Devil's Nest, Monday, Dec. 22

[bitten_notshy]

Jack encouraged the DJ to pump up the volume on his godwaful mix of contemporary holiday music to eardrum-endangering levels. The racked was was, as noted, godawful, but it served to cover the horror-themed Christmas songs coming from the smaller island. (Really, the island's taste in music -- and heaven knew when Jack had started to think landmasses had those -- was almost worse than the ghosts.)

He adjusted his earplugs to block as much noise as possible and, as he wiped off the bar's tables and counter, went back to mentally calculating the hours until his holiday vacation. There always seemed to be too many.

[OOC: Open post, no OCD!]

Comments

[filleauloup]

Éponine was grateful that her phone had come with headphones and that she now had enough music on it to at least last her an hour, but when she had to be out all day there was only so much she could turn up the volume and drown out whatever unspeakable noise was coming from the other island.

This explained the vaguely pained expression on her face when she came in, laid a box wrapped in plain but glossy green paper on the counter, and said solemnly, "Now remember, you're to act surprised."

[bitten_notshy]

"I am surprised," Jack blinked at her. "That is, I appreciated the thought, but I never expect --"

He poked at the paper with a finger. "Shall I open this now, or save it for Christmas?"

[OOC: Sorry. Insane day yesterday.]

[filleauloup]

"I said I would," Éponine told him, seeming pleased by that reaction. If she was a bit emphatic about it, it was only because a Thénardier was never supposed to be as good as their word and she felt like betraying the family name. "And I have, so there, you are surprised and I'm glad. And you can open it if you like; it's for your graduation as much as it is for Christmas so that's all up to which you'd prefer to celebrate, I suppose."

[OOC: No worries, bb.]

[bitten_notshy]

"I hate waiting," Jack admitted with a little grin, and tore into the package. He held up one of the pens inside to the light, tilting it this way and that. "Eponine, this is marvelous. Almost as nice as the proper pens back home" -- by which he meant 1904 -- "and less likely to blotch ink all over everything."

[filleauloup]

"I half thought you'd say that," Éponine said with a laugh. "It's what I might have done. I don't care for waiting myself. So you like them, then? That's good! They've some that are much nicer, of course, but good lord, why'd anyone pay a thousand dollars for a pen? I wouldn't want to write with it after that, would you, and what's the point of a pen otherwise? But I thought, well, these are perfectly nice, but not so nice that you wouldn't want to use them."

She smiled. "They do seem a bit as if they're a mix between then and now, don't they? That suits you, I think."

[bitten_notshy]

"A thousand dollars for something I'm likely to lose in the couch," Jack said, shaking his head. "It's absurd. Some people have more money than they do sense ... and I sound about a thousand years old when I say that, don't I? But no, this is exactly the right balance -- nicer than I'd buy for myself, not so nice I'm afraid to use it."

[filleauloup]

"You sound like someone with sense, that's what you sound like," Éponine informed him, nodding. "One doesn't have to be ancient to notice that sort of thing. My brother had more sense than any half dozen old barons you'd find in the Panthéon, for all that he --"

No, she'd better stop there; this wasn't a time to get bitter.

She shook her head and continued, teasing (mostly), "But don't get any ideas about this being a bribe, monsieur! I've got no plans to wind up on the wrong side of the law and you looking disapproving on the other side of it, that's for certain."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack snorted. "If anything I'll be the kind of lawyer who represents miscreants such as yourself," he informed her. "No bribes necessary."

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

Drac sank his head onto the table, raising his hand for another TruBloody Mary. He couldn't escape the bad music anywhere, could he?

[bitten_notshy]

"Terrible, isn't it?," Jack said sympathetically as he slid an extra-strong TruBlood Mary, complete with celery stick and Old Bay rim, over to Dracula. "All we can do is wait it out."

[OOC: Sorry. Insane day yesterday.]

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

"It seeps through the walls," Drac whined shuddered, then thanked him for the drink. "I actually think I miss the carolling gremlins and squirrels."



[OOC: No worries ever; an insane WEEK for me :D]

[bitten_notshy]

"Well, now that you've mentioned that I'm sure they'll be back," Jack said grimly. "We still have three days until Christmas."

[bluhblahbluh.livejournal.com]

"I have probably jinxed us," Drac nodded. "Though I have learned the island almost takes pleasure in trying to outdo its own history."