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[Open - Gathering - Baby Shower]

They're actually having a baby shower.

Joel is fairly certain his mother wouldn't have let them get away without something, even if he had insisted it be small and consist only of family, but for some reason he and Spencer have allowed themselves to be talked into a real shower. With invitations and food and little baby themed games to play. It's sort of strange, looking at it from his position, given that Erin is the one who's going to be giving birth and therefore is the one in the glowing pregnant woman position at this entire gathering.

She'd sweetly agreed to attend and had even whispered to Joel that she would take the brunt of the attention if she could manage it. He had whispered back that he knew they had picked her for a good reason.

But here they are. Several weeks have passed, the invitations have gone out and the decorations have been put up all over Joel and Spencer's living room. He had agreed to lift the enchantments on the house for the extent of the party, which means that anyone can open the door to their guests, they don't all have to be invited in by either Joel or Spencer, and it makes him a little nervous, but he understands the usefulness of others being able to answer the door. At least for today.

It's the decorations that keep getting to him. Sweet little ducks and zebras and monkeys, little jungle animals all over the walls. The bottle and rattle shaped cookies are pretty cute, but those aren't going to be left when the baby gets here. The animal theme, though, is fairly close to the nearly finished nursery Joel has been working on upstairs and he can't help but grin at the decorations.

Spencer, on the other hand, can't stop coming back round to the center of the living room to stare at the enormous sign that's been strung up above a table already stacked with gifts when a majority of their guests haven't even arrived yet. He'd been worried this morning that the day would overwhelm him, that knowing so many people would be coming into their home would be daunting when just a year ago, he'd never even once invited company over before meeting Joel; but so far, he feels calm, in spite of having had to watch Joel remove the enchantments that act as their security on the house. If someone wishes to crash a baby shower--which he doesn't imagine will happen anyway--then they'll have to face not only the wrath of a room that will be filled with witches and sirens, but the wrath of his mother- and sister-in-law, as well. That's not a sight Spencer thinks would be very pretty to witness.

Still, he feels light, perhaps a lingering effect of the having the chance to fall in love with Joel a second time during the spell that had taken over the town. Certainly, a great deal of his contentment has to do with the fact that he won't have to worry about losing his husband in a crowd but even beyond that, he's excited.

So much has changed in the course of the past year and weeks from now, they'll be holding their newborn in their arms for the very first time without another care in the world but for who they've been looking forward to meeting since they'd decided to take this journey together. There's something a bit strange about realizing that it's all coming to a head, that the waiting will soon be over and they'll be fathers at last, but when the first knock on the door comes, Spencer can't help but smile.

[Baby shower for Joel and Spencer's wee one. Erin, their surrogate, is present and is currently 31 weeks pregnant. If you're even a little friendly with either of them, Joel's mother sent an invitation, but the enchantments have been taken off the house for the event and so it's not an impossible party to crash. If anyone wants to crash a baby shower...]

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Mira has been excitedly chatting about this baby ever since she knew it was a thing she could be excited about, so when she received an invitation, a-shopping she went.

Baby shopping is really addictive. Really, really, addictive. Tiny hats for tiny heads and socks for little feet and tiny superhero cosplay onesies. Oh god. Her budget is her guide, and in the end, she'd decided on a little high-contrast and on-theme rattle, an in-joke-y onesie a little bigger than newborn size (because kids grow). And six Photoshopped IOU coupons for free babysitting, labeled things like "go on a damn date" "read that novel on your list" "listen to metal as loud as you want!" "the house is allll yours (please don't instagram the results)" and "zzzz".

Plus the theme gave her an excuse to wear a dress with little giraffes printed all over it. Sweet.

She can't help but feel a little tentative, though, when she sees the pile of gifts and the crowd already there, and she hovers a little at the doorway.

"Hey," he says when he spots Mira at the door, heading over in her direction. He knows most of the people here, but there's a good number of his mother's friends who have come from out of town and they've been all over him in the past ten minutes and he's grateful for the need to go greet a new guest.

"Welcome to our home," he says like she's never been there before, but his mother's friends are watching him play host. "Please for the love of god just pretend I'm good at this hosting thing."

"Hey," she says, beaming. "Oh, the place looks so great!" she adds for effect, leaning up on tiptoes to give him a well-flagged hug that doesn't infringe too much into his personal space.

