Let's partyyyyyyy! [open]

[livingdeadgirl]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: A meet-and-greet party for everybody in Anchor!
When: early October
Where: the VR room lobby
Warnings: none yet
Format: go wild!

[ The day before, a wild network post appears, from the username @aa : ]

hi everyone!
i just wanted to let you all know
the meet and greet party previously discussed in this space
will be held tomorrow afternoon!

it will take place in the vr room lobby
and of course everyone is invited
refreshments and games will be provided
but if you would like a little extra challenge
please feel free to bring something to share!

attendance is mandatory!
(lol just kidding)
seriously though i do hope to see all of you there ;)

[ She's also posted handwritten signs to that effect in the mess hall and several of the staircases. Just in case! ]

---

The day of, a party appears in the VR Room lobby area, as promised!

Though it's not brightly lit, the lights there are are brightly colored, creating a chilled-out evening atmosphere like you'd find at a club. Plush chairs and couches are interspersed throughout the room, and there's been a solid attempt to clean the place up, or at least do something about all the dust.

A shortage of conventional party supplies has forced Ami and Cho to get creative, so the tables and parts of the wall are decorated with paper flowers, and the buffet table is presided over by a number of ... weird, pink, glitter-covered, vaguely animal-shaped sculptures made out of spare plastic pipes and stuff. With googly eyes. If nothing else they're a conversation piece.

FOOD: The main offering is barbecue! There's a pretty wide assortment of meats, all of which Cho has certified safe for human consumption, and also certified delicious. Chips, dried fruit, and a few different desserts are available, including homemade chocolate chip cookies that Ami made herself (wich Cho's help). All the trays are helpfully labeled, including allergy information.

Any and all potluck submissions are welcome as well! Just set it down over here and make a little card of your own.

DRINKS: Sadly, the coffee machine is still out of order. But there is a cooler stocked with ice and a few different choices of juice and soda. Alcoholic selections are limited to two types of pre-mixed drinks, which are intentionally weak on the alcohol, but at least they're not tequila sunrises. If guests want anything stronger, they'll need to bring it themselves.

ENTERTAINMENT: In fiddling with the controls, Ami got the overhead speakers to play some music, but couldn't figure out how to modify the playlist, so it's just one song on loop. Maybe if she keeps the volume kind of low, no one will notice. No live music is scheduled, but if anyone wants to bring a guitar and jam for a while, they will be more than welcome to.

And most of the arcade games are online! Anyone for Fruit Ninja? Air hockey? Dance Dance Retribution? Virtual Billiards? Or perhaps you'd like to try out a full-simulation game in the VR Rooms proper? Now's as good a time as any!

Oh, and don't forget to enter the raffle! The winner will be chosen randomly and announced a few hours into the party.

Comments

[tenuefarfalla]

"I have five minutes to do this. Your rules. I'm trying to be efficient. We can talk about the differences between our beds later if you want." Look at Cho, completely missing the point yet again. Practically an art form with this woman.

She brings up a new digital sheet, and begins sketching on it quickly. "I'd cut the bed that's still mounted to the wall here, along this line, just to open it up at the foot end. Then we take a section of the loose bed that will span from here to the wall, like this. We can weld it to the existing frame, and bolt it to the wall. We might even be able to use one of the old brackets, if you didn't bend them too badly. Probably worth still putting at least one support from the new section of the bed to the floor, but it would give it a lot of additional support, and since it's only for your feet, I don't think we'd need it to be as strong a connection as we would if we were just moving an entire bed to a new location. If we do that, we might be able to either find some cushions to fill the gap, or very carefully re-purpose portions of a mattress. Assuming the springs aren't interconnected, or maybe it's some really advanced form of alien memory foam. Mine doesn't squeak like springs left alone for as long as this place has been abandoned." Of course, she also weighs a lot less than he does. "Does yours?"

[kaballin]

Okay that's a lot of questions all at once and he's used to getting orders that were two sentences or less so this is a lot to process for him.

"Memory foam? I have no idea, I didn't take my mattress apart. It's squishy? What's memory foam?" It sounds like something real sciency and probably not in beds so he's pretty sure he's just not understanding her or they're talking about two different things.

"Okay, I'm down for this plan. Except I don't know how to weld, or have a saw to cut the bedframe. I don't think I bent it, I'm not that strong." He can be a cocky jerk, but he does actually know his limits. Most of the time.

[tenuefarfalla]

"You know, memory foam. Like those commercials where the person puts the wine glass on the bed and then jumps on it." Not that that's the important part. "It's viscoelastic polyurethane foam. It makes a very comfortable mattress, and if that's what's in ours, we'll be able to cut into it without any problems. They should have a uniform air cell matrix all the way through."

Cho is liking her idea for lengthening his current bed more and more, and especially the option where she doesn't cannibalize beds from other rooms too badly. She'll feel less guilty about it all that way if they ever do end up with too many people and not enough beds. "I think this could work. I can show you how to weld, if you want to learn. It's pretty straightforward. And I think I know where we can find a torch to cut through the frames. Or... I know who will know where we can find one."

