[GP] Food for the soul

[st_illavirgin]

Carlos hated being back at the hotel. He had begun by trying to access the Nevernever but that had totally failed, then caught up with Buffy to go and visit both London and Edinburgh, for varying reasons, and the rest of the time he had headed to Spain - he may have been well travelled, but rarely got time to be a tourist - but his time relaxing and finding out about Spain had been unceremoniously cut short when he woke up and found himself back at the hotel. For a few moments he lay there, utterly fed up, and just feeling incredibly homesick.

That only lasted a few minutes; after that he was a man on a mission.

He hunted out Caroline, and had a long chat with her. Plans were set. Time to cook up a storm. They'd missed 4th July, this could serve as a belated celebration, as well as a 'things ain't all bad here' event. Posters went up throughout the hotel, giving notice of a cook out. Everyone was encouraged to attend. What could be bad about this?

Grills were set up outside to cook up as much meat as they could hold; non-meat options were there as well for variety; salads prepared... a vast array of food to try and cheer up anyone who needed it. Carlos took his place at the grills, brandishing tools, turning the meat over just at the right point.

All that was needed now was people to attend.

[ooc: Use as a general gathering post - if you want Carlos specifically, tag him in the subject line]

Comments

Adrian - OTA

[st_paladin]

Unlike others at the Inn, he had not be sad when the door to Europe closed and they were cut off from home/not home. He had been able to have his peace after everything that had happened with his father. It also hadn't hurt to think of the anger Vlad would have felt that the Tepes home had been turned into a tourist attraction for humans to get thrills about being in the same area as Dracula.

Curiosity drove him more than anything to the gathering. He was getting better with modern words and customs. He had even bought board shorts and was trying to fit in as much as he could. He was actually proud of the accomplishments he'd made in the six months that he'd been there.

While he didn't really need the food as much as others, Adrian filled his plate with grilled vegetables and something called a hamburger. The smell of the food cooking outside reminded him of home, and the aroma of the open fires cooking bread and meat depending on the time of day.

He sat on a blanket on the ground and took a bite out of the hamburger. Adrian chuckled when the juices ran down his chin that he had to grab a napkin quickly. It was surprisingly good.

Adrian and Molly

[st_eampunk]

Molly plopped down next to Adrian with a chuckle when she saw his reaction, "first burger?" Her own plate consisted of hot dogs and french fries instead of grilled vegetables. She held one of the fries out to him, "here try this. People usually eat these with burgers."

Re: Adrian and Molly

[st_paladin]

Adrian looked at the thin potato that appeared to be fried skeptically but took the offered food. He glanced around to see how others were eating it and dipped it into the pool of ketchup, but just the tip.

He bit into it and like the hamburger was pleasantly surprised at the taste. Adrian smiled, "I like it, but..." He put the last of the fry in his mouth that didn't have ketchup on it. "I think I like it plain."

Mack - OTA

[st_oryboard]

Did someone mention food? That would have been all the encouragement he'd needed to attend. After he'd finished a couple off a plate of food, he headed over toward the dessert area and picked up a couple of cupcakes to take with him over to the shaded area.

After spending time with Lilith and Miguel in Europe, seeing the art museums and music festivals, Mack had been inspired to try to design his 'superhero' mask. Not that he thought he'd ever need one, but for his comic. That was his story and he was sticking to it. The sketchbook was flipped open to reveal a fire Kisune mask.

Mack and Miguel

[st_recuerdame]

With one eye on Dante to make sure he wasn't getting into any trouble, Miguel moved over to sit near Mack. "Hey, that looks really good." The mask was a lot like they had talked about back at the beach but without the lucha libra vibe for Miguel's mask in the comic Mack was doing.

Re: Mack and Miguel

[st_oryboard]

"Thanks! I'm working on your comic, too." Mack wanted Miguel to know that he hadn't abandoned the idea. He flipped the pages a bit until he came to one of Miguel, Dante and Hector that he'd been working on. "Here, does this look okay? I mean I know what you and Dante look like but Hector, am I close?"

Brad and Mack

[st_randedinwinter]

Bradley still found himself gravitating towards the people his age. He walked up to Mack.

"Hey," he said in greeting with a nod. "Cool mask."

Jane - OTA

[st_artingpoint]

As Jane had told Liz, she hadn't made an effort to return to the Inn as she had with the other Otherworlds. So when she'd been pulled back, there was disappointment, because she had liked the freedom, but it was just disappointment.

The gathering was a nice idea, but she wasn't really in the mood for anything to eat. Instead, she popped open a bottle of beer and headed over to a grassy area with a bag over her shoulder. She'd been fortunate enough that some of the things that she'd bought in Italy and Switzerland, came with her when she was yanked. It helped that it had been in her suitcase at the time.

She opened her bag of Bocce balls and began tossing the balls toward the white one, a pallino.

Jane and Molly

[st_eampunk]

"Aren't you too young to play an old man's game?" Molly teased her. "What is it anyway?" She'd only seen older men play the game at different parks around Chicago.

Jane and Dean

[st_illfighting]

"Oh it's on." Dean said when he arrived to where Jane was. They'd played a couple of times at the hotel at Lake Como. It had actually been fun, and reminded him a little of pool. Sure you didn't sink anything into a hole, but you had to understand how to knock balls out of the way.

"Miss Lorenzo's beer already don't you?" He took a sip of the beer from the gathering. "So what are we playing for? If we were on our own instead of a public place I'd say strip bocce." Dean winked at her.

Clarice - Open

[st_rongernow]

For the first time since being in the underground, Clarice had her hair pulled up into a ponytail, revealing her pointed ears. She was dressed as she had been in Malta, with shorts and a tank top, enjoying the warm weather.

