Wry and Watchful (wryandwatchful) wrote in solsticerp, @ 2011-03-28 22:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | july 1 2009, santiago, sen |
Wednesday: An Audience with an Immortal
Who: Santiago and Senturion
Where: Vapor
When: Late Evening
Senturion was not a woman who liked being in the dark about things. Arturion had told her a little about the magnetic man called Santiago but she had never seen him and this was unacceptable to her. She wasn't generally a very outgoing golem but tonight she made an exception, walking to Vapor shortly after ten PM and stepping inside. She was wary of being there, with her weight being her biggest concern, but Arturion had said it was a very sturdy place, made for crowds of people. Crowds of people tended not to put all the focal point on one small spot however so she wasn't entirely calmed by this theory. She'd stick to the ground floor and close to the exit and hope the floor held.
At the bar she ordered 'something sweet' and looked around at the people. There weren't too many there but still, a decent amount for a worknight. "I'm looking for Santiago," she told the bartender when he handed her a neon green drink with multiple straws and a slice of orange in it. It looked weird, but tasted delicious. He wasn't quite so willing to tell her where his boss was, but offered to let him know he was being looked for. It was better than nothing and Sen stood by the bar while the man darted off. She didn't want to break the fancy looking chairs by sitting on them, who knew just how many hundreds of pounds they were really designed to hold.
Santiago himself happened to be upstairs, dancing and trying to keep his mind off of the construction going on outside. It was almost done, but he kept thinking those awful eel... things... would come back and undo all the expensive work. Though it was a better thing to fret over than Ashley, Fay, and the Awful Missing Manager issue, so he was calling it a win, even if he didn't manage to keep from worrying about the lesser problem.
Being told when he was between songs that he was being looked for by a strange, tall woman, though, was unexpected enough to actually manage it, and he headed downstairs with his own drink and a lot of curiosity. Thankfully for the meeting of new people, he was not in a dress today, though his eyes were heavily made up to match his neon green leather pants and the black fishnet shirt he wore, so he still stood out.
"So who is it who's looking for me?" he asked once they reached the bar, and the woman who was pointed out to him was indeed tall, and strange, because she most certainly wasn't dressed for visiting a club. And her drink didn't seem to suit her appearance at all. Interesting. He drifted on over, though didn't introduce himself immediately. "Good evening, lovely," he told her with a smile, instead.
Sen arched a brow at the man who'd walked up to her. That had to be him, but it might just as well be a random stranger wanting to strike up a conversation for whatever odd reason. She had never quite understood why strangers wanted to do that, especially when they started off like this particular stranger just had. Why would he think she was lovely? Nothing about her said she was lovely, her outfit certainly had nothing 'cute' or 'endearing' about it, her hair was tightly braided instead of curled or combed prettily and she certainly wasn't smiling. Perhaps it was the drink, it was kind of fruity and pretty she supposed.
She eyed him suspiciously before inclining her head a little. "Are you Santiago?" If he wasn't, he was wasting her time and she hated that.
Laughing a little, Santiago asked, "How did you guess? Did someone warn you?" To him, one didn't have to be dressed or curled to be lovely; he did sometimes like his women tall and well-formed, like she was, and the planes of her face were attractive, if unconventional. But mostly it was an endearment without much thought put behind it. After all, he didn't know her name, and he couldn't simply call her "woman", could he?
She gave him a curious look, still not amused. "I requested your audience," she told him, in case he forgot but she didn't remain rude, turning to full face him after putting her drink on the bar top. "I am Senturion. Arturion told me about you. It seemed fitting that I should seek you out, I like knowing his friends." She glanced down at his chest, tempted to pull a key out of her pocket and test this magnetic nature of his.
Apparently she thought that no one would talk to her unless she had requested an audience. Even dressed like she wasn't terribly enthused to be here, she was a striking woman, and surely someone would decide to talk to her, flirt a little, feel her out. Santiago watched her with brows raised as she turned towards him, and he chuckled at her reasoning. "Well, I haven't seen Arturion--" What a name. Was she a relative? No... they were a matched set. Another golem. Oh, how interesting! "--I haven't seen him since that night last week, so I don't know if he'd exactly call me a friend... but I know him." And remembered him well. How often did you get to introduce a sign golem to the wonders of orgasm? How often did you even meet a golem who was sexually functional? That was a rarity, right there.
