Morningstar Manor

Nick strolled along the path, litter pickers in hand, whistling quietly to himself. Working Saturdays wasn't too bad when one had a job like this to do and the weather was reasonable.

He stooped to pick a discarded candy bar wrapper and put it in his garbage sack then walked on.

[ooc: we numbered our pups and choose them using this handy little item. Other than that the rules are fairly elastic]

Having to alter their plans due to the club they had intended to visit being closed [due to a raid, only Amarie didn't tell Emma that] looked like it might pay off after all.

Emma had parked as close to the club as she could get and they had walked the rest of the way, and Amarie had spoken the magic words to the bouncer - "Jimmy Wendell said we should ask for him?"

Now they were inside and the bouncer was letting them through the barrier into the inner enclosure and the elevator to the upper level where the REALLY cool people hung out.

"Wow," Amarie said. "Look isn't that ... who's her face? That girl off that show. The one with that guy. You know."

"Hey Emma, Amarie here. Look, are you babysitting the night of the Ball cuz I am - Charlie and Deacon want to go for a while at least. Anyhow, I reckon if we're missing a party we ought to treat ourselves to a night out on Saturday. Want to come out on the town with me? I know some cool places that don't always ask for ID. Lemmee know, huh? B'byeeee!"

Emma was, it would be fair to say, fuming. But politely as she served a customer, showing her the postcards and the prints. It wasn't funny. She'd finished her homework, and her shift was over something like, ooh, over an hour ago! But Sadie hadn't shown up.

The customer paid, and Emma smiled as she bagged up the print and four postcards, took the money and handed over the change. "You're welcome, do come again!"

Hardly had the door closed behind the woman before she turned her back to the window and headed for the kitchen. "Charlie? You want more tea? I'm going to make one, that way she's bound to show up just as it's ready and want one for herself?"

Today was an 'off' day for her office work so Amarie was happy to earn some extra by minding Nia. Charlie was at the gallery and Deacon had had to go out to the bank and would probably, he said, be meeting Charlie for lunch.

Looking after Nia was no real problem but Amarie had often wished that she had another child of her own age to play with.

Then she answered a knock on the door and a pleasant faced woman introduced herself as Mary and asked if she and Nia would like a play date with Michael, just for an hour?

Amarie took only a few moments to consider as she asked a few questions and Mary replied. Michael was a bit older than Nia. Michael's parents were away and he was being cared for by his grandfather. The clincher was that his grandfather was an old friend and business associate of Deacon's.

What could possibly be the harm?

The guy with the puff of blond hair, the quite old one, was hanging about as usual as Amarie walked across the Square to the ATM machine.

She nodded and grinned at him, "Hi Ricky," before putting her shopping bags down by the machine and fishing her card from her pocket. It was a Platinum one - the bank had changed it - and the limit was huge!

She chuckled as she took out more cash and checked her balance - still ridiculous despite the money she had moved around, despite what she had spent - reading the little slip of paper with a smile as she picked up the bags and headed for home.

She put the card and the paper in her pocket, nodded to the man again and walked on.

Travis had gotten out of class early today. His last class teacher took pity on the boy whose birthday fell on the most unlucky day of the year. Thinking his luck would hold out, he stopped at the shop to talk to Memphis. An hour later, he drove Lucy home.

Now, he was standing in the tenant hallway, having knocked on Amarie's door. Hopefully she didn't have plans for tonight...

This Monday Amarie wasn't working and had been expecting a boring day on her own in the apartment. Luckily Deacon had needed to do some work so, instead, she was up on the penthouse level - hee - lolling on the couch helping Nia dress a dolly while the Care Bears did their thing in the background.

Naturally her Wyrm was close to hand and she was working her way through the emails picking out the more interesting ones and occasionally writing a reply. She was close to the end of the list when she opened another and read the boring looking text and let out a shriek that had Nia staring at her and beginning to cry.

Amarie had spotted the email a day or two before and, having never seen anything like it before, was utterly intrigued so replied to it.

