Hot Potato (party log)

[desperate_times_right]

Who: Chloe Frazer & any and all party people!!
What: Harvest Celebrations/Halloween Party/Ruby’s Birthday/Rat Marriage/Big Communal Cooking Party so Chloe doesn't burn down her house
When: October 12
Where: At Chloe’s house on Greene Street

Content Warnings: Food descriptions, probably.
Other Notes: Feel free to make this a mingle and reply to other characters!

Chloe had wondered whether to go through with the harvest party once Lalo had disappeared, but as they say, the show must go on. There's still a lot worth celebrating, and people need something hopeful after the mess last month. Luckily her house had made it through everything all right.

The poster had said to wear a costume, so she's hoping to see a lot of those, and she’d recruited some people to help her put together the menu exactly to Lalo’s specifications, so unfortunately no one is safe from British Potatoes. There are even candles for the birthday cake.

Chloe herself is dressed as a sexy lumberjack, with one of Lalo’s old flannels tied in a knot under her breasts and denim cutoffs made from the jeans Kostya had gotten blood on (shh). She's got a fire roaring, because otherwise she’d freeze.

Comments

eren jaeger | attack on titan

[dreamsofwings]

1

Eren heard from Levi about the animal skull thing. How much he absorbed — and how much was ruined in the telling from whatever Randvi had said — is hard to guess.

But he couldn't find an animal skull that wasn't all messed up. What could he find? A human skull! Where did he get that? Don't worry about it. It's probably fine.

If asked about his nonexistent costume, he will hold up the skull and very deadpan answer, "I'm death." Might seem more like a threat than an answer. Whether he's taking this too seriously or not seriously enough is open to interpretation.

He didn't manage to bring gifts, having never really given any before and not knowing what to do. He's not exactly the world's greatest guest, though, so he just lets that slide in his mind.

2

Eren has no real issue with any of the food. He's never had the luxury of being picky, and he'll eat anything. He's also never really had spices before, other than probably simple ones (yes, he does know what salt is, thank you). So some of what he finds here is pretty fascinating.

He might ask something like, "Why don't people like the potatoes?" after he's heard people complain. It's just potato? What's the big deal?

Or catch him staring at a handful of pine nuts. He's never had spicy food in his life.

"Is it supposed to hurt when you eat it?" he asks. His tone does nothing to indicate whether he thinks that sting is a good or a bad thing.

3

[ Wildcard me, baby! Prefer prose but I'll match brackets.

Since Eren and Reiner are both here, feel free to notice that they have similar marks on their faces. ]

2

[readytosee]

Although Darling had noticed the skull, he hadn't really wanted to ask about it. A gift, maybe? Or a ritual he wasn't aware of. Either way, it wasn't any of his business what the young man is or isn't doing with a skull.

"Is it possible you have a nut allergy?" Darling asks, before tasting a few of the pine nuts. Which are, in fact, a bit spicy! But not unpleasantly so, he's just surprised at any seasoning at all. "Oh they're seasoned. So yes, they do tingle a bit when you eat them, due to the seasoning on them."

[dreamsofwings]

Eren looks confused for a second.

"An allergy…?" he asks, considering. The concept of allergies isn't all that known to him. People have always had allergies, but the medical understanding of what that means isn't something they'd had on the island. In the wider world, harder to say.

"I don't think so," he answers, though now he second guesses it.

"Seasoned," he repeats. "There's some kind of seasoning that makes your mouth hurt?"

This is absolutely news to him!

Rather than shy away, though, he pops a few more of the nuts into his mouth. With no spice tolerance, this is probably a more painful experience than it's meant to be, but that isn't about to stop him.

"Interesting," he finally says. He doesn't talk with his mouth full; he doesn't have the best manners when it comes to interacting with people, but things like that, he holds on to.

[readytosee]

"Some, yes! Due to the capsaicin, which triggers pain and heat receptors in the tongue and skin. It's why your mouth can sometimes feel hot after eating something spicy, like these pine nuts.

Spicy being the word most commonly used -- in English, anyway -- for this sort of sensation that comes with eating something with capsaicin. Not everyone likes it, but I think it's a bit exciting." He pops a few more into his mouth with a smile. Slipping a little into lecture mode, but it feels nice. A familiar suit to slip into.

