Participants:
| Scene Title | Birthday Blasphemy |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Diversions, presents, hecklers, and one very sacrilegious birthday cake. Must be Abby's birthday! |
| Date | January 18, 2011 |
Bannerman's Castle: Dining Hall
The room converted into Bannerman's dining hall, although long and narrow, can accommodate up to one hundred people, but despite the amount of use that it sees, it isn't hooked up to the castle's electrical grid, which means that after dark it's lit up by gas lanterns strategically positioned on the wooden tables with bench-style seating that occupy the space. A giant hearth set into one of its walls provides the hall with additional light and warmth, as well as a place for the castle's residents to convene when it isn't in use during the hours when breakfast and dinner are being taken.
The walls themselves are bare stone with no decoration except for the four windows opposite the fireplace, and these are covered with heavy pieces of plain canvas cloth at night to prevent the light from leaking outside, where it might be visible from the shore or the air. During the day the canvas is pulled back to brighten the room and make the gas lanterns unneccessary, but on mornings and afternoons when the sky is overcast, there is very little to combat the gloom and so the fuel is burned anyway.
While there isn't exactly a party store on the island, Magnes brought a few things with him earlier in the morning to work with. By around 1PM they were setting up in the dining hall, with a large banner saying Happy Birthday Abby written in yellow paint with sparkly silver glitter in a border around the letters. There are balloons unnaturally floating around, and colorful plants hanging from the ceiling that were taken from the island for decoration.
Any presents are laid out in the middle of the dining table, surrounding the modestly sized Holy Bible cake. Unable to bring much, Magnes mostly worked with the food available. He did, however, make an attempt at a bologna cake.
Then, Abby's finally stepping into the door, when Kendall's done stalling and performs his assigned job of bringing her to the hall. It's 3PM now, and time for the party!
"Surprise!" is yelled by everyone, no noise makers for obvious reasons, but damned if Magnes doesn't throw some confetti her way. "Happy birthday Abigail."
Kendall, along with a handful of other people, volunteered to run the distraction for Abby. Thanks to his nifty power, a group of people seemed to have gotten in a good old brawl; cuts, scratches, and bruises galore, and Kendall suffered an almost broken ankle. None of them would say what the fight was about, but once Abby finished up, Kendall sent a little sign to the group in the dining hall letting them know they're coming. And when they arrive with her, all the injuries miraculously vanish. "Happy birthday." Kendall chimes in, looking innocent.
Griffin helped out with the decorations and the food, multi-talented fellow that he is. Abby has, after all, been a good friend to him, and he would feel atrocious if he missed the party. And so, Griffin is standing in the hall along with Magnes and those gathered, watching as Abby enters. And when the 'SURPRISE' is hollered, he joins in, too. "Happy birthday, Abby."
Sitting on top of one of the tables, Nora has to wait for the Surprise! yelled by everyone else to know that Abby has indeed entered the room, but she adds her voices to the others. The guitar in her lap is put to use, and she begins to strum the familiar chords to The Beatles' "Birthday Song," though she doesn't sing after the first few measures, instead just pausing the song where the vocals would pick up.
As for presents, the broken nose Abby got a few days earlier doesn't quite count, but Nora is limited in what she can buy, perhaps even more limited in what she can make, given her lack of sight.
Having been too busy making sure the area in and surrounding the party was free of any damageable technology for when the Ferry's newest ward arrived, Barbara was now sitting quietly in a seat, waiting for the birthday girl's arrival, even if it's with a bit of a grimace on her face. Unwilling to pass up the opportunity to surprise one of the folks who made she got there from Canada safely, as soon as Abby makes her appearance, the dyed redhead is on her feet, shouting surprise and clapping happily.
