Housewarming Party! Apartment Above Luke's, Friday Afternoon Till Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Raven and Kathy were officially moved in!

Okay, not everything was done and most of their stuff was still at Eliot's, but they'd gotten a lot of work done painting and assembling furniture and most of what was left could be moved over a bit at a time. Which meant...it was close enough to being fully moved in that a small party was warranted. Especially if you were looking for a way to show you were nice, sane and adjusted a reason to party!

The party proper started at 6pm with plenty of delicious foods to enjoy, but people were more than welcome to come over early and help with the remaining wall painting and furniture assembling there was to do. Help was appreciated, but mostly people were invited to over to eat, relax, and help make this new place feel like a real home.

[If you think you got an invite, you did! Up early for mega SP]

Comments

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"It's fine," Eliot told her with a small laugh. "Everythin' looks great, and I'm sure your friends are glad you're not tryin' to burn their tongues."

. . . It was a little bit bland, yeah. At least in comparison to a typical spicy Korean dish. Eliot wasn't planning on telling Raven her pot roast was like eating a shoe either, though. They could do the critique later, when the girls' friends weren't all around to hear it.

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know not everyone's used to Korean-levels of spiciness," Kathy said, still fretting. "So I can't tell. But here." She nudged a container of dried chili flakes in his direction. "If you want it a little hotter."

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot accepted the shaker with a smile. "Nothin' wrong with askin' folks to set their own spice level," he told her. And he meant it, too. "It's a nice easy way to make sure everyone can get somethin' they'll enjoy." He gave her a knowing look. "Including the host. Relax, your friends're just happy they can be here and celebrate with you."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy visibly tried to force herself to relax, completely defeating the purpose. "I know," she said. "But I just want everything to go right tonight. A nice, normal night among friends to get our apartment started right, you know?"

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"Everything's going to be fine," Eliot assured her. "Place looks nice, you guys got a great spread. You did good."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, too fast. She felt like she was humming with nervous energy, like a generator that had nothing to output to, jittery and sparking. "I just..." She couldn't articulate why this was so important, like the fate of the world hung on one silly dinner party going well, but it did. "I feel weird," she admitted quietly.

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. He was pretty sure it'd be weird if she didn't feel weird after coming back from the dead. "It's just nerves, darlin'," he told her, though he had no idea if that was actually true or not. "Just a bunch of nervous energy lookin' for a useful outlet. You been throwin' yourself into this project all week, it's only natural you want it to go smooth."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"But it's like...it's like part of me believes that if this goes well, then it means that everything can go back to normal again," she mumbled. "Like this dinner party is a harbinger on how the rest of my time on the island is going to go."

Ridiculous, she knew. And yet?

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"And you wanna try to force it into goin' smooth forever," Eliot guessed. "'Fraid that ain't likely to work. Tonight or down the line."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"Gives me a feeling of control," Kathy said. "Even if it's just an illusion, it's more than I had. Did you ever go through this?"

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

". . . Sort of," Eliot admitted. "Control's part of why I started fighting in the first place. What I needed to work on, though -- it was always on the inside. Not out in the world."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"How did you start fighting?" Kathy asked. "You were in the army, but I didn't think they taught Krav Maga or anything like that."

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"They teach a variety of styles," Eliot said. "Not to every recruit, but those of us willin' and able to learn. . . . It wasn't hard to find a teacher. But, nah, I got started before then." He gave her a rueful smile. "Was a little bit of a troublemaker as a kid. Got started in a boxing gym in town just to have somewhere to put all that excess energy and aggression football wasn't takin' care of."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

Hmmm. That was something to think about.

"I've been thinking about asking to start up lessons again," Kathy said. "Just to have something to do." Except if she did that, Eliot would be able to tell just how little she was eating or sleeping these days.

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"Whenever you think you're ready, darlin'." He meant that. He'd put his Home Ec class into perpetual movie day hell if she wanted to do it first thing Tuesday mornings.

And he'd probably only freak out about possibly injuring her the first time they tried sparring.

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm a little worried about what might happen if we do," Kathy confided, shifting closer so she could lower her voice. "I clacked at Raven earlier. With my teeth. Without even realizing I was going to do it."

That was one hundred percent not part of her 'control everything until it's better' plan.

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"Clacked?" Despite having fought Kathy's world's zombies -- and Kathy -- Eliot didn't immediately make the connection.

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"With...with my teeth."

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shook his head. "I don't -- oh." Well. That wasn't good. "Darlin', I'm sure that's just . . . muscle memory."

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"You think so?" Kathy asked. "Yeah, I mean, that could make sense. I snuck up on Raven, she reacted on instinct, I clacked my teeth at her...it's all just muscle memory, yeah."

She was going to cling to that until she couldn't anymore.

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"Maybe start with some tai chi," Eliot suggested. "Something nice and slow and controlled, give your muscles some new memories to go with?"

Re: Dinner!

[spin_kick_snap]

"That'll be good to add to the repertoire," Kathy said, nodding. "I'd like to stay away from anything violent for awhile. At least until I know that I'm not going to be tripping over...muscle memories."

Re: Dinner!

[vdistinctive]

"Tai chi, then. I'm a little rusty on that one myself, could be good to get back into practice."

He had a tendency to get frustrated with the pace of a typical tai chi kata and end up switching to something faster and more openly aggressive.