House Log 002: Be our guest

[payingfordeliverance]

Who: A pile of Pandoras and a pile of RWBYs and perhaps some assorted close attachments
What: A mingle log in which two houses alike in dignity have a slumber party for great CR kickstart justice
When: End of the first week in November, before the month becomes established as a horrifying shitshow
Where: Pandora House, which still needs a cooler name

Content Warnings: Nothing in the log prompts; mushroom monsters are present if we feel like being rude.



Somewhere around the end of September, Xerxes Break made a joke about slumber parties explicitly because he knew it would make Qrow Branwen's life difficult and that struck him as very funny. Now, he has to make good on this and throw a proper one. You'd think this would count as the joke backfiring on him but no, no, it most certainly does not -- Break and his pack of feral Victorian teenagers all thrive on a good party in their own way, and having come from an old-fashioned world they are already quite busy preparing to hunker down inside for the wintertime. Unused to being able to pass long, harsh nights with things like television and video games, they have many activities at hand to indulge in, and Break has already been hard at work stockpiling food like some sort of rabid hobbit.

The house itself is warm and pleasantly haunted and cozy in a way that only happens in homes that aren't accustomed to things like electric heat -- there are piles of quilts and blankets scattered around most rooms, free for the taking if someone wants to wrap themselves up, and all the communal rooms have fires going in their fireplaces. The heat that radiates from those spots is the kind that can thaw out frozen bones in a way that nothing else can. And the feel of the house itself is...well, despite the various struggles of its inhabitants, it just feels like the house is daring to hope that it can be happy. After all, it sat abandoned and empty for a long time, the more terrible of the ghosts that haunted it always inevitably chasing away anyone who dared try to settle down here. Those ghosts are gone as of last month, and the fact that every single person living here is now getting a second chance at simply being someone has already begun seeping into the walls themselves. Although it's still early enough in the month that the intense danger November brings with it hasn't yet become widely known, the house feels decidedly safer than the outside all the same, with a faint sense of benevolent sentience hitting as soon as one walks through the door.

That's what you get in a house full of darkbloods (and Oz).


Food: Probably it's no surprise to anyone who knows Break that the kitchen is where that sense of protectiveness is strongest; this is the room he's taken over as his personal territory. Feeling much better with last month's homesickness finally easing up, he spends the day of the party cooking enough to feed the whole crew -- he's been learning to cook mostly in restaurants, so this is no problem. Having been warned that beef in particular is about to become scarce for the season, he's gotten a hold of a good chunk of it and has put together a big cauldron of beef stew, with potatoes and leeks and many, many mushrooms and things to round it all out. This is one of exactly two proper meals that Break has mastered already, given that the basis of a stew is to chop up exactly the right things and then put them in a pot, and the house smells more and more exquisite the closer you get to the kitchen. There's fresh bread, too, and though the loaves are still a little misshapen they taste just fine, and he's recruited Lysithea to help out with her wonderful baked sweets. Break will sneak away for further baking when he's in want of a bit of quiet, too, so expect further treats all night. Of particular note, in the wee hours when the house is getting properly chilly, he produces a wonderful warm drink: A big pot of (non-alcoholic) spiced berry juice, rich and red and warmed up with cloves and cinnamon sticks and slices of the last fresh oranges he was able to snatch up at the docks floating about inside. Victorians know how to do winter food, and why wait for the snow to really get going?

Movies: This is something new and exciting for the Pandoras. Bereft of any kind of proper screen, they've been taught to pin up white bedsheets against the wall in the parlor, and someone's omni has been recruited to project things onto it. Given the recent spooky season and some of the kids learning about Halloween, many of the movies of choice tonight are themed thus, such as Hocus Pocus and The Others. But someone having figured out how to search the omni has resulted in Beauty and the Beast, too, for something a little less creepy. This whole thing is super great. Who knew you could go to the theater without having to get dressed and leave the house?