Rather than shouting the nominal greeting at a surprise birthday party, Amato remained in his seat at Abby's entrance and greeted her with a simple smile before lifting a cup of tea to his lips. While he wasn't much help in any of the preparations for the event, he has taken the time to scrub off as much of the humble, earthy smell that clings to him as he could and don a fresh sweater and the cleanest pair of jeans he could find. But for him not to attend a celebration of the life of Abby - Abby who despite everything has done so much for so many - would be an atrocity.
He sits further down the table on which Nora sits, giving the girl as much breadth as he deems necessary. It's probably less distance than the blind girl would prefer, but it's impossible to please everyone.
Shirley is standing to the non-tech side of the room, looking a bit wallflowery. She too yells Surprise upon Abby's entrance, although it's so softly called it's probably drowned out by all the other voices. She is positively beaming however. Even if she glances between Rue and Griffin all the time. Whatfor? Who would know…? She has a sheet of paper in her hand, with the light behind the tech disrupting teen vaguely showing the hints of a drawing. It's a gift!
"Really Kendall, I don't know what you were all up to but you can't be fighting like that." This coming from the EMT who - It seems for all her trying to keep it quiet - broke her nose while drunken sparring with the blind girl. The splint sits across her nose, butterfly bandages for her cheek as well and she no longer looks like a raccoon with all the blue having turned green, yellow and that strange shade of aubergine. "You need to be more careful." She'd passed him over the crutches that she had used post horse fall.
She's about to keep lecturing him when wounds all disappear, and in the dining hall is the hard work put in by Magnes and others to celebrate something that she really quite frankly didn't think that more than three people here even knew. The choice to use no noisemakers is a good one, Kendall can feel the jump in temperature that pours off Abby before she manages to get a lock on her ability and keep it in check, not burn up her jeans and sweater much less everyone else in here.
One hand to her heart, the other to her mouth, a step taken back as the confetti rain down on her. Who's going to have to clean that up is the first errant thought by her. "Oh my Lord on high," muffled behind her hand. What had gone from a depressing day, self sequestered in the infirmary to avoid spoiling anyone else's good mood has turned decidedly for the better and the tears that start to fill along her lower lids are clearly not one of sadness. To say she's stunned is an understatement but not so stunned at to keep from reaching over and throwing a punch - gentle - at Kendall for his farce. Everyone got her good.
Seated next to Nora is Rue Lancaster, who's quickly fastening herself to the blind girl's side whenever she can find the excuse. She's also acting as a bit of a buffer (likely unintentionally) between her friend and the Italian man further down the table.
"You say it's your birthday~" Rue half-sings, half-giggles as Nora plays the guitar. She's got a coffee mug cradled to her chest, swaying slightly with her mirth.
"I can't believe we actually did it!" Magnes smiles, heading over for Abby. He's wearing his black fleece, unzipped to reveal a white t-shirt with Ego the Living Planet on the front, also wearing a pair of neatly fitting blue jeans and red Chucks. "Abby! Come see your bible cake! I thought a bible cake would be an awesome idea." He's smiling excitedly, pleased with her reaction. "I'm glad you're happy. When I remembered your birthday was coming up, I knew everyone else would want to help put a party together."
Kendall laughs as he's punched for his troubles. "Hehe, well, you know, there wasn't really a fight, so it's all good. No need to lecture." to prove it, he hops on one leg… the one that was supposedly nearly broken. It's perfectly fine now. Both feet firmly on the ground, he sidles off before she can hit him again.
Griffin grins quietly in the background; he holds a small gift bag at his side; might as well allow the others to get her attention first before he goes and tries to give her his gift. For now, he stands in the back, a faint smile on his face.
Reaching for her own "coffee" cup, Nora takes a gulp, then snorts at Magnes' announcement. "A Bible cake?" she splutters, turning to raise brows and widen blind eyes at Rue, as if to say did I hear right? — not that she can read the answering expression on Rue's face. "What does that taste like I wonder," she adds, grinning a bit. The two girls might be slim and young versions of the Muppets' Statler and Waldorf, but only if Rue comes up with something witty to Nora's straight-man query.
