Everyone raise your glasses!

[thenormalsquint]

When; Evening of Tuesday, August 13th
Rating; PG-13, at best. Angela's on her best behavior tonight.
Characters; It's Ginny's birthday party and everybody Ginny knows was invited. Let's handwave that and just show up. BTW, IT'S BLACK TIE. PUT ON YOUR SUITS, BOYS.
Summary; There's no legal drinking age in the City, but who says we can't party like there was one anyway?
Log;

This party was four years coming. The restaurant has set aside a large room just for this event and on short notice too. The food is plentiful and of various cuisines, with even a large selection of vegetarian options for those who prefer that. But of course, there is more alcohol than one has ever seen because Angela knows the people she invited and knows quite a few of them have liquor in their veins instead of blood. Rule of thumb: more liquid than solids every time.

Everything's set and ready for the birthday girl to make her appearance, so for the time being, Angela's flitting around the place dressed in more subdued colors than usual, choosing black because no one gets to stand out more than Ginny tonight, and socializing with the few guests that have shown up already.

Sadly, there are no strippers. Ginny nixed that one hard.

Comments

[studmuffin]

Lydia!

[ He appears out of the crowd, grinning like an over enthusiastic puppy, and bounds up to her. ] Hey, you're here! I mean you said you would be here but I mean, I can still be totally happy you're here, right?

[ SO L A M E. ]

[lefthandedgenius]

[Lydia turns, brows lifting as Stiles bounds up to her with the energy of an over-enthusiastic puppy. Her smile is contained but warm, and something about Stiles' approach has her thinking about how far back in the timeline he may actually have been from.]

Hey, Stiles.

You can be happy I'm here. I mean, if I have to be here at all, I'd just as soon have it be with familiar faces. Right?

[She salutes him with her champagne glass, taking another sip, blithely cool and casual in the way that Lydias are.]

Everyone keeps asking if I've talked to you yet.

[studmuffin]

[ He grins though, wide and a little infectious. He really doesn't have any reason to be sad. And he's glad - lifelong crush and all, Lydia's still one of the good guys and it'll be awesome having her around. ]

Yeah, Scott asked me the same thing only backward. How are you? Are you doing okay?

[lefthandedgenius]

[She holds up her glass.]

I'm a lot better than I was an hour and a half ago.

[She considers him a moment, and then decides to come out with at least a little something-something, just to get it out of the way.]

Scott told me I'm from...further along in time than you are. So if I'm weird about things, that's way. Just to put that on the table. Okay?

[She's not offering to tell him all about it; just putting the kibosh over confusion about weird reactions and mixed signals.]

[studmuffin]

I'm totally used to that by now. We're all ahead of Derek. I'm after him. You, Isaac and Scott -. [ He pauses though, because she shifts and the ribbon moves. Stiles catches the edge of a bruise he knows wasn't there when he last saw her and he reaches out, catches her around the wrist of her free hand. ]

Lydia, your throat --. [ He knows he can do nothing about the future, but that doesn't mean he can stop caring. ] What happened? Are you okay?

[lefthandedgenius]

[Her gaze drops down to the hand on her wrist as if contemplating it, and then her eyes lift back up to Stiles' face.]

Explaining it would take too long and possibly means giving you more information than you want to know. The long and short of it is, someone tried to strangle me.

If you want me to go into it, [There's a pause as she looks around.] Later. After the party. This isn't the right place. [It's serious business, and Lydia doesn't want to bring down Ginny's party.]

[studmuffin]

[ He lets go as if realising he's overstepped a mark, deliberately lifts his gaze from her throat and gives her a bright, supportive smile. ]

Okay. After. We'll hang out. [ Until then. ] Wanna come raid the champagne with me?

[lefthandedgenius]

I'm already getting my drink on, but if you're asking if I'm willing to drink until you're wearing a lampshade and I'm sipping it from my shoe, that is an option I'm willing to entertain.

[studmuffin]

I don't know where we're getting that lampshade but okay.

