meet the (grand)parents...

[theresalwayshope]

Allison felt a little like she was going insane.

She started out just planning to invite Aramis and Porthos over to meet Jason. Dinner and drinks, nothing big. Then she realized she didn't just feel obligated to invite Athos, she wanted to. So, if she did that, she obviously had to invite D'artagnan, and she really wanted to meet Constance...and she'd promised Grey a chance to help her bake a cake, so if she did something more than dinner, she could let him come over at some point...

The small family dinner became a small dinner party, and with a few more additions morphed into an impromptu potluck for the whole building...or anyone that wanted to show up. She told the family about it privately, asking Porthos and Aramis to make sure the others at least stopped by (with a subtle warning that Jason would be there), told everyone else she knew in the city, and for the rest of the building she posted a couple of handmade fliers: one in the elevator, and another in the laundry room announcing that, with either a main course or appetizer offering, an invitation to the holiday celebration taking place in apartment #39...dressy casual to formalwear welcome, bring your favorite Christmas CD as a bonus.

And, of course, she told Jason...and told him her family would be there.

By the night of the party, Allison was ready...she just felt a little like she was going insane.

She kept her outfit cute, but simple, and took care of dessert by baking some cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, and a two layer chocolate cake which she invited Grey over to help her bake. With a little careful scheduling, she also managed to contribute to the food on hand with her second ever attempt at beef bourguignon: rich, hearty, and sort of impressive under the right circumstances. By party time, she had her front door standing open, some Trans Siberian Orchestra carols playing on her stereo, and while she didn't yet have a tree, she'd gotten some cute plastic holly garland to hang around the apartment, and for fun had ringed her whole living room ceiling in multicolor Christmas lights for good measure.

The party was good to go. The place smelled good, the food came out okay with more to come...the evening was good to go.

And when Jason showed up, her family would show up...and they'd all meet each other...

While she waited for her guests, loved ones, and boyfriend to start arriving, Allison puttered around in her kitchen, swore to herself she was not hiding, and tried to pretend that she wasn't having visions of someone either drawing a sword or a knife by the end of the evening.

Tonight had to be perfect.

(HOLIDAY GATHERING POST! Treat it thusly. :P Front door's open, come and go as you please, anyone in the Bramford Building is welcome, and if you know Allison even remotely she told you about the party. Gather at will, and leave a call for Allison in your subject line if you want to play with her directly! Open eternally, will probably be linked near the end of the month. :D)

Comments

[worstofhumanity]

Live. A concept that has different meanings for everyone. "I h-had a k-key to a r-r-room," he says. "D-down the s-stairs."

[herownrules]

Then he wasn't from Darrow, most likely. There are exceptions, but most of the people who live in the building seem to be from other places. They're all assigned rooms at the beginning and some of them even stay in them. Kenya knows that she has, the ease of it welcome.

"Then that's yours. Mine isn't far from here." Dimera isn't that far a walk from here, at least not by her standards. She takes another step forward, and smiles again, hoping to relax him. "My name's Kenya."

[worstofhumanity]

He can't step back any more, the wall prohibits him from moving. "I d-do not h-have a n-n-name," he tells her. That is what everyone seems to ask here. It seems so important. No one in London or Geneva or even Ingolstadt ever asked his name.

[herownrules]

Whatever has happened to give him those scars and make him so afraid, it wasn't anything good. More like one of the biomen she'd thought of earlier, the almost-human men the product of experiments with Votan technology.

It isn't her place to give him a name, though. All Kenya can do is nod, and hold a hand out to him. "If you want to go to the party, we can. Otherwise... Do you want to walk me home?"

[worstofhumanity]

No, he won't be going to that party. There seems to be so much happiness, there. He doesn't wish to take it from them.

"I - "

He shouldn't walk anyone home. "A-are you n-not af-afraid of m-m-me?"

[herownrules]

It's a fair question, but that doesn't mean Kenya doesn't hurt to hear it. "You haven't done anything to make me afraid. Are you going to?"

