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Tweak says, "peanut butta jelly time!!"

Ram Easthallow (bifoliate) wrote in heureuxlake,
@ 2024-06-18 18:26:00

Entry tags:

Δ complete, Δ threads, → alex griffith, → ash bhargava, → astrid hakansson, → aubrey summers, → benny carmichael, → dawn miller, → eric reed, → gael cardenas, → garrick astergrove, → graham young, → heather bosch, → jani matthews, → joe russo, → jude anderson, → julián reyes, → kate ridley, → maria warrington, → michael price, → michelle spraggs, → ram easthallow, → reggie rimeblossom, → rick allen, → serafina cardenas, → sofia angelov, ∞ 2000: 06, ◦ sunny's bar & club

RP: Karaoke
Who: Open to all.
What: Karaoke for Midsummer!
When: Tuesday 18th June.
Where: Sunny's Bar & Club.
Warnings: Label your headers, please.
Completion Status: Complete.

- Ram's instruction was 'sing what you most want out of life'. Obviously, not all characters have to actually do that, but listeners keep it in mind in case it gives rise to interesting interpretations of song choices.
- Let's just say that a local banshee was there and sang at least one song which made any character whose player chooses a little more honest for a short time. (How long exactly up to player discretion.)
- Blanket permission to say Ram urged your character to sing, or even got up to sing with them (...Benny)!
- Having tried to do a karaoke thread before, I would recommend that in most cases, the song is contained within a tag or two. It's hard for others to interact while your character is singing!
- Rick Report: About 20% of the full strength of his abilities. (For reference, Ram's birthday was 90%).
- See end of thread for song choices! And here's a list of them in order courtesy of our amazing Jani player.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-23 04:02 pm UTC (link)

"Brave, or stupid?" Gael managed to infuse a little humour into the question, though perhaps not enough, because it did feel as if had been a repeated theme lately. He'd thought he was being brave asking Eric to dinner, and he'd briefly thought the drunken text messages were a good idea. "I know I can't sing. And I know it wasn't all about that, but I didn't have any intentions either." Maybe if he'd at least felt he was putting something out into the universe, it would bother him less that it had been a bad performance? "Did you?" he asked, remembering he'd seen the woman singing, though he hadn't been paying enough attention to recognise the song.

He nodded. "Yeah. Fortunately, thinking what a dick he'd be if I did text mostly keeps me from doing it." The one benefit, perhaps, to Marcos not having ended things more gently. Gael really did have to come face-to-face with the idea he'd deliberately treated him poorly, and that made him much less appealing to text. "But I don't want to risk it."

Listening to her explanation, he hummed softly. "What does it mean that they didn't invite you?" Then, realising that she couldn't possibly answer that on behalf of her women, he clarified, "What do you worry it means? That you're not involved enough in their lives? That they don't like you as much as they like Michael and Alex? Or just that they don't think of you as very musical?" He tucked away what she'd said about being poly to examine later. He didn't know if Eric was, but maybe integrating the idea that Eric didn't want a 'completely mixed up together' kind of relationship into his mental image would stop that mental image from feeling so damn perfect?

He lifted a hand in a gesture of 'half and half'. "He does in my head, but I know he doesn't in reality. I just don't seem to be making progress on getting one to catch up with the other. And I'm not... I can't just look around and see other opportunities until I do?" At least, he really didn't seem to be wired in such a way that that was an option.

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-23 07:58 pm UTC (link)

"It can be both," Jude retorted dryly, tossing a little more humor back at him to see if she might be able to make him laugh some of it off. At the question, though, she shook her. "Not for the first song." Had he been paying attention when she'd done her duet with Ash? It wasn't the most subtle of songs, but it did seem to go over most people's heads. "But the last one, yeah, a bit." In truth, she hadn't realized singing with Intentions was a thing tonight when she'd first arrived, and it had taken her awhile to find the right song once she'd found out about it.

