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 Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:00 pm
Tallulah bought an entire cheesecake, because hey, it was on sale, and when planning to stress-eat, it was best to aim high. She then consulted her phone, thought about taking the bus to Paris's house, and realized that the address Paris had given her was something like ten miles outside of town. So, like, okay, so much for that, Dad can I have your car keys, okay? okay.The place was huge. It had a gate with a buzzer. Tallulah was not going to count how many doors there were on the garage because she was pretty sure she didn't want to know. She parked in the driveway, feeling self-conscious about how badly her father's Prius needed a trip through the carwash, and picked up the grocery bag from the passenger seat. "Oh my god," she said, when Paris met her at the door. "You never told me you live in the Biltmore Estate." Which was an exaggeration. She'd been to the actual Biltmore Estate on a school trip once and it was like fifteen times the size of this place. "Why do you let me invite you to my house? Never mind. I brought a cheesecake and I think we should skip the slicing part and just go at it with forks, because my life is falling apart and it's going to take a lot of cheesecake to explain everything." Which was probably a lot to dump on a person before you'd even gotten off the front porch. Tallulah sighed, in a way that sort of sounded like she knew how ridiculous everything was. "Hi," she said, finally, considering she'd skipped it when Paris first opened the door. "It's good to see you."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:23 am
Paris did not often have people over for this very reason, but it seemed like Tallulah needed to talk, and she thought it was kinda rude to keep bumming around at her friends' places when she had a perfectly serviceable house of her own to invite them to and make them feel welcome. Besides, her and Chris's house was remote and secluded. It made her feel safe and removed from the war, like it was a far away problem to concern herself with some other day. Maybe Tallulah might like a little bit of that feeling, too.
She hugged her friend when she greeted her at the door, and awkwardly moved aside to allow Tallulah into the grand foyer, grabbing at the unbuttoned halves of her cardigan and pulling it a little more snuggly over the tight bodice of her short sundress.
“Um... make yourself at home,” she said.
Though Paris had to admit it was hard enough for her to feel completely at home herself in a place of this size. She was getting used to it, but exposing other people to it brought her back to the days when this much obvious wealth made her uncomfortable. She'd come from much humbler beginnings. It seemed unfair to her that she hadn't done anything to earn what she had now. All she had to do was marry into it.
“Why's your life falling apart?” Paris asked. She motioned for Tallulah to follow her and directed her further into the house, beyond all the formal living areas and into the kitchen and more casual spaces at the rear of the ground floor. “I mean, aside from your bout of space sickness,” she said, pulling open a drawer to retrieve two forks.
“Did you want a drink? There's water, milk... um... I've got apple, orange, and cranberry juice, too... or if you wanted something stronger we've got beer and hard cider and... um... there's wine in the cellar. Or I could mix up something fruity...”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:06 am
"I would say yes, please, let's get drunk," said Tallulah, setting the cheesecake on the kitchen table and starting to unpack it, "but I've got to take the car back at some point tonight so my dad can drive it to work in the morning." Maybe, she thought, she should get her own set of wheels. No. That was a silly idea, she didn't even have a job. She should get a job first. "So water for me." It was nice that the kitchen was a little more casual than some of the rooms they'd passed through to get here, thought Tallulah, taking a seat. She'd feel super-awkward doing this in a room that looked straight out of a spread from Vogue. On the other hand, though, she could definitely see Paris's design sense throughout the house, so that was cool. She would definitely try to say something about that - just as soon as she'd gotten through her entire ridiculous story. Thinking back, the last time she'd really properly spoken to Paris had been - crap, February? Really? That was a crime. White Phoenix didn't count, they'd been all-business and she wasn't sure she wanted to discuss how it had played out: not her finest hour. Okay, well, all of that put her way before oh, by the way, your boyfriend is/was evil. Context: it helped. "So, uh," began Tallulah, eloquently, "Remember my totally normal civilian boyfriend? Now, do you remember fighting a corrupt senshi named Spinel? Dark hair, tall, lots of bells and drapey fabric? Same guy. That is not the problem. That is the least of the problem. That is fixed, he's purified, he doesn't remember anything about working for the Negaverse and it's kind of adorable, I'll introduce you sometime." She accepted a fork from Paris, and ceremonially stuck it into the center of the cheesecake. She let it sit there for a moment, sticking straight up in the air, like a proclamation: I am going to eat this."So, I, um," she said, pulling the fork out of the cheesecake. "Apparently, he was General Avalon's little senshi-on-a-leash before Babylon and Gunn ran their little underground railroad thing, and Avalon's pissed about losing her favorite toy, and she was pissed at him to begin with, and she knows I was dating his civilian identity-" She sighed, and took a first bite of the cheesecake. "She thinks I'm dating someone else now. So a few nights ago, she corners me at the bus stop. Me, not Europa, and she's basically like, marry your new boyfriend or I'm going to kill you. Are you following?" Hopefully, it was abundantly clear why this merited complete and total panic.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:29 am
Paris wasn't sure which part of the story was more deserving of her attention—the part where Tallulah's boyfriend was a former corrupted Senshi that she hadn't been made aware of until just this very moment, or the fact that Tallulah was being accosted by a General while out about town as a civilian.