"A bible cake," Barbara repeats with a laugh, as if confirming for Nora. "It's fitting, if nothing else." Rising up from her seat, Barbara starts towards her fellow Council member, patting her on the back once she reaches her. "Happy Birthday!" she adds, having only supplied a "surprise" earlier. "Do we get to know how old you are, Mrs. Abby Caliban?" she asks jokingly as she turns back to every one else. "Or is one of the many highly guarded secrets we keep?"
"Bestemmia," Amato offers in response to Nora'a sputtered reaction. At the reminder of the cake, his smile fades, his straighter face hidden from the majority of the room by his mug of tea, now held between two hands. Amato's elbows rest on the table, and the smile that eventually replaces the gentle one that he wore when Abby entered can only be described as wry. "Baptista," he muses softly to himself, "in aliena."
Shirley seems perfectly content to stay in her corner of the room, not at the table like the others. She just watches the goings on silently. Her gaze doesn't seem to be so much on the victim of this party as it travels around, trying to go over names and faces mentally. She just doesn't know all these people well enough for her to feel comfortable partying with them, but she's glad enough to be out of her room for a change.
"I can honestly say that I haven't rightly seen a bible cake before and I don't know if I can cut into it Magnes, but it's beautiful" As she catches a glimpse of it, and of the people who are around in the mass that are here celebrating making sure to tip her head in greeting to those that she can't get to right this moment. Barbara's touching her, she hates people touching her but she'll endure it since it's a standard thing at parties where you're the guest of honor. "Twenty-two." In response to the other council member. "Just twenty-two. That's all. Thank you Magnes and whomever else put this all together." The man in question gets a kiss, to the apple of his cheek, then Barbara's getting a very brief quick hug. "I suppose I should go say hello to everyone and let… Magnes cut the cake and pass it out. I know that I always just want the cake cut and all that, before anything else."
Rue leans over to Nora, cupping her hand against her ear to whisper to the other girl. "I wanted to set it," the cake, "on fire just to see the look on Shirley's face." She leans back to speak loud enough to be overheard again, without raising her voice enough so as to sound as though she's announcing her answer to the question of what a bible cake must taste like to the room at large. "Probably like bullshit. Yeeuck!" The latter being added for Nora's benefit, so as to give verbal indication of the distasteful face she's just made. She follows it up with a shrill giggle and clinks her mug to the other girl's.
Then, Rue nudges Amato's hip with the tip of her black Chucks. "You should totally go talk to that one over there." A finger is briefly pointed in Shirley's direction for the man's benefit. "I bet you could talk theology or something." Rather than angle her head back to lift her brows in Nora's direction, the girl receives a gentle elbow to the arm. Eh? Then she's sitting up straight again and taking another drink from her mug. "Oh-em-gee, the birthday girl is younger than I am!" Then her volume drops a bit quieter as she turns back to Statler (or is she Waldorf?) and adds, "And she's married, too." As if driving home a point made yesterday.
"Come blow out the candles then, there's only ten. You never give away a lady's age, right?" Magnes snickers and heads to the cake, picking up the knife while waiting for her. "We can probably skip the happy birthday song for now, since we had such a musical surprise…. Oh!" He perks up, pointing. "I tried to make bologna cake, too, since I know you like it."
He doesn't comment on baptized alien beastmania, but Amato does get a raised eyebrow.
"Well twenty-two, that's not that bad." Kendall remarks, although likely Abby doesn't want to hear anything like that coming from him, or likely any other teenager in the room. The bible cake is eyed curiously. "Technically, isn't it sacrilege to cut it into pieces?" he jokes.
Quietly, the man with the large nose makes his way over to Shirley. "Hey there," he murmurs, glancing down to her, "you doing okay today, Shirley?" Griffin raises his brows down to her, offering a reassuring smile down to the teenager. "Good to see you out of that room. Bet you're glad to stretch your legs." He glances over the faces at the party, his brow wrinkled ever so slightly.
