Morningstar Manor

"The paparazzi is here. Of course. I guess bottom feeders don't have time to celebrate holidays," Olivia sighed from where she sat next to Robbie in the back of the car her father had sent to collect them from the airport. She was wearing a casual but pretty dress and she hoped it'd be enough to satisfy her mother. Wasn't like Easter dinner was a black tie affair or anything.

The driver stopped to get buzzed through the security gate and they started up the long and winding drive toward the brick home that Olivia had grown up in. "This is home," she said to Robbie and lay her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for coming with me."

Olivia was a late night DJ which often meant she wasn't up too much before Noon, but today was different.

She made her way down to the Mocha and got a cup of coffee, then sat down and picked up a paper that someone had abandoned on the table. Right there on the front page was a rather large picture of her father and the headline: Conservative Senator David Paige Backs Gay Marriage!

She blinked twice, then went on to read that at a debate last night, her father's opponent for his seat on the Senate had called him out concerning her brother Billy's impending marriage to his long-time parter. Her father, surprisingly, had stood up for his family. He was quoted as saying, "My son is my blood, and I will stand firm beside him. He is a human like the rest of us, and deserves to love as openly as any of us do. If he wants to swear that love before the God that we are taught made him in his image, I do not see the wrong in that. "


She was stunned, to put it lightly. But most of all? Impressed. Proud.

For the first time in a very long time, she was proud of her father.

Thomas had pulled on his knee-lenght black jacket and was having a cigarette in the cramped little courtyard behind La Fee Verte by the employees entrance. He took every small chance to have a cigarette since those chances came very rarely, and he sure needed the nicotine to get through without snapping at the customers or the waiters. What really did not help his blood pressure was the fact that he had not seen his dear bonita in a long while properly and this week, he had realized, did not even know what was going on with her or where she was. What was even worse was that he was on the phone with his sister Beatrix. Thomas paced up and down in the courtyard arguing with her - she had apparently decided to come and visit him and her son Lucas some time soon, and Thomas really could not be very thrilled about the news.

*

Wearing her chef's whites and her long hair on a bun, Emily sat down heavily on the chair in the kitchen office of La Fee Verte. She held a big coffee mug between her hands and stared at the paperwork on her desk and the emails that needed answering. When would she have time to do all those? She needed to be making mise en place for the Christmas specials and finishing the orders for the New Year's specials. She felt like every year the Christmas season got harder and busier and more taxing than the last one, and always at this time of the year she found herself wondering if she should quit or she might get a serious case of burn-out.

Absent-mindedly Emily sipped her coffee, and flinched right away. She cursed under her breath - she had not realized to wait for the coffee to cool down enough and had instead burnt her tongue. Great. She really needed a day off, or even better, a short holiday. She had no had time to go dancing with Vincenzo in a while, or even spend time with him properly other than crawling to bed to sleep next to him for a few hours before one of them needed to go to work again. Just a couple more weeks, Emily thought, and it would be January and a lot quieter.

*

Lucas was idly stirring a cup of karma chai at home. During the last few months the new kind of tea had become a habit for him and he had a cup or two every day. Last night's party, however, got the young man slightly suspicious of it. What kind a tea could also be injected and used like a legal drug? He wondered how soon the papers would be full of demands for making karma chai illegal, but then again, he had not noticed any real harmful symptoms of it. Not really - the dreams had to be because of stress, anyway. Right?

*

Walking down the street watching all the shop windows full of seasonal decorations, and all the families busying themselves together shopping for Christmas on the last weekend before the holiday itself, Robbie thought he should have taken up the offer from his family and travel home to Ireland for Christmas. Stubbornly he had decided to stay in the City, concentrate on getting some over-due things done for work, and spend Christmas alone. What more was it anyway than a few extra days off, that's all. Except that everyone else was with their families, their children and wives and insufferable mother-in-laws. Robbie had no idea what he would do over Christmas, other than watch classic films from TV that he had seen a hundred times. Where was the point in making any Christmas food or putting up decorations either when you were alone?

*

Laura had decided to spend her day off wrapping Christmas presents. No matter how much she despised the holiday, she could not deny the fact that she made neat and beautiful gift wrappings. She was going to drive to New York next week to spend Christmas with her family, and she had had to get gifts for her parents and cousins and grand-parents and practically the whole family. She still had not remembered to ask Smith what he was doing on Christmas, but seeing as the difficult and potentially dangerous situation with his job had not yet been cleared, Laura doubted he would agree to come with her to New York. Nevertheless, Laura wrapped his Christmas present in a stylish silver-and-blue paper and without even realizing it herself, was humming a mix of Christmas songs.

(OOC: Mun shows she is still not dead and that the people in her head are also alive, and starting to chatter amongst each other again. I might activate again soon!)

