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

[flightforfreedom]

The guilt weighed down his shoulders, and his eyes, leaning his weight on the rail and looking off over the edge.

"... Just how much of that did you actually see?" He finally asks. It's not an answer to 622's question, but... His guilt needs to know.

[loyal_soldier]

"The kissing? I think most of it." He isn't a hundred percent on that, but he did keep an eye out.

"Is that what's the problem? Did something go wrong?"

[flightforfreedom]

He closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose a little too vigorously.

"... Yeah. No. I don't know. Not go wrong, exactly--"

He sighed. How did he even explain it?

"You remember when I had that kissing booth?" He says finally, apparently a complete non-sequitur.

[loyal_soldier]

"I distinctly remember the kissing booth." It was very hard to forget the kissing booth. Sometimes, even after all they'd done together, thinking about it could still make him blush.

[flightforfreedom]

"Yeah." He had figured 622 would. That was why he was using it as a touch stone. "Well I kissed a lot of people that day, right? And clearly - the kiss with you was still different. Think we can probably easily say that much."

He paused, frowning, then sighed as he looked down at his hands.

"Sometimes that just doesn't go well, you know? It's like you're running everything on the regs and then get thrown completely off course. With us, it worked out. But if you get that kind of feeling when you're already-- Well. It gets complicated."

[loyal_soldier]

He nodded. So far, that made sense.

But then everything got a little jumbled and confusing. "I don't take your meaning." His brow furrowed. He was missing context here. "Already what?"

[flightforfreedom]

He let out a breath, turning a little to look at 622. Sometimes the fact that 622 had no preconceptions or baggage about how relationships were supposed to work was a good thing. Sometimes, it made it really difficult for Poe to know how to explain himself.

"When you're already with somebody," He clarified, his voice drawing quiet. "When you're already committed to something."

[loyal_soldier]

He knew it was hard to put things in words he could understand, and he knew it was hard on Poe. He'd apologize for it, but later. He didn't want to derail this discussion with complaining about his own failings.

"Do you feel like you're splitting your loyalties?" That was the best analogy he could think of. And it didn't feel right, not to the situation at hand.

[flightforfreedom]

"... No, not exactly." He frowned, his brows pinching as he turned back to lean over the rail.

"That kind of means something else, I think." There was a long pause as he tried to turn the words over in his head, hit on what he meant. "There's a lot of expectations. With relationships. And I know that you don't know most of them, or care about them, but it's not like I can suddenly forget them. And one of the pinnacles is that you're only supposed to have feelings for one person at a time, right? That's kind of the most basic place to start..."

[loyal_soldier]

"It is?" He's genuinely confused and uncertain. He'd sort of picked up things like that from the locals, but... they were Earth people. What did they know about anything? Especially relationships. He'd figured that out ages ago.

"That doesn't make sense." Were you supposed to only feel things for one person each? Have one friend? One enemy? Those both sounded ridiculous, and so did that restriction as well.

[flightforfreedom]

He couldn't help it - he turned his head and smiled faintly and warmly at 622.

"Doesn't it? That's kind of what the whole concept of marriage is based around, right? The assumption that people find the one person they want to be with."

[loyal_soldier]

"That's not how societies work." At least not how he understood them. It definitely wasn't how armies worked.

But they'd still been talking around the specifics. "Is this about Finn?" That was the one he saw. "He's a good person, and he deserves good things here."

Much like with his resolution about Akobi when he'd first arrived, it only seemed fair that Finn have the best life he could here, given what he'd been through. After getting stuck as a soldier for the First Order, he deserved a proper life, whatever he ended up deciding that meant.

[flightforfreedom]

He gave a sort of helpless smile to 622. Not how society worked, huh? Well it certainly didn't seem to be how he worked...

His face fell a little bit at the question, and then his heart clenched as 622 continued.

"Yeah." He admitted, his voice a little tight. "Him and Andy." Which shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. He was thick as thieves with both of them. He swallowed.

"They both deserve the best. Obviously. But uh... I don't think I made either of them particularly happy, tonight."

