Subject: "I'll have to look at those books," Maryanne returned.
Author:
Posted on: 2021-01-01 00:21:21 UTC
"I'm still learning about stuff like LotR and Harry Potter, so it might take a while..." she sheepishly rubbed at her neck.
(( So, since many of us probably aren't in a position to have an NYE party this year, let's live vicariously through our characters| ))
(( As usual, you don't need Permission, this isn't canon unless someone decides to make it so elsewhere. ))
The HQ 2021 New Year's Eve party (or, more accurately, the officialest and largest party taking place sometime around December 31st, 2020) was off to a good start. Food was being consumed with gusto (it being well known that Agents' attitudes towards free food that isn't from the Cafeteria mirror those of Tyranid grad students) and replaced just as quickly, and there was plenty of alcohol for those who wanted or needed it. Whoever had put together the large "2021" hanging from the ceiling had really outdone themselves with the intricate light patterns, though most of the guests probably couldn't see the full performance. The only real catch as the moment was that the backup DJ had decided that covers of Klingon opera performed by whales were a good music choice.
Despite the large room and the number of people present, things didn't get too overwhelmingly loud or chaotic (thanks in part to some sound dampening spells), allowing people to have conversations and to drift between various small groups of people if they wanted to avoid larger crowds.
Charlie and Jiwon stood at one of the many food tables arranged in the room, checking out the assorted foods and occasionally looking around at the other partygoers.
“Say what you will about their music choices, but the food’s nice,” Charlie said, moving a piece of suspiciously translucent blue cheese to their plate. The whale opera in the background hit a fever pitch, and the tabaxi had to suppress a wince. They shifted the mandola strapped to their chest and looked over in the direction of the DJ.
Despite how they felt about the questionable music, Charlie felt at ease here. People, food, music, partying- all things the bard had experience with and enjoyed. In addition, they had finally managed to get Jiwon out of the RC for once; they weren’t even sure their partner had ever been to a party before.
Jiwon was warily looking at the party food, picking out only what he recognized as food and thus hoped he’d be able to digest (which wasn’t very much, to be honest). The young gumiho was starting to regret coming here, as he had never been too comfortable with large groups of people he didn’t know.
However, Charlie had been dead set on going and insisted that he socialize, so now he was stuck here. Jiwon figured he might as well get some free food while he was here, though his partner had recommended he stay away from the punch for some reason. He didn’t question it, though- he didn’t care for punch too much, anyway.
Doom was being dragged hither and yon by his irrepressible partner, who seemed to want to say hi to everyone. Finally, the half demon had had enough.
“Katy, go find someone to talk to, or multiple someones, but leave me out of your social life.” Katy stuck out her lower lip in a childish manner.
“But, Doom, puddin’, you promised me you’d socialize.” Her eyes swept the crowd and landed on Jiwon. “Here. He looks like he got forced too, so maybe you two can complain about that together.” She shoved the scowling man over to where the gumiho was getting a plate of food.
They raised an eyebrow as they saw the pair making their way towards them, before smiling and leaning over to their partner, gesturing with their tail towards the duo.
“Hey Jiwon, how ‘bout you try talking to those folk? Looks like they're up for a chat, seeing as they're coming over and all.”
“Huh?” Jiwon looked over to where Charlie was pointing. He silently thought that he didn’t really want to talk to the grumpy-looking man or his excited-looking partner. However, his only response was a noncommittal grunt.
“Ah, c’mon, you can go ahead and give it a shot, can’t ya?” Charlie sighed and straightened up, adjusting the instrument strapped to their chest.
As the other agents approached the tabaxi looked towards them and held out a paw in greeting. “Well met! I hope you don’t mind conversation, seeing as you came over here- I’m Charred Grass, tabaxi bard, but you can call me Charlie. The grumpy foxboy over here is Jiwon.”
“Um… hi,” mumbled Jiwon, staring down at the food on his plate.
“Anyways,” Charlie continued, seemingly unaware of their partner’s awkwardness, “Nice to meet you! How’s the party going for ya?”
“Great! I’m Katy Quinn and grumpy pants over here is Doom.” She bounced up and down, twirling a worryingly bloodstained bat. “I’m Harley Quinn’s uncanonical sister, but since I was such a minor character in my fic, I was recruited instead of killed. Which continuum are you from?”
Charlie hadn’t been expecting that question, but they were perfectly fine with answering it. “Me? I’m from some place called Dragons and Dungeons, I think. It’s a nice place, provided you avoid the… Underdark.” Their smile faded slightly at the last word, but it reasserted itself quickly enough. They nudged Jiwon in the side. "Psst. Your turn."
Jiwon shot a look at his partner, before sighing and looking up at the two in front of him. “Korean mythology, or something like that.” He suspiciously eyed the bat, ready to shapeshift and hide if necessary.
“Ah, don’t worry, puddin’. I only use this on Sues.” She poked Doom with the bat. The man heaved a sigh.
“I’m also from DC. Teen Titans, to be exact.”
...Charlie said with a grin, despite having no idea what "Deesee" or "Teen Titans" were.
Putting their plate of cheese to the side, they clasped their paws together. "So, what did you come over here for?"
“Figured Doom wasn’t the only one who got forced to come here and socialize.” She nodded to Jiwon. “So, I brought him over.” She looked at Charlie. “Also, I’ve never seen a tabaxi before. I’m still gettin’ used to HQ’s very diverse agent group.”
“Figured that was the case for ya.” They shrugged. “But yeah, there are a lot of different races here. I guess it figures, seeing how many different worlds there are out there.”
Jiwon looked over at the man- Doom, he believed- and immediately looked away. He quietly picked up a piece of sushi from his plate and popped it into his mouth. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but the man made him nervous. His name didn’t exactly help.
“I’ve been livin’ here for a year, and this whole place still confuses me.” She shook her head. “And I thought Gotham City was a bit confusing.”
Doom stared back at the fox like beast. He hadn’t caught a name, but the gumiho looked very nervous. He suspected it was something to do with his presence. Being next to someone who was six feet tall and happens to have demon horns and a tail seemed to scare a lot of people. Or as Katy constantly told him, it could be the hood that covered most of his face, or the fact he probably looked grumpy.
Next to the tall, hooded man who looked like he had stepped out of a dystopian novel, the gumiho felt very, very small, even though he wasn’t in fox form at the moment.
Despite the fact that he wasn’t in his homeworld and thus didn’t have to hide his vulpine ears and tail, he suddenly wished that he had. He hoped he didn’t aggravate the man the way he was- demons didn’t attack humans (well, human-ish beings, at least) without good reason, right?
Charlie, on the other hand, wasn’t remotely concerned about anything at all, except perhaps the operatic whale music, which was still blasting away in the background. The tabaxi was pretty sure it had gotten louder.
They had noticed their partner’s apprehension, but they had chalked it up to social anxiety. Tieflings did tend to put more the superstitious folk on edge easily; they figured he’d be fine.
“Eh, don’t worry about it, I hear HQ confuses just about everyone. I’ve been here for almost a year as well, and I still get lost just about every time I go, well-” They chuckled. “-Anywhere, really! So, what division are ya in?”
“DMS. Started off in Bad Slash though.” She wrinkled her nose, clearly not a fan of the department. “Stupid choice on my part. After one mission, I was beggin’ to be switched.” A resounding chorus from the opera made her wince. “Who chose that for music? Wish they’d end it, and play some Coldplay.” The girl changed the subject before Charlie even had a chance to answer, thus demonstrating her inability to stay on any topic for more then two seconds. “Want some gum?”
“Sure, why not? Actually, here-” they reached over and picked up a translucent blue cheese off their plate. “You can have this in exchange.” They held it out to Katy, grinning broadly.
“Uh, thanks.” She sniffed the cheese. “Er, what exactly is this?”
“I have no idea!” they said, still smiling. “Though judging by the texture and smell, I figure it’s about 20 years aged. Still edible, though. Probably.”
Noticing Jiwon giving them a skeptical look, Charlie held out their paws defensively. “What? I like cheese.”
Doom stared at the cheese, and then back at Katy.
“Are you implying that you want me to try this first so you know if it’s edible?” The girl grinned.
“Yeah. Plus, you’re practically immortal. I’m not, and death by cheese is a sad way to go.” As Doom stared at the cheese in his gloved hand, she turned back to Charlie. “What department are you?”
Normally as an obvious minor she wouldn't have been allowed to come, but she'd managed to cajole both of the agents who'd rescued her into ostensibly responsible chaperones and nobody in charge had either cared or cared enough to object.
The party food was excellent except when it wasn't (which was often enough that she probably ought to have been concerned, had she not been thirteen). And there were so many people! Surely some of them would talk to her about being an agent!
The worst part was probably that neither of her chaperones would let her drink any kind of punch.
Liz was not having as great a time, having mostly been convinced to come by the free food and the vague idea that she should probably socialize with people who weren't her partner. The fact that the thought of saying 'no' to Maryanne had occurred for a whole two seconds before Liz gave in, despite already knowing she would probably regret it, did in fact occur.
So there she was, plate of food she was mostly sure she could eat in hand, trying to keep Maryanne in sight and out of the alcohol. It was just as hard as it sounded.
Avery was having a better time than Liz. The fact that 'having a better time' meant 'sitting off to one side with their drawing tablet while it was Liz's turn to keep Maryanne out of too much trouble' probably said something about them.
Farah Tahar, a bipedal lioness dressed in clothes that certainly looked fancy, noticed Maryanne loking for people to chat with, and so decided to be one of those people. The food could wait.
"I'm Farah," she said, bowing slightly,
Maryanne's expression was somewhat awed, though the awe was soon replaced with plain excitement. "I'm Maryanne! Where are you from? I've never seen a lioness before. I mean, I guess I've read about some but that doesn't really count as seeing, so, uh..."
It was entirely possibly Maryanne was babbling, she realized, and had to wonder if that was a trait she'd had in her home fic or something she'd started doing because her sister babbled- and at that point she stopped thinking about it before her brain started hurting.
Farah smiled, and meant it.
I'm a hani," she continued. "From the Chanur books, and I think I might be the only one in HQ these days. I used to work on a merchant shapeship before I fell in here."
"Where're you from?"
Really, she should have expected Farah to return the question.
"I'm from a show called Miraculous Ladybug. It's... complicated?" Maryanne absently tucked a bit of hair behind her ear, running her hand over the obviously well-made peacock hair clip there. "I guess I'm technically the main character's uncanonical sister."
Liz walked over in time to hear Maryanne say that. She suppressed a sigh and hurried the last few yards, just in case. Really, didn't Maryanne know not to tell that to random people?
"Might have to look into it in my copious free time," she said, emphasizing the last bit just a bit to be sarcastic about her schedule.
"And, well, I'm not sure where I sit on the Tahar family tree, so I kinda feel you there."
"I'm still learning about stuff like LotR and Harry Potter, so it might take a while..." she sheepishly rubbed at her neck.
"Though, honestly, if there's a mission to these, they'll probably send me or Kkukttak along just to be safe," she added.
"Maryanne asks almost everyone she meets that," Liz said as she arrived, giving Farah a polite smile. "I'm Liz. I'm technically responsible for Maryanne right now."
"So there's not a lot of sheer terror like I've heard you get in Sues, though I've had weapons aimed at me a few times. It's mostly trying to not let the fic melt my brain and keeping my partner from taking too much of what isn't nailed down."
Once Liz had arrived, Farah replied with "Hey Liz, I'm Farah! Nice to met you too!"
Maryanne got a sympathetic look from Farah - she knew how annoying being supervised when you were trying to have a good time could be.
"Minus the kleptomania, I think." She thought about that. "No, wait, you guys have an entire 'Sue's closet worth of bolts of fabric that I helped you snag."
Liz opened her mouth to object, tried to find something objectively wrong in that statement, and grudgingly closed her mouth. "It's for barter," she said instead. "And I'm trying to learn to sew but it's hard to find time."
"There's lots to do - missions, keeping up with canons, more missions, and getting to know all the cool people here. Makes it hard to find time to do much else."
"I'd offer to help, but, like, I'm not all that good with fabric. All I can really do is patch up holes now and again."
“Get off me, Quinn. I’m not going to this thing!” he snapped at the small, skinny girl. She grinned, continuing to pull with a surprising amount of strength.
“Oh yes you are. I’m insisting on it. Besides, a little social interaction wouldn’t kill you, Doom.” Doom scowled, but permitted her to pull him over to a small group.
Near one of the tables, a gargoyle called Ed and a duplicant known as Sparky looked around.
"Wow," Ed muttered. "I never knew that I'd be experiencing such a historical moment." Sparky nodded while trying to reach a Cheeto that was on the rim of a very large bowl sat on a table that was about her height.
She warbled something, but Ed's UT had been experiencing an odd bug where sometimes it wouldn't translate Sparky, leaving him unable to understand most of her theramin-y chatter. In response, he nodded.
Then, disaster struck.
Sparky, in her desperation to reach that one Cheeto, accidentally spilled the entire bowl onto her. Ed's wings shot up and out until they were fully extended, however his perpetual scowl barely changed. The duplicant then promptly mumbled an apology and covered her face in embarrassment.
These sorts of RPs are a good way to test out character concepts, for example.
She'd dressed up for the occasion in a red-and-gold pair of silk pants and a loose white overcoat.
She pointedly ignored the drinks and started to wander her way towards the food, keeping an eye out for people she know or who might be interesting to talk to.
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