zenderael_rl | [ALT PARTY] It's their party and they'll cry if they want to!

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[ALT PARTY] It's their party and they'll cry if they want to!

Who: Open
When: Sunday!
Where: Anais's apartment, then to a bar.
Before/After: During the tournament!
Warnings: Drinking, underage drinking, probably swearing, uhhhh lotsa stuff

Lera parked her car somewhere in Bastantown, briefly hoping it would not be broken into. Then she felt tremendously bad about suspecting that for a second, which promptly reinforced her decision that tonight, the drinks would be on her.

In time, perhaps, she would regret that.

Of course, she also got there early because that seemed the best way to make a good impression. She arrived at Anais's apartment about fifteen minutes ahead of time. Then, however, she realized that she could be a bother. Which would be bad! She wanted to show support and friendliness because they were nice enough to invite her!

As such, when people first start walking, Lera was standing outside. She looked smartly dressed, at least, with a fancy button-up shirt and a cool skirt. "I hope she knows we're coming!" she murmured to herself.

And that her Visa would forgive her.

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For Noelle, who lived two floors above Anais, it wasn't a very long walk to the paladin's apartment. She took the fire exit, as she always did, and appeared in the hallway.

"Lera," was her greeting upon seeing the redhead, hand on the sling of her crossbow. It was a recent purchase made in Bastantown, now that there was more of Bastan to offer choice which, admittedly, wasn't much. The crossbow was a lot smaller than her regular long bow, preferable if she was going to be surrounded by a large number of bodies.

She glanced at Anais' door, then back to Lera. Anais was definitely inside; she could hear activity in there. So...

"Is something the matter?"

Lera looked like she was caught red-handed.

"Oh, um, Noelle!" She waved a hand in her friend's direction. "I was--er--I was worried I got here early. So I thought I would wait outside." Not because she was embarrassed about showing up fifteen minutes early and thought standing there in the somewhat-too-cool weather was a better idea. Not that at all.

"B-But it looks like it's time to go in!" she said. It was a near stammer and she laughed nervously. "So we can do that! Right!"

She had to not say something stupid, now.

"Ah..."

Lera was so jumpy. With excitement to watch a tournament, maybe? Hm, well. This would be Noelle's first, too...

Noelle rapped her knuckles against the door.

But then again, Lera was usually jumpy...

By the time the knock came, Lynea was pretty sure everything was set. It wasn't like she needed to be asked to cater for this party, but making your own treats was always better than relying on something store-bought. The weights and bench had been replaced (IE: stuffed in a closet) with a large catering table (Don't ask how Lynea obtained it.) that was garnished and filled with all sorts of healthy finger food. Fruits, vegetables with little in the way of dip, plain popcorn, home-made lean meatballs and a small amount of cheese. It was a nice well balanced assortment of nutritious treats.

The exact opposite of what people wanted to eat while watching a blood tournament. The only exception was the stack of liquor and alcohol that sat on the kitchen counter.

But what did people know! People were going to watch warrior duke it out and the best warrior ate healthy shit and that's what Lynea was set out to do!

So off she went to get the door. Lynea didn't really remember much of Anais' 'associates' since Lynea doubted the paladin had friends to begin with, so seeing the two women there was an entertaining surprise. Standing there in normal Earther garb (Jeans and purple T-Shirt), she smiled at the two women with an expected welcoming grin.

"Huh. Guess she really did have friends. Come in, Come in!" she greeted and stepped aside to let the two in.

This had to be the worst idea, Anais decided, surveying her apartment. There wouldn't be nearly enough space if the rest of the people from X-DAV decided to arrive. Why hadn't she told Lynea not to bother preparing anything? If Rasmus came, he would probably consume everything he could get his hands on in at least ten minutes and...

And now there were people that Lynea was apparently letting in, and suddenly Anais was feeling self conscious about everything ever. Her apartment was fine, but Anais still felt awkward beyond belief in Earther clothes. Jeans were the one exception to everything, of course. Jeans were incredibly comfortable.