After a few moments of seriously deep contemplation, Paris decided she was far more concerned about the latter than the former, though there was a small part of her that was a bit hurt that she hadn't been told about the identity of Tallulah's boyfriend until now. She was being ridiculous, of course, and she knew it. Maybe Tallulah hadn't known until very recently herself. And it wasn't as if those sorts of things were easy to bring up in every day conversation.
“I'm just having a little trouble understanding why a Negaverse General would be so concerned about you marrying or not marrying your boyfriend,” she admitted.
She grabbed them both glasses of water before joining Tallulah at the table, grabbing her own fork to scoop off a lump of cheesecake.
“What does that accomplish?” she continued. “Except to make a relatively new relationship kind of awkward. No offense or anything. I just didn't think you'd known him for very long. And the whole... you know, purified Senshi thing must be kind of new for him. No one should have to think about weddings and marriage when they've just had their brains scrambled and their starseed cleaned out.
“Figures he'd be one, though,” she said inelegantly around a mouthful of cheesecake. “Things tend to work out like that, I've noticed. Someone or something's decided we're not allowed to have normal lives even when we try.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:22 pm
"To be completely honest," said Tallulah, carving another forkful off the cheesecake, "I'm not sure why she's so invested or what she thinks she's going to accomplish, either." Avalon, as she understood her, was twisted. Irrational. Maybe she ought to ask Babylon for his insights into her reasoning, but... It didn't seem like that would do her much good, either. Crazy is as crazy does, she thought. "We've been dating since November," she said, "So about five months. But it's still too soon to be thinking about that - at least for me." Nick had already indicated his willingness, which had the opposite effect of what he'd probably meant for it to have. "And it's only been a week and a half since his whole identity got a massive overhaul - what's that going to look like, getting engaged so soon?" She just - she didn't like feeling pressured to make a decision like this, especially one where there was only one real outcome. Marry Nick, or die. When you put it that way, it wasn't much of a choice. "I always figured I wouldn't get married until I was like, twenty-eight, or something," she said. "Like, I'd be done with my education and have a career and all that stuff." And instead, at this rate, she was going to wind up married before she even finished college! Awful. The worst."I mean, in all likelihood Avalon's just pissed that he got away from her, and she's taking it out on me," Tallulah reasoned, reaching for her glass of water. "And it's working. I mean, it's not even am I going to marry him, it's when am I going to bite the bullet and say okay, yes, let's do it." Soon, probably. Before Avalon could ******** up any more s**t for her. "It does figure," she agreed. "I mean, he was like three days from purification by the time I found out and I'm kind of under the impression that my safety was a deciding factor, so it's not like I'm even bothered by that part. But that's like changing your religion for your partner and I'm under the impression that that's a really big deal." Tallulah, naturally, had been to church all of five times in her life. "He's a sweet guy," she sighed. "I love him. It's just really not where I thought my life was going to go and I don't know how to handle that. And I figured, hey, you're married, maybe you'd have some advice."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 1:26 pm
The added information did little to clear up Avalon's objective, if only because Paris could think of a hundred other things worse than getting married. Threatening death as the only other option seemed rather extreme, but then this was a Negaverse General they were talking about here. Paris couldn't pretend to understand how their minds worked. They were probably so rotted through by Chaos at that point there wasn't much of their brains left for rational thought. All they had left was crazy.
