Party At My Place

[Spindarene]

((Lily Ashburg continued from Quoth the Raven))

Here she was again. Corner girl. She really didn't know why she'd let Sarah talk her into this. She hadn't been to a party in two years, and the last one she'd gone to had been a disaster. Plus, this was a party celebrating Survival of the Fittest, a show she despised. It was creepy, seeing everyone laughing and talking together animatedly, bound together by their love of senseless violence. Sarah had convinced her that it didn't matter what the party was for, what mattered was that it was a party.

The punchline, of course, was when Sarah had texted her half an hour into the party to say that her parents had grounded her last minute. Apparently, her aunt had spotted her making out with her forbidden love, Jose Martinez, and told her parents. In Lily's opinion, Sarah only had herself to blame. She didn't think that Sarah's parents should be dictating her romantic life, and Jose seemed like a good guy, especially compared to some of the other guys that Sarah had dated. Knowing what her parents thought, however, why would they then decide to make out in the middle of the sidewalk?

What really annoyed Lily was Sarah was too caught up in her role as Juliet to say “By the way Lily, sorry for stranding you at a party that we both knew you'd hate.” Any other day, she would have been more sympathetic, but this was the worst possible time for this to have happened.

She'd been standing in this corner for over an hour; she was hungry, and her feet hurt. She didn't have any cash for the bus, and her parents had dropped her off on the way to their own party, which wouldn't be done for another two hours.

She had caught quite a few snippets of conversation which had slowly worsened her mood, until she was seething silently in the corner. This was one of the main reasons why she hated SOTF. It brought out the worst in people, and not just the ones on the show. She knew how TV shows worked. If they didn't get enough good ratings, they were canceled. There was a reason why SOTF was going into its sixty sixth season. Sometimes she wondered if she lived in a nation of sociopaths; people who were so removed from the rest of humanity that they could debate about the entertainment value of teenagers murdering each other on camera.

She'd heard some pretty disgusting things tonight. People discussing cool kills, contestants they loved or hated, and what the new season would be like. Whenever the last topic came up, Lily's stomach clenched. All she could think about was that there were teenagers somewhere, doing homework, hanging out with their friends, maybe even attending parties like this one, who in a few short weeks would be dead. All for the value of entertainment.

A bratty girl at the food table caught Lily's attention. The girl was pushing her way over to the booze, and immediately started shoveling some of it into a bag. Lily watched, eyebrows raised, as the girl and her friend made their way upstairs. Lily looked around to see if Regina had noticed. It didn't look like she had, but Vahka had, and there was definitely some awkwardness there. If she hadn't been in such a bad mood, Lily would have been mildly amused at how Vahka was trying and failing to look inconspicuous. It reminded her vaguely of Dougie. She wondered if she should stop the two girls upstairs. Sneaking around someone else's house without permission was beyond rude; it was an invasion of privacy. Lily shifted her weight uncertainly. Should she tell Regina?

She wasn't exactly friends with Regina, more like friends by proxy. Dougie was friends with Regina (if friendship was the word for whatever was going on there), and Lily was friends with Dougie. Lily and Regina never hung out on their own. Regina was nice enough, almost too nice at times. Someone who was that outwardly nice was either faking it or naive, and Lily didn't really have much patience with either. Plus, there was Regina's weird relationship with Dougie. They acted like they were just friends, but from the way they were with each other, Lily thought that something else was going on.

She glanced over at Regina again. She seemed to be pretty absorbed in conversation with a small group of people. Going over there would probably mean talking to more people than just Regina. Lily decided against it. It wasn't her problem, and would get sorted out sooner or later. As her gaze shifted away from Regina, she saw that there was more space in front of the food table. She hesitated. She wanted to avoid talking to anyone, but she was also hungry. Finally her stomach won, and taking a deep breath, she made a beeline for the chips and guacamole.

[Un-Persona*]

Ashley's attitude soured when Vahka actually began speaking to her.

