Wine's been poured and thank the Lord I've had the napkins freshly pressed... [Party-Thread]

[cookiesandhugs]

Grant Park, on any other day, could be called just a nice little park (or EPIC PARK, seeing as how it appears to have eaten Chicago) where people see other people and other people exercise and some people from different universes fall into Chicago

Comments

[trivialsublime0]

Rusty does not feel like he fits in here. He doesn't go to birthday parties, especially not parties like this, but he doesn't have many friends in this world. There aren't a whole lot of people that give half a shit about him, which is just fine, but Gladys seems to care. He can't figure why, but she does so he's here with a gift even. It's wrapped in newspaper, but it's a miracle that he even thought to do it.

He's trying to make it through the party without anyone noticing him except Gladys so he can get in, and then get out, again.

[cookiesandhugs]

Gladys sees Rusty first, and dumps her tray of cookies on a table to run up to him, grabbing him up in a hug. She then notices the gift, and steps back with a gasp.

"You DIDN'T!" she cries, the look on her face one of surprise and pure joy. "Oh you SHOULDN'T HAVE!" She shakes her head and grabs him up in another hug, kissing his cheek like she was his mother or something.

Gladys doesn't believe in personal space bubbles.

[trivialsublime0]

Rusty should really not be surprised when he's hugged by Gladys. He isn't. It's just- He hadn't been paying attention so at first he has no idea what's happening to him when she wraps her arms around him. There's a brief feeling of terror, and then he realizes that it's Gladys hugging him.

He shrugs his shoulders rather sheepishly. "It's your birthday so I figured that's what people do for birthdays. Anyway, it's not that big of a-"

And then she's hugging him, again, and kissing him. He blinks and shakes his head at her with a faint smile holding the haphazardly wrapped gift out to her.

"You probably don't need it anyway cause you got a lot of experience with it and all. Probably know every damned way to do 'em. Figured it might be nice though. Maybe there's somethin' in there you haven't tried yet or forgot how to try or I dunno. Wasn't sure what else to get ya so."

It's a recipe book specifically for cookies.

[cookiesandhugs]

Gladys giggles madly. "You didn't have to get me anything at all! And this is lovely wrapping paper, did you make it yourself or did it come like that?"

She opens it and then giggles madly, wrapping her arms around him once more, hands still holding the gift in one hand and the wrapping paper in the other. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she says. "Thank you so much. I love it. It's perfect." She pulls away and smiles her absolutely sunniest smile at him.

[beanshield]

Bean appears late to the party--punctuality has never been her strong suit--and looks around rather tentatively. She doesn't really like to crash parties, and although the woman named Gladys pretty clearly invited everyone, she still feels just a little awkward.

It's not long, though, before she's chowing down on cookies and other delicious goodies, passing a few of the non-chocolate ones off to Potato as well.

[justashitmagnet]

Mike sees the tiny girl and no parents. Mike is concerned. Mike is also dumb, but whatever.

"Nice dog," he says, nodding at Potato. "Your folks just let you run around with it?"

See Mike. See Mike be dumb. Be dumb Mike, be dumb!

[beanshield]

Bean blinks up at him. "Oh, sure! I mean, he's my service dog, so I can't really go anywhere without him." She smiles and scritches Potato's head. "Not that I'd want to anyway! He's like my best friend."

Potato snuffles at her hand and licks off some cookie crumbs, then looks over at Mike and sniffs at him delicately, determining whether he is safe for his human.

[justashitmagnet]

Oh. Mike's REALLY dumb today, apparently. "Oh," he says. "Well. He looks like a nice dog." Blink blink, while he struggles to find words that will get rid of this horribly guilty feeling building in his gut. "Well. Um. Do you have far to go, home-wise? Because you really shouldn't be out alone."

See Mike be vaguely sketchy. He can't help it. He's the tall dark stranger here for the rescue.

[callinallfreaks]

Huck's been shuffling about, hanging out at the sides of the party and snitching food to munch on (though it's not really snitching in these circumstances), trying to spot Gladys amidst all the colorful swag and crowd of people.

Eventually she decides that hanging at the edges is just getting annoying, and forges in, taking a tiny cake and popping it into her mouth on the way there. So eventually she makes it over to Gladys, small handful of treats on her person, and grins at the older angel. "Y'gotta lotta food here," she says. "Happy Birthday'n'all." She's hoping the grinning and the fact that she's there will make up for the fact that she totally didn't get Gladys a birthday present or anything.

[cookiesandhugs]

Gladys smiles and just grabs Huck into a hug. "Well, I didn't know how many people were coming," she says once she lets Huck go. "It's always better to overprepare than to underprepare. Besides, with more you can take cookies home with you for people." She grins at Huck, nodding at the treats she's holding. "Would you like a bag for those?" she asks.

[callinallfreaks]

Huck tenses a bit at the hug, because she's just not used to getting them from people other than her brother -- she and the boys just exchange punches and like hell anyone else ever hugs her. Then she looks down at the handful for a moment, shrugs, and grins. "Nah," she says, jamming a cookie in her mouth and chewing it. "Gonna eat'em all soon annaways, 'sfuckin' good, yanno?"

And then she's scanning the crowd around the park. "Din't know y'knew so many people," she comments. Yeah, the journal entry was public, but Huck doesn't care. I mean, why would you go to a party for someone you didn't know if it didn't have booze? ...well, okay, free cookies are always a plus.

[cookiesandhugs]

Gladys giggles. "People tell me that a lot," she says. "But it's lovely to hear they're still fucking good. You should stick around to get a piece of this cake." She nods to indicate the tiered monstrosity behind her. "That is the biggest motherfucking cake I've ever made in my life, and I want to know how it turned out."

Gladys shrugs at the comments about people. "I know most of them, I think," she says. "Not all of them. I just want them to eat the cookies so I don't have to send them off somewhere. Paying for postage for that many boxes of cookies would be a bitch."