Sen regarded him with some incredulity. How could you not regard someone as a friend after getting so intimate with them? Arturion had told her the basics of what took place and no money had changed hands. "He called you a friend," she told him dryly. It was just a fact, Arturion had said friend so she wasn't manipulating the story or making a statement. "Do you regard him as something other?" She picked up her glass again, wanting more of that odd tangy sweetness the funky colored drink had to offer.
"I regard him as a fine fellow and unique creature," Santiago shrugged with a smile. "Once he is interested in visiting again, then he will be a friend. A one-night educational visit does not really equate friendship if you never see the boy again." He wouldn't mind seeing Arturion again, of course, as he was rather cute and fairly interesting as young immortals went, but Santiago had more than enough one-night-stands to know that it didn't usually happen, even with someone as earnest as Art.
"He will visit again," Sen replied. "Perhaps this weekend. He expressed interest in bringing me here. Perhaps he has an interesting notion that he can get me to dance with him, it would not surprise me." Arturion could be like a child at times and it was hard to refuse him. Sen had looked into some dancing steps on the Internet, if it came to that. It was all math it seemed, she could do math. "When he does, you will regard him as he regards you. I'm surprised to hear you do not already, considering how friendly you were with him when you last met."
Smiling indulgently at Senturion-- she was a golem, after all, and could hardly be expected to understand such things-- Santiago told her, "My dear girl, I am 'friendly', as you say, with a great many people. How do you imagine I gathered myself an education to share with your friend? If I considered everyone who I had been friendly with as a friend, then I would have a great many people who I called friend, who had no interest at all in being friends with me. Friendship and sex are two very, very different things to most people. Art is a very nice boy, but he will have to do more than merely enjoy such carnal pleasures if he wants to be friends."
As someone who held no interest whatsoever in sex to start with, Sen found it hard to understand why people would indulge in it with just anyone. The only thing he said that she could really identify with was that Art was a nice boy, a sentiment to which she nodded. "He is a good friend to have." Giving Santiago a discerning look, she added, "Are you?" It probably came off a bit as if she was about to make a shady deal with a mobster in a crime novel, but she genuinely meant it. So far she wasn't too impressed with Santiago, he didn't seem like a guy Arturion would be happy hanging out with, though he looked interesting enough.
"Am I what?" Santiago repeated, amused. "A good friend to have? That depends, my dear, entirely on who you are and what you want out of me, as a friend. Come." He pushed away from the bar and beckoned to her. "You wish to know what kind of person I am, and I can't talk about that out here in the club. I have an office we can talk more freely in." Not to mention more quietly, because they had to talk pretty loudly out here to hear each other over the music.
"I am not interested in the sex," Sen told him plainly since she thought it was good that he know that. She wasn't here for the same reason Art had come and any such offers would be met with disinterest and possibly even annoyance. She finishing her drink and put the empty glass down on the bar, then stepped back, indicating for him to lead the way.
"Senturion, I never for a moment imagined you were," Santiago chuckled. She was, he guessed, here being the mother-hen, the protective big-sister, making sure her more innocent and less discerning friend and partner was not about to get his impressionable heart broken. Santiago seriously doubted that Art had any illusions about a love affair, but he did want to talk about the metal elemental aspect, and the golem aspect. He was curious what kind she was. So he did, indeed, lead the way, back past the bar and through the foyer, to the door behind the desk and the much quieter hall beyond that. He even held the door for Senturion, politely.
In truth, Sen was there more out of curiosity. While her protective streak did play a role in her visit, it was not Arturion's heart she was worried about. No, he was dating someone else, what he had with Santiago had just been something between friends. Or not friends, as Santiago had pointed out and that made it seem a little cheaper.
She watched her every step the farther they went, but the floor held her weight and didn't give any signs of cracking. A sturdy club this, she appreciated it. When they reached his office, she stepped inside, impressed with his manners. Corwin and Arturion tended to do this too and while it puzzled her at times since she was their guardian, she appreciated it as a sign of respect and affection.
