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Chris Lanahan [ Fūjin ] ([info]windbagged) wrote in [info]paxletalelogs,
@ 2010-07-03 13:54:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:fūjin, mami wati, poseidon

Who: Chris, and anybody else who wants to come.
What: Barbecue beach party, celebrations for the 4th, and complaining about jobs! WHAT FUN.
Where: The beach not far from Pax.
When: Saturday, about 7 at night.
Warnings: EXPLOSIONS. Probably.
Notes: Feel free to treat this as a party-style post - tag to anyone, enjoy food, move time as you see fit.

True to her word, Sheila had helped Chris stop by the store on their way back from work to grab supplies. It wasn't the kind of money he wanted to spend, but not having to buy it all on his own dollar was nice; and besides, it meant he could figure out exactly how it was she wanted him to "smile" or whatever in order to eat. Also, he could guilt her over it. If he paid for the food, there was no way she could deny it to him. Probably.

So after they got back to the building and he managed to pack everything up into his car (because he'd be fucked if he was carrying all that down three flights of stairs, across the streets, onto the beach, and then go back; not only was it a serious pain in the ass, but somebody was bound to steal it while he was away, the fuckheads), Chris got to the beach and started dragging things out around the barbecue, right around 7. He stared at the actual thing itself, embedded in the sand to keep it upright, bearing the marks of failed grills past. He was not really an outdoor kind of cook. An automatic gas stove, he could work. Something like this? A little less so.

Though the potential for a shitton of lighter fluid and a couple of matches was more than tempting enough. He stood in front of the grill, holding the bottle, contemplating his next move: try to start this properly, or say fuck it and see how high the flame would go?


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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-04 04:42 pm UTC (link)
Moana had seen the mention around the forums of a barbecue, but hadn't entirely made up her mind as to whether she wanted to get along with her neighbors quite that much. Still, it was the last weekend of vacation that she'd given herself, and she already had clients scheduled for the next week, so it did seem a shame to not do something with that last bit of time off.

If Saturday evening, a little after seven, found her taking a walk on the beach, who was to say she hadn't just felt like a stroll? And if, when catching a glimpse of what looked to be the set-up of a barbecue, she chose to approach... it would be rude to not drop by and introduce herself, wouldn't it? She combed her hair back away from her face as she made her way over the sand toward the grill, smiling at the so very American sight.

Since she hadn't promised her presence, she wasn't obligated to stay if she decided her time would be better spent continuing her walk. All in all, her plan worked for the best.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-06 02:52 am UTC (link)
Chris had decided on actually trying to light the grill, and was being a bit more careful than usual as he poured the lighter fluid on the charcoal. (That was how you were supposed to do it, right?) He set it down and had the match lit, just barely managing to avoid singeing his own fingers before it caught and the heat simmered off the top of the grill.

Well, he still had his eyebrows. That had to count for something.

He glanced up as he caught someone moving closer just up ahead and had to do a double-take. There was a woman coming toward him and he was pretty sure she was one of the best-looking women he'd ever seen. Headed straight for him. For him and his grill. Some part of him rationalized that she might be from the building, but the rest of him was trying to figure out what to be more focused on: her, or the potential for setting himself on fire.

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-06 04:04 am UTC (link)
Moana laughed at the man's antics with the grill, and decided that approaching wouldn't be so bad, after all. When she got closer, she called out, "Are you from Pax Letale?" If he looked confused, she'd distract him for a minute by flirting and then make her excuses. It was entirely likely, since there were probably a lot of people celebrating on the beach.

Since she still hadn't met most of her neighbors, trying to recognize a gathering of them over a gathering of complete strangers was next to impossible. That was fine, though, since normally she had no problem with potentially awkward introductions... unless, of course, someone expected her to go into details about her job. Hopefully, this wouldn't be that sort of gathering.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-07 01:04 am UTC (link)
So she was from the building. Chris checked the fire again to ensure that it hadn't jumped and decided his shirt made better kindling, prodding the charcoal warily.

"Yeah!" he yelled back, nearly upsetting the lighter fluid as he did so. Lucky for him it was in the sand and not on the edge of the grill - he wasn't going to make that mistake twice in his life. He checked the cooler to make sure everything in it was either still cold or frozen and pondered letting the hotdogs thaw out in the slightly-less-freezing air and figured, why the hell not? They'd be a lot hotter soon enough. He pulled them out and dumped them on top of the cooler, glancing up to see how much closer the woman had come. "You here for the barbecue?"

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-07 01:48 am UTC (link)
Moana waited until she'd made it over to him before responding, not wanting to distract him too much from the grilling. "I thought I'd drop by and say hello, at least. It would be nice to be able to put faces to names." Not that she'd learned many of the names yet, either. In fact, she wasn't sure she'd actually seen anyone but Paul and Simon in more than a passing fashion.