The reply made her giggle: ( Read more... )

Grinning, she only hesitated for a few minutes before carefully filling in her details. She didn't tell Vinnie though. He'd have been pissed that she'd given out the details of her savings account - and even more pissed if she'd admitted there was no risk because there was only a dollar fifty in it.

Just before seven the birthday girl herself opened her apartment door and put up a sign on it saying,

Welcome!
but watch out for the cat

and a silly childish drawing of a cat on the side.

That was the last thing on the to-do list - everything was ready now for the party. The apartment was mostly lit with lots of candles in colorful small lanterns, there was a music mix with a big variety playing on the backround, and a separate cook in the kitchen. Yes - today Emily was dressed up properly to celebrate the big 30, and young Lucas also from La Fee with his tattooed arms and black clothes and an angry brow was taking care of the catering. He had done a spledid job - though it was no brainer that Emily had obviously helped and bossed the poor boy around. Like promised in the invitation, there was food enough to make a full four-course menu dinner for the guests, but served in a buffet in the kitchen.

More than that, there was also drinks. Emily kept an eye on the 19-year-old cook since the wines were stored in the kitchen - especially when his uncle was working and not attending the party, she needed to keep the young man in check.

When the first knock on the door sounded, Emily in her skirt and stylish blouse went to open it and welcomed her friends in.

[[OOC: Party post! Everyone welcome who thinks they should be here - Emily sent out the invites rather generously, so pop in if you feel like it. Mingle!]]

Ang had booked the maids to come in and clean the carpets, then realised she didn't want to stick around if they were using anything chemical. So here she was in the Mocha, laptop connected and watching the Inaugration of the President over the internet with a large pot of tea and a plate of cookies. She had the sound up enough to hear the proceedings, and to spite the American coverage, she'd tapped into the British Broadcasting Corporation's coverage instead. Sometimes it was nice to hear voices from back home....

She was hardly surprised when someone stopped by her table, after all, this was a big day for America, an historic day, one that would never, could never, be repeated again. A truly special day.

Emily sat in the Mocha with her laptop trying to concentrate on her column. The couple sitting nearby was talking loudly over their Christmas plans that included loads of food, relatives, presents ("But what if Pam gives me something? Then I have to have something for her!"), decorations and all sorts of other entertainment that to Emily sounded more like stress than fun family time.

Emily snorted to herself. She had not even thought of doing anything else but spending a quiet Christmas day at home alone with a bottle of Pinot Noir and a good book. She had not celebrated Christmas properly in almost a decade and had gotten alarmingly used to only working and being alone over the Holidays. Nowadays she did not even bother with decorating or any specific seasonal foods either - what was the use spending money on such humbug when you were alone anyway?

(OOC: Busy mun is busy but tries her best, slowtimed if nothing else.)

Oddly enough, now the cold weather was here, Amarie was feeling much better and more energetic.

That being the case she slipped out of the apartment and climbed the stairs to the first floor and began to make her way along the doors trying to remember which one was Travis's.

In the conservatory, Leo sat staring at his notebook. On his hard drive was most of a novel. He had no idea where it had come from, just that it was there, he had obviously written it and it was GOOD. Pity it wasn't finished.

He sighed. "No," he said, "why would anyone DO that?"

#

In the library Amarie sat and watched her new friend shelve some books. "So - a librarian," she said. "Pretty good job for someone who can't talk."

Barbara grinned at her then said, "Sssshhhh!"

#

In the garden Palug had found a warmish spot on the pedestal of the demon statue. He watched the maze - waiting to see if anything small and furry ran out.

#

Keira stood in the lobby waiting for her car and clutching her purse. Final fittings for her costume today, dress rehearsal on Thursday afternoon and evening, and then her first ever performance in the City of Tosca. She shouldn't be nervous - but she was.

#

Del used a skewer to dip a cherry into the dark chocolate and coated it with a twist of his wrist. He eased it off the skwere and put it on the baking parchement to dry then dipped another out of the brandy they had been soaking in for months. Christmas was coming! Time to get ready.

