fluxscape | New Year, Who Dis?

Entry tags:

New Year, Who Dis? - OTA

Who: Evie Grimhilde and YOU
What: New Years Eve Party
When: New Years Eve until New Years Day.
Where: Driftcrest Hotel Ballroom and reserved hotel rooms for people to stay the night safely in.
Warnings: Language probably, will update as needed.

Another setting change, and this time a new set of mysteries to examine. One of which is, apparently, something that has armed guards on a wall and people afraid to be out past 8 PM. So Evie wasn't sure if she could reserve this hotel or not, considering that sort of thing was usually expensive.

But once she explained to the hotel manager what she wanted to do and the intended timeframe, she was a little shocked when he just shoved room keys at her. It was apparently a rule that people helped keep each other safe in Driftcrest, and that meant taking a minor financial hit.

At least, they said it was minor. And they said Mr Wechester covered this kind of thing, but Evie didn't feel right just letting them do this. Later in the week, Evie will take family photos at Sun and Fun and then discuss new curtains for several of the rooms.

For now, Evie and friends are setting up a new years eve party in the Driftcrest ballroom.

There's a table full of various finger foods and drinks, some of which are marked for adults, and it's very obvious that Evie put a lot of effort into making sure the food was delicious and visually apealing.

There were tables for people to sit down at, a very talented DJ who took requests for people on the dance floor, and a table covered in noisemakers, silly hats and confetti guns to celebrate with at midnight.

And, for those wanting to stay the night in the hotel, Evie has room keys.

This is open to all, and Evie was sure to send the message town-wide. Now she just hoped people showed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He was about to ask what the 'no' had meant, but Adam shifted the subject to Ronan and he wasn't going to contradict him. That might cause one of the fights that he'd been trying to avoid. If Adam didn't want to finish that sentence, there was probably a reason for it.

"He talked about when I first brought you into the group. How he'd acted. That he'd been jealous of you." Gansey had known that and known that eventually Ronan would accept Adam into their group. If Adam wasn't scared away by Ronan's rough edges. "He thought I was going to replace him." The rest was more complicated. A subject that Gansey felt shouldn't be discussed in public, but if they were in a private setting, it would be more difficult to keep his promise to Ronan. "I wasn't. That wasn't why I tried to get you to hang out with us."

"He was jealous of me?" Adam was bewildered. He couldn't imagine anyone being jealous of him. What did he have to envy? And there was no replacing Ronan; there wasn't a single other person like him in the entire world. He was special, precious, no matter how difficult he was sometimes.

"Why did you want me to hang out with you, then?" He was genuinely curious. He couldn't imagine why anyone would have wanted to hang out with him back then when he'd barely had any friends. He'd thought, at first, that it'd been pity or just because he was good with cars and the Pig was always breaking down.

It seemed strange that Adam hadn't realized it before. Ronan had always been protective of Gansey, guarding the time he spent with him and unwilling to share. The fact that Adam hadn't realized it was jealousy surprised him. "He thought I was going to replace him with you. I was his first real friend. And he was mine."

Malory was his friend. A mentor and a father figure, but that was different than having a friend that was his own age. Someone younger who believed in magic and encouraged Gansey's wilder tendencies. It had been Adam that had caused Gansey to settle down, to find some of the quiet that he'd needed. Now he knew it was all of them that kept him together - Ronan, Noah, Adam, and Blue - but that had been the start.

Shaking his head, he laughed softly. "You know how territorial he is. Some days it's easier to convince Chainsaw to share than Ronan. He was sure you were going to steal me away. I kept having to tell him that we were allowed to have more than one friend." Looking back, there might have been more to it than that, but until Ronan discussed that topic, Gansey could only speculate.

He began to scan the crowd for Ronan to make sure that there was no imprisonment imminent, then focused on Adam, staring in disbelief for a moment. "Why? Because you're you." Which wasn't a true explanation even if Ronan would have understood it. Adam was Adam and they both were fascinated, even if they'd had different ways of showing it. "You're brilliant. Clever. You made me work at getting the top marks in French." No one else had done that. French had always been one of the classes he exceled at. "You completely destroyed me in Latin. You were so real compared to anyone else in school. You and Ronan. Everyone else was just pale reflections compared to how vivid you two are. How could I not want to be your friend?"

