Playing House

Who: Ethan and Nate
When: one p.m.
Where: the kitchen

Ethan was not having the most fabulous day he'd ever had. It had started out less than terrific when he'd gotten up and headed out to the kitchen for coffee only to find that there was none. Not only was there no coffee, but there were no soft drinks, no sugar, nothing that was the least bit palatable to eat or drink. Even worse, it seemed that his Excedrin had been removed. After he'd checked the journals, he'd seen that others were missing things, as well. At least his blood pressure medication hadn't been touched, but then he could very well stroke out without it, so that made sense.

He was the sort of person who tried to roll with the punches, and he knew that he wasn't the only crabby person in the house today, but by lunch, he was definitely in a funk. A lot of that was due to the headache that was throbbing in his skull, and a small part was due to the discovery that the booze had been removed from the billiards room. When Ethan had nightmares, he depended on a shot of whiskey-- or whatever else he could get hold of-- to calm him down, and it wasn't making him happy to think of having to cope without it.

He was currently sitting on one of the stools at the island in the kitchen, a plate in front of him containing a ham sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce, tomato and mustard. Wheat bread. At least it wasn't rye. Grapes were a side dish instead of chips, and he had water to drink. The sandwich was untouched thus far as Ethan rubbed vigorously at one temple with the pads of his fingers. Healthy food and no caffeine, he thought balefully. Hell, he'd almost rather be water-boarded.

Who: Audrey, Ethan, and Lina
When: Shortly after 8
Where: the ballroom

The amount of girlish flailing and tee-heeing over the scientist-thrown party had been annoying, but something Lina could easily ignore. She wasn't about to dress up for the event -- really, dressing up wasn't a thing Lina did... ever -- but she did put on something that was at least slightly nicer than her usual jeans and a hoodie. Most people would have passed it off as club-wear, and they were more or less right. Leather pants, a draped black halter top, her usual boots and she was out the door. Make-up was not something Lina did, either.

When she walked into the ballroom, Lina was glad she had overlooked her earlier considerations of skipping the thing all together. The food smelled amazing, and Lina was not shy about helping herself to damn near a little bit of everything. When her plates were piled high, she grabbed a beer and headed to the nearest empty table. Only to see delicate little name cards set on every plate. Lina groaned internally and rolled her eyes, but went about finding the table the scientists had assigned her to anyway. If her dining companions annoyed her, she'd just move. Luckily she recognized one name -- Ethan, she'd met him and he had not yet proven himself to be an idiot -- and Audrey. She didn't know Audrey, but thought it was possible she was one of the people from upstairs. Neither Ethan or Audrey were there yet, so she sat down and with an internal 'ah, what the hell,' dug straight into her food. "Oh, Jesus tapdancing Christ. There's an orgy in my mouth." Okay. For food like this she could quite possibly put up with a great deal of annoyance. If she had to.

Who: Trix and open
Where: Game Room B
When: Early afternoon

It took Trix five minutes after her "introduction post" to get antsy, desperately wanting to venture out of her room. Sure, her room was cute - it was all fun colours and lace, like Marie Antoinette on acid - but she had spent enough time in there for one day and she was keen to explore. Thus, she slipped on some clothes and headed out the door, ambling into whichever rooms weren't locked. She liked this house. It was big and quite impressive, though she would hope so if she was going to spend a whole year here. It seemed spacious though and, quite frankly, Trix thought that a year here wouldn't be that hard at all. She had lived in teeny tiny apartments, practically homebound by her constant state of inebriation. Living in some fancy mansion for a while was going to be cake.

When she made her way into one of the game rooms, she grinned broadly, her eyes settling on the jukebox. Trix loved jukeboxes, with their popsicle coloured 1950s lolita vibe. She had always wanted one but had always had to settle for messing with the one in a delapidated retro diner, the song catalogue missing numbers or the correct titles. Nevertheless, she had always enjoyed it, plugging in her 50p and tapping some random numbers to see what out of date hit played. It was the closest an adult could get to lucky bags or finding out the toy in their Happy Meal. It more than kept Trix satisfied.

She sauntered over to the jukebox, draping herself over it while she browsed the catalogue. Hmmm, classic rock 'n' roll or modern day club crowd pleaser? Choices, choices.

Who: Ethan and Lina
When: ASS O'CLOCK Eaaaarly in the morning, couple hours before Emily and Spencer
Where: Back door/kitchen

When it had started snowing like it was never gonna quit again, Lina had wondered if her peaceful outdoor runs would be a thing of the past. Had that been the case, okay, she would have dealt with it. There was a perfectly good treadmill downstairs. Luckily, once the snow had let up Lina had found that a couple of the trails she had taken to had such thick coverage by the forest canopy that it was still free enough for her runs. So her routine hadn't changed -- although honestly, fighting her way through two feet of snow to get to the trails took almost as much energy as the run itself did. She didn't mind. She really liked being outside, and her morning runs left her feeling centered and okay enough to deal with everything else. Like attic people that had been stashed away like an unwanted mongoloid bastard, or just that pesky redheaded stepchild. Because that wasn't creepy at all. Nope.

More often than not, Lina didn't encounter anyone this early in the morning. After a complete week she'd only seen another person awake and downstairs this early once, so perhaps that explained why she showed no care in the world as she shoved open the door and marched inside - almost to hit some random dude in the face with the door. She managed to snatch the door-knob and catch it back just in time, but it was a near miss. "Jesus," she blurted out. "Where the fuck did you come from? Shit. Sorry."