Multitasking

[J. Alfred Darrow]

31st, at her campaign event!

Alfred wasn't sure he had ever been particularly interested in politics, but prior to his five year walk-about, he'd at least tried to have an informed opinion when it came time to vote. The whole government system was really more of Evander's thing, truth be told, but Alfred had been invested enough to at least read about the candidates and what they stood for, the last time he'd been at home for any sort of election. Now, it just seemed to matter less. He'd been away from it for so long, and they'd come back right in the middle of the campaign season. Alfred wasn't even sure he knew what had happened to the last Minister, though he thought that he and Paul had been over it at least once before.

That being said, campaign events were exactly the sort of events where he was likely to meet rich, potential donors for his expedition--because those were the sorts of people the candidates were hoping to meet, so they were definitely invited. He'd recycled his pirate costume from a few days ago, and lost Paul in the crowd almost immediately after they'd arrived. Costumes did tend to make it easier for him to get into parties he hadn't been, strictly speaking, invited to (like the one at the London house a few days ago), but it also made it difficult to spot potential sponsors. He was nearly face to face with the lady of the evening before he recognized her.

"Mrs. Brownhill!" he greeted with a quick smile. He wasn't really sure if she was the Mrs. Brownhill, or only a Mrs. Brownhill--he'd missed the paper a few days ago which had sported her picture and thought it rather more plausible that she had a sister-in-law or even a mother-in-law who was running. "Are you the star of the evening, or is that a relative of yours? I thought you said you were an author," he remarked. It did not occur to Alfred that a married woman might be an author, a wife and mother, and then try to get into politics, on top of everything.

@'Eleanora Brownhill' @'Souri Avninder' / Open to others!

  

[Eleanora Brownhill]

Though the Halloween ball had been announced as close to last minute as one could get, Ellie had spent quite a bit of time planning it. For this reason, it wasn't a complete mess when it kicked off. Everything had been done to her specifications and she was sure the guests would have no complaints about their experiences, but there were still plenty of goings on behind the scenes that left her stressed for most of the evening. She had the sense to pretty up her demeanor when people approached her as she absolutely refused to show how taxing putting on this ball was.

She'd gotten plenty of experience organizing for charity, but that was a different beast. Then, she hadn't been expected to have intelligent conversation and pretend to be perfectly happy all night. There had only been one job to focus on. When it was done, she'd been free to breath a sigh of relief and take comfort in the fact that it would be a long while before she had to do it all over again. There would be no reprieve this time, not until after the election in December at least.

In between putting out (figurative) fires with the ballroom staff, Ellie busied herself with chatting up the guests, making the best impressions she could so that she'd have voters in her pocket when it mattered.

After a lengthy exchange with some other working mothers, she was approached by a familiar face. Mister Darrow, the adventurer she'd met about a month ago, had apparently seen it fit to attend the ball - dressed as a pirate, no less!

"Hello, Mister Darrow. You look like you're ready to go off on another adventure." She matched his smile with one of her own. "Star and orchestrator. And, yes, an author too. I'm a woman of many talents." It wasn't bragging, just the truth. "Have you been enjoying yourself this evening?"

  

[J. Alfred Darrow]

Alfred was a man of considerably few talents--or at least, he had never considered any of the things he was good at to be talents, really. Talents were the things people were born with, or what they excelled at in school. For Alfred, that had been very little. Everything that he was good at now was only the case because he'd picked it up through hard work and experience and years of exposure. One of the particular foibles of the naval career, however, was that even once he'd mastered these particular skills, he had no one to observe them except people who were already much better at them than he was; for that reason, Alfred had never particularly thought of himself as a person who could do things. The fact that someone he sort-of knew was balancing a career and a family and running for the highest office in the country was nearly enough to make his head spin.

"Many talents, indeed," he said, trying to shake off the brief feeling of intimidation that passed through him. There was no reason to feel that way with someone whom he'd already met and who had been so cordial at their last interaction, he told himself. Instead, he took a glance around at the decor of the ballroom and nodded appreciatively, pretending for the moment that he was the sort of person who would be able to tell a good party from a bad one (ridiculous, really, since he hadn't even been in a room of this size in the past five years, but probably a bluff no one would call him on). "I'm enjoying it all very much. You've done an excellent job. Though it's hard to go wrong with a costume party," he said with a shrug. He certainly felt more comfortable outside of the stuffy, proper clothing, but that might have just been him.

"Is this what people do when they run for Minister of Magic? Throw costume parties?" he asked--his tone was sort of a tease but he honestly didn't know what running for Minister entailed, and he wasn't sure he had anything intelligent to say on the subject of politics at the moment.