Morningstar Manor

Working shifts turn and turn about as well as 10 hour days was beginning to pull Nick down and he was aware that he hadn't been as much fun for Seth as usual. So tonight, instead of going straight home, he stepped next door to the Lamb and got himself a beer and set his mind to shedding some of the tensions of the day.

"Cheers Molly," he said. "Have one yourself."

Molly smiled and got herself a fruit juice. "They work you too hard at the Manor," she said.

"Tell me about it," Nick sighed and took a drink.

The pool house had been specially warmed for the occasion and extra loungers brought up. Screens had been erected for the models to change behind and everything was ready for the beautiful people to arrive.

They had their schedules - the ones who would be wearing the collection items and those who would be providing a back drop - and it was anticipated that the shoot would last most of the day and maybe into the evening. There was no knowing.

[ooc: Party post so tag in and let the pups chat amongst themselves, or if they want input from one of the staff, please give us a poke.]

A package had come for Jazz today. A gift she'd ordered last week, thinking it would be a fun Valentine's surprise - especially now that she knew a certain sommelier would have the night off.

There was only one problem. She wasn't exactly sure how to go about getting it setup and the possibility of it falling apart the first time she went to use it if she attempted the task herself was not a prospect she really wanted to entertain. So, after just a few moments delibration, she called up Maintenance - and deciding to just go for it - left the following message:

"Hello, this is Estrella Gonzalez in 2-29. I'm calling because I need help assembling a stripper pole in my bedroom." Beat. "Thank you. Again - this is Estrella Gonzalez, 229."

It had seemed like a simple enough request, and up to then Nick had been as helpful as anyone might wish, especially since the maintenance team were now a man short. But hearing Kris's instruction he had said, "You want to what?" and on repetition had said, "I'm not doing that on my own."

Health and safety, Kris supposed. There were a lot of heavy boxes and pieces of tatty old furniture to move. But he was surprised to see Charlie Shaw arrive wearing the most god-awful tatty version of maintenance uniform, and even more surprised to see him swallow hard when Kris explained that Lewis Flodderson had set his heart on some really nice grungy pics taken in an authentic location and that the head of maintenance had suggested the ideal place in the under basement.

"Okay," Charlie said, looking half Nick's size and somewhat white around the eyes. "Yes, we can do that for you but I think you had better stay here - it's really grubby down there."

"Thanks guys," Kris said with a smile, "Lewis will owe you both a big one."

It sounded as though Nick muttered, "If we live to collect," but that was impossible, wasn't it?

All the same Kris felt a little guilty as he noticed how close the two men were standing as Nick opened the door to the sub-basement area. Surely they weren't holding hands?

He grimaced as he strolled back to the Spa feeling sorry for the little painter and the big blond if their boyfriends were using their time at work to carry on behind their backs. But he had no proof, only surmise, and it really wasn't his business.

Zack had finally had to admit to Seth just how bad he was feeling and had gotten the reaction he'd expected. A stern talking to, a lot of hugs, and a trip to the doctor. That hadn't gone as well as they'd hoped and they'd come home with a lot of medicine and instructions for him to rest as much as possible.

Seth had spent the night last night, curled around Zack as he'd trembled with an uncontrollable chill and praying silently that his friend would be okay. They both knew that one day this disease would probably take him. But neither were ready for it to be today.

Pot helped a little with the pain but Seth had been trying hard to find more of the Karma tea and failing. Nick, though, had said he could get something that might help and now they waited for him, curled up on the couch with Zack looking like death, eyes hollow and face greyish.

"There you are," Nick said, leaning on the edge of the balcony. He frowned at Jack who looked blue. "Are you sure those windows need cleaning? Couldn't you have found a job in the warm?"

"Dude I'm sorry I bailed on work yesterday. I'm sure Ruptecht is on the war path. I need to talk to you before he finds me though. It's really important."

Ruprecht had heard - somehow - and the moment Jack had returned to work had kept him busy. So busy he'd had little time to breath much less check on Declan. He'd sent a text message but gotten no response so figured Dec probably had his phone turned off. And with the number of messages Jack was getting at the front desk he had a good idea why.

Now he'd managed to sneak off for a break and wanted a coffee.

Joy - wanted an autograph. She put Stunning on the counter and smiled at Jack and Jack sighed inwardly and signed it then got his coffee and went to hide in a corner for a bit.

