tampered | Log; Ongoing

When; May 20, in the afternoon
Rating; G?
Characters; Penny (

horrible_penny) and all of her friends! So if you're her friend, then this means you!
Summary; It wouldn't be a proper birthday without a proper party! Rosella and friends are therefore throwing one for Penny by the lake in Xanadu.
Log;

According to Penny, this birthday is the one that officially marks her as a spinster; as a direct result, Rosella has decided that it is her solemn duty to ensure this party makes Penny feel just the opposite. As requested, it's not a particularly large or formal sort of affair. There are a few tables set up and covered in light tablecloths, ready to hold plates of sliced fruit, cupcakes, cookies, and a bowl of punch; there are also some blankets spread on the ground to accommodate anyone that wants to sit on something other than the grass. A short distance away lies the edge of the lake, and the sound of the ducks swimming and quacking near the shore is unmistakable. But, of course, it only seems fitting that a birthday for Penny would somehow involve ducks, wouldn't it?

All in all, the whole thing has an "afternoon picnic" sort of feel to it. Penny's friend Curt has promised to provide some music with his guitar, which adds to the lighthearted atmosphere of the occasion, and thus far, everything is looking perfect. Rosella would certainly know; she's checked things over at least four times now, just to make sure that everything's set exactly as it should be.

The only thing left to manage, then, is the cake. That's important enough to warrant a table all its own, and she takes extra pains to make sure it looks perfect, too. She also makes it a point to remove the note she'd stuck to the box earlier that morning--Please take note that this is Penny's birthday cake, and while I am sure she'd forgive anyone who ruined it before she even had a chance to look at it, much less taste it, that really speaks more to Penny's capacity to forgive and not to the severity of the offense--and crumples it in her hand before stuffing it into one of her skirt pockets.

There. Everything is set and ready; all that remains is to sit back, enjoy the company, and await Penny's arrival.

[OOC: It's Penny's birthday! Set up threads, threadjack each other, congratulate the birthday girl once she gets here, engage in passive-aggressive note-leaving shenanigans...have a ball!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, that's the plan, if I stick around here long enough. I don't really wanna work for the circus long-term."

Curt goes silent for a moment as he thinks about how to answer. "I guess originally it was pretty general, about a lot of my relationships. Only, by now, it's come to be about one specific person, even if I started writing it before I actually met him." There's a short pause before he says 'him' and even Curt doesn't know quite why.

Why would he be hesitant to reveal anything about what was, in actual point of fact, the most public relationship of his life? And if Penny is under any illusion that Curt is one of the more heterosexual men in this city it's probably better to clear that up sooner than later. Maybe it's something of an internal war going on between not wanting to talk about Brian and the inescapable fact that everything ends up coming back to him.

"I wish I knew where to point you. I'm sure there's a recording studio around here somewhere, though."

Penny tilts her head curiously. 'He'? And she thought Curt was straight. Not that it matters! Raikov's one of her best friends, and he's about as gay as anyone she's ever met. Admittedly, however, she's a little disappointed. Maybe it's best that her dating pool stays bad-boy-rocker free. "So not so many happy relationships..."

"That's not really what I meant. The song, it's like...when you know someone's bad for you, but you can't stay away. You know it's poison, but you'll drink every last drop. So maybe not healthy relationships, but I've been happy. Don't think I'd want to live without all the poison girls and poison boys."

He's way too sober to be having this conversation, but he keeps going, "I was happy with Brian. For a while." There's a slight pause, because it's true. He can acknowledge that, maybe he is getting less bitter. "Before the fact that he was a fucking cold-hearted famewhore megalomaniac got in the way." Or maybe not.

Penny's pretty sure she understands. Still, unhealthy relationships aren't to be encouraged; sometimes they get people killed. Seriously. "You could try something... you know. Less poisonous. See how it goes."

She isn't so sure what to say to his description of Brian. As such, she gets up to hug Curt. That's obviously the done thing when someone's talking about his ex-boyfriend. "But you have some happier memories left from that, right? And you'll make other memories someday with someone else who isn't like that."

This is the part where Curt's gives Penny sad puppy eyes, as if to say You're very nice and I'm very lost, please take care of me. This is how it starts. This is how it always starts, because a surprisingly large number of people think they can take care of Curt and actually want to try.

"Maybe someday."

Awww. Penny is certainly not immune to puppy eyes and, even though she feels as though she has seen something very similar to this exchange happen in at least one movie, is compelled to help. Poor Curt. He probably doesn't even know what a healthy relationship looks like.

...Not that Penny necessarily knows, either.

"Hey... something'll work out. And until everything works out, you've got me to help you, okay?"

He shrugs a bit. "I should try to keep focused on my music anyway. But thanks, I appreciate that. Not that I even know what I need." Not everything, not this time. "Knowing what you want is kind of easier, I guess."

"Having goals definitely helps." Penny sits back in the grass. "You know you want to keep doing music... that's something."

"Yeah. I mean, it's the biggest, most important thing in my life. It's all I've wanted to do for a long time. Even as a kid I'd just lie awake listening to the refrigerator and everything hum..." Curt just sort of flops backward onto the grass. "But enough about my life. It's your birthday, after all."

"I don't mind listening to you," she says lightly. "You know, I used to do that, too--listen to the way things sound at night until they kind of ran together into a song. It's hard to do that here with the clock."

"Yeah, I better watch out or I'm going to end up with songs that are all the same tempo."

"I don't know about that. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes it seems like the clock speeds up and slows down." After thinking about that for a moment, she adds, "It's probably just me."

"I haven't really noticed that, but I'm trying to learn to ignore it. Or drown it out. Maybe someday I'll get one of those things some people have. The tiny music--playing ones, I mean." Curt is not really up to speed with all this crazy futuristic technology.

[ooc: Does the ticking do that? I have no idea.]

"MP3 player?" Penny offers cheerfully. "CD player? iPod? I could help you find one. They don't really drown out the ticking if you're alone, though... only being around other people can do that."

[ooc: Only during events? I think. At special times. Penny is crazy and spends too much time alone, okay. ;-;]

I think the pod one is the one I actually asked someone about, but none of those are things I've heard of before. I kind of want to find out what kind of music people are listening to around here, although I'm also a little...I don't know. I feel like that could get weird, since it might involve finding out what happened to people I know, at least in some reality.

Well, I feel like my noise would bother someone else more than the ticking noise bothers me, but maybe I can work something out.

Log; Ongoing

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can't unsee the maritime disaster that would be this ship

At least it wouldn't end in death, right?

Good point.

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