Jude sighed at the question, tipping her head back and forth at the follow-up to it. "I'm doubt either of them knew I could sing before tonight," she admitted; another point in this being a situation of her own making. "But yeah, probably that I rank quite a bit lower. Which isn't fair of me, really, because I've made it clear what I wanted. Or what I thought I wanted? Maybe I'm still figuring it out." She offered him a small smile, thinking her next words were probably something he needed to hear and absorb too. "Maybe it's okay to still be figuring it out."

She wasn't sure what it meant that Eric might represent those things in Gael's head but not necessarily in reality, because what a person represented to you didn't, or shouldn't, have anything to do with the reality of their life. She'd always thought that millions versions of each person existed in some way through the way they were perceived by others, that no one was ever going to get you exactly the same as someone else, and that the impact you had on one person was almost guaranteed to be completely different than the next, and that all of those things were okay. Perhaps that was also part of why she'd leaned poly after being turned.

"Here's the thing, Gael," she began, somehow both gentle and firm, leaning her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands, fingers curled in and pressed against each other. "If he represents those things in your head, then he represents those things in your reality, and in the context of you, that's all that matters. And maybe, just maybe, you should give yourself some grace. Maybe you should let yourself bask in how brave you were to see an opportunity after things ended with your ex the way they did. It's okay to be sad about this missed possibility, but there's no shame in letting yourself move on from it and feel excited about looking for other opportunities."

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-23 08:37 pm UTC (link)

Gael blinked, somewhat struggling with the idea that something could be both brave and stupid. In his head, if it ended up being the right choice, it was brave. If it ended up being the wrong choice, it was stupid. Not a binary that really stood up to even his drunken scrutiny. "This town is full of women who keep saying very wise things to me," he informed her, and then frowned. "I don't even know your name." Only able to recall one of her songs, he did at least know it had not been a duet. "What were you intending?" he asked, not wanting to try to guess in case he were wrong.

He leaned further across the table, watching her expression. "Did they not ask? Or did you not tell them?" Show them, might be a better description for singing, but he waved that away. "There's a difference." At least, Gael felt that there was. He narrowed his eyes, not doubting her, but also not fully following. "I'm a little drunk," he admitted. "Explain to me how karaoke means Alex and Michael rank higher? Is it because of the solstice?" He got the impression that Ram actually believed, this wasn't simply an excuse for a party. If that were the case for others, he could see how who you invited might translate to who ranked highest in your life. "Mmm. But if you know it bothers you, maybe you have figured out at least part of it?"

Her words brought moisture to Gael's eyes, but no pain, not tightness of his throat or tension in his chest. He blinked, and hoped she wasn't one of those people who got uncomfortable about strangers crying at them. He wasn't sure he agreed about what Eric represented in his reality, because there was no point continuing to live in a delusion. "But what I thought he represented was an opportunity for the -" how had she put it? - "all-in kind of thing. And he doesn't want that." Not with Gael, anyway, possibly not at all? He just didn't know, and asking could only make things worse. He had to blink again, wrinkling his nose to keep from having to sniff unattractively. "I don't know how to turn the part that feels excited about other opportunities back on," he explained. "Other than just time." It had only taken four months after Marcos, which wasn't that long to wait, he supposed, but he'd been with Marcos for seven years. By that logic, shouldn't he have moved on from Eric already? "This is why I need to date exclusively," he muttered, "because once I've found one opportunity, it's like the others cease to exist?"

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-24 03:37 am UTC (link)

Yeah, if there was one thing this town definitely had going for it, it was the surplus of strong, intelligent women. "I'm Jude," she told him, seeing no reason to withhold her name. The question was rather obvious, but she thought it also had the potential to be really personal, so she was surprised he was asking it. She didn't mind sharing, though. "I was putting out the intention to keep myself open to possibilities. I sang Metallica, Nothing Else Matters," she offered, in case he hadn't noticed her singing it just a little bit ago. "And maybe just a bit to remind myself that when I'm in those lovely, quiet, private moments, it truly doesn't matter what else they might have going on in their lives apart from me, except for what they choose to share."

