Celebration

[Endellion]

"It still baffles me that someone actually decided to make this."

[ Julien Leblanc continued from One Way or Another ]

That certainly would have made for an interesting meeting though. So we have this movie we need money for... it's about slaves and the Civil War, but we know that's been done a hundred times before so we added vampires and made Lincoln a vampire hunter to make it stand out better. What made it worse was that even if he didn't have obvious proof of that, Julien was still certain that some executive would think it was a great idea.

When you were talking about the sort of people who brought the 50 Shades of Grey films into the world, anything was possible.

"But hey, at least it's not that bad," he said, taking another sip of Budweiser and doing his best to ignore how abominably bland it tasted, "and of course you of all people would pick a movie about a President doing awesome shit." This was Faith's celebration, after all.

Nathan, bless his heart (and to hell with Ashlynn, because that was still fresh in his mind) was a downright excellent choice compared to some, but all things considered... Julien was still sat next to the acting student council president for most intents and purposes. That opinion wasn't about to see the light of day outside his house or his head though.

[Frozen Smoke]

((Faith C. Marshal-Mackenzie continued from Open Door Policy))

Faith smiled around the bottle as she took in the glorious, cheap gold fluid that filled the green container, before gesturing towards Julien with it as she replied.

“Look, Hollywood might be dumb, but that makes them the best at dumb.” She explained, with a grin that befitted such flawless reasoning. The comment on her movie choice being painfully predictable went unresponded to, because honestly, what did Julien expect her to watch; The King’s Speech? W.? JFK?

She was more an Olympus Has Fallen or Deep Impact person, when it came to her small screen bound presidents. The kind of presidents who could kick ass, take names and save the world. It wasn’t realistic, but it was fun, and that was what movies were supposed to be.

His counter suggestion of Idiocracy as a ‘president themed movie’ had made her chuckle just as much as it had made her wince. Being reminded of the fact that the president in that movie, and the actual president shared a love of Professional Wrestling always felt subtly wrong. Not that there was anything wrong with wrestling, Wyatt loved it after all, it just seemed... childish. Infantile.

She ignored that and turned her attention back to Julien. After all, they were here to celebrate and relax after a few months of furitive political positioning. She hoped there wouldn’t be any bad blood between them over having competed like that. She knew she didn’t hold it against him, but she wasn’t entirely certain the feeling was mutual, even if she was 99% sure it was. To the point that it felt awkward to ask and make sure, as though she was doubting Julien, which she wasn’t.

“‘Sides, fighting foul creatures of the night seems like pretty relevant information, given our classmates.” She noted, with a trademark smirk.

[Endellion]

"Hey, you're the one who has to take the lot of them on now. I have faith that you'll do a better job of it than I ever could, sure," Julien cemented himself as the worst sort of person when he not only said it but went ahead and laughed just a little at his own pun, "just be careful none of them manage to suck the life out of you."

The best at dumb, huh? There was a certain appeal to that, yeah. And they were here to chill out, so he could stand to put his usual scrutiny of a film aside for a while and enjoy a little more mindless entertainment. Campaigning had been... surprisingly taxing, not to mention having to put a speech together and get up on stage.

He turned to look at Faith. "Though I dunno if anyone would want to sink their teeth into either of us with all the Bud in our systems put together." Julien cracked a smile as he said it, partly to make up for the god-awful seizure of low-hanging fruit that had been made a moment earlier.

Much as he was prone to throw a little shade over her taste from time to time, it wasn't coming from any place of malice. After all, he'd still bought two six-packs just for the occasion and was right here happily drinking it too. What else were friends for?

"Oh, I actually thought of another movie as well, if you feel like watching it after this one ends."

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith thought about all of that as she continued to drink. As much as she loved the taste, Bud wasn't exactly the kind of thing you could take a few sips of an hour and expect to still be pleasantly drunk. You had to know how to knock back a few pints and get into the swing of things, as her times out partying had taught her, and she was doing her best to emulate that right about now.

Had you really celebrated if you weren't bemoaning your headache the next morning?

Or more likely, afternoon. Neither of them were dumb enough to be drinking on a school night, and neither of their parents were dumb enough to allow them to.

She really was in charge now. That had hit her a while back, when she'd been talking with Mom and Dad about it, and they'd been excited to hear all about what she'd been doing. Both of them had said she seemed like such an adult, and that had been something she had felt frustratingly proud of, considering she'd already been an adult for about 2 months now. The recognition was nice though, she had to admit.