In any case, Paris's completely Chaos-free brain was already conjuring up various solutions to a problem that almost seemed silly when one considered its evil source. What interest did anyone hell bent on eradicating the Senshi have in a civilian's marriage?
“I'm not sure how much good I'd be at advice. When I was five months into dating Chris I wouldn't have said 'yes' to the proposal, so there's that,” she said. “I didn't think I was the type for marriage. My parents divorced when I was ten, and before that their relationship wasn't exactly easy, and me being me didn't really make things all roses and white picket fences. I was pretty sure any attempt at a relationship I'd make would end up crashing and burning pretty much the same way.
“Obviously that changed, but being in love or whatever didn't make the decision any easier,” she admitted, carving out another forkful of cheesecake. “I had a feeling Chris was going to ask. We ended up walking into a jewelry store once. Looking for a gift for my mom before she had my baby sister. Ended up walking out with a promise ring. The sales rep thought we were engaged. It was really awkward. I could tell Chris was thinking about it after that, though. You know, he'd get that look on his face like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, but by the time he actually did it three months later I'd had all that time to freak out and go over all the terrible things that could happen and decided I loved him enough that even if those terrible things did happen it'd still be worth it.”
Now she was rambling, and she was pretty sure she was already at risk of getting off topic, and that wasn't what she'd meant to do at all. Paris waved one of her hands as if to scatter the memories that by now were almost a year and a half old.
“Anyway, my experience with marriage is this,” she said. “Getting married sucks. There's the dress and the venue and the food and the cake, and everyone has all this unwanted advice and they're full of opinions you totally didn't ask for, and it lasts for months. All for one day. You spend a bunch of money, get a bunch of gifts you might not ever use, and spend a day being the center of attention while ever gushes and oohs and aahs and has awkward family interactions, or uses it as an excuse to get drunk, in the case of my mother.
“But being married... that's the good part. That's the part I like, the part I wanted when Chris did the whole down-on-one-knee thing. I could have lived without the ring and the ceremony and the party. Probably would have been less stressed out without it all.
“Anyway, the point of all that is that marriage isn't really something to rush into,” Paris continued, staring seriously at Tallulah across the table. “Seriously, there's too much stress involved to do it just because some Negaverse General told you to, especially since you could easily just fake it with a bogus marriage license or something. It's not like she's going to be at the reception, right? She'd make an awful party guest. Might go stab-happy during the first dance. But if you're ready for it, if you think, 'hey, I really love this guy and I want to spend the rest of my life with him, or at least the foreseeable future whether or not it ends in a messy divorce,' then I don't think it's such a terrible thing. It might not be what you envisioned—it sure as hell wasn't what I envisioned for myself—but you don't really know what's going to become of your life when you're a kid. Circumstances change things. We have to change and evolve with them.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:30 pm
Tallulah was pretty sure that when Paris had been five months into dating Chris, she'd also been, like, seventeen, and that relationship had a lot more in common with what had gone on between herself and Jaimie than it did with herself and Nick, but it wasn't really a point worth debating, at least on those grounds. "I think I can see myself with him long term," she said, going for more cake. "I mean, my parents are going to think we're crazy, and that's having already done my best to explain how Nick and Paul are the same person? But I do think it would work out - I just never saw myself making this kind of commitment so young..." But, like Paris had already said, It didn't much matter what Tallulah had envisioned for herself as a little girl. Wedding planning didn't seem like her deal at all, though - but she'd always thought Paris would have been into it, and into dressing up like a fairytale princess and being the center of attention and... Apparently not? Okay then. Tallulah nodded. "Thanks," she said, smiling at Paris. "I mean - I don't really have any choice but to go through with it, Avalon literally broke out the Hunger Games metaphors and said I was Katniss and she was President Snow and I had to convince her. Direct quote. And it's not - it wouldn't be bad to marry him. He's great and we're good for each other. I just wish I felt like I was in control. I don't do well with not being in control." She was, at the very least, self-aware enough to know that much. "So really, thanks for listening. I feel a little calmer already." She carved another wedge off the cake, with a generous helping of crust. "How does Tallulah Wellington sound? Like, as a name?" she asked. "I think I'd definitely drop Cowden. Elementary school is horrible for little girls with my last name." Like, not to be anti-feminist, but it was a truly awful surname and she'd dreamed of getting rid of it forever.