It didn't seem as though the difference mattered in this case, because they both had the same answer. "No, on both points," she confirmed. She snorted softly when he admitted that he was drunk, figuring that even if he'd been sober, she might not have been able to explain what had irked her tonight about seeing Astrid and Dani here with their men. "I think that I'm still working on figuring out the root was of what bothered me about it. I think it's probably just that they both happened to be here on the same night with their men after not having invited me. And that's okay. They're allowed to do that. I'm responsible for me and for my feelings," she explained, hoping she was making at least a little more sense.

Jude sighed when he countered her words with a rehashing of what he'd discovered later, and she shook her head. "It doesn't matter that he didn't end up wanting that. What matters is that for you, that was the possibility you were entertaining. That was your reality. His reality was different, but that doesn't matter in the context of you processing the grief for that missed opportunity."

The problem, Jude was beginning to realize, was that Gael seemed to approach every possibility with so serious and rigid a mindset that she couldn't imagine anyone who could be good for him living up to it. Did he really want to be with the sort of man who was all-in from the get go? Who would be emotionally involved before they even figured out if they wanted the same things in life? But perhaps she was too far in the other extreme, refusing to consider that someone might fit into her life so seamlessly that it wouldn't feel like changing to accommodate them. "Then you don't start with looking for opportunities. Maybe you start with simply meeting new people. Going to get coffee with new friends and asking them about their interests and goals. You never know when that zing of chemistry will hit, but it really can't if you close yourself off to it." It seemed like a kinder way of saying that he really should stop putting so much pressure on new possibilities.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-24 03:36 pm UTC (link)

"So why does it matter outside of those moments?" Gael asked, taking her word for it that when she was in the quiet moment she didn't find it bothered her. "Or... where does it matter? In your head, or in your heart?" He was thinking back to what Sefie had said, about the two places processing differently and needing to catch up with each other. He wasn't sure which one you were supposed to listen to, but at least knowing which was which had to be somewhat helpful?

Still working out what bothered her was something Gael could understand, and he hardly really expected to be able to help in one conversation when they didn't know each other and were coming from such different perspectives. Nonetheless, he wouldn't be Gael if he didn't try. "You can do something about both of those," he pointed out. "You can mention more things about yourself, or you can ask them to ask you more things." Obviously, only one of those was completely within Jude's control, but if these women cared for her, would't they want to make the effort, once it had been pointed out to them? (Assuming they were decent people, and not dicks.) "You're responsible for you and your feelings, but you're allowed to ask them to help with that." He frowned slightly, because the words felt true to him, but he had no idea how that concept worked when there were other relationships involved, too. "Or is that a very monogamous thing to say?"

Slowly, he nodded as her words seemed to sink in. "Right. Mourning the version in my head. But at the same time, trying not to make the real Eric feel bad, because he didn't do anything wrong." Gael really was trying, he just wasn't convinced he was succeeding. "I have been doing that. Looking for new friends." Jude was right, the chemistry could come later. It hadn't happened with Marcos until years after they'd become friends. "I don't feel like I'm closing myself off to chemistry." More that it was just a thing that had happened. "Maybe I need to work out how to open up to it?"

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-24 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Jude's tongue ran over the front of her teeth, mouth closed, as she considered his questions, finally tipping her head back and forth as she said, "I think those are the things I'm working on figuring out." It had been a very long time since she'd put her heart on the line in any real way, and maybe it was just still a bit too tender after having been closed off for so long. Maybe she wasn't quite ready for something with deeper feelings if she was also going to stay on the poly path. It was something to consider.

When he pointed out the obvious, Jude chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I know. And I will if it ends up feeling right." She did try to trust her instincts, even when she probably shouldn't. She shook her head at his question and tapped her pointer fingernail against the tabletop. "It's not a monogamous thing. It's just a relationships thing, and all types at that. But what I meant was that I can't hold them responsible for something they don't even know might be an issue. If I were to bring it up, and it was dismissed or ignored, then the responsibility wouldn't be all on me," she explained. It made logical sense to her, but she knew that not everyone operated with the same logic she did.