"I'm Dr. Casper Darling, by the way."

[dreamsofwings]

"Capsaicin," Eren repeats, tripping over the word a little it. He's never heard it before, can't imagine what it means. He figures it's what the seasoning is called, incorrectly, but doesn't dwell on it.

"It's spicy," he also repeats, more sure. "Yeah, I guess that's what you call it." As if he really has any idea what spicy food is. "I like it. But if you eat more of it, it's…more intense, right?"

Oh, right. Manners.

"Eren Jaeger," he answers. "You have stuff like this where you come from?"

[readytosee]

"That's exactly it!" Darling nods encouragingly as Eren starts to piece things together. "The more you eat, the more intense the sensation is. Though it can be balanced out by dairy or bread.

It's nice to meet you, Eren. And we do, yes. Sometimes little snacks like this, sometimes whole meals. It's really to your personal taste. My grandmother was Italian, she made a pasta and shrimp dish called fra diavlo, which had a hefty amount of chili flakes in the sauce. I found it too spicy when I was younger, but enjoy it now as an adult."

[dreamsofwings]

The bit about bread surprises him. His mouth feels like it needs something cool, like water, though he doesn't have a drink in his hand. (Better for him, considering water wouldn't help at all.)

"I don't know what Italian is," he says, frowning a little. He hates when he doesn't know things, but that sounds like one of those I'm from another world problems. The other thing, he tries to snag a memory and figure out what it is, but he comes up short.

"I don't know what shrimp is, either," he finally admits. "But I'd try a whole meal of this spicy food."

[readytosee]

"That's okay!" Darling is quick to reassure him, touching his arm to underline his point. "We're not all from the same place. Or time, for that matter. Italians come from a place called Italy, in the version of Earth that I'm from.

As for shrimp, they're a sort of bug that lives in the ocean." He nods, his smile encouraging. "I don't mind answering questions, whatever you want to ask. If I know the answer, I'm happy to tell you."

[dreamsofwings]

Eren knows earth, but not as the name of a place, only as a word for the ground they're walking on. He decides not to comment on that part, thinking it's just some other weird thing. If only he knew about the concept of planets! But he barely understands country.

His nose wrinkles at the description of shrimp.

"Spicy…bugs? Do you come from somewhere food is scarce too?" He's misunderstanding a little here, but not for want of trying.

"I know we're not from the same…worlds, or whatever. But sometimes the things other people talk about, I can't even understand."

1

[desperate_times_right]

It really does take all kinds, doesn't it? “Please tell me that isn't a gift,” says the party’s host, barely dressed as a sexy lumberjack. “I can't decide if it would be worse as a gift for the birthday girl or the married couple.”

[dreamsofwings]

Eren glances down at the skull, then back at Chloe, one eyebrow up.

"What? No. Why would I give someone a skull?" he asks. Eren probably is that morbid, but if he thought to do something like that, he'd have a reason. He does look…not quite embarrassed, maybe slightly apologetic. His face isn't all that expressive these days.

"I actually didn't know what to get. I've never really given anyone a gift before. We didn't have a lot of things to give each other, I guess."

[desperate_times_right]

“Why would you bring a skull to my house?” What about her cornucopia-themed poster had screamed 'bring a human skull'?

“That's okay, though. We don't exactly have a lot of things here either. People getting together to celebrate is enough.”

[dreamsofwings]

Eren looks off at the wall for a second, warring between frustration and confusion.

"I don't know anything about costumes," he says. "And I heard something about…some tradition with animal skulls. I couldn't find one of those, so…just say I'm death."

He might as well be to millions of people back home.

[desperate_times_right]

“Animal skull not required, I promise.” She can't even make a Hamlet joke because she's positive he won't know what it is.

“I just wanted a chance for us all to celebrate being alive after everything that's happened.”

[dreamsofwings]

"Celebrate that we're still here?" he paraphrases back at her like it's a foreign concept. It isn't; he's seen the way people celebrate the relief that comes from living through horrors. He's aware, somewhere in his memory where he's still a person and not a monster, that this is part of surviving.

