singillatim | Hot Potato (party log)

Hot Potato (party log)

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.

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“Of course, your bear didn't have like, mind powers, did it?” She's pretty sure it didn't. “It just killed people and ate them.”

"Not to the level of the Darkwalker. But that bear...it was more than an ordinary bear. It could think, it could plan, it was more."

Try as he may to hide it, Hickey's eyes are sparkling a bit as he talks about the bear. He's going a bit weird about it: that bear entices him.

"Far as I can see, it was closer to a god."

“You said that about that thing in the lake too,” Chloe points out. “Could be like, a spirit or something.”

"Far as I can see, there's not much of a difference. God, spirit...what matters is they'll benefit me. Or at least, not rip me limb from limb."

After all, Hickey is absolutely certain that thing in the lake would have torn him to shreds had he not appeased it.

“Yeah, that's always a benefit.” One thing Chloe has learned from working with Nate is there's a lot of magical shit out there that wants to kill you.

"Call me a simple man with low priorities, but that's what I've been focusing on most lately, yeah? Making sure no sea monster or Forest Talker or whoever ruins what I've got."

And Hickey can't help it: his gaze idly moves towards Billy as he says that. Billy, who's undoubtedly wallflowering it up somewhere. Billy, who Hickey loves and adores and is going to protect with his goddamn life.

Chloe follows her friend’s gaze and smiles.

“Honestly, I'm impressed he even showed up. Happy, but surprised. You must really be a smooth talker.”

"Course I'm a smooth talker! I know what I'm doing."

That being said, Hickey's demeanor is very obviously 'now give me more compliments.'

Chloe laughs. He sounds just like she had talking to Victor about Nate back in the day.

“Did you have to trick him?”

"I asked nicely," Hickey answers, with an annoyingly little smug smile on his face. "But nah, he'll show up every now and then. He's shy, not a misanthrope."

“I wanted to give you both the chance to celebrate your marriage the way you would have been able to if you lived now, but I know he's not a fan of being the centre of attention.”

Unlike some other people she could name.

Who could Chloe be possibly accusing of being the center of attention??? Who could she be talking about, certainly not Hickey!

It's Hickey and they both know it.

But Chloe's comment about how you would be able to celebrate if you lived now catches Hickey's attention. There's a moment's pause before, "I'm glad we're able to celebrate. Back home, I gave him a ring, but it's not like we could talk about it. Here...I don't mind being open about it all."

“Yeah, it's like… some people are going to be dicks about it, but most everyone else will shut that shit down.” People on the whole are way more likely to object because it's Hickey than because it's two men.

Hickey gives Chloe a little nod...before admitting to a moment of sentimentality.

"'S nice," he says, like it's just casual conversation. "There's plenty of my circumstances that people will judge." The Englishness. The Victorian era. The colonialism of it all. "Nice to know that there's one less thing to worry about."

If he had asked Chloe, she would have told him that those examples are probably not even in the top ten list of problems that people have with him. If that helps.

“Yeah. I really am happy for you guys, even if I don't get it. Marriage.”

"Never thought I'd be the sort to indulge in it but hey, I'm not complaining."

Shrug!

“I'm not gonna lie, it makes me a little nervous that it might be coming for me, too.”

What if suddenly she wants to get married??

And almost immediately, Hickey asks, "What, you got someone in mind?"

Drop the hot gossip, girlfriend!

“What? Of course not!”

(She does, maybe, but it's so new. She doesn't want to jinx it.)

“No one here, anyway.”

"So it's someone back home! Go on, who! If they show up here, I'll make sure that they pass muster."

Chloe can't help but smile at that. The idea of Hickey trying to size up Nadine is pretty funny.

“I think I told you before about my partner back home. It's a work thing, but it could be something else too, maybe. I've never trusted someone so fast.”

"In that case, I hope they either show up here or if you vanish like some of the others have, you go right back to them."

There's a small little pause before,

"Course, I'd prefer you stick around a bit."

“She was sitting right next to me when I got taken here, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky that it didn't just snatch us up in one go.”

Chloe has to laugh at the thought. Nadine barely tolerates Sam, she wouldn't be able to stand Hickey.

“She’d like Billy, I think.”

"That's good," Hickey says, with a nod. There's a moment as he thinks things over before deciding to be just a tiny bit vulnerable.

Only to Chloe, though. Rest of the world can fuck off.

"Billy needs more mates. I know a lot of people judge him cause we're together, but he's more than that. The more mates he can have who don't know anyone from back home, who can judge him based on what happens here and not what happened back home."

Chloe nods. It's kind of sweet that he's worried about it, even though she has been too.

“That's part of why I'm glad he came here tonight. Let him talk to people in a safe environment.”

Here at least they both know Chloe won't let anything happen.

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