****

Zack was curled up by the fireplace - looking a bit shadowed around the eyes. He was looking through his files for his next project and sipping Karma tea. He'd been out of the smoking leaves of the tea for about a week and it was showing. In both his appearance and his pain level. So far he'd hidden it pretty well he thought.

****

Deacon was at a table drinking coffee and working on his laptop. Nia was with him, little feet kicking as she sat in her chair and colored in her coloring book. She had a nice chocolate chip muffin that was crumbled over a good portion of her picture and her top but she was singing softly to herself and apparently quite happy.

Deacon smiled and continued typing.

They had about a week before the gig at the Lamb and, as luck would have it, Jack and Nick both had a bit of free time late this afternoon. So Deacon called an impromptu rehearsal - but in the ballroom instead of their usual rehearsal spot in the Square. Jack for one was technically on call so had to be close to hand.

As usual there was a good bit of joking and teasing as they set up their equipment but once they were ready they all got down to business.

The Manor was filled with a festive spirit. Nick had fixed the lights on the massive tree in the lobby so it was twinkling brightly. More decorations had been strung through the lobby and Mocha and gave the Manor a warm glow. A wide variety of Holiday music played on the intercom system, softly enough not to be over bearing.

Jason sat at the desk and even he had a bit of a smile on his face. He liked Christmas music. Especially when he caught a bit of what was being played down in the ballroom.

Jack and Zack were having a spur of the moment jam session, Jack on the old baby grand piano and Zack with both his acoustic guitar and his bass, switching between the two depending on the song. And if some of their songs were a bit heavier than the traditional holiday music - oh well.

Eris was decorating her apartment. Hey even she could get into the spirit from time to time.

Kara was in a pair of comfy pjs and sitting in a pile of presents and wrapping paper on her living room floor. She had her own Christmas music playing on her stereo - lots of good ole Irish tunes in there of course - and was happily wrapping away.

Hugh was wandering the Manor - humming along to the music playing over the speakers and searching for something he had seen in a dream the night before. But he just knew it was really here.

Erik, bundled up in coat and scarf was in the garden enjoying the freshly fallen snow.

Loki sat in the Mocha, sipping coffee and wondering how much trouble he'd get into if he made the tree in the lobby vanish.


[ooc: Even those not mentioned here are available if you want them, just say. Only pups not here for play are Deacon and Demitri as they are out of town.]

Christmas was in many ways a favourite holiday but today Nick was cursing it heartily. Something had gone wrong with the lights and they had ceased to function and someone, Nick suspected Mrs Kelso, had complained about it, so he had been given the fiddly assignment of finding out what was wrong and putting it right. Failing that he would have to remove all the decorations, remove the lights and replace them with new ones.

Brilliant. Lights weren't that expensive. They should just do that in the first place - but no, it was the economy. Nick had to test all the bulbs first.

"Eighty-seven," he grumbled, clipping it back into it's holder. "About two hundred to go."

Sterrin sat on one of the couches in the Mocha wearing a blue dress and looking at a magazine and feeling bored.  She absolutely detested cold weather and her brother was constantly swamped at work, which was putting him in a bad mood. They'd just had another argument this morning and she glared at him where he sat at a table, reading his paper and looking smug. He smirked back at her and she flipped him off. God, she hated  Christmas.

Declan sat at his table wearing a tight, black v-necked sweater and a pair of jeans, and laughing at his sister. She was a pain in the ass and often times more trouble than she was worth, but it was nice having her around to argue with if nothing else.  His gaze returned to the stock quotes in front of him and he smiled as his mind calculated how much richer he'd just gotten. He'd been grumpy this morning, but pissing off Sterrin and making money always made him feel just a bit better.

Not everyone was that careful about how they disposed of their garbage - which was how it happened that Palug was able to drag a turkey carcass into the lobby and hide under a chair with it. The vigorous purring and crunching sounds were audible several paces away.

~

Nick had dropped several boxes of screws down the stairwell and was cursing and collected the scatter. "Mind your feet," he called as he heard footsteps.

~

Fin was taking a call from a customer so had paused in the conservatory phone to ear, enjoying the curl of the steam from his coffee cup.

~

Leo had tea so all was right with the world. It was some of that new tea too and he was feeling uncommonly alert. He flipped a page on the brief his was reading and scribbled a note in the margin.

