though it's been said many times, many ways

[more_magic]

It’s strange to think of where he was a year ago, exactly. Waking up in Alex’s bed, hung over from the shame of the night before and the lingering effects of whatever Manuscript had given him, preparing for his first full day in a city outside of the world he knew and realizing in the process that he’d lost nearly two months in the space of a breath. There were more shocks to come, more alterations in what he thought to be true, but very little had managed to surpass the disorientation of that initial beginning to his tenure in Darrow.

Back then, Darlington had wondered what they might have done at home, if Alex would’ve been on a plane to California at the start of break--or if he might have managed to convince her to stay, to spend Christmas at Black Elm with him. What they got instead was better, that makeshift celebration with hastily-bought gifts and the smell of a half-remembered recipe wafting from Alex’s kitchen; the start of something new, even if neither of them had known the depths of that newness at the time. And now, a year on, through hard work and some kind of miracle, he gets what he’d wondered about after all.

Christmas Day will be just for them, presents and breakfast and relaxing by the fire, but tonight is a chance to celebrate. They decorate the main floor of Black Elm, filling the rooms they’ve already managed to furnish with light and warmth, the tree they’d bought earlier in the month standing by one of the large picture windows in the great room. Alex cooks all of Estrea Stern’s recipes she can think of, adds a few of Bernadette’s that Darlington remembers from his childhood. There’s music low on the stereo, a fire lit in the vast fireplace, the new table and chairs they’d bought for the formal dining room arranged just so beneath the chandelier at the center of the room. Even Kirby gets into the spirit in a new, festive collar, bright red against his black fur.

Above all, they’ve invited the people that matter, the few who have come to mean something--to one or both of them--in the year that’s just passed. It’s the first real party Black Elm has seen in many years, not since Darlington’s grandfather was alive. It feels, once again, like starting something new.

[[tag in, tag around, enjoy the party!]]

Comments

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

There's an odd sense of accomplishment in seeing the work Caleb's helped Daniel do on the house — castle, because no amount of explanation on Daniel's part is gonna make Caleb believe otherwise. He'd helped Daniel get so much of this done, when he wasn't in school or with Neil or Rosie, and decorated like this, it looks fucking good. He grins as it takes it in, the sight of the tree and Kirby's collar. Obviously, these guys know how to do Christmas.

Caleb, himself, is wearing a festive Christmas sweater, and he'd made sure Neil was wearing something similar — nothing necessarily fancy, but in the spirit of the holiday, anyway. The food is... incredible, and he wants to take his time and enjoy as much of it as he can. And he doesn't even need much of a break outside: Neil is there, keeping him that mossy green, and Daniel and Alex are familiar, comfortable feelings, and the rest are easy enough to keep at bay, at least for now.

How he'll feel if and when people start drinking, he doesn't know.

[ Find Caleb at any point during the party, with or without Neil at his side! He loves Christmas and he's having a great time :3 ]

[shadows_have_offended]

Even if Neil doesn't really know anyone besides Caleb, it still feels like a good enough reason to be there. It's a smaller party than the wedding had been, and he'd gone to that with great ease, so this is no problem at all.

And he's glad Caleb warned him not to dress up, because when they rolled up on the house, he'd been in mind of his parents dinner parties and wished he'd had a jacket and good shoes and a tie, and he's maybe a little self conscious about the whole thing. But that's mostly ebbed by now.

He catches Caleb by the food and tucks in close, giving him a bit of a squeeze. "Hey."

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Hey," Caleb answers warmly. He wraps an arm around Neil, pressing a kiss to his temple. "How d'you like it, so far?" He knows Neil has experience with, like, schmoozing, or whatever, but he still wants to make sure this isn't weird. Daniel and Alex are Caleb's friends, first, after all.

[shadows_have_offended]

Neil doesn't know anybody.

That's not true. Neil knows two people, besides his boyfriend who he came with: Joseph Kavinsky, who he's still not entirely sure that he even likes but that he can't really have a grudge against because he looks out for Charlie and Rosie and Sabrina; and Nova Santiago, who has seen Neil in all sorts of unfortunate states of mired and unmoored distress in the last year or two and still manages to not think he's too much of a miserable piece of shit.

The one thing that the whole party has going for it is that it feels very much like home. Neil's not sure if that's a good thing, given the time of year. Winter in a house that feels like New England is maybe asking for trouble, but he's doing his very best. And Caleb's there, pretty much always in his line of sight.