Maybe Santiago was just well-bred. Ha. Yeah, right, considering where he came from.... He nearly laughed, at the very thought that he might be a well-bred gentleman, but he let it go with just a private smirk. Still, he was being fairly well-behaved, at least for the moment.
The door he opened was actually to his suite, the sitting room part, decked in black and white and gray, with plenty of silver sculpture embedded in the walls. "Please, sit," he told her, gesturing towards the black, leather-upholstered couch. "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Another fruity drink?"
He certainly got lucky in that he found a way to please Sen who very much liked the idea of more sweet stuff to drink. "Another fruity drink," she agreed. "Thank you." She eyed the couch suspiciously before cautiously setting her butt down on it, only slowly resting her full weight until she was certain it wouldn't break underneath it. "Your furniture is of very good quality," she commented, probably a very random statement save for the fact that he knew what she was.
"Well, it's meant to hold a lot," Santiago answered absently, moving over to the minibar to put together something he hoped would be to Sen's tastes. "Though I will admit, I never really expected any golems to be sitting on it, just multiple people of varying weights, and quite possibly a lot of metal."
He knew what she was, what Arturion was, but Sen didn't worry too much about it. She filed it away as useful information to know, finding what he said interesting. "Metal. I hear you have a special connection with all things metal. Quite magnetic. Why?" She was looking forward to her drink, watching Santiago with no attempt to hide that.
Chuckling at the forwardness of the question as he mixed together a couple juices and alcohols from the mini-fridge, Santiago answered, "My dear girl, because I am a metal elemental. The metal elemental, if you want to be specific. I am the son of the element itself. Metal simply, ah, likes me. So... magnetic." He paused and held up a hand, letting the spoon he'd been holding dangle from it, without actually holding it. "Some metals more than others, of course."
Sen watched the spoon with fascination before frowning mildly. "I would have to kindly request that you not visit our store," she told him. That sort of creature among all the computers - the thought alone made her feel a little queasy. It might be wise as well to make him not come too close to her and she automatically and without thought reached up to rest her hand against her chest. No doubt Charles had made sure to protect her little machine better than an average computer, but it made her feel a little uneasy just thinking about it. "Unless you are in perfect control of yourself."
"Not the magnetism, I'm afraid. Metal simply can't help itself, but it isn't that strong a pull. I can use computers without ruining them, so walking by them wouldn't really be all that troublesome. I just couldn't handle any hard drives directly, that's all." Santiago added a little ice to Sen's drink and brought it over. "Your shop is safe. And so, I'm guessing, are you parts?" Science golem, then? Or sign golem made with metal parts? He offered the drink to her.
His words put her at ease and she accepted the drink with a wan smile. "I suppose it would be quite dangerous if it were any stronger. You couldn't leave your house." Modern technology was so powerful, yet so sensitive. Powerful magnets could do so much damage if treated improperly. "Is it ever? Stronger, I mean."
"Oh, I can make it stronger, if I like," Santiago shrugged. "But really, it's less magnetism them, and more just manipulating metal directly." He held up a hand, and the spoon that he'd left on the counter zoomed across the room to smack into his palm obediently. "I've been doing this longer than you can imagine. I know how not to destroy anything I don't want to, by now."
"Ooh," Sen said, her eyes widening a little. Oh she definitely felt a little jealous now, that was such a neat trick to have. Of course she preferred not being magnetic at all since being such would mean she couldn't work with computer parts, but she was impressed anyway. Of course it also meant he could probably kill her with his gift and that didn't sit well with her.
Santiago patted her cheek lightly, like he might a child who'd enjoyed a trick he'd just done, and then sauntered back to the minibar to make himself something. He could kill anyone he wanted with his gift-- all he needed to do was levitate a knife, or a bullet, or something. That didn't mean he was going to, or even wanted to. Santiago preferred not to kill, if he didn't have to. "So tell me about yourself, Senturion," he suggested.
"I work at a computer store," Sen told him. "I live with Arturion. He is like a brother to me as you may have gathered." She took another sip of her drink and it was heavenly, putting her a little more at ease as well as Santiago's good natured attitude with her. "This is good," she stated. "You make good drinks. I'm sure you are far more interesting than I am as well. Perhaps you should tell me about yourself."
