payingfordeliverance: (Smile: So completely innocent)
Xerxes Break ([personal profile] payingfordeliverance) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-11-05 03:47 pm

House Log 002: Be our guest

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.
onekindsoul: (pic#15218825)

[personal profile] onekindsoul 2021-12-02 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"He's a little sensitive about it, so don't bug him too much about it. Is uh-Hatter really all that bad? He seems kind of sweet."

She considers her options briefly before she speaks up.

"Uh Well Ange and Oscar are both super reliable- But I think they're bound to get super fretful about the whole thing. Something about me getting into dangerous situations when I shouldn't." ...She pauses and thinks briefly on it.

"We're probably least likely to get any trouble out of Oscar though. He wouldn't squeal."
velvet_teen: (HERBIVORE THIS MOTHERFUCKER)

[personal profile] velvet_teen 2021-12-04 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Sweet?! No, he's really annoying and he's really good at pretending he isn't! He plays stupid pranks and prances around like a clown and used to hide under furniture all the time...!"

This grumbling goes on in the background while Ruby does her pondering, painting a picture of a capering idiot going around with a doll. If Qrow is really that sensitive, she'll have to bully Hatter into making sure he doesn't scare him off.

"...I used to know an Oscar, he was also someone who could put up with a lot of nonsense. Yours looks pretty squishy, but let's get him over here. Oz is mostly reliable, but you're a girl - sometimes he'll ditch me and run off with girls, and I don't like that one bit! Raspy! Go find that creampuff looking guy!"

The Omen appears, looking as judgmental as a small creature that is mostly nervous rabbit possibly can. It taps its long hind paw and hops off across the lawn.
onekindsoul: (Pain always finds)

[personal profile] onekindsoul 2021-12-13 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Honestly Ruby can't help but smile hearing Alice describe Break like that- He definitely sounded like a character. Her Uncle Qrow at the very least would be endlessly entertained.

"Wow. He definitely sounds like a huge pain in the butt- how did he even fit under furniture with all those gangly limbs?" Look she's asking the real questions here.

She watches as Raspy dashes off to find them help. "Oscar is super squishy- like one of the squishiest people I know. But you don't have to worry about Oz running off with me- Ange is my girlfriend and I'd give myself a knuckle sandwich before doing something like that to her."
velvet_teen: (Now tell me what it is that I have bit)

[personal profile] velvet_teen 2021-12-17 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Boy is Break ever entertaining. Mostly to Break, if you ask Alice!! Which more people should do!! She does not know how he fits into things and mutters something to that effect, it's bullshit clown magic or some shit.

"A knuckle sandwich doesn't sound too bad - chewy, maybe. I don't get all that girlfriend stuff," Nevertheless it is reassuring, somehow, probably because Ruby here sounds confident that it is reassuring. "Do girlfriends stop you from running off and going on dangerous adventures? Should I get Oz a girlfriend?"

...She has been trying to be a little more self aware and think things through. As such, she has to admit that she does run off on her own and get into trouble a lot.

"Should I get a girlfriend?"
onekindsoul: (As we stare down death)

[personal profile] onekindsoul 2021-12-17 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Ruby could definitely see how being on the butt end of Breaks shenanigans might colour someone's opinion but she is kind of amused by Alice's reaction. She doesn't say anything more on that regard.

"Honestly for the longest time I didn't really get it either- But it's ended up being pretty nice." She didn't think much about relationships at all back at home, she was usually too busy fighting for her life or the lives of other people. It's weird how sometimes a weird nightmare world gives you some perspective.

"I don't know if they necessarily stop you from doing it. I know I haven't exactly stopped doing it. But... They kind of make you think differently about how you jump into those situations. They kind of give you a good reason to get out of the situation."

She drops the Oz part of the equation and just laughs at the last question.

"There are some layers to that question. Most importantly would be do you want a girlfriend. Secondly you should think if there's someone you care about enough in that kind of way.

You might not know the answer to those right away. But when you do know- the answer will smack you in the face. That's what happened to me."
velvet_teen: (Default)

[personal profile] velvet_teen 2021-12-20 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"So Ange smacked you in the face... And that's what made you want her as a girlfriend."

Alice would nod to herself if she could move. She's learning so much about relationships today.

"...Yeah, I can see that!"
onekindsoul: (Just pointless ever after)

[personal profile] onekindsoul 2021-12-21 10:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Uh yeah- Kind of. Pretty much." It's hard to argue with it when Alice puts it quite like that. "More importantly- She did totally murder a zombie with a stake that was trying to murder us one day. ...Well like the same day repeated multiple times. So she smacks other people around too. But like- for us. You know?"

She grins a dopey sort of grin.

"All I can say is when you run into someone that you like in that way. You'll know it- Or you'll suddenly realize it and start screaming out loud and internally as you try to figure it out. That's what I did."