[Semi-Closed] Nothing can go Wrong with this Plan.

[wilder]

Date & Time: Friday Evening
Location: Room 103
Characters: Allen Walker (debtor), Sophie (blossomgale), Zelos Wilder (wilder), Cheria Barnes (flashmaiden), Oz Vessalius (velveteened), Arya Stark (wolfchild), Seles Wilder (hiddendepth), Sheena Fujibayashi (holeseeker), Tales of Graces f members, Exorcists and anyone I'm forgetting (seriously I'll add names as we go)
Summary: Holding a dinner so we can all get to know each other, this should end terribly.
Warnings: F for food?!

[This month's haul of transports seemed to bring in a lot of familiar faces for the residents of 103. Friends, family, comrades, terrifying generals who are your boss now- all sorts! ]

[It was Sophie's idea to hold a dinner. A dinner of family, for everyone to have a chance to meet each other and get to know each other better. It seemed like a nice way to welcome everyone into this horrible war. But hey, food! And so, Allen and Sophie made sure to invite their friends, family and comrades in order to have a warm evening together]

[And Kaneis, well, at least he isn't climbing out the back window at the prospect of social interaction for hours. This my friends, is progress. ]

[But gather around friends and family and terrifying boss! There's food, people, wine and games to be had! Just you know, try not to cough in it you sick jerks]

[OOC: KITCHEN | DINING TABLE...FLOOR...COUNTER | LIVING ROOM | BEDROOMS. Please feel free to tag around, thread hop and just have fun! If I left anyone out of the attending list please let me know! ]

Comments

[anklets]

Does it? [ a frown plucks her lips; in explanation: ] There were a lot of people back home who needed it.

[velveteened]

( it's a good thing is thought but not said. )

It does! I'm sure they're happy for your help.

[anklets]

I think so.

[Those people who would always react with cheer when she peered into the labs and called for a show of hands.

With deliberate measure:] Would you like a cup?

[velveteened]

You wouldn't mind?

( a stupid question, really. it's not like she'd offer just to deny him something (he's pretty sure), especially after saying there's enough for everyone.

though whether or not there's enough really isn't the question. )

[anklets]

No.

[Murmured. Contemplatively, almost.]

[velveteened]

Then - ( enheartened and sincerely ) yes, thank you.

[anklets]

Mm.

[ the hands which hand the mug to him withdraw quickly, and she folds them in front of herself

expectantly: ] So.

[velveteened]

( he takes a careful sip before she speaks, looking up when she does. )

So?

[anklets]

You've been holding yourself around me, Oz.

[velveteened]

( that prompts a slight eyebrow raise, wry rather than denying. )

Haven't you been angry?

[anklets]

[ tightly, with one eye on the kitchen door: ] You behaved recklessly and didn't talk to me about it after, you just became avoidant until there were other things to focus on.

[ "Yes." ]

[velveteened]

( the wryness migrates down through his expression, twists his lips in an acknowledgement that she's not wrong. "but it shouldn't matter to you" is at least something he knows better than to say. )

But you still want to talk about it?

[anklets]

[Not here- later, she thinks, but if not now, then when? Unexpected, the flat of her palm hits the countertop with a frustrated, sharpish smack, and then she withdraws.]

We're friends, Oz! So stop acting like I have to be from your home to care.

[velveteened]

That's not it, ( slips out, startled.

is in fact the last thing that's been on his mind; because she saw a great deal more than he's admitted to anyone from home. gil has reason to suspect but no more than that, leo and elliot saw (but haven't asked since, thankfully), and break hasn't a clue - and if it's up to him it'll stay that way. it's just - difficult to accept, caring, all the more so now with the deepened feeling of blood on his hands and an inability to do good. )

It just shouldn't - ( too honest and not going to help ) - it worked out.

[anklets]

[ and for a moment her nostrils flare, and she's so tempted to imprint her hand across the side of his face, those rosy cheeks of his, but Lenalee has no desire to begin a fight in the middle of a dinner party ]

And it so easily could have not! Oz, if you keep believing that just because it worked out all the times before, it's okay for it to happen, then people are going to get hurt. You don't need to do this alone.