#

Up a ladder Nick painstakingly tightened the lamps in one of the chandeliers. "Try that," he said and Phil snapped the light on. It flickered and snapped back off again. "Bum," Nick said. "I've run out of bulbs. Can you fetch some?" Phil nodded and went.

He'd spent one night at the gallery with Charlie and Deacon. The next couple nights he'd spent with Tom, but he felt like an outsider there. Tonight he was unsure as to where he was going to stay. Maybe he'd get lucky and Lucy would be unlocked or something. That was one option he hadn't tried yet. Memphis couldn't get too mad and bent out of shape if he was stuck inside and didn't know.

Leaving out now put Travis entirely early for class, but he decided to stop off in Vine Square. It was a relatively nice day out, and it would give him some time to think about where to go tonight.

Ang had taken the afternoon off, for an ante-natal appointment, and was now enjoying a large tea while perusing yet more leaflets and pamphlets and lists handed over by her Doctor. She wanted distracting though, the Doctor had said the fatal words - more blood tests, and Ang hated those.

Emma had come home from work, and settled in the conservatory area with a hot chocolate and some cookies, to sketch one of the smaller statues, she was hoping it would count as homework for both still life and her life drawing classes! She wasn't sure, but she didn't think it was cheating.

Icene was muttering under her breath as she went through lists of pupils from Andover, trying to find a connection. She'd managed to track down the Sadie that Alec had mentioned, but not been able to speak to her yet. Work, other work, including staff reviews, just kept getting in the way. Now though, she wanted to try and make links on her own before talking to the girl who could be their biggest walking clue.

Spencer had gone AWOL from the office. He'd told Mrs Sullivan he was going out for lunch, and just didn't go back. He knew he had no appointments or meetings, and he just wanted to relax, so here he sat with today's paper, a large coffee, and a pecan maple danish, enjoying the fact that nobody knew where he was. Unless they were in the Mocha of course.

Jane was on a break, and tucked herself away at a table in the corner to nibble on her chicken salad sandwich, and sip her water. She was tired, the morning's jobs had included a large dose of polishing silver for one tenant, and her hands and arms ached. It had taken ages and now she was going to be short of time finishing up for the day. But lunch was very important, right?

He'd gone down and checked on the cars - the Aston Martin and Car - and then gave the Beast a good rub down. They'd need to take the bikes out again a few more times before the weather turned cold. After that he'd checked emails and showered and now was down in the Mocha with a muffin and large coffee.

With the ball coming up he was making notes on a pad of paper. They'd need to get their tuxes out and cleaned for one. Though he seemed to be working, Deacon was happy to be interrupted.

Travis was dragging his feet today. He seriously didn't want to go sit in English for an hour. If it wasn't for the fact he liked writing the random things said in class, he'd skip it. Maybe they'd take class outside today... He opened his phone and typed out a message to Amarie.

Is it Saturday yet? I do not want to go to English...

Emily was one to keep her word. That is why she had spent a good amount of time making a perfect white chocolate cheese cake á la Emily when she had heard that Amarie had been released from the hospital - she had promised to Vincenzo that she would make it for her, hadn't she?

So on Thursday afternoon she hurried down the hall in the lobby level of the Manor to Vincenzo's door carrying a small glass bottle of raspberry sauce and the cheese cake under a cake cover. She knocked the door and hoped that at least someone would answer.

Travis was entirely thrilled that Amarie was home today. Today especially, since Mondays were his free days from Rutherford. It was a nice thing to have an extra day off in the start of the week.

Shortly before noon, he wound his way down to the staff apartments and knocked on the door of Vincenzo's apartment. Hopefully it wouldn't wake Vincenzo up, and waited for Amarie to answer the door.

As it happened Vincenzo had just got up and ambled across to the door barefoot with a mug of coffee in his hand. "Hey," he greeted, and jerked his head towards the sofa. "She's up and dressed and ready. Hey, Amarie, Travis is here."
( Read more... )