped that it wasn't someone he'd arrested as she glanced towards it.

She nodded quickly as Sam told her that he was a detective. That made sense, and it would hopefully be less strange than sitting with someone angry at her date, and her by association. She walked towards the voice and stood over by the table.

Juliette hit Sam lightly on the arm and muttered his name under her breath at the batman villain comment. You couldn't just call people that. Even if the resemblance was uncanny. She closed her eyes and shook her head, consoling herself with the fact that he at least wasn't drinking. At that second, anyway.

"Pleasure to meet you," she extended a hand for Linely to shake. Her name had been said for her, so there was no reason repeat it. "And you, Frederick," she said the name she had just overheard. "Sorry about Sam. He's kidding, I assure you."

"Great to see you, Devon," she smiled at the approaching familiar face. "You did a great job with all of this. I'm just sorry I couldn't be around to help very much." Her time had been taken up by other things of late.

Juliette took a seat next to the detective and smiled at him again, silently accepting his offer for a seat. "So, what's on the itinerary for tonight, Devon?" She asked curiously.

((OOC: if you guys feel getting into a seperate thread so others feel they can join I'd be happy with that, I'm also happy to continue with this thread like this))

"Nice to see you again Sam, particularly in a non "work" situation this time" Linely was pretty happy to see the X-Man, Sanctuary was unlikely to go pear-shaped at this moment in time, but he understood the need to be on guard, the more powerful the mutants around, the better the security would be.

No doubt this Juliette would be capable of some things too, he somehow doubted that Sam would be romantically involved with a non-mutant, X Men rarely spent enough time with vanilla humans to properly intereact with them enough in order to get involved in that way. He went slightly pale at Sam's bad villain joke. He hoped Moystyn wouldn't take it too personally, it was kinda accurate. 

Moystyn smiled and laughed at the Batman villain quip from the X-man , it sounded genuine enough. "It's not a problem young miss, I know the difficulties of keeping one's ball and chain in check at times." He took out his pocket watch. The party was not going to be in full swing yet, there was little conflict here...so far. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sam and Juiliette" He smiled revealling impeccable teeth for someone of his relatively advanced age in comparison to the rest of them.

Linely shook Sam's lady friend's hand gently "pleased to meet you Juliette, I'm glad to see Sam has somebody that will be teaching him some manners" he joked slightly, perhaps that was a little bit inappropriate, but he hoped they'd both take it in good humor. He hoped that at least.

It had been a long afternoon, and the sign outside advertising free dinner was all the convincing Istrid needed before going in. As she entered the room in her tattered T-shirt and jeans, Istrid could see that many of the people inside were mutants. While not making her uneasy, Istrid just resolved to not get in a fight. She grabbed some food and sat down at a table to quietly, but quickly, eat for the first time in two days.

((OOC: Devon, Firefly, Spasm, and Cold Steel continue here. ))

Many tables had seen groups grow as conversations were exchanged across the dining room.

"Excuse me," a young man with brown hair and bright green eyes said as he approached Istrid. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans too, though his were only tattered at the knees in a clearly fashionable way. They'd likely been purchased that way. "I'm Jax. Mind if I join you?"

He held a plate with a small dish of ice cream as he smiled at the young girl. He was made twenty or at least late teens. He did have a badge though that read: Jax Avery, UTOPIA.

"I'm on a little ice cream break ad I figured why not meet someone new while I'm at it," he grinned.

Who didn't love free food?

Bailey had been on his way home from a shift when he saw the sign outside of the famous Sanctuary doors. Immediately, he had taken a bee-line inside, following his nose to where there was nourishment being served. Sure, he had told his dad that he would be home straight away after his shift, but there was free food! There was absolutely no way he could possibly pass that up!

He took a plate from the side of the room and loaded it with any and all appetizers he could get his hands on. With his free hand, he grabbed a glass of soda and a bowl of ice cream, despite the fact that he had just finished a four hour shift at an ice cream parlour. 

The teen glanced around at the other occupants of the area. There were a bunch of representatives talking about that whole Utopia deal, but that really wasn't what he wanted to focus on. The free food was what brought him there, and he much preferred to keep his visit to eating without any learning.