"Mm, I just got here, hard to say whether it's good or not. We'll see."

Her teeth clacked together as she continued.

"To be honest, SOTF always seemed kind of stupid to me whenever I watched it. I'm mostly here because a few of my friends are."

At that moment, she spotted one boy waving at her with a genuine smile. She'd seen him around, not enough to remember his name, but enough to recognize his face. Oh, and there was Regina as well, Ashley was wondering where she was.

Shifting her attention away from Vahka and towards those two, Ashley raised her hand up high and gave a big wave, a toothy smile on her face.

Oh and then a new face appeared by, aiming for the chips. New faces were always nice. Ashley also smiled and waved to the new girl.

"Hiya!"

[Latin For Dragula]

Right. Lost cause, then.

Vahka wasn't really sure what Amy's problem with him was, but she was making it pretty that she had one. She was almost flaunting it in the most passive aggressive way possible. He was sort of used to people making snap judgments about him, and usually he didn't really give a shit. Something about her being so frosty when he was going out of his way to be friendly really got under his skin, though. Whatever. I'll ask Reggie about her later.

There was a new girl headed over towards the food in front of them. He turned his attention to her and waved silently.

Real strong showing there, hoss. I'm not nearly drunk enough for this.

Fuck it. He walked here anyway. It was time to correct that little error.

[Spindarene]

As Lily started loading up her plate, she caught a couple people waving at her. One was a skinny girl with glasses, and the other was Vahka.

Crap. She knew this would happen. She steps out of the magical corner of invisibility for two seconds, and people immediately want to socialize. She didn't quite know what to do. She didn't want to be rude and ignore them, but she was definitely not in the mood to smile, talk, or be generally friendly. She raised her hand in greeting and gave a small smile. Hopefully that would be enough to make them go away.

As she turned back to the food table, she spotted about a third of a cheese pizza in front of her. Taking a slice, she dipped the tip of it into the guacamole on her plate, and began to eat

[Mimi]

"We'll hit that later," Sissy said coyly when Norma found the master bedroom. "I bet her parents have some freaky, like, BDSM dungeon behind their wardrobe or something."

The bottles clinked loudly under her arms as she continued opening the doors on the landing, feeling all too much like Alice in Wonderland looking for the March Rabbit. People had surely seen them come up here and if she didn't do something, Regina would likely come and bust up their party. And you just know wherever Regina went, Vahcock would be following behind her like a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her heels and he was the last person she wanted to deal with, especially sober. At least when she was drunk, she'd have an excuse to throw up on him.

"I told you we discount tacos were shady, Norma-Jean," Sissy yelled loudly, despite still maintaining the monotone of someone who really have very little shits to give, "This is gonna be messy."

Hopefully that was enough to dissuade people from coming to look for them, but, really, she couldn't have cared less if someone found them. What were they gonna do? Call the cops and tell them about the sticky fingers snatching all their illegal beverages? Slap her on the wrist and tell her no? Kicking her and Norma out was the most they could do, really, and if that happened, she'd at least be leaving with a purse full of party favors.

Sissy finally opened the door concealing Regina's room and made her way inside, lips curling in a grimace. It wasn't how she'd necessarily decorate a room, but, like, it was definitely a room. Dropping the bottles off on the top of a desk and absently checking the drawers for anything interesting, she tossed a bottle of vodka to Norma whilst taking one of tequila for herself and took a hearty swig, mouth twisting and a shiver rolling down her back as she did so.

"Norma, Norma-girl!" Sissy called, having thumbed over the computer on the desk and discovered that it had been left on, with facebook foolishly left logged on in one of the tabs. "This idiot left her facebook on. Would it be wrong of me to, like, send love letters to Michael Robinson?" Norma looked confused, "Dude, the little black kid, we're in History with him. Norma, man, the one I told we were madly in lesbian-love." Sissy rolled her eyes and clicked his name in the chat and began composing her message.

