Winter Gala

[justaddh2o]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Jeopardy
WHEN: Saturday, December 21 from 5:00 p.m. onward into the early morning hours of Sunday, December 22.
WHAT: The Winter Gala Fundraiser for Jeopardy Relief Efforts
WARNINGS: Please include any necessary warnings in your TLs.
NOTES: This post will serve as a catch-all for logs for the entire event (though you’re also welcome to post things elsewhere, of course).

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, mostly. In the wake of a near-apocalyptic event, the city of Jeopardy is in need. What started out as an idea to advertise Rikki Chadwick's burgeoning business, after a little more planning and nabbing some ideas from Kenzi's post, she and Rupert have reconfigured and rebranded their idea to focus less on her and more on the relief effort.


Characters will enter the venue after giving a small donation at the door and they will be greeted by a large room lit in blues, soft pinks, and purples. From the ceilings hang snowflakes made of glass. The centerpieces are also made of glass. Come to think of it, nearly all the decorations are made of glass. Except, that is, the mistletoe hanging from several of the rafters and archways. A buffet-style dinner will be served from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at which point, the buffet tables and seating tables will be cleared away to make room for the makeshift stage for the DJ and a gigantic dance floor.

Drinks will be flowing, music will be playing, and people will be bidding on silent auctions to win everything from one of the centerpieces to a date with their favorite imPort and everything in between. So, eat, drink, and be merry until you can't stay awake any longer. Why not? It's all for a good cause, after all.

Comments

Bidding

[continuousgroaning]

Tina's a little put off that she hasn't gone for more money... but on the other hand, she's surprised a stranger bid on her at all. She'd fully expected someone she knew to win her just for fun and to get a free meal out of it. But Tina's excited to meet someone new, so when the bidding is over, she goes to seek out the winning bidder, and Caleb will be approached by a tall girl in a red dress, topped off with a pine crown.

"Uhm, hi, I'm Tina."

[atypically]

Caleb's had to go outside every hour or so to let the room's collective drunkenness wear off of him so that he can function properly, but it's starting to build up again by the time he sees the girl in the red dress and pine crown approaching. Between that and her bubblegum pink excitement popping playfully like, well, bubblegum, in his chest, Caleb's feeling pretty great and grinning a megawatt smile at her when she introduces herself.

"Oh, bad ass! Nice to meet you, Tina," he chirps happily. "Dude, I'm so pumped I won. You know I haven't had anything homemade since I got here? Legit, I haven't," he babbles happily. "Oh, shit, fuck...sorry," he adds quickly and then thrusts his hand out to shake. "I'm Caleb. Nice to meet you."

[continuousgroaning]

Tina laughs, feeling a bit of nervousness disappear, and takes the offered hand.

"Then I hope I can live up to your expectations," she replies, then adds, "I mean, one of my powers is that I can cook anything and it tastes delicious, and I grew up working in my dad's restaurant, so that part I'm not too worried about. And I'd like to think I'm pretty good with horses."

She thinks of Jake then, her sweet hoof child, her precious horse, her love for him swelling in her heart.

"What were you thinking for the meal?" she asks, knowing if she gets started on horses she'll go for a while.

[atypically]

Shaking her hand, Caleb smiles a little. He's pretty sure there's not much she could do that wouldn't live up to expectations. He's so beyond tired of Chinese takeaway, burgers from work, and pizza that anything that didn't fit into one of those categories would be a-okay with Caleb.

He looks appropriately surprised by her power when Tina mentions it. "No shit? That's so fucking cool," he laughs. "Better than mine. My power's a pain in the ass," he adds. And it is. He probably wouldn't trade it for the world, honestly, because it's a part of him that he didn't gain coming through the portal, but all the same, it's a really exhausting, frustrating power to have. "What kind of restaurant did your dad have?" he asks, lifting his eyebrows in curiosity.

Caleb remembers, when she mentions the horses, the other part of her auction. "Oh, I don't know anything about horses. I've never even seen one in real life. Not up close, anyway, never mind ride one." He clears his throat. That part'll be cool, but he's more focused on the important part.