"You're doing fine," she says conspiratorially, "just accept this congratulatory hug, and insist I have food." Her mom is one of those weird people who can invite an unlimited number of people over and make them feel at ease while still getting things done: Mira doesn't know how she does it but she's used to the basics.

"How are you guys? How's Erin?" she asks legitimately. "Everyone safe and sound from fairytale land?"

"Everyone is good," he says, shaking his head in amusement. "Erin lives outside of town, so she was safe. Spencer and I decided acting out the entirety of The Little Mermaid was called for, although we luckily avoided the giant sea witch and having to battle her with a ship at the end."

They'd simply gone home. They'd made their promises and Spencer had gotten his voice back and they had returned to the palace where Joel likes to assume they lived happily ever after.

"What about you?" he asks. "I didn't see you at all during those two weeks, did I?"

"Ohhh," Mira says, realizing. The memories from the spell are -- strange. Like the memory of a dream -- a vivid dream, a memorable one, but also not quite her life. She's starting to get used to weird memories. "I saw Spencer, but I, I mean, that version of me didn't know him. But he couldn't talk." She grins. "Which makes you the prince?" Some part of her left over from fairy tale land knows that.

"No, I don't think so. I was..." She shrugs. "A villager. Lived with my parents, loved reading, wanted adventure in the great wide somewhere, you know." She smiles wryly. "Not too crazy different, when you think about it, but then our house got crushed by a giant."

"That made me the prince," he says with a laugh. "And Caden was my brother. It was all very strange, but it was actually kind of nice, too." He remembers being happy. He's certainly happy now as himself, but getting to experience that with Spencer all over again, having their time together, being able to share a second first kiss when their real first kiss had been under the threat of pain and tasted of blood means a lot to the two of them.

But a second later he blinks, staring at Mira. "A giant crushed your house? And everyone's okay?" Spell or not, he thinks if someone had been injured or worse in that world it would have crossed over to this one and he hates to think of any of his friends in danger.

"Caden?" She laughs. "That's an interesting twist. Etta was still my sister. I think there was some reason she wasn't there, she was some kind of..." She pauses. "Minstrel, bard thing? We all seemed like -- ourselves, mostly, just in a fairy tale. My father even tutored the aristocracy. Maybe he taught you in this universe when you were just a little bored princeling." She's never known much about Joel's childhood, but it's amusing to imagine him being rebellious and privileged in a magic kingdom.

She nods, her smile fading a little. "When we heard the noise, I ran outside and my parents ran after. He just walked over the house like it was nothing. Thank god, the house here is fine and no one's been hurt. But it's -- I can still remember the way the two of them looked just looking at it." She tries to shake it off. They're at a baby shower. "They haven't really talked to me about it, that's the way they are. This town is so -- much, sometimes, though. It's a tough place to love, but I do?"

Edited 2015-05-09 18:26 (UTC)

Joel loves it, too. It's home, even more than Shediac had been to him and he'd grown up there. He misses New Brunswick at times and he misses the way things had felt so much easier, but he'll never leave Siren Cove, not unless Spencer wants to. This place has become secure for him. It's become a place that protects him and people like him, but having their memories messed with isn't quite the same thing.

And he doesn't know what to make of it.

"I love it, too," he says. "I'm not sure I'd ever be able to leave. I mean, if Spencer wanted to, then of course, but on my own..." He trails off and grins, somewhat embarrassed. "Before the cruise everyone went on last year, I actually hadn't left town in eight years."

She nods, understanding. There are parts of her that have big dreams, standing in New Mexico with a radio telescope, watching stellar parallax inside a Mayan observatory, but she also can't imagine raising children in a town that doesn't know about magic, or is filled with Starbucks and Targets and no quirky local places working hard to break even and friends with all their customers.

As if that's something she needs to consider, with no one in her life, but Joel and Spencer and all this makes it feel a little real.

She grins at his admission. "You guys need a vacation, at least," she teases. "Go to like - DC and roll around in artifacts, or something. But yeah, I get that."

"Aoife offered us use of her apartment in New York," he says, though he still needs to speak with Spencer about the possibility of them going there for a weekend. It seems a little daunting, the idea of a city that big, because even Shediac had been small and he's never been anywhere even remotely close to New York City.

"I'm not sure how it... well, I-I think I'd be able to go," he says. "It would help to have Spencer with me. I've just never been good at leaving town for a lot of reasons."

The first time he had tried, he'd had to pull over or risk driving his car into the ditch in the midst of his panic attack.

"Aoife? Wow. That's -- very sweet of her. She is really full of surprises sometimes." High school tutoring means Mira has a bit of an in on Aoife's family and her own insecurities, and it's led to a soft spot for her, but also a tendency to get really, really bored with her shit when she's cruel to people. But sweetness out of nowhere is more surprising. Maybe not out of nowhere. It's hard not to like Spencer and Joel.

She picks up on the tentativeness right away, and nods. Her anxiety is very predictable, mostly around being self-sufficient and living up to her own perfectionism, but she's been recently enough forced out of a several-months-long panic attack to recognize stress when it shows up in other people's language. "My grandmother lives in New York," she offers. "That's where my mom was born. If you do go, I could give you a whole map of anything you really want to see and how to avoid commuters. Can't guarantee you wouldn't get lost inside something like the New York Public Library, but it's a nice quiet place to get lost with primary documents to look at while you're there. And bonus points, it's New York so you could basically spend a weekend inside with anything you can imagine just delivered to your doorstep."

Mira smiles. "Or, you know, ring my Bubbe if you're super interested in being fed until you burst, but that doesn't sound like a sexy vacation."

"She is," Joel agrees, but he knows he sees the sweetness in her more often than not. There's something about her he's drawn toward, something he wants to watch over, though he doesn't think she's in need of actual protection. It's just that he wants to be there for her, he wants to be able to listen if she ever does decide to open up.

"And that would be incredible," he adds, lighting up at the suggestion. "Having a map, being prepared, I think it would help. It's not so much getting lost that bothers me, it's just that this place... well, it became a bit of a security blanket after everything that happened to my family."

"I love the giraffes." She says it over her tiny cup of apple juice, since it's sort of shaped like a baby bottle, but Raleigh wouldn't ever think of actually voicing that a lot of the people here would be pretty surprised just to find juice and nothing harder. "You? Look adorable." Totally fitting for a baby shower. Raleigh's just in a yellow dress and green sweater, but nothing as cute as what Mira's got on.

"And c'mon-- you might need some help getting stuff to balance without things falling on the floor, I totally had some stuff fall." She makes a face. "I mean, I think it's okay, because it landed in other boxes of stuff, but there's a lot." She doesn't quite pull Mira over to the gift table so that she can put her stuff down, but it's close.

Mira beams both to see her and at the compliment. "Thanks! You look pretty adorable yourself," she says back with a grin. She has to be careful with yellow sometimes, but Raleigh always looks sunny in it.

She lets herself be tugged toward the gift table with a smile. "There is a lot, isn't there?" She makes a very careful attempt at a jenga-style balance, making a face. "I hope mine's okay. I didn't have a lot to spend?? I'm sure some people in this town could like -- buy a baby store." She glances at Raleigh. "But I mean. It's Spencer. And Joel. I want to get the right thing." Of anyone, Raleigh will get this, she thinks.

"Not giraffes, though!" That's a whole other level of adorable, and Raleigh smiles brightly. "There're a lot, but I think it's just because people get excited about babies." She shifts to push another gift into place before it slips, but then she looks back at Mira, her brows furrowing a little. "Oh, I'm more than sure that it's great. Like--" She pauses, and tries to find the right words. "Spencer's- He's already sort of bought a baby store, you know? I think-- I mean, it's like. It's the thought. Like, totally, it's the thought, and you? You're made of thought."

She nods emphatically, because Mira totally gets it - both how much thought was needed, but more than that-- she got how it being Spencer and Joel made it different. "I totally know you got the right thing."

"I feel that," Mira says. "Baby shopping, it's such a problem. Tiny everything." She flaps her hands.

She laughs softly at Spencer having bought a baby store -- not just because it's funny, but because it's so true, and then grins, glancing down embarrassed but pleased. "Made of thought may be the best thing anyone's ever said about me," she laughs. "I just. They're not always useful thoughts? But I hope you're right." Raleigh's conviction makes her feel a lot better and she hugs her around the waist. "Thank you, that does make me feel a lot better."

"So," she says, "what have you been up to? Since fairyland. Or in it, I don't think we even ran into each other." She furrows her brow.

"Tiny everything, but oh my god, cute everything." She shrugs, though, when Mira says it's sort of the best compliment, wrinkling her nose. "I mean, it's true! And even if for some reason they're not useful, they're still totally interesting. And right." She nods once, before they move away from the giant gift pile before they knock anything over, and Raleigh grabs a cup of punch.

