when the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake [open]

[titansno]

Who: Rachel and any and all guests and trick-or-treaters
What: HALLOWEEN PARTY
Where: Rachel's brownstone
When: Starting in the evening on Thursday, October 31.
Warnings: Halloween things. Power flareups. Drinking. Probably people misbehaving.

Rachel has been finishing up preparation all day. With the current condition of the city, it hasn't been easy to get everything, but it's done! Outside, the brownstone has jack-o'-lanterns glowing on the steps and stoop to welcome guests and visitors to the door.

Fake cobweb is stretched above the door and the atmosphere is right. Inside, music is playing, decorations are set, there are games to play, there are tables of food and drinks and a large bowl of Halloween candy by the door. The fun even extends to the backyard!

On the second floor, there's a room with a flatscreen TV and a big couch playing classic monster movies. Finally, there's a wet bar that she's trusting the adults to keep the kids out of.

The invitation is out, so all there is to do is wait.

[ooc: subthreads up! go forth!]

Comments

[betroth]

On honorary first meetings, she gives a token thirty-second grace period to get the height thing out of the way. Say your piece, if you dare!

"I hope you have a strict tag-in prepared... I'm well, thank you. It's the first time I've come back into the city since last week."

Never in her life did she think it'd be for a secret numbers association Halloween party. C'est la vie.

[somesayinfire]

"Well, on behalf of Locke City, welcome back." She can't help but give a broad smile. Her 30-second window may have closed, but she's got to. "Pocket-size works well on you. Very adorable."

They're buddies enough for her to say something like that without sounding condescending, right? ...Right?

[betroth]

In time with Brooke's smile, she laughs and makes a sweeping, if not suitably small, bow. She's a little bit of a country girl by nature now, so the atmosphere of a big party nestled into one of the cute intercity houses has made her bubbly by default.

"Mm, I have to work with what I have! Without resorting to one of Santa's elves... or an Oompla Loompa."

She hears those a lot. Too much.

[somesayinfire]

Brooke shakes her head disapprovingly. "It's too early for elves, and you're not enough of a Jersey Shore cast member to moonlight as an Oompa Loompa. If people are actually insulting you with those, they need to get their act together."

Her head still at a tilt, she doesn't even bother concealing a wicked grin. "And when they're trying to think of something original, that's when you punch them in the junk."

[betroth]

"I do have a third runner up. Tinker Bell," Chloe has to stifle her slightly horrified laughter as she says so. "And I would never! Patience is a virtue."

[somesayinfire]

"Yeah, I didn't peg you for somebody who fought dirty. But it was worth a shot. Appearances can be deceiving." Her wicked look fades to a smile that fits her more.

"I never got why people got so ridiculous about, like, 'oh no you aren't tall enough to dress up like that' or whatever. It's Halloween, come on. As long as you're not being wildly racist, you should be allowed to dress up as whatever you want."

[betroth]

"Everyone's allowed an opinion, Brooke," she says, intonation reflecting the fact that she'd clearly meant And some of them suck just a little bit. ♥ but that does go unsaid. As it was, she clearly takes none of it to heart. Water, backs, etc.

"How about you tell me what you're mixing there, instead?"

[somesayinfire]

Hah. She smiles, letting the undercurrent remain unsaid, and gestures to her bottle of schnapps to her side. "What, this old thing? It's a candy apple. Rum, butterscotch schnapps, and some juice to taste. It might be a little stronger than you're used to." She picks up the bottle and points at the words "50% alc/vol" on the label.

"You want one? I can probably make it less brain-smashingly alcoholic if you want."

[betroth]

With her point across and no debates about the merits of patience looming on the horizon, she hops into one of the empty seats at the wet bar and swivels it to rest her arms across its top curiously.

"A candy apple, hm," she repeats with a smile. "Sounds wonderful! But yes, it'd be better for it to not be so alcoholic... I have to drive later, and who knows who may need a ride home."

No one volunteered her for DD, but she has the room, so she sort of figured she might end up taking it upon herself.

[somesayinfire]

"Cool, no problem." Brooke nods at Chloe in approval before filling up a glass about a third of the way with water. She has no idea if that'll ruin the taste, but it probably won't. Probably. She keeps up conversation while mixing it, and she's being careful to put a little less in there than usual.

"You're just offering to drive drunks back home? You really are a kind soul." She's already said it, of course, but she's glad people like Chloe exist. "I can't believe you've been around here so long and you haven't gone all cold and cynical like a lot of people."

