open | happy (earth) new year, everyone!

[genice]

WHO: Any and all!
WHERE: 2nd residential floor lounge
WHEN: OOCly 12/31; today.
WHAT: Victor's ICly claimed the day as being the 31st, and subsequently celebrating the "New Year" with anyone who comes by! After sending out a post on the network inviting any of the new arrivals via anomalies to attend, people are welcome to come enjoy a probably very random seeming New Years celebration.
WARNINGS: There is food and alcohol here, beware!

The lounges are interesting spaces, and Victor didn't hesitate to roll up his sleeves and rearrange furniture in this section of the middle floor lounge. A cheery wave to anyone wandering through earlier on the 31st (by his calendar, he's quite cheerful in acknowledging how arbitrary that really is) while he goes about arranging things to his satisfaction, before he jets off again to finish preparing his olivie salad.

It's nowhere near fancy, but he's shown up again with a big, borrowed bowl from his work, containing the closest approximation of olivie salad he'd been able to manage working with the supplies he found on board. There's a tablecloth tossed over the table he's appropriated for holding the foodstuffs, along with simple plates, utensils, cups and bubbling wines (three, okay, that's toeing the line of careful financial management). He's even figured out how to get music playing, though it's hard to say if there's any unifying theme to what plays.

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of any of this is how he's constructed a small cone cap for the brown, fuzzy creature that had been delivered to his bunk last week. That it's a shaved ice cone inverted with the words "Happy New Year" written on it amuses him. The unidentified creature simply coos and purrs and wears the cone hat, not moving off the smaller table it's been set on.

"Happy New Year!" he says to just about anyone walking by, tipping his (oh so classy) cup their way with a smile. Welcome to the party. Bring something to contribute to the table? Very welcome to the party!

[ ooc: please tag in with your own top levels and enjoy a relaxed, informal celebration of the new year (per Victor)! ]

Comments

[realists]

But they smell good. [ jyn pauses to linger by a green one that smells like moss and petrichor and home, breathing deeply and closing her eyes. ] I like them.

[ but they will not get her drunk so she tugs on cassian's sleeve and drags him into the next store. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian wonders if there aren't better ways to make a room smell good, but maybe scented candles are great, he doesn't know. He does make a note of the name of that one before getting dragged off by the arm into somewhere else.

This one sells food, so alcohol? Has several shelves. ]

Oh wow. [ This was more of a choice than he was expecting but there are several floors of shops so he's not sure why he was surprised at all. ]

[realists]

[ jyn sucks in a gasp, breathing out a long breath of an ] Oh. Perfect.

[ there are way to many to choose from so jyn does the adult thing and chooses bottles that look like they're easy to carry or short enough for a straw, plucking them off the shelves at random and tucking them between her chest and her arm until she doesn't have anymore room. five is probably too much but she looks at cassian and pulls an innocent face, pointing at him with one of the bottles. ]

I'm appreciating the local culture.

[ouzel]

[ Cassian puts his hands up in the universal 'I'm unarmed' gesture, shaking his head. ]

I did not say anything, not one word. But I do want to keep looking.

[ Look, there's baskets for holding at the end of the aisle! He'll just...grab one of those and hold it out for her small horde, if she doesn't mind. ]

Just to see what else they have.

[realists]

[ she carefully dumps the bottles into the basket, holding on to the one in her hand however. she almost debates cracking the bottle open while they're still in the store but she is pretty sure that is not allowed. ]

Too much, [ she answers, following along as he explores. ] I've never seen this much food in my life, even on Coruscant.

[ouzel]

Yeah. [ Cassian is, honestly, a little taken aback. It speaks to an amassing of power and resources on the scale of the Empire, were the Empire interested in feeding its people to ridiculous amounts.

He shakes his head a little, peering at this bottle and that, eventually making his way towards the refrigerated section that still contains alcohol. ] Oh, there's beer.

[ There are more kinds of beer than he has ever laid eyes on. ]

[realists]

You mean water. [ god, she's so judgmental, but she peers at them all the same. ] This one looks like it's in Yuuri's language.

[ what did he call it again. not english, that was the weird one. ]

Japanese.

[ouzel]

Yes, yes. [ He reaches out and pats her shoulder, giving her a smile, until what she says about language has him peering even more closely. ]

Alright, we'll try this one.

[realists]

You can try it. [ she wanders further down the aisle, exploring mixers with general distaste, plucking a bag of rainbow colored straws free and tossing them back to him. they only just make it in the basket. ]

Have you ever seen a mouse?

[ouzel]

[ Clearly they need to work on her ability to blindly throw things behind her. ]

It might be good. [ It might be terrible. ] So I take it you only like the drinks strong enough to blind you?

[ A mouse. What? ]

MSE-6?