"Me? I.... I mean. You know. Work? And-" She pauses, and it's this sort of... she's trying to figure out what she wants to say, and what she doesn't, and she sort of finishes lamely. "Just.... trying to figure out what happened with the... fairy thing. How're you? What were you?"

"I am not sure you're 100 percent right," Mira grins, glancing down and grabbing her own cup of punch. "But thank you."

Mira gives her a small look over her cup of punch. "Work is a thing, yeah." She can tell Raleigh's not saying everything, but she also doesn't want to push too hard if Raleigh's not up to talking. "I'm doing okay. I think." She shakes her head. "I wasn't that different? I mean. I was kind of -- want adventure in the great wide somewhere?" She laughs. "Peasant girl, reads too much. It wasn't too bad, except a -- giant crushed my house." She takes a drink to settle the memory. "I mean, it's okay. Everyone's okay, now, it just -- watching the looks on my parents' faces as our house was destroyed was." She shivers. "I think that was worse than not having a house."

She takes another small sip and slowly admits, "I didn't get hurt, I mean, I didn't even mind it at the time, but the fact that someone just took over my mind like that -- again -- it makes me feel really helpless and -- and human here." It's a baby shower. They're supposed to be talking about cute things and playing baby games, but she thinks Raleigh will get this.

"So, wait," she says with raised brows. "You're like-- Belle. But with a crushed house? I mean, the house thing sucks." She pauses, and then nods, slowly, and sort of tilts her head towards the back porch, because they could go outside and not bring the whole thing down.

"I... didn't remember who I was at all. Not until it was over." She makes her way towards the back porch, hoping Mira's following her. "It's- It's this thing that I really don't think a lot of them get. The... helpless, thing." She says it quietly, rolling her shoulders back - she absolutely, 100% gets it.

"Yeah, no Beast, just kinda bored until a giant came wandering through town." She nods slightly and follows her, trying not to look too overt about leaving.

When they get out, Mira leans on the wall of the house and nods emphatically. "I didn't remember either. Now I can look back -- it's kind of like a dream. Like, there was a peasant boy I made friends with who was Davin, and a prince that was Dylan. But at the time we were just --" She shakes her head. "Who we were. I didn't exactly enjoy the whole dream-brainwashing when it was in a siren cave. Twice..."

She waves vaguely, though it's not exactly a vague thing in her life, not since the nightmares and ensuing insomnia after being kidnapped nearly put her in the hospital. She has Davin to thank for that; whatever sigil he put on her, it's kept all but the most terrifying nightmares at bay, and those aren't about being in a siren cave or losing her grip on reality. Mostly about her family dying, or her friends, and her being helpless. Terrifying, but totally normal bullshit.

Mira nods again, more firmly. "I don't think they do either. I mean, Davin killed a dragon. I would have been food. I'm smart, but --" She glances at Raleigh. "Sometimes I feel like that isn't enough."

"It's-" Pausing, Raleigh chews on her lip for a second. "Like, I don't know where they got who we were," she says finally. "Like. I was-- I worked in a bakery, but- You can't tell anyone, but I sort of was all... Robin Hood, at night. Like with the whole bow and arrow shooting people, I wish I was making this up."

She seems -- and is, really- genuinely distressed by it. "Like, I hurt people, and I just-- suddenly I remembered who I was and it wasn't all Medivael serfdom anymore, and just-- why? Who-- If it'd been a dragon, what would have I done? Or you - besides just up and die, you know?"

Swallowing hard, she continues. "Whenever I say anything-" She moves to sit on the steps, so they can just talk for a little bit. "Literally whenever I say anything about not having powers being-- I don't know, scary, or making me vulnerable, or... anything, literally the answer they say is always the same."

She takes a deep breath. "That I'm not vulnerable, because I have friends who will watch out for me. And... they totally don't get that's not the point. I mean, I know they will, the most they can, but like.... that's not the point."

"Whoa, what really?" Mira can, logistically tell that that's disturbing, but it is a lot more badass than what she got turned into. "Do you actually know how to use a bow and arrow?" That would make some sense, at least, in terms of where it came from. "I don't know, I mean, Spencer was a mermaid, I don't think there was any rhyme and reason."

She shakes her head. "I don't know where any of it came from. Or -- why. I mean. I guess I would have just died. Or run. Probably I would have run." She laughs slightly self-deprecatingly. "But I mean, I can't say. Because it wasn't us." she adds firmly. She can tell Raleigh's feeling guilty and -- she didn't have any control over it. "Something, someone made us into different people. For fun, I guess, or for some reason I don't know."