In the spirit of actually putting the faces with names, she directed one of her most charming smiles at him. "I'm Moana, by the way."

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-07 02:07 am UTC (link)
She really was good-looking. If Chris had been holding anything when she smiled at him, he'd have dropped it. As it was he managed a grin of his own and missed grabbing for the hotdogs, knowing they weren't anywhere near thawed enough nor the grill hot enough to cook but wanting to get something done in any case, even if he wasn't supposed to be cooking just yet.

"Chris. I think I remember you, you live way up in the penthouses. Right?" You didn't quickly forget someone who lived in an oceanside penthouse in California, even if the rest of the building was technically oceanside, too. She'd seemed nice enough, and hadn't dissed his car.

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-07 02:23 am UTC (link)
"That's right, I'm in P1." Moana watched him, feeling as though she ought to volunteer to do something since he seemed to be handling it mostly on his own. Of course, if she tried to assist with the cooking, there likely wouldn't be anything remotely edible.

Finally recalling who he was, she laughed. "Oh, Chris! I think we talked about vengeance, didn't we?" He had personality, that was for sure. And he was cute, which was another point in his favor so far as Moana was concerned. He'd likely never be a client, but Moana remembered having thought she could get along quite well with him anyway.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-07 02:35 am UTC (link)
Finally, Chris just gave up the hotdogs altogether and waited for the heat to get to a proper point, so that everything would get cooked right. He was an awful chef when it came to this sort of thing but even he knew that some things took ages to heat up, and if one hotdog was completely blackened while the others were still cold enough to be considered blunt weapons, then he'd have to turn in his regular oven and suffer a microwave forever.

"Did we?" He struggled to remember, since the forums were big and that had been a while ago, but again, remembering that she lived on the penthouse floor helped. "Oh yeah, because you were trying to be decent even though there was nobody living anywhere near you then. I think that lead into the vengeance stuff." Because he, as a person, would gladly rip someone a metaphorical or verbal new one without hesitation, whereas there were apparently other people in the world who were willing to forgive. Who knew?

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-07 02:49 am UTC (link)
"That sounds right." Moana looked skeptically at the hot dogs, herself. She wasn't the best judge, but she thought it would probably take them a long time before they got to the point where they'd be ready to be cooked. She wouldn't question, though, he probably knew better.

Remembering a bit more about him, she looked away from the hot dogs and started trying to keep the conversation on a comfortable surface level. "And has everyone listened to your warnings to leave your car alone?"

...okay, maybe not comfortable, but it kept the topic on him instead of her.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-09 02:17 am UTC (link)
Ah, his car. His precious Valerie. The very mention of it sent all thoughts of hotdogs out of his mind and he scowled just slightly - not at Moana, but at the world in general. Because the world had no respect for a man's car, apparently.

"Mostly. I mean, there's no scratches or dents or anything, and everyone's lucky there's not because if there was I'd be indicted on a murder charge already, but people keep threatening her! They don't get it because they don't have cars! Or they don't treat them right!" Chris brandished the pack of hotdogs like a far more effective weapon than they actually were, glaring at the ocean like it had threatened to flood his already-floodstained seats. "She got me all the way out here from bumfuck North Dakota, like hell I'm gonna let some hippie jackass take her down!"

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-11 02:24 am UTC (link)
Moana listened, a hand pressed to her mouth to hide her smile. The man did get worked up over his possessions, but that was okay. She could understand that. If someone destroyed one of her little treasures, she would be very angry... albeit more quietly. "It's a shame, not many people take care of their things as they should. They're not appreciative of what they have." Oh, Moana had plenty of experience with that.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-12 06:55 pm UTC (link)
Finally, someone who understood. That put the count at ... two. Wonderful. Still, better two than none, plus it meant that he could finally have some backup when someone inevitably backed into Valerie and left her scratched to all hell or, god forbid, dented. Disregarding the fact that her bumper was already about to fall off.

"Right! See, you get it." Chris dropped the hotdogs and went back to prodding at the grill, scowling at its slow progress. Did it need more lighter fluid? Probably. Everything that was on fire needed more lighter fluid. "If you're gonna spend money on something, especially like a car, you need to take care of it! Otherwise it's like throwing the money away. Or into the grill." There was a reason Chris didn't watch many TV shows about the lives of the rich and famous; he saw enough of it on the news or in the papers.

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-13 10:38 pm UTC (link)
Moana (wisely, she felt) backed away from the grill a bit when he started messing with it again. She'd paid good money to get her eyebrows perfectly waxed and plucked and sculpted, and she wasn't about to get them burned off in a grilling accident.

