defenderofdesmoines | MHA #2 | Friday Evening and probably onwards

It was a Christmas miracle: an even tackier, way-too-early ugly sweater party.

With way, way too much alcohol, and a kinda ridiculous number of activities.

There were, of course, the ubiquitous plastic snowmen haunting (almost) every corner of the apartment, and one out on each of the Smokers' Balconies for good measure. There were strings of lights lining the ceiling, as well as tracing the edges of each window. There were cookies to decorate (and eat, because you definitely should eat, and there were moddable snacks aplenty as well.) While there was, of course, Christmas music playing, those with keen eyes (or at least, enough wherewithal to look around an apartment before you started potentially drinking heavily in it) might spot a karaoke machine that would come out later. One particularly tinsel-y corner had an abundance of Santa hats and reindeer antlers and wearable strings of lights to wear while taking photos, and in the guest room -- of course -- there was a much-fabled craft table, where you could make an ornament that didn't have to be in an immature shape, but definitely could be.

There was also, hovering slowly through the party, a drone with mistletoe dangling from it. A Mistle Drone, one might call it, even.

And, because this was the Christmas Rager, there was alcohol. There was so, so, so much alcohol. The kegs of Christmas ale had once been reordered, there was a Make Your Own hot chocolate and coffee bar, and while Annie would never argue that Summer's shot table wasn't the star of every party...this year was a little different. Mostly because of how they'd decided to serve Annie's punch: in a freestanding bathtub, just slightly off-center from the room.

Welcome to the third annual Christmas Rager. Hope you wore a sweater, because the hostesses both have glitter cannons in case you didn't show up festive enough!

[~~please hold for way too many threads~~ and we're off! open to literally every single adult on the island -- students are welcome to attempt to crash, but they'll be busted.]

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Prompto knew for a fact that he and his pregnant were not going to stay here at the party for long, and he definitely wasn't even planning on drinking all that much (which was the whole point of the party, right? Well, besides the sweaters?), but he did want to at least make an appearance, maybe talk to and catch up with a few people. Especially since the sweater he wore last year had still been in the closet, and still fit nicely (although, he was very pleased to see, it did fit just a little tighter across his shoulders and chest from those sweet apocalypse daemon hunting gains).

"The giant chicken sweater makes a reappearance!" Annie cheered when she spotted him...before offering out a slightly knowing look. "I hear congratulations might be in order, too. For reasons besides your amazing taste in horrible sweaters, even."

"Chocobo," Prompto corrected, good-naturedly, with a bit of a laugh and a crooked grin, none of which was doing anything to prevent the blush from creeping a ross his face. "Not a giant chicken, it's a chocobo."

Then his head ducked and he rubbed the back of his neck as the faint blush started going a fierce red. "And, uhh...thanks. It's, uh....pretty great, actually. Not exactly how I pictured it would be going down, but...yeah, no, I'm not complaining."

"It's fun how things just sort of happen in spite of what we planned, right?" Annie noted, softening a little. (And chocobos looked like giant chickens, but she super wasn't going to argue about it. That would be like...chocobosplaining, please.) "But congrats. Was it over the holiday?"

"It was," the blush wasn't going anywhere, and Prompto's grin could only grow, "yeah. I figured, you know, it would kind of mean a lot to Liz, for it to happen when she was with her family, and everything. Honestly, I'm still kind of amazed that nothing actually went horribly wrong! And that she actually said yes!"

Liz was trying to stay as close to Prompto as she could, she looked around, “there’s a lot of people here,” she couldn’t help but notice, was there this many last year?

Liz wouldn't have much trouble at all staying ckose; most of the time, Prompto was pretty much doing the same, an arm around her more often than not, very frequently with a little squeeze and everything.

Not, you know, the whole time, but even when he wasn't with her, he made sure not to be too far away.

"It is a Summer and Annie party," he pointed out, giving her one of those aforementioned squeezes and an encouraging smile. "That's just pretty much expected, right?

"If you feel too overwhelmed," he added, a little softer, a little quieter, "just let me know, okay? And we'll dip."

Liz appreciated those squeezes and how close Prompto was in general, it helped make her feeI less overwhelmed, “I don’t remember there being this many people last year,” she admitted as she looked up at him.

She nodded at that last quiet part, “thank you,” she said softly, “I’m going to try and stay as long as I can, I’ll let you know if I feel too overwhelmed,” she rested a hand on her bump.

"I don't really remember a whole lot from 'last year,'" Prompto admitted, with an apologetic smile, lifting his hand from her shoulder to make the little air quotes around the word.

But as he said it, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye, and, just like that, he did remember something.

"Actually," he said, "hold on....okay." His arm drifted away, but he moved so that he could reach down and take Liz's hands in his and he started to gently try to steer her to a different spot.

"Let's shift a little," he said, his eyes drifting toward something somewhere behind Liz, and slightly up. "Right over...here..."

Liz nodded softly at that and then blinked as she tried to follow his gaze, she hadn’t spotted what Prompto had so she was rather curious what he was trying to do.

“Oh?” she looked up curiously, as she held onto Prompto’s hand to see where he was taking her.

“Like this?” she asked, taking a moment to stand where Prompto was indicating.

MHA #2 | Friday Evening and probably onwards - the THIRD ANNUAL Christmas Rager!!

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