[kaballin]

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Who drinks wine in bed?" Kabal is a wanted criminal who has occasionally woken up behind dumpsters, and even he doesn't drink in bed. Drinking while laying down is a recipe for sleeping in a puddle of alcohol that could have been inside him instead of in the mattress.

"So you're a doctor, a biologist, can remember everything you see after seeing it once, you know how to draw up schematics, and you know how to weld. I'm starting to think I never got out of the simulation and you're not fucking real."

[tenuefarfalla]

"It was an old television commercial, to show just how little the bed would move around so you wouldn't wake up your partner if you were a fitful sleeper." She's still drawing things on the tablet so that she can show him the potential finished project. "And I know you're teasing me, but I am a doctor. Not a medical doctor, but I have my doctorate."

He's only the third person she's told here. It doesn't come up often, and she's so used to turning conversations to the life and accomplishments of the other person. Even when she does talk about herself, the subject tends to shift quickly. "I learned how to weld in South America. We got a grant to do some research, and the area near the shipyards was very poor. There was an aid group providing housing and medical facilities while we were there. Some of us helped them out in our spare time. A few of my classes when I started my new degree had a lot to do with rendering software. So all this is pretty new, but I like it. I promise you I'm real. You can't throw me into a wall to check, but you can... poke me with a pin or something if you want."

[kaballin]

"Never seen it." He predates memory foam by a few years and honestly has no idea what she's talking about. "Wait really? I'm better at this than I thought. Point still stands. Are you a firefighter too? Fighter jet pilot? Brain surgeon?"

Rolling his eyes, not that she can see that, he folds his arms, "You do realize I'm not going to randomly throw you into a wall right? You'd have to really piss me off to even consider it. And real talk: I'm not even sure it's possible for you to make anyone that angry ever. You're like... weirdly incapable of it."

Even her annoying traits are amusing enough to be endearing. Not that he'd hold back killing someone if he felt like it, but she'd be the bottom of the list of people to take his frustrations out on.

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho giggles. "No, no, and no, but I did help one study all through medical school. So if you have questions, I might have answers. Just don't ask for a practical application. I didn't get to work with the cadavers." She sounds surprisingly chipper, given the subject. Also, as though in one thought, she turns the tablet so that Kabal can see a blown out rough schematic of her ideal plan. "And... thank you. I think. It's a good thing, right? To be weirdly incapable of making someone homicidal? A compliment?"

[kaballin]

"Think I know more than enough about cadavers. Thanks." He's been one, he's made lots.

Well hey, his room and bed are looking pretty baller there. He's down for this plan. "Sure. But if that's how low the bar is for a compliment you really gotta work on your self esteem."

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho just nods. "You are not the first person to tell me that. I mean, it's not the best compliment I've ever gotten, but I think it means you like me. At least a little, which is nice." She likes him, too. He didn't leave her. They didn't leave each other. That's not always a given. Most people leave, even if they don't want to, they still leave.

"I can try and get the equipment together in the next few days. Take some actual measurements and render a support for the extended foot. I'm sure Peter will let me use one of the 3D printers to print it out, if they're not all busy making replacement parts still." She knows they don't actually belong to Peter, but he's the one who fixed them, and she thinks of them as his.

[kaballin]

"Not the point I was trying to make, but sure." Whatever helps her sleep at night. But seriously, he is entirely perplexed why she even talks to him let alone takes the fucked up things he says as compliments.

"That sounds like work. A bunch of work. You don't gotta do that you know."

You are making him feel bad with the one ounce of empathy he has.

[tenuefarfalla]

"I know I don't have to. I want to. You're uncomfortable, and I think I can fix it, so I want to." It's pretty straightforward in her mind, though she does know enough to know that she's not normal.

She puts her tablet back into sleep mode, and replaces the stylus. "Whatever point you were trying to make, I think you like me." She points up at him, as though she's working through a logic problem and he's her sounding board. "I think... that I'm your friend. What's so strange about wanting to help my friend?"

[kaballin]

"What."

It's not even a question, just a word. Because he is beyond confused now. It's as if someone was standing there insisting the world was flat and the sky was green - he's not sure how to even process that. The last person he'd been friends with was Stryker and they'd both gotten killed trying to save the world.

Also Kabal had kind of fucked up a Black Dragon operation because he was busy eating pizza on Stryker's couch and .. well.. forgot.

He doesn't even have any other words right now. Error 404: Kabal is non-responsive.

[tenuefarfalla]

"You don't want to make me do a bunch of work, because I'm your friend. Except you are also my friend, and I want to help you. Which evens out to us pulling a Frankenstein on your bed and you holding all the heavy bits for me to make it easier. Right?"

She reaches for him, patting his forearm. "We can talk about it later if you want. Are you goig to stick around after the party and watch me take down all the decorations again?"

[kaballin]

Kabal needs to go kick someone in the face immediately. Or trash public property. Commit arson. This feels wrong. Bad and wrong and he doesn't like this one bit.

"No I'm gonna go.. do .. something." He needs to break something and get his tough guy cred back. Friends. Psh. He doesn't have friends. Last time he had a friend they both got horribly killed. He's just going to go now.

Away from here.

And this.