Amato's words get a head tilt from Nora. "What's that mean?" she says, her hands tucking into her cuffs and resting upon the guitar she holds, but then Rue is making her snort again. She elbows the redhead. "Oh, God, you're horrible, Rue," she tells the other woman, cheeks coloring as if shamed to have laughed at the joke.
"We're sorry," she whispers, for Amato's sake, since he's right by them.
Magnes' words have her nose wrinkling. "Bologna… cake? Please don't put any of that on my plate. I'll have to hurt you."
Barbara returns the hug with a laugh, nodding. "State secret would have been fine," she remarks with a bit of a nudge, before looking up at the cake and smiling. "I can't remember the last time I had cake, so I'm looking forward to this." A bit of a look is given over towards Rue and Nora - not a chastising one, but certainly one that attempts to communicate a settle down to the two of them. Not that Nora can see it, but that's a detail that doesn't quite occur to Barbara in the moment.
"I haven't really had the chance to get a present yet," Barbara continues, tone apologetic as she starts back towards her seat. "I'll be sure to pick up something when I'm on the mainland. Would a fire extinguisher be good?" Of course, she can't get by without a joke of her own.
Amato eyes the girl Rue points out, his eyes narrowed with skepticism. "Hmm," he intones before he extracts himself from the bench, taking his tea with him. "Eat a piece of the profanis for me, Mimidae." He pauses long enough in his retreat to watch a bit more of the activity and decide whether or not he'll answer Nora's question.
"Blasphemy," he says, his voice nearly a whisper as he leans a little closer to the girls, fingers lacing around the ceramic. He doesn't provide a translation, or even an explaination of his commentary, but simply nods at the two chittering birds on the table before he steps away, heading toward the door.
He didn't bring Abby a present.
Shirley looks over to Griffin, "Hey…" She says softly. Her glance shooting from Griffin to Rue and back to Griffin. Her expression makes one thing clear, don't say a thing. "I'm sorry I'm not that festive… but I kind of feel like I'm intruding on this party… I'm afraid I just don't really know anyone here well enough…"
Blow the candles, Abigail can do that, leaning over to take a deep breath and blow out all ten candles. This means that Magnes can start cutting into the bible and dispensing pieces of gods word to be consumed. Amato's retreat is spotted and a kind smile for the would be priest. Large crowds likely not his thing, too many chances to accidentally touch people. "Take care Amato," she calls out to him before her attention diverts back to Barbara and her admission to no gift. "No, no, please, being here is good enough. I don't need any presents. Anything I want, I can't get or have but just being here is good enough."
And she leaves Magnes to start cutting cake so that she can go over to Statler and Waldorf, giving them a pointed look. "Younger than you, married to a handsome man of money and I own my own dessert bar. You should go have cake while it lasts. Sounds like Magnes didn't quite succeed at baloney cake so I think you'll be spared such."
Rue presses her own lips together to quell residual laughter. "Later, Italiano," she offers to the parting Amato. When he's wandered far enough away, she's turning to Nora to ask in a soft voice, "Did he just call us names in Latin?"
Oh shit! The blind girl receives a quick nudge as Rue sets her coffee mug behind her on the table, a hand at the small of her back to warn her that something else is back there. She mutters out of the side of her mouth, "Abby's coming!" Juuust before the birthday girl's actual arrival. Perhaps sufficiently cowed, the ginger reaches behind her back to procure a large bottle of hand lotion from Bath & Bodyworks. Warm Vanilla Sugar. "Nora and I got you this."
Actually, Rue bought it for herself back on the mainland, but she hadn't used it yet, so it made a very convenient gift once she heard about the upcoming birthday festivities. "It gets so dry in the winter, and especially in the castle. Everybody needs lotion, right?" She bats her lashes a little bit, silently asking for her wisecrack to be forgiven.
Magnes starts cutting and placing pieces of cake on to plates, laying them out on the table. "One slice per person! We'll see how much is left after everyone has had a piece." He takes a slightly bigger than normal piece over to Abby, nodding to it with a particularly flat gift-wrapped present. "Here, cake for the birthday girl." And since he thankfully missed the last thing she said, he also offers the present. "My present is with the electronic stuff, so I gift wrapped a picture of your present so I get to see your face."
"Here's mine, too." Kendall offers to Abby. His present is also flat, although larger than a normal piece of paper. Then he goes and claims a piece of cake, moving over towards Shirley. "Hey." he greets her somewhat diffidently. After all, he's got a girlfriend, and he can't be seen being too friendly towards other girls, there might be rumors. But she looked lonely all the way over here with just one person to talk to. Squint. "You were on the boat the other night, weren't you?" With the Alfred Hitchcock thing.
Griffin's green eyes drift over to Amato, frowning as the man makes his exit. Can't blame a fellow there. Personally, Griffin plans to abstain from the cake; his upbringing disagrees with it, and his current viewpoints disagree as well. So he'll just be happy to hang out with Abby on her birthday. And perhaps to help poor Shirley come out of her shell, if only a little. A rather pointed, disapproving look is cast toward Rue and Nora, the man shaking his head slowly.
Then, he turns to smile back to Shirley. "It's okay. I don't know a lot of the people here— the birthday girl is a good friend of mine. She's stitched me up a few times, too. I also know Illusion Teen over there." A gesture is offered to Kendall, while an approving smile is offered to Abby, before his attention is back on the teen he stands near.
"I doubt you're intruding at all. I know it's rough, not knowing anyone, but you're in a good place, filled with a lot of good people." A glance is cast to Rue, then back to Shirley. "And you'll get to know people. I can tell you that all of the ones I've met are great."
As Kendall approaches, Griffin offers a faint smile and a wave.
There's a little flutter of fingers at Amato's retreating back when he walks away. Nora takes another sip from her mug, and offers a smile toward Abby. "She's a liar," the teen says brightly, regarding Rue's words. "I have nothing to do with it, since you know, I have one rumpled dollar to my name, but it's nice of her to lie on my behalf, right?" Even if they are eating bible cake, and lying goes against the commandments.
"My birthday present is not to injure you for at least a week, and to not get injured for at least two weeks, and I'll play you any song that I can figure out even if it's horrible country music that makes me ill. For you, Abby, I'll muster the strength." That's about as good as Nora can do. "Or, I can find one on the radio for you, if you'd rather not hear my playing," she adds, on second thought. Cut fingers don't make for good playing.
"Yeah, I was." Shirley responds to Kendall, "Great way to arrive here on this place." She's obviously not bitter, but she's not joking either. "So I'm Shirley, and I make things go kaput. Who're you?" She asks, shrugging faintly before glancing back to Griffin, "I suppose you would be right…" She follows Griffin's gaze to Rue, but immediately diverts it back to Griffin. "Sorry for interrupting this party, but I needed the chance to get out of my room…" This is directed back to Kendall.
"A night of radio music, your choice, on a night when I need a little cheer and I'm feeling lonely, Nora. I'll take that as my present." Even as the lotion is taken, cracked open so she can smell it. Vanilla. "Reminds me of the shop Rue, thank you. If you need any just run by my cot and get a squirt. Watch, we'll all smell like this soon enough." She's oblivious that it's a obligatory gift.
But speaking of such, there's two more in the form of what Magnes and Kendall are now piling on as well as bible cake. Bible Cake. Abby's pretty sure her mother would be fanning herself and her Dad, if he was present, would be taking Magnes to the side for a chat about what you can and cannot do with a bible. Making it into a cake and eating it? Not.
Hitting a brothel owner with it in the face? Can.