"I dunno, maybe vampires too love the cool and refreshing taste of Blud Light?" she pondered, trying to sound serious for a moment as she posed with the bottle and looked at Julien, making her dumb pun as clear as she could before speaking through the forming grin on her face. "I'm down to make it a long movie night though, judging by the amount of refreshments you brought" she said, gesturing down at the 10 remaining bottles of Bud that sat between them. "Thanks for that, by the way, I'll have to get you back next time" she noted, feeling a wince of pain at not having contributed to the cause this time. Things had been tough lately, and she hadn't exactly had enough money to shop at Alton-Mazon, everyone's favourite one-stop adolescent alcoholism shop.

[Endellion]

"Heh. The favourite drink of blood-sucking creatures of the night everywhere. Has a certain ring to it, don't you think?" Julien gulped down some more. He was probably going to feel like one of those very creatures tomorrow.

For a moment he debated saying that she didn't need to worry about it, but he knew where that one would go so he was content to leave it be. Granted, it wasn't lost on him that Faith would likely be perfectly fine with going through that back-and-forth... but they were here to relax and she knew him well enough that it hardly even seemed needed at this point.

Besides, she could take care of herself well enough. "Well, if you're down to be in it for the long haul I am too," he said, downing some more of the bottle in his hand's contents. His mother was down in Georgia for something to do with work, and dad had headed down that way as well, so Julien didn't exactly need to worry about either of them looking in on him if he ended up wanting to hide in the sweet darkness of his room and nurse his headache anyway. "I think you'll like the next one as well; basically just Harrison Ford fighting terrorists as the president." Really, who didn't like Harrison Ford's work? He'd gotten so popular for a reason.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith couldn't help but tip her hat and chuckle at Julien's continuation of the joke. There was a comfortable pause as the two of them drank in silence, settling into their seats in front of the silver screen, sans the normal elbowing from neighbours and sticky floors that normally accompanied trips to the actual cinema. Plus, you could talk through the movie without people getting mad about it, which was great. After all, the first 15 minutes of any action movie were basically just filler before the real fun stuff kicks in, so half the fun was mocking the stupidity of the plot.

Such as the plot Julien had just described. Presidents now were normally 50-ish, career politicians with the athleticism that came with that. The closest that politicians usually came to combat was when protesters got up in their face and took over the stage, and she knew most of them didn't try and fight that sort of battle themselves, save for - weirdly enough - Jeb. Her brain paused for a moment as she tried to deal with the absurdity of Low Energy Jeb doing that, before moving on.

Imagining a modern president actually standing up and kicking some terrorist ass? Fighting for America literally as opposed to figuratively? That was about as George Washington as it came, and she could dig the idea of it, even if it was about as far from reality as it came.

After all, reality kinda sucked. That's why movies existed in the first place.

"Sounds dumber than a retarded brick. I love it."

[Endellion]

"Knew you would. Oh, there should be plenty to spare too, so if you want snacks to go with all this beer just say the word and I'll go grab some. Could just order something too." He hadn't exactly been struck by a selective mood, thank heavens.

Usually his parents... well, mostly his mother would complain about his doing so, but Julien was comfy enough that he didn't want to get up unless he was either asked or felt the need to. Besides, he'd thrown a cover over it, there was more than enough space on there to and what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. So he put his feet up on the coffee table. Much better.

Of course, it wasn't lost on him that there were other things he had to concern himself with as well.

"Oh, yeah, I just remembered. A bit late, sure, but since I don't think I ever actually said it, congratulations on your win."

[Frozen Smoke]

She paused for a moment, she could've sworn that he'd congratulated her during the mess that was Lucas' Facebook debacle, but she wasn't entirely sure. And, online probably didn't count in Julien's world. He was a very analogue sorta guy, and it was one of the things she liked about him, that he did prefer the simplest way to do things.

Besides, the sentiment was appreciated anyway. She held her bottle out towards Julien, offering him the opportunity to clank their half-empty bottles together, the most symbolic of bro solidarity gestures. His suggestion of food brought pizza to the front of her mind, but she instantly shot down that thought. As much as Julien wouldn't mind spotting her the money for it, she would rather chow down on a bullet before on someone else's wallet.

"Thanks bud, and good job making it a hell of a close race. Only a few votes in it at the end of the day." she replied, pulling her bottle back to her lips, changing her mind at the last second and tapping the bottle against her chin as she thought.

"You know, Claudeson sent me a voicemail the day after in concession, like this was an actual proper election." she noted, laughing at the absurdity of how polite he was.