Arts and Crafts: The other thing happening in the parlor is the coffee table being taken over by art supplies. The Alices like to make things, and have been amusing themselves lately putting together decorations for the house. We have paints, fancy papers with pretty patterns on, scissors, glue, glitter, the works. The sorts of art supplies you'd expect from a couple of girls who spent the bulk of their early lives locked, in some capacity, in a tower. It's something fun to play with while the movies are running. It is possible that White Alice may be working on painting swirly bits on an animal skull of some sort. Don't worry about it, it's fine.

Game Room: The house does have an actual dining room, nice and long and with high ceilings. Given that the kitchen with its huge wooden table is plenty big enough to eat in, they haven't bothered to use it as such. Instead, there's a table set up off to the side for board games and jigsaw puzzles -- and, more importantly, the bulk of the room is totally clear for things like indoor badminton and a ball made for kicking about. Possibly this is because Break spent all of September trying to convince himself it was silly to worry that the Alices had been eaten by something only to have them turn up in October and tell him of having been eaten by a giant fish, and he freaked out and decided he doesn't want the kids playing outside where the beasts are unless they have to. He is not telling.

Training: That said, weapons training simply needs to happen outside, and it's entirely possible that sooner or later it will come up that this slumber party is full of weapons enthusiasts and at least four of them, inexplicably, are scythe users. If that happens, there's a clear space outside in the backyard that Break has been using for his own drills, grass already trampled flat and a few nice sturdy posts that a blade has clearly been whacking away at. There's a nice stone wall around the property that will keep a great many of the unsavory creatures out, as some of the back used to be a garden which has long since grown wild, and Break has taken a hint from Gaze and set up several tall incense burners, too. If anyone is feeling in want of a midnight spar for some reason, this is where they can go -- but keep in mind that the wall won't keep the poisonous floating mushroom creatures out, and given that said garden has proven to be a mushroom oasis, the horrible little shuffling ones that induce hellscape hallucinations may be about, too.

Comments

[payingfordeliverance]

Before the Party: Prep Time

An unexpected blessing in Break's food quest funtimes has been the discovery that there is no need to head out into dubious places to forage for mushrooms -- turns out the garden out back will provide. No fancy truffles, alas, but plenty of other sturdy edible kinds that can be used to fill out meals. They're best fresh, naturally, so as part of the preparations for the day Break can be found strolling around outside with a basket over his elbow and Baltus trotting along behind with a basket of his own, ready to help sniff out the good stuff. Lunch will be a big skillet of mushrooms cooked up in garlic butter and a touch of white wine, incidentally -- they're kind of a punch in the face because after several sad bland attempts Break has decided to head in the opposite direction, as far as seasoning goes, but you can't have too much garlic so it's fine. He makes a pot of rice to go with it and mostly doesn't end up with crunchy bits on the bottom.

Much of the rest of the afternoon, however, is dinner prep for Break. He sort of enjoys cooking, he's realized. It's more amusing on its own than he expected, and for all that he was determined to sort out what he could do on his own initially, it's pleasant when one of the kids swings in and sticks around to help peel potatoes or wash the dishes. He has all the veggies for the stew spread out on the table to be dealt with, and he'll idly chop some himself when he isn't up to his elbows in bread flour. Is he brave enough to attempt bread bowls for the first time today, given that they are expecting company...? Perhaps, perhaps not.


Movie Time

Break's initial reaction to the movies was to wave his hands around and insist no one pay him and his nonfunctioning eyeball any mind, please enjoy yourselves. This was a coverup for a pout, and Baltus would not have it. After a lot of shoving and offended dog noises, the end result is Break curled on the corner of a couch with his horrifying blind speed-knitting in his lap and his omen sprawled on the back of the couch, head draped over Break's shoulder and aimed intently at the screen so that Break can see what Baltus sees over the link between them.

The movie he sits in on is Beauty and the Beast. He doesn't say much during the movie, because talking at the theater is extremely rude. But it's painfully obvious that he's enjoying it -- it's definitely the most he's laughed in a single hour since he's been here -- and when it's over, he puts his knitting down to spoil Baltus with affectionate chin rubs for his help.

"Lumiere was the best. Definitely, definitely," he observes fondly. "He and Cogsworth were simply myself and Mister Reim."