Cake finds it's way to the side so she oblige people by opening the presents, a careful unwrapper and it reveals the picture of a Nook. An e-reader with the holy bible on it's cover. "Oh. Oh!" he got her a digital bible. "Thank you Magnes, it's lovely. Now I can put a lot of books on it" And find some way to charge it out here. Some way.
Kendall's is next which prompts an even wider smile, holding up his sketch of the castle at a distance during sunrise. "I'll have to frame it and put it on the wall next to my Mendez painting if I ever go home, Kendall." The little scrap of paper with it's IOU one illusion is grinned at. "And maybe this to one day sneak back into my home to see my husband. Maybe Valentine's Day."
"Nora!" Rue scolds, heavy with the good-natured sarcasm. "You aren't supposed to out me when I lie for you, you crazy girl. Gawd." An arm is wrapped around the younger girl's shoulders in a brief squeeze. "She'd have helped me pick it if I'd bothered to ask her input!" she asserts, largely to Abigail's back.
"Stay here, babe. Guard my b- mug. I'll get you some cake." Rue slides down from her perch on the table and wobbles a little bit before she sashays her way to the table with the cake. She casts a glance to Shirley, Griffin and Kendall in turn. But after retrieving the two slices of dessert, she makes a small detour to where Barbara's seated. "Hey…"
"I'm glad you like it! I'd offer to show you how to use it, but I won't be back to the island after today." Magnes starts heading back to the table, not wanting to miss out on cake himself. "I'll make sure everyone has something to eat. You just enjoy yourself and I'll manage things."
"Glad you like it." Kendall grins at Abby, although it turns somewhat uncertain when she says what she might request of him. Hopefully she'll see the fine print at the bottom. But anyway, he's in a conversation, and he nods at Shirley. "I'm Kendall, and I just…. make things." he replies to Shirley. "For instance, this cake here" he lifts his plate, "is a lie." upon uttering that phrase, the piece of cake disappears, and he smiles innocently. It's back a few seconds later, though, because dangit Kendall wants to eat that. "I can do a lot more than vanishing tricks, although it's one of my favorites to do."
As Kendall is approaching Shirley, Griffin offers a faint smile, moving away from the girl and drifting toward Abby. His gift is held out a bit sheepishly to Abby, a faint smile on his face. Just a small gift bag with crinkle wrap he managed to scrounge up here at the Island. Once the gift is taken, the man steps back, waiting for Abby to open it.
A glance is cast toward Rue quietly, the man raising his brows. Then, a shake of his head, and Griffin is looking back to Abby with a faint smile, tucking his hands behind his back.
Barbara, for her part, is just enjoying the festivities that are going on around her - it's not often that anything resembling a party happens, good reasons for it or not. Her piece of paper sits in her lap and she smiles along with every one else, occasionally offering a comment over to someone. It's when Rue sits next to her, though, that she's draw into something more focused. "Hello, Rue. How're you? Something I can help you with?"
The blind girl just shrugs at Rue's reprimand, and nods at the directions to wait there. Once she's been abandoned, she begins to strum the guitar quietly, background noise of no particularly recognizable melody that isn't loud enough to obscure voices. It also keeps her from looking awkward sitting by herself staring blindly at nothing. Her head ducks as if to watch her fingering, long lashes fanning against her cheeks.
"Oh…" Shirley responds absently to Kendall. Her gaze flitting to follow Rue and Barbara. Mostly looking at Barbara, with the occasional brief and quickly diverted glance towards Rue. "You could become a stage magician with that kind of trick, you know..?"
"I'm sure, Magnes, that I can figure out how to work it. But if I have problems I'll seek you out when I'm mainland again." People are drifting, others give gifts to the EMT that range from a pair of knit mitts in blue, scarf and hat and then Griffin's, which is taken with a smile and opened. A cross carved out of wood and ready to be propped up somewhere, more IOU's from him as well. "Thank you Griffin, it's beautiful and I'll find a way to hang it above my cot." It's humble, but beautiful in it's own way. Abigail glances to Shirley, the reason for most of the electronics put elsewhere and smiles at seeing the teenager out. "Get some cake," she offers.
Rue balances the two slices of cake and their forks on her lap, making sure she meets Barbara's eyes before she tries to speak. "I… I wanted to thank you, again. For not leaving me behind when I froze up." Her gaze flits back to Nora briefly before it returns to the red-haired councilwoman. "So… Thank you."
"Yeah, I guess, but that'd require me to become known to the public and the government, and…" Kendall takes a deep breath. "Well, let's just say I'm not supposed to exist anymore, since I've supposedly been dead for about half a year. But hey, I'm sure there's lots of similar stories."
A warm smile is offered to Abby from Griffin, the man tipping his head toward her. "I haven't had the chance to leave the island and buy you anything…so I hope that will do." He smiles softly to the birthday girl. "I can help you hang it above your cot, if you like." Then, happy that Abby approves of his gift, Griffin glances around.
Green eyes land on the blind girl strumming on her guitar, and Griffin offers a faint smile as his eyes fade to white. From the kitchen, a hard guitar case drifts through the air, opening on its own. The beautiful custom guitar itself drifts into Griffin's hands, while the case floats its way over to the ground. Then, the man limps over to Nora, settling down near her. After a moment of examining the guitar, Griffin begins to strum softly along with Nora.
As the music grows throughout the room, Barbara sets down her plastic fork and sets a hand on Rue's shoulder. "Rue, we never leave anyone behind, unless circumstances absolutely prevent it. So, you're welcome. But really, it was going to be all of us or none of us. No other way." The hand pats down again, Barbara taking a moment to eat another bite of cake while she smiles at Rue. And then she turns back towards the rest of the group. "Abby!" She motions for her to come over, grinning. "Is there any of the wine left/ Perhaps the adults can have a bit more fun after dinner, to celebrate. It isn't often that we have a birthday here." At least, not one that's openly celebrated.
When another guitar's voice suddenly joins that of the hand-me-down one Nora borrows and leaves every day in the corner of the Dining Hall, Nora lifts her head to give her new duet partner a smile and a nod. "I'm not very good," she murmurs, though she's clearly got some talent. "If you know any songs you wanna play, I'll follow your lead."
"I think… I think there might be a few bottles of wine. I know I have some bottles of stuff myself, I can send someone to go get them or get them myself." She answers Barbara. "There's always Avi's Hooch too, if he's still making it." Abigail offers up, a nod for Griffin and his offer to hang the cross up for her before he's playing guitar with Nora.
Rue smiles to Barbara. It doesn't quite reach her eyes. It isn't to say that she's insincere, but that there's something else going on there. "Thanks. I'll talk to you later." Then she rises to her feet again and reclaims her spot next to Nora.
The slices of cake are set between them and Rue regains some of the sparkle to her blue eyes. She reclaims her mug and takes a healthy gulp from it. "You guys know Hotel California?"
Griffin smiles over to Nora. The only reason he has that lovely custom guitar is because his fiancée brought it to him. "You don't sound half bad to me." He offers this with a smile. "Well, we have a request. Someone else will have to sing, if singing is desired. I would deafen all of you if I tried." He smiles. Then, without waiting for an answer, Griffin launches into the opening riff of the acoustic version of 'Hotel California' by the Eagles, his eyes closing.
There's no true need for sight when you're making music, so for this moment, he shares Nora's sightlessness, if only by choice.
And so the party continues into the evening; the younger generation is sent to their beds, while the adults bring out the wine (and a bit of Scotch from the telekinetic); music is played between the two resident musicians for the enjoyment of all, drinks are had, laughs are shared. An overall pleasant birthday party for one very loved young woman.
Happy Birthday, Abigail Caliban.