[location: John Everton's House] [OPEN TO ALL!] BLOCK PARTY!!!

[aesthetic_mojo]

The time had come. Charlotte left John in charge of setting up the bar, giving him only the one request that he have a decent selection of beer, and did the work of dialing up the food. She knew she was going way over board. For all she knew no one might show up, even though she'd gotten a bit of a response to her invite. How could people

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[hearts_of_gold]

Inara stared at the walls of her shuttle for a good long time before she decided, finally, all right.

There was no avoiding it. She had been living like a hermit for weeks, months really. And one of the only times she'd ventured out she'd nearly been killed. It wasn't a phenomenally confidence-stirring fact.

Still. There were people out there, a greater society, and she was at heart a social creature. It was difficult watching other people network and participate while she endlessly made herself tea and prayed.

Only shénshèng de gāowán did it have to be at John Everton's house? She rubbed her neck reflexively. He'd apologized in a very halfhearted way with no assurances that it wouldn't happen again, the entire becoming a monster of legend...thing. And nearly killing her. Was she insane to contemplate walking directly into his home? She already felt so stupid for it happening in the first place

[hearts_of_gold]

Inara pondered this. "I think maybe I might have felt better about things if I'd punched him in the nose. Do you think that's still an option?"

There was light, strained humor in her voice. It was a party after all. At least her assault hadn't been as awful as it could have been, though. And then her eyebrow quirked lightly. "I don't know how gentle and honorable he is currently, he did call me a bitch."

And for some reason this was just too, too amusing, to the point that she started to giggle and just...couldn't really properly get it to stop.

[aesthetic_mojo]

The laugh was infectious, drawing Charlotte in even when she knew she should defend John, at least a little. "I'm pretty sure we could make a case for still punching him. Feel free to suggest it to him and see what he thinks." She raised her eyebrow high. "Wait, he called you a bitch after he'd changed back? Really?"

[hearts_of_gold]

"He did! I can't imagine why, with the way I was insinuating that he might still possibly be a monster and could offer no assurances that it wouldn't happen again..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a small sigh. "I suppose I was unkind. I think I was just being cautious, but really...he was churlish."

[aesthetic_mojo]

Charlotte put on her most innocent expression, the one she saved for the very most special occasions because of how much work it took, and smiled sweetly at Inara. "Churlish? Never. John has always been the embodiment of sweetness and--" No, she couldn't do it. Not when the first few times they'd spoken had ended with snapping at each other and very nearly thrown computers. "He is, I fear, a man of strong feeling. When he decides a conversation is over, he'll end it how he has to. Including name calling and stony silences."

She shook her head, exhaling slowly. "He hates not knowing and there's only so much I can tell him." And less that she would. "He wouldn't like knowing, either, of course." She glanced over at Inara, lowering her voice to a troubled whisper. "Did he-- Was it very horrible?" She couldn't bring herself to ask flat out if Asher had assaulted Inara in the same way she had been.

[hearts_of_gold]

"Not knowing?" She asked with a quirk of an eyebrow. "Not knowing what in particular? About what happened?" He had asked who he'd attacked on the network, claimed to not remember..."Why wouldn't you tell him?"

She sighed and laid a hand on her neck, covering the spots from the puncture wounds that his fangs made that were still healing. "I was out walking, he came up behind me and tried to get me to go into the forest. I suggested that we go visit my...the ship that I reside on instead because something seemed off, and after we rounded a corner he tossed me up against a wall and bit me. I tried to shoot him, he knocked the gun from my hand, I tried to fight him...and then I collapsed in a great big pile of victim from loss of blood, I imagine, and that's where Dean found me some time later."

[aesthetic_mojo]

Charlotte had no intention of answering the why honestly. Not at the party, not ever "I only know the parts I was there for. And I-- I got knocked out for a good while." After being fed on a few times, among other things. "And the thing that attacked us, it really wasn't him. Asher is not a part of John." She wanted that to be utterly clear. "It's much more like he was outright replaced for that time, not taken over or changed."

She sighed softly. "I am so sorry. It took me so long to figure out and then I couldn't stop him. But when he says he doesn't know, he truly does not know." Not wanting to spoil the mood completely, she raised an eyebrow. "That said, bopping him in the nose still isn't out of the question. That bitch part is all on him."

[hearts_of_gold]

Inara sighed also, patting Charlotte on the arm. "Don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault. You were a victim just like I was, and likely others as well. And I suppose it could have been much worse. I remember from a few weeks ago that one of the other people here was taken over by a malevolent god...perhaps that sort of thing just..."

She couldn't help a small, involuntary shiver. "I suppose it just happens here at times." Who even knew who could be next, and what could happen to them if that was the case? Being taken over by outside entities...it was an alarming prospect.

And then she sipped her beer, eying John from afar. She would probably switch over to punch after this, she didn't have a very high tolerance for alcohol even sipped delicately and she didn't want to get silly as one of her very first impressions on the greater populace of this place. "Yes, I still vote for hitting. Perhaps later, though," she said with a grin and a nod.

[aesthetic_mojo]

Charlotte wasn't sure how she felt about Inara's kind reaction. Being angry at herself was easier than a lot of other ways to look at a situation she couldn't change, but it wasn't healthy. She smiled faintly at Inara and nodded. The smile faded more when she thought about the kinds of things that could go wrong. Not a one of them was attractive. At all.

Rather than deal with that, she followed Inara's gaze to John. "Later. When his resistance is down some." Maybe they could even gang up on him. That would be nice.

[hearts_of_gold]

Inara left her hand on Charlotte's arm, watching her with concern. It was easier to be worried about someone else, it drew her out of her own spirals of doubt and focusing so much on herself. She wasn't suited to worrying about herself, and she did quite enough of it in general that she really didn't need to do more of it. Something else was going on, but here, at a party, she wasn't about to pry.

"I'll have to remember that. After a few drinks?" She grinned a bit herself, knowing that he at least indulged occasionally. The man had been drinking when she met him for the first time.

[aesthetic_mojo]

Charlotte shifted closer to Inara, looping Inara's arm through hers and leading her over to the bar area. Her smile came back, full force, as she let the idea of the two women ganging up on John for some healing abuse wash over her and give her peace. "After he's had them or we have?"

Both ideas only brightened her smile. Two tipsy, pretty women descending on him would turn John a few shades of red. It was absolutely perfect and she had to have it. She'd make it up to him later.

[hearts_of_gold]

"Him, I think," she said with a laugh. She really did intend for the beer to be her only alcoholic drink, and she could nurse the huǒ kēng out of a single drink. "Unless there's going to be hitting. Then I'll likely need a bit more to get me to the point where I'd actually bop someone in the nose."

Buddhist after all! Even if it wasn't the strictest form of Buddhism and had evolved over hundreds of more years. And the branch she specifically followed was of course sort of tweaked to make it specific to being a Companion, something that was very much a matter of faith.

[aesthetic_mojo]

If, at that point, Charlotte could have pictured Inara's later dancing and general carrying on, she wouldn't have been nearly so quick to espouse the idea of said bopping. Assuming that no one would get drunk enough, though, it seemed all in good fun to run with it. Catharsis was good for the soul. "In that case, another round for everyone."