---

'Dearest Michael Robinson,

I can't hold back these feelings anymore. I can't get away from you, you fill my dreams, a world where my secret desires can finally come true. I ache to mix your chocolate with my vanilla and make the most delicious of swirls. When I wait outside your house, I feel that we are finally one. Meet me at the Dairy Queen tomorrow at 7pm and let's make this swirl a reality.

Love always and forever yours,

The Future Mrs. Regina Robinson'

---

[Carrion Queen]

"Oh gross, you don't think do you?" she said, aghast at the suggestion of sexual paraphernalia. Norma trailed behind Sissy as she looked in the rooms, seeming not to really be paying attention to the task at hand, but neither was she overly concerned with stopping it.

"I don't think so," she said thoughtfully after a moment. "I mean, she dresses like a Mormon or something," she said as she wandered into Regina's room after Sissy. "Or maybe that is just a cover!" she said with the excitement or a detective getting a break in a big case.

Norma wandered over to the bed and grabbed a stuffed animal as she plopped down on the comforter.

"Duh, you never leave Facebook logged in. You only need so many dick statuses from your brothers to figure that out."

She didn't really remember the person Sissy was planning on penning a love letter to, but it didn't really matter. She couldn't think of anyone suitably horrifying anyway so this random guy was as good as any.

"O-o-oh yeah. I remember. He sure was stupid to believe that! Hahaha...ha...huuu," she petered out, tugging the ear of the stuffed animal and looking away at a shelf of books.

"Oh oh oh, lemme see," she said as she bounded off the bed and bounced over to the computer screen.

"This is a masterpiece! I'd have included the word 'turgid' somewhere in it, but maybe that's for more advanced stages in the relationship. Oh! You dont' think we could get her to the dairy queen tomorrow somehow do you?"

[Imehal*]

[Apologies for holding up the thread - may the chaos continue!
A question actually - would people be adverse to a time skip, just to speed the party/inebriation and Genesis's schemes along a little? PM me if you'd have any real problem and I'll try and figure out if it's a good idea by consensus.]

In the midst of a larger party it would have been easy to miss the little interactions between friends and acquaintances that were going on, but this was a party of about fifty people in a fairly large, open plan room. Later, perhaps, she would wonder how she had missed Genesis and Norma heading upstairs together. There had been some noise briefly, but she might later regret assuming girly chatter in the bathroom over technological pranks.

As it was, Regina was currently more concerned with the fact that Ashley clearly had a problem, however openly brief, with Vahka. He looked a little surprised, but politeness kept her engaged in discussion with Tucker, though that did not stop her downing the rest of her drink, grimacing slightly.

“It sounds like you definitely came to the right party then,” she replied enthusiastically, motioning him to follow her as she made her way over to the counter to refill her cup, finally catching a glimpse of Lily, who Ashley (and a fair few others) had seen fit to engage in social interactions. Whenever they had talked before at smaller, less party-orientated gatherings, Regina had always got the impression that the girl was more intellectual than partygirl, so it was nice to see her taking a few steps out of her comfort zone.

In a bid to lessen the obviousness of everyone else’s welcomes, Regina simply nodded in Lily’s direction, and decided to amuse herself by nudging into the determined looking Vahka, a half-smile on her lips as she mouthed ‘cheer up, it could be worse’ before re-engaging Tucker, her cup filled once more. “So if you’re a fan of SotF, I’ll ask you the question that was going around before. If you could make one change to the setup that the runners of the show have going to improve it, what would you do?”

[Aster]

Ashley waved back as Regina commented on the perfection of his arrival. He laughed and nodded at her quip as he caught sight of another girl he vaguely knew from around school: Lily Ashburg. They might've had classes together at some point or passed each other in the hallway long ago. Either way, they probably weren't on a first name basis or knew anything about each other. He did know that Lily liked art, though, so that was something he had in common with her. Tucker would've waved at her like he did with Ashley, though she seemed socially occupied at the moment.