When she was fairly certain she was out of range, she replied. "I suppose most people see things like cars as being serviceable, something to be used rather than treasured. It's silly of them, really, nothing says they can't be both." Of course, Moana's shiny little black sports car was quite a bit more costly than Chris's precious possession, and she hadn't gone so far as to name it, but she could at least understand the sentiment.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-14 01:06 am UTC (link)
Fortunately for the both of them, the fire didn't explode in their faces. It did jump a little, and then started smoking briefly as the fire caught something stuck to the grill, but nothing particularly exciting happened. Which Chris found slightly disappointing, but it wasn't always time for mass fireworks. That would come later.

"Yeah, sure, if they want to buy a new one in five years." He scratched with a spatula at the black something permanently burned onto the grill. "You take care of your car and it takes care of you. I've been in god knows how many accidents and I've never gotten hurt! And she's still running fine! I don't get people sometimes. It's fucking insane." And it really was nice that someone understood this problem. None of his other friends did, it felt like. Just kept using their cars, or taking the bus ... maybe if they had to pay for one all on their own they'd start knowing how he felt.

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-17 04:59 am UTC (link)
Moana just smiled and nodded, perfectly willing to let him continue ranting as long as he chose to. It wasn't like she planned on actually eating any of the hotdogs, so she wasn't invested in making sure he actually got around to cooking them. "It sounds like your car is very well made, in that case." Though, how being in accidents could be associated with taking care of it... well, maybe it was better not to ask.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-17 04:16 pm UTC (link)
"Oh, yeah, Hondas last for fucking ever," Chris agreed, giving up on the something glued to the grill, which was probably some plastic shit that someone had been high and decided to try grilling. Stoners, man, they'd eat anything. "And keepin' it up-to-date with oil changes and shit is a little pricey, but it's worth it, completely. S' why I was so glad to find a place that wasn't too expensive to live in."

He gave up on the grill for now and leaned back, stretching his spine a little. It was going to be a long night, but at least it would be a good long night, provided nothing exploded in anybody's face. And with his track record, that would be one hell of a lucky break.

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[info]redhoodie
2010-07-21 03:55 am UTC (link)
"Mmhm." Moana smiled and nodded politely, not sure how to keep up the conversation about cars much longer without revealing that really, aside from making sure hers remained pretty and kept working, she didn't care as much as Chris seemed to think she did. A smooth topic change was in order, and fortunately there was one at hand. She made a show of glancing around the beach. "I'm afraid I didn't pay much attention to the plans for the night while reading the forum. Aside from hot dogs, is there an agenda?"

If she'd truly thought she'd be staying, Moana would have worn her bikini. A night swim would have been pleasant... ah well, perhaps Chris had an exciting enough evening planned that she wouldn't need the extra diversion.

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[info]i_sea_you
2010-07-21 04:54 pm UTC (link)
((And then Kim randomly decides to tag in this thread because it's still going on?))

Great night for a barbecue! Paul wasn't sure if the man behind the grill was the one who had initially told him about it nor but he didn't think so, since the one who had done the inviting wanted to check and make sure it was okay to bring food. But Paul brought food anyway (because it was polite to do so, and a nice gesture), just a nice big container of potato salad he made himself. It was a family recipe - his mother had brought it to many events with the other Navy wives when Paul was a boy and forced to go along with her.

"Hey, hope I'm not interrupting the party," he smiled as he approached the two there. "Hi Moana, how are things?" He recognized her, at least. And it wouldn't hurt to meet other people from the building.

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[info]windbagged
2010-07-23 04:19 pm UTC (link)
"Agenda? Not really. People were just gonna show up, eat food, chill, go swimming ... Dev said she was bringing fireworks." Chris couldn't help but grin at the prospect of even more fire, this time coming from a bright and colorful source, completely forgetting that fireworks had a tendency to chase him down and blow up as close to him as possible. "Maybe we could drag enough stuff out of the grass to start a bonfire, or just empty the lighter fluid on the grill. Same basic thing."

When someone else spoke, Chris looked over. He didn't recognize the guy holding what looked like potato salad (people actually ate that?), but he was here at the right time, he had food, and he was smiling, which meant he wasn't here to bust things up and therefore was entirely welcome.

"Nah, not really started yet." With a masterful grace of social niceties, Chris entirely failed to introduce himself in favor of looking the guy over and glancing between him and Moana. If they knew each other, that was one up for him. "You can just drop the food anywhere, it's not like raccoons are gonna steal it. Probably." And if they tried, he'd punt the little fuckers into the ocean.

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