Knowing what he did now, the fact that it was jealousy made a lot more sense. Not just what Gansey was telling him, but what Ronan had told him before, too. Adam would never be someone's first choice, but he'd never steal anyone away, either. Not because he wasn't capable but because he didn't want to.

He looked down at his hands, twisting his fingers together. Sometimes, a lot of the time, he didn't feel as smart as people said he was. He didn't even feel as real. But some moments--Cabeswater, Ronan--they made him feel... He had to do this. He had to make this work, somehow.

"I love you." He looked up again. "I've loved you for a long time, but I never let myself think about it." Because why would someone like Gansey ever want him back? He'd pushed the feelings down until eventually there had been Ronan, and Adam had fallen into his gravitational pull, orbiting him like he was the sun. But he couldn't deny his feelings for Gansey either, no matter how nervous opening up made him. He felt sure he would be rejected--again--though only the slight wrinkle between his eyebrows gave away his concern.

"Until now. Until Ronan said-- he said he thought you had feelings for me." He knew Ronan wasn't lying, but what if he was wrong? What if Gansey only cared about him as a friend and Adam had made a fool of himself yet again?

The situation was complicated, which frustrated Gansey in ways he didn't expect. Usually he loved puzzles, needing the mental work to keep his thoughts from flying to unpleasant conclusions or lingering in dark places that would drag him into depression. This was different. Emotions couldn't be puzzled through the way historical documents could be. This wasn't finding some footnote in a long forgotten text that would lead him to some tantalizing clue to Glendower.

This was strange and messy and confusing. Especially when Adam said three specific words. For a moment, Gansey almost answered with 'beg pardon?' but he caught himself before he did something so foolish. "I do have feelings for - " he stumbled for a moment, not wanting to hurt Adam, but also remembering that he'd promised Ronan that he'd offer the truth. "For our Adam. I don't know if that's you," he confessed, feeling terrible for that truth even as he wanted to reach up and ease away that wrinkle between Adam's eyebrows.

Knowing that Adam would probably misinterpret his words, he hurried on. "Sometimes I don't know if you're the Adam I know. We fought so much. You were barely speaking to me before." Truth, Gansey, truth. "I wasn't sure if you even liked me when we left DC." Wishing for some of the champagne he'd stolen from the waiters at his mother's party, he pressed on. He might not like Ronan's tendency to use alcohol to blur emotional distress, but he understood it.
"Even when I'm not trying to keep the peace, things are so different now. I don't want us to fight, but it leaves me completely wrong footed that it doesn't happen. How did we get to a point where you didn't - " Hate me.

Adam wished people would stop treating him like he was someone else. It was true that for a little while he'd thought of there being two Ronans, and sometimes still did, but Ronan was still his Ronan. Gansey was his Gansey. Even Blue was his Blue, though she was from a different point in time, too.

For a moment, his frown deepened and he looked down at the tabletop, sure some form of rejection was coming. When that didn't happen, he slowly looked up again, the ghost of a smile playing across his face. Apparently, money wasn't the only thing Gansey was stupid about, but this was more endearing than financial issues.

"A lot's happened since then," he said quietly. "But nothing could make me stop liking you or caring about you." Maybe things were easier here because they were all on even footing. Gansey didn't have his fortune and Adam wasn't dirt poor. They all lived under the same roof because Ronan had asked him, and Adam would do anything for him. But he'd die for Gansey, too. He would have gladly given his life as the sacrifice to stop the demon.

"I'm not sure things have changed so much as we've moved past what happened in DC. I didn't know how to talk to Cabeswater," he admitted. "I didn't understand what it was trying to tell me and it made DC harder." Harder than it should have been. It wasn't all Gansey's fault. And even if it had been, Adam could never hate him for it.

"I want things to be okay. Between us. More than that." He wanted things that made him feel selfish, but if Gansey had feelings for him, too... Hope rose anew, accompanied by his heart pounding. He wasn't good at this kind of thing, but he was trying his best.