[loyal_soldier]

He nodded. Andy was still someone he had trouble figuring out, but Rex obviously approved of her, and she wasn't a Jedi. That was about all the endorsement you needed.

And this was still confusing, but he stopped himself from asking immediately what that statement meant. Poe tended to answer when he asked questions, regardless of how he felt about it. And the last thing he wanted to do right now was make Poe feel worse.

So he did his best to ask carefully. "Is it alright if I ask why?"

[flightforfreedom]

"It's always okay to ask me anything, 622," He said, his tone a little muted. Maybe okay was a strong word, but he needed the man to feel like he could ask. Regardless of how Poe felt about anything. He'd promised honesty. He wanted to give it, even when he was too hesitant to speak.

This was a question that was hard to answer, though, and he frowned down at his own hands.

"Because I took a moment that didn't belong to me," he answered finally. "And it was cruel. Like if you... Like if I cooked something, let you take a taste of it, and then threw it out." It was a bad analogy, but he was struggling, here.

"There's -- it's like there are paths, that you know you could take, if things were different. You know? Different choices. And I teased a different choice without taking it, or giving them the option to take it. Am I making any sense?"

[loyal_soldier]

"Maybe." He wasn't sure he had a grasp on it.

"The kissing was something associated with a relationship like ours, which you don't have with them right now." That was his best interpretation.

...But what was confusing him was that Poe didn't seem to think relationships were a one-and-only-one thing. "If we're both in agreement that requirements about single relationships are stupid, does it have to stay that way?"

[flightforfreedom]

"It's generally considered a romantic action, yeah." Weirdly, the clinical way that 622 was approaching it was actually making him relax a little.

At the question, he blinked, looking over. Had he said that? He wasn't sure if he believed it or not. He wished he was capable of the one-and-only-one thing, but he wasn't sure that he was. He wanted it to be his ideal, but--

"Uh--" He was a little blindsided. "No? I mean, I've never really- Hell, this is technically the longest relationship I've ever been in, at this point, but I mean- what matters the most is what you're happy and comfortable with, right?"

[loyal_soldier]

There was still a disconnect, one he was trying to pin down. "If you're worried if I'd be uncomfortable with a relationship including more than just me, I'm not." Of course he wasn't. He was--Was that it? Poe didn't like to talk about how he'd lived back home, maybe he hadn't thought about it in that context either.

"Poe, apart from the last two years, I lived as part of a group. I was only friends with Commander Akobi, but nothing else about my life was done by myself. The idea of having more people around that I can trust is comforting." He missed it. He'd done his best to adapt to being alone here--the random housing assignments couldn't compare to getting placed with a squad. Everyone still felt separate there. There wasn't any cohesion.

"If I'd known it was an option, I might have suggested it sooner."

[flightforfreedom]

.... Oh.

He feels a heat rush up his throat, and he turns to more properly face 622. He does not want any confusion on this score.

"Uh - okay, just for clarification-- Not only would you potentially be okay with me - also seeing other people - but you would prefer it? You'd want them around?"

[loyal_soldier]

He nodded. "If they're good people like Finn, yes." Why wouldn't he? He understood keeping people at arm's length when you had a friendship where a certain level of decorum was expected on all sides: that was how things had been with Akobi. But with something like this? Why would he want to keep them away?

[flightforfreedom]

Poe just kind of looked at 622 for a long moment, helpless and confused, and then looked away.

A few seconds passed, and then:

"... You ever get that feeling where you realize that you are an idiot who has made life way too complicated for yourself for no reason?"

[loyal_soldier]

"Of course I do." Of course he knew what it felt like to be that kind of idiot. He barely had any idea what was going on most of the time.

That might be part of why they got along so well. "Would now be a good time for a hug?"

[flightforfreedom]

"Is there ever a bad time for a hug?" He asks, slightly amused, but it's a rhetorical question. Of course there is. But he turns to face 622 and gives him a warm smile.

"How about I'll do you one better?" He asked, before leaning in to take 622's face in his hands and press a slow, soft kiss to his lips.

[loyal_soldier]

"I think--"

He fell silent before Poe's lips touched his, leaning into the kiss and sliding his arms around Poe's back, holding them there.

I think we can do even better with a hug, too.