[GingerAvalanche]

"Like I said, normally I have my own ja-" Lilla is cut off by the arrival of Rory and Mr. Chadwick, and then she realizes, belatedly, that she's not only avoided being seen as the help (and therefore ignored), she's gotten herself pulled into a conversation that she can't easily remove herself from. Her breath slows, steadies, as she forces herself not to panic. It's just a conversation, she thinks. You got this.

As she's thinking, the conversation continues. She's attentive enough to give a nod when Calen introduces her, and she's finally calmed herself enough to be about ready to say something. Suddenly, a passing woman scolds Mr. Chadwick and dashes the bottle to the ground, causing Lilla to give a small yelp of surprise. Upon seeing the spreading puddle of alcohol, she immediately reacts. Problem! The word blares through her head as she quickly looks around. Solution! Her hands dart to the nearby table, where a stack of napkins sits. She looks at the quickly spreading puddle and realizes there's no way she can contain it with the napkins, so she dumps them out in as wide an area as possible.

She's about to attempt to use her heels and the napkins to mop up the puddle. However, as she's reacting, the conversation continues, and she barely registers as Calen insinuates that he put alcohol into the punch. The punch that she had been handing out to people. The punch that she had just drank. Suddenly, the shiver down her spine made sense. She heard Lily begin her short speech and Calen begin to pour the others drinks, giving her time to think. Am I drunk? She thought. Did he get me drunk? No. I drank it. I got me drunk. He just gave it to m- he's kinda cute... No! Focus. Can I get drunk that fast? Is that something that happens? Oh, why didn't my parents let me practice drinking? I don't know what I'm dooooiiiing.... Her eyes flash grey for a moment, then back to their natural green.

After Lily's speech ends, she comes to a decision, steps back to the table where Calen has finished pouring the drinks for Rory and Mr. Chadwick, grabs one of the forgotten drinks she had poured for them, and holds it close in front of her with both hands. The others pause for a moment as she returns, and watch with... whatever those expressions are, she doesn't know. What am I doing? She thinks. Heh... do I ever know? "...Bottom's up?" she says to the others with an uncertain smile, and starts drinking.

[Siuwa]

Um... Cat can almost smell the refusal to talk from Liliana. Not the greatest opening... and makes trying to finally shakes hands with Reginald from some sort of guilty pleasure to downright jerkass. Ok, it's jerkass either way, shame on you Catalina. He scratches his head now unsure of what to do. Oh wait, there's Blair. But, teams and stuff. But he still found himself walking towards her.
Sheer still didn't know who to talk to. Eh... ah, there's this boy who dressed in pink and white. He looks real chill, maybe we can crank something up? Sheer made his way to him but didn't know what to say. "Eh... I like your outfit? Seriously this is cool. Offers a different choice from the dumb suits."

[Riven]

For a long moment, even with Lilla suddenly trying to leap in to clean up, all that Alec Chadwick could do was stare sadly down at the shattered remains of his Scotch. It was a shame to see a good drink wasted like that. Sighing, he tried to gesture to Lilla that he'd take care of cleaning up, though she may have been too focused to notice.

Wait, doctor...?

Stirred from mourning his lost booze, Alec turned to see where Merletta had gone and found Budonoki staring with surprised eyes back at him. The two men hadn't seen each other in years, not since... well, not since their team had broken up following the death of Sienna Andraste. They were both aged and weathered for the passage of years, but even with the extra wrinkles they knew each other at a glance. Doctor Budonoki... well, wasn't that something! Chadwick couldn't help but chuckle, giving a wave and a nod to his old teammate to suggest they'd talk when he was done with Merletta.

"Who was that?" Rory, still a bit in shock over the whole scene, couldn't help but ask when he finally found his voice.

"Old friend. Sort of. Not really that old, not compared to me anyway. She..." He searched for the right words while stooping to help mop up Scotch and pick through shattered glass. "She met me during a bad stretch of my life. Saved my old ass on more than one occasion, too. She's a bit rough around the edges, but seems to have good reason for what she does. Ah, oh well. It'll be a fine party even without the Scotch!"

After pushing the mess out of the way under the table -- he'd be back around to clean it up properly in a bit -- Alec took the offered glass from Calen and raised it in a toast. "Cheers!"




