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

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

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 resist, though. Food, drink, Dean's music, kittens? Okay, and an ex-vampire, but that wasn't his fault.

Pushing that thought away, she continued laying out the food and the carefully crafted warding spells that would protect it from the kittens. They had been given run of most of the patio, but not the yard, and not the food area. That meant they'd still be popping in and out of people's laps, but at least they wouldn't do it to plates.

When everything was ready, Charlotte ran up to change into skinny jeans, a crisp white button down and a ridiculously shiny pair of cowboy boots. Not unlike Dawn, not that she knew it, Charlotte was having too much fun with the fashion options the replicators afforded. Properly armored for the event, she headed back to the patio to wait for their first guests.

OOC: This is an open event, folks, anyone should feel free to tag in, even if they just discover the party. Start a new thread with a label if you want or just tag in on another thread. Feel free to hop around, too. IT'S A PARTY, PEOPLE! Also, this will go on as long as people are interested, so backtag all ya like. We know people will be in and out all weekend. Have fun, drink all the booze.

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Barnabas stops in the middle of scratching the kitten's head and turns to John, eyes suddenly rather wide and a little bit confused. "Teleportation?" He furrows his brow. "Are you quite serious?"

As if to prove John's point, Viv decided she wanted some attention, too, and appeared in his arms. "I am serious." He held up the kitten as evidence.

See Barnabas' shocked stare. He's never seen anything quite like that. It's kind of like that time his dad was changed into a cat, but... also kind of entirely different.

"I have to say, that is most unexpected," he replies with a chuckle.

John started to laugh, nodding quickly. "That was almost exactly my reaction the first time I experienced and accepted it. Charlie really should be the one to tell the story of the first time I saw it. She gets a kick out of my confusion."

"I can't imagine that anyone's reaction would be any less amusing," he says. He switches the hand that holds his walking stick, letting his other one stretch. "Teleporting kittens is obviously something people should be warned for."

"And how do you do that?" Charlotte came up behind John and wrapped her arm around his waist. She was really enjoying the possessive nature of that gesture. "No one ever believes me until they see it. Hell, John saw it happen a half dozen times and he still didn't completely process it."

Not that she blamed him. That night had a few unexpected little events. Like them kissing for no good reason.

He instinctively wrapped his arm around hers and leaned back against her. "I really think you should tell him the story...

Oh, how rude of me. Charlotte Blaine, Barnabas Collins."

"Excellent point, Miss." Barnabas nods to her as if in apology for not thinking this plan of action through more carefully.

At the introduction, he nods again, this time a bit deeper to be polite. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

And then there he is, discreetly looking between the two of them as if expecting the best story ever.

Sometime later, when they were all alone, Charlotte was going to make John pay for putting her on the spot this way. For the moment, she'd take a down payment on that with her version of the events. She tightened her arm a little, pulling John closer. "The story starts when I met a man who managed to annoy me at every turn. Even when discussing the weather we seemed to tick each other off." She smiled up at John to see how he'd take that very small exaggeration. "One day, to throw him off completely, I was nice to him. That was enough to get him into my lair. I offered him remarkably fine whiskey in paper cups and then introduced him to the kittens."

She paused there, struck by the fact that she'd woken up the next morning in Taxon, after the only slightly less surprising events of the rest of that evening.

Oh, he could play along easily enough. "It wasn't just the weather. There was a rather heated debate about the exact shade of blue the sky was." he turned his head and gave her a quick kiss.

"Whiskey in paper cups, though, is not a recipe for acceptance of teleporting kittens. Even when I had one on my head."

Barnabas smiles, listening to the story, and then laughs, sufficiently amused. "Quite an effective method of payback, I'd imagine."

Charlotte assumed an expression that might have been chagrin, possibly, if you squinted. "I realize its not a rhetorical technique most can use, but it worked. He was flustered the rest of the night." She leaned a little harder into John's side. "I don't think I took too much advantage of him."

He snorted loudly at that. "No, not at all. Twenty years of celibacy, gone." He winked at Barnabas, clearly not as upset about it as he;d been at the time. "I completely blame the kittens."

For a split second, he might seem a little bit uncomfortable at the lean of the conversation, but he recovers quickly. Right. Just because they don't talk like that where he's from doesn't mean that he can't suck it up and deal with it. There's no reason to be so uptight.

He chuckles again and says to Charlotte, "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Charlotte had a moment of surprise, too, at John's revelation. Not that she didn't know, she was just stunned he would say so that baldly. When she recovered, she shrugged slightly at Barnabas. "I would be, truly, but I woke up here the next morning. I consider that punishment enough for violating the poor man." That last bit got a little bit of an eye roll. He'd resisted so very strongly, after all. He might have expressed a few seconds surprise. Maybe.

"Yes. Waking up here does absolve a lot." He gave Barnabas another smile. "You'll have to forgive us. I believe we've already been accused of being married tonight."

"You mean you aren't?" Barnabas replies automatically, 1960s and 1790s instincts taking hold again. He pauses, then shakes his head. "No, I'm sorry, you simply do appear so... comfortable with each other. It's somewhat of a surprise to hear that you aren't."

Best improvised excuse ever.

As nice as it was to hear that they seemed comfortable, given how they were living together and all, but this married thing was a bit much. She could still count the number of months they'd known each other on one hand. Or had it gone to two already. She bit back her first three responses, all of which would have sounded awful and more than a bit insulting to John, and went with, "He makes it easy. John's a very good man."

Unfortunately for Charlie, John was seeing an upside to this. He wouldn't be sinning anymore if they were to marry. He was thinking about it just enough that he almost missed Charlie's comment.

He did come up with a genuine blush, though, and leaned a little more heavily against her. "Thank you." Still blushing, he looked back at Barnabas. "Helps to have a very good woman around, of course."

"Provided he treats you well - as he seems to - that certainly seems to be the case." He gives Charlotte a small smile and looks back at John. All the comments about marriage and whatnot were bringing up thoughts of his Josette, and he did his best to push them back.

"Yes, I'm all too aware of that," he replies to John's comment about "a very good woman."

John's blush had the same distracting effect on Charlotte. Gods, they were like a pair of teenagers sometimes, which confused her completely. She'd never had that when she was actually a teenager. Then she caught the slight tone in Barnabas' voice. "Is there anyone else from your world here with you?"

John had caught the tone, too, and turned to watch Barnabas. He was genuinely curious about the answer, since most of the others had people they knew in Taxon.

Slightly uncomfortable moment and go. He folds his hands over the handle of his walking stick and glances down, shaking his head. "I'm afraid not," he says before he looks back up. "At least, if there are, I haven't met them yet. I've only been here a considerably short time."

Charlotte felt badly for leaning so hard into John at that moment, but not badly enough to stop. Even with the horrible incident, she was very glad to have John with her. She didn't feel it was right to say, 'Hopefully someone will show up.' Instead she nodded slowly. "There could be. People come out of the woodwork every day."

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

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