With a pop, champagne foam sprayed from the bottle, and streamers fluttered down. Everyone cheered.
Standing in the center, Schiller applauded with everyone else, reached up to remove the streamers from his hair, and said, "Thank you all for your help. The second phase of Arkham Asylum's renovations is complete!"
Another round of enthusiastic applause followed. All the doctors, orderlies, patients, and Schiller's friends cheered.
"Thank you, thank you so much!" Schiller shook hands with them one by one as he moved through the crowd, then smiled and greeted those farther away.
When he reached Stark, Stark was standing nearby, waggling his eyebrows. Schiller walked over, and Stark snorted. "No one's been answering the phone at your office these past few days. I thought you'd forgotten all about Little Morgan's birthday party."
"How could I?" Schiller said. "I specially marked it as a priority in every calendar app. There's no way I'd forget. Aren't you going to check out the asylum's new decor?"
"Please, what is there to see at an asylum? I came to see you about something minor, but Stephen went to your clinic twice and couldn't find you. He looked like he had something urgent to discuss. You'd better ask him."
"All right. Hopefully the magical defense network hasn't gone wrong again."
Schiller glanced toward the lawn outside. Strange was holding a glass and talking to Peter.
The sunlight in New York was lovely that day, and the lawn was lush and soft. Whenever the wind blew across it, the newly laid ground gave off waves of fresh, earthy fragrance.
Arkham Asylum's renovations had been completed. Most areas had been redecorated, though the overall structure had not changed much. Only the interior finishes and furnishings had been restyled, correcting some flaws in the previous design.
Naturalism had