Out of the corner of his eye Tucker saw Regina motion to follow her, which he gladly did as the two made their way back to the food. Passing by the group, Tucker took the opportunity to greet Lily with a passing "Hey," as Regina said something to Vahka. Right after that, she turned around and brought Tucker up to speed with the conversation.

"Change, eh?" Tucker mused out loud, scratching his chin as the thought of teams drifted into his mind. He absolutely adored the concept last season, and was easily caught up in the whirlwind of analysis and hype. His personal favorite was the Orange Team, but that was besides the point. "Well, the teams could start in the same general area. I mean, it would be nice if each team was a team from the very start." He took a bite out his pizza. "It would be interesting to see how Karen Ruiz would've acted around them."

[Un-Persona*]

((Time-skpping approved by all))

So the girl raised her hands towards Ashley and smiled, Ashley mimicking the gesture. Shy types were always fun to mess with and get hyped up. It was always nice, and a little funny, to see them actually enjoying a party.

But first, she could let the girl have her little snack, give some time for Ashley prepare for the rest of that.

Preparing consisting of getting just the right amount of tipsy.

---

A sniffle of the nose and drying the water on her face, Ashley slumped against one of the walls of the house, stammering as she talked on the phone.

"Look, look, look, Patty -heyhey- are yo-oou listening? Look just tell Mom - look - just tell mom, I'm staying at a friends house, okay. At a friends house. I can't, just, like like like, just, go home tonight okay? Okay. I love you. Okay. Love you too. Bye. Bye. Love you."

Putting the phone into her jacket pocket, Ashley took off her glasses and inspected how dirty they were, and began cleaning them with her shirt.

"Fuck, man, this wasn't suppose to be an overboard day..."

[Latin For Dragula]

Helllooooo Mr. Daniels. How's about you and I get a little better acquainted?

---

Everything that happened next was a little bit of a blur to him. At some point, he'd remembered that the name of the shy looking guy who'd wondered in was Tucker.

And maybe it was the whiskey talking, but he also remembered that he fuckin' loved Tucker.

So now his arm was around the comparatively diminutive boy's shoulders and was extolling his virtues to no one in particular.

"Thiiis guy," he bellowed out with a grin, "Thiiiis fuckin' guy. You just, like talk to him, and it's like the secrets of the universe are openin' up. He knows his supernatural shit, man. And then, like, after yer done talkin' about Jesus and ghosts and shit, he hits ya with the 1-2 punch and mentions that he builds fuckin' robots!"

His face suddenly turned somber as the gears turned in his mind, changing tracks for his train of thought in an instant. "Does anybody else just really miss Ghost-Robot? From the Venture Bros. and shit? Cried when he died. Honest t' god."

What was he doing again?

Maybe he was just a little too drunk.

" 'scuse me."

He moved out into the night to clear his head for a second. After waiting a few moments, he pulled out his phone and started walking.

"m drunk, leavin before i gettoo sloshed. couldnt catch ya before i left, but was fun, talk when i can see straight."

((Vahka Basayev continued in Good Life Decisions))

[Imehal*]

[Holy... it's nearly been ten days since I last posted. I am so sorry!]

---

Things were not quite going to plan. Regina had, in her infinite naivety for actual party planning, assumed that people whose houses got trashed were the ones who had not considered every eventuality; that they had simply not thought things through. It was therefore a very unpleasant realisation that hit her as she made her way back downstairs to the noisy crowds to realise that she had no idea how she was going to get everyone out of the house, let alone tidy the place by eleven. The clock in their tiny bathroom had read five to ten - less than an hour to get everyone out. Maybe it was just the alcohol thinking for her, but Regina was a little worried.

From what could be heard, the best bits from Season Sixty-Five was drawing to a close - the third of the set, if she recalled correctly. It had been a while since Regina had sat down at length with her father and grandfather to discuss the most recent season - she had spent the summer out and about, and then school had restarted. The chatter that intermingled with the audio was less measured and subdued, excitability and cheeriness emboldened by alcohol and infectious good spirits. There were a few people that looked incredibly disquietened by how out of hand some things were getting.

