the jinn (thejinn) wrote in crownplazaic, @ 2021-02-05 06:48:00 |
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Jinn had railed against it on the network, but if not for the hotel's magical ability to alter his clothing, he likely would not have been allowed to enter the party. He wasn't entirely sure if the combination of high collar dress shirt and slim-fitting suit was attractive on a man of his frame, but it seemed to raise no eyebrows from the locals. His skin tone and facial hair did turn a few heads, but once Jinn overheard people whispering about the blind Egyptian sheik in their midst, he surmised that his unusual appearance was more titillating than inflammatory. He went with it. The venue was unknown to him, as were the guests. He wandered around, from room to ostentatious room, amidst a cacophony of voices and laughter and vaguely discordant jazz. Men and women danced in pairs, and trios, and sometimes alone. Lit cigars filled the air with smoke. Jewels glittered around necks and dangled like giant teardrops from pale earlobes. Harried staff squeezed between flushed-looking young men and women scurrying off to escape the madding crowd for a few moments alone. He lost track of the drinks being pressed into his hands, for all that drinking them barely gave a momentary frisson of inebriation before the sensation faded. There was no sense of danger, only debauchery. Jinn had not sought it out, but having heard no one on the network speak of the possibility, he had hoped it would be a reprieve from familiar faces. Avoidance was a tried and tested tool, a well-loved weapon in his very limited arsenal. And since he already looked the part, he thought he might at least embrace the notion of being someone else for a spell. So when he felt a thump and a shove against his back, it was not the Jinn who turned to the culprit, but a supposedly blind Egyptian sheik in Western clothing. |