When Adam continued to frown, Gansey's first impulse was to offer comfort, but he was certain that it would be rejected. He sighed, leaning back in his chair, worrying at his lower lip with his thumb. A waiter walked by and he gave in to the impulse for alcohol, giving a smile that quickly charmed two glasses of champagne onto the table. He didn't know if Adam would drink, but it was rude not to ask for one for him as well.

Taking a sip, just enough for a taste, something familiar to settle his nerves, Gansey waited for Adam's answer.

If Ronan hadn't made him promise... for a moment Gansey wished that he hadn't agreed to Ronan's demand or that he could lie to his boyfriend. He could about certain subjects. What would happen in April. How Ronan remained in school. But this... this would be impossible.

"I wasn't sure that you did. Like me. Or care about me." He said the words softly as he played with the champagne flute, staring at it as if it offered the secrets he'd been searching for. "I thought there were times that you hated - hate - me." He should. Gansey represented everything Adam despised. Worse, he was with Ronan when Adam should be the one dating him.

"I want things to be okay or more than okay. I just - " Glancing up, he tried to find the right words to make everything fit together the way it should. "So much has happened. Finding out I was going to die. That I will die, but come back. That something happens between me and Blue. Living another life that I almost want more than this one. Then this." He paused, taking another sip of alcohol in an attempt to slow the stream of thoughts that seemed to need to be spoken. "Jesus, Parrish. Just knowing that you don't hate me is huge."

He couldn't say that he wasn't bitter. That there wasn't a part of him that wanted Ronan all to himself, but that wasn't going to happen. He wanted Gansey to be happy, too, no matter who he was with, but he was also worried about Blue. Adam knew how much Blue cared about Gansey and he didn't want her to end up hurt. She'd been hurt enough times, and she deserved to be happy.

Glancing at the glass of champagne, he made no move to pick it up. Yet, at least. "I'm sorry I made you think I hated you," he said quietly. He hadn't ever thought he'd have to reassure Gansey about that, but clearly, that had been an oversight on his part. He should have said something about it, let Gansey know. Or maybe the fight in DC had been worse than his memories said it was. Memories always changed things, after all.

He wasn't going to bring up how Gansey was Blue's true love; that felt like it would be petty. Besides, judging from Ronan's reaction to things, it probably wouldn't make a difference anyway.

"Do you think..." he hesitated, picking up his glass of champagne and taking a sip. "Do you think the three of us can make something work?" The three of them in some kind of relationship.

Beneath the bitterness, Adam was terrified he was just a third wheel, that Ronan was only trying to include him because he felt sorry for him. That maybe Ronan didn't love him as much as Adam had thought he did. And Gansey...Adam didn't know how he felt about this kind of thing. Ronan had flung them together without knowing how things would turn out. Maybe everything would go up in flames, maybe Gansey didn't care about Adam like that, or enough.

Gansey carefully ignored the insidious voice in the back of his mind that would rear apart Adam's words to find some proof that Adam's feelings weren't real. It was something he dealt with regularly, more often since he'd heard his own voice on the tape, so it could be pushed aside temporarily.

"It's hard not to think it after some of the fights we've had." Another measured sip, the bubbles comforting even if they reminded him of the horrible parties in DC. "Especially after the hospital," he added, almost under his breath, unsure of how Adam would react to that.

Pulling his thoughts away from those dark memories, Gansey gave Adam a smile that never graced his mother's parties. "Why wouldn't we? Ronan's basically smashing us together and yelling 'kiss!' He's past the jealousy and I - " He flushed slightly, another sight that never graced his mother's party. "I've had a thing for you since the first time you called me out for my terrible Latin."

"Neither of us are perfect." Adam liked that about Gansey, actually. He looked perfect on the surface, but there were dents in his armor and he was just as flawed as any human being. Adam just wished he could be as charismatic and good with people and words as Gansey was.

A muscle in his cheek twitched when Gansey brought up the hospital. It would be easy to give in and snap that Gansey had deserved the reaction he'd gotten, but Adam didn't. He took another sip of his champagne and pretended he hadn't heard. He didn't want to start a fight. He'd already been too rough on Gansey when he was really mostly upset with Ronan. Gansey didn't deserve to take the brunt of Adam's bitterness.

