hell of a party

[middlingalong]

Ivan must be drunker than he thought he was. He could have sworn he knew his way around Vivienne's parents' house, since she wanted to introduce him last week and showed him the place, but maybe they have a... secret... upstairs... bar? where Vivienne's room is supposed to be? And most certainly was last time he checked? He's never going to find the sweater she sent him up looking for here, anyway. Why is there a secret upstairs bar in Vivienne's parents' house?

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"It would involve letting us know where he was, even if only indirectly. I'm not sure even dried beans could tempt him."

[isthisart]

"It could be very indirect. We could operate against the same currency you gave him his original chit in, and looking up the prices of whatever he walked out with would be more indeterminate and less entertaining than just waiting for ImpSec to find him again."

[thisvorlunatic]

"No harm in asking," he says. "I'm just not getting my hopes up."

[isthisart]

"Nor I," Linya agrees.

[thisvorlunatic]

...He can't help glancing at the stairs, wondering how Mark and Stalas are doing. (Mark and Stalas. Wow.)

[middlingalong]

"There is no need to dwell on the thing you are probably dwelling on," opines Ivan.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm not dwelling exactly," he says. "I'm—wondering."

[middlingalong]

"Also unnecessary!"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I just - I hope they're okay," he says. "Those are not the two happiest people I know up there."

[middlingalong]

"Unless you are planning to go check on them..."

[thisvorlunatic]

"No."

[middlingalong]

"Then stop wondering to the point where I notice and begin to dwell."

[isthisart]

"I am missing at least one of the concepts I'd need to be nearly so discomfited."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Eh?"

[isthisart]

"My suspicion is that Ivan is reacting to something in the neighborhood of an incest taboo, differing species notwithstanding -"

[middlingalong]

"Was I not clear about not wishing to dwell?"

[isthisart]

"- but I didn't grow up in a context where that ever came up."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I won't say I don't find it weird, but I think the different species part is a little more prominent for me," says Miles. "Or something. By all means, let's not encourage Ivan to dwell, though."

[middlingalong]

"Thank you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"So, Ivan," he says, "what if we met an otherworldly version of you?"

[middlingalong]

"Nothing? I mean, I suppose I'd ask for his life story and so on?"

[isthisart]

"What if we met the otherworldly you when you did not at the time have a girlfriend?"

[middlingalong]

[thisvorlunatic]

[middlingalong]

"Oh, shut up, Miles."