Introvert Time

He may be formally trained with an aristocratic shmoozing game face and he may genuinely enjoy people, but sooner or later Break always sneaks away for some quiet at parties, and this happens multiple times through the course of this one. He patrols the grounds of the house at least once, checking in on this and that and enjoying the chill in the air, and he spends a little time in the game room, too -- he's gotten his hands on a badmintion birdie with a special whistle inside that tells him where it is, and he enjoys chasing the thing around the room with a racket in much the same way Baltus will sometimes fling things for himself to catch when he is bored. Like omen, like person.

But it's the kitchen he retreats to most often, either for an idle snack himself or to do up some new treat. At some point in the night he gets it into his head that it might be nice to have fresh cinnamon rolls in the morning, and if he gets them started now he can let them proof in the oven overnight. These, he hasn't made by himself before, so they're sure to be lumpy and weird and probably a little burned in the morning. But he's been around while Lysithea makes them, so he has the basic idea, and it'd be great if he did pull it off, right?

"Help me read over the recipe again, would you?" he asks as he prepares, gathering up all the measuring spoons and things he doesn't want to chase all over the table and slipping them into his apron pockets. He's speaking to Baltus, but if someone else has slipped in, Break won't mind. Hanging out with just one person is still quiet, compared to a whole party.

introvert

[notimeforfailure]

Lysithea was not, by nature, a social person.

The skills she did possess included: baking, making small talk, and recognizing when an unusual invitation slash request was rooted in a desire for the people in Break's life to grow as fond of each other as Break was of all of them. As they had just spent their last encounter admitting various uncomfortable truths and cautiously advancing their own threshold of personal intimacy, Lysithea thought she had better attend.

At some point in time surrounded by a horde of strangers, she feels a need to step into the kitchen and 'check on her cakes.' Not that she felt awkward - Lysithea never felt awkward as a general rule, and if she did, it was the fault of the people around her - but more that she needed room to breathe.

"Trying something new?"

She slides the flour towards him.

"I won't interfere if you want to do this yourself."

[payingfordeliverance]

"-- ahaha, you've caught me."

The kitchen is an excellent place to breathe, even with Break in it. This is in no small part because he uses the kitchen for that purpose himself. He has his own bedroom, of course, but the point of a bedroom is that it has one's bed in it and in Break's case this provides an opportunity to lay in it for hours staring into darkness and being existential.

No such opportunity in the kitchen. The kitchen has teapots and tasty things and a great many toys to play with, now that Break is learning how to use them. When he's working and learning at Lysithea's house he makes do with what he has, relying on her to set things up for him and to swing around to check on him from time to time, and he likes to avoid the other bakers' shifts both simply to avoid them but also to prevent such annoyances as having to hunt down communal supplies when others make off with them. Here in his own home, the kitchen is arranged just so with everything in its proper place always, and a great many other helpful attributes for a blind man -- such as canisters with the labels engraved into them directly so that he can feel the letters out, and the vanilla has been transferred to a wide-mouthed jar, such that Break can scoop it out instead of having to pour it into a measuring spoon. While he certainly isn't hesitant at Lysithea's, the easy confidence he moves with here is much more natural, and that makes him easier to be around than usual, too.

"Mm. Pretty soon we'll be having exactly the sort of morning that wants cinnamon buns hot out of the oven, right?" he says as he rolls up his sleeves. "No time like the present to start practicing."

[bolstafir]

Omens sure can do a lot of useful things, huh. It almost makes Qrow tempted to summon his sometime, but he's long had a contentious relationship with his soul. Knowing his luck, it'd probably burn the house down. Or a house down, at least. Someone's house.

But tonight is not a night to brood about such things. It's a good night and they've had a movie and good food and Qrow would prefer to think about complications later.

"Their one song was pretty spot-on for tonight, huh. Who's Reim?"

Break had never mentioned him before, back when they'd talked about their kids. He's curious about this guy, honestly.

[payingfordeliverance]

"Mm! Reim was my best friend."

And talking about him, it seems, isn't nearly so painful as discussing a Rainsworth -- or perhaps it's that, after the past couple of months, Break has come to welcome the chance to talk about his past because he wants to, and not because some illusionary corpse is bullying him into it. That this movie and its happy ending have made him feel good helps, too. To be reminded of those losses in nice ways, yes, why can't we have more of that in this wretched place?

