fluxscape | New Year, Who Dis?

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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.

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Ronan wasn't big on parties, too much expectation on socializing, but he had three big reasons to be here at this party. Gansey. Adam. Evie.

Adam and Gansey needed to talk. Gansey needed a place away from The Barns to figure things out. And Ronan needed to talk to Evie.

Bonus: alcohol, food, room keys.

He had all three. Two sets of keys. One for Gansey and Adam. One for him and Gansey. A plate of food. A drink. He can be an adult. But he really needed to do something about the shitty music.

Yawn!

Evie was glad to see Ronan. She'd worried for a moment that, for her, it would be awkward or uncomfortable, but it wasn't. Part of her remembered that Evie Wayne saw him as a friend, so that was what Evie was going to do.

See him as a friend.

She headed over to him with a grin, something rarely seen on Evie Wayne's face, and she spoke to get his attention.

"So, the DJ probably should have been interviewed before coming and playing for us. He does take requests, though I've yet to think of anything to ask for."

Ronan looked up and had the confusing sensation of knowing and not-knowing the person speaking to him. Evie Wayne. He'd been hoping to meet her here and talk, but he hadn't expected to be doing it while drinking and sucking barbecue off his fingers.

"I can think of a few requests, but your guests might not appreciate my music as much as I do. Fun for me, not so much for the hostess."

He stood up, wiped his fingers on his jeans.

"Evie."

Beast was skulking in the corner, looking awkward, uncomfortable, and a little shy. He was doing his utter best to look inconspicuous despite being a giant beast-man. He's still having trouble wrapping around the concept that people don't freak out when they see his rather extreme-looking appearance. Still, he put forth the effort, and dressed up in one of his more snazzy outfits. Just because he's an enormous chimera doesn't mean he can't have style.

He hasn't really been socializing, instead focusing on eating. The plate he's holding is completely dwarfed in one paw. He looks around, seeming a little nervous as he gazes at the other people in the room.

It was certainly difficult not to notice him, but Rosabella's attention was drawn to him not because of how he looked, but because she couldn't help thinking of - and missing - her father.

She did notice that he didn't seem to talk to many others, so eventually she walked over to the refreshment table and poured out some punch.

"Here, have you tried this?" she asked, offering him a glass and a smile. The glass was a perfect size for a human, so she worried that he'd have difficulty holding it, but there wasn't anything else to accommodate his size. Except maybe the punch bowl itself.

"Oh, thank you." He did seem painfully aware of the problem his size presents, but thankfully these days with Belle's help he'd become a little more used to being a beast-sized person in a human-sized world. He hadn't broken anything accidentally in a vast stretch of time, which was quite a feat for him!

He looked at the glass for a moment before gingerly picking it up with thumb and forefinger only, which allowed it to sit comfortably without too much chance of accidentally being crushed if he used his whole paw on it. Sipping it wasn't too difficult. He was just thanking his lucky stars it was all finger food, given he still wasn't entirely proficient with most utensils.

"I don't believe we've met before," he said to the girl.

"You're welcome. I thought you could use something to drink." With how much he was eating, it could be nice having something to wash it all down.

As she watched him carefully hold the glass to drink from, she could see the aura of nervousness around him. He had been wrapped in the pale yellow color all evening, and she hoped she could help alleviate some of his uncertainty.

"I don't believe we have," she agreed. She certainly would remember seeing if him if they had. "My name is Rosabella."

Bruce slipped into the back of the party. He hadn't checked on Evie since the shift of realities. It was about time, especially since Gansey had already reached out to him. He was dressed in a good suit and of course looked the impeccable of high society.

He was Bruce Wayne, after all.

Adam wasn't much of a party person, but he could make an exception for a special occasion like this. Especially when he didn't have anyone to impress and didn't have to wear a suit. He always felt like an imposter in a suit. That didn't mean he wasn't dressed nicely though, in a button-up shirt and nice pants.

He'd tucked himself off to the side with a plate of food, a (non-alcoholic) drink next to him, and a confetti gun tucked behind him on his chair so it wouldn't take up valuable space on the table. He still felt a little out of place, but the music wasn't bad and it was probably healthy for him to be doing something that wasn't working or keeping busy around the Barns.

Taking a bite of food--which was also good--he glanced around the room.

Allison felt pleased with how well everything had turned out. It was all pretty much thanks to Evie since Allison had just been there to help out but all in all it looked great.

