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

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess stops with him, and she casts a glance ahead of them to be sure the coast is clear. Clear of what, she has no idea –– fireworks don't chase you –– but it's unnerving just the same. It's unsettling how little it takes to put them back in the old "war zone".

She looks up at Joel, leaning a bit closer to him. It's easier to just sound more irritable instead of trying to sound less upset.]

Lunatics. Definitely lunatics. But I'm okay. You?

[She looks him over as if some physical damage had been done.]

Everyone probably thinks we're the lunatics, rushing out like that...

[focusrighthere]

[He takes a step closer too, nodding again. Fine, just fine.]

Yeah, well, they can think whatever they want. [She'd said something similar once, he's just parroting it back.] This'll probably happen more than once.

[It's already happened more than once, if he's honest. Harmless but loud things spook him all the time and he deals with it in varying degrees.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess lets out a long frustrated noise. More of it. She's been spooked here plenty, too, but there's something exceptionally terror-inducing about indoor fireworks on all sides.]

If this castle does Fourth of July shit, I'm going to torch the whole damn place.

[She sighs and leans against him just a bit. Fuck.]

I just don't want people to think we're easily crippled.

[focusrighthere]

[A room of explosives, hopefully that's one the Castle decides to never pull again. Joel rubs at her arm when she leans in, reassuring.]

Yeah.

[Agreeing. He doesn't like the idea that a roomful of people could've noticed what could be considered a weakness, but they've been here for months, so:]

Most of 'em don't seem the type to want to cripple anyone, for what it's worth.

[dog_eat_dog]

Small blessings.

[She lingers close to him for a moment and then pulls away, towards their door. Might as well go inside instead of waiting in the hall for some stupid parade going by or for people to finish with their party. Tess fumbles in her pocket with her free hand as she walks, fishing out her room keys.]

It makes them harder to deal with, though. They may not put up a fight but they don't want for anything either. It was so much easier when we could just... just manage people.

[She fumbles at the keyhole, too, fingers almost trembling.]

[focusrighthere]

[Joel leans against the wall while he waits for her to get the door. The adrenaline rush has passed, but he looks both ways down the hall anyway. Stupid. There's nothing. Sometimes he wishes the castle would take the memories that make it difficult for them to fit in here, as long as it was into that sort of thing.

But it's better to have the experience in case of emergencies.]

It's weird as hell. [A sigh, as he mulls it over.] Better in long run, though, that they don't hold anything against us.

[Like Jennifer. Joel still can't believe how easy it was to smooth things over there, how many second chances he keeps getting with little effort.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[She gets the door open and moves into the darkness, hand moving along blind to find the light switch. Ellie must already be in bed, which is fine by Tess. The last thing they need is to explain they came back scared from a bunch of fireworks. She looks back at Joel as she reaches down to pull off a shoe.]

Yeah, well... I'd almost rather they resent us if it meant losing the weird looks, or the "victim" crap. I can deal with being disliked if it means I'm not getting pitied.

[focusrighthere]

[He frowns. Nobody has dared call him a victim yet, though he suspects some have thought his life was pitiful without outright saying it.]

Everyone's aware which you prefer.

[Joel raises his eyebrows in her direction while strolling inside and closing the door (checking it twice), teasing a little with his response. Just teasing, boss.]

Someone called you a victim to your face? They got a deathwish?

[dog_eat_dog]

[That gets the slightest of smiles out of her, even when her heart's still beating a little too fast for her own liking. Of course Tess's preferences are public knowledge to anyone who's known her for longer than five minutes; she's never been afraid to make it crystal-fucking-clear what she wants and what she'll tolerate from people.]

If they'd said it to my face, I would've put a few in their kneecaps. Journals, though... it's not worth hunting anyone down over.

[She pulls off the other shoe and shoves them in the front hall closet, and then straightens up to shrug off her blazer. She'd tried to dress a little nicer than usual for the party, as useless as it was in hindsight. And truthfully, it could be nice to be just liked instead of any extreme, but Tess isn't sure if she can change her stripes this late in the game.]

If I ever pass him when he's coming out his door, though, I might take a swing just to make a point.

[focusrighthere]

[He might not go as far as kneecapping (or maybe he would, depending on the person), but the thought of being spoken to that way makes him irritable for her. Joel loosens his too-tight clothes (these parties, for fuck's sake, and this one in particular) and throws his coat over a chair with a world-weary air.

Tess saying she might take a swing at him, though, that gets a chuckle.]

I almost did that tonight. Before the fireworks.

[Guess who's still buzzed.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess's bare smile grows a little more at that, even as her back is turned to him as she walks through to the kitchen to pour them some drinks. It's almost habitual, half-painkiller and half-reward after a night of making drops and making people drop, and even if neither happened tonight, the ghost of their past reappearing is enough.

Six months in, she can almost look at their lives in Boston as "past" lives. Almost. Without incidents like tonight's and the nightmares, maybe she could forget about Boston entirely.