She took a quick tally of the people she had been talking to in the last hour or so. Off to her left, just beside the table, Tucker looked a little confused and Ashley and Vahka nowhere to be seen in the house. That was a little concerning, given that she had not run into either of them on the stairs, but she could look in a minute. First things first.

The collective groan of those still sat half-watching the television triggered no sympathy within Regina as she picked up the remote control, shrugging absently. “Sorry guys. I promised my dad that I’d have the place cleared out by eleven,” she explained by way of apology. She turned the television off, ignored the further protests as nonchalantly as she could manage, and burying the beginnings of trepidation of how she was gonna get it all done before her father got home far, far down. Practicalities, then emotions.

Regina forced up a smile as she crossed the room, waving at Tucker none-too-subtly. They had had some really interesting conversations whenever they had crossed paths over the last few hours, typically revolving around Survival of the Fittest - though she had asked about him briefly. There had been an ulterior motive for that, of course, as they had touched a little deeper on the discussion about the teams’ format from last season.

Maybe it had been the alcohol, or perhaps Regina had just wanted to really not think about Ashley’s glaring, Lily’s avoidance, the way she had been looking at Vahka with her inhibitions had lowered. Whatever had caused it, she had wanted to switch off that analytical process that had taken her from the teams that had existed, to what might happen if…

“I need more alcohol, and then I need to find Ashley,” Regina muttered beneath her breath, flashing a smile at anyone who happened to glance her way, happy or not. Hold the smile up, let no one see you fracture.

A boy knocking on her window. Tarot cards on a table. A gentle hand guiding her after a rough night out.

“No one else, then.” It was an assertion of determination, but Regina chose to focus on gathering up the used cups on the table rather than think too much at how long it would be before she had to admit that it was little more than a pretty lie.

[Aster]

The party went by in a whirlwind, and Tucker was quite content throughout. He and Regina had some wonderful conversations regarding the latest season, especially about the teams themselves. They were a brand new feature, after all, and they had more room to expand once the next season kicked off. Tucker relished speculation over future teams, mentors and other things they might add. For the most part he had lingered around the same general area, engaging anyone nearby in short conversations and occasionally catching whatever was on the screen. His pizza was long gone, and presently he had an empty cup in his hand.

It was getting late, and most of his peers had broken out the alcohol. While Tucker only drank socially, he had enough alcohol in his system to take some effect. He wasn't drunk, per say, but he was inebriated enough to dilute his senses. Tucker wasn't exactly balanced in the first place, so it was understandable that he dropped the cup (which was not so empty after all) when a larger person quickly put their arm around him.

"Thiiis guy. Thiiiis fuckin' guy."

Tucker panicked briefly before recognizing the voice as Vahka's. At least Vahka was someone he knew, and from what he knew, Vahka wasn't an aggressive type of drunkard. As he continued his tangent, he began to seem more of an affectionate one. He couldn't help but feel flattered.

"Aww, thanks man," Tucker responded bashfully, looking up at Vahka warmly. The warmth quickly turned to sympathy as the other boy's mood quickly went south. To this Tucker only offered a simple pat on the shoulder and some reassuring words. "S'okay, dude. S'okay."

" 'scuse me."

Tucker moved out of the way as Vahka left, shouting "Bye!" in his wake. His interest wavered for a bit before finally settling on the television. Tucker had managed to catch a couple seconds of action as Regina turned it off.

"Aww, boo," He groaned, adding his complaint to the chorus of moans that immediately ensued. Regina played it off and waved at Tucker, to which he responded half-heartedly. Tucker sighed and glanced at the clock, mentally taking note of the time. Regina wanted the party over at eleven, and it was close to ten. A little over an hour left.

Shame. It was getting fun.

