afraid_of_marshmallows | Entries tagged with who: steven grant

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!]

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.]

Arden drifted on a sea of pain, weaving in and out of consciousness. She was vaguely aware of voices, of people. They were speaking, but their voices were muffled, their words strung together. It was almost like listening to the chorus of Professor Beaker's meeps. It was too much to try to listen or understand, so she didn't. She just drifted in that place of pain. She was getting colder and every time she tried to drift back towards her friends, it got harder and harder. Every attempt exhausted her further. Maybe she should just stop trying. Maybe it would be easier to just let the pain bring her wherever it was trying to get to. Maybe she should--

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The noise seemed to echo and reverberate through the room. Arden startled herself awake, a sharp cry dragged from her at the pain of her body's abrupt twisting. For a second, she longed for the peace in the drifting pain sea, but pushed that thought away.

( Give me your hand/So I can tell you/Things will be alright )
( In a small pocket of time )
( Back in the present )

[Warning for trauma, extreme injury, depiction of abuse to a minor, and blood. Please know that in Cal's telemetry thread ("In a Small Pocket of Time"), there are descriptions of on-screen physical abuse. This whole but can be avoided by clicking the link at the end of the section, or clicking on the "Back in the Present" cut tag.

Once again, preplayed with the terrific

hasaknightjob,

moreofaponchoguy,

pocketpretzels, and

slothbabyproductions and

not_montalban! Radio is free to mention some kind of disturbance, but all details NFB please.]

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.]

As far as Cal was aware, Arden had set this whole thing up to celebrate his win in paintball. After remembering the All-Purpose room existed and getting permission from Steven to use it, Arden had programmed in a decent-sized mountain for them to climb. If her side had a lot more hand- and footholds than Cal Climbing-Would-Be-My-Middle-Name Kestis' had, well...sometimes mountains grew that way. Or whatever. Hush.

Of course, what Cal didn't know was that while Arden was keeping him busy with a climb, BD-1 (the true architect of this party) and Kamala were busy setting up everything for the party proper. The top of the mountain turned into a beautiful landscape dominated by verdant trees so big there were houses built into them, with mountains shrouded in mist far in the distance, dominated by a tree even larger still. Arden had been very glad that BD-1 was able to communicate with Midnight, too; he'd had a very specific idea of how Kashyyyk was supposed to look and there was no way that she could have translated binary well enough to have pulled it off. Of course, beautiful alien vista or not, this was an Earth birthday party and some things were absolutely required. So there were a bunch of ~~moddable~~ pizzas (including two vegan, and several with very spicy toppings), soda, bowls of chips and popcorn, a fruit and a veggie platter, and, the centerpiece of it all: a chocolate and pistachio ice cream cake from Chilly Boulder with HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY CAL! written on it.

And probably red Squishies, because Kamala had been deputized for setup.

Welcome to Keshyyyk, everybody. Hope you brought your party hats.

[Friends, neighbors, frenemies, and especially GFFA folks, please feel free to assume you've gotten an invitation emailed, texted, sent via droid and/or carrier pigeon...whatever! However it got to you, please show up and help Cal celebrate his twenty-first birthday in style!]

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!]

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!]

So, Saturday morning, Arden had promised Evie that she would be happy to do the little girl's hair if she'd like. And after a long afternoon at the beach, with the sand and the salt and the sun having plenty of time to work their way into her curls, it seemed like Evie would like to take her up on it.

And Arden, being Arden, couldn't help but make it a little extra. Extra special, she was hoping, but she was well-aware it might just be extra. It's possible that she'd heard rumors that someone maaaaaybe thought there was a possibility that she was an all-grown-up princess and that just seemed to be the kind of thing to really lean into.

So she'd set up a "Princess Hair and Tea Party" for Evie to come to after her hair had been washed. Arden herself was in the dress she'd purchased from Boc last week and had set out a 'dress' for Evie to wear - and another for Francis, in case he wanted to come be a pretty princess and drink tea, too.

Princesses came in all genders, dammit. And they could swap colors if they wanted, too. Arden wasn't fussed.

[Expecting two wee'uns, but open for other guests as well!]

Arden stood on the toilet and practiced her smile in the mirror above the bathroom sink. She didn't remember coming to this new foster home, but she was here now and that meant making a good impression. If maybe she made a good enough impression, this could be her forever home. It was probably stupid, still hoping to get one of those after this long, but Arden was a hopeful kind of girl.

Hmm, maybe her smile should be a little bigger? So they'd know she was happy and enthusiastic and not a sourpuss.

Not only was this place super-duper big (Arden had never had a room this big before and certainly not a room this big that she was in all by herself), but the angels hadn't shown up last night! That was a bit of very good luck. The angels were scary and they hurt her when they whispered to her and watched her with their glowing eyes (which didn't seem very angelic of them, but they appeared in her ceiling and surely demons would appear under her bed or in her closet) and that made it hard to sleep! And trying to meet a new foster family was very hard when you hadn't slept the night before. And sometimes it hurt so bad she cried out and that was also bad when you were trying to convince people that you were 'a good fit for the family.'

...Sure, she should probably meet the family first before getting her hopes up about staying, but at this point, Arden figured she'd be happy with any family that wanted her.

No, maybe her smile should be just a little bit smaller. She didn't want to seem too smiley. Sometimes that could be a problem.

Satisfied with the precise degree of smile, Arden tucked her father's pendant under her shirt where nobody could see it and want to take it, and carefully climbed down off the toilet and entered her bedroom (there was a bathroom attached to her bedroom! These people must be so rich!) to go sit on the bed. Then she immediately hopped up, opened the door, and then returned to sit on the bed. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to leave the room before someone came to talk to her, but hopefully they would see she was awake (and that her bed was made and everything was tidied) and come invite her downstairs.

A new family! How exciting!

[Open for residents or phone calls!]