[realists]

I don't like drinks that taste like water from Wobani, [ jyn corrects, shaking a jar of cherries with idle fascination. what is all this shit, she could be here all night. ]

That's what I thought, too, but they're actual little animals. Tiny little things. [ she holds her hand a few inches above the bottle to demonstrate the diminutive size if the mice. she is bigger than them. ] They look nothing like the droid, either. It's weird, how our things and their things have the same name. Yuuri's English is our High Galactic, which is... highly improbable.

[ you nerd. she is just really mystified how language can cross galaxies without people. ]

[ouzel]

I have never seen cherries in that color, [ Cassian admits, letting the comment about Wobani water go because...well. Most of the beer he's had in his lifetime was not delicious stuff, that's for sure.

Ales, on the other hand...

Back to the topic of mice, however, and Cassian is frowning. ] It's weird. Maybe humans carried the language with them to a pre-spaceflight planet and started things over?

...wait is that fruit all fresh?

[realists]

It's in a jar, of course it's not... [ he is not talking about her cherries and she follows where he is looking as she sets them back on the shelf. ]

No way.

[ GROCERY STORES ARE LIKE HEAVEN. may the force be with these two food insecure little lambs. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian takes her hand and practically pulls her along, until she inevitably outstrips him to get to the fruit first. He has to laugh, a little, picking up a particularly purple apple and turning it this way and that in the light. ]

Ten. We should take back ten of them.

[ Them being whichever catches their fancy. Cassian is thinking of keeping a list. ]

[realists]

Ten of those or ten different ones? Ten each? [ she looks at the prices, squints and does some mental math. she only has a little left over from buying cassian his yarn and she doubts he has a load of credits to his name. this is making her rethink her stance on working however, plucking a small blueish green starfruit from a nearby pile. ] I don't think we have enough.

[ at least not enough to purchase them legally. but he is welcome to correct her that he is making bank. ]

[ouzel]

Ten different ones. We can cut them into pieces and try them out. Write down what we like, what's awful. [ He shrugs, suddenly self-conscious. It's an idea, anyway, something to keep them occupied.

At her mention of not having enough he frowns and fiddles with his communicator for a moment. ]

I make a decent amount. We could afford it.

[realists]

Can we afford ten each? [ she wants to try literally everything and as long as cassian is sure about the credits, whatever. also she is briefly startled by her easy and continued use of we.

but they are a team. ]

[ouzel]

Of all these or ten each of ten? [ He looks around. ] We can afford ten each of ten. [ It's not like he's been spending money much, other than what it took to prepare the empanadas and the cheesecake, but that was from two floors up and a much smaller shop. ]

[realists]

[ HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO MUCH FOOD. twenty individual fruits to try all for her. uh, and him, but that's a lot of food. a giddy excitement hits her like a jolt of lightning and she grins, a rare expression that scrunches up her nose and turns frown lines into smile lines and crinkles up the corners of her eyes. it's also an expression approximately three people have ever seen.

instead of double checking, she scampers around the corner of the display to look at more of the fruit with an almost childlike fascination. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian lets out a startled laugh because she looks so blessedly happy and he's had some hand in it and yes, okay, wherever they are, whatever has happened to get them here, he has determined in this moment that it was Worth It™ because Jyn Erso just grinned at him.

The names escape him and a few he can't even read but they all have notations beneath them like "very sweet!" or "bubbly" which (?? bubbly fruit what even) are somewhat helpful? He stays away from anything that explains "sharp" or "sour" because neither of those things are what he looks for in fruit.

He does find a citrus that smells amazing and looks like something reaching ot to say hello. ]

[realists]

That looks like my cell mate on Wobani. [ a beat. ] If you get it, can I stab it?

[ look. jyn really didn't like her.

she sniffs a fuzzy pink fruit, puts it back, changes her mind and picks it up again, adding it to the small collection she is cradling in her arms like a baby. palming a hefty lilac colored melon, she breathes in its delicious smell, closing her eyes and musing: ] I think we have died.

[ this can't be reality. they're dead and this is heaven. ]

[ouzel]

You can chop it even. [ It feels kind of hard and he doubts there's a lot of actual fruit to it, but it smells so good Cassian doesn't see why he should pass it up.

At her comment he turns but she seems happy about this so he won't argue. ]

[realists]

[ she is going to murder it. make a chutney from it. half her fruit selected, she gently places them in the basket with way more care than she gave the alcohol. the fruits are precious and must be protected. ]

Have you ever seen anything like this?

[ the market on jedha had food, yes, and fruit, but it was nothing like this. and neither have been the other markets jyn has visited on other planets. but cassian knows more than she does, a fact that doesn't actually bother her. ]

[ouzel]

[ If Cassian has thoughts about her handling of the precious cargo he keeps it between himself and his moustache; which is to say he's smiling at her, just a little.

Her question brings him back to neutral, however, as he considers it. ]

Not to this scale, though I'm sure it has existed. Probably before the Clone Wars.

[realists]

When Saw told me about Coruscant it sounded like this, but I don't remember it much. [ her mother didn't like talking about it and it all sort of swirled around with the rest of her childhood. ]