Morningstar Manor

Things had been looking up, for the most part. Stone was finishing up school. He'd redone his store to sell less CDs, more vinyl and a good selection of instruments rather than letting it fall by the wayside. He'd hired a few more cooks for his restaurant, people who understood the idea that there was no set menu and it was pay what you want and were creative enough to handle it. Mostly he just wanted time to finish his classes and still be able to hang around at Upstairs, or wherever else, with Lara. He'd spent the last few months tapering off his shrink visits, which freed up even more time, and he was in a pretty good place mentally.

Currently, he and Lara were having a night in. It wasn't so weird anymore, being all normal couple-y with her. They bounced from one of their apartments to the other every few days or every other day. That part, he thought anyway, was getting a little irritating, if only because sometimes he tended to leave things at her place that he forgot about and then couldn't find, or he'd be at her place and want something from his. It wasn't like their apartments were far apart, but he'd started thinking that maybe they should just suck it up and consolidate. After stopping by her store to walk her home, they'd made and consumed dinner and cleaned up their mess. Slate was passed out on his back at the foot of the bed, legs sticking out in all crazy directions, purring off and on. Stone was seated in the recliner to the left of the bed, his acoustic guitar set up on the ottoman as he set about restringing it while Lara worked on her laptop on the bed. Stone glanced at her every now and then, contemplating possibly bringing up the idea of moving into one of their apartments together.

"What're you working on?" He asked to get a conversation going, not that he minded just sitting in silence with her at this point. In fact it was kind of comfortable to do so.

How about we book this red hot swing combo for the next Manor ball?

Which is Feb 14th btw!! See you there?

<:3 ~ Charlie

In the morning, Lara sat at a table right next to the Mocha line, wearing the bracelet she'd received the day before as she scrolled through some songs on her iPod. She dug the gift a lot and was hoping maybe her santa would see her sitting out there wearing it so she could thank her or him personally. But the Manor had a lot of tenants, so she knew it was a long shot.

At about the same time, Bridget was also at a table. She had a few last-minute things to take care of at work before her vacation kicked in, but since there was no rush, she decided to stop for some coffee and a pastry. Her secret santa gift remained at home, set out on the bar that lead into the kitchen. For the time being the candles remained unlit. That was just life with toddlers.

Toddlers weren't a problem in the Kwon-Smith apartment, so Layla had put her gift around the tub in the bathroom, just waiting for a bath when it would be put to good use. She came down to the Mocha in the afternoon, since she was done for the semester and didn't have anything better to do than stand in line, waiting for some holiday-flavored coffee.

Lis showed up in the late afternoon, wearing the grin that had been on her face since she'd gotten her fabulous gift the day before. It was so incredibly perfect; her secret santa must have been a secret angel. And even though it wasn't anywhere near summer, she wore the warmest of those cleavage-framing tops with pride as she sipped her coffee on the cafe's couch. This was going to be a good Christmas.

Lara crouched on the floor in front of Stone Hawthorne's apartment, slowly surrounding herself with the contents of her messenger bag. (Slowly because the big puffy coat she wore was kind of limiting her mobility.) He had a show tonight and was supposed to meet her at his place after. The only problem was that she couldn't figure out where she'd put his keys. She'd heard something jingle-jangle-jingling when she shook her bag, so she figured they must have been in there somewhere. But so far she had yet to locate them. Damn it.

( E-mail to Lis )

( E-mail to Lara )

Hi Lara,

I've been thinking about our conversation at the weekend about bringing families into the Square and I've been ringing around.

http://www.noahsarkzoo.net/package.html - these guys can do pony rides as well and have a team available 1st to 5th December or the tail end of the following week 11th and 12th.

http://www.magiciceusa.com/ - these guys could provide us with a 20 by 40 ft rink plus crash barriers skate hire etc, but we'd need to make up our minds pretty fast.

http://www.beachdisplay.com/Christmas%20Grotto.htm - these are kitsch in the extreme but then nobody expects Christmas to be tasteful, do they? Given the grotto and the costume hire that they also provide all we'd need to do is provide the personnel to man the grotto. Also, possibly, a 'snow' machine should the weather not be amenable.

I'm having problems tracking down a decent carriage hire firm, locally. Do you know anyone.

I've attached a doc with full details of costings plus a proposal to offer to our fellow business owners. If everyone, or almost everyone, is in it won't be a crippling outlay, but what would you consider to be an acceptable level of shortfall since if we bring business in everyone should benefit?

Let me know what you think, hun. We CAN do this, but we need to be fast.

yrs

Andy
290 Gallery, Vine Square.

Lara's hands and arms looked like they'd been stuck in a blender. She and Stone had tried to give Slate a bath the night before, and though the kitten was tiny, he sure made up for it with brute force. Lara had tried to cover up all the claw marks with band-aids, but there was only so much she could do and still be able to bend her fingers. She sat at a table near the register, delicately holding a danish as she tried not to pull apart any closed cuts on her knuckles.

--

Phin was upstairs with the kids and Bridget came down to get them both coffee. She'd had their upcoming couples therapy appointment on her her mind, but once she got into the Mocha line and saw the menu board she found herself wondering what the deal was with this Karma Chai stuff. She had been seeing it pop up on menus all around town lately.

--

Layla was in charge of an upcoming Hitchcock mini-film fest at the Square's old movie house/video rental store, the Ivy. Everything was moving along smoothly with the planning except for the poster. She had Photoshop open on her laptop and was trying to assemble something herself, but she was no design expert. It looked like crap. As she sipped her coffee, she wondered if she could rope some Fine Arts undergrads into doing it.