"I guess that's…good," he says, stumbling through it. He's not any good with this kind of connection to others anymore.

"Why the costumes, though?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Well, being here’s not so great, but if we’re stuck here I’d much rather be stuck here alive.”

Beats the alternative, as they say.

“The costumes are a tradition from the place where I lived as a teenager. I think it used to be a religious thing, but now it's mostly an excuse for a party.”

[dreamsofwings]

Well, it wouldn't be the first time he's been around to celebrate the fact that they're not all dead. There wasn't really a celebration after they took back Wall Maria. They had lost too much. But there was always relief, the sort that comes when you survive some horror or other.

He's been surviving horrors for a long time. Now he is the horror, at least at home. Here? It's just more survival.

"I see," he says, though he doesn't entirely. Costumes as an excuse for a party? Huh.

"What kind of costumes did they wear where you're from?"

1

[notarat]

To be fair, it's not like Eren's idea of a costume is that weird. Billy seems to have something similar going on - though rather than carrying a skull around, he instead seems to have painted a rather intricate skull on his face - making sure it looked neat and all. He isn't going to look ridiculous, okay. Not even at a costume party.

And yet, despite the similar theming, Billy still blinks when he watches what Eren is carrying, and the other's explanation of his costume..

Probably because he's mostly concerned with: "Did you kill someone?"

Eren. Why do you have a skull. Eren!!!

[dreamsofwings]

Eren stares at Billy's face paint for a long moment. He's never really seen faces painted like that. Sure, they have makeup or whatever. He's seen a clown, but that was…kind of horrifying, in fact. The skull is kind of cool, but maybe he's morbid.

He's definitely morbid, okay, he is carrying a literal skull himself.

A slight frown wrinkles his forehead. Eren isn't all that expressive, but it's still obvious.

"Not recently," he answers, which is true.

It takes him a second to get all the way on the same page. He glances down at the skull.

"I found this," he says. "I didn't kill someone and take it. That would be weird."

He's so deadpan that it's hard to say if he's joking or serious about the weird business. As if it's not weird enough. But he'd own it if this death was his doing.

[notarat]

There are so many weird things going on here. Between Eren's casual admittance of 'not recently' - though, given how wild everyone got with the Forest Talkers just the other month, maybe it's not that strange of a statement in a place like this - and the fact that he's just saying he took this skull, Billy thinks there are a lot of weird things going on here.

Not that he's going to judge them in particular, since Billy also killed people and took some of their stuff in the process, it's just.. It's not the sort of thing people usually admit to this easily.

He's trying to decide if Eren is dumb or just very bold. He's leaning towards the latter, since Eren hasn't seemed particularly dumb when they spoke before. Not that Billy has noticed, either way.

"So taking it from a corpse is not.. 'weird.'" Billy says - so slowly that it still sounds like a question, despite the audible lack of a question mark at the end there.

(Also, yes, the way he says the word 'weird' makes him sound like a grandpa, despite being in his twenties. Or just very Victorian. He's trying his best.)

[dreamsofwings]

Eren might not be the smartest person alive, but he's not really dumb. He's aware that he's coming across more than a little off, but whether he cares or not is hard to say. Even Eren himself isn't always sure about things like that; there's too much else going on inside his head.

"It's just bones," he answers. "A skeleton doesn't care if you take part of it."

The way Billy says weird is kind of funny, though Eren doesn't have much sense of humour and doesn't smile or laugh. Is it some sort of foreign concept, he wonders? He has no idea.

"My...captain told me he heard a story about…if you have a horse skull, then you get cake or something?" He hesitates a little at first. He's never in his life called Levi by his name or referred to him that way, though technically Eren isn't a subordinate any more. He's a deserter, an enemy, whatever it is he's made himself. He still has too much respect for Levi to call him anything else, though.

The game of telephone from Randvi to Levi to Eren is a mess, and something is definitely lost in translation.

"I couldn't find a horse skull. So…this is good enough. And it serves as part of pretending to be something, right? Isn't that what a costume is supposed to do?" He does know what a costume is, but he's never worn one. He's never heard of a party where people wear costumes and doesn't entirely see the point. But doing weird shit for free cake? Well, why not. It's not often he's been able to have anything like cake.

"I didn't think about painting my skin," he adds with a nod. Billy's much more sensible about all of this, though that's a low bar to clear.

[notarat]

Judging by Billy's facial expression - it's nothing too over the top, really, but it's visible enough that even his face paint can't really mask what's going on there - the other definitely does not think that story is factual in any sort of way. Though it may be hard to figure out whether it's because of the botched game of telephone ruining the story, or just because the story is that fake in the first place.

"Well, of course a skeleton won't." He does at least agree with that. Hell, maybe Billy is focusing on that part because he doesn't feel like touching the whole horse skull cake story with a ten foot pole.

Clearly ethics are much more palatable. Or maybe it's not really ethics, as much as--

Well, as much as Billy glancing around at the other people at the party before turning to look back at Eren, faintly gesturing with his head in the direction of said other people.

"But they might. Some people take offense to that sort of thing."

Not Billy, judging by the way he's saying it. It doesn't sound like he's thinking badly of Eren for it. If anything, it sounds like he's warning the other, not wanting him to get into trouble.

this whole thread is SO FUNNY

[dreamsofwings]

Nothing Eren has said has been an outright lie, though it all probably sounds like bullshit. He's somewhat aware of that part; he has a high degree of self-awareness but is often wrong about how other people perceive him. He realises whatever is going on here isn't doing him any favours.

Billy's face twists even under the makeup and Eren can feel his own face colour a little. It's an old reaction leftover from childhood, the way he's always been quick to blush. He used to wear all his emotions so easily, but he doesn't now. Even with that hint of red, his expression doesn't change too much.

"I washed it off first," he says. For a bone, it's clean. Is this really that big a deal?

"If they get pissed off, I can just leave," he says. "I didn't really wanna come to a party in the first place."

Annoyance is easier than embarrassment, or whatever other emotions might be creeping in around the edges, so he sticks with that. The fact that anyone talked Eren into coming at all was surprising. He isn't exactly all that social, though he doesn't completely hermit away from everyone either. His social skills just suck, which is probably more obvious tonight than ever before.

eren is just like UGH, can people stop JUDGING my SKULL???

[notarat]

It's a realization that Billy is having more and more too. That Eren's social skills just.. are really, really bad. It's not like Billy would say he himself is the most sociable person around, but he knows how to behave in company. There's a difference between just being an introvert the way he is and..

.. well, whatever Eren is. Billy isn't even sure what label to put on someone who would casually bring a skull to a party and talk about it the way the other does. It doesn't really bother Billy, but it does make him a little concerned for Eren's survival chances in this place. Those tend to be linked to how well you're liked by the people here, after all..

"I do not think Miss Frazer would allow anyone to chase you off," he first says. Because it's just objectively true. Billy knows how much issues Chloe has with people trying to ice others out for being different, after all. "But it can't hurt to remain in good graces with the people of this place as a whole."

Billy has lowered the volume of his voice a little as he says it, like he doesn't want anyone else to overhear what they are discussing.

"Are you not aware of what they do here to people they don't like?" It doesn't sound like a warning. Billy isn't being coy or anything. Even with his lowered volume, there's still clear concern in his voice - like he's saying this for Eren's sake.

yeah GOSH leave his SKULL alone

[dreamsofwings]

Eren used to be better at the whole social thing, but those days are long over. He's been on his own and in his head — and several different time periods at once — for too long. Social mores? He doesn't know her.

He doesn't expect to be liked, and he doesn't see much value in it. The idea of surviving together has become foreign to him. That's probably how he keeps ending up with Reiner, a man who should be his enemy. They are enemies, or were, or will be.

He's on the verge of seeing Billy as a friend, but that's not necessarily good news. Eren's friendship comes at high emotional cost for most people, to say the least.

"Chloe? I don't think she's all that bothered by me either," he says. She hasn't been, so far. He likes her well enough. She's been no-nonsense and he appreciates that.

He stares for a minute at that last part.

"Billy," he says, lowering his voice to match Billy's volume but not dimming down his intensity, "people have been trying to kill me my whole life. I'll be fine. This isn't where I die."