A Side Room at The Bronze, Sunnydale, Friday Evening

[wwiii]

It was entirely possible that Warren didn't actually know the meaning of the word 'overkill.' At least, not when it came to organizing parties. And especially not when it came to organizing parties that people would be travelling across the multiverse to attend. He'd sprung for the rental of one of the side rooms at The Bronze, of course, and in doing so he might have gone just slightly carried away, paying to have the place decked out in garlands and icicle lights and, yes, mistletoe. Christmas carols were playing as people arrived, though thankfully they would be interspersed with less seasonal music throughout the night, and there was a spread of food that included not only sugar cookies and egg nog, but also the typical potato chips and veggie platters.

And, yeah, a fruitcake. Warren wasn't certain how the fruitcake had wound up on the table, but he wasn't really going to be terribly surprised if the thing stayed there the entire night, either.

Poor fruitcake.

[For those people who got invitations to the party, and up early for timezones and the like!]

Comments

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy just stared at him.

"You cannot possibly convince me that lederhosen aren't evil. Like, ever."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"But on yetis, hilarious," Warren maintained.

Because... because picture it.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Did she have to? Oh, fine.

"I'd actually pay to see my neighbors try to rationalize that one away," Kennedy admitted. "'cause yeah, hilarious."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"Granted, it would be a lot easier for me to find unicorns to deliver your next care package," Warren added, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Or dragons."

He wasn't sure what he'd have to use to bribe a unicorn or a dragon to do something like that, but he had much easier access to either than he did any sort of yeti-like creature.

"But neither are quite as festive as reindeer."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"You would, too," Kennedy realized, her eyes widening when it hit her that he actually really did have unicorn and dragon resources. Maybe she could call in some favors from some of her benign demon contacts? Hmm. She cracked her knuckles. "And now I can already plan to beat that. Mwahaha."

She failed at evil laughter, FYI.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

Warren was positively shaking in his boots. Truly.

"How do you top a dragon delivering a gift basket?"

This was something he was absolutely going to have to see, wasn't it?

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, no. You're not tricking me into showing my hand," Kennedy informed him. It helped that she didn't actually have it planned yet. "You're just gonna have to wait and find out."

There was no way this could end badly. NO WAY.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"I suppose, somehow, I'll have to," Warren mused, already trying to come up with something that could top whatever out there could actually top a dragon.

He suspected that nothing shy of taming a tyrannosaurus from the Savage Land to give to her as a pet was going to manage that. And somehow, that didn't actually strike him as a great idea.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Yeah, no. That would probably be a terrible idea. You know what was funny, though? How neither of them thought any of this was too extravagant to even be feasible.

"Oooh. This will be my biggest challenge ever," Kennedy teased. "So, a semester in Sunnydale. How's that worked out for you?"

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"I've only almost died once," Warren offered, as if that was somehow a great accomplishment. "When some sort of fear demon took over the frat house around Halloween. And yet, somehow, papers and finals are still worse."

Such was the horror of going from Fandom High to actual business administration courses in real, honest-to-goodness university.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"Tell me about it," Kennedy said with a laugh. "Pick just about any of the meanest, grossest demons I've ever had to deal with and I'd rather do that than the term paper that kicked my ass."

Beat.

"Not... not actually literally."

You had to clarify these things.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"I think I would pay money to see someone get their ass kicked by a term paper," Warren noted. "It's kind of bad when I consider it a break to head to Kaeleer, so that Lucivar and the boyos can test what I'm made of with blades or sticks."

It had been an educational week!

"School is going about as well for you as it is for me then, I guess? Way tougher than whatever Fandom thought they were preparing us for?"

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"If that ever literally happens to me, I'll make sure you get the video," Kennedy said, deadpan. "I kind of think Fandom prepped me pretty well for real life. College, not so much. The first night I actually had to study again was weird. I almost thought I was imagining ever doing it, you know, before Fandom. Also, not like riding a bicycle."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"Completely not like riding a bicycle," Warren agreed. "Not like home schooling, either. Basic arithmetic was never graded on a curve."

Evil, evil curve.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"I swear to god, that curve is actually some kind of evil symbol," Kennedy groaned. She'd actually tried to make this argument a few times; it got her epic 'bitch, please' faces. "I guess the one thing I am grateful for is that I don't have to carry my five billion textbooks around with me all the time. Textbooks! I don't think those even exist in Fandom."

Textbooks were their own form of evil.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"Oh, textbooks," Warren groaned. "I mean, it isn't like I can't handle dragging them around, but I've already gone through a few backpacks that weren't quite ready for the reading load of a business major."

Poor backpacks. They really hadn't stood a chance.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy whistled. "Okay, yeah, you've probably got it way worse than I do, there." Watch out, Warren, your next gift basket was going to include some mega-reinforced, possibly magically, industrial-strength backpack. "I don't have that much reading. Pro tip, not that you probably need it, but I don't recommend working on a bio research paper while on patrol."

In a notebook, like a barbarian, because her iPad screen was bright enough to give her away. Sigh.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"I don't really do much in the way of patrolling, yeah. That kind of makes avoiding that a little easier."

Thank goodness. Warren wasn't really made for doing things in the dark. Especially not writing papers. While hunting evil.

"Trying to write a paper on the importance of human resources in high risk industries while an Eyrien Warlord Prince informs you that you're late for your morning training, on the other hand..."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, god. Yeah." Kennedy had met Lucivar. She could imagine. (Some of the girls she'd trained might say she wasn't any easier on them, though.) "Sometimes you have to wonder why we decided to do this college thing, huh?"

There wasn't a trace of complaint in her voice, though.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"Sometimes," Warren agreed, nodding. This week had definitely been one of those sometimes, after all. "But then I stop and I look at my life and I look at all the homework and the textbooks and the stupid grading curve, and I realize that this is properly the one and only normal thing I'll ever do with myself until the end of my life."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy considered that, then laughed. "Yeah, pretty much, and you know what? There's no bad there. Sort of helps keep you grounded when everything else is a total trip. Like, I have no idea if that prophecy about an evil god rising next Thursday is true or not, but at least I know I still have twelve credits of biochemistry and molecular bio left to take."

She made a face. "Frankly, it's the science credits that worry me more."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

"Well, we've seen more than our fair share of evil gods, and we've dealt with them every time," Warren pointed out. "Biochemistry isn't exactly going to pass itself."

Though it would be awesome if it did.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

"Point," Kennedy agreed. "Evil gods? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, got the t-shirt ruined by acidic demon mucus. Science, on the other hand? I can't slay that."

Eh, it'd be a bad idea anyway.

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[wwiii]

Science was... kinda important.

"If you could, I'd ask if maybe you could target Financial Accounting, next."

Re: Arrive/Mingle!

[brat_inslayage]

Very! Which was why she wouldn't slay it.

"I'm pretty sure," Kennedy said thoughtfully, "that it would probably fall on the un- side of the ethical scale if I actually tried. Plus, my trust fund kinda needs that."