[worstofhumanity]

Again, the creature shakes his head. He doesn't wish to hurt anyone.

[herownrules]

"The worst man I ever knew told me he loved me, and was charming and sweet." It's the second time she's talked of Hunter in the past month, and that's teo times too many. But she wants this man to trust her, if only because she hates when people are so obviously wounded.

She doesnt look away from him, but she doesn't look on him in pity, either. He doesn't deserve that. "Then why don't we walk? There's a little take away place on the way. It does steamed buns I can never get enough of. My treat."

[worstofhumanity]

The worst man the creature met was his very own creator. He was not charming, he was not sweet.

Something makes the creature agree, though he doesn't know why. He turns, oddly graceful, back toward the stairs.

[herownrules]

Kenya follows, though at a distance. She doesn't want to spook him, now that he's agreed to this much. "Did you arrive here recently?"

[worstofhumanity]

"I h-have only b-been here a w-week or a b-bit m-more." While he has been aware of hours passing at an excruciating rate, the days tend to pass in a blur.

[herownrules]

"The first few weeks are the hardest. I didn't trust anything, or believe this was real for most of it." It wasn't only because this place seemed lucky, in her eyes. Untouched by the war that had torn her home apart, it had seemed too good to be true.

[worstofhumanity]

Too good to be true. The idea would be fantastical if voiced to the creature. There is no such thing, he would argue, as good.

"Wh-what happens a-a-after the first f-f-few weeks?"

[herownrules]

“I suppose we get used to it. We adjust.” She pauses at the bottom of the stairs, by the door. Had it happened that fast? Had she really become accustomed to this place so quickly? “At least I did.”

[worstofhumanity]

Would the creature? Could he? It was all so bright, so loud, so fast. He was not at all certain. "I s-see."

He keeps his distance as they stand, not wanting to frighten her, not wanting to smell her perfume too closely.

[herownrules]

She's not sure that he does, but can she blame him? Whatever it is that he's afraid of, she can't say it isn't without good reason. Kenya remebers when the Irathients were driven out of Defiance after disease came through the town. It hadn't been kind, and even after relations were repaired, many of them were afraid to trust the brittle peace based on their history.

"Should we go? I did promise you something to eat."

[worstofhumanity]

He wasn't aware he was grimacing, but the Creature nodded. He has to admit, the food here does smell good, entirely different from what he knew where he was from. He steps out onto the street.

[herownrules]

It's lighter out here than in the hall or stairs, and she can see his scars more clearly. Kenya wonders again what it is that did that, before following him, and offering her arm. "It's this way."

[worstofhumanity]

It takes the creature a long moment to figure out what it is that she is offering with her arm and he jerks forward at first, his elbow at an angle as he reaches it out.

[herownrules]

Kenya is as gentle and graceful as she would be with a boy having his first time or a miner who smelled of sweat and grit. Her hand is light on his elbow and her smile is genuine. "Have you had the buns? They steam them with the meat and everything else inside."

[worstofhumanity]

In a way, the creature is both of those things.

Dumbly shaking his head at the question, though; he has not. He had been subsisting on seal meat before coming here, and here, very little, since he still dares interaction only rarely.

He is always hungry, it seems. He has just grown used to it.

[herownrules]

"They're good. Do you eat meat?" It's a fair question, she thinks, she's met too many people who don't here for a number of reasons. "The pork ones are the nicest. They're sweet, slightly."

[worstofhumanity]

"I e-eat any-anything," he tells her. He has always been hungry. "I w-will tr-try."

[herownrules]

"Hopefully, you'll like them, then," she says, leading him down a street toward a row of shops with lights. "It's there."

She looks around them, realising that it's darker here, and he might not be comfortable in the brightness. "Do you want to wait here for me/"

[worstofhumanity]

Yes he did.

With another nod, the creature slid into a chair, his back to the wall, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets.