[GP] Réveillon & New Year's Eve & Check-In

[st_rangepalette]

Emma had said, during Winter's Crest, that she missed a tradition from home called réveillon. She seemed also to miss her cousin, as Lillith missed hers. Since she wished both to learn to cook and to be of comfort to her friend, it had been decided they would make a réveillon dinner for New Year's Eve.

Yet when Emma began to lay out the courses -- oyster soup and potato & leek soup, salad, a gumbo, venison roast, cheeses, and creme brulee, plus several hors d'ouevres not yet decided -- Lillith quailed at the size of the undertaking. Surely she would wish someone to assist who could contribute more than roasted rabbit, wheat or potato flour dumplings, and koláč.

Since Sunny likewise missed her family and would certainly wish a distraction, when she entered the cafe where they were planning, the other two seized upon her almost at once. Sunny could hardly resist their dual entreaty, even had she wished to, and Lillith thought she seemed even more ready for company than previously. Of course Sunny had offerings of her own: jolloff rice, peppered chicken, and fried plantain.

Between they three, the planning and the cooking were very nearly merry, and Lillith kept them liberally supplied with champagne (her personal favorite), too. By late afternoon of the eve of the new year, they had begun lining tables with dishes, and enlisted the help of other friends to make the evening event widely known.

Of course, in addition to the réveillon feast that took over the steakhouse, alcohol flowed freely, lights sparkled brightly, the nightclub had music for dancing. And at some point the Inn or Caroline or Regina hung mistletoe from several of the primary entrances and exits so that unless one wished to or was unaware of the tradition, no one (not even any new arrivals) need greet the new year unkissed.

Comments

Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny's last holiday season had honestly been rather shit. She'd known then that she had to start pulling away from Fin and his insanity and then that disastrous date with Faizel... This time last year, she and Chichi had been in her apartment, eating ice cream and taking shots every time Disney's The Princess and the Frog screwed up voodoo.

This year? Well... cooking with Em and Lillith had been fun and therapeutic.

Unable to keep still for very long, Sunny was up and checking on things around the room (and maybe seeing if anyone was actually eating her dishes; she'd toned down the spice a little to avoid scaring all the white people). She fought her albinism as hard as she could, dressed in one of her wrap skirts, purple t-shirt, and huge hoop earrings, and any illusion of whiteness by wearing her hair in an Afro.

She had an easy smile and conversation ready for anybody, so long as it meant she wasn't thinking about where she was supposed to be. She cast a few glances over at the dance floor, but it wasn't time just yet.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

Coby couldn't speak for anybody else, but he was enjoying the burn of the fiery red chicken, along with the rest of the food. Seeing Sunny, he patted the empty seat next to him. "You're saving me a dance tonight, right, sunshine?"

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny plopped down in the chair, trying to look annoyed at the nickname and looking more shyly amused. "Naturally," she agreed. "If you think you can keep up."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

If Coby thought Sunny truly didn't like the endearment, he would stop using it. It was just something that happened with people he liked, a name would stick, and he did like her. "I don't know about that. I've watched you dance. But I'll do my best."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny's smile was smug, though her eyes were bright with laughter. "I can tone it down. We'll manage."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"It's all good." He looked around the room, not seeing what he half-expected not to see. "You could probably get Jag to dance too, if he hadn't made himself scarce tonight." Coby got it; he really did. A lot of memories could attach themselves to food, and with Emma and Sunny being the ones responsible for tonight's food, it made sense Jag would have a hard time with that.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Oh God, Jag. The amusement left Sunny's face entirely. "I'm not surprised. He's been pretty scarce in general. Not that I blame him."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"He's been crashing in my room." Which was probably why Coby hadn't noticed Jag's absence as much as Sunny. "It was the least I could do.

"How's she doing? How are you?" Because he was pretty sure Sunny had been friends with Jag's Em too, and it could be weird having to develop a friendship again. He knew from Curnen.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"I think Em's adjusting, but..." Sunny shrugged. "She's not my Em. She's not exactly opening up to me." She paused a moment to swallow before adding, "It's not as much pressure as a not-boyfriend, but I think I freak her out a little."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"I'm sorry." Curnen didn't share all of Coby's memories of their friendship (and benefits) in London, and she was more broken still here than she had been there, but Coby was maybe less broken, thanks to Anael, and it was working out okay, he thought.