After she was done helping out, the huntress disappeared up to her hotel room just long enough to get changed out of her casual clothes into something a little more worthy of the party. Which was simply a black skirt, a silver off the shoulder top, some fishnet tights, and a pair of knee-high boots. If there was a knife tucked in one of her boots, no one had to know but her.

Making her way back down, she smiled as she looked around at the people arriving. Mostly, she was checking the layout before making her way over to get a drink.

"That is a nice name." He had a love-hate relationship where roses were concerned, but the second half of her name reminded him a little of Belle's, which was always a good thing in his book.

"You can call me Beast." It was a bit on the nose and there had been at least one person who had asked him what his real name was, but Beast hadn't felt like a prince in a very long time. When he was finally human again, he'd reclaim his name.

"You don't--" He swallowed, looking for a way to put things. "--Well, seem to be afraid of me." It was still a new sensation despite having been pulled into this new world some time ago.

Beast had tried to slip in unobtrusively, but let's face it. He couldn't have stood out more unless he'd dyed his fur neon pink. At least he'd come nicely dressed up in one of the better outfits that had made its way here from his world.

While he did look quite intimidating and it was easy to mistake him for just a dumb animal at first, the fact he wore clothes, walked on his hind legs, and had eyes that were all too human did give credence to the idea that he was, in fact, intelligent. He tried to move through the people meandering in without bumping into anyone but he didn't quite manage when it came to Allison, knocking into the girl with his great bulky form.

She smiled, and offered a polite curtsy. "Thank you. It's nice to meet you, Beast." She couldn't help but wonder if he had another name, but then again, her father was most well known as The Beast as well, so she couldn't say much about that. Although that certainly was curious.

His comment received a curious tilt of her head. "You don't seem like the type of beast I should be afraid of," she replied. Back home, she was familiar with all sorts of creatures, most of which were actually quite friendly. Only very few were considered scary or bad.

It'd been awkward at the Barns, or Gansey had thought of it as awkward. Ronan seemed to think everything was back to normal. Except the fact that Gansey had been trying to avoid Adam to try to lessen any fighting or hurt feelings.

He probably would have continued to do so if he hadn't noticed a certain look in Ronan's eyes and seen that he had too many room keys. That combined with comments that Ronan had made earlier caused suspicion to creep through his thoughts.

Telling himself that the avoidance needed to stop, if only to keep Ronan from going through with whatever plans he had in mind, he moved over Adam's table. "I think Ronan's read too many tropes on the internet. He keeps talking about locking us in a room together."

"Trying to be inconspicuous?" Courtney sounded amused as she caught sight of Bruce trying to slip into the party from the back of the room. She waited until he looked over to her before she smiled, tilting her head to the side and lifting her drink in greeting.

"I hate to tell you but it's not working." Even though she was trying somewhat to be the same where she was standing, leaning against one of the back walls.

Truth be told, it feels kind of weird to be going to a party without the intention of stealing things or doing some kind of recon with the potential for fighting later.

Either way, Tandy steps almost carefully into the party as she looks around at the set up and for any familiar faces. Biting the inside of her cheek, she ventures further while looking for a clock to check the time. Then she glances behind her as if she is looking for someone.

After that, she gets herself a drink and moves to stand to the side where she can sip her drink while continuing to watch.

While he most certainly wasn't the first 'beast' she had ever seen before, Beast is definitely...a lot to take in. This was probably why she looked a bit startled when she turned from the table where she was standing near and walked into him. Or maybe it was that he had walked into her, she didn't know. Either way, they knocked into each other, causing her to stumble just for a second before she caught herself and looked up.

Her lips parted in surprise as she stared up at him, blinking a bit. At least until she remembered what manners she had and snapped herself out of it, looking sheepish. "Sorry. I wasn't...looking."

Honestly, she meant that she hadn't been looking where she was going.

For weeks, he'd been wondering how talking to Gansey would go. He'd imagined at least a dozen different scenarios, most of them where Adam was angry. But after talking to Ronan a few days ago all of his anger seemed to have deflated. It wasn't Gansey's fault that what had happened had happened. Adam would blame this place instead because there wasn't any person he could assign blame to.

Now, instead of everything he'd expected, he actually felt relieved to see Gansey. "He's pretty determined that we talk," he said. He'd apologize for avoiding Gansey, but in hindsight that might have been for the better. Time had soothed him, and Ronan had helped him think about things more clearly, things he'd never fully thought about before.