"He was half my age when we met, but there was the soul of an eighty-year-old man in that little body," he continues, his voice warm and fond. "We fought like cats back then, but...definitely, definitely one of the most dutiful, devoted guys you'll ever meet. He was so incredible at getting things done I'm told young Elliot used to believe he was a fictional character."

Baltus is really into these chin rubs. One of his back legs begins kicking in appreciation, which means Qrow may or may not be getting tapped in the back of the head by a happy dog foot, depending where exactly he's sitting.

"Ahaha, he used to go behind my back to gather all the paperwork I'd left undone and chase me around our workplace with it for hours. Mm, but -- he was always at my side when I needed him, whether I wanted him there or not. To know he'll be looking after things for me still, it makes me worry a little less."

prep time

[swornto]

"Don't worry! Gilbert taught me all about peeling potatoes." Oz was quite eager to help with the preparations. It helped distract from how excited he was to attend a slumber party. He's heard of these things and thought they sounded like fun. It's one thing to drag Gilbert under a pillow fort or let young Ada direct a tea party... Partying with many people, some of whom he doesn't even know well, is very different!

He's tapping his foot lightly to vent some of that anxious energy as he stands over the potato collection. "Is this all I can do for you? I've got no other plans today."

[payingfordeliverance]

"Oh, did he?"

That is honestly reassuring to know. If Gilbert allowed Oz to do literally anything with a knife it will have been with the catch of having Gilbert himself hovering anxiously and drilling safety protocols into his head, lest his precious master end up with a teeny tiny nick upon his precious pristine hands or something. Probably this means Break won't have to worry about him casually whacking a finger off in the middle of all this.

Nicks, he cares about less. Honestly letting Oz have a knife might actually be a great way to summon Gilbert. Break imagines Oz saying "ow" exactly one time, very softly, and Gilbert crossing dimensions on the spot so as to burst out of the cabinet to scream at him for his lax supervision. Yes, using Oz as bait is a great idea as always --

"That will be useful over the wintertime. I've a connection that will get us a great many potatoes to put away, once we've gotten whatever that hissing thing is out of the root cellar." Break discovered it last week and decided that was going to be a problem for Future Break, but it will have to be very soon. "Mm -- there's always a great many things to be done in here. I suppose my return question to you is, is there anything you'd like to learn, if you've nothing else to do?"

slithers in here late

[entreats]

Ange still isn't any good at parties. Yes, despite having organized one herself last month, but her hands were practically tied on that one. Or perhaps she deliberately tied them herself, considering her affection for Ruby just wouldn't let her do anything else under those circumstances.

And it's the latter that brings here here too, considering she was dragged over by her girlfriend. At least she knows.. some of the people present here..? Maybe that makes it easier?

No, the truth is that it never makes it easier. And that's why Ange desperately tries to stick to something she at least is pretty familiar and comfortable with - watching movies, in this case. And it's not like Disney Delsney movies are something Ange actively dislikes, so.. it's actually kind of fun, watching it.

Though rather than remarking something about that once the movie was over, of course Ange is going to cover up any sentiment of Having Fun with a dry remark the moment she hears Break speak up.

"Isn't it going a little bit too far to compare yourself to a candlestick?"

Introvert

[ghostharasser]

Winding up invited to this party was a funny turn of events. Getting invited to a sleepover at all was kind of a big deal to Dipper, in ways that don't mean a lot to anyone but maybe he and his sister. As social outcasts of a particular type, Mabel had only begun having them very recently. Dipper, ever the loner back home, didn't and found the topic a bit loaded for a number of reasons.

So, when Oscar had invited him to one he was, admittedly, very touched, while also very apprehensive. Ultimately, he went because he knew a lot of the people there, and was even more amused to find it hosted at Mr. Break's estate. Well, he'd been meaning to schedule a follow up with him anyway.

He keeps to himself most of the party, hanging close to Oscar, so it takes ducking into the kitchen for some quiet time for him to finally find Break and greet him. By which he will do by just kind of sneaking up at his elbows with an abrupt.