"That would probably make you want to keep your little brother as far away from me as possible," Santiago told her dryly, with a bitter sort of smile, as he poured himself a white Russian. "Telling you more about myself, I mean, not the drinks." He would hope he knew how to mix a decent drink, after all this time, though he didn't think that one in particular was probably anything special. He imagined she was merely easy to please, without much experience in alcoholic beverages. "I am very old, for starters."
"Do you plan on harming him?" Sen asked, arching a brow at him. "I should perhaps warn him against coming here again if you have bad intentions." She wasn't sure Arturion would listen to her, perhaps she'd have to start stubbornly accompanying him anywhere he went. "Just how much bad have you done in your long life?"
"I have done very much bad-- I am not a particularly good person, Senturion," Santiago told her with a shrug. "I have no intentions to hurt your friend, but just because one does not have bad intentions doesn't mean others will trust me." He picked up his own drink and came back to the sofa, sitting on the other end from Sen. "Would you believe that I am over ten thousand years old, Senturion?"
Sen's expression didn't alter save for a faint quirk of her brows and she observed Santiago for a few moments before replying. "I can believe many things," she said, though she didn't look overly convinced. She was trying to remember just what was up with the world that long ago, but other than some childish and colorful pictures from museums, she couldn't recall. "Are you claiming that you are?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Santiago said with a somewhat melodratic sigh. "Would that it were different. I'm one of the five elemental sons, half human and half element, father of the race, if you can stand the pretentiousness of that statement. Metal, of course, is the type. So, being around as long as I have, I certainly have had the time to be both bad and good, and learn the futility of both." He really was being pretentious today! He blamed her classic, stoic demeanor.
Santiago had suddenly proven himself useful to Sen, or at least potentially so and she perked up visibly. "You must tell me more about this element thing, I've found no reliable source of information and I do love to learn. You claim to be the father of all metal elements? How does that work?"
Giving Sen a curious glance-- he hadn't expected interest in his elemental-ness, really-- Santiago answered, "Exactly as it sounds. Every metal elemental that lives now is related to me-- distantly, in most cases, as I haven't started a new line in about a century, I believe. But still, related. I try to start new lines now and the, every couple hundred years, by finding a human or a young metal elemental and having a child or two." He also tried to find women he could stand for a long period of time, since he usually had to marry them. Call him old fashioned, but he didn't like his actual new lines to be illegitimate.
"Are the other elemental fathers, or mothers, alive as well?" Sen asked, there were so many questions to be asked and he'd no doubt grow tired of her if she asked all of them at once, but curiosity burned like a flame in her eyes. "Do you know them all?" Her questions weren't limited to elements, if he'd really lived as he said he had it meant he had seen so many things, historical things that she might find interesting. If his memory wasn't bad, he might have dozens of thousands of stories - no, more! It certainly was like finding a treasure chest, provided he wasn't fibbing.
"Fathers," Santiago clarified with an amused expression. "All of us are Sons, not Daughters. Easier to sire many offspring, I suppose. And yes, I know them all. Two more of them are in this very town as we speak, actually, which is probably more of us in one place than has ever happened. Of course, knowing does not equate getting along with... my brother in Water is a good friend, and Earth's Son and I can tolerate each other, but the rest? We, ah, tend to clash a bit."
Sen looked surprised by that and she was. "Given the elements relations with each other, I would have thought you wouldn't get along with water. Curious. Though I suppose during forging the fire stresses the metal while water calms it." She considered this before adding, "Which ones are in town?"
"Water and Air," Santiago answered. "Though I shan't tell you who they are, they might wind up put out with me if you addressed them." Though it would be pretty funny to see the look on Kaz's face, if some random semi-mortal came up to him and address him as the Son of Air. He snickered at the idea. "I just think it's my dear brother's personality, more than his element. Or perhaps it's just his decision, and he works very hard to put up with me." He shrugged. All he knew was Thomas-- why did he keep going back to that name? it was a terribly dull one-- seemed to enjoy his company, and he'd take it.
"You are all brothers?" Sen asked, but her interest was elsewhere and that much was obvious as she continued almost instantly. "You must know many languages and many stories. Is your memory good? Or is all that ancient history faded in your mind?" She couldn't comprehend living so long, she was very young herself and yet she felt old at times.