"So you're saying all I have to do is criticize you?" he teased with a smile. The fact that Gansey had feelings for him still felt surreal. He wanted to pinch himself, but he resisted. He didn't know what Gansey saw in him and he was afraid to ask. To be honest, he didn't know what Ronan saw in him, either.

After a moment, his smile faded and he looked down. "This feels like cheating." He was seeking reassurance that it wasn't. Even though he couldn't be cheating right now because he was single, but in the future... This wasn't the kind of thing he normally did. In fact, he'd never- Taking a deep breath, he glanced up.

For what seemed like a long time, Gansey was silent, but he couldn't quite be sure if seconds or minutes had passed. Time was a strange thing that he rarely understood in its entirety. It felt like it stretched, details blurring and becoming clear.

He knew Adam well enough to know the signs that warned of an upcoming fight. Ronan's tells were obvious. Adam's less so, but Gansey had learned them as best he could so that he could try to avoid arguments. Which was part of the reason why things felt so strange. He couldn't remember a time when things had been so tense, but also so free of arguments. It was a contradiction he didn't know what to do with.

As was the comment about cheating. Whatever words he might have said were tempered by those words. He considered them carefully along with what Adam had confessed earlier and how he was looking at him now. Pressing his thumb to his lip, Gansey tried to unravel the information offered to him, the feelings laid bare.

Finally he realized that too much time may have passed, and he had to speak. "It's more than that. I have a thing for intelligent guys who aren't impressed with the family name." Ronan hadn't been the first, even though Gansey wasn't sure if he'd ever admit that since Ronan would probably be jealous of guys who weren't even in the same reality they were in. "But there's more to this than Ronan wanting us to kiss or us having a thing for each other."

This was the tricky part. The part that might cause the fight he'd been anticipating for days. But he had to be truthful, and if they were really going to try what Ronan had suggested, they all needed to be honest. "We have to figure out how this would work, which includes how you'll deal with the idea of cheating. If you feel guilty, or that you're doing something wrong, it can never work. The three of us will end up destroying each other."

After a moment, Adam's shoulders sagged. Gansey was right, of course, and Adam didn't want everything to implode because of him. He wanted everyone to be happy. He just...wasn't used to any of this. Ronan had been his first real relationship. Blue was...special, but they hadn't been meant to be, romantically. Somehow, he had to reconcile his worries with what he wanted. And what everyone else wanted. Ronan had made all of this sound easy, but it was anything but.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm making this difficult, and I don't mean to. I'm just-" he sucked in a breath, looking away. "-I'm scared. I don't want to lose either of you, and I don't want to ruin everything." He had to think of things logically, dissect his feelings and straighten everything out.

It wasn't cheating if they all agreed to be in a relationship. Right? This wasn't wrong it was just...different. He'd handled 'different' before. It was things like Cabeswater and learning he was psychic, and Cabeswater had turned out to be a wonderful, beautiful thing.

He took a deep breath. "Are you okay with all of this? Not me trying not to screw up, but-" he made a vague gesture "-the idea of the three of us, in a relationship?"

"You rushed out and made a bargain with something that we hadn't even begun to comprehend and this is what scares you?" His tone wasn't mocking, although it did hold a hint of gentle teasing. He'd slowly accepted that Adam had somehow found a balance with Cabeswater despite what their last meeting back home had been like. After all that, this should seem less frightening to Adam than being controlled by a magical forest. At least in this Adam had more autonomy than with Cabeswater. "I know Ronan can be demanding, but he's not that bad."

He paused, unable to stop the fond smile that might not be appropriate around Adam considering that they both had or were dating Ronan. "He's more like how he was before Niall died." Not always, of course. There would always be scars from that event. On Ronan. On Gansey, too, but Ronan was healing.

Gansey knew he shouldn't make the amused, un-Gansey-like noise to Adam's question, but it escaped before the politician polish could smother it. "I've been in love with three, possibly four, people for weeks, if not months. I'm fine with it." Sitting back in his chair, he debated how much to say, reminding himself he wasn't at one of the DC galas. He could say what he wanted here without endangering his mother's career.

