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]

[ 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. ]

[ouzel]

It is, but even then. There are floors of these places, on just one ship. [ He shakes his head. ] Coruscant is just one planet. It makes me wonder what the planets these people came from were like.

[realists]

You say just one planet as if a planet is some small thing. [ it's half teasing, lobbing the space equivalent of a prickly pear at him. she doesn't bother seeing if he's ready for it. hopefully he is! ]

I wish I knew what galaxy we're in. For all we know, we could just be flying on the edge of the Outer Rim.

[ she doesn't really believe that though, maybe wishful thinking. ]

[ouzel]

[ He catches it, because even when he's not ready he's aware. Turns it over in his hand with a thoughtful frown. ]

I know. Still. It feels...opulent, in a way, I suppose.

[ Cassian looks up, considering. ] What if we aren't, though?

[realists]

[ it is definitely opulent, she agrees with him there 100%. his question draws some thoughtfulness from her, however, lips pursed as she considers. ]

Then we aren't. [ she strides back, chin tipping up to look at him, almost defiant. there is no way they could have survived back on scarif and it's almost funny to be parroting his own (loosely paraphased) words back at him. ] There is nothing left for us there. We don't have families, our friends... it's just us. That won't change whether we're in the Outer Rim or Andromeda or whatever weird planet celebrates the end of the year. Does it matter?

[ouzel]

No, I suppose it doesn't. [ Mostly he just wanted to know how she felt about it, if she was okay with the idea of a different, changeable future than the one they were given back home. ]

I'm glad you are here. [ He feels like he can't say it enough. ]

[realists]

So I've heard. [ sometimes he looks at her and she feels like she's going to vibrate right out of her skin and so to combat that feeling, she drops the fruit she's holding into the basket -- a lime green sweet potato shaped fruit -- and steps back, shaking the one bottle she's been holding on to. ] I'm gonna go buy this.

[ so she can drink it in the store. JUST GONNA RUN AWAY NOW AHA ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian laughs, once she's out of earshot; it's not a bitter sound, exactly, but he worries he's saying these things too much and it'll just push her away out of fear.

Then again, she's only running as far as the cashier, so there is that.

After a second of gathering up more fruit, he goes to follow her. Just in case she doesn't have any money left after the yarn. ]

[realists]

[ as a kindness from the universe, jyn has enough to pay for more than just her bottle, but she'll settle for just that for now, twisting the cap off once the cashier has put her sold sticker on it. she waived a bag. ]

I am too, [ she casually adds when cassian approaches, tipping the bottle up to take an unhealthy swig of the alcohol. she looks at him over the top of the bottle. maybe stop her from chugging it. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian's face lights up when she says that, only for his expression to be clouded in confusion at her method of drinking. ]

Are you going to share? [ Is this a race he knows nothing about? ]

[realists]

[ boo. she lowers the bottle and immediately makes a face. ]

It's terrible. [ a beat, pushing it at him and taking the basket out of his arms at the same time. ] Try it.

[ouzel]

[ They make the exchange easily and he also takes a swig, frowning immediately. ] Eugh. Well it will get the job down, sour as it is.

[realists]

We can mix it with the fruit! [ which she is piling on the counter along with the rest of the booze. i am sure they look like such capable adults. they've got fruit and veg. if you squint, and pretend the potato that jyn's vodka is made out of counts as proper veg.

it does not. ]

[ouzel]

This is true. [ It's New Year's. Somewhere. On some planet.

Look, these people can't judge them and he still has the makings of some empanadas back in his room.

Still, the cashier raises their eyebrows at them. ]

[realists]

[ jyn ignores this look. can't beat the bullshit in her life. they should be grateful she isn't stealing. ] We'll need bags for this. [ which is basically like telling the help to do their job, which they do, jyn stepping aside so cassian can pay. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian gives the cashier a wry smile and pays, nodding his thanks before they head out through the door. ]

So. Are we going back to the party? Be honest. I don't want to take you if you don't want to go and you'd rather just drink with me.

[realists]

[ first of all, who says she wants to drink with you? oh right, she did. ]

I'd rather hug a Hutt than go back. [ it's not that she's opposed to the party, she is just opposed to her own presence there. celebrating, after everything, feels hollow. she's not the one that would enjoy a party, she'd be in the back with baze talking shit and lacking that meant she had no desire to go in the first place. she had enjoyed... moments, but not enough to want to return. ] There's a garden, isn't there? Let's go there.

[ouzel]

[ Cassian rolls his eyes just a little. ]

Hugging Hutts is probably not all that unpleasant. [ Cassian. He can appreciate, however, her honesty about it and desire to do something else, somewhere else. ]

There is. [ Onward, then. ]

[realists]

[ even walking alongside him, she still protests. ] They're slimy.

[ ewoks, on the other hands. those little fuckers are cute. ]