[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 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.

Comments

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

The sun's down and John is at the grill. He's got plates of various meats surrounding him and has already said a prayer that the grill will work. He closed his eyes and hit the starter. Click, click, and then it caught.

After another prayer of thanks, he signified the start of making food with the loud sizzle of steaks going down.

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

Charlotte completely intended to go help John at the grill. Or at least ask him if he needed help and then stand there looking pretty. When she realized he'd actually said a prayer before starting up the grill, she decided to hang back and watch him. He'd been working the crowd almost as much as she had, which was a fascinating surprise.

After a while, watching him wasn't enough. She licked her lips as she reached for him with her mind, goosing him lightly with invisible fingers.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He yelped at the pinch and spun around to shake the tongs at her. "Listen here, woman." He narrowed his eyes slightly at her. And unintentionally touched her mind with a soft request. Come here.

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

She didn't jump at the request, but only because it took her a moment to separate the whisper in her mind from his other words, which had an implied summoning, too. Instead she took a half step backwards and stared at him for a long beat before crossing the patio to join him. "Did I hurt you?"

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her lightly. "Hurt? No. You just cheated."

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

"I cheated?" She used her real fingers to pinch him. "I didn't want to interrupt your work, that's all. Looks like I failed." She rested her forehead against his, half hoping he'd do that whisper again.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

Resting his forehead against hers, he gave her another kiss. "Quite the turnout. You did good." He nuzzled her cheek and sighed softly. Love you.

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

She laughed softly at the compliment. She'd done so little to get people there, only announcing it. The food and general sense of camaraderie had turned it into a real party. The whisper made her smile very slightly. She didn't answer with any words, but there was the faintest echo of a response deep in her mind. "Are you having fun?"

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He kissed her again. "I am." Of course, he thought she'd asked the question out loud, so that was what he was answering. "Are you?"

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

Going back and forth was a little dizzying, so she was happy to switch back to audible speech. "I'm pleased so many people showed up. I wasn't sure they would." She pulled him a little closer for a deep kiss. "You're going to burn the steaks if we keep kissing."

Re: Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

"Nonsense." He kissed her again, then turned and flipped the steaks quickly. Then he cheated a little himself and chilled the meat a little, just to buy some time.

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

When she had him back where she could kiss him, she laughed softly against his lips. "I could have done that, you know, and we wouldn't have a had to move at all. No one would have noticed." They were all too busy talking and watching the kittens teleport.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He laughed against her lips. "But I'm the one doing the grilling here, not you." Pulling her a little closer, he smirked. "Anyone else think we're married?"

Grilling

[aesthetic_mojo]

That earned him an invisible slap on the ass, a firm one. "No, thank you very much. Two is plenty, don't you think?" She groaned. "Honestly, I can understand Barnabas, he seems sort of old fashioned, but Dean?" She glanced around to find Dean. "I'd have thought he'd assume 'shacking up.'"

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

"Maybe he's just old fashioned, too." He turned her head back to him and gave her another kiss. Not that I'd be opposed. This point he is not at all meaning to project, not that he knows he's doing it.

Re: Grilling

[hearts-of-gold.livejournal.com]

And then there was Inara. Again. An empty plate in one hand, a glass of punch in the other...she was apparently well into her cups of punch, and also a lightweight to boot. She was listing ever so slightly to one side, and was apparently quite drunk if she was approaching John with a smile on her face.

"Do you have any vegetarian selections? Mushrooms, tofu...vegetable skewers?" She asked, her eyebrows arched. "Something not entirely composed of meat."

It wasn't even that she was a vegetarian, but every so often the rampant consumption of mass quantities of meat made her just a bit twitchy in the Buddhist parts of her psyche. Was it possible to be a lapsed Buddhist?

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He would have been mildly concerned that she was smiling at him. But he was just as guilty of the drinking as the rest of them. "As a matter of fact..."

He'd thrown some veggie skewers together on the off chance that someone might want some roughage with their meat. He put two on her plate. "I can make you some mushrooms, if you'd like."

Re: Grilling

[hearts-of-gold.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Oh! The big kind, what do they call them..." she looked to the night sky with a momentarily puzzled expression. "Shitake? With a soy sauce glaze! Oh! I'll go get some from the hatch!"

She spun nearly fast enough to dislodge the skewers on her plate, wandered off...and then wandered back again after just a few moments. "Where is your nearest hatch?"

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He would not laugh, he would not laugh. Okay, yes, he would. He was chuckling when she came back asking about the hatch. He pointed to one close by and smirked. "Could you get a couple portabellos, too, while you're at it?"

Re: Grilling

[hearts-of-gold.livejournal.com]

"Maybe portabellos was what I was thinking of..." she mused as she wandered back in the direction he'd indicated, stopped halfway as she got distracted by realizing she had food in her hand, and then nibbled on it for a moment before she recalled her mission and headed for the hatch again.

Somehow she managed to return after not too long with a plate of various mushrooms of different sizes and shapes, and a bottle of high-quality soy sauce. "Here we are!" She presented the entirety with a wide smile.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He took the mushrooms and soy sauce from her before she dropped something, then pointed her toward a nearby chair. He put the portabellos heads on the grill and started a glaze with the soy sauce. "Need another drink or anything while I'm cooking?"

Re: Grilling

[hearts-of-gold.livejournal.com]

"Another drink would be great!" she said enthusiastically, wandering off again in a punch-wardly direction. She returned not long after again with a full cup for herself and one for him too. "It's easy to get dehydrated next to open sources of heat," she said earnestly, with a slightly mis-aimed pat on his shoulder.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He took the drink with a laugh, Inara drunk was amusing. "Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it." He took a drink and stifled a slight scowl. He would know that lack of taste anywhere. Everclear.

Scanning the party, he was fairly certain he knew who to blame. However, since everyone seemed to be having fun, it would wait until later. For now, there was cooking to be done.

A few moments later, he presented her with one of the mushroom heads and a cup of the glaze.

Re: Grilling

[hearts-of-gold.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, so much," Inara said with entirely too much sincerity, laying a firm hand on his shoulder, and then drifted off into the party again now that she was properly provided with more food than she was likely to actually finish.

Grilling

[lapsedsaint]

He watched her walk away and shook his head. There was little else he could do, really.