There was another table occupied by a few guys and a woman in their twenties, and an older man that could only be cosplaying a comic book character. Like, no one actually went out in public like that, did they?

Next to that table, there was another one that looked to be more his speed. There was a young girl with a fancy dye job talking to a guy about his age. They were both wearing a similar outfit to him, so he felt a little less out of place. He settled on that one and carefully stuck a piece of flatbread between his teeth as he walked for easier carrying.

"Heya," he grinned at the two of them, careful not to drop his flatbread. "What's all going on here? I mean, I know this is the Sanctuary, but the food seems a little better here than usual."

"Well, this is a charity dinner for the Sanctuary, and here you can find out a little more about Utopia," the boy, whose name tag read Jax, informed him, flashing a perfect smile. His grin seemed a little more fake than it had before for some reason, but Bailey preferred to spend him time focusing on eating rather than deducing.

"Cool," he shrugged simply. "What's your name?" He nodded to the girl beside him, already having figured out Jax's name.

Istrid was nearly finished with her food when a man who introduced himself as Jax came to her table. While Jax kept the conversation informal, his badge put Istrid on guard. She had had a couple bad experiences with people wearing badges. They always wanted something from you in return for their hospitality, even if it was just your time.

"I certainly wouldn't mind a bit of company," Istrid said as she finished her most recent bite of food. She sat a bit more upright, trying to be friendly so she could learn about what Utopia was.

As Jax sat down, another guy walked over, commenting about the food being better. While it was nice to know that this wasn't the usual expense used for food, Istrid began to squirm a little under ask the attention. People tend to ignore the homeless, now two people had chosen to come over and talk with her.

When the new guy asked for Istrid's name, she curtly replied, "I go by sidestep." Not wanting to give either of these people her actual name, in case they tried to track her down, she gave them her self chosen alias. Not wanting to be left out of the name loop, she followed up with, "What's your name?"

"Sidestep?" Bailey parroted through his last mouthful of flatbread. "That's, like, a code name, right? I mean, no one names their kid Sidestep. Unless you really just want them to make no friends or something. Sorry, not trying to bash your name, or anything, but can you imagine going into kindergarten with a name like Sidestep? No ones going to want to share their sand with that kid.

Oh gosh, I'm being so rude, aren't I? Sorry 'bout that. It's a cool code name. Does that mean that you're a mutant? You must have some cool powers. I mean, if they relate to your name at all. I met this dude who called himself the 'Masochist', but thankfully his name didn't really have to do with his powers. I think he prolly just didn't look it up first," Bailey finally paused to take a sip of soda, followed by a spoonful of quickly melting ice cream.

However, his pause was short lived, as he continued without much thought to the state of his company. "Anyway, you can't always come up with a name that fits your powers. Some are hard to think of. Like mine; not much you can say about 'em. Though, to be fair, they aren't really powers, so I don't really need a code name."

He stopped talking to look at his plate that was growing cold. Without much hesitation, he made his way through a few mini quiches before he finally glanced up at Sidestep and Jax. The other boy just so happened to be casting him a rather bored expression while leaning against his hand. Apparently he wasn't exactly looking to listen to Bailey ramble when he had sat down.

"My name's Bailey, though. Bailey Benvolio Bishop. If you're wondering about the Benvolio bit, it's 'cause my parents are really into Shakespeare. They're stage actors and everything. I always get asked if it means something, but it doesn't. It's just an homage to the character," Bailey informed them with a small nod of his head. "I've talked a lot, haven't I? Sorry about that. I've been told I talk too much."

As Istrid listened to Bailey's rambling, she couldn't help but notice that Jax had been looking like he wanted the rambling to stop. Istrid used the opportunity to finish off her last bites of food in case she needed an excuse to get away from the conversation. As Bailey's rambling came to a close, Istrid decided to stay and see if the conversation would go anywhere constructive.

"Well, to answer your questions, sidestep is a code name, I am a mutant, though not with what I think are awe-inspiring powers." As Istrid went to take a breath, she carefully considered what she would ask next. "I have to admit, though, the food and people here seem to be much higher quality than other homeless shelters, what's the occasion?"