"I think he's right. Not about locking us in a room together, but talking," he added.

"I hoped that you wouldn't agree to the locked room scenario." The rest Gansey wasn't so sure of. The two of them could rarely talk when emotions were involved. Usually feelings got tangled together, adding barbs to their words until one or both of them were bleeding.

He still couldn't quite push aside the comments that Adam had made in the past. The accusation that Gansey had wanted Robert to hurt Adam. The anger when Adam had stayed at Monmouth. The hostility during their trip to DC. He knew that Adam was now older than him, had lived a life changed by the quest and getting out of Henrietta, but he didn't have those experiences to lessen harsher memoires.

"He seems to think it's a good idea that we talk." Gansey would try, but he expected the conversation to turn to one of the usual fights. All your things in one place. "He has strange ideas about how the conversation will go. He made me promise certain things."

"I don't think we need anything that extreme to make us talk." Maybe earlier, when he'd been angrier and more upset in general, it would have been necessary, but not now. Not unless Gansey had continued to avoid him. Adam couldn't blame him for that though; things had been tense. There was a part of Adam that was still tense, uncertain. He didn't know what he expected to happen. 'I could have you both if...' kept coming to the surface of his thoughts.

He rubbed his palms on his pants, suddenly nervous but doing his best to push the feeling down. "What kind of things?"

He'd had years of training to be a political creature. All the years of being taught to hide his emotions, but nothing from the Gansey pedigree prepared him for this. How do you talk to your best friend when after destroying his happiness?

"I tried to talk him out of it." The words slipped free before Gansey could control them. "I told him this wasn't how things were supposed to be, but he wouldn't listen." That didn't change the fact that Gansey had done something terribly wrong, but he'd tried to stop it. Unfortunately, he had no resistance to Ronan and no way to work around Ronan's stubbornness. "He wouldn't change his mind."

At least Adam would know that he'd tried to do the right thing. He doubted it would matter to him, but he'd know Gansey hadn't meant for this to happen.

"He made me promise to be honest with my feelings and to not say things I'd regret."

"It's not your fault." It wasn't quite the same as 'I don't blame you', but it was as close as Adam was going to get right now. "And he doesn't want to do something just because he's supposed to. You know Ronan. And you make him happy." Happier, apparently, than Adam did. Or was he just being bitter again? But it wasn't Gansey he was bitter towards.

He took a deep breath. Ronan hadn't told him those things. Did he think there was no point or did he trust Adam to be honest? Where did he start? How did he bring this up? Did he gently prod Gansey first or did he spill his own beans? He hadn't thought this would be easy, but it was turning out to be even harder than he'd expected. Things had been easy with Ronan, once upon a time. They'd solved things without words.

"I care about you, Gansey." He knew he was often jealous of everything Gansey had that he didn't, and that he let those emotions get the best of him, but he still cared about Gansey. There was more to it than that, but he was doing his best to find a place to start.

Gansey had a feeling that he knew what wasn't being said. It might not be Gansey's fault but he was the cause of Adam's heartbreak. "If I could change things, I would." Even if it'd break his heart, even if he'd be miserable, he'd do it. He loved them both too much not to do whatever he could to make them happy. "I tried. He should be with you, but he won't listen."

He never had, not really. Gansey could coax Ronan into action, but it was a delicate balance of cajoling, guilt, and luck that allowed him to succeed.

"I care about you, Adam." Which made all of this worse. If he didn't care so much about both of them, then maybe he wouldn't feel so guilty that his happiness meant someone else was unhappy. Making a frustrated, un-Gansey sound, he sat down. "Ronan said other things when he made me promise to be careful of my words, about when we met you and..." And that was probably a terrible topic right now, but he knew Ronan would ask about their conversation later. If he didn't discuss everything, Ronan would probably lock them up later. "I'm not really certain what he was trying to imply."

Adam shook his head. He knew what he wanted, and it was a conflict. He wanted to be happy, but he wanted Ronan to be happy, too. In the past those two things had lined up. Right now, he wasn't so sure. There was a purpose to them talking, more than just clearing up hurt feelings, but he wasn't sure if it would work.

"No, Gansey, I-" he looked down at his hands, frowning. He should just say it and get it over with, but. What if Ronan was wrong? He was already half right, but what if he was half wrong, too? "What did he say?"

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."

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New Year, Who Dis? - OTA

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Allison - OTA

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