[ To the drinks they go! Stiles hands her a glass with a sly grin and knocks back half of his own easily. Of course he still pulls a face. Despite his drunken shenanigans in the City, he's still only sixteen and certain liquids are disgusting. ]

[lefthandedgenius]

[Stiles is kind of an uncouth barbarian but Lydia likes him anyway. More or less. She does laugh a good bit at his expression, though.]

Do they have rum and coke? It's always a safe bet. Or a pina colada. I can totally picture you with an umbrella drink.

[studmuffin]

[ He's not sure whether to be insulted or not, but. ] I can drink this. [ No, no he cannot. He takes another sip and literally sticks his tongue out like a puppy who's licked something horrible. ]

Okay, umbrella drink. I'm gonna do that instead.

[lefthandedgenius]

[She laughs again at the face he's making, apparently content to wait until he gets himself a new drink - ideally one with an umbrella - before settling down to sip her champagne with the ease of an F. Scott Fitzgerald heroine.]

Scott says you've been here for a year. Do you know how much has happened in Beacon Hills in the last year? I don't know how much to tell you, or if you even want to know.

[studmuffin]

Scott tells the story wrong. [ He stirs his drink with said umbrella, briefly considers tucking it into her hair but he figures she might beat him with her shoes so he forgoes it. ]

I've been here on and off for a year. I've left twice. Disappeared for a week each time. I came back a month or so ago? So I'm ... [ Glancing around him. ] The virgin sacrifices? We still haven't figured out why or what for?

[lefthandedgenius]

[She studies him a moment. Sips her champagne.]

You're safe. The Darach murders in threes, and she's moved on from virgins. There's a pack of all alphas in town that she's trying to stop only she's just as bad as they are. [A hand creeps up to her throat, but she's still not prepared to talk about that yet.

Did she just presume your status as a virgin Stiles why yes she did.]

It's our English teacher. It was her all along.

[studmuffin]

[ Briefly he entertains the idea of being offended but alas, he is still in charge of a virginity and nobody has offered to take it from him yet.

So he focuses on the main part. ] Ms. Blake?

what is wrong w/me tonight *sob*

[lefthandedgenius]

[Lydia takes a long, long, long drink. She drains the glass.]

Yeah. She's pitching it like it's for the greater food to stop the alpha pack, but there's some kind of twisted revenge thing going on for her, actually.

awh bb

[studmuffin]

[ Frown more pronounced. ]

What the fuck. [ It's not swearing for clarification, it's just that he can't really comprehend. ] Why?

Re: awh bb

[lefthandedgenius]

They messed her up really badly. You know how pretty she is? Apparently that's magic. Her real face is...not so pretty. They did that to her. One of them, the bitch with a really serious need for a pedicure.

[studmuffin]

[ He hasn't run in to any of the other alphas yet. Besides the twins that is. ]

So she went on a magical mystical revenge tour instead of, I don't know, getting surgery or writing a book about it? Who am I kidding, of course she did. This is Beacon Hills.

[lefthandedgenius]

It's weird, actually. On one hand we don't have to worry about it until - if - we go back, because we won't have lost any time, but at the same time you can't help but worry about everything.

[studmuffin]

I was kind of hoping we'd, y'know, catch a break. That maybe the sacrifices were just some dumb jerk who watched too much Hannibal and he'd be caught and we could get on with living our lives.

[lefthandedgenius]

[Her smile is an odd mix of wryly amused and bleakly resigned.]

Are you kidding? Like you were saying, Beacon Hills. We don't catch breaks.

Clearly we need to drink more.

[Lydia reaches across to try and steal the umbrella from Stiles' drink.]

[studmuffin]

[ He lets her take his umbrella, grinning a little. ]

Are you trying to get me drunk, Miss Martin?

[lefthandedgenius]

[She grins back, and reaches to try and tuck the umbrella behind his ear.]

I think you're already drunk, Mr. Stilinski.

[studmuffin]

[ He has no idea what they look like but he's just going to roll with it. ]

I've had like one and a half alcoholic beverages. I am strong. [ Patting his tummy. ] It'll take more than that to fell me.