Ah, fundraisers

[mitochondriaaya]

Who: Most Aya's precinct, high society
When: Policeman's ball, early April
What: The cream of the city cop crop rubs elbows with people to raise money for operational expenditures. Or something. Yeah. Cops in monkeysuits and dresses.

"Thank you for your donation, the precinct appreciates your support," Aya noted, the smile on her face feeling more like concrete gritting together than anything normal to a face. It was Roger, naturally. The Attorney General's son, and he always found her at these damn events.

Every.

Single.

Time.

And Danny was walled away by a wave of black clad suits because last time he'd almost decked the kid.

Hell, she was close to that herself, and she'd said thank you seven times now while he tried, again, to push for favors due to donating.

Or dates. It wasn't a favor if she'd just date him, right?

He was honestly getting creepier, in an earnest puppy kind of way, somehow he'd found out she liked opera. He had box seats, wasn't that worth a date? She was honestly almost regretting the case close rate she had that landed her at these events now. Almost.

"Thank you," she gritted again, and thankfully she felt her captain's hand on her shoulder as he cut in to also thank the boy and steer her away from the corner he'd been backing her into. "About time," she near whispered.

"Sorry, I was talking to, ah, yes, this man. Aya, meet Yinsi Mains-Terwood, this is the first ball he's made it to, he and his wife split their time between their home and New York here...Yinsi? Aya, or youngest detective." He was...quite proud of the girl honestly. She wasn't exactly a mascot for the entire precinct, but she wasn't exactly not either.

Aya's smile was slightly more natural now as she relaxed a bit, "take it with a grain of salt, there was extenuating circumstances." Or rather the whole precinct had distinguished themselves over the Brooklyn Bridge riot affair and the Mayor had asked why she wasn't a detective yet and such but still...this Yinsi guy was a nice change from Roger.

If she was lucky some of the boys were going to carefully edge that boy OUT of the damn ball entirely hmmm? They tended to swarm in when she wasn't looking, weird older brother types the lot of them (minus Danny, he was very much a dad type).

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

Near enough to Yinsi to be "with Yinsi and his wife" but not hanging on their coattails were the other two members of the Mains-Terwood family. Dilan didn't have the name, but he'd been raised by his best friend's parents so he might as well have.

He didn't fit in with the crowd any more than Braig did. Oh, they were both dressed appropriately. For given values of appropriate that included Braig in a suit, and Dilan in clan robes. Dilan in a suit tended to get pulled over for walking while intimidating. He didn't blame the cops, he did look like something of a thug. Couldn't help it, he was Katzu in a country that housed exactly five of them...and the other four lived in D.C.

"Dude." Braig said, "I am so damn glad you can see over the crowd."

Dilan glanced down at his friend and laughed. It was deep, it was rolling, it showed off his fangs in a way that tended to make Katzu women (and a few men) swoon and everyone else skitter several inches farther from him without noticing. Although now and then if he laughed in a room full of Olia he ended up getting mobbed. He tried not to laugh too much or too loudly when only Olia were around.

"It does let me see what's around, and then let you know what's interesting." he agreed, reaching out and bodily turning Braig so that he could see the lovely young woman currently talking to mom and dad.

Yinsi gave Aya a courtly bow that was...perfectly in character for someone who had lived as long as he had. "Extenuating circumstances merely mean that you were able to distinguish yourself in a situation where things were not happening as you were trained for."

Elcy laughed at that and shook her head, "I'd suggest you not try to diminish your star around my husband. He has a nose for genius of all kinds."

[mitochondriaaya]

Why yes Dilan, half the crowd shifted to note that voice. In a glittering wave of 'some peoples are paid to notice these things', then he was just as causally looked away from. The man wasn't causing an issue and seemed to be enjoying himself, so no issue here. The cops were just...kind of wishing they had a normal thing to work with here.

Bah.

Even Aya's attention briefly flickered away, though she wasn't rude enough tho turn AWAY from the couple she was being introduced to? "We all did sir, we held. That's the important fact people gloss over." And it as frustrating honestly. Still. "I am quite comfortable in homicide though, I will admit to that. Hello Ma'am."

"Mrs. Elcy Mains-Terwood," the captain chuckled, patting her shoulder comfortingly.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Elcy." the lady in question said, after her smile got bigger at the sound of Dilan's laughter. She then addressed Aya's brief change in attention with, "And that lovely laugh belongs to Dilan. He's one of my sons."

"Hi." Braig said, on cue. He knew his mother. "I'd be the other one. I'm Braig." Dilan reached around Braig and offered a hand, "As mom said, I'm Dilan. Adoptive, obviously."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Elcy," Aya agreed with a nod, "hello." Ah, MORE SONS. The brief look of panic had nothing to do with the boys, honestly, so much as her current issue with 'sons of people here'.

The Captain laughed, "they're safe, vetted them myself, if you dance with them Roger won't bother you for a while and Danny doesn't assault anyone..."