"Oh, uh...oh, shit, I hadn't really thought about it. I didn't think I'd win," he confesses with a laugh, running a hand through his hair and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Uh, honestly, anything other than pizza, Chinese, or burgers would make me happy as fuck. That's all I've kinda been eating since I got here, to be honest. That and ramen, but I could eat that every meal and still be down for it. What do you like to cook?" The way he figures it, if she likes cooking it, then it'll be that much better, right?

[continuousgroaning]

"I thought it was pretty stupid at first," Tina confesses. She still does, sometimes, reminded starkly of her own limitations when things happen like they have the past few months- averting the apocalypse, then the Joker poisoning the water supply, even if she had somehow escaped being affecgted by the latter. "What sort of powers did you get, if that's okay to ask?"

She then smiles a bit at the question of what her dad did.

"Burgers. It's his passion to invent stuff in the kitchen- he comes up with different specials every day and gives them punny names. So, uh, burgers are what I like to cook, but I've been trying to branch out lately, do more stuff. Since it's colder weather, I've been experimenting with stew and curry. And baked goods."

She lights up at the subject of horses again.

"Oh, I hope you do like riding, then," she gushes. "I've loved horses ever since I was a baby, and here, I've been able to own one. He's not big enough to ride, but the stable I board him at offers therapy horses. They're all gentle and easy to ride."

[atypically]

Caleb can see how that would be something he'd feel was pretty stupid at first, actually, if it was his thing instead. But honestly, he also thinks it's kind of awesome. He'd be making bank if that was his power. "I mean, yeah at first, but then think about how much money you can make by cooking for the right people. You could be a head chef at a ritzy place; you could be a private chef for celebrities and shit, that'd be bad ass," he thinks aloud.

To her question, though, his mood settles a little. Her feelings aren't super clear in the haze of alcohol and emotions all over the place from the rest of the people at the party — actually, he should see if she'd be cool going outside for a minute, here, shortly otherwise he's going to start to get drunk again standing here — but she doesn't feel curious in the scary kind of way like Damian sometimes had. "Oh, I didn't. I'm an empath. I was back home, too, it just followed me here. I didn't, like, get any cool new powers or anything." He shrugs. "I can feel people's feelings. Speaking of which, a lot of these people are feeling pretty inebriated right now, so I'm starting to get a little drunk. Do you think...it'd be okay if we finished this conversation outside so I can get a little air?" he asks, looking a little sheepish.

He looks interested at the idea of the punny names and different specials. "So, like...gourmet burgers or something? I'm kinda over burgers right now just because I flip 'em all day and shit so it's convenient to bring home food from work, but like...my shit's fast food, so it's fucking mediocre at best and shitty at worst. What kind of specials, like...? Give me an example?" he asks, curiosity pricking up inside him as he starts to move a few steps toward the door, hoping that she'll come along. "Also, baked goods like what, cookies and shit? Or...?" If Caleb sounds a little more interested by the idea of homemade sugary treats, that's because fuck yeah he is, how could he not be?!

"Is it hard?" he asks, lifting an eyebrow. "It looks easy as fuck in the movies but I feel like that's just what movies do. They make everything look easy. If fucking sword-fighting was as easy in real life as it looks in the movies, I'd be so fucking bad ass and I'd do it all the fucking time, you know?"

[continuousgroaning]

"I do make a little money on the side cooking for people," Tina agrees. "And I volunteer at the youth center in Maurtia Falls, teaching kids my age how to cook so they can help their families. I'm a bit young to make a career out of it, but I do have to admit, it's helped me make a lot of friends."

She nods in response to his question asking if they could go outside; it is a bit overwhelming in here, Tina thinks, and there ARE a lot of people drinking. She's still too young to join them, but she is feeling overstimulated herself, and it must be much worse for an empath.

"That sucks, that you didn't get any new powers," she replies sympathetically, as she looks around for a door they can slip out of. "I didn't have any powers at all back home, but I have three here. I have the cooking ability, I can become intangible, and I can manipulate water."

Tina's mind goes back to years and years of watching her dad write his specials on the chalkboard, trying to remember some of his greatest hits.