"Love isn't confined to one person for some people, or one type." Type seemed easier to discuss than the details of his sexuality. " Or to one specific time. I love the three of you. The fact that society says you should love one person at one time doesn't change what I feel. I don't know how I'll react if we go forward with this. I know that I may become, not jealous, but wistful when you're with him. You're the better choice for him, I know that, but we both know Ronan hasn't listened to my arguments on that subject."

"This is different," Adam protested. "You and Ronan--you're all I have." Aside from Harvard and the crying club. But Adam loved Ronan so much he would have thrown Harvard away for him. Now that he knew love, finally, for the first time in his life, he was terrified to lose it.

"No, he's not that bad. He's..." he struggled with words for a moment, bouncing from one sappy thing to another before settling on something less sappy, "He has so much love, inside of him." It might not be obvious to a lot of people, but it was obvious to Adam. Ronan was brimming with love, and Adam was maybe a little envious.

He listened quietly to the last part of what Gansey had to say, biting his tongue to resist saying that Gansey was the better choice for Ronan. He had a feeling it was something they could argue endlessly about and he was trying so hard not to argue. Gansey had a point. Society had trained them all to believe that you could and should only love one person at a time, that anything other than that was wrong.

Adam struggled with the fact that two people loved him at the same time, which was two more than he ever could have dreamed of. If someone had told him before that he would be sitting here having this conversation, he never would have believed it. There had been ups and downs leading to this point, but this was an up, not a down.

He scrubbed his hand under his nose, pretended he wasn't getting a little emotional thinking about both Ronan and Gansey loving him. He still didn't understand what was so special about him, but he didn't have to for the other two to love him.

"I think we can do this. I love you, both of you, and I want this to work." He was worried he might become jealous, but if he was aware of it, he could work on it. "You're both so important to me."

Gansey didn't comment on the deal, knowing it was a sore subject and one that he didn't completely comprehend. Making oaths to magical, sentient forests seemed more frightening than the possibility of a poly relationship, but Adam hadn't really had the type of affection that he and Ronan had been given. Perhaps, to him, love was more frightening than curses and magic.

"He does. Even with what happened to Niall, he still has that love to give." Gansey had always known it, even when their world had shattered and he'd been caught in between the wrath of two grieving Lynches. It'd been buried, protected, during that time, but it was becoming more obvious now that they were far from Henrietta and Ronan had seen his alternate life. "He's changing here, for the better, I hope."

Gansey expected Adam to make some protest about society ideals, especially when it always seemed that Adam wanted the 'perfect' life that seemed to be advocated by the media and their fellow students. When that argument didn't start, he blinked at him, considering the differences between the Adam from the disaster in DC to this one. It still confused him, but the hints of emotion didn't. He carefully pretended not to notice them, trying to resolve the two Adams into something easier to understand.

"I love both of you. I have for awhile. And Noah and possibly Blue." It was a statement, a plea, a warning, that Gansey's love included more than what was deemed 'normal'. The expressions of those feelings might vary with who he offered them to, but Adam needed to know that it wasn't even as simple as just the three of them. "We can make it work. It won't be easy sometimes, but it can happen."

Love was so much more terrifying than curses and magic. Which wasn't to say that Adam hadn't been afraid of Cabeswater at first, but he'd had nothing to lose with Cabeswater except his autonomy. With love? He could lose the people closest to him, and that would be a blow far worse, no matter how independent he wanted to be.

"I hope so, too," Adam agreed. He wanted the best for Ronan, no matter what that involved. Or who. He also hoped, selfishly, that that involved him, too.

Noah, again. Adam wished he could remember him, or even know why he'd forgotten in the first place. He was out of the loop--everyone knew Noah except him. Adam didn't like the idea of forgetting things, especially someone who sounded like they'd been important. Despite all of that, he smiled a little. "Honestly, I'd be more surprised if you didn't love Blue." He was relieved, actually, that Gansey had mentioned Blue. Adam wanted the best for her, too. He supposed Gansey had more love to give than Adam had realized.

"Is that...that then? Are we-- we should tell Ronan."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

New Year, Who Dis? - OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

screeches, I never got a notification for this. I'm so sorry for the delay.

DW is crazy lately

It really is. I've lost so many notifications 8(

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject