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]

[Sure, they've both been clingier –– just being able to live under the same roof has been different, and it's worked out well despite Tess's initial thought that she'd go insane from a lack of personal space within weeks. That'd never happened, and instead, six months later, she's still a little enlivened by the fact that after so many years, they're finally living together.

But there's been other people. Before, other people were for business only.

Tess just nods.]

I know it helps. It's just not really... me, I guess. I never imagined dealing with kids, not even any theoretical kid of my own. I never imagined you dealing with kids.

[She smooths the collar of his shirt, almost absent-mindedly.]

Turns out we don't know each other perfectly, huh?

[focusrighthere]

[Most of the environmental factors that used to cause them to snap at each other and create distance have been neatly removed. Now all they have is a strange history and a gaggle of strays that Joel keeps picking up like it'll keep him from sinking to the bottom of this time-heap.

He gives a nod in return. Sits up straight, shifting her weight in his lap.]

Takes some adjusting. [Hum.] But we get to learn things about each other we never woulda known before.

[The romantic type.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess moves with him, feet right off the ground when she's sitting fully on his lap.]

Give and take. [She nods, too, and meets his eyes for a moment. She stops thumbing his collar.] As much as I miss work, it's nice. It's nice to know we go together even out of that hellhole.

[focusrighthere]

[That is nice. Nice is not a word they often get to use. Joel leans his forehead against her temple, breathing in her scent. Tess is his rock, even here. Tess listens to him confess that he stole the cure from the Fireflies and still sticks by his side in the long-run. She puts up with all the heaviness of him, takes him for better or worse.

He tries his best to do the same for her.]

Didn't miss work as much as I missed you.

[dog_eat_dog]

[That gets a dry laugh, so under her breath it might not have existed at all, but it's there. She won't admit –– it'd sound too soft, too sensitive –– but it's nice to be missed, even if it's a little dark to be wishing that on someone who matters so much to her. It means she left something behind to be remembered by, anyway, even if the rest of her legacies vanished into nothing.

She doesn't think about her death too much, though. Nothing good would come of it.]

Well, you got me and a vacation. How's that for luck? We could even spend the summer on the beach, like a real holiday.