Speaking of parents, when was he supposed to get back? He didn't exactly remember telling anyone at home he was going out; Tucker just waved at Ivy as he bolted out the door. Was he supposed to be home right now. He didn't know. Tucker rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, mulling over whether or not he should take his leave.

[Spindarene]

The party had been both better and worse than Lily had expected. She'd actually had some interesting conversations with people, once they'd gotten away from the subject of Survival of the Fittest.

Then they had started watching the last season of SOTF, which was how Lily had ended up back in the corner, watching the scene in front of her with revulsion.

She'd never really watched SOTF, so she was somewhat unprepared for how much carnage there was. However, what scared her more were the reactions of her classmates. They cheered, they catcalled, they said some of the most tasteless things that Lily had ever heard. She suspected that alcohol had something to do with most of their reactions. Lily had firmly declined any alcohol, preferring to remain in control of her body.

When Regina stood up to turn off the TV, Lily heaved a sigh of relief. She felt even better when Regina said that they needed to be out by eleven. Lily looked at her phone. It was almost ten, which meant that her parents' party would also be drawing to a close.

She called her dad. For a second, she couldn't tell if he'd picked up, because all she could hear was some muffled grunting and shuffling. Then his voice said "Elllooo?" Was Lily the only person on the planet who wasn't completely wasted? Apparently both her parents were too drunk to drive, so she had to call her uncle for a ride. He lived a little further away, so he said he would pick her up around ten thirty. Lily stuffed her phone back into her jeans pocket, fuming. Had she missed the email for "Ditch Lily Day" or something? First, Sarah, now this. She couldn't believe her life.

As she glanced up, she saw that Regina had started cleaning up. More out of a want to avoid socialization and boredom than anything else, Lily got to work on some of the trash in her area of the room. Usually she hated cleaning, her room was living proof of that. Tonight, however, cleaning was the best option. As she ranted to herself about people not cleaning up after themselves, she was able to put off thinking about the stuff that was really bothering her.

When her uncle finally came for her, Lily said a hasty goodnight to everyone, politely thanked Regina for hosting the party, then left.

Neither of them were very talkative on the way home. Lily suspected that her uncle was annoyed at having to come pick her up, but was trying not to show it. Normally, Lily didn't mind silence. It left her alone with her thoughts, which tonight was a problem.

She kept trying not to think of Karen Ruiz's face, the way she had looked when she killed someone. Her expression was almost robotic, but there was enough emotion there to be unsettling. It would have been better if she had been robotic, because then Lily could have more easily dismissed her. It would have also been easier if Karen had been a cackling psychopath. What disturbed Lily the most was Karen's determination. She didn't look like she enjoyed killing. Actually, after she'd killed that one girl on the bench, Lily couldn't tell from the camera angle, but she thought that Karen might have been crying. Right before she went home, Karen said that she didn't find pointless death funny. That sentence kept echoing in Lily's head.

As much as she tried to avoid it, Lily knew that the reason why Karen bothered her so much was because Lily could sympathize with her. Karen was thrown into a horrible situation, and she did the logical thing. She killed ten people, and was sent home.

Lily smiled slightly. Normally, she loved dynamic villains. The kind of villain you couldn't hate because they had just a little too much humanity in them. She'd always been fascinated by them, theorizing about what made them do what they did, what could have gone wrong in their heads to make  them do such heinous things. The difference was, they weren't real. Karen was a real person, who was probably living life to the fullest. Maybe she was traveling the world, maybe she was going to college. Karen was doing things that most of her classmates would never do, and she was responsible for ten of them.

Lily's musings were interrupted by a slight nudge on her arm. She looked around, and saw that they were at her house. Thanking her uncle, she grabbed her bag, and went inside. She felt like she should go to sleep, but her mind was still buzzing with the evening's events. Changing into some sweatpants and a slightly ratty t-shirt, Lily extracted a spare canvass from her closet, and began to paint.