--

Lis sat on one of the Mocha's couches, restringing her bass. Why was she restringing her bass in the Mocha? Well, after picking up the strings after practice, she was too lazy to go upstairs and do it. Also, it was a good way to get attention and she loved that.

Stone wasn't supposed to meet Lara for another couple of hours, but he had a surprise lined up for her, sort of. It was kind of an impromptu surprise really. So he pulled his phone out of his pocket after hiding part of the surprise in his backseat, hidden under a couple of blankets he'd brought along since Lara was so damn cold all the time. Anyway, he hopped in his car in its parking spot in the alley next to his store and dialed Lara's number. He turned the car on and the radio down as he waited for her to pick up.

Try Denver was the main event tonight, but they weren't due on stage until sometime after 9:30. The opener was Niles and Lara was interested in seeing what kind of reception he'd get from the crowd. His open mic performances had done pretty well (and he already seemed to have his share of groupies) and style of music complimented the headliner's. So, for his sake (well and hers), Lara hoped this wasn't going to be the kind of show where the opener got heckled by impatient fans. She was feeling pretty confident about her choice, though.

[Party post rules apply! Have at it for any point in the show!]

Stone had a long day on Tuesdays. He had a Music of World Cultures class at eight in the morning, then he opened his store at ten and spent the entire day catching up on paperwork. He left Alyssa the store for the last two hours at seven o'clock and went home. After setting up some stuffed shells in the over and a pot of sauce for them on the stove, he went to the living room to go over more paperwork, this set for the corner cafe he was still working on getting ready for construction, and waiting for Lara. She was supposed to come over after work. After a half hour he plugged his iPod into its iHome and set it to random.

And then he heard a crashing sound in the kitchen. Slate had managed to knock over the sauce he had set out on the stove. Thankfully, it hadn't been heating, but the deformed little cat was now covered in the sauce, having practically rolled around in it as he started licking it up from the floor. Though he knew cats cleaned themselves and you weren't really supposed to bathe them all that often, it was his only real option for how dirty Slate now was. First he cleaned up the pot and the floor, then he set up the sink without the garbage disposal in it, with a few inches of water. He picked up Slate, who was happily licking alfredo sauce from his fur, and checked the water to make sure it was warm before he started using a little tin measuring cup to scoop up warm water and started cleaning the sauce off. Slate was not a happy camper once water was involved. In fact by the time he heard the door, he was in the middle of still trying to bathe Slate and he had three scratches along his hand and arm.

"I'm too tired for this, cat," He sighed before he turned his head and called out that the door was open. He grabbed the little hose from the sink and held Slate in one hand as he pressed the button down to make the shower of water come out to rinse Slate off.

( Stone and Lara are awkward babysitters until Bridget's Brother and almost Sister-In-Law arrive. )

( Summary: Frustrated Phin keeps a crew on to work at night so he has something to do in his restlessness. There's a collapse at the site that traps Phin under a mountain of debris after sending him falling two stories. Phin's construction partner goes to retrieve Bridget since Phin's asking for her. Panda sappiness ensues. )

"Hey, Niles. This is Lara Follet from Upstairs. The venue, I mean, not the floor above you. Anyway, I've got a little proposition for ya, so if you can call me back as soon as you can, that'd be great. Talk to you soon!"

To: Lara
From: Your Favorite Gilly
Subject: Heyyyy bestest best short pal!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Lara! How are you? It's been ages since I last saw you! Or...rather since Sunday. But this is simply besides the point. Today is Wednesday. Wednesday is a good day for lunch, don'tcha think? If I was to say, offer to buy you a meatless lunch, would you accept?

- Gil-Master Flash

Niles was sitting at the bar in the Upstairs, contemplating playing again at the open mic night. His last one had went over fairly well and God knew he had about a million songs he could play off the top of his head, but something just wasn't sitting right with him.
He took a drink of his beer as he thought it over.

Stone showed up at Lara's place a little early to wait for her. He'd ordered them some food from Agrarian, including veggie dip, and had carted it back to the Manor to wait, leaning against her door. He was just about to pull his phone out and text her when he saw her step off the elevator and start up the hallway. "Hey," He said once she was closer, lifting his hand to wave as he smiled. "How was work?" He asked.

To: Mrs. Lis Rhodes-Hawthorne
From: Stonewall
Subject: My Dearest Wifey

Wifey, my dear, it has come to my attention that all of our visits as of late consist of you bringing Bacon to have a, what is it called...'play date' with young master Slate. While I approve of these bonding sessions between the children, I find shameful the lack of our formally frequent bubble bath chats. This matter, I'm afraid, must be remedied immediately.

~ Stonewall

( Lara's Major Douchebag is quite the little housewife. )

Yet another evening delayed by a hospital visit. After Lara's derby bout, Stone drove her to the hospital. She was pretty sure her wrist wasn't broken, but the on-call medical people at the game told her she should get it checked out anyway.

"This is gonna take forever," she sighed once they were in the waiting room.

The Landlocked City Rollers were back home and ready to fight. Inside Rollerama IV, bleachers were set up and a decent sized and excited crowd filled them. The derby girls were already in their skates and team uniforms, rolling around and greeting their friends.

( The crappy exposition written at 3am continues! )

((OOC - Party post rules can apply if you want to talk amongst yourselves in the crowd! Otherwise, Lara can be caught at anytime pre, post, or halfway through the game!))