Seeing Alec again after so long came as a complete surprise -- he'd had no idea his former teammate was living in Vale, much less that he'd be coming to tonight's event. Once he recovered himself, Budonoki realized that Merletta was still staring at him, expectantly waiting for an answer. He fumbled and stuttered for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts, but by the time he had something to say Liliana had taken to the stage. The moment's respite was enough to recenter himself, and when the conversations in the room started back up he was mentally steady again.

"Miss Yoru -- Merletta -- my deepest apologies. It was never my intent to slight you or your teammate with my absence; by the time I found out about the funeral it was too late for me to be in attendance. May she rest in peace." He paused and put down his small wool sack, trying to process what she was asking of him. "What's this business about -- dear me -- reanimating the dead? Goodness! Hypothetical or otherwise, do tell me you're not considering such things? Yes, there is technology such that could, perhaps, crudely cause a body to imitate some functions of life, but past a certain point it's just not... the degenerated neural tissues alone, to say nothing of the brain... and that's just simply physiology, my dear! The soul has to be considered as well. No... with certainly, Merletta, the dead can not be brought back in anything more than a cruel mockery of life. I... I am sorry, truly."


"To answer your questions," Chadwick, after a quick draught of mulled wine,  was immediately back in good spirits. "You're completely right: wintertime is a boon to bakeries, if you handle it right. Ingredients can get a touch scarce but demand goes way up, and there's always people looking for something new and interesting to add to their festivities. I've been experimenting with a few varieties of Vacuan traditional sweet-&-savory flatbread that go great with a spread of honeyed apple chutney. Haven't quite got it right just yet, but you can decide for yourself if you'd like." He nodded in the direction of the baked goods trays. "Third tray down, right along the edge next to the sword-shaped gingerbread cookies."

Belatedly accepting his glass from Calen -- it's just one, he rationalizes, and it is the holidays after all -- Rory joins Lilla in taking a few uncertain sips. "Sorry about... all that." He says to her, deliberately not asking about the momentary flash of gray across her eyes. The situation was awkward enough as it was, regardless of how readily Chadwick and Calen seemed able to play it off. The shield fighter could feel his own social discomfort beginning to prickle across the back of his neck, not really knowing what to do or even say in a situation like this.

The dry flavor of the alcohol wasn't really that strong, but hard to ignore once he was looking for it. Rory found himself staring with surprise at his glass -- belatedly realizing that he hadn't actually had alcohol until just now. "That's... kinda strong?" He had no idea what it was supposed to be like, honestly.

[Frankenstein Joe]

Nodding at the Azzar as she sits down and giving a small smile, she almost jumped when her shoulder was tapped. Listening to Blair, after a few moments she shook her head at the blue haired faunus, "I'm fine. Just completely unsure why I attended. Not got my armor to hide in either, so kind of just stuck wearing this." With that she would gesture to her clothing, smiling after a few seconds of looking down and looking up at him, "How about you? You surviving this party so far? Been drinking the probably spiked drink?"

[GingerAvalanche]

Lilla barely registers Rory for a bit as she continues sipping from her punch. However, his comment about the strength of the alcohol was just so... uncertain. So awkward. She stares at him for a moment, her face reddening. Don’t laugh. Don’t be mean. Don’t laugh. Don’t be m- She fails to stifle a giggle, then another, and before long she’s full-on laughing.

”I’m sorry,” she tries to say, interrupted by her own laughs. ”I’m really sorry, I don’t know what’s so fun-“ She can’t even finish her sentence, as it’s cut off by more giggles. Lilla doesn’t know if it’s the drink, or if it’s meeting someone as awkward as she is, but for the moment she feels better.

[Kingnoname1]

'I'll have to take a look.' Calen responded to Alec. In truth of course he wouldn't, even in his inebriated state Calen's principles on the matter would remain rigid regardless or perhaps because of their ridiculousness. Positioning himself out of the way of the cleaning crew and sipped quietly away while at the conversation lulled. Off in the distance he could hear muffled chatter but wasn't really bothered to examine the two closely even if it was between a teacher and a woman who had cost him a bottle of liquor. Once most of the mess had been cleared up Calen turned back to Alec to continue talking. 'So Mr Chadwick do you have advice for us hunters-in-training? I'm sure a huntsman of your calibre must have a lot of lessons and stories stored up.' Calen remarked half from true interest and half to see where Rory and Lilla would go if undisturbed.