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 2:44 pm
The ease with which Tallulah seemed to accept her eventual romp into matrimony seemed odd to Paris, particularly as she didn't think five months was enough time for anyone of any age to really get to know someone well enough to make any sort of accurate assumption as to what the future might have in store for them. But she also hadn't met Tallulah's boyfriend yet, nor seen them together, so she had no means to determine for herself whether Tallulah was doing the right thing or deluding herself for the sake of saving her own life.
Then again, saving one's own life wasn't a terrible thing by any means. Paris certainly didn't blame her. She'd probably be well on her way to making the same decision if she'd been in Tallulah's place. It was only her position as an outsider to the whole situation that made her overcautious.
Paris nodded as if she understood the Hunger Games reference—she didn't, but she didn't want to admit it and and come off out-of-date—and shrugged nonchalantly at Tallulah's show of gratitude.
“Just... take some precautions, okay?” she said. “You might think it'll work out now, but you don't have any way of guaranteeing that things'll still be working out five or ten years from now. Sign a pre-nup or something. Save yourself a bunch of stress if things fall apart.
“I think we'll both have traded up in the surname department,” she joked lightly. Not that she had any hard feelings about her previous name. She'd kept it as a second middle name, after all—her attempt at keeping some small piece of her father with her.
“So did Avalon give you a deadline? Not to immediately start in on all the unwanted advice, but as my mother-in-law ever-so-kindly informed me when I rushed to the alter, you want to order the dress at least three months in advance.”
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 11:36 am
"Okay," said Tallulah, nodding as she stuck her fork back into the cheesecake. Right now she was pretty sure they had beans between them (less than beans - medical and student loan debt), but it was true that five or ten years down the road things might be different. Some people would call a pre-nup fatalistic, but to Tallulah, it just sounded smart. "That's good advice, yeah." She knew it would be horribly gauche to ask if Paris and Chris had any such agreement, but looking around the house, she sort of had to assume that they did. The Gallos were rich beyond comprehension, and from what she recalled, Paris was... not so much. Carving a wedge off the cheesecake, she continued, "Avalon didn't so much give me a deadline as she appears periodically to harass me." Of course, she was grateful for any advice Paris could give her, even if she didn't want to help with actual planning. "Getting engaged and making a big show of it might make her lay off for a bit, but I guess I've really got to get started planning things if I'm going to go through with this." Which she was. That much she was certain of. "What do you even, like, need for a wedding?" Tallulah asked, gesturing nebulously. "Like, a venue, and a caterer, and an officiant, and..." She trailed off, and leaned forward to briefly rest her forehead on the table. "This is way too complicated," said Tallulah, looking up at Paris. "I'll deal with it later. Thank you for listening to me spaz at you."
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 8:10 am
“Well, some sort of publicized wedding or engagement announcement wouldn't hurt as far as making a show of it,” Paris suggested. “Chris and I had one of those. His grandmother insisted. 'Gallo Heir to Marry Local Ballerina.' I thought it was kinda tacky, but when Nana wants something, Nana usually gets it.”
But that was heading a little too close to off topic. This was not the time to lament the months leading up to her own nuptials. Silly as it might seem to her for a Negaverse General to want any sort of influence over this, that didn't stop it from being a rather serious situation.
She'd rather not see Tallulah dead over any sort of unwillingness to marry. Talk about a seriously ridiculous epitaph. And also she really sort of liked her friends in the land of the living.
