[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

[velveteened]

( well, that shuts him up, leaves him stricken and taken aback at an aspect of lenalee he never would've guessed existed. )

I'm - ( what?? ) - sorry.

( not for his outburst nor what he still thinks, but for not realizing )

[anklets]

[But she isn't in the mood for apologies, Oz, and when he delivers her his, she turns on a sharp heel with a sound of pain disguised by frustration.

Muttered:] It's when you push yourself recklessly, even if it's to protect, that you'll become a burden to your world.

[velveteened]

That's not...

( starts helplessly and then stops, feeling like he owes an explanation. with her not looking, he can be a little more physically expressive: how his face falls, how he raises a hand and then drops it. )

I'd always thought, ( tries again, more quietly, dropping his eyes ) that if I didn't belong anywhere, the least I could do was not burden anyone.

( it'd be better if that thing hadn't been born. )

It's not quite right. ( he really is trying to work on it ) But, you see, it's not the same thing.

( nothing so heroic as presuming he can save people from anything except maybe himself. )

[anklets]

[ feels her heart clench, as though he has reached down her throat and caught it inside his fist ]

And what of your loved ones?

[velveteened]

( better off without me, maybe. he's been swallowing down more words than he's been saying lately, more than usual. )

I want them to be happy.

( sounds exactly like what elliot accused him of being, that sort of self-serving hypocrite )

[anklets]

They shan't be, if you get yourself killed. That reckless behaviour... it's useless.

[velveteened]

( knows that. doesn't know that. feels useless anyway and expendable, in no small part thanks to jack's recent appearance, and that wars with all the lessons he'd thought he was starting to learn.

unsure how to answer, he doesn't at all. )

[anklets]

[Incensed by the look on his face, she lashes out, but with words rather than the fists she is surprised to find herself making.]

If you think people wouldn't miss you, then you're wrong! That they believe you to be replaceable! We're friends, Oz. What do you think that word means to me?

[ knowing full well he can't possibly fathom the depth to it, through her eyes, but too angry to open that vulnerable part up to him just now ]

I'll always help you; I don't want you to fight by yourself.

[velveteened]

( his hands are doing the same, shoulders starting to hunch defensively. but his answer, when spoken, is almost expressionless )

Always?

( it's not confirmation he's looking for - he's not sure what he's looking for, in truth - because the way she says it, he's sure she believes it. but it reminds him of gil and a promise made a decade ago; at the time, the only thing he'd had to say to something like that was i don't believe in 'forever.' things are different now, but it - still seems like sort of a painful avowal to hear. )

[anklets]

So long as I'm here to offer it.

[But that's all she can give, is confirmation; she has never met someone like Oz before, so damaged below the surface. Hardly knows how to bandage herself up to the point of functionality, sometimes.

So she spits out her reassurance as though it cuts her tongue to form the words and twists herself inside again.]

[velveteened]

( pretty words, he thinks with conscious unfairness. it's difficult to doubt her, after everything, which is what makes them so frightening.

but he hears her tone too, senses the ways he's been pushing her even if he doesn't necessarily understand them. )

Sorry. I spoke without thinking.

[anklets]

Stop. You're apologising because I'm angry at you, not because you feel any different about what you did that day.

[velveteened]

That was an accident. I don't normally lose control like that.

( almost a truth. )

[anklets]

But you did.

[velveteened]

( he could lie and promise it won't happen again, but instead he does one better )

I'm not going to use it again. ( scared him as much as anyone else, and this is something he's already been thinking. ) Unless I really must, to protect myself.

( unless, in short, any baskervilles who want to carry on with the work of throwing him back into the abyss appear here. )

But otherwise, I won't.

[anklets]

This is a war.

[ there is no promise to be made for control or safety ]

[velveteened]

( he knows. much better than he did before, thinking book-reading and little events here or there made him knowledgeable. he ran into a battle rashly more than once now, but he doesn't want to do it again. )

There are other ways to fight.

( if - hard to think about future instances of something like what they saw already. but he doesn't waver outwardly at least. )

[anklets]

So take them.

[ and that said, she turns back to the apartment door and slips through, leaving him and his thoughts and what hope she'd had for a pleasant evening out in the hallway ]