"I call them brothers, but we're really more like cousins," Santiago shrugged. "As for my memories, it depends on the day, and the memory. Please don't tell me you want to hear what the Roman emperors were like-- I promise, I didn't actually know any of them personally. And I wasn't even in Egypt during the time of the great pharaohs, and I never met Jesus." Those were the usual questions, for history buffs. Other people wanted to know if he'd met Elvis-- he had; that man had the most kissable lips, which made it a great shame he had been straight and Santiago hadn't been playing female at the time-- or the Beatles-- he hadn't, though he had gone to their concerts more than once.
"You did not dote on a pregnant Cleopatra then?" Sen asked with a smirk. She had no particular events in mind or particular people, though it would have been interesting to have an actual, living eyewitness to the much debated Jesus stories. "I take it you've traveled much in your time. What has been your favorite place, or should I ask when?"
Laughing over his drink, Santiago tried to imagine-- and failed. No, he couldn't possibly have gotten involved in that scandal. Most of his scandals, at least, were quieter than that. "Aaah. Oh, what a thought. No, I didn't meet Cleopatra, much less make her the mother of a new line of elementals. My favorite time and place, hmm? Well, I did enjoy France in the dark ages." Mostly because he'd been happily married-- and fooling the world into thinking him female-- at the time. "Though I did love China quite a bit, when I lived there. And America has its perks-- New York, in particular. Perhaps mostly because it's been here I've lived through the modern age."
Sen thought he should be a historian, not a club owner, the tales he could write. She had half a mind to sit him down for hours, days or weeks and record his talking. "I think the biggest question right now," she said, frowning at her empty glass. "Is why you came to Darkwater. You've been to such grand places, this small town doesn't seem like much in comparison.
"On the contrary, my dear," Santiago told her. "Sometimes a small town is exactly what one needs, after a few decades in a crowded city. Though I did come to this particular small town for a reason, yes-- a couple reasons. First, because this marvelous club was available for an affordable price--" Not that he cared about affordable, but still. He did like bargains when he could waste as much money as he pleased on fixing them up. "--and second, because of the rocks on Eldritch Island and around Darkwater. They're magnetic, which fascinated me. I wanted to see what that was like, and perhaps why they had gotten that way."
"I can see why you would be drawn in by that," Sen replied, unaware of the bad pun involved in her statement. "Darkwater is an interesting place too, I love it here and there have been quite a few curious events in my life." She raised her glass, inclining her head slightly. "Can I have another? Money is not an issue."
"Money is not an issue for me, either," Santiago said airily, and got to his feet to go mix another for her. Maybe he'd try a different one this time-- still fruity, but a different kind of fruity. "You cannot have lived as long as I have and not amassed enough wealth for a dozen clubs like this one. Your drink is nothing at all. Do tell me about some of the curious events in your life-- I could use more information about this town."
Sen was pleased and it showed in her smile. That is until his question which put a little crease between her eyebrows. "I have not lived as long as you and you have been here a while long enough that nothing I tell you would be of much interest to you. It is however you who has traveled and lived. I will indulge though, as best I can. Did you happen to go to the beach when all the wondrous items washed ashore?"
"I assure you, anything you have to tell me about this town would be useful, even if it is not as interesting to you as my travels," Santiago assured her, pausing long enough to down the rest of his white Russian so he could pour himself a new drink, too. "I was not, though I heard about it. I believe I had a head-cold at the time... storms wreak havoc with my lungs, I fear. I assume you did?" Maybe she had some interesting things he could look at. He'd heard there were all sorts of random items, some potentially with magical properties.
"I did," Sen replied but she wasn't trusting enough to let him know what she had or where. "Not with me any longer," she lied. "I've sent them to an acquaintance to examine, many of them were quite peculiar. Does this storm affliction of yours have to do with what you are? Or is it simply a personal quirk?" There were other questions, more interesting ones but she didn't want to flood him with all of them and risk his annoyance.
