[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

Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Even Curnen had to admit that she couldn't eat everything, and she didn't know if that was an instinct that wanted to keep her from overdoing it or a sign that maybe she was doing better. Either way, it was an amazing problem to have, and she'd take it. Even if her way around it was to pace herself and go back for more every so often.

She still wasn't wearing any shoes and she imagined that unless under duress she may never do so again, but tonight she had managed (again!) not to eat under the table. And here she was almost in 2018 alive. Even trapped in some sort of pocket of fairy time, it was the best middle finger to the old man she could imagine.

All of this on her mind, Curnen was batting at some mistletoe like a kitten. She knew what it was for and all, but it bugged her. "It's named for shit, y'know," she said when she felt someone approaching, whether or not that person meant to address her or just pass her by.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

Jackson had finally made it to the party, and grabbed a glass of whiskey just in time to see this brown-skinned girl pawing at the mistletoe like she was a cat with a new toy. "...is it?" he asked, barely even paying her words any mind as he watched her.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

"That's what my sister told me anyhow," Curnen admitted with a shrug. "Since I already knew the part about them being poison. Any case, never did get why anybody'd want this inside, let alone the custom."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

"I heard it was something to do with the Norse religion?" Jackson offered. "It bein' a sign of love and friendship."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

She shrugged. "Damn weird choice for a sign..." but she let it go and turned her attention fully to the man she was talking to, hooking her thumbs in her pockets. "You're a friend of Coby's, right? I'm Curnen."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

"Jackson," he introduced himself, fingers coming to the brim of his hat in greeting. He wasn't sure he'd ever met someone with six fingers, but he didn't stare.

After you'd found out your drinking pal had wings, six-fingered hands were a bit of a non-event.

"But yeah, I'm a friend of Coby's."

He didn't usually claim friendship so quickly, but the man shared his drugs. That was all Jackson needed.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Now there was a gesture Curnen hadn't seen in a long time, not since hats fell by the wayside completely, and it made her smile. "I've heard you two on his balcony. Your voice is distinctive 'round here." Hers she knew was much more so, and screamed 'mountain trash' to many an inhabitant of their pink prison, but that didn't matter.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

"Is it now?" Jackson assumed that she meant his accent, really, given how familiar hers sounded, like a piece of that place he had once called home. Not in a long while, though. "Where is it you're from, darlin'?"

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

"Oh yeah," Curnen assured him, though while he was clearly a few rungs further up the social ladder than she was, she'd still bet he'd been away from home and let his accent fade some. "I'm from Tennessee. Though I guarantee you, you ain't never heard of the town."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

"I've been through my fair share'a towns you'd think nobody's heard of," he assured her, but of course, that didn't mean he would know hers. "Not sure I remember even half their names." They all blended together, after a while.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen smiled a little, sideways smile. "You'd remember Needsville. Not a church anywhere in town. Or in the county for that matter." The people probably not so much, though. That was part of the enchantment around the place. The people faded, so no one would notice they didn't die. Rockhouse had been sitting on one porch or another for close to three hundred years now.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_illfleshandblood]

"No church?" Jackson echoed, clearly surprised. "What is it, an Indian town?" And Indians who hadn't bought into the white God, too. He couldn't remember ever passing through a town without a place of worship in it, even just a ramshackle chapel didn't look like it would survive the first gust of wind come its way.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

She shook her head. "Nah, the Cherokee got run out a long time ago." That was another thing Curnen rather wished she didn't remember, that event that had gone down in history as the Trail of Tears. "Though some of us got more'n a few drops."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Yeah. I know." Kash smirked at the way she was batting at the mistletoe. "Socks." Teasing, but she did look like his kitten with her dark hair and pretty eyes.

"Twice over. Mistel for dung. And for the bird shit that transfers the seeds."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

"Socks wouldn't be able to reach," Curnen said with such dignity as she continued batting at the mistletoe that it could only be a joke. Indeed, her eyes showed that she could barely keep herself from giggling.

"And yet people hang the shit berries indoors and create customs around them. It's so weird."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"People take powdered rhino horn to get it up," Kash countered, trying to keep a straight face when he said it. "When it comes to sex, nothing's too weird for people to try."

As soon as the words were out, he realized what that sounded like. But he swatted down the anxiety and shrugged instead.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen only laughed, though. "Oh, shit, really?" But the tension in him made her at least try to calm herself back down and add, "Mistletoe don't have to lead to sex, though. Well. Least not if people don't want to." Some of these people were definitely going to be humping like drunk bunnies tonight.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"You sure? Looks like some kind of fertility rite," Kash said, gesturing toward where the Winchester guy had that Bo woman pinned against the wall.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Yep. Drunk bunnies.

"Nah. I mean, you can, but you don't gotta. Most people just associate mistletoe with a fun excuse to give somebody a kiss if they're under it." She nodded toward Sam and Bo. "That's just extra. They'd be doing that anyway."

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"So that's the tradition?" Kash gave a quick look around and it clicked into place.

"You know, you're standing under mistletoe now," he observed, then he caught her face in both his hands and leaned into give her a kiss, not chaste but still sweet and soft with affection.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

She hadn't expected that.

Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Whatever Kash may have noticed, Curnen knew she was attracted to him and he was on some level attracted to her even if he either didn't acknowledge it or didn't know what to do with it. Maybe both. So there'd been a chance that he'd have and give in to this impulse. It just hadn't been the most likely thing. He had been hurt like she had been hurt, and those wounds manifested in different ways.

Not that she was thinking all of this consciously, and some of it wouldn't occur to her until later, because right now it was happening and it felt good and she gave in to it. She kissed him back, the way she'd wanted to kiss him at Winter's Crest, warm and inviting.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

It wasn't like kissing Keyleth, not a sudden impulse that he gave in to as much to be a dick as out of desire. It wasn't like the huge, overwhelming terrifying thing that kissing Molly might have been. There'd been a few times it might have happened before now, and so he let it happen, stroked his fingers through the length of her hair and enjoyed it for a moment.

And when he stopped it, he didn't feel like he needed to run away, but instead let his forehead rest against hers. Then lifted his lips to her forehead and pulled her into a hug. He wasn't ready for this to be anything, but it was okay like it was.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen hugged him back, letting the quiet linger around them for a moment and nuzzling him. He'd liked it, but he'd also pushed himself. She had to be gentle.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

The question caught him off guard. Summoned the ache in his chest he hadn't felt before. Can I let you know next year? came the sarcastic defensive thought.

He ignored it and told her the truth instead. "Mostly. You?"

Re: Curnen - OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

She almost didn't, but added anyway, "That was nice. Thank you."