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan, at the look of panic, said; "Nothin' to worry about here, I promise. Dance with either of us and the other will keep you from being cut-in on."

"I, like, promise no hitting on you either. Unless you start it." Braig agreed.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Still might not prevent my partner clocking the kid," she admitted wryly.

"Danny is the other half of our dynamic duo in closed cases," the Captain chuckled to Elcy and Yinsi, shooing Aya toward the boys.

"No offense but like most people here I'm hoping to get called away on a case," Aya offered, though the smile was real, and actually painless now as she offered her hand toward Dilan. He'd offered first after all, and she wasn't certain about the flirting comment currently.

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan's hand absolutely engulfed Aya's, but he could hold a butterfly without smashing it. Probably not without eating it, but without smashing it definitely. "Do," he asked lightly, "you want to stand on my feet? Braig does about half the time. The other half he leads."

[mitochondriaaya]

She blinked at the offer, more than a little..."ah...no? I can dance thank you." Did she look twelve? She hadn't been aiming for that with this dress. At all.

Yeah.

Because life wasn't already awkward enough tonight.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, but you're also slightly below average size for a human, and I am rather above average size for a Katzu." he said as he whirled her into a dance.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Don't worry, I'm quick on my feet," she chuckled. Yes, short despite the platforms, but still. And yes, she was holding her own! Odd how many of the cops were edging onto the dance floor with partners now though. They were just worried, honest!

[sliceitwithwind]

It could have been awkward. It should have been awkward, he was seven foot four inches tall and she, well, was not. However Braig was an inch shorter than she was and he'd been dancing with Braig since the Olia was the taller of them.

"That's good to hear." Dilan said, "So. You're a cop, I'm a bioscientist."

[mitochondriaaya]

Nah, dancing on feet would have been awkward! This was nice, in a relaxing way honestly. "Hello Dilan, bioscientist," she chuckled softly. "I'm a detective, Homicide. Occasionally borrowed by vice." because people at these events liked the vague details?

"What's a normal day for a bioscientist?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I have no idea what a normal day is for a bioscientist." he admitted cheerfully, "My normal days involve emergency being called in on whatever the panic du jour is and doing my best to keep it from eating people's faces." A brief pause, "Literally."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Ah, you're the emergency line?" she smiled. "Capable one assumes since there's a lack of eaten faces on my beat?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"So far I haven't failed." And if there was a line of stress in there, well, it was very well hidden. "My work, amongst other things, helps keep invasive species from invading...and cleans out a lot of the ones that came before I got to work."

[mitochondriaaya]

"My thanks then," if that was a touch brittle in kind who was to tell? "Mmmm, head left..." Away from an angry Roger please.

Far away.

"Anything you've actually enjoyed in that battle?"

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan's head casually moved to see who she wanted to avoid, and then he proceeded to keep them moving in a calm, smooth path away from however Roger happened to move. Braig did his part by whirling his partner into Roger's path. Repeatedly.

"Well, when I get my hands dirty it's fun. I am a predator, after all. Most of it's work, though, and while I love my work it is difficult, fiddly, and unending."

[mitochondriaaya]

Roger, young, rich, spoiled and utterly happy to trade on his father's position in life. Also unhappy to be cut off, constantly, tonight. Elements bless the pontytailed geek boy n sunglasses that shamelessly asked the man to dance just to cause the flustered withdrawal after a bit!

"Ah, tell me about last getting your hands dirty then?" she encouraged, relaxing a touch at both Braig, and Pierce's, interventions.

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan smiled at her, "Well..." he said, and then went cheerfully into his latest hunt story. It was full of large monsters...and the tiny parasites that were driving them out of the Territories. Hunting in full biohazard gear was difficult, and frustrating, but when he finally managed to find an eco-safe anti-parasite to seed the Territories with, well.

[mitochondriaaya]

That was actually incredibly engaging! She spun out to the end of Dilan's arm a moment, the better to give him the slow scan to picture him in full biohazard gear and stalking anyway! "Did it squeak?" SHE COULDN'T HELP ASKING! What if it was as bad as trying to stalk in corduroy??

[sliceitwithwind]

"Not by the time Even's team finished with it, it didn't." he said cheerfully, "I wouldn't go out in anything that squeaked. It would offend my tender sensibilities."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Ah, you had friends handle the insanity factor of squeaky suits?" she laughed. Even sounded like a friend anyway, how not? "Color me jealous."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Friend and colleague." he agreed, "He's another of Ansem's men."

[mitochondriaaya]

Ah, belated name clicking? Yes.

Oh shit, Ansem team. That was a LOT more high profile than they were expecting at a ball like this, "don't say that too loudly," she laughed, mock-whispering, "Pierce will fanboy."

[sliceitwithwind]

"That'd be the computer guy in the sunglasses?" Dilan said with amusement, "I've signed three napkins, a champagne glass, and a small rubber duck that he had in a pocket so far."