[Endellion]

"Really? Huh. Well, at least he was dignified about it. I can't say the same for some others, unfortunately." He was curious why it had been so close, exactly. Julien was hardly without friends of his own, but his connections to anyone that most would consider popular except Axel were tangential at best. Still, he wasn't about to wonder why people had chosen to vote for him. They had, and that was something he could get behind.

Who said you needed glasses to make a toast, after all?

"Ashlynn in particular didn't take too well to losing, I think. She went looking for Nathan with this fucking huge manifesto in her hand and she, ah, wasn't very happy when I got in her way. So while I'm sure it goes without saying, keep an eye on him, Faith, please?"

While it would most likely fall to her to handle the more monotonous aspects, Nathan was still president, even if he didn't seem liable to do too much with it. That was something that should be respected, but unfortunately it seemed that some people were sore losers to say the least. He himself had been more than a little lax about that as well.

[Frozen Smoke]

A joke about Ashlynn burnt hot on the tip of her tongue, something about Libs always whining about losing, before she doused it with bud. Julien wasn't really the type to dig that sorta thing, as much as he'd occasionally snicker at some of the better ones. Better to let it simmer, and maybe mention to Wyatt some time. Still, the image of Ashlynn walking up with a stack of papers and handing her Divine Knowledge of How The World Should Be onto him seemed like the sorta thing she'd do.

"Hey, as long as it wasn't the communist one" she joked, as she leaned back lazily in the chair, her hand finding its way to the remote. She hit play, letting the 2,000 minutes of opening credits that were sure to be pre-fixed to the actual movie roll out as they talked. Talking during movies was the best part of movie night anyway.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of him Julien."

She scooped up a handful of popcorn, eagerly chomping down on the sweet and salted mix for a moment before adding a quick and popcorn-muffled "Promish" to that statement.

[Endellion]

"Thank you." That was all Julien needed to hear from Faith on that matter. So he took a handful of popcorn for himself as well.

He did prefer the salted popcorn, but not enough to be that guy and go individually picking them out over just settling for what was there. And the movie had started besides. However it turned out to be, he was still going to pay at least some attention to it as they talked.

"Well, she didn't really have bad ideas. Just the person behind them was the problem." Unlike his friend, Julien did at least take the time to finish the popcorn he'd helped himself to before he said it.

[Frozen Smoke]

"I dunno. I mean - Ashylnn ain't the worst person out there." she posited, for a moment, leaning back as she chose her words carefully. "She obviously like, wants to do what she perceives as good - She's just the sort of person who can only see what they see as good, as important, I think. If that makes sense."

She shrugged, the whole thought feeling a little too weighty now that it was out there.

"Sorry, didn't mean to get all deep on yah."

[Endellion]

"No, no, it's fine. Can't exactly say that you're wrong after all."

The worst fault with Ashlynn as he saw it wasn't the blinkers that she seemed to wear though, but the refusal to take them off; Julien was still conflicted about that whole thing. Only a little, given the way that she had acted back then. Having a point didn't excuse trying to set yourself above others.

"And besides, what are friends for if they can't handle a little something serious now and again?" He smiled before taking another handful of popcorn.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith replied with a momentary widening of her smile and an empathetic nod, appreciating the return of the sentiment but not wishing to dwell on it. Julien seemed to always be able to ease out the stress in conversation, it was a talent of his, but even he would probably fail to make it an enjoyable one. Complimenting Ashylnn wasn't exactly something she was falling over herself to partake in, either, so it was easy to let the conversation drift onward.

"Yeah, for sure" she echoed, in agreement with his other point, though she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as she thought about it some more. There was a pang of something biting at her stomach as she ran off a list of her other friends, trying to picture talking about the real shit with them for a moment.

And for a moment longer.

Her expression shifted a little, the left side of her mouth curling up, putting her halfway between annoyed and concentrating for a moment before abating. She tried her best to clear her head by gluing her head in the direction of the screen, barely moving her head at all to look over at Julien as she spoke again, eyes perching at the edges of their sockets.

"What's up in your world lately then, anyway? Y'know, know elections are dead and gone."

[Endellion]

"Other than enjoying defeat? Ah, you know. The usual. I did go shooting with my dad a few days ago, spend the day out with him."

It was a thing they'd started to make a habit of... well, not too long after he'd met Faith, as it happened. Both of them would take their favourite gun, usually a handgun, and just spend an hour or so blowing off steam down-range before moving onto other things. Turned out to be surprisingly cathartic. Julien enjoyed the chance to spend time with family as well.

"So, has anything happened on your end lately?"