Mira shifts a little to press her arm against Raleigh's just a little. It's not pitying, or cuddly either exactly, just a quiet show of being there. Being in the same place.

She sighs. She's heard that too. Been protected by Davin more than she likes; told no one would let anything happen to her. She doesn't want to let anything happen to herself. "Yeah. Yeah. I know, exactly." She looks up at Raleigh. "Anyway, you're not not vulnerable because you have friends." Mira makes a face. She knows everyone means well, but that's not the point. "You're not vulnerable because you fight. I don't mean like." She does a little boxing motion. "You've survived a lot of shit, and you're here. With your own business and your own place, even. In this town that's fucking scary to live in. You're tough."

"No clue. I mean, I know how to shoot a rifle, but that's totally not the same thing, you know?" She frowns. "But like, I really did... like. Shoot people. Really-really." She leans her head on Mira's shoulder for a second, frowning. "I mean, it must have come from somewhere, because Spencer and Joel found each other again, didn't they? So it's like... there's a part of us in that."

She makes a face, and then Mira says she's not vulnerable because she fights, but Raleigh shakes her head. "I don't-- I don't mean like that. It's the-- You know how I told you that I made Oscar, right? Every single person who I know who does magic was super pissed at me for randomly drinking some hippy guy's potion, even when I said it's not something I would ever do on my own and it was clearly not me making that choice. Because they just don't get it, and-- like. Yeah, I can handle a lot of stuff, but I feel like being human in this town is like having a giant target on your back, but it's more important to stay."

She's frowning, now. "It's not that I'm not vulnerable, or that you're not, it's that we can live with it, but they don't get that it's not just-- like. Hunky dorey, trust that somehow our magically buddies will save the day."

"I didn't know that," Mira says, thinking it's the kind of skill that will probably end up being useful here at some point. Maybe, anyway. She frowns. "Yeah," she acknowledges. "I mean. Me and books, too. Ugh. I'm sorry." It's one thing to think of them as sort of NPC video game characters that weren't really hurt -- and maybe they were in this stupid spell, who knows, she hasn't exactly heard of any super wealthy people showing up dead or wounded and she thinks that probably wouldn't have just gone back to normal. And steal-from-the-rich-to-feed-the-poor isn't the worst kind of person she could have been. But Raleigh still has to live with shooting people.

She nods. "Hey, I drank the hippy guy's potion too." She skips the part where, besides the very tempting idea of being a better herself, him being kinda super hot had definitely nudged the choice. Because that is idiotic. And pathetic sounding. "Apparently the better you dreams puppies, and the better me ...sings everything." She shakes her head in rueful remembrance, but the humor in it fades. "I don't get how they don't understand. I know it can't be easy for them either, but it's different feeling like you're holding someone back or that you could just have anything happen to you. Like the least special of your friends."

"Besides," she adds, "It's not like nothing ever happens to them. I can't just trust that my friends save the day, because if they're not there, I haven't learned how to protect myself."

"It's sort of.... Tennessee, you know? You just... know. I mean, I can use a shotgun too, but I don't have either one of them." She tucks her hair behind her ear, when Mira says she's sorry. "I mean - you don't need to be sorry, I know it's not like-- I mean. What can I do about it? Nothing. What could I do about it when it was happening? Also nothing, so... like." She paused. "It just... kind of was what it was, I guess." Which doesn't mean she doesn't feel horrible, it's just.... something else. Something else she can sort of use to explain away the whole thing the best that she can.

"I mean-- the... me with that potion, the only reason I made Oscar is that I was trying as hard as I could not to make an elephant in the middle of my bakery. For real."

She lifts her head, and looks at Mira. "I don't either, but they just... they don't. I mean-- I don't think it's easy for them at all, but it's... The thing that gets me is the not knowing. You know? Like, Les will just up and out of the blue say that witches can read minds, or be in your dreams, or like... change something into something else, and it's like... What do you do? There's no way to fight it, and it just... it scares me, because what if they're not around." She knows it intimately. What it's like when there's just... nobody.

"But Joel's done things that help. He gave me wardings for my apartment, and he's always tried to sort of... talk through all of the stuff so that I can learn how to protect myself. Maybe you should talk to him, too? He's-- He gets it, I think. And he's-- I mean, I don't know what I'd do without him."

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astra_inclinant - 2015-05-19 15:33 (UTC) - Expand

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