He's off sides for the moment, fidgety, wishing for a cigarette. Not uncomfortable, just nervous. He'll be fine.

[scarequotesreggie]

Seeing as how he doesn't really know anybody here well save Alex, and even considering just how well he knows her, Reggie thinks that he should probably hang back a bit. Relax by the fire, maybe introduce himself to people one at a time, just take it easy and enjoy being a part of something for a change, instead of coasting through existence as quickly as possible.

Reggie does not do any of that.

"All right, who wants eggnog?" he loudly asks, picking something festive and staking his claim. "You'll have to go through the Keeper of the Nog. Here is the nog, and I am its keeper."

Good food, good company, maybe it's a far cry from being back home with his friends, but it's... something like it, regardless.

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"The Keeper of the Nog?"

Caleb is laughing, just a little, when he hears that. Neil isn't too far away — close enough that he can still feel the soft, dark blue of his emotions, not so close that he can overhear anything he's talking about — so for the moment, at least, all he feels is good.

He looks at the eggnog, then bites his lip.

"That's not spiked, is it?" There is alcohol here, Caleb knows, but he hasn't been keeping track of where.

[scarequotesreggie]

"The Keeper of the Nog accommodates all tastes!" Reggie replies as ostentatiously as he can, flipping open his suit jacket to reveal a bottle of decent brandy (judging by the house they're in, Alex and her guy probably have something much nicer available, but this is a sacred duty that he has taken upon himself, after all). "Alcohol can be added according to the specific desires of those who entreat upon Him, but the purity of the nog must be maintained until then."

That means no. Somehow.

"Unless you get turnt off of nutmeg, I guess?"

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"What the fuck," Caleb snickers. He wonders whether this guy is a friend of Daniel's or a friend of Alex's — or both, like he is — but either way, Caleb thinks maybe he likes him.

"Uh, no, nog purity all the way, Man." He does a little fist pump, as if in solidarity, then eyes the eggnog. "Am I, uh, allowed to have a glass?"

[scarequotesreggie]

Reggie crosses his arms and leans back for a second, squinting at the guy in appraisal of... who knows what, really.

"The Keeper of the Nog deems you... worthy," he finally relents before grinning and ladling out a hearty glass of everybody's favorite beverage that they convince themselves isn't disgusting for two months out of the year.

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Thanks," he says, still grinning. "You're fucking weird, Dude. I mean, not in a bad way. Just... weird."

He looks for Neil, just keeping track of him in case things start to get too much, and sips his eggnog as he does. Then he looks at the guy again.

"Are you a friend of Alex's, or Daniel's?" He will not call him Darlington. Ever.

[takecourage]

Alex steps in behind him and goes up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his shoulders and give him a quick squeeze. She drops a kiss against his shoulder.

"I'm glad you guys could make it," she says. "What do you think of the decorations?"

[takecourage]

"Are you ever off, asshole?" says Alex, but she's grinning when she says it, leaning her ass against the edge of the table and folding her arms across her chest. "You think anymore about the job?"

Alex had managed to get him a hook up for three nights a week emceeing, plus bar-shifts when they needed the hand. She just needed Reggie to make his mind up about it. "We closed tonight and tomorrow, anyway."

[thebloodyglue]

In the car on the way over, Newt had told Kavinsky that he had to behave under no uncertain terms. He knows that Darlington and Kavinsky are never going to be friends, but that shouldn't mean that they can't accept a really kind invitation.

Once inside, he helps himself to a glass of wine and spends a moment taking in his surroundings.

"Wow," he says, softly. "This is a great shucking room."

[takecourage]

Alex drifts back and forth but, increasingly, she finds herself in the kitchen, pulling things together. She's got a glass of wine at her elbow, and the kitchen smells incredible. She's making a bunch of Estrea's favourites: fassoulia, artichokes with lemon and honey, roasted beets, chicken, fish, sweet things for after. She's got an apron on over her dress, her hair twisted up into a knot on top of her head. She feels happy in a way that she never thought would ever apply to her.

She feels complete.

ooc: Alex could definitely do with a hand in the kitchen!

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Hey," Caleb says with a warm grin. "You guys killed it with the decorations. It's seriously awesome." As a perk, it makes the place feel a little less enormous, and Caleb finds he likes that. He turns to pull her into a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. He grins when he sees Kirby again, and laughingly adds, "I fucking love Kirby's collar, too."