Olivia and Robbie had postponed their date, but only by one day and now Olivia was pacing back and forth in her living room in her purple dress and hoping that she didn't wind up doing something to scare him off again. 
Sighing, she checked her make up and glanced at the clock. She knew she shouldn't have started getting ready so early.

In the afternoon after getting his laundry to the washer, Robbie went to the games room next door and picked up a pool stick. While waiting he entertained himself in a lonely game of pool.

*

Emily chatted up Lucas in the queue of the Mocha and interviewed him about working at the Flamingo Lounge and what kind of a boss Gil was. After they both got their orders, Lucas headed outside to the Gardens for a cigarette to go with his coffee, while Emily headed towards the coffeeshop with her cappuccino looking for a table.

*

Thomas hadn't had a chance to check his mail in several days so now in the evening on Sunday, coming home from work, he stopped by in the lobby floor to see if had received anything of interest. He stood there in the mail room going through the pile in his dark suit, sorting them in appropriate piles.

*

Laura had decided that a good way to end the weekend was a long yoga excercise topped off with a swim on the roof. Having done all that, she descended into the hot tub in her white bikini, laid back, and relaxed.

Robbie, in his black leather jacket, stepped into the Slaughtered Lamb. There was nothing on TV, he knew all his DVD movies by heart and he had no other company, so why not have a pint in the local pub?

*

Laura felt the chills of fall on her skin as she relaxed in the lotus position in the gardens. The evening was getting cool, and she opened her eyes slowly and looked up at the sky painted with violet and rose, sensing that it was about time she would get long sleeves on after the yoga excercice.

*

Lucas stumped his cigarette right outside the main doors of the Manor and stepped inside the lobby while stifling a big yawn. He was coming home after a day - actually a week - at work waitering at the Flamingo Lounge, and he felt it in his feet.

*

Emily slowly but surely sorted through her mail in the mailroom. She had not picked it up in days because she had had better things to think about - but now she was making three different piles of mail on the small side table of the room; one for ads, the second one for bills and other painfully obligatory things and the third for things she would actually read through with interest.

*

Thomas blinked hard in the queue of the Mocha. He had not been working on tables in the restaurant on Sunday but he had been picking up on paperwork for the whole day. It had left him slightly numb and very bored, and he tried fixing that with a big mug of tea.

First thing in the morning, Charlie paused on his way to open the gallery and looked at the sky. There was something in the air - just a little chill - that warned him to make the most of the good weather. Then he walked on, resolving to get the winter woollies out of storage that very weekend.

#

Around eleven Andy crossed the Square with her shopping list, Erik's suit, neatly bagged, over her arm and she too paused. But she was smiling as she watched a pigeon land on the head of the bronze angel. "Go on," she said. "Poop. You know you want to."

#

At noon Nick was at the other end of the Square, just coming out of a tatty little plumbing supplies shop that was nevertheless the only place within walking distance that stock a particular type of European metric dimension washer. Trendy French style bathrooms might look chic but they were a bugger to repair.

#

Lunchtime at the Auberge was part of the routine for Leo on working days and he sat and sipped his coffee while he waited for Paula to bring his salad. He was at a table outside, feeling he might as well make the most of what remained of the summer.

#

"May I?" Fin had asked as the tweedy Englishman had left the table and had got both somewhere to sit and that days local paper. He read it with as much relish as he ate his red onion quiche.

#

Vincenzo waited near the dance studio trying not to feel self concious about the bunch of pink rosebuds he was carrying. He glanced at his watch, then along the road hoping to see Emily but no, he was still a bit early.

#

Amarie romped through the Square on her way home from work. She had new shoes and had picked up pizza for dinner and all was right with the world, yeah, man. She paused at the lights, thumb busy as she sent a text to a friend, but took a moment to wonder at the scraps of mildewed ribbon tied to the upright by the crossing.

#

Del waited near the entrance of the Flamingo Lounge. He was carefully dressed, had a pale yellow rosebud in his lapel and was carrying a London Times. Sometimes customers liked a little intrigue and there was no way he'd say they couldn't have it.

They were late.

#

Jimmy had a bone to pick but the guy had fled. Much good it would do him. He OWED Max and Jimmy would collect. He'd give him one more chance and if he didn't pay up then Jimmy was happy to take payment in body parts.

Meanwhile he ambled along the sidewalk, killing time until he had to get to work.

#

Close to midnight and a horrible shriek disturbed the peace in the alley at the back of the gallery. Two bodies tumbled on the filthy paving, kicking and gouging, spitting curses, until one broke free and fled leaving quantities of ginger fur and a very pleased Palug. He rubbed a paw over a bloodied ear licked it and grinned. Just because he was off his usual patch didn't mean he wasn't still top cat.