“The venue, yeah. Two venues if you have the ceremony and the reception at different places. If you even have a reception. I mean, I'm assuming you would, since that tends to make a bigger splash than the actual ceremony,” she continued. “Then there's the food, hors d'oeuvres and the main course. And drinks. And the cake. Oh, but going in to taste test food and cake is fun. Um... you'll want to do your wedding registry so people know what gifts to buy you so you're not getting a bunch of useless stuff. And then there's the wedding announcements you mail out, and the invitations. Making up the guest list if awful. There's choosing the wedding party, picking out your dress, picking out your bridesmaids dresses and hoping they don't kill you. Flowers. Hair and nail appointments if you're into that sort of thing. Bridal shower, bachelorette party. You've gotta get your marriage license. Oh, and someone to DJ and a photographer, too...”
Paris ticked each item off on her fingers as she went. Of course, she soon ran out of fingers and gave up. Her expression grew increasingly more sympathetic as she said, “Really, unless you've always had dreams about what you'd want your wedding to be like or you feel like going all bridezilla on everyone, it's best to just get someone else to worry about the planning. Just give them some guidelines as far as what you do and don't want and let them go at it. It'll save you a world of stress.
“But it's no problem,” she added, smiling as she dived in for another forkful of cheesecake. “It's nice knowing I'm worthy of having someone come over and spaz at me, you know? I suppose I should expect it now given my experience in the marriage department, so... whenever you need an ear, I'm here. Well, that extends to everything else, too, obviously, but you get the idea.”
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 12:43 pm
"This is going to cost so much money that I don't have," said Tallulah, and she buried her face in the palms of her hands. Maybe they'd just go to the courthouse and do a real wedding later. Or never. She didn't even know where to begin - she just wasn't girly and interested in these things the way Paris was! But anyway, there was nothing she could do about it tonight, so what was the point in freaking out about it, right? Tallulah picked her fork up again, twisted it between her fingers, and looked at the cake. They'd made a sizeable dent, but she wasn't sure she wanted anymore - despite the principle of eating the entire cake. "I'll figure this all out later," she sighed. "Later later." Never? Never sounded good. "I mean, there's always the courthouse." Not that she expected anyone to let her get away with just going to the courthouse. "Thanks, Paris," she said, smiling tiredly at the other girl. "This has been a lot to deal with all at once. He's corrupt! He's purifying! We should move in together! Hey, go get married while you're at it! Why can't life just slow down and be boring again."
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 10:17 am
Paris kept her face as blank and impassive as it was possible for her to as Tallulah lamented the cost. While Tallulah buried her face into her hands, Paris shifted in her chair and took a moment to grimace in discomfort.
Money obviously hadn't been an issue as far as her own wedding. Money obviously wasn't an issue in her life still. She felt a bit guilty for it and almost insisted that Tallulah let her pitch in, but considering how other people had reacted to things like that before she was wary of stepping over a line or coming off as offensive rather than the supportive she was going for.
“Nothing wrong with the courthouse,” she said instead. “Chris and I had our ceremony at the courthouse. It was actually really nice. Just our immediate family and closest friends, and they have a nice courtyard with a gazebo you can use, since inside's kinda dreary and formal. Anyway, it's not like Chris and I could get married at church seeing as... you know... Catholics...”
She shifted again and set her fork down, grabbing at her cardigan to pull it more snuggly over her chest and tried not to seem as if there was any sort of frustration or regret over the venue.
“Don't mention it,” Paris said after awkwardly clearing her throat. “Once it's done you can be as slow and boring as you want. Until the grand-baby conversations start coming up,” she added and made a face stuck somewhere between horror and disgust.Silverah I'm sorry I'm so slow!! QQ <3
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 9:55 am
Tallulah nodded. She was pretty sure she'd been in a medically-induced coma during Chris and Paris's wedding, so she could more than forgive not having been invited. "Oh god are you, um, are you getting pulled into those conversations?" she asked, keying off Paris's disgusted expression. She could think of a lot of reasons why babies were seriously off the table right now, mostly beginning and ending with hello we are in the middle of a war. "I don't think I ever got to see your wedding pictures," she said thoughtfully, changing the subject slightly. It would be a good way to concentrate on something other than everything she needed to do for her own upcoming nuptials. "Would you mind showing them to me now?" Maybe they'd give her some ideas. Sunshine Alouette We can leave this here or we can put a button on it, your call!
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