"Hey man, what's up?"

Introvert Time

[spiritwalks]

During one of Break's patrols, he'll find a massive woolly pig nosing around for grass to eat — regardless of whether there's any greenery or not. When Break approaches, the shaggy creature looks up at the man and flares its nostrils in greeting. Its demeanor is sweet and gentle like a cow, but its sheer size suggests it's probably more of a beast of burden than a lawnmower/milk machine.

[wishforaneye]

Arts and Crafts

This is where Alice could be found whenever a movie didn't quite catch her attention, or at any other time when she simply felt like it.

Of course there was a small collection of skulls on the table beside her, as if waiting their turn to get some bit of color added to them. Various sizes, but nothing too big to take up too much space. All from some animal, of course. There was one drying just to the side and out of the way, a bit of glitter mixed in with the paint that really did give it quite the nice sparkle.

Movies

It was hard to keep Alice down in her seat, but at least she was hovering just above it, a few bowls of snacks floating around her as well. All the easier to grab a little something to eat while eyes were glued to the sheet-screen. When it was something that caught her interest? There was no pulling her away, quiet and enjoying the scenes and color, and following along with how eagerly Alice paid attention.

Amok amok amok! So far her favorite was Hocus Pocus simply for the charm of it, and even some little cheer even once the witches were beaten. A boy turned cat finally reunited with a lost sister—

"That was a very nice and helpful dead man," she liked that part as much as any others. "But a dead man's toe doesn't much sound like it would be good." At least there were some impressions left on her?

Game Room
"Dinah!" That was a winged omen, shrunk down to be the size of a medium-large dog swooping across the floor to catch a ball that had been tossed from across the room. Rolling it along the floor with a batting of paws before swatting it back up in to the air. Passing it back and fourth as such.

Still a little used to playing by herself an even making her own fun, Alice had conjured up a game of her own when she stayed inside. Even now with other people over it simply hadn't much occurred to her to change that right away.

"Let's see if we can get it higher!" Without floating it as she did many things, of course.

Recharge

From time to time Alice could be found curled up against her Omen who had made themself as large as a couch, wings tucked and acting a little like a blanket. All was good and well, but at times it was clear that she was adjusting to being around so many people still. Content to simply watch from a taken over corner even in her bits of quiet time. Usually having something sweet to pick apart and eat bit by bit.

"Isn't it nice, Dinah?" A thunderous purring. "Do you think, perhaps, we could sneak another bowl of stew?"

movies

[notimeforfailure]

She had almost forgotten about the moving pictures. Deerington had been a treasure trove of entirely fantastical technology - despite being in the far future, Trench was paradoxically more in keeping with what she found familiar from Fodlan. Still, some of the old technology from Deerington was preserved.

Lysithea watches the movie quietly, mostly still awed by the entire concept. She follows the storyline easily enough, though.

"Magic is presented in a fairly negative light, isn't it? I don't know what I'd ever want with a dead man's toe. Or with any magic that required it."

game room

[velvet_teen]

"Get it, Raspy! Let's keep it in the air!"

The other Alice hurls her much smaller, launchable Omen up to intercept. The ball careens off poor Raspy, who flaps to stay up and mobile, and goes off to a corner somewhere. The room is clear of breakable things for a reason.

Arts & Crafts

[swornto]

How is it coming along?

[Oz has gotten over his initial shock of seeing Alice paint skulls. It makes her happy, seems harmless, and the end result is charming enough. Seeing her work on art projects is so strangely nostalgic. It's nice to be able to do more than watch her work.

Though he had stepped away a while ago to fetch tea, he returns with a cup for each of them.]

For you, if you'd like?

arts and crafts

[entreats]

Ah.

Yes.

Skull painting. This is totally normal.

-- Or so goes Ange's thoughts when she's sitting at the same table, also trying to get a bit into crafts. Perhaps she's just momentarily fled the slightly more loud sections of the party in order to sit somewhere where it's quiet, trying to recharge her introvert battery. She's doing something much more simple herself, having grabbed one of the papers and seeming to be attempting to fold it into some sort of shape.