Lynea's voice drew Anais out of her thoughts and she shot a half-hearted glare in the assassin's direction. "I have a life outside of you, you know." Well, no, that was a glaring lie, but she knew people that weren't Lynea!

HARRIET WAS GOING TO A PARTY.

Which was weird, actually, because going to a party full of strangers (ex-alts?!) was not something she ever would have done willingly in the past.

BUT. Something in her gut told her that she would not mind all the other humans at all and it would be fabulous. She had been feeling that way a lot, lately. In fact the only things she HADN'T wanted to do this week involved homework and chores.

Apparently even godbrained teenagers couldn't think their way to the bright side of chores.

One concern, though: She was beginning to suspect/fear that she WAS NOT ACTUALLY ANY BETTER AT DEALING WITH OTHER HUMANS THAN SHE EVER WAS. More willing to do so, sure, but not miraculously keyed into their motivations and reactions the way she had secretly hoped she might be, in the early buzz of ukulele-related jubilation. Her effort to deal with an angry Majestica had been... mixed, at best. Maybe everyone at the party would hate her evil player guts?

BUT SURELY LERA DID NOT HANG OUT WITH VINDICTIVE LUNATICS AND IT WOULD BE FINE.

She rang the doorbell.

Lera was always jumpy. It was a simple truth. Still, she smiled brightly when the door was answered -- because really, she was going to a party, and that would be genuinely fun! She straightened her back and waited for the door to open.

Oh, no. Lynea. She remembered her.

"Uh--heeeey," she said, drawing the syllable out with surprise. "I actually forgot you live there." She flashed a smile at her, before she walked in, and let out a relieved sigh. Anais was here, too. "Hello, Anais!" she called out. "It's me and Noelle--and, ah, Rasmus should be along shortly--"

The doorbell rang. She turned her head and looked at it dumbly, for a moment, surprised by the timeliness of the interruption.

"Ha, don't worry about it. Anais sometimes forgets too." she assured, though that probably left even more questions.

Lynea had only closed the door behind the women for a minute before the door bell rang. Wow, definitely was off the mark when it came to Anais not having friends. She waited until the current girls were away from the door frame before opening it.

For Harriet who had never met the female assassin, what answered the door was imposing as hell. Standing there nearly towering over her head was a tall, beautiful and frightfully intimidating woman. Just from the look of Lynea's eyes held back no hesitation that if she wanted, the older woman could easily snap the teenager's neck in a blink of an eye. The grin was only icing on the bad horror flick cake.

"Yes?" Lynea asked, her gaze and presence bearing down at Harriet.

Gulp.

Oh hey unidentified alt lady, you sure do have a nebulous aura of terror about you!

"Hi is Lera here? She said there would be a party to watch the tournament but I didn't think about the possibility that I'd be barging into a stranger's house before she got here like some mysterious party-crashing asshole. I'm Harriet, I brought dip."

She held up the dip, an offering of peace. It was epic Khshathra dip, which mostly meant that she had made a giant mess in the kitchen reformulating it seven times before she decided it was brilliant enough to be associated with her godbrain.

Lera turned around when the door was opened. She opened her mouth, quickly raising a hand, and stepped forward. "Harriet! Hi!" she said, with maybe too much energy. She was intervening quickly, because the last time she talked to Lynea, she got really angry and things turned awkward. She does not need to direct that at Harriet. "I invited her, yeah."

She looked suitably apologetic. "I hope that was okay," she said, "since--you know, um, she's cool!" And the Khshathra, but she hardly wanted to advertise her as that right away.

"..." Lynea watched Harriet's ramble and Lera's quick intervention in silence and just like that, the grin turned into something far more carefree. Why would she be mad at a kid anyway?

"Haha, that's fine. That's fine." Lynea answered as she waved away any worry they had. "This isn't some paladin party where everything's exclusive and uppity."