"Right," she said with a nod, thinking that he might finally be getting it. Gael certainly seemed the type to operate leaning heavily on emotion rather than logic, so she was mildly relieved that she seemed able to get through to him at all. "Or just trust that making more friends and doing more things just for the sake of experiences will naturally, over time, open yourself up to that kind of chemistry," she suggested, thinking that he was still far too fixated on wanting to find romance. That just seemed like a recipe for disaster if he was the lead with emotions type, as she suspected.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-25 12:06 am UTC (link)

Only Jude could figure Jude's things out, so Gael nodded. "Maybe you just need time, too," he suggested, since he'd already remarked that time would (eventually) heal his own inability to currently find anyone attractive. "Or someone with better questions than me," he added, in a more teasing tone. "Try sober Gael, he's slightly better at this sort of thing." In truth, he didn't see himself as particularly skilled when he was sober, either, but he was always willing to make his best effort. Sometimes, that was all people needed, because they could work out the solutions basically on their own if given someone to express things out loud at.

"I think sometimes you have to take a risk and do it even if it doesn't seem right." He frowned at the words after he'd said them, realising that perhaps he was not in the best place to make such claims. Things which had felt very right to him had ended up being decidedly wrong. "You know you and your relationships way better than I do, though, so maybe you've got the right idea about waiting." Jude's way of approaching things was very logical, but emotions in Gael's experience so rarely were entirely logical that it seemed not to quite cover the full breadth of reality. "Not responsible for," he agreed, "but you can't make it not bother you just because it shouldn't bother you, either."

It was very possible that Jude was right, that making friends and having fun experiences was all it would take. "I've never... had to do this before?" Gael admitted. "Marcos was my first relationship. I don't know what I did to open up after that, because it just happened way before I expected it to." He had no road map of what might work, except that something about or leading up to that night at Sunny's had. He hadn't been looking for new friends, then, but he supposed moving back home had come with plenty of new experiences, and Sefie. "But we established, you're very wise," he offered her a teasing smile, "so if you say it's friendship and experiences, I'll try that for a while."

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-25 12:20 am UTC (link)

Although she wasn't convinced that sober Gael would be much better, Jude had no interest in hurting his feelings. Instead, she offered him a smile that bordered on indulgent and nodded. "Maybe I will," she said, thinking that, at the very least, she might keep an eye out and check on him another time.

That was a good bit of wisdom from him that she wondered if he'd heard it from someone else. "Touché," she said, leaving it at that because there was no point in going in circles after midnight.

It seemed to her that he did know how to do it, that the answer was right there in what he was saying, and he didn't even realize it. She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if he would clue in, but he was probably far too drunk still. "I'm older than I look," Jude admitted rather dryly when he commented on her wisdom. "But yes, friendships and experiences," she confirmed with a decisive nod.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-25 12:14 pm UTC (link)

"Good." Jude was clearly trying to help him, so Gael would be happy to return the favour, once he was actually sober enough to be of any use. Thinking of which, and the fact that he did actually have to turn up at work tomorrow, he glanced uncertainly at his phone. He didn't feel a particularly strong urge to text anyone. No matter how Gael had interpreted his song choice, the Eric that was feeling sad about the way things had turned out lived only in Gael's head, not in reality. Texting wouldn't reach that version. "Okay," he said, with more determination than he felt. "I think I can turn my phone on to call a taxi without doing anything embarrassing."

It hadn't occurred to him, though perhaps it should have done, that Jude might be older than she appeared. "I'm not," he told her with a laugh. "But I very much look forward to being better at all this eventually. Maybe by the time I'm thirty-four." He and Benny had joked about Gael being happier by his next birthday, which was coming up awfully fast now. Gael should probably think about what friends and experiences he might want to spend it on. "Thank you for the drink, and the advice, and for not letting me do stupid things. Next time, if you could stop me before I sing in public...?" Obviously, he wasn't really expecting Jude to be there to stop him, but hey, maybe if her girlfriends didn't invite her to karaoke, Gael would have to do it instead.

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-25 08:54 pm UTC (link)

Jude studied him for a long moment before deciding she believed him, not sensing any lying, overt or to himself, and she nudged his phone back across the table to him. Maybe once he turned it back on, she'd snag it to put her number in there for him.