But her gaze keeps glancing off towards the little skulls. It's so.. so.. something, alright.

"Is this something you usually do?" Ange ends up speaking up to Alice after a few moments of thinking about it.

[bolstafir]

i. movies movies movies

[It is, overall, a pretty fun movie. The songs are fun, the talking furniture is fun, the ending is soppily cheerful. Qrow has had a good time. But he also has a bone to pick with Disney here, and it is thus:]

Kinda lame that he really turned back into a prince.

[Said with a bit of a huff. Mayhap he is taking the concept of loving someone who is "cursed" just a mite too personally.]

ii. poker face

[Perhaps you fancy a game of cards this fine evening. It's a totally harmless game, the most happening in terms of bets being in pieces of candy, buuuuut Qrow just so happens to be a cheating cheater. Not even the respectable kind that uses aces hidden up their sleeve with sleight of hand or manages to count cards, no. He uses his semblance to cheat. The beauty of the game room is that there are no sharp corners nor breakable things, and when everyone is sitting down, there's no need for concern that anyone will trip over anything. So he feels absolutely no shame about cranking up his Semblance when others are drawing their cards.

It turns out he's also really fucking good at bluffing. Sometimes he wins with truly, truly terrible hands. He's having a lot of fun.]

iii. handcrafted

[Qrow isn't really participating in the arts and crafts, exactly. He was mostly just watching things happen around him cheerfully, enjoying the kind of chaos that teenagers cause, rather than the kind that involves blood and nightmares and screams.

...But at some point in the night, either he mixed up his tea mug with one that the Alices were decorating, or they decided his mug needed to be prettier, and used just a smidge too much super glue.

Which is to say--Qrow reaches for the mug, feels a sticky sensation against his hand, and realizes, all at once, that the mug is stuck. How unfortunate.]

movies possibly transitioning into mug

[velvet_teen]

[ Alice yawns, coming out of her play-watching stupor. ]

He wanted to look like the boring guy again, though.

[ Alice also has opinions on being turned into a big animal with magic and also opinions about people being turned into humans with magic. She is personally having a blast with the situation that has everyone human. On the other hand, Beast is cooler looking as a beast. ]

Movies

[onekindsoul]

I know, Right?

We were totally robbed a freaky deaky hairy monster wedding!

HAIRY WEDDING HAIRY WEDDING HAIRY WEDDING!

[The point.



Ruby's head.]

[spiritwalks]

Beast was hotter.

[Muffled by the popcorn already in his mouth. He's just stating facts.]

[velvet_teen]

Arts! Crafts!

Alice's style is not what you would call perfectionist, or even consistent. She doesn't like making a lot of the same thing in a row, that's boring, she might as well stare at the wall. So if she is making decorations, like for a party, her poison of choice is paper chains. She makes up her own patterns, and you can usually tell what she's going for. You make a design, you make sure it hits the edges, you fold something a bunch and you cut it up, then you have a lot of something instead of the one. Brilliance.

She is also intermittently drawing people, omens, and objects that catch her attention. You may interpret this as flattery. The omens are traced over in glitter, as is Lysithea's outfit, and all of the scythes. She's drawing a lot of scythes, questionably, from memory.

Training

For posterity, Alice isn't limiting herself to drawings - she's practicing the art of swinging about a practice scythe just about every day and will accept corrections from the more advanced weaponsfolk on her footwork and such with minimal whining. We can handwave any combat loggery we're here for the party.

She will be running afoul of a floating mushroom either on or offscreen during all of this, as a harbinger of things to come.

Movies

While the paralysis isn't lasting or harmful once it's been yanked off, Alice has nevertheless allowed herself to be bundled onto a sofa with a hot mug of juice to stop the assembled fools from dithering about it.

She has eaten her Omen's weight in beef stew by now, and is quite sleepy, leaning on either the arm of the sofa or whoever is sitting next to her. She manages to blink to wakefulness and pay attention to all of the singing bits and most of the exciting shouty bits of the beast movie and mutters a little bit from time to time. What if their dishes could dance around like that and serve and clean themselves, that would be handy, why's the Beast being such a weenie about looking like a big animal he looks cool, and so forth. Her opinion on the memetic Gaston is that his chin looks like a butt, but she does remember main character names, on the grounds that at least one song per each involves someone yelling the names over and over.