Pay slight attention to his surroundings, Lily looked like she was pushing the proceedings along. He wondered if there would be dancing, a little bit of drinking, well a little bit more drinking, and a little bit of dancing could make the night very interesting. Even if it's only to see people struggle even with basic movements.

[Walter]

Razzy looke up from the warm cup of mulled wine he had poured himself earlier, and gave the boy in front of him a big smile. "Oh, hi! Oh, yeah, hah, I don't... actually have a suit. I usually dressed up as an elf back for christmas at home, but my elf outfit is still with my mom... Oh! We haven't met before!"

Razzy extended his empty hand towards Sheer, offering a handshake. "I'm Razzy!" the boy said with a chipper tone.


Anza stood there, her hands clasped together in front of her, smiling and overlooking the party. She stood there. And stood there. Without moving her head, she slid her eyes to the side to look at a clock on the wall, to see that she had been standing there for fifteen minutes with no real interaction.

The bowgirl screamed internally.

What the hell is wrong with you, Anza? You came here to hang out with people your age for once, and this is what you do? You're a grimm-slaying, tree-hopping, bow-toting badass! This is just socializing! You got this, girl! She hyped herself up internally, and took a deep breath.

She then turned on her heel, now facing the wall, and clasped her hands in front of her face. That's right, just need to... pretend it's one of those formal parties I used to go to all the time! Yeah!

She turned around again, now facing the crowd, puffing out her chest slightly... She couldn't hold that for long, however, as she realized a major flaw in her logic. She had gone to all those parties with her parents, and stuck to her mom most of the time. She had never actually socialized, not even with old people!

She turned towards the wall again. By this point, someone might have noticed the girl fidgeting and spinning around. She placed her hands together once more, her index fingers stretched out and poking the tip of her nose.

Alright, no... Don't think of it as one of those formal things! Think of it... More like a mission! Like fighting grimm! I'm just here to kick ass, and, along the way, meet the people I'm stuck here with! Yeah! Yeah, that's pretty much how I've met all my friends here so far!

But, of course, you couldn't just go out on a mission without preparation. So, if someone were to look towards her now, they'd see a girl with long, shaggy hair in a long dress throwing practice punches at a wall, while weaving from side to side.

Once she was sufficiently pumped up, she turned on her heel one last time and began her stride towards the middle of the room... Only run right into someone's back.

"SORRY, HI, I'M ANZA, NICE TO MEET YOU!" she blurted out, followed by a hiccup.

Smooth as ice.

[Luna]

Having spent the past hour indecisively loitering outside the event, Luna finally decides that she should at least try to go be social. No one seems to notice her as she casually walks around the outskirts of the crowd, taking in the gala's atmosphere until she reaches the food. She can barely think over the noise until she realizes that her left earbud is missing from her ear. N-No...not...please don't tell me i forgot... Luna searches the hidden pockets of her blue dress frantically, growing visibly more anxious. On the verge of a panic attack and unable to find her headphones to plug into her Scroll, Luna leans on a table with a bowl of punch, distressed at the realization she has no escape from the overwhelming social environment.

Trying to calm her nerves, she eyes the punch bowl, but immediately smells traces of alcohol. Luna turns away from the punch, opting for a daiquiri in the privacy of her dorm later that evening. Distracted by what flavor drink she should make later, Luna fails to notice that she is pushing on the edge of the table as she stands, causing the punch bowl to tip and spill it's contents all over her. Great... just my luck, Luna thinks. As she wonders why she even bothered to show up, a soaked, embarrassed, and lonely Luna silently shuffles over to the nearest table and sits down at it, looking defeated.

[ArosFarron]

Blair finished talking with Azzir and began to walk around. Eventually she bumped into Anza. "Sorry. I didn't see you there. I'm Blair. Nice to meet you." She smiled as she turned to face Anza. She noticed the girl was a bit flustered. "You look a bit flustered. Anything wrong?" She gave the girl her hand

Lily saw Luna as she sat down and made a small B line to her. "You don't look alright, and you look a bit wet. I might have something for you to change into. I'm Liliana. Most just call me Lily. If you want something dry I'll take you back to a small place I have curtained off as a makeshift dressing room." She extended a hand and a smile out to Luna.