[velveteened]

( and then, all at once, that carefully mild temper snaps. )

People already get hurt, and that's exactly why I need to! If I can't help, I at least don't want to be a burden either!

( the only person he's ever admitted this to before was elliot, who'd called it self-satisfaction, and who'd died, so that was that. breathes out, feeling abruptly shaky and raw in ways he's tried so hard to smooth over since that burnt world, since even before that when he tried to remember elliot's lessons no matter how much grieving was left to do and, even still, came up short.

he so rarely loses his temper or shouts ordinarily, and about twice in as many weeks is becoming a terrible pattern. )

[anklets]

[Those words and the sharpness with which they are delivered are a stab into the most tender parts of her, the parts she hadn't expected to be attacked so, and Lenalee blanches, feeling very small. Hearing Komui berating her, did she think it was fine if she died for the sake of protecting them, of course she didn't think so, of course she didn't think it was okay for her to die, but fighting was all she could do to keep herself from being a burden—

White, Lenalee's eyes return to the kitchen doorway.]

Out. [ barely more than a whisper, as though like the shifting of the scales, she'd lost her volume so that Oz could have it ] Outside, now.

[velveteened]

( the difference is that he does, he really does think it'd be fine for him, except he's been learning to see the ways in which it isn't, but - he's so tired these days, of people dying and causing it and trying and failing, always failing.

but her reaction, like he's said something awful, is what makes him check himself. starts and swallows, shakes his head once without any real emphasis to it - feels like a shake too hard might make him shatter. he's almost never admitted this to anyone before, and it's only now sinking in. )

[anklets]

[ "like" he'd said something awful— she would smack him could she hear such things, but all she does is clench her fists, shaking hands ]

You're not dispens- get out! Not in here, out, outside—

[velveteened]

( going out feels complicit with continuing this conversation, but it's only after a beat that he turns around to mutely leave the kitchen and then the apartment itself, only pausing some short distance outside. the hallway doesn't seem much better than inside, but despite all instincts to bolt he waits for her. )

[anklets]

[She holds her breath as he leave, as much to try and calm herself as in fear that she will hear someone stop him and ask- what that outburst had been about.

Count to five.

(One, t-two, three-)

Follow.

At a tangent, so Allen, Miranda, Klaud don't worry, don't notice her quick departure after Oz. She is having a hard time keeping her thoughts organised.]

You.

[velveteened]

( tenses slightly at the sound of her voice. there's an instinct to raise his voice again, keep going, and another to bolt, but they're equally strong and, oddly, balance into inaction. he doesn't quite look at her, waiting to see what she has to say before deciding for himself. )

[anklets]

[ contrary to what her body language paints, the tone which she uses now is not angry or sharp; just brittle, with a tang of something bittersweet, and consciously low to prevent other others from overhearing what they should not ]

You're deluding yourself if you think you can only fight so recklessly or risk being a burden, with no in-between. Oz, that's... [ eyes hood, duck, a flutter of lashes over a sudden welling ] Something like that will only hurt the ones who love you, even more than making them carry your weight for you or leaving them to fight alone. Even though it sounds right, that fighting alone means no one is with you to get hurt or to- become weighed down, I don't know that it ever is.

[velveteened]

( somehow, it hurts much worse to hear it said like that than when elliot had grabbed him and shouted it in his face, makes him lower his head with some sense of shame.

you can only call the responsibility of protecting your own life heavy because you make other people carry it.

still, that's not precisely it. )

You don't understand.

( says it lowly, not without bleakness. because he only lost control because of break's death, which had only happened because break had been looking for him; because he'd been careless with the contract despite gil's and before that alice's worries; because your sin is your very existence and you don't belong anywhere and that's not something he can ever ever forget because that only makes things worse. )

[anklets]

More than you think I do! [ snapped, again, her frustrations resurfacing in the wake of teenage sullenness ] Maybe not completely, but at least a little!