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

[roughandugly]

Alec began to feel a little uncomfortable with being stared at, but he relaxed again at the man's "bloody hell". Most people swore so casually here, even people Alec didn't expect from the look of them, and it amused him. He didn't like everything about this place, but he did like that most people seemed less caught up in silly rules.

"I have got an older brother, Fred Scudder, perhaps you know him?" Alec said, not realising how incredibly unlikely that would be. He wasn't stupid, but this situation went against all he knew of how the world worked, and he was still getting used to it.

[nervesofsteel]

Okay, maybe staring gape-mouthed at the kid isn’t the best way to make an introduction. John still remembers what it’s like to land here, where everything’s just a little bit off, and there’s no one to turn to. Rueful and apologetic, he shakes his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell, sorry. He around?”

[roughandugly]

"No, he's not, actually," Alec laughed softly, realising his mistake, "Keep forgetting we're not all from the same time and place. It's strange, how much bigger the world seems now, even though I'm stuck in this one small city."

[nervesofsteel]

“Christ, tell me about it.” John’s universe has more than expanded since he came to Darrow; it has bloody well exploded. Frankly, the kid standing in front of him is a good example of exactly that. “Where’re you from?"

[roughandugly]

"Osmington, in Dorset." Alec had lived in other villages too, mostly in Wiltshire, but his family had moved to Osmington when he was twelve and he had lived most of his youth there, meaning it had been home for the longest length of time. "Nineteen-thirteen. That's the year it was before I came here."

[nervesofsteel]

You’d think John would get used to meeting people from the past - or, for that matter, people from stories, people who are supposed to be dead or who never existed - but he still finds it to be a bit of a shock. And this one looks so weirdly like Lestrade, which isn’t really helping.

And if John’s confused by it all, how must the poor kid be feeling?

“…Huh. This must be… well, a hell of an adjustment, for one thing. You hanging in there?"