HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[paradisamods]

All that clamor from the lion dance prancing down the halls should be enough to draw attention to the party, even without actual invitations. If not the noise, then perhaps the delicious smell wafting under every door and leading back to the ballroom.

The castle is vain, if nothing else. It has decorated the ballroom in the deepest red and brightest gold with auspicious greetings in the common language tastefully posted about the hall. May your happiness be without end, one says, while another goes May all your wishes be fulfilled. Small order, all things considered.

Round dining tables (with the turning glass part) are set up in the middle of the hall, each with about ten chairs and piles of food fit for a whole village. There are two more lion dance teams hopping about the hall and making a racket while occasionally nabbing that dumpling straight from your chopsticks. That should the least of your concerns, however, with many residents still aiming to settle their grudges before the new year.

Watch your back.

[ ooc; IC mingle log for Lunar New Year plot, feel free to make your own threads! ]

Comments

[rightchoices]

[ Lee can't begin to fathom what he might look like in Clementine's eyes. He did what he had to do. She needed someone to look over her - and maybe he needed the anchor that he found in her. At that point, separated from his wife, with his family dead -- he isn't sure he would have fought so hard for himself, but her involvement changed everything.

If anyone deserved to live, she did, and while he doesn't relish the fact that she's growing up in a world like that one, at least she's growing up. Maybe she wouldn't have had that chance if he hadn't found her in the treehouse. Lee had never contributed to any great history books, but being there to help her gave his life as much meaning as he could hope for. ]

Careful if you have any of the cake. It likes to jump out of your hands.

[willrememberthat]

Did you manage to get any in your mouth?

[Please, Lee. She knows firsthand how clumsy you can be. She's missed it.]

[rightchoices]

How much time have you been spending with Tess, exactly?

[ Clementine pls. ]

[willrememberthat]

[She frowns.]

That's not funny.

[rightchoices]

Well, you aren't getting it from me, that's for sure. I don't have a sarcastic bone in my body.

[ He leans over to take some of the discarded orange peel, dropping it into her lap. ]

[willrememberthat]

[Blame Omid and Christa. Mostly Omid.]

Are you trying to get my clothes covered in food, too? So you're not the only one?

[Clementine laughs and picks up the peel to toss it over at his chest.]

[rightchoices]

I'm not covered in food. [ It's all mock offense, and he throws some of the peel right back at her. All serious, all the time, the pinnacle of adult maturity. ] Maybe it was on purpose. You don't know - I might be going into fashion.

[ But he's shaking his head at himself, sort of flabbergasted at his own ridiculousness here. ]

[willrememberthat]

You wear almost the same thing every day. [Is she just poking fun, or is she making a real observation? WHO KNOWS. Either way, she tosses the peel back.] And I don't think spilling food on yourself counts as fashion, Lee.

[rightchoices]

What am I supposed to wear, huh? You going to lend me a dress?

[ He ups the ante and drops a wedge of orange right on top of her head. ]

[willrememberthat]

[No answer because Clem just gasped. That's... not fair! That's actualy food, in her hair. The wedge falls onto her lap and bounces onto the floor.]

Lee!

[And suddenly she sounds nine years old again.]

[rightchoices]

[ Lee just holds his hands up, palms outward, as if scandalized that she would suggest that he was behind that. ]

What? Carley did that, not me.

[ It's amazing he's able to maintain a straight face right now. ]

[willrememberthat]

[She kicks the leg of his chair. LEE.]

[rightchoices]

[ He snorts a laugh before he can help it. ]

You can't prove anything.

[willrememberthat]

Carley's not even over here, for one. And you're laughing!

[rightchoices]

Completely circumstantial.

[ His eyebrows go up, but he doesn't stop smiling. ]

[willrememberthat]

I don't know what that means. [She smiles and gives his shoe a light little kick.]

[rightchoices]

It means... maybe the evidence points to me, but you can't prove it.

[ He will just puuuush at her chair with his own foot. ]

[willrememberthat]

[There she goes, sliding back. Now she can't reach. HMM.]

But isn't proving it when the evidence points at you?

[rightchoices]

Close. I'd need a motive, anyway, wouldn't I? Why would I want to get orange in your hair?

[ The look he fixes her with is playfully challenging. ]

[willrememberthat]

Why? Because you're weird, sometimes.

[She stretches out her legs. Nope, still can't reach.]

[rightchoices]

I'm weird? You're the weird one. You hang out with me on purpose.

[ He's just scooting his own chair back a little. ]

[willrememberthat]

[Just as planned. Clementine hops off her seat to sit on Lee's lap, cake stains or not. It's almost a struggle to not be sad in moments like these, to try and not to think about how none of this is possible at home anymore. No joking around with Lee, no playing. But she tries her best.]

Don't tell anyone about that. It's okay if you think I'm weird, but I don't want anyone else to.

[rightchoices]

[ Sneaky! That gets a surprised laugh out of him and Lee just shakes his head, refusing to dwell on those same thoughts. They had this, he had to tell himself over and over. It was better than nothing. ]

What? You should embrace being weird. It's a compliment.

[ That was the sort of thing you're supposed to say, right?? But he seems to be glancing around, as if looking for some other item of food to assault her with - even if he does land a careful hand on her arm, as if to keep from knocking her off. ]

[willrememberthat]

Yeah, but there's weird and there's weird. You're weird.

[Which is the best kind of weird. Clementine wonders if she's too old to mess around like this, but that thought is quickly shoved aside by something like screw it. She can do what she wants.]

[rightchoices]

And what makes me weird, huh? Because that's an awful lot of emphasis you're putting on that word, Clem.

[ If she picks up on the warning in his tone, it will probably be pretty easy to deduce that it's all completely in jest. ]