Party time! Or at least mingle at the Makara/Vantas household while Karkat yells.

[carcino_geneticist]

In the main, Karkat Vantas does not do parties. He occasionally invites people over for a movie night, sure, but full fledged beer and wine mixers are not his thing. So he's not sure how this one got started, except he may have possibly lost track of how many people he mentioned it to in the hospital, and he's fairly sure that somewhere along the line Gamzee mentioned the whole thing to every single person he talked to that day. Including some patients, a guide dog, and multiple small children.

Which is why there seems to be a fairly decent sized crowd in the shitty little house the two rent in a less-than-wholesome part of town (because really, a janitor and a cook's salary don't go very far, even pooled). There's a couple of styrofoam coolers filled with ice, beer, and a variety of malternatives that were on sale. There's chips and several kinds of dip, some of it fairly questionable. And dare you try the brownies? Gamzee made them, and they look delicious? And there currently seems to be an argument in front of the TV over someone who wants to hook up the Xbox and play a little Rock Band, while Karkat is loudly objecting that "Never Been Kissed" is the perfect party movie, GODDAMN ALL YOU FUCKERS WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING IN HIS HOUSE ANYWAY?!

Have at!

[OOC: Anyone can tag in, this is a mingle post, feel free to put your char up there doing whatever, they do not have to be interacting with an irate troll!]

Comments

AROUND

[pullsthestrings]

[Dirk hadn't really planned for this. He had a whole day of not a whole fucking lot planned for his day off and so apparently that had been taken as an indication that he needs to PAR-TAY.

So somehow he's wound up here and somehow he's got a drink in his hand whilst he wanders around the apartment, being the coolest goddamn wallflower anyone did see.]

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane doesn't get invited to these sorts of things often, but Karkat is pretty nice, if a bit odd about his cookie-storage. She'd intended to leave early, but then she spots Dirk and waves him over. Dirk should be fun to hang out with, right?]

Dirk! I didn't expect you to come!

[pullsthestrings]

[Jane, please. Karkat is the opposite of nice, Dirk worries about you sometimes. Only he guesses he's really just the kind of guy who hides genuine care under overwhelming anger.

Likewise, he hadn't expected her here, so he's raising an eyebrow as he approaches her. He raises his drink in greeting, giving her a half smile.]

Somehow I got roped into it. [He takes the most casual swig of beer ever.] I was promised movies. So far the only entertainment has been the battle between the gamers and voyeurs.

[carcino_geneticist]

Holy shit, Strider, never expected to catch you slumming it down here with us ordinary jerk-offs. [giving Dirk an amused look]

[pullsthestrings]

I thought I already told you, I have a deep and unbridled fascination with the little people. How else am I going to truly appreciate you without first experiencing a night in your natural habitat.

[He glances around with mock intrigue. His house really only happens to be better due to the fact that he got the apartment once Bro kicked the bucket. Who has time for keeping a nice place when you live at a hospital, gosh.]

AROUND

[aseerstant]

[ Ah-hah - there's the other Strider. Rose will just go over beside him, looking faintly amused. ]

So did Roxy convince you had to come, or did someone else have that honor?

[pullsthestrings]

Always Roxy.

[Rose, you're lucky Dirk likes you, otherwise you might have gotten a slightly more curt response. Though it doesn't get much shorter than that.]

Are you here of your own volition or are you also influenced by the forces known as Roxy.

On a couch!

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane's making her brief appearance and then hopefully she's leaving before Gamzee manages to corner her. She gets the feeling he's the type who likes to dance...up close. And she'd feel weird doing that with someone she liked!

So she's having one solo cup and then taking off. Or that's the plan, anyway.]

[bev_rage]

[Oh, Jane, as if you could ever hope to escape a wild Flopping Lalonde. She ha a lap full of Roxy. Good luck leaving now.]

Geez, Janey, I didn't think you did parties.

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane starts, only barely keeping her cup from splashing everywhere on impact.]

Uh-- not usually! But I thought it'd be a bit rude, and, um, Karkat's nice.

[And Gamzee scares her a little.]

[carcino_geneticist]

Crocker. You look so weird without some kind of ridiculously colored bunch of foil balloons with saccharine sentiments on them in your general vicinity. [Aw, Karkat's greeting all his guests.]

[stridin]

[ Drops onto the couch next to her. ]

Sup, Jane. How'd you get roped into this particular shindig?

On a couch!

[aseerstant]

[ Hopefully she won't mind Rose taking a seat beside her. No alcohol here; just some bottled water. ]

Jane; this doesn't seem much like your sort of scene, does it? Did Roxy bring you?

[ She doesn't see her sister in the immediate vicinity, but. ]

mingling.

[aseerstant]

[ Rose may take a seat for a little while, but for the most part she can be found mixing and mingling, occasionally dropping in on other people's conversations or simply listening in from time to time (shame? what shame?) if something catches her interest. She's dressed fairly casually, which should be a change for anyone who hasn't interacted with her outside of work before, although "fairly casually" involves a skirt and a blouse. At least it isn't her business attire?