"I never met her, before. And haven't really done much more here than eat some of her food." He'd have been stupid to turn down her cooking or Sunny's, from what he'd eaten tonight. "I don't know if she knows I'm friends with Jag, or she's just that shy or what."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny shook her head. "She's shy. I don't know if she knows about the two of you, but yeah, she's also just that shy."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

Coby nodded. "Shy, and we're all more exposed here. Can't hide or get away like in London. She'll come around. You two did an amazing job on all this. Somebody might have to roll me out of here at the end of the night."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

They were all so exposed here. Even though they all had their own rooms, it was just like that line from Gatsby about parties. Their community was such a small one that there was no possible way to have real privacy. Sunny had no interest in who was screwing for example, but damned if she didn't know anyway.

But she shoved that aside and smiled at the compliment. "Did you try the jollof rice? If you don't like it, I don't know if we can be friends."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"I tried some of everything." Small portions to start, because there were so many things to try. Coby did okay in the kitchen, well enough to enjoy feeding himself or his friends, but Sunny and Emma cooked all kinds of stuff he'd never made, and some of it never heard of. "And seconds of some of it. Including your rice." There'd been rice to go with the gumbo, but it wasn't hard to realize Sunny was talking about the other rice dish.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny smiled approvingly--and maybe a little pleased. "Anybody Ghananian tries to tell you jollof rice is theirs, just smile politely and know that they're telling lies. Filthy, filthy lies."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"Should I send them your way, let the expert set them straight?" Neither of them probably thought it was all that likely Coby would meet a Ghanaian here to debate the origins of jollof rice, but that didn't matter.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny laughed. Of course it was absurd. It would have been only slightly less absurd in London. That wasn't the point. "Only if you want to watch the ensuing screaming match. "

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_artliving]

Xavin, in one of her favorite 'schoolgirl' outfits (apparently a buttoned shirt, vest, and pleated skirt said 'schoolgirl' for some reason) including knee boots, had spent a frankly embarrassing amount of time poking around the food tables. Almost none of it was familiar to her. Not that that should have been surprising - the Runaways had run less to cooking and more to pre-made food warmed up, pizza, and so on. Vegetarian or vegan, much of the time, for Karolina.

So in the spirit of the thing, she was taking a little of just about everything, to try it and see what it was like.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Given it was almost exactly what Sunny had worn to school first in Catholic school in New York and then in Nigeria, it definitely screamed 'schoolgirl' to Sunny. But that wasn't what caught her eye.

"I thought I'd seen every face around here by now," she said. It had only been a month, but what else was there to do around here?

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_artliving]

"I have different faces. Perhaps you have seen a different one." It was meant to be reassuring, sort of. A human could hardly be blamed for not recognizing a face she'd never seen before, after all. "And I have... not been as social, perhaps, as I should be." Better.

Xavin shifted her plate to balance on one hand, then offered the other to shake. "I am Xavin."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Neither have I, I'm sure." Taking the offered hand, she gave her own name in turn. "I'm Sunny. So what face might I have seen if not this one?" She was a kind of shifter herself, though it was into an ethereal form. Anything else... well, technically it was possible, but it was a lot of work.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_artliving]

It only took a second or two for Xavin to decide to go ahead and shift into human male form. It wasn't like he was keeping his shapeshifting secret, anymore. And the more people who could come around to being comfortable with his presence, the less likely that he'd be blamed the second anything wrong happened. "This one, perhaps. I am trying to be polite and use only these two forms, for the most part, if I am trying to interact with people."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny's eyes lit with recognition. "Ah, yeah, okay." That word 'polite' had her pausing to consider for a moment before she just asked, "So... I think the question is what are your preferred pronouns?" It was a question she'd never asked Angelique, even though she probably should have. And damn did she miss Angelique in that moment.

But the point was, she didn't have much experience with people who (openly) didn't fall into the gender binary.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_artliving]

"My fiancée... ex-fiancée... insisted on she and her. It was important to her. To me, it is less so." Xavin shrugged slightly. Sometimes he was male, sometimes she was female. "In my own mind, I think of myself as he when I am male, and she when I am female. If you need one or the other, I am used to she and her at any time and will not be offended or upset."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

So... genderfluid? Was that the right word? Sunny refused to get embarrassed about her ignorance, she really didn't want to start blushing right now.

But 'ex-fiancee,' that she could understand, and she winced slightly in sympathy.

"Good to know," she said. "Have you been here long?"