He didn't ask how old she actually was, and she had to give him credit for that. "Maybe," she agreed lightly, assuming that he was probably twenty-four, as thirty-four was a rather specific age to name. "Well, now that I know you shouldn't be singing in public, I might just remind you of this feeling if you seem on the verge of it again," she offered, lightly teasing him. No, she didn't think anyone in the bar enjoyed his rendition of that song, but that was karaoke. Sometimes she thought people only loved it so much because there were always a few people like Gael who weren't very talented singers but still had the confidence to go up and try. She knew she would never got on stage to sing if she weren't confident in the quality of her voice.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-25 10:55 pm UTC (link)

They were too close to the stage for even an inebriated Gael to think it was a good idea to call a taxi from here. Instead, while he waited for his phone to wake itself up, he explained, "I'll text my sister, see if she's ready to go home." It didn't take long, and he offered the phone to Jude for her to confirm that the text was exactly as innocent as he was claiming it to be.

Gael took no offence at the wording that he shouldn't be singing in public, fully agreeing that he'd much prefer it that way. "I'm not sure you'll have to, honestly," he told her. "I think 'karaoke in public' might be a once-in-a-lifetime mistake for me." Or at least, if Gael ever contemplated doing it again, he hoped he'd remember this and both pick an easier song and expect it to go badly.

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-26 04:38 am UTC (link)

When he held the phone out, she took it, reviewing the text before giving him a nod. Rather than hand the phone back, though, she hit the send button and then navigated to his contacts, quickly punching in her name and number for him. She then sent herself a text message from his phone with his name so that she could save his contact info in her phone. "I didn't see any other Judes in there, so hopefully you'll remember who I am when you're sober," she told him as she handed the phone back, deciding that she was definitely going to check up on him another time.

"At least you tried," she emphasized again, firmly. She really didn't think this was something he should regret. "You got your ass up and tried. That's more than most people can say. A life with no regrets or mistakes or embarrassing moments would be pretty boring, don't you think?" As much as she liked her calm, quiet life, she knew that with eternity stretched out before her, she needed more, she needed to take chances, to keep life interesting. As a mortal, perhaps Gael felt differently.

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Gael + Jude

shorething
2024-06-26 07:06 pm UTC (link)

In pursuit of a group dinner, Gael had been doing a lot of asking people for their numbers lately. As far as he could remember, Jude was the first person to offer, and he smiled warmly at her. "Thanks. I don't think I'm drunk enough to forget you. I was definitely more drunk than this the first day of Pride, and I remember all of that." Maybe not all the little details of what he and Benny had discussed, but at least the general shape of the conversation, enough to remember that Benny why Benny had been drinking.

"Right. Stupid and brave, I've got to try to remember that." He had got up and tried, though he'd feel better about the decision if it had been made deliberately and not drunk on alcohol and music and assuming his performance would go much better than it actually had. He was still musing over whether a life without regrets would be boring when Sefie's reply came in, letting him know she was happy to leave whenever, especially as karaoke was winding down. "Not if you could somehow make all the right decisions without any wrong ones," he decided. "You wouldn't miss the regrets if you could do that." He sighed. "But that's now how life works, is it? You don't know it's going to be a mistake until you do it, so sometimes you have to." With that caveat, yeah, he could see that a life without any risk ever would be boring.

Remembering that this conversation hadn't, actually, been all about him, Gael scrubbed a hand over his face as he slowly stood up, feeling a last wave of alcohol hit him. "I hope your figuring out doesn't take too long, and isn't too painful."

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Re: Gael + Jude

heyjudea
2024-06-27 01:29 am UTC (link)

She was already shaking her head slowly when he landed on what she would have said if he'd not got there himself. "Nope, unfortunately not," Jude agreed. But she also thought that always making all the right decisions would probably get a little boring too. There was a different, she thought, between dwelling in the negative feelings and appreciating them for the perspective and depth they could bring to one's life.

"Thanks, Gael." She tipped her chin up to maintain eye contact as he stood. "Make sure you shut your phone off again once you find Sefie," she suggested, having read his sister's name in his phone when she'd confirmed that the text message he was typing out what not for any of the guys who seemed to still be weighing heavily on his mind tonight.

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