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 hovered by the door, ready to escape if necessary; but a quick scan of the party and he decided he would give tonight a chance. The atmosphere seemed happy and relaxed, and the guests didn't look like the stuck-up gentlefolk he'd half expected. It also came as a surprise that he wasn't the least formally dressed person there, wearing the only suit he owned, the one he'd been wearing when he 'arrived' in Darrow just over a week ago. He loosened his tie a little, wishing he could go home and change.

He'd come for the free food, and because he had nothing better to do on such a cold night, and also hopefully to get to know a few people. If he had to live in this building from now on, it might be nice to have a mate or two. After seeing the note on the wall in the laundry room a few days ago, he'd asked another resident if they knew who was hosting the dinner, and found out that it was a woman called Allison. He looked around the room and wondered which of the ladies was her.

Alec had never learned to cook, but he'd managed a bowl of mashed potatoes. He'd seen his mother make them enough times as a boy to know how it was done, and he'd rather enjoyed the mashing part. It may not have been a fancy dish, but who would complain about mashed potatoes?

Mashed potatoes weren't the only thing he'd brought. There was something else, tucked away in his jacket pocket. It hadn't always been his plan to buy a gift for the hostess, but that morning he had passed a store called a 'gift shop', and the thought came to him that a small gift might be a polite way to thank her for the invitation. He'd found something which seemed nice, something he might've bought bought for his mum, or maybe Millie if he had ever earned enough to buy her a nice Christmas present as well. The pocket mirror hadn't been as expensive as he had expected, and the woman at the counter had even wrapped it in gold-coloured paper for him. He hoped the gift would be appreciated and that he wouldn't cause any offense in giving it.

[nervesofsteel]

“Greg?”

It takes a moment for John to realize why the kid looks so familiar - his features are boyishly softer, his hair more tousled, but he could easily be the kid brother of Detective Inspector Lestrade, or even the man himself. For a second he thinks it just might be, and hope flares in his eyes for second, before dying off quickly enough.

Well, shit, John hadn’t even quite realized how much he’d missed his friend until his doppelgänger walked across his vision.

And now he owes the stranger an explanation. “Sorry- you just look a hell of a lot like somebody I know. New to the building, yeah?” John’s sure he would have noticed if a tiny Lestrade had been wandering around before now.

[roughandugly]

Alec gave the man a small smile to let him know that the mistake was no big deal. "Been here 'bout a week. I'm Alec," he offered his hand in greeting, "and there's no one called Greg in my family, least not that I know of."

[nervesofsteel]

Jesus, this is weird. With a smile that he hopes doesn’t show too much wariness, John takes the kid’s hand. “John. Welcome to the neighborhood, then. Bloody hell,” he laughs, “you could be his little brother, seriously."

[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?"

[theresalwayshope]

"Hi! Welcome to the--ohmigod, you're a total lifesaver!"

Allison reached the young man just a moment or two after he appeared in the doorway, ready with an open smile and a friendly hand to give his shoulder a little squeeze.

"Nobody's brought mashed potatoes yet, this will go perfect with the stew!" she beamed, steering him over to the food table so she could relieve him of his burden. "Most of Tris's brown bread is gone, and you totally need a good starch to go with beef bourguignon. Sure, you can use noodles, but seriously: if you're going to have a carb-fest, I say do it right."

Finding a plastic serving spoon to add to the bowl, she finally turned to offer the bearer of the mashed potatoes a warm handshake. "Anyway...hi. Welcome to the party, I'm Allison! Food's here, everyone's just sort of mingling and hanging out...can I get you a drink?"

[roughandugly]

Alec hadn't expected his hostess to be so young, or so beautiful. He let himself be steered over to the table, where he found an empty space for his potatoes, feeling proud and relieved that she was happy with them.

Alec did his best to follow along with what Allison was saying, but he didn't know who 'Tris' was and he'd never eaten 'beef bourguignon' and he didn't know what 'carb-fest' meant. Despite his confusion, she seemed so genuine and kind that he couldn't resist smiling a warm, toothless smile as he shook her hand.

"I'm Alec. Alec Scudder. I've just moved in downstairs."

At the offer of a drink, Alec looked around the room to see what others had in their cups and glasses. Alec had been to the grocery store a few days ago and been blown away by how many options there were. It was exciting, all these new things to try, but he was also a man who appreciated simplicity. "Got any mulled cider?" he ended up saying. It was Christmas after all, and a lot of other traditions hadn't changed in a hundred years... although he still had no idea what a 'Christmas CD' was and hoped Allison wouldn't ask him if he'd brought one like she'd mentioned on her sign.