redshiftlogs | Let's partyyyyyyy! [open]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ami is definitely here for seconds, if the dirty plate is any indication. She doesn't really want to seem like she's pigging out, but she's a growing girl, she can't really help it. She meant to talk to this lady regardless, but it's nice that she doesn't have to come up with the smalltalk herself.

"Oh, the pulled pork, for sure!" she exclaims, adding a good-sized scoop of it to her plate. "Cho really pulled out all the stops with this stuff. It's amazing." She also points to a plate of chocolate chip cookies - "I made those, though! Mostly. But I think they came out pretty good."

Patch looks at it for a long moment, and then nods her head once, decisively. "You know what? I'm making a conscious choice to not ask where the pig came from." Then she helps herself to a scoop. "Which one is Cho? I don't think I've met them yet." She also puts a rib and a scoop of potatoes on her plate, and then reaches for a cookie. They're a little lumpy, but the taste is good. "Nice. I like a good chewy cookie."

Yeeeah, not asking for the meat's origin story is probably for the best. Ami smiles, though, glad that the cookies she made (albeit with plenty of help) are proving to be a hit.

As for Cho - "Oh, she's the one..." She looks around the party for a moment, and finally points when she spots her. "She's the girl over by the stereo with Mr. Qubit. She runs breakfast and dinner service, so you've probably seen her if you eat food."

Patch nods her head when she catches sight of the smaller woman crouched near some equipment that goes entirely over Patch's own head in terms of basic understanding. "I have, yes. She's... very high energy." Coming from Patch, that's saying something. "Sweet, though." She doesn't think the young woman is happy to be here, exactly. That's not it. She's just made up her mind to be happy in spite of it. Something like that. She's also wearing different and carefully put together outfits every day, hair and make-up done. Everyone has a different way of coping. Patch can't relate to Cho's, but maybe she understands it a little.

"Well, you guys did an amazing job. This was a really good idea, the food and the games and the-- music." Maybe not so much the music. "With everything that happens here, it's important to remember that we're not just surviving."

High energy, but sweet... yeah, that sounds about right for Cho. If nothing else, she's certainly got her shit together. This party wouldn't have been half as good without her help. It's almost intimidating - but then again, like Carlisle said, the party wouldn't have happened at all if not for Ami, so she doesn't feel too inadequate.

"Thanks! That's what we were going for," she says, smiling. "Just to, you know, give everybody a chance to relax, and make friends, and have a good time."

At about that moment, though, the song starts its familiar lead-up into the drop, the part where it's just the same note in rapid succession for like ten bars. Ami glances up in the general direction of the speakers, her face giving away the low-key embarrassment she's been feeling all night. She was kind of hoping nobody would notice, but she's pretty sure everybody has noticed and is just too polite to say anything about it.

"... I'm really sorry about the music," she says at last, sheepish. "I tried, but I literally couldn't get it to play anything but Darude Sandstorm."

"Well, the rest of it is really nice. And there are probably people who like this music. Someone must, for them to go through the trouble to record it in the first place, right? You still did a great job. I'm Patch." She puts down her fork and holds out her hand to Ami. She hasn't been a huge presence on the network, and she doesn't want to assume that Ami's seen her.

Ami has not in fact seen her before this party, except in passing. But she appreciates the reassurance and the compliment, and shakes Patch's hand with enthusiasm.

"I'm Ami! Nice to meet you," she says. "How long have you been in Anchor?"

"About three months." Patch was in the first group to arrive, the chaos of the flickering residual conflict in the shift, the horrible malfunctioning fireworks robot, the total disrepair and confusion. It's gotten better. Much better. Still a long way to go, though.

"You?"

"Two months here." So Ami's seen her share of chaos, too, but about one-third less.

"So you must have been one of the first people who came through, huh?" she infers. Peter was one of the first, too, and he's only been here a month longer than she has. "That must have been nuts. I don't know what I'd have done if I'd showed up and nobody knew what was what."

Patch nods. "This place was in even worse shape than when you turned up. There were, I don't know, echoes? That might not be the right word. Non-corporeal ghost type beings, that everyone could see, playing through their last moments in some huge awful battle. It was intense, and kind of scary, and weirdly emotional for... unrelated reasons."

She clears her throat, and then takes a big bite of the cookie. "I'm sorry, I don't know why that--" It's hitting her strangely. A little fish hook caught in her ribs, tugging painfully. "Do you want to play a game?" It's an abrupt change, yes, but Patch's smile is warm and friendly, and her query is totally genuine. She's not trying to brush Ami off. She'd like to keep talking.

Just maybe with the buffer of something a little more lighthearted thrown into the mix.

Let's partyyyyyyy! [open]

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