Merletta nodded at Budonoki's comment. "It's not something I plan on doing. It's more of a feeling I had when I went to visit her grave. It felt as though something was not right with my wife's grave. That you for your input. Now that I know something like that is possible, I might look into a couple of my contacts to find out if anyone is experimenting with ideas like that. Enjoy your night Sophos. You are a teacher here after all." She gave one small puff on her cigarette before reaching into a small handbag and pulling out a flask. "Go give this to Alec. It's a small apology for what I did earlier. Don't get me wrong. I don't give many out. I just had a small meltdown when there are children involved, but as seeing as how someone spiked the punch, there was no reason to shatter his liquor."

[Riven]

Budonoki mentally kicked himself when he heard Merletta refer to Samantha as 'my wife' -- it seemed that his assumption that the two had mertely been teammates and close friends far missed the mark, and he hoped he hadn't come off as insensitive in his ignorance. Accepting the offered flask with a nod, he attempted to save face. "I'm sure you meant well by it -- I shall have to have a few words with him myself. And... if there is anything I can do, Merletta, please don't hesitate to ask. Whatever the situation, I cannot help but feel that nothing good can come from tinkering with life and death so."




Lillia's laugh had certainly been a surprise; Rory's cheeks had flushed in embarrassment, but at the same time he felt the edges of his lips start to turn upwards. It was her laugh -- it wasn't judgmental or mocking, it just was... and it was infectious, too. What started with an embarrassed chuckle quickly turned into the young shield fighter laughing along with her without even rightly knowing why he was laughing. And for that simple and silly moment, all his discomfort and angst suddenly seemed so far away.

Maybe this would be a good holiday after all.

Alec waved Calen off. "Ah, I'm a washed-up old has-been. Had my day; the world is better off in the hands of the pros and people like you kids, honestly. Best advice I can give you? Live while you've got it. Don't let any old fart like me look down on you because of your youth, and take time to really enjoy the opportunities that life presents. The world has too many cares and worries, and things like that attract Grimm -- people need to remember to laugh, love, and be a little crazy now and again. But as far as hunting Grimm is concerned?" He leaned in a little closer, as if getting ready to share a secret. "If you're ever out there on your own and you find a coil of molted snake skin the size of a Bullhead... RUN." He took a sip of his mulled wine. "King Taijitu can get a lot bigger than people realize."

It was right about then that Luna had her incident with the punch bowl. Rory and Chadwick found themselves looking over as the musician, soaked with fruit juice, left for the solace of an empty table. "Ah, one sec Calen. Be right back." Pulling a clean towel from an underslung supplies drawer in the baked goods carts, the jovial baker brought it and a blackberry danish over to Luna and offered them to her with a soft smile. "Rough start to the night? Been there, trust me. Alec Chadwick, former huntsman and proprietor of 'Fabled Goods' bakery. You looked like you could use these."

[GingerAvalanche]

Lilla's laughter slowly died down, a chuckle or two more escaping before she regained full control of herself. "So what's y-" she starts to say, before the Faunus in the blue dress drenches herself in the punch. Oh no! Lilla thinks, her heart going out to the poor girl, but her body seems to have other plans: she lets loose a laugh so hard she spills some of her drink out onto Rory's shoes. "Oh no!" she moans, quickly setting her drink down and reaching for more napkins. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

However, there are no napkins left on the table. She belatedly remembers that she already threw them all on the ground to cover the broken bottle of scotch. Defeated, she swipes her drink back up from the table and hangs her shoulders as she takes another drink. "SO!" she repeats a little too forcefully, her back suddenly straightening comically quick. "Now that I've sufficiently embarrassed myself and covered your nice shoes in sticky punch, how was your year going before you met me?" She gives a smile to show she's joking, but her blush is clearly caused by more than just the alcohol at this point.

[Swordslinger]

"Come on Camille! You look fine!"

"So you say."

"Look, blue looks good on you."

"As you've said."

"And red looks good on me! We're like, a yin-yang thing!"

"That feels culturally insensitive."

That was the banter of two newcomers to the holiday formal. A pair of girls, one with flowing scarlet red hair that seemed to glow like fire, a bright red dress with black accents, while the other had blond hair that was tied into a braided pony tail. She wore a plain blue dress with gray accents. The redhead was, well, "alive" for lack of a better term, constantly looking around at the other guests with expressive cheer, while the other...well, she looked...okay to be there.

They were known simply as Tristan and Camille, who hung out together mostly because they had nothing else to do.