She stepped aside again and motioned for Harriet to enter. "Come right on in."

Scary lady was not a paladin. NOTED.

Harriet hurried inside; the scariness of the lady made hurrying seem like a good idea somehow, even if she was looking friendlier now.

"What's your name? Where should I put this? Hey, Lera!"

"Just scoot over a few things on the table over there. I'm not picky where. And the name's Lynea." She answered immediately, watching the girl scurry inside. Cute for her age, definitely.

"If you want anything, just ask. Drinks are over there." Lynea pointed to the kitchen counter. The kid seemed old enough, so moral concerns weren't that big of a problem...if Lynea cared about such things.

"Hi, Harriet," Lera repeated, more subdued, this time. She looked briefly at Lynea, watching her for a moment, and then walked over towards the drinks. She looked at the door. Rasmus would be along shortly, she thought!

Hopefully he was not stuck in her car...

"This is Anais," she said, for Harriet's benefit, motioning to her. "Though we never quite met before in person!" But they had through Acher. She flashed a smile at the Paladin. "And this is Noelle!"

Harriet waved at the new people on the way toward the snack table.

"Hello Anais! Hello Noelle!" The walk-by wave was awkward, but not self conscious, and soon she had dropped off the dip and had drifted into the kitchen, eyeing the drinks.

Could she really have one? Wow, parties with fantasy adventurers and underage drinking were supposed to be something that only happened in legend. Or college. Or legends of college.

OH WELL, LET'S FIND OUT.

She picked up a bottle and started to mix herself a drink; having no previous experience with booze, her godbrain was little help, so she was mixing by color, smell, and whimsy.

Hello Nix-slash-Harriet-girl-who-did-not-like-harpy-bodies!

"Hello," said Noelle, from her seat on the edge of the couch. She was just shy of relaxing into it, not out of nerves, but habit. New Khshathra... so said she on the forums, before backpedaling on it.

Maybe she had been roleplaying. But the timing...

Noticing the dip, she looked to Lera, then to Anais, and then finally to whoever might look back. "I did not bring anything to eat... If there is a request I can pick it up."

"It's okay, Noelle!" Lera said. She flashed a smile down at her friend -- were they friends? She assumed so... -- and then looked over at the table. That looked like a lot of very healthy but maybe not very tasty food. She pursed her lips.

"I think they have a lot of stuff," she said. "So it's fine."

They did have Harriet's dip. Which, given her new powers, seemed like a must try. Could a demigod Alchemist make excellent dip? She thought it was likely. She turned on a foot and started towards it. She also glanced at Harriet.

Let the Khshathra work! She could mix alcohol! This would never end in tears!

Speaking of tears, there was another knock at the door, and whoever answered it would be met with a very sad, bulldoggish expression from the large paladin.

"Ah, I am sorry- I was having trouble exiting Miss Lera's c- Anais!"

The expression changed immediately, like the heavens parting or a flashlight going off in someone's eyes. That was a familiar face right there!

As fucked up as the cocktail Harriet had just created inevitably was, her godbrain was doing her one favor -- she could casually and easily remember everything that went into it, and how much of it -- even sight-measuring the liquids as she poured them.

So if this cocktail did not kill her, BY GOD, she could learn from her mistakes.

Harriet did not yet anticipate how painful learning from cocktail-related mistakes could turn out to be.

She wandered back out toward the others, drink in hand. Whoa, it was Rasmus! Wave wave wave from the background.

This time, Anais managed to beat Lynea to the door. After what happened with Harriet, Anais wasn't so certain she wanted Lynea answering it any more. Harriet was a friend of a friend, and even if Anais herself didn't know her, she still deserved to be treated with respect, not stared down like she was there to cause trouble. Besides, if anybody would be guilty of that, Anais had the feeling it would have been Lynea herself, not this person she didn't know.

Upon opening the door, however, she almost smiled. Almost. How could she not when it was Rasmus standing there.

