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

[firecracker_hopping]

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.

Comments

[jupiter_bands]

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.

[catchingseasons]

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."

[firecracker_hopping]

"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!

[bulldozer]

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!

[jupiter_bands]

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.

[vallinar]

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.

[firecracker_hopping]

"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!"

[bulldozer]

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..."

[ghostlyheiress]

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.

[jupiter_bands]

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!??!

[firecracker_hopping]

"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.

[vallinar]

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?

[bulldozer]

"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?

[jupiter_bands]

"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.

[firecracker_hopping]

"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."

[jupiter_bands]

"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."

[ghostlyheiress]

"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

[firecracker_hopping]

"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..."

[vallinar]

"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.