Was it just him, or had she gotten off that subject a lot faster than she should have, if she had nothing to hide? Santiago raised his brows at her, but let her change the subject, for the moment anyway. "Metal elementals are very succeptible to illnesses of the lungs. I am perhaps not quite as bad as my children, but I fall prey to the problem now and again." Regularly. Every couple months.
"How were you born?" Sen asked, a question that had been burning on her mind for a while now. She herself only remembered waking up, ready. She knew how she had been created, there weren't many secrets there, but none of that really mattered. One day she had just woken up and started being. An elemental however was nothing like a golem, were they created and then by whom? She didn't buy into religion so logic dictated that she needed to know the truth.
"Like any other mortal, through my mother giving birth to me," Santiago shrugged, and brought both their drinks back to the couch, offering Sen hers. "I grew more quickly than anyone else, though, and much more. I was taller than anyone in the clan." Those weren't happy days, and he'd really rather not think about them. He tried to keep to the simple. "People have been slowly getting taller for a long time, now, you know."
"I read that once and wondered if it was true," Sen said, tilting her head and studying Santiago curiously. "Why do you think you were born different? Or did you become what you are later in life?" Her curiosity wasn't sated with his answers, quite the opposite.
She just had to know about his childhood? It was so long ago, it was miserable, and he should have been able to forget about it, considering how long ago it was. And yet it seemed as fresh in his mind as just last year. Funny how that worked. "I always knew," he answered as he sat down again, cradling his glass of whiskey. "Or I did once I started growing up faster than my fellow children, and my mother told me my father was-- special." The word sounded as sour as it tasted. "Do you really care about this?" he asked impatiently. "It was thousands of years ago."
"We do not need to discuss it if you do not want to," Sen replied though her disappointment was obvious. "I'm merely curious to know where someone like you came from. My origin is plain as day, created by man. But you... You're the father of all metal elements, so who was your creator?"
"Did I not say? Metal, himself. The full embodiment of the element, briefly taken human form to meet a woman." Santiago was a bit bitter about him, too, and it showed in face and tone, as if he were mocking his dear, irritating, disappointed father. He took a swallow of his whiskey and said, "He still checks in on me now and then, but he missed out on most of that childhood you seem so fascinated with."
Sen had been stirring her drink with her finger and was sucking on said finger when Santiago spoke about his father. She pulled it out with a little frown and took a sip before speaking. "Did you?" she asked, huffing quietly. "A father should be there for you. I suppose when they don't have to as much work like my creator there is less reason for them to stick around. Were you there for your children?"
"My dear child, I have had thousands of children. I have 'been there' for some, and not for others-- there were probably some I didn't even know about, who I had no chance to 'be there' for." Santiago didn't consider himself a very good father, anyway. Too flighty, too moody, not responsible enough, too bitter, too bored.... Most of his children wound up disliking him, or vice versa, before too long. He did always try to set them up for a good life, financially, even if he couldn't support them emotionally.
Thousands. Well, he had certainly been busy though given his life span, not too badly so. "And as such I'm guessing you have thousands of grand children, grand grand children, grand grand grand children-" she could go on, but instead she concluded with, "Millions of descendants. That must be a little overwhelming. Unable to keep tabs on all of them."
"I do try to look in on the family lines from time to time, but keeping up a relationship with all of them is impossible, even for me." Maybe especially for him, since keeping up relationships with people wasn't his best ability. Santiago shrugged, sipping at his drink. "It helps that we can all sense each other, feel when we're around another elemental-- not just myself, but all elementals." There was no guessing, with them, and it was something of a relief, not having to hide. It was always a relief when he didn't have to hide.
Sen definitely found that interesting, being able to feel your own kind? It sounded convenient for sure. Not that she thought she could benefit from such an ability, the only people in her life who mattered to her she already knew by sight. "What do they feel like?" she asked curiously. "Does it wary by the type of element they are?" She finished her drink and put the glass down, focused on Santiago.
"It's hard to explain," Santiago shrugged, though he'd certainly tried many a time over his long life. He went with the one that had gotten him the most luck, over the millennia. "It's like you know them, even though you've never seen them before-- like there's a connection there, a kinship, that you feel immediately, and since you know it isn't anything else, you know it's that. It isn't like I can sense heat around a fire elemental, really, though there is a kind of spark to them that I've come to recognize. Not all of us can recognize type immediately-- our own, yes, but others, not necessarily. That takes experience."