"I was beginning to wonder if Miss Savinkov had forgotten to bring you entirely," Anais said, hoping the sort of smile on her face was enough to clue them both into the fact that she was joking. For Anais, this was incredibly rare, but she was with Rasmus once again. Whether she admitted it or not (and she wouldn't), she had missed having him around. Now, he was here again, and how could she not be pleased to have someone she knew around?

She stepped away from the door, pulling the door open as far as it could go so Rasmus would have enough room to get inside. Although, after a moment of hesitation, she asked, "Will you be able to fit through the door, Rasmus?" Her apartment door was no car, but sometimes even normal doors posed a challenge for him, as she recalled. Of course, she might not have been remembering that correctly. It had been awhile.

"Rasmus!" Lera called out. "I-I'm sorry, I should have come to help, but I didn't want to insult you..." And she was hardly strong enough to yank him out of the car. She looked to the side embarrassed, before she looked at Anais. She looked terribly embarrassed for a moment.

But, it seems, it was a joke.

She looked back at Rasmus and grinned sheepishly. "They--they have a lot of food!" she said. "You should come check it out!"

He ducked a little, turning sideways (by way of habit) to get in through the door, as he usually had with, say, Ravindra's rooms. Slouching a little to accommodate the lower ceiling, he leaned down further immediately to scoop up Anais, careful not to squeeze too hard (but, maybe, a little hard), lifting her up off the floor by a good foot and a half.

"Ah! Not even the meat pies Delaney makes have made me feel so all right with being so far from home!"

Eeeeee Anais :>

Another little squeeze before he puts her down on her feet, and he straightens up again mostly, looking over to see Harriet. "Ah- lady," he said, giving her a small salute in greeting, though thankfully refraining from her title. To Lera he gave an embarrassed little shrug. "Yes, well... maybe I... maybe I will simply walk to the next place..."

Lynea watched as the large man stepped in. she had seen a lot, but the walking mountain in front of her was something else entirely. Just what the hell were the paladins feeding this guy? Ah well, as big as this guy was, he wasn't giving off anything that suggested there'd be trouble, especially with apparent friendship there was between him and Anais, which only made Lynea give an amused grin at seeing Anais being lifted up like a doll.

"Well, that'll be a while yet. Please. Grab a drink and sit. We can probably get two chairs for you if you don't think you'll fit on one." Lynea mused.

Harriet sipped her questionable cocktail, hovering kind of in the middle of the room. Hmm. It tasted like bees.

"Are more people coming? Can we turn it on?"

Even if there wasn't fighting yet, they might be doing interviews! INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE IN ZENDERAEL YOU GUYS.

Okay maybe not so special for people actually from there, but they might KNOW the ones being interviewed so then again maybe it was!??!

Edited 2012-12-09 03:13 (UTC)

"We can figure out something, I'm sure..." Lera said, a flash of guilt in her yes. That damnable Toyota! It was too small.

Hopefully it would not need new upholstery, too. Rasmus was big enough to hit the ceiling. She looked at Harriet, then she shrugged her shoulders once. "Not totally sure," she said, "but it seems like it'd be okay!"

But it wasn't her house.

She flashed a grin at Anais, getting hugged by Rasmus.

There was a time when Anais would have swatted Rasmus for picking her up like that and squeezing her half to death. That, however, was before Anais hadn't seen Rasmus in months. She managed a half-hearted swat at his arm, however, when he released her. He'd expect that much, at least.

"Yes, feel free to turn it on," she said, gesturing to the television set. How had they not done that yet?

"Ah, yes, the television. I know about the television."

And he sounded so proud of himself for it, too! Aren't you proud of him, Anais? The swat is accepted as par for the course, barely more than a cat brushing up against a leg really. With everyone occupied with turning the television on, he caught sight of the food, and in moving over to see what the Khshathra was drinking took some of the ~~puny mortal offerings~~ carrot and celery sticks.