She wasn't really a cookout type of person, but it was nice out and she wandered into the gathering, people watching. After a bit, Clarice had an idea and went back into the inn where games were there for the guests and grabbed some ping pong balls but not the paddles. She had a different game in mind. After grabbing the needed supplies, Clarice set everything up on one of the tables that were scattered around for others to use.

The red solo cups were partially full of water, she wasn't going to waste good beer with ping pong balls. Next to her were four red cups of beer. When she got the ball into the desired cup, she would drink a beer. Or if someone wanted to join her in beer pong, there was plenty to go around.

Clarice and Dean

[st_illfighting]

Clarice was actually playing one of Dean's favorite games. He came up to ask if she wanted a partner and stopped in his tracks when he saw her ears. It wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen and she wasn't the only one here with pointed ears but it still stopped him short at the unexpected of it.

After that brief moment, Dean smirked when he caught her attention, "feel like a challenge?"

For Carlos

[st_eampunk]

Molly was reminded of the many cookouts at the Carpenter home when she'd seen the posters. She wasn't surprised at all when she noticed Carlos at one of the grills and headed over to him.

"Hey you." She smiled in greeting. "So how many times did you try the Nevernever before giving up that it wasn't our Europe?" Molly asked wryly, then added, "I tried three times in different areas."

Re: For Carlos

[st_illavirgin]

Carlos handed a plate to Molly, piling a burger and some chicken on it, before loading up a plate for himself and moving away from the grill for a while. "I probably tried four or five times in all. Even went up to Edinburgh to see if I could find my way into HQ there, nothing." Still, it had been nice to spend some time with Buffy being a tourist round areas he knew solely from being a wizard.

Molly's One Woman Rave - Open

[st_eampunk]

While this wasn't the Fourth of July celebration, it was a celebration and you couldn't have one of those without some sort of 'fireworks'. Harry had called Molly a one woman rave and she did like to put on a show. So when the sun began to set, Molly used her magic to create a light show that while it might not rival Gandalf's display or Disney's it did have animals and figures in it as well as a kaleidoscope of colors.

Molly and Buffy

[st_accato]

"Wow, my friend Willow would be jealous of that." Buffy had said when the show was over. "That's really amazing. Do you use the energy around you for that like Carlos uses the moisture in the air?"

Re: Molly's One Woman Rave - Open

[st_unaligned]

"Show off" Bo smirked as she fell in beside Molly. Bo's fireworks we're strictly limited to the bedroom.

Molly & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Even during a party, Corbie could never quite turn off her academic brain. Watching Molly's light show she was interested and amused of course, but now she was looking at it trying to figure out how she could do something like that herself. She was getting better at things like veils and illusions with Molly and Lillith's help, but she imagined she was still a long way away from performing. Or anything like the huge illusion that had been done for the wedding a couple of months back.

But at one point, Corbie couldn't resist adding a circle of her witchlights in the path of one of the animals, letting the little purple flowers explode into a spray of glowing petals as it passed through.

It wasn't much, but she smiled having done it.

Miguel and Dante - Open

[st_recuerdame]

A party that Carlos was a part of? That guaranteed Miguel would be there, the food was a great bonus. After eating and chatting with Carlos, filling him in on everything that he had done in Europe, Miguel headed over toward a tree to sit under and play Un Poco Loco on his guitar.

Dante had sat at Miguel's feet patiently while he talked to Carlos though it might have had more to do with the scraps of food that fell off plates than his friendship with Miguel. When his friend took his guitar to the tree, Dante sat for a minute but then got up and began wandering through the crowd hoping for more scraps to be dropped from plates.


[ooc: Catch Miguel by himself, Dante wandering or both of them together!]

Miguel & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen couldn't help smiling when she saw that Miguel had also brought his guitar. For all that she'd come home with a lot more than that, the guitar was still her strongest instrument and the one that just felt right for the occasion. She wandered over to the tree and leaned down to plant a kiss on Miguel's hair. "Hey, you. Good trip?"

Liz/Miguel

[st_hotflashes]

"That sounds really pretty, like always" she smiled as she sat down next to him. Liz reached out and scratched Dante behind the ear. "Hey Dante."

Bradley ota

[st_randedinwinter]

Bradley found a spot to sit with a plate of food including a hotdog and fries and watermelon. He watched everyone at the inn with quiet interest. He was beginning to learn. He seemed to be the odd one out when it came to being 'special'. He had no powers and most people here seemed to have them.

He pushed back his hair and pulled out his iPhone, scrolling through old pictures of home.

Brad & Snow

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow White had never been much of a person for milling and she'd accepted by now that she likely never would be. But there was food, and that was enough to pull her out of her shell and get her to come to this thing.

The gun remained on her hip, though. She'd had to leave Rose Red behind when she'd gone to Europe--something to do with significantly stricter gun laws than anywhere she'd ever been--and it was good to have it back where it was supposed to be. Most people around here were used to it by now, both the weapon and the unconventional grip set with red pearls. She didn't leave it behind, not unless she had no choice.

She'd settled near the boy because he seemed unlikely to bother her, nor be bothered by her quiet. Snow was unconcerned with silence. But she broke it to softly ask, "What's that?" about one of the pictures.

Quill ota

[st_arlord]

Quill liked cook-outs. He especially liked cook-outs when he didn't have to do the cooking. He loaded his plate with enough food for three people and stood watching the 'fireworks'. Gamora would have given him a hard time for the way he was shoveling food in his mouth. Gamora wasn't here.

Quill and Dean

[st_illfighting]

Dean was impressed with the loaded plate. Usually he was the only one with food that high. Well the only adult, the teenagers gave him a good run for his money.

"Hey." He gave an upchin in greeting as he approached with his own plate.