[scarequotesreggie]

"I'm a lot of things," Reggie shrugs. And if always needing to be the center of attention, maybe to a pathological degree, is weird, then he doesn't ever want to be... whatever the opposite of weird is.

"Like a friend of Alex's! She's pretty much the only person I know here, actually, hence why I'm playing the wallflower so much," he adds, batting his eyes innocently.

[scarequotesreggie]

"There'll be plenty of time to shut up when I'm dead," Reggie wryly replies, reaching around Alex to freshen up his drink. As for the rest of it...

"Of course I have, I'm totally into it, but do you know how long it's been since I just walked away from a job I hated? I used to be so good at it, what if I've lost the knack?"

[greatamazingfeelingsboy]

"Right," he says. His eyes narrow, but technically, the guy isn't lying — at least, not enough for his bullshit buzzer to go off. He nods, using his glass to gesture towards the rest of the party.

"I'm friends with both," he explains. "I mean, Alex first, and then I almost beat Daniel up while he was at work, so."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Ha! Nice," Reggie laughs. Not that he has anything against the guy -- Reggie doesn't know him for one, and Alex seems fairly crazy about him so he must be okay -- but, well. Some things are just ingrained. "I'd have way fewer friends if I cut out all the people I've been in a fight with, it's all good."

[takecourage]

Her arms slip around his waist, pulling him in tight against her for a moment. "It's cute, right? Totally Danny's idea."

[takecourage]

"Yeah, you're probably right," says Alex, though she doesn't like to think of anyone she likes dead- she's had enough of that in her life. "Ifyou hate it, just tell them to go fuck themselves. How hard can it be?"

[more_magic]

He and Alex had done much of the work on Black Elm together, wanted to do so in the name of making it theirs. It was important to them, for different as well as similar reasons, and the result of it more than shows on nights like tonight. But for as independent as they'd been, Darlington has to give equal credit to the help Caleb's provided; all those weekends between Black Elm's arrival up to now, the grubby work of rewiring and restoring, of doing something hopefully a little lasting.

It's meant a lot to him, that help, and when he notices Caleb standing off to himself amidst the whirl of the party, Darlington heads his way. "Hey," he says with a smile, joining him at the window. "Enjoying yourself?"

[more_magic]

To those who see only the outward face--the charming golden boy of Lethe, Daniel Tabor Arlington III's well-cultivated citizen in the world--it might come as a surprise that Darlington's always preferred those times he can hang back a little and simply observe. It's comfortable there, setting aside the need to perform, letting a situation play itself out and having little part in it himself.

All he knows of him is what he's heard from Caleb, and it does no good to make assumptions. But Neil hovering there at the side of the room, uncertainty on his face and in the slight twitch of his fingers, is a little like looking at something familiar. After topping up his drink, Darlington makes a vague circuit through the room, one that just happens to lead him in Neil's direction.

"I'm glad you and Caleb could make it," he says when he's close enough, offering him an easy smile.

[more_magic]

There's an energy to Reggie that makes Darlington think of the parties Jordan and E.J. had dragged him to over the two years he'd roomed with them. They, and the people at them, were full of a loud, reckless pretense that had annoyed as much as he'd envied it. There was a freedom to being that blithe and unconcerned, so willing to throw oneself into a situation rather than hang back. For all that he's taught himself, the push and pull of effort and the satisfaction of having it rewarded, ease is a thing Darlington's only ever been able to feign.

He's been shuttling between the kitchen and the great room at Alex's request, bringing out plates and trays of appetizers as they're ready while the dinner itself cooks. Setting down another platter, he overhears Reggie addressing the room at large and has to laugh.

"That title could use some work. Straightforward though it is."

[more_magic]

Inviting only Newt would have been a breach in etiquette, a social faux pas he finds himself incapable of making, no matter how justifiable the reasons for it would be. Not that Alex would've allowed it either; they've come to a detente of sorts where Kavinsky is concerned, an understanding that she chooses to call him a friend despite and that it's not likely to change just for Darlington's comfort.

He doesn't like it, any of it, but the invitation goes out to Newt and his husband both--and Darlington does his best not to bristle when he sees Kavinsky slink his way through the front door of his beloved Black Elm.

By the time he catches up with Newt, Darlington's smile comes a little easier, especially upon overhearing that softly impressed comment. "We've put in a lot of work," he says. "I think it was about...half done, maybe, last time you were up here?"