"If anyone has that experience, it should be you," Sen pointed out with a knowing smile. Ten thousand years should be ample time to figure such things out, she thought. If Santiago really was that old, he was surely the oldest and so if anyone could tell apart the types, it was him.
"Well said," Santiago agreed, toasting her with the last of his whiskey before tossing it back. He was tired of sitting still. He needed to move again. "I do not suppose you dance, Senturion?" he asked hopefully, raising his brows at her.
Sen quirked a brow at him at the question. Did she dance? Absolutely not. She might playfully wiggle around with Arturion for a laugh but that wasn't dancing. "I dare say I try not to," she replied dryly. She certainly didn't dance when hungry and somewhat predictably she was starting to want a snack.
"I could teach you," Santiago offered hopefully, shifting position, dropping the foot he'd propped up on the coffee table down to the floor. "Just for fun, nothing fancy-- not like dancing is hard, anyhow, unless you're learning something ancient. I could even teach you a waltz-- I think that would suit you." She was long of body, graceful in a predatory kind of way, and the heaviness of her would suit the stolid movements well.
"I'm sure you could," Sen replied, though she didn't seem overly thrilled at the idea. "I'm a good learner. but I might take a raincheck on that, it's getting time for me to go back home." She was most definitely missing Art's cooking, her stomach telling her to get gone. "How can you tell if a dance suits someone?"
Santiago sighed. "Well, I suppose if you are leaving, I'll get to get up and move around, anyway. That's what I really wanted. And I can tell if a dance suits someone because I am ancient and I know how to judge how a person moves from all that experience of mine." He arched his brows at her, then got to his feet. "I would offer you a hand up, my dear, but I imagine I would only wind up tumbled down on top of you if you tried pulling with any weight, and that would be awkward." The arched brows waggled teasingly at her.
A human woman would have been mortified at such a comment but Senturion was a golem and she weight more than a pile of human women so she just smirked. "I wouldn't put any weight behind it," she assured him but she also wasn't a big fan of 'gentlemanly' gestures as they rarely made sense to her so she didn't wait for him to change his mind on that. "It has been an interesting experience meeting you, Santiago. Thank you for the drinks."
"You're welcome, for the drinks," Santiago told her, inclining his head and smiling. "Feel free to come by whenever you are in need of entertaining. I'm sure I can come up with some stories for you, again, if you're interested." He expected he'd come to regret the offer, but it would be an opportunity to learn more about a golem, and perhaps those magical items she said she'd found at the beach, and really, what else did he have to do, besides abuse himself and be petty? He might as well at least share his experience with a curious creature like her.
"Oh I'm sure we'll meet again," Sen told him, offering her hand politely. "So much history wrapped up in one person - how could I stay away?" She herself had a lot of time on her hands, considering she never slept, a golem had to try to keep busy.
Santiago took her hand, but rather than shaking it, he bowed over it, more for his own amusement than, he imagined, any kind of reaction from Senturion. She certainly wasn't going to blush and giggle, like many girls would. He released her, and motioned to the door, one hand on her back politely to guide her to it. "I'll look forward to it. Let me walk you out. I don't imagine you'll let yourself get trampled, but it is awfully crowded out in the foyer this time of night."
"You don't have to. I will try not to stomp on people or shove them," Sen replied since that was more of a worry than anyone jostling her in a crowd. Her only reaction to his extravagant gesture was a subtle arch of a brow and a small smirk. Very gallant indeed. "Unless you're heading that way yourself, I can see myself out."
"Well, I'm certainly not staying in here, by myself," Santiago told her, as if it were obvious. "And as that is the most direct way back to the party, I am, in fact, heading that way, myself." He opened the door for her, since it was his suite. Her amusement at his amusing bow was... amusing. Heh. She might not be like most women, but she was indeed interesting, with a sense of humor he could appreciate. "After you, my dear."
Sen chuckled softly and inclined her head. "Very well then," she murmured, indulging his gentlemanly tendency by leaving the room first. "Thank you kindly, sir," she added with the tiniest bit of a bow of the head before heading out toward the loud music.