Two years in a row now, someone I loved died on my birthday

[controlledvariable]

Who: Steph and friends!
What: A birthday party
Where: A restaurant in... let's go with Howl Barrow? It's not really important.
When: Sukkadi night
Notes: HI. If we haven't pre-discussed this and you're unsure whether your character would be invited, hit me up and I will tell you. On the off-chance your character would like to bring a friend/SO, we can work something out. But yes, come here, tag around and feel free to talk to everyone. Have fun or Steph will make sad faces. P.S. She's wearing this because I wanted an excuse to use it.
Warnings: None for now

Birthdays are weird. They've never been a big deal for Steph. Her parents never cared, she rarely had friends close enough to make a big deal out of it, and she didn't even tell Tim for a long time (she's pretty sure he actually found out by snooping). Last year it was a quiet affair, just dinner with her mom and a few small gifts. Things had been too awkward with Tim to do anything together, and Cass was - busy with something that Steph can't remember now. Baedal makes it even weirder, for starters she'd forgotten it was her birthday for a good two weeks and then she hadn't been sure exactly how to go about recognizing it, considering the fact it wasn't the actual date of her birthday here. On the other hand, she feels like she has more friends here than she has back home, so she takes Angela's suggestion about a party to heart.

After much deliberation, Steph decides to rent out part of a restaurant for her partying needs. Babs had offered her house, but Steph feels like the population of Baedal, her included, has imposed on Babs enough already. So a restaurant it is - one that Angela helped her choose, pay for and organize, which Steph is extremely grateful for. As a result of Angela's help, said restaurant ends up being a little eclectic, hole-in-the-wall place with a restaurant/bar downstairs and the private room upstairs, serving platters of food that Steph isn't entirely sure she recognizes. There's odd pieces of art on the walls, the chairs, small sofas and tables don't actually seem to match each other, but the whole thing seems to fit a general theme and Steph likes it, so that's good enough for her. She'd entrusted music to the venue, not really having the resources at the moment to put music onto one of those fancy crystals; it's been good so far though, a little on the instrumental side, but Steph doesn't mind that. There's a small bar up here, too, with Steph choosing the package that gets them free beer and house wines - if anyone wants anything stronger or fancier than that, it's up to them to pay (Steph isn't made of money, alright).

She's kind of nervous about it, this is the first party she's ever thrown for herself and she just wants everyone to have a nice time. When she'd invited everyone - either by private CiD message or in person - she'd told them that presents weren't necessary, that it was just a small get together to help her celebrate the technical passing of a year. She really just wants everyone to have a good time.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

Steph is in the middle of eating some sort of... thing - there are tenatcles involved, and it's all arranged on a chinese soup spoon for ease of eating - when she spots Tatiana and waves with her free hand.

She quickly finishes off the food, deposits the empty spoon on the table, where a few other used dishes and utensils are and then makes her way to Tatiana.

"Hey, thanks for coming," as soon as she's close enough, she opens her arms for a hug (these are non-optional, unless you are Laura).

[catiana]

Tatiana strides over with a smile, and accepts the hug readily. Most of her friends aren't really the hugging type, so it's kind of nice.

"Thanks for inviting me." When she steps back, she slips her hand into her pocket again.

"I know you said we didn't have to, but - " She pulls out her present, a small box in lavender paper.

[controlledvariable]

Steph is pretty much the embodiment of the huggig type, so Tatiana can have as many of them as she wants.

And the thanks gets waved away, because obviously Steph invited Tatiana; she is her friend, and friends come to their friend's birthday parties. The present gets an over exaggerated eyeroll, "Why are all the people I know terrible at following orders?" As she accepts the present. (The answer is because she's terrible at following orders, and the thing about "opposites attract" is not always true).

"Can I?" Open it, indicated by her head tilted slightly towards the wrapped box.

[catiana]

"That's why you like us," she replies, smirking faintly. She's kind of glad she's not the only one, though.

Tatiana nods. "That's what it's for."

When Steph opens it, she'll find a small black box. Inside that is a bracelet.

[controlledvariable]

It gets a laugh from Steph, quiet and amused, "That's definitely part of it. I'm amazed I haven't butted heads with anyone yet."

It tends to happen, when you put a bunch of stubborn people together, but her friendships have been relatively calm so far. It's nice.

So is getting presents, and with Tatiana's permission she opens the packaging, smiling at the bracelt and reaching out for another hug, "The colour is perfect. Thank you."