"Well... we were a bit of a hole in the wall," she confesses, though her feelings are a mixture of embarrassment and fondness. "Not gourmet, but I feel like Dad's burgers were still really good, and people who actually bothered to stop in and eat agreed. Most of the time he'd pick an ingredient and base the pun around that. Like... when we re-opened the restaurant after a fire, it was the New Bacon-ings Burger. Or one served with peapods that was called Give Peas A Chance." Once they're out in the night air, she breathes deeply, enjoying the feeling. "Cookies, cakes, pies... anything. I do have to follow a recipe and I can't salvage anything I burn or that's a weird ingredient combination, but it's not too hard."

She smiles, nodding.

"The horse's temprament can be a challenge. The first time I rode, my horse hated me and kept trying to buck me off. And if your balance is poor or you're nervous, it can seem really scary."

[atypically]

Caleb smiles at that. "That's cool," he says and he means it. That is pretty cool. It's not like he has the presence of mind to be volunteering his time, neither here nor at home, actually. Not that he thinks he'd have anything to offer for anyone. He might or might not be a little jealous of her statement that she'd made a lot of friends that way. Caleb's never been good at making friends. Worse since he'd acquired the empathy.

He shrugs a little when tina mentions extra powers. "I'm good. Mine's already plenty. I don't think I'd be able to deal with more, so I don't mind," he replies. "But those all sound cool, though. What do you mean, exactly, by intangible?" Like, he knows what the word means technically, but he wonders how that translates to a person.

They make it to the door and Caleb pulls the door open for her first before he goes out behind her. The fresh air makes the buzz fall away almost immediately and he feels instantly better for being away from the drinking people inside.

He grins a little at the names of the burger specials she mentions and leans against the side of the building. "What about, like...fried chicken?" he asks. That sounds really fucking good, actually, now that he thinks about it...

Caleb's eyes widen a little at her comment about the temperament. It makes sense, of course, since they're living beings and they're bound to like and dislike other living beings and behave accordingly, just like everyone else. "Shit..." he breathes. "I'm gonna be nervous, though, like...I've never done it before, how could I not be? Is that bad?"

[continuousgroaning]

"I enjoy it," Tina affirms. "It helps me miss my siblings less, too- hanging out with kids my age. And being in an environment where we're all helping with food prep. It's not the same as my family's restaurant, but it's still a lot of fun."

Tina nods her thanks when he opens the door. To demonstrate what she means by intangible, Tina selects a nearby bush and just... walks through it like it's not there. Not a leaf rustles, not a branch is disturbed. "I can only hold it for short periods of time, but on the off chance I ever decide to take up a life of crime... walls mean nothing."

She taps her chin at that.

"I could try that, if you want," she replies. "I've never tried making fried chicken before, but it sounds fun. Might as well learn something new, right?"

She then nods sympathetically.

"I can understand that," she replies. "I've loved horses ever since I was a baby, but I forget how intimidating it can be if you've never been around them. I work at a therapy horse stable, if that helps- they're specially trained and are used to people being nervous around them. It doesn't bother them at all."

[atypically]

What Tina says strikes Caleb and he wonders if that's why he likes hanging with Richie so much. He's thirteen, just like Alice. "I miss my sister, too. I think I miss her almost as much as my boyfriend," he confesses, looking a little bit sheepish. "Maybe you can show me sometime. Like, see if I could help, too, without fucking things up too bad, you know?"

He watches as she demonstrates the ability and his eyes widen with awe. "Oh, that's so fucking dope!" he crows excitedly. "Holy shit, that's cool!" He doesn't miss the comment about a life of crime, but he's too interested in the fact that she can do that to really acknowledge the off-handed remark. "I would use that shit all the time just to save time walking through walls and doors," he laughs.

When Tina says she'd be willing to try fried chicken for the first time, Caleb grins. "Yeah, totally. That'd be awesome. That's my pick, then," he says confidently. His mom makes it sometimes and it's really good. Like KFC good but without all the grease and soggy skin. She doesn't do it often, so he's not really sure why it popped into his head, but all the same. He's feeling pretty good about that choice.

"Yeah? If it's not going to bother them, then yeah that helps. I just don't, like, want to get bucked off or stepped on or kicked or some shit, you know?" He's betting all of those things hurts like a motherfucker.