[betroth]

"I'm sure our host won't want to trip over people in the morning, if this is as brain-smashing as you say," Chloe intones with an inoffensive little point of her index finger. "So I'm happy to. Plus, I haven't been around that long..."

She looks over her shoulder at a group wigging out and bursting into uproarious laughter over the passing around of a feel-box.

"And even if I had been, well."

No reason to get all in-depth. Already, she liked this bunch. Grinning, she returns her attention to Brooke.

"But now I wish I'd thought to bring the things for Pumpkin Fevers!"

[somesayinfire]

"Pumpkin Fever?" Brooke echoes, finishing up the drink. She hands it over to Chloe and can't stop herself from matching her friend's expression. Her happiness is definitely contagious, and that's not just the party atmosphere talking.

"What's in that? We might have stuff for it here. And if we don't, I'm always looking to add more to my repertoire." Not that she's a bartender or anything. She's just—well, no reason to get all in-depth.

[betroth]

"Spiced rum, pumpkin liqueur..." Chloe accepts the drink with a little raise of her glass, sipping thoughtfully. She lights up; it's so sweet! "Cream, milk, cinnamon."

She twists her glass and taps a finger against its rim.

"And a sugar rim!"

You don't spend all your life around a campfire and parents who liked to entertain without learning a festive cocktail or two, after all.

[somesayinfire]

Oh, good, Brooke made it right. She smiles halfway through the ingredient list, but there's a hint of regret behind it. "Would you believe I couldn't find any pumpkin-flavored alcohol?" Probably. There is some kind of pumpkin-themed holiday going on. "That does sound delicious, though. Maybe it can be a Thanksgiving thing, too. I mean, it's all the same season."

While she works on committing the recipe to memory (but she can get it later if and when she forgets), she asks, "Where did you pick it up? One of those wild college parties I hear so much about?"

[betroth]

Chloe waves a little hurriedly, laughing as though that was not only genuinely amusing, but surprising, too.

"N-No, no, nothing like that," she assures. "My parents are just fond of entertaining! And my aunt loves these. Without the fancy cup and the sugar rim, it makes a good bonfire drink. Warms you right up! Maybe not like a hot chocolate with, say... hmm, hazelnut liqueur, but..."

Thanksgiving, that was right. October had really flown by, leaving the winter months piled up with holidays upon them.

"We probably have some pumpkin left. It goes just as well with Thanksgiving!"

[somesayinfire]

Fond of entertaining, hm? Well, so are Brooke's, but she gets the idea that their parents have never really hung out together—she'd probably have heard about Chloe before now, among other reasons.

"Hot chocolate and hazelnut? Like alcoholic Nutella?" Leaving any thoughts about the class divide and how snooty her parents are aside, Brooke's now brimming with interest. "Maybe you should be the one behind the bar. I'll see if I can throw a Thanksgiving party together. God knows I'm giving thanks that I found you guys more often than not."

She fiddles with the cuff of her right sleeve absentmindedly, only briefly looking down at it. Even with her newfound, ah, statuesque features, Brooke can't bring herself to curse what the super double secret internet has brought into her life. "The numbers club is way too good to me."

[betroth]

"Ah. I did say you needed a tag-in, right?" She all but offers right there, pressing a brief smile into the rim of her drink before sipping again. "If a Thanksgiving get-together is in our stars, I'd love to help. My family's... it's mostly the same property-owners, year after year. And now my parents are absolute snowbirds!" Which meant plenty of 1. time, 2. space, and 3. privacy for their less innocuous members.

She sobers after a moment, a bright glance raking over Brooke's fidgeting and then away again just as quickly.

"Quite a few might have new things to give thanks for this year." Or, you know, find it hard to identify what it was they gave thanks for previously, though she doesn't say as much. "Can I ask what makes you say that?"

[somesayinfire]

"Oh, you know," she dithers, but what harm could it do to come out with the real reason she likes the club so much? "I don't have a lot of friends in the 'real world'. Work friends, sure, but they're not the same. And then I just... log on to this network one day, and there's people all around the city who I've never met before, and it's like." Like a whole new world? Chill out, no musical numbers.

"I feel like I belong here. Like I was supposed to meet you guys." She smiles. "That's why I can't be mad at the echoes. My life before all the echoes and the numbers club was boring and lonely." It might be kind of a naive worldview, but she doesn't care. Her circle of friends just keeps getting bigger, and that's awesome.