She'll make a point to greet those she recognizes at least once (and to casually rile up one or two of the people she knows better) but will otherwise more or less happily speak to anyone.

Rose avoids the brownies but eats the chips, and opts for tap water over alcohol, which she doesn't touch all night. Once or twice she may have to step out to answer her cellphone, apparently on matters pertaining to business the first two times, but pertaining to something mysterious the third time. ]

[wwaterboy]

[Aha, Rose isn't talking to anyone at the moment. This is the perfect time for Eridan to make his move.

He sidles up to her as she returns from one of her cellphone calls]

Hey, uh... You're Lalonde, right?

[Smooth]

[carcino_geneticist]

[On her return after her third little trip out for her phone, Karkat raises an eyebrow at her.] Not interrupting anything, are we? I'm sure we can move everyone to some other distant locale if we're inconveniencing your social life with a party.

[Which pretty much gives away that he's noticed how many times she's been coming in and out.]

PLAYING SOME FUCKING ROCK BAND. WHAT ELSE.

[stridin]

[ Okay, so by now, Dave has had a drink. Or three. Or six. And someone probably Rose talked him into playing Rock Band 2. It seemed like a good idea. Somehow.

For one reason or another, he's not on drums, guitar, or bass. No, he's got the mic in his hand, and he's belting out Everlong. And, surprise, he has this actually amazing singing voice, a clear, strong tenor. Has anybody heard him sing before? Who put him up to this?? Why does he know all the words by heart??? And who is he going to murder when phone videos of this turn up the next day?

Someone stop him. He knows not what he does. (Or just encourage him, whatever your flavor of disaster.)

PS. Outside of the hospital? Shades are firmly on. Old habits die hard. You might be able to talk them off him, though, at his state of solid drunkenness. ]

[aseerstant]

[ Wow, the answer to a lot of those questions sure does seem to be Rose! Has she heard him sing before? Did she help put him up to this? Does she happen to be filming this? She is of course sitting nearby, perhaps filming this for future reference with her smart phone. And perhaps she has maybe already texted certain siblings of certain people about the event of decided interest in the living room.

Really, Dave. You should know by this point in your life that being drunk around either of the Lalonde girls is taking your future into your own hands. ]

I think you ought to hit the Overdrive now, for an extra little flair.

[ This is her brand of cheering him on, yes. ]

[carcino_geneticist]

Do you have to butcher one of the most romantic songs to ever originate from a band with a member that rose to fame during your incredibly dull human grunge era? Seriously? Couldn't you pick something less tolerable?

[Karkat knows you have a good voice Dave, he's just not acknowledging that.]

[bee2mygod]

-=someone is most definitely filming this entire scenario from across the room in the corner he commandeered for himself to hide in for the time being.

he's totally going to send this to everyone in the morning.

and maybe 'accidentally' cc it to the rest of the hospital=-

Sort of wwallflowwering and drinking

[wwaterboy]

[Eridan probably wasn't invited for real, but he had a conversation with someone at which the subject of the party came up, and he sort of talked himself around to deciding that that had constituted an invitation. And anyway, even if it wasn't, he knows that he would have been invited, and was just inadvertently overlooked.

But now he's here and he feels awkward. He's gotten himself a drink and is trying to look cool and unaffected by the fact that no one's talking to him, leaning against a wall and inching his way over to the Rock Band/Learn to Fly Debate and occasionally throwing out a comment as if he's actually included in the conversation.]

[carcino_geneticist]

Oh, what the hell are you doing here?

[Not one for beating around the bush, Karkat squints at the sea dweller suspiciously. It's not that he hates Eridan. Despite his general demeanor, the mutant doesn't really truly hate many people at all - he just has a long list of assholes who piss him off. But the resident is irritating, and generally treats Karkat like crap because he happens to be housekeeping staff, and therefore he is deserving of some pretty severe hassling.

Even if the way Eridan is trying to pretend anyone is actually paying attention to him is pretty pathetic.]

in a corner somewhere drinking

[bee2mygod]

-=okay, so maybe he promised not to bring his husktop with him for once, but no one said anything about smartphones and tablets.

so if he looks engrossed in something on the little glowy screen thats because he is, and it's actually not some game or bit of code he's playing with.

oh no, a get together like this is prime for embarrassing situations and he's going to film every one of them as it happens because he's awesome like that.

[carcino_geneticist]

Hey! That goes against the spirit of our agreement, spaz maggot! [stomping over to glare] That is not a person and does not count as interaction.

[peering at] ... oh, what the fuck are you doing?

[aseerstant]

[ Ah, the IT guy. Rose will just snag a seat by him, because he looks less likely to force small talk on her than other people, and after one of her last interactions, that sounds pleasant.

She has no intention of talking to him until she catches sight of the screen. Are those pictures of the party...? ]