Community Center Class: International Cuisine, Monday evening

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal greeted everyone and checked his watch. "Welcome to International Cuisine; our portal should be arriving any moment. Today we'll be doing something slightly different - instead of visiting another country to sample its cuisine, we'll be visiting the capitol of this country, to sample how it incorporates other cuisines into its own, combines them, and creates something new."

He nodded to those attendees who were not American. "For those of you who are not aware, today is the anniversary of this country's independence, a day which is traditionally celebrated with huge fireworks displays. Which, not incidentally, we will have a wonderful view of tonight."

The portal showed up, and he gestured them through with a smile. They came out at the Sequoia, with indoor and outdoor dining both open this evening, and a perfect view of the Potomac and the upcoming fireworks. "Please, enjoy yourselves, and ask me any questions you may have."

The Beach, Monday Morning

[thewrathofkaan]

The tight, cramped space of the whatever-the-hell-it-was-called was starting to get to Roscoe. He was taking a lot of walks to compensate, and his somewhat sour mood of the past few days meant he was leaving the skateboard at home. It wasn't as much fun when he was grumpy.

His phone buzzed and the sight of his mom's name on the caller ID did brighten him up a little. He hadn't heard from her in a few weeks, maybe even a month.

"Hi, Mom," Roscoe said, barely stopping the surprise from showing in his voice. "What's cracking?"

"Hey, sweetie," came Monica's voice on the other end. (Sweetie? That was a new one.) "Listen, I was in New York for some meetings this morning and guess where I was able to snag the last flight to?"

The excitement in his mom's voice made him perk up. "You better not say you went to Paris without me," Roscoe declared.

"No, silly. I'm in Baltimore!"

"Huh?" Roscoe said intelligently. "What are you doing here?"

His mom laughed like that was a ridiculous question. "Well, it wasn't a long flight, and I wanted to see you! Listen, I got us reservations for drag brunch at a hip little restaurant in the city. You're gonna love it. What time can you be here?"

Roscoe glanced down at all the nothing he was doing and broke into a huge smile. "I'll be there in twenty," he said. "Bye, Mom."

He took off at a jog for the Portalocity office, grinning the whole way.

[[open, if you want to catch him between his phone call and taking off!]]

The Gig, Monday

[justlike_a_girl]

It wasn't unusual for Dani to get catalogs at The Gig. She did a fair amount of online shopping from work, especially when she had down time between chores and riding lessons. But it was strange to see her ignoring the Keeneland horse sale catalog that arrived with an invitation and a plane ticket to Kentucky. Dani had taken one look at her father's handwritten instructions to select any of the horses she liked and flinched. This was not an invitation to spend time with her father; it was Ken Davis trying to use her good instincts to pick the best race horses for his barn. And after her father had cut her out of the family business, there was no way that Dani was getting sucked back in.

"Besides, I don't need any more horses," Dani tried to remind herself as she braided red, white and blue ribbons into Smudge's mane. "I left the racing world behind because they totally humiliated me, and I'm not going back, no matter what my dad uses to -- Ow!" She might have tugged a little too hard on Smudge's mane in her anger and got kicked as a result. Time to find something else to distract her from that catalog that wouldn't result in angering any more horses.

The Gig was open!

The Arms Hotel, Monday

[montecito-east.livejournal.com]

Just because it was Independence Day didn't mean that Mary could take the day off. There she was at the front desk, filing out the paperwork related to the idiots on the seventh floor who managed to break their bathroom plumbing at 3 AM doing who-knows-what and subsequently flooding their room, the room below them, and part of the fifth floor lounge. And if Mary looked a little crabby, it was because said idiots ended up waking her at 3:25 AM by knocking on her door and asking if she had an ark.

The only highlight of her day so far had been kicking the idiots out of the hotel at 3:30 AM right after she'd shut off water to the seventh floor. She'd been in crisis mode for the rest of the morning.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Specials:
Pork Schnitzel Meatballs
Braises Cabbage With Apples and Raisins
German Potato Salad

[Open! The OCD has been washed out.]

The Causeway, Monday Evening

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah.

The last month and a half had... definitely been a thing. That had happened.

And Atton was frankly not sure he wanted to hang out on the island for the next month and a half - at least not until everything back home got cleared up. But that was a pressing issue for later, when he didn't have a traumatized Sparkle to escort back home.

So escorting was... something he did.

"Should I call for pizza?" he said. "I should call for pizza."

[[ atton's here for one, but causeway is open. ]]