just_another | [Open - Gathering

Entry tags:

[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...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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."

Mira laughs. "I mean, lots of people know how to shoot up here too, hunting and stuff, my parents are just not super into that." Understatement. It's not something they talk about a lot, but the one time Mira can remember it coming up was over one of Etta's crushes owning a gun; he had been 18 to her 16. Her father knows how to shoot a gun, but it's one of the few things he doesn't take any argument on -- he wants them nowhere near his family. "Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it. Anything that happened then -- it's out of your hands."

Mira grins at the ground at the idea of Raleigh literally creating an elephant in the room. "I'm glad you didn't end up with an elephant? I mean, where would you have put that. Oscar's much cuter."

She nods more seriously as she talks about Les lacking any subtlety in describing witches' power. "Yeah. That's a lot of power. I mean, I trust my friends, but -- that's a lot." She thinks of Davin with his Magneto powers. He could kill someone with that. Easily. Or whatever he'd learned to block her nightmares; she's sure the opposite exists. "And what happens if someone brainwashes them? Because apparently that just happens around here."

It wasn't just humans in that cave, for one thing, Mira thinks. Les, Coop, Michaela, Aoife. They're all magical and they'd all been lured by some random siren. Joel'd had a demon possess him. Davin had been affected like the rest of them in this fairy tale spell. There's nothing to say their powers couldn't be used against them.

"I should," she nods. "Joel's great. I mean, I've been coming to Crossroads since I was an awkward teenage weirdo and we talk physics all the time." Mira's glad that now she's old enough to know what Joel needs sometimes: Spencer and Joel getting together while she was away was like some geeky surprise made exactly for her. "He probably is the right person to ask."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Open - Gathering - Baby Shower]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject