[NYE Party] happy new year and lots of fun

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[ Previously in the month all residents received an invitation to a formal event: a black tie affair to ring in the New Year. The ballroom and adjacent areas are decked out for the party starting at eight o'clock sharp, meticulously planned and executed, glittering décor to match the no doubt glittering attire as music pours into the halls from the dance floor.

Bars flank each side, service for all manner of alcohol unless a minor requests something, and the primary setting stage features an enormous clock for the countdown. ]




[ Where will you be when the clock strikes midnight? ]

Comments

[mucked]

Let's call that Purgatory's loss, shall we?

[ because peggy rather likes wynonna -- at least, she does in that distance and appreciative way that never quite looks like friendship but which could (in a pinch) flip entirely to a demonstration of it. ]

[middlefinger]

Agree. Little do they know, but I'm totally fun at parties.

[maybe not formal events like this one -- where she doesn't totally know how to act -- but more relaxed parties? she rocks at those. drinking, dancing, she's very good at having fun. life sucks enough if you don't learn to enjoy what you can in the meantime.]

[mucked]

You know -- I rather believe that. [ she hides her smile behind a drink. ]

[middlefinger]

[she grins a little at that.]

I don't know much of the music being played -- but I think I could probably manage dancing to some of it. Do you dance?

[mucked]

I certainly can. [ a beat. ] But I can't say that I often do.

[middlefinger]

[wynonna isn't deterred, grinning more as she continues.]

Well, we are at a party, and parties are supposed to be fun, if not now, then when?

[mucked]

[ the woman makes a good point: if not now, then when? because once peggy had announced, cocksure as ever, that when the war was over she just might go dancing. and when the fighting was done and the dust was settled? there wasn't anyone left with whom she wanted to dance.

her 'right partner' didn't make it through. there's a sad twitch to her smile before peggy casts a glance over the crowd. ]

I suppose I run the risk of being called 'choosy' if I complain about what's on offer as far as dance partners go.

[middlefinger]

[wynonna has lost plenty of people, but not in the same sort of context as peggy, probably because back home she never allowed for such a context to exist -- sure she danced with plenty of men, and then some, but she never cared about any of them. she made sure not to. because she knew all too well that if you loved something, you could lose it.

it's what made her almost run from her relationship with doc here in wonderland more than once -- it's what would keep them from having anything back home. (well, that and the dolls of it all, another situation she never really allowed herself to commit to either). it was easier to hurt then allow herself to be open to be hurt, but it's too late now. she could wake up tomorrow and doc could be gone and it would sting and hurt in ways she was not prepared for.

she doesn't directly call out peggy's sadness, the hint of it she does see, because it's not her business, but her words are a little less insistent and a little softer when she replies.]

I imagine it's probably better to be choosey then to not be choosey enough -- or at least that's the impression I've always gotten -- of course, not many people back home wanted to be seen dancing with a woman like me so I suppose I'm not the best judge.

[mucked]

There wasn't a lot of time for dancing during the war.

[ she lies. not for any important reason, but the truth is that there's always time for dancing. dark nights and crackling radio broadcasts -- or one of the soldiers has a guitar and everyone gathers inside a burnt out building to take cover from the rain. but it was never about time, in the end.

and always about opportunity. peggy has let too many of those slip her by. ]

And afterwards, it never seems half so important as everything else. It's not to say that I didn't dance. [ an exhale. god, she might have never danced again except that she'd been so thoroughly charmed to the tips of her toes by one bold dance she'd shared back at sarah and ray's wedding. ] Although I will say this -- it's a helluva lot easier to dance to this music than much of what I've heard at other events in Wonderland.

[middlefinger]

I've found -- and I know it's not the same as a full on war or anything but my life was pretty chaotic -- sometimes you have to make sure to find the time to dance -- or however else you want to blow off steam.

[otherwise everything else will eat away at you -- not that it doesn't eat away at her anyway. wynonna probably shouldn't be giving anyone advice when it comes to coping skills.]

This is a little out of the range from what I'm used to -- but not as bad as the stuffy classical stuff they played at the other ball. At least some of these songs are fast.

[though doc taught her how to dance more formally it's never going to be wynonna's preferred way to go.]

[mucked]

It's the trumpets I like. [ a pause while a particularly lovely blast of horn ladders its way up and down an arpeggio. ] Even the stuff I'm not familiar with -- the stuff that must be a decade or so ahead of me -- isn't awful.

Close your eyes and you might mistake this for the Martinique or the Stork Club. Maybe the Dunbar, depending on your coast.

[middlefinger]

I'm not sure what any of those places are -- clubs from your time, I'm guessing?

[they sounded like they could be, at least.]

[mucked]

Clubs, yes. And quite fashionable ones at that.

[middlefinger]

Sounds fancy. All we had in Pugatory were places like Shorty's and Pussy Willows.

[yeah, that second one was definitely a strip club. and wynonna definitely worked there at one point in her sordid life. one of the many reasons why she didn't show much modesty when peggy met her and she was half dressed.]

[mucked]

[ for just a breath her usual composure fractures and a bright-eyed look suggests she can guest exactly what that second one was. but, soon after, she's once again the prim agent she prefers to project. ]

Very fancy. But I've been to a dive or two in my day. Usually while playing truant -- back at school. The nicer places knew better than to allow us in.

[middlefinger]

[in all honesty, wynonna may have name dropped that place just to see how peggy would respond -- the other woman seemed so prim and proper sometimes it was hard to resist the urge to try to ruffle her feathers a little.]

Oh yeah, nicer places don't tend to let kids in -- not for lack of trying. Not that there is much beyond dives where I grew up -- though when I ditched school there was a lot of drinking in parking lots and finding adults who would buy booze for us.

I missed school a lot, sometimes I think they only let me graduate so I would be out of their hair.

[mucked]

I'm afraid there weren't many parking lots in the heart of London. [ a bob of her head. ] So instead we pushed further and further to the other side of the river -- into boroughs we knew we shouldn't have been visiting.

[ ... ]

Or else we stole from the headmaster's own stash and drank in the dormitories after lights-out.

[middlefinger]

I stole booze from my foster parents -- they didn't like that too much. [a pause, and then.]

But they didn't like really anything I did.

[mucked]

[ foster parents. something else to add to the mental dossier. ]

How young were you when you went to stay with them?

[middlefinger]

I must have been about thirteen or so -- I was bounced around a lot between different homes and stints in juvenile haul.

[some people might be ashamed of that sort of history, but wynonna isn't. she was a kid, yeah she messed up a lot but it wasn't like any of the adults around her were doing any better.]

[mucked]

That's no easy life to live. [ -- and maybe peggy doesn't know it from experience, exactly, but it's not as though she has to imagine hard to realize the hardship that kind of instability can invite. ]

[middlefinger]

No, it wasn't. It's not really a time of my life I look back at fondly.

[and maybe someday, when they're not in the middle of a party, she'll tell peggy more of that story, like what led to her getting into the system like that to begin with.]

[mucked]

-- And so perhaps the next toast ought to be to fonder times.

[ they could all use a bit of that, frankly. ]

[middlefinger]

That's an excellent idea. To better times in the new year, may we both have our fair share of them.