"What is it you have, Lady?" He was allowed to just go up to her and ask, right? She was pretty chill about this sort of thing so it was okay, right?

"It is a cocktail of my own creation," Harriet answered. "I think I'll call it the Buzzcut."

On account of the bees. Harriet had not yet anticipated that all cocktails would taste like bees.

When the others switched on the TV, it pulled away her attention almost instantly, though. Didn't want to miss a minute of quality ~~spying on alts~~...er... ~~footage of a certain ex-rockstar~~ ...p-programming.

Edited 2012-12-13 00:47 (UTC)

"Why the Buzzcut?" Lera asked, looking at Harriet for a moment.

She looked at the television, too, mouth opening as she saw contestants swinging weapons at each other -- and actual effects from Zenderael, which looked completely different in a live feed.

"That's amazing," she said quietly. "I've seen a little bit of magic and such in person, but--but this is amazing."

"Because it stings," Harriet explained, still watching the TV.

It wasn't the first she'd seen of the tournament because she'd been watching at home, but ~STILL AWESOME~.

And... violent. She winced as one fighter slammed another to the ground.

"Oh boy is it okay to do that to someone's head? That looks like it could cause permanent damage."

"Meh. It's all flash, no substance." Lynea commented, taking a seat on an end of the couch. To be quite honest with herself, what she saw so far on the TV was extremely disappointing. Watching the tournament was supposed to get her blood boiling and interested, each and every fight bringing desire to be right there in the fight.

It was definitely not doing that for Lynea. Most of the moves were slow, predictable and came out too much like little kids slapfighting each other than any sort of battle. It was all very dull, much like this bowl of popcorn she was snacking on.

It was all really quiet. Maybe if she made the TV louder, things would at least be beyond tolerable. She reached for the remote and went do just that.

Except she didn't know how...

She stared down at the remote, a device far beyond anyone's understanding, much less hers. Why the fuck did it have so many buttons? You could only really press them with your thumb, so it wasn't like the rest of them were all that useful. On top of that some of the buttons were even a different color...for what reason, Lynea wouldn't even bother to guess.

She took another minute to give it a focused stare and then finally pressed a button. Oh look, another button lit up...but it didn't turn the volume up. She gave a disgruntled noise, uncomfortable that something so small could defeat her so easily. She pressed a few more, even the one that said 'volume' but each time the remote only rewarded her with the same button flashing red. What the fuck was 'MP' mean, anyway?

After minute of almost complete defeat and just when one of the earther would most likely try to help her out, Lynea did the only thing she could do.

She gave up.

"Well, guess this is broken." she confirmed to herself, tossing the remote out the nearest window. Unfortunately for Anais' budget, Lynea didn't notice the window was currently closed.

Windows Lynea has broken: 2

"It looks like it hurts, but maybe if they use healers..." Lera said, thoughtfully, to Harriet. She watched the screen -- and glanced momentarily at Lynea, in time to see her looking at the remote. She opened her mouth, before she saw her pressing a few buttons, and then saw the remote get thrown.

She followed its path into, through, and finally out the window. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"Um," she said aloud, "that... that looked like it was probably kind of expensive..."

"I do not believe anyone dies in these things," Anais said with a shrug. "Well, perhaps the Ahura if he is particularly unskilled." And she hoped that would not happen here, to be quite honest. She didn't trust the Ahura as far as she could throw him, however. He was still a berserker, after all. Still, the Spenta had told her he trusted him, and she supposed that was good enough for her.

Anything else she might have thought to say, however, immediately disappeared the minute she heard shattering glass. Anais turned, staring intently at the window which, unfortunately for her, was now broken. Slowly, very slowly, she turned back to look at Lynea, eyes narrowing.

"You will pay to replace that window, Lynea." She was not getting a choice in the matter. If Lynea was capable of breaking a window, she was perfectly capable of replacing it. Tough love, Lynea.

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[ALT PARTY] It's their party and they'll cry if they want to!

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