She pours liberal amounts of scotch into two whiskey glasses, one-handed –– the other's still on her chest as if it'll stop her heart from hammering. Who cares if they've already been drinking? Circumstance begs another, and she finally asks:]

What stopped you?

[focusrighthere]

[Thank god for self-control. Thank god for scotch.

He doesn't know how they manage to balance it as well as they do, Tess included. Managing people in a new way. Maybe they won't be able to forever if fireworks make them skittish. Joel takes his drink out of habit, leaning over the counter with it.

What did stop him?] That kid, Cassie.

[Doubtless he's informed Tess about the best teenage assassin he's ever met, the one that could've killed him if she wanted to. He mutters around the rim of his glass, annoyance flashing back to him with the memory.]

She's got friends that say hello by grabbin' her in public. I dunno.

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess leans one hip against the counter, picking up her whiskey glass in both hands just to steady herself. She takes a long sip, watching him over the rim. Sure, she knows about Cassie. Kid sounds worlds more tolerable than most of Joel's current roster, with the lack of language skills and all.

Her eyebrows lift a little. She assumes by "grabbing" he means "groping", because she knows it would take nothing short of that for Joel to want to smash in someone's teeth.]

Friends? That's disgusting, what the hell kind of guy friend is this? She seriously doesn't have a problem with that?

[focusrighthere]

[Joel gestures with a hand in the air to indicate that he has no fucking clue how to interpret what happened.]

And he didn't look like no damn teenager to me, not even close. Not sure I wanna know what's going on there.

[A year, she'd said. Friends for a year. Yeah, he decides he's more comfortable not thinking about it for too long.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Ew. Tess is just repulsed.]

So someone around our age is pawing up teenagers. That is not right.

Are you going to talk to her about it, at least?

[focusrighthere]

Younger than us. [He corrects, but with very little leeway in his tone.] Older than her.

[And then he shrugs. Cass is almost twenty and he's only known her for a short while. He's not sure he has the emotional capacity to babysit all of the older ones at Paradisa, despite Tess teasing him about each encounter.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess raises her eyebrows at that shrug. Younger than forty is still older than teenaged.]

Seriously, Joel? Does she even know how screwed up that sounds? Is she, uh...?

[A pointed look. She doesn't want to say "retarded" but she has no idea what else to call it. Either way, Tess figures it's a safe logical leap to assume that a young woman with stunted speech and childhood abuse of the raised-to-be-a-killer variety might be some degree of handicapped, or at the very least lacking in some sort of social awareness. Like how it's not appropriate for teenagers to be groped by adults who claim to be "friends."]

[focusrighthere]

She wasn't happy with him, but that was about it.

[Knowing her background, knowing this has gone on for about a year, Joel is plenty uncomfortable. Sometimes it's easier to look away. He could talk to her about it, and he might, but that requires initiating conversation with a teenager about her sex life. One that seems to be pretty screwed up, from their point of view. Cass would hear him out; he knows her well enough by now to know that, but still.

So for that pointed look, he gives her one back. He knows what she's thinking.]

I dunno. Maybe I will.

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess takes a healthy swig of scotch. It burns nicely, unlike the mental image of Paradisa being a haven for pedophiles or something.]

What's the guy's name? So I can "accidentally" push him out a window if I cross paths with him.

[focusrighthere]

[He joins her.]

Ezio. [Spoken like he's handing over the name for a hit-job, accordingly.] Think he's from the same place we got stuck in when we had our first "world change."

[He spoke with the same dialect, called him brother. Skin-crawling.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess doesn't even bother to mask her disgust. So he's like a dark-ages pedophile who probably has a daughter-wife or something.]

Well, you talk to Cassie and explain to her that her "friend" is only after one thing, and I'll make the guy disappear. That way, if she has a problem with it, that's fine, because I don't care if she dislikes me.

[At this rate, no one will understand why Joel is with a woman like her, but ah, well. Tess doesn't mind having enemies.]

[focusrighthere]

[But this is why Joel likes her.

He rolls the dark liquid in his glass with a thoughtful stare, considering it. The more they talk about it, the more he's certain the guy's a fucking animal that deserves to be put down. Besides, what if he gets tired of older teens and decides he wants younger? Joel's expression darkens.]

Sounds like a plan.

[Oh, you two.]

[dog_eat_dog]

Good.

[She sets down her now-empty glass and reaches out to put a hand on his forearm. She runs it up and down, gently petting, rumpling the fabric of his dress shirt. If the two of them weren't loosened up by alcohol, they'd probably both be rigid in tension.]

It'll be a good project for us.

[focusrighthere]

[Keeping in mind that these are same people who got spooked by fireworks. Joel hums something indistinguishable and low when she rubs at his arm.]

Taking out somebody that nobody needs around.

[And again, what's one more?]

[dog_eat_dog]

[She nods.]

Right. And someone said on the journals that when residents kill other residents, they don't come back... so we'd be getting rid of him for good.