Arden Finch

Arden woke up a little after dawn, curled up on the ground near selkie peak after apparently being a forest all weekend. She generally didn't worry about temperatures unless they hit extremes, but even so, she felt very lucky that it was early summer and not, say, winter, where she could have woken up covered in snow, or a very rainy springtime. The grass was even surprisingly soft to lay on.

But that didn't change the face that she has, in fact, been sleeping on grass and dirt.

"This fucking island," she groaned, pushing herself upwards and dusting herself off.

...Which was how Arden discovered that, much like transforming back from a random animaling, the island had neglected to provide her with clothing to celebrate her return to personhood.

Sometimes this place really was the worst.

[Open if anyone wants to run across a naked and blushing Elemental trying to make her way home!

Arden woke up shivering. Somebody had left the verandah door open, even though it was very cold out and she didn't seem to have a scrap of blanket. The door was going to remain a mystery, but the blankets were easily solved - there was a lump made up of blanket and bright red hair curled up next to her.

"Hey," she hissed, poking the blanket lump. She was trying to stay quiet, because she didn't want the grownups to hear her making a fuss. "Hey, those are mine!" She reached for the edge of the blanket and started tugging. "You can't hog them all, I'm cold, too!"

[For the snatchy blanket hog, but also open!]

Arden had stupidly had the jitters all day Tuesday, thinking of the plan with Cal to have one last paintball dinner while here in Québec. Did it mean something? Something more than friends? Surely he wasn't trying to drop a hint or anything...right?

Which meant that she couldn't help but inwardly (and ruefully) laugh at herself when they ended up deciding to end up at the Buffet de l'Anquitaire. The food looked amazing, don't get her wrong, but the chill diner atmosphere didn't really give off 'confessions of a secret crush' vibes. She was definitely glad she'd stuck with a cute but nothing fancy outfit. This was firmly 'two friends having dinner post-paintball' territory.

Once again proving that the only one harboring a secret crush was Arden. She really needed to stomp that out. She'd been making good progress, but Parents' Weekend had derailed that. But hey, if she could kill a crush during a trip where there was only one bed, then there was probably no bringing it back, right? Of course right. She was just gonna...get on doing that, then.

"Let me guess," she teased, snagging a seat in one of the bright red booths, "you wanna get the hot dog and sausage poutine. And, hey! We'll have to try some of these pies so I can report back to Graham."

After everything that had happened this weekend, it was probably no surprise to anybody that Arden had fallen asleep...and then stayed asleep for the next twelve hours. Honestly, she was probably going to sleep for another twelve hours soon, but for right now, she was in a brief lacuna of consciousness. She still hurt pretty much all over, but it wasn't like it had been and for even that much of a reprieve, she was grateful.

She closed her eyes briefly, appreciating the touch of fresh air on her face. The roof, she realized. Somebody had put her on the roof. That was probably the only reason she felt even this good. She was stuck healing human slow, but it would be worse for her if she stayed inside. Let's just hope it didn't rain. But maybe Midnight would make her an overhang or something.

Reaching out to pat Midnight in general appreciation, she was surprised when her hand touched hair, not roof or blanket.

"Huh?" she croaked aloud, and turned to see Kamala, asleep, to her left. She turned the other way to see Cal, reading, with BD-1 on her right. "Hi?"

[That Arden is in bad shape is fine, but as so many other threads today, details NFB. Post limited, an open post will be up in the next day or so; canonically, Cal and Kamala's threads come first, both modded with permission.]

Friday, after her "talk" with Callista, Arden had stumbled home, already feeling feverish and a little woozy. Midnight had been concerned and had made it easier for her to ascend the stairs, opening her door for her and everything, and Arden had taken a moment to pat the doorjamb and say, around a tongue that already felt thick and clumsy inside her mouth, "You're a good house, Midnight. S'okay. I'm okay. Just lock my door, wouldja?" before pretty much collapsing on her bed.

( And she hadn't been outside her room since. )

[Warning for trauma, extreme injury, discussion of past abuse, and just a whole slew of other unpleasant things. Preplayed with the fantastic hasaknightjob, moreofaponchoguy, pocketpretzels, and Gum pulling triple duty as slothbabyproductions, single_man_tear, and not_montalban! Radio is free to vaguely mention a disturbance, but all details NFB please.]

There were many, many things that Arden did not want to think about in regards to last night, at least beyond sending a very calm and not at all dramatic text to Kamala and Cal. By the time the portal dropped them off, Arden's hangover had mostly dissipated, though the headache was refusing to go away entirely.

Honestly, it was probably more of a stress headache than a hangover one, but it was still the fault of last night so it all came out in the wash.

Every step up to her room felt like she weighed a million pounds and she immediately dropped her overnight bag on the floor and went to the door to her balcony to open it up for the fresh air that would hopefully start to ease the throbbing in her temples (unclenching her jaw might also help with that). She still had every intention of walking into the sea, but that was gonna have to wait until she was feeling a little more human (HA!) before she could even attempt that long a trek.

Flopping facedown onto the bed it was, yup.

[Open for visitors or texts!]

As soon as Kamala had turned back into a person yesterday, Arden and Eleanor had swung into action. Arden had contacted Mr. and Mrs. Khan to let them know that Operation Birthday Bash was a go and about what time she'd be by to pick up the cake, and then called Mr. Najaf to see if he would be willing to cook up a whole slew of gyros (including some vegan gyros in case Steven or Watts showed up) for Kamala's birthday the next day. She also messaged Bruno and asked Mr. and Mrs. Khan if they could pass the invitation on to Nakia, letting them know about the party and offering to arrange portal service if they could make it out. After that had come handwavily messaging everybody else to let them know that they were celebrating Kamala's belated birthday at Midnight Manor on Saturday evening.

And lo, now it was the appointed hour. Ellie was keeping Kamala distracted upstairs (Arden was not asking how), and she was here setting out drinks (sodas, though Mr. Khan had sent Arden home with a jug of 'sweet tea,' which she had been very appreciative of and had appreciatively poured down the drain once she'd gotten home), gyros, and setting out Mrs. Khan's cake, leaving a spot in case Ellie had somehow managed to find or invent a Squishie cake. Bollywood movies were playing on the TV (though currently with the volume very low), there was a karaoke machine on standby, balloons and streamers were up, the guests Avengers assembled...

Now all they needed was the co-host and the birthday girl!

[Open! If you're a student, a resident of Midnight Manor, or just think Kamala is cool, feel free to handwave yourself an invite!]

Arden escaped the movie night as subtly as she could, trying to duck out with minimal fuss or attention, especially from Kamala, who might feel as if it were her duty to come check in on Arden which was the last thing she wanted right now. Terrible already feeling like an idiot, like a child, but dragging her best friend away from her date on top of all that?

No. Illegal.

But hopefully her escape had been chill enough to avoid notice, just ambling out holding her plastic cup, deliberately not looking at anybody in case her eyes were gold not amber. And then once she'd left the activity room, she'd all but flown upstairs. Her bedroom wasn't high enough, so the roof, yes. She had to get up to the roof.

And just breathe. Try to calm herself. Center herself. Work on her breathing. Inhale air. Exhale feeling stupid and childish and ignorant. Inhale calm. Exhale hurt feelings and disappointments and petty jealousies. Inhale peace. Exhale all the messy, fucked up, ugly bits of Arden and maybe when she had, the pieces that were left would finally arrange themselves into a shape that was...better. More fitting. Less a problem.

Worth keeping.

She glanced up at the sky, the blue of night above her, the horizon still streaked with pink. "I'm not stupid, I'm not," she muttered to herself. "Support your thesis," she retorted back.

Unfortunately, she didn't have a single argument to make.

In deference to certain people's aversion to smelling like sunscreen, Arden had set their dinner time to sunset, so he wouldn't have to wear any and could avoid getting burned. She was a very thoughtful friend that way.

She'd also gotten an extra-large blanket to hold all of the takeout she'd gotten from Taste of Thai, which was...extensive. She'd basically promised to get every single item on the menu with a chilly pepper next to it, and she had to get some of her favorites and any that seemed like something Cal had mentioned liking before... Which had ended up being so much that the restaurant had sent someone to help her carry everything which, honestly, was amazing of them and Arden had tipped very well. For a half-second, she looked at the spread on the blanket and wondered if maybe she'd gotten to much--and then remembered it was Cal, so if they did end up with any leftovers, she'd know it meant he secretly didn't like something.

Food, check. Blanket, check. Cooler of beverages, check. Sunset, check. All she was missing was the winner of this week's paintball game! Which was the only reason they were even having dinner, thank you. Because of a bet.

::Yo, Kestis, better get down here and eat before the tide comes and washes dinner away.

[For that guy getting spicy meat on the beach!]

Okay, sure. Arden didn't know much more than what TV said about throwing movie nights, but surely she had the gist. Many moddable pizzas and sodas had been ordered from Pizza Planet - look, Arden loved sweet tea, but even she knew soda was necessary for movie nights. A truly disturbing number of bags of popcorn had been popped and put into bowls and a quick stop at T&C had been made to grab a couple of different popcorn seasonings in case people wanted to experiment with popcorn flavors.

All that was left was to wait for people to show up. She'd texted both Kamala and Cal in full capslock mode about the glory of this movie, and then had handwavily tried to contact as many other residents as possible to tell them about the movie night - texts, email, sign on the door, whatever. Sure, nobody had to come, but she at least wanted to make sure everyone knew they were welcome. She'd also invited Steven and Watts (while double checking that, yes, it really was okay to move furniture around the living room and also eat in there) and had made sure to get a few bags of unbuttered popcorn just for them. Did she think the butter flavoring had any actual dairy in it? No. But she was gonna be careful all the same.

Now she was just pushing the furniture around to make sure that every possible seat had a good view of the incredibly large TV and was in reaching distance of a bowl of popcorn and places to put their cups of soda and plates of pizza down. Midnight Movie Night was about to begin, showcasing the absolute work of art and cultural tour de force that 2 Fast and 2 Family 4 Oceans, the fifteenth 2 Fast 2 Family sequel that was also a prequel to the Oceans Edge series.

This was gonna be great.

[Open to all Midnight Manor Boarding House residents!]