MHA #2 | Thursday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

There was so much tinsel in this apartment. Annie was pretty sure she'd be finding tinsel until the day she and Diego eventually moved out of here.

But it was all coming together, at least!

There were stacks of yet-to-be-inflated inflatables, though slowly over the course of the afternoon, they would transform into snowmen and reindeer and Santa Clauses. There were strings of lights being detangled across the floor, and little cups of spare bulbs just in case they were needed. (No Christmas light quitters around here!)

There was a tree, which was already decorated in a perfect blend of the residents' taste (read: equal parts sparkles and knives), and a few totes labeled things like 'CRAFT SUPPLIES' and 'EXTRA GLITTER.'

Annie turned on some cheery Christmas tunes, ran herself a cup of eggnog from the faucet, propped the front door open, and stuck a sign to it just in case she was setting up Summer's shot table or something when someone swung by.

Help decorate for the Christmas rager, be rewarded with beer and pizza!

(And eggnog, but you could get that literally anywhere today)

[door and post are very open with a touch of SP this morning, and feel free to mod a text inviting you to help decorate if you'd like!]

Comments

[knife_bender]

Diego was around, trying to act like this wasn't his nightmare when, in fact, his apartment being eaten by glitter and joy was his actual nightmare.

He just had to pull tinsel out of his eggnog for god's sake. Someone help him.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Hey, the fact he was drinking the eggnog spoke to the presence of some holiday spirit, right? Right??

"Babe, do you think we should decorate the balcony again?" Annie asked, mostly rhetorically because let's be real, she was all but decorating the closets so of course the balcony was getting decorated. "Do we have enough smokers to worry about it this year?"

Or weirdos who chose to sit on the balcony with the smokers and drink alone-ishly, a la Jessica Jones.

[knife_bender]

He didn't have a choice but to drink eggnog!

"I think if you're gross enough to smoke you deserve to suffer." And that included you, Allison Hargreeves.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"But do they get to suffer with lights?" Annie wondered, plucking up a string of lights and glancing in the direction of the balcony she was considering decorating. "I think we put a plastic snowman out there with them before, to keep them company."

Just because they were gross didn't mean smokers didn't deserve to look at a snowman while they polluted their lungs, you know?

[knife_bender]

"Is there going to be any part of this house that isn't going to have a creepy snowman or Santa staring back at you?" Diego asked. With love.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Some of it," Annie told him, going over to give him a kiss, "will have gingerbread men and reindeer instead."

She would also be circling back to the question of what made a snowman creepy, exactly. (Santa she got, okay? He sees you when you're sleeping, blah blah home invasion, et cetera. But snowmen?)

[knife_bender]

Most Christmas decorations had creepy staring faces. Either that or Diego still wasn't used to them being in his house after being raised in a no-Christmas household.

"Is the eggnog messing with any of your plans yet?" Diego asked. "I mean, aside from the fact that the plants can't be watered today."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Duh. Obviously Summer was here. It would be kind of a dick move to foist all the decorating on Annie and whoever else showed up to help, and, besides, the post-party decorating was just as much a part of the tradition as the party itself.

So Summer was there, with several boxes of miscellaneous and moddable decorations rescued from the dark recesses of the back room at Turtle & Canary, as well as a good deal of plastic toy kitchen knives.

For reasons.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Genius," Annie told her in an undertone when she noticed the knives. "I can't believe I've never thought of that before."

It probably wouldn't work for the next party -- but you know what? Maybe it could be a new Christmas Rager tradition, the replacement of Diego's knives with toy ones.

"I don't have any kind of vision," she added, gesturing to the room broadly. "I figured we'll put your shot table where it was last year?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"With the spotlights and everything, too?" Summer asked hopefully, because the only thing better than being in a figurative spotlight was being in a literal one! "I think that's perfect, it seemed to have really good flow last year, although I guess the real question is: where are we putting the bathtub? I think that would sort of sway where everything else might need to be placed."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Bathtub -- which is supposedly being delivered between ten and two tomorrow, eff-why-eye -- should go...."

Annie carefully surveyed her apartment, actually taking a few measured paces towards the center of the room before veering just slightly -- one might even say wisely -- towards the kitchen. (And its tile. Just saying -- tile, which was easy to clean, Annie.)

"Maybe like, here?" she suggested, considering. "And then we can space out your table -- and its spotlights, of course -- so it's not all crowded on top of each other in the, like, liquor corner."

Maybe the kegs would need to go across the room. (Or on the balcony, with the smokers! There was an idea!)

[somethingwithturquoise]

Kegs on the balcony were a great idea, actually, until someone started with the keg stands, but, hey! There were enough big, buff, and superstrengthed people here that they could easily be relocated somewhere mildly safer, right?

Maybe even by the bathtub! That could lead to...something, maybe!

Summer considered this, doing her own pacing, enacting a sort of drunken stagger from the potential spot for the tub to the potential spot for the jello shots, just to get a feel for it, and nodded her approval. "I think that's perfect. You want your booze spread out, but not, like, too spread out, you know?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Punch keg stands? Drinking punch while headstanding on a keg?

ONLY GOOD THINGS, CLEARLY.

"But also not so crowded that everyone's on top of each other while they're making drinks," Annie said with an agreeing nod. "And the cookies and snacks are close at hand, too, so people hopefully won't neglect those."

They tended to help with the whole putting-down-a-base thing. And plus -- if you weren't drinking, the cookie-decorating station was in a prime location to...people-watch.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"That's true," Summer agreed with a nod. "Gotta be sure the snacks are nearby, too, to help soak up enough booze to keep drinking more."

Totally how that worked, right?

"Also," she decided, moving her hands as if to map out a vague flow of traffic, "good path to the bathroom from here, too, which might be crucial at some moments. And speaking of bathrooms, did you see that I found a Santa themed toilet cover set, and can I subject your poor bathroom to it?"

[apocalypsehow]

Five had mostly just been answering a mysterious SOS from his brother and then, with dawning horror, realized just what he'd been dragged into.

Because of course he just teleported on in.

"Again?" Yes, Five. It's almost like holidays happened every year.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's the most wonderful time of the year, Five," Annie greeted him, completely unfazed at this point by the sudden appearance of him in her living room. Only took, like, two years to adjust to that! Good job, Annie! "Do you want to be on light duty or garland duty?"

Obviously he was here to help decorate! Of course!

[apocalypsehow]

Definitely not here to stage a breakout, noooo.

"Is this all really necessary?" Five asked, not taking on any responsibility at all. Not at all.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Being stupid about it for the party is the point," Annie told him easily. "At least half of this is getting put away again on Saturday."

But not all of it, of course. It was still Christmas time.

[apocalypsehow]

"Only half?" Annie, he was worried about his brother here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"At least the lights and the tree are staying up but that might be it," Annie replied, waving a hand. "Most of the glitter and tinsel will go home on people. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the bathtub after it gets here tomorrow, but I'll find a home for it, too."

Don't worry about that at all, Five. It was nothing.

[knife_bender]

"Oh thank god," Diego murmured, setting aside his third or fourth eggnog of the day. "I thought you were just gonna ignore me."

[apocalypsehow]

"Well, I would have if I'd known what you were dragging me into," Five hissed, avoiding the tinsel like it was radioactive.

[knife_bender]

"What kind of superhero are you?" Diego asked. "I'm in need of help, here!"

[apocalypsehow]

"And what exactly am I to do? Pretend there's an emergency?" Yes, exactly, Five.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, dumbass," Diego said. "That's exactly what you're supposed to do. God, haven't you ever been a wingman before?"