"Get back here, Chlo," Brooke says jovially, trying out a nickname. She doesn't know if she likes giving nicknames to people yet. Not a lot of experience with it. But either way, she sweeps her arm out and invites her friend back behind the bar.

[betroth]

Following suit, Chloe laughs at her new nickname and pushes out of her chair to wind her way around around into the bar. While she was more worker bee than social butterfly, she would certainly be among the first few in line to tell someone, 'You look like you need a good drink and a long chat, on the house.'

"Maybe I don't have the right to say it, because I only have one echo," she says, tempering her thoughts with leaning over to check what sorts of things were already in the bar, "but there's a kind of camaraderie among us that you won't find elsewhere. I'm sure of that! People going through difficult situations together — or... what I assume is difficult. If you're talking about being angry with your echoes... maybe it'll be painful, but it won't be lonely. We have something no one else does."

She's thought about it, of course. How it had the potential to turn her life right on its head. But there was something so very important right at her fingertips, and she can't not want to give it her all, even in theory. Humming lightly in contrast to her musing, she sifts through the bottles for a black raspberry liqueur.

"And the network was there all along for us to meet, after all!"

[somesayinfire]

"Hey, hey. Don't get like that." Brooke moves away from where all the alcohol is to let Chloe look. It's pretty well-stocked, and even though it's not Brooke's bar and she hasn't looked through it much, she's confident it should have a little of everything.

"We're not in the Olympics here. One echo or a million of 'em, we're all in this together." It's like Chloe said: Camaraderie. Brooke slings her good arm around her friend's shoulders without much care as to whether she's doing anything else. "And I 100% mean it when I say that I've got your back through anything."

Only some of this is alcohol making her more affectionate. "Hope that's not weird," she adds. "I just like helping people, especially if they're my friends."

[betroth]

When the weight of Brooke's arm closes in over her shoulder, she's surprised into a laugh. Of course, she was right; there was no reason to try and quantify their experiences, as long as they were all on the same side. She's about to remark as such, throwing an apologetic gaze sideways, but while her laughter fades, her surprise doesn't. Because the feeling of her own heart is all of a sudden too loud for her, and it courses right up into her throat and then again all the way down to her fingertips.

That weight was something she's felt before. There's a laugh ringing in her ears, but it's not her own, or anyone she knows. A voice muscles through: Marry me, baby!

Chloe nearly drops the bottle of raspberry liqueur, face lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"Ah..."

[somesayinfire]

Brooke... well, she kind of recognizes the expression. She hasn't caused one of these to someone herself in person, or at least not that she can remember, but she's seen it happen a couple times before for unrelated reasons. She doesn't take her arm off Chloe's shoulder, but she does reach for the bottle instinctively when she sees it might get dropped.

Once that's all taken care of and it looks like Chloe's not in the throes of an echo anymore, Brooke does take her arm off and looks at her friend like she isn't sure how she should react.

"Another echo? Do you feel okay?"

[betroth]

Blinking rapidly, as if to clear away an image she hadn't actually seen, Chloe jumps when Brooke's questions finally register. Looking up, bright-eyed, she wills her face to cool down before anything else. (It doesn't exactly work.)

"An echo," she repeats, nodding slowly. "I-I forgot what it felt like! I think that was it."

Smiling in an effort to reassure her, Chloe gathers herself back up.

"Of all the places..."

[somesayinfire]

Whatever Chloe just went through, it seems like it was mostly benign, so that's probably the best possible outcome. Speaking of the best possible things...

"If we're going to be getting echoes, I'd rather get them at a numbers club party," Brooke says thoughtfully. "I can't imagine a safer place." Better here than in public somewhere. Her friend's smile helps to ease some of her worries.

"Everything okay? You didn't grow a second liver or anything?" Shame. Of all the echoes, that'd probably be the most fun. She grins. "Or did you just think of something embarrassing all of a sudden?"

[betroth]

"My liver has a way to go yet," Chloe quips back, albeit a little thinly. Still, she's being genuine in her attempt to prove she was just fine, even has she quietly tries to parse the memory enough to talk about it. "I wouldn't be able to imagine the trouble two could get me into."

In punctuation, she gives her attention to the bar again, at least partially, to pluck a bottle of tequila from one of the shelves.

"How do you feel about raspberries and chocolate?"