[swornto]

Would it make a difference to you? You don't do the dishes anyway.

[Oz is teasing about her dancing dishes comment. The teens have been forced to pull their weight for Gilbert, but not enough that he can't tease her.

granted, oz can't really talk, can he? he doesn't know how to sweep a broom.

He settles back on the couch with her, having gotten up to refill mugs and check on the kitchen. Though not about to take any blankets from those who might want them later; Oz tells himself that the warm company and fire are plenty enough.]

Training

[onekindsoul]

Ruby Rose didn't think she was the only scythe wielder in town, her uncle was here after all. But she hadn't expected to see another one at this party- So she's absolutely thrilled to see Alice out training with it.

Unfortunately she doesn't have a chance to much past half squeal in excitement and yelp in fright as she sees the floating mushroom drift toward Alice. She makes an effort to dash onto the scene and tackle her out of the way. Except things don't go quite as planned and the mushroom ends up latching onto the both of them.

"Uh- ...This played out better in my head."

[justoscar]

Food

It was rare for Oscar to attend a party put on by his extended group of friends where he wasn't part of the small army of chefs that had been volunteered for the job-- and, for once, he had a chance to admire the spread that had been laid out by another's hand. He was nowhere near the bottomless pit that was Ruby Rose, but he still felt compelled to sample a bit of everything throughout the night. Baking was an art form that he had yet to fully master, and a good soup was layered with a multitude of complexities that a person wouldn't even consider until they set foot in the kitchen.

He was beaming, but also making mental notes about everything for future experimentation in his own kitchen. And, like any good farmlad, he would make a point to locate the chefs and thank them before the end of the night.

Movies

There was a simplicity to be found in the moving images and stories found only on a screen, and the kid in Oscar loved it. It was a chance to be with friends and relax-- which was something they all needed as the days grew shorter with the turning of the seasons.

When everything grew quiet between movies, he would try to sneak into the kitchen on his own to covertly make a batch of popcorn-- as covert as popcorn could be, anyway.

Quiet

Oscar was never one for crowds. He had attended a small country school before he left his home to join Ruby and her team, and even his leisure hours were spent in libraries or scouring his Aunt's bookshelves for new reading material rather than out playing kick the can with the neighboring kids close to his age. Even his outdoor activities had been spent in the quiet solitude of the wilderness near his home, where his only company was the wildlife among the trees.

This did not get better upon arriving in Trench-- his Paleblood had made certain of that. While he didn't necessarily pick up on individual thoughts of others at random, he did feel a near consistent buzz from the crowded house at any given moment. The disorder he all but heard was tolerable for a while, but after a point he simply needed a breather.

Thus, he could be found outside near the incense burners, with a small mug of cocoa in hand and a bowl of popcorn at his side. Stray kernels would be tossed toward curious critters that drew near-- but that was all.

Oscar was just glad to have a break from the constant, unintelligible whispers at the edge of his awareness.

[payingfordeliverance]

The "chef" in question, at least, is not difficult to track down. While Lysithea has helped with the bulk of the baking, it's Break who was responsible for the savories, and at any given time he's liable to have wandered off to his kitchen to fiddle about. Whenever Oscar meanders in, either with popcorn or simply for a rest from the buzz of the crowd, he may well find the blind man humming snatches of music from Beauty and the Beast to himself as he gets the spicy juice drink onto the stove.

Baltus is on his back on the floor, scooting around in a twisty sort of slither, paws ridiculously in the air. It is possible he is scratching his back. It is also possible that omen and person are both just deranged and Baltus is merely entertaining himself. Who knows.

Quiet

[swornto]

"Do they like the kernels best?" The silence is broken as delicately as Oz can manage. Not a paleblood himself, but he's able to tell when someone may wish to be alone.

Oz had escaped the party himself, for his own set of reasons. It was overwhelmingly bright there and occasionally made him think of the souls who had exited his life. He carries a mug of spiced juice himself, but otherwise doesn't want to overindulge. They may regret not having leftovers later.