~

Del was sleepy, but had got up because he was hungry. Hungry for a Mocha caramel muffin. Sometimes you just HAD to.

Sibyl walked into the Mocha at half past eight, got a large chai latte, and collapsed on a sofa.

Things at work had gotten majorly stressful lately, and Sibyl wanted nothing so much as to forget she even existed, for a moment.-

Nick yawned as he lined up in the Mocha to get his mid morning coffee and danish. It had been a busy night and he couldn't wait to get off duty so he could get back to Seth's and doze off in a long hot bath. His place was still pretty full of recreational gardening items and besides, a bath at Seth's frequently meant either company, or being brought coffee, or sometimes both.

With his snacks in his hands he found an empty couch and ambled across to slouch on it. After a moment he closed his eyes.

Five minutes. Just five minutes.

###

Andy scowled at the contents of Erik's mailbox and began to go through it. Junk, junk, junk, invoice, letter from agent, junk junk.

Then she snorted and held up one pale pink envelope scented with Anais Anais. "huh, fan mail," she said and he hand hovered over the trash can for a moment before adding it to the pile of keepers. Sometimes, if they were really good, Erik let her read them aloud to him.

"Well damn," she said. There was two.

###

Leo sat in the library with a large pile of double space printed paper and a selection of highlighters.

Even after several years of being computer literate [even if only to about 5th grade level] he still found it easier to edit on paper.

He smiled as the green [for deletion] highlighter swooped across the page. Even though he had just discarded three days work in a stroke of a pen it was satisfying in its own way.

Del sat reading through some notes he had made about his job for tomorrow night - a man this time though he had been promised that no 'special services' would be required or expected - and took occasional sips of his chai latte. He still hadn't made up his mind about it.

###

Nick had no doubts - Karma Chai was the business with a whole night of on-call ahead of him. He took his cup over to the couch, settled down with a book and hoped nobody would require hi services.

Of course, it was all necessary and actually a privilege to get it.

But still, Sibyl hated her flu jabs just now. She'd taken off today to get them, not knowing how long she'd have to wait in the doctor's office. It was shorter than she'd thought, but now, both her arms were hurting (she had the swine flu jab in one, the seasonal one in the other), and she was feeling increasingly odd, as if somebody had replaced her brain with hot cotton candy.

She was sitting on a comfortable chair in a corner of the Mocha, with a very large hot chocolate, and hoping to feel better soon.

She couldn't work on that 1880s ball gown if her mind wasn't at least as sharp as her sewing needle!

Well, this was certainly going to be interesting, wasn't it?
Goblins, ghosts, and one big freaked out brother that was trying to hide the fact that he was gay for the time being. How adorable.
The place was nice though, Sterrin decided as she climbed out of Declan's car and walked in, wearing a black cashmere and wool coat with a black sweaterdress beneath and serious heels. It was also decidedly full of pretty, which was going to mean lots and lots of fun later. 
A glance across the lobby revealed the coffee shop that Declan had been talking about. She could definately use a cup of coffee.

The weather had turned nasty over night so some hasty rearrangements had been made for the party tonight. Naturally this meant that handymen who might normally have enjoyed a bit of a lay in and looking forward to a day OFF-call, had been dragged out of bed at the crack.

Nick heaved out the rolls of canvas and poles, spread the one and spaced the other and began to fix the eyes on the canvas onto the hooks along the side of the building. Luckily he didn't need a ladder, but someone to pass the next roll of canvas would be handy.

###

Leo was in the Mocha going through his mail and wondering whether to bother with the party tonight. His costume was easy enough. He'd put his old fashioned lawyerly tux on and his monocle. Lord Peter Wimsey was a comfortable persona to assume.

He sipped the Karma Chai that the Mocha stocked now and read another rejection letter. Ah well.

###

Kris took a deep breath and worked his fingers. He had, what? Five minutes before his next appointment. Just time for a can of diet soda!

The biggest of the floor polishers was an ugly bastard of a machine that must have weighed 400 pounds so Nick wasn't too surprised that Phil and Jack had left the final polish of the ballroom floor to him. They both had muscle enough but you needed bulk as well to keep the old horror going in a straight line rather then wandering off and crashing through a wall.

So Nick had his weight thrown well back against the handles as he wrestled it across the dance floor and sang along to the music on his iPod. His singing wasn't up to much but who cared? The machine would drown it out anyway.