 

[Luna]

Still in shock and somewhat surprised anyone noticed her, it takes Luna a moment to realize she's been approached, then another to comprehend what the other faunus girl and the older man have said to her. The girl had introduced herself as...Lily? Luna vaguely recognizes her as another first year, but the man she has never seen before. Maybe he's a parent of one of the others? Luna ponders, before remembering she has yet to respond. "Oh, um... thanks..." Luna takes the girl's outstretched hand and pulls herself up. "I-I'm Luna." Upon standing, Luna notices she has about five inches on the other faunus girl, with the exception of her cat ears. Luna then remembers the man...Alec, he had said.

Turning slightly so as to face both, Luna accepts Alec's towel, quickly drying her hair and part of her dress before noticing the enticing smell of blackberries and pastry. When she looks up to see Alec holding the danish in her direction, Luna greedily snatches the pastry and bites into it. It takes her a solid minute to realize the social implication of what she has just done. "Oh.. I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to... um..." Clearly flustered, Luna hangs her head in embarrassment, her right hand resting on her left arm just above her elbow. She tries to turn her face to hide her eyes welling up as she mentally scolds herself.

[Kingnoname1]

Awww look at the lost puppy. Calen thought to himself cruely at the sight of Luna struggling to make her way around the party while Alec dodged his question. Not entirely unexpected, there were plenty that Calen didn't want to talk about concerning his past so he could only imagine it getting worse once he reached Alec's age. Not a happy thought. Regardless whether because of the alcohol or Calen was simply getting better at moving on from these dark memories he still managed a half-genuine smile and nod as the huntsman-turned-baker finished his excuse. 'Got to learn your own lessons then huh?' Calen began, leaning back on the table to keep both Alec and Luna in his field of vision. 'My father always went on about that, would scold my siblings for helping me out with one of his tests. Oh well I suppose it's better this way, that means everything done; glory and mistakes are mine alone.' Calen responded chuckling away at his own private joke as Alec finished.

Noticing the wolf girl stumble Calen moved to get her away from his drink bowl but unfortunately couldn't get to Luna in time and only got to the bowl as the wolf faunus bathed in the sticky drink. 'I'm glad the punch went down so quickly but I didn't think people would use it as a bath substitute.' Calen jested as he stood back and watched Alec hand Luna a towel. Taking a more serious expression Calen pointed out. 'My dorm is pretty close if you want a shower to get all this off you. I'm sure Anna, my team mate, wouldn't mind you borrowing a dress either although she is a bit taller and has abysmal fashion sense.'

Although Rory and Lilla seemed to be getting along well if their laughter was anything to go by it did leave Calen two easily exploitable fellow students short. Eager to make up the difference even if it had to be with a faunus Calen would need to move quickly to ensure that the party was as memorable as possible but for all the wrong reasons.

[Riven]

"Now that I've sufficiently embarrassed myself and covered your nice shoes in sticky punch, how was your year going before you met me?"

Rory glanced down at his now punch-splashed shoes, not seeming particularly phased. "Don't worry about it, honestly. These are pretty waterproof; I'll just wipe them off later." He took another sip of the mulled wine, his face showing that he still wasn't quite adjusted to it yet. "As for my year... busy, complicated, all the standard Beacon fare. I'm Rory, by the way." He extended his free hand to Lilla.





"Oh.. I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to... um..."

Alec chuckled in a good-natured and slightly bemused fashion. "No worries -- I'm glad when my baking gets people excited!"

He was also glad to see Calen make his way over, offering some decent suggestions at that. Well, they could be decent; the old baker found himself remembering a few times he'd invited a lady friend back to the dorms... often with very mixed results. Ah, the vigor and tenacity of youth...




Still slightly stunned by the strange and jarring conversation with Merletta, Budonoki turned to see that his old teammate was otherwise occupied and decided to pass the flask off to him -- and catch up on all the years since they'd last seen each other -- when he had a free moment. As expected, the holiday formal was bustling... and the sagely old Faunus smiled to himself as he remembered that he had something to add to the festivities. Gingerly placing his burlap sack on a nearby unoccupied table, he drew out a handful of 'Snow Sparklers': a nifty indoor-safe pyrotechnic wand that, when lit, produced a small dancing blue-white candle flame and a shower of tiny "sparks" that turned into drifting snowflakes mid-air. The things that could be made with Dust never ceased to impress, certainly.

"Right, then -- with the spirit of the season." He chuckled to himself. Overhearing the back-and-forth of Tristan and Camille as they entered, the elderly Faunus turned to them both and offered each a sparkler. "Happy holidays, students!"