Rosensteel's House

Serenity stepped back, to admire her handiwork.

It wasn't necessarily her handiwork per say. It was the hundreds of galleons she spent to get others to do the dirty work.

The room had been painted a royal blue for the occasion, and trained fairies and pixies were fluttering around the walls to make everything sparkle. Gold chandeliers and such were hanging down everything, making everything gleam, just like a pirate's treasure trove.

Which happened to be the theme of a party. Serenity smiled as she received a Bloody Merlin from the bartender who she hired for the occasion. (The bar itself also happened to be decorated as a pirate's ship.)

The tan skirt she wore barely covered her thighs, and the red bandanna she wore for a top barely kept her breasts from swimming out.

With the music blasting at a deafening volume, all that was missing was the guests.

And soon the party wasn't lacking in that regard either. Naturally, one of the first guests to arrive were Serenity's old friends Melenie Astor and a rather begrudging Charlie Muss-whatever, decked out accordingly in the most obnoxiously-idealized costumes they could whip together from their combined closet inventories. They'd even brought along a parrot, a One Quirke -- sans headgear and all, though dressed in a more muted button-down and jeans. "Hey-hey!" Mel hacked to Serenity as she gave her old chum a good slap on the bare shoulder. "Aren't you looking chilly?"

Party guests steadily began to stream in, filling up the gargantuan Rosensteel house. Among one of the first waves of guests were Libby and Holly Brown, scantily-clad in black, white, and muted burgundy. Libby thought Holly pulled off the "sexy pirate" look much better than she could, what with Holly's abundant curves and Libby's lack thereof. Holly immediately went off to look for Selia, leaving Libby to shuffle through the crowd by herself, looking for her friends.

Selia ambled in, frowning. She was always up for a party, but her sister was just being ridiculous. She had expected a small party with a few friends, but as always it looked as though the royal family themselves were going to be parading in for cocktail hour.

Even her sister's outfit was ridiculous! Selia felt wild wearing a loose white blouse with a crescent cut out in the middle of her blouse, but hell, Serenity's top covered as much as the cut out showed. With a slight grin, Selia set down the plate of brownies she had brought, and pulled out her wand from her thigh high boots. In a swift flick her brownies had been given a little bit more... 'umf.'

She sauntered off after popping one of her brownies in hopes of accidentally running into Jake.

Amanda meandered in, holding the upper half of one arm with the other arm's hand. She was dead set on not coming tonight, but between the re-runs of Top Gear playing nonstop on the television and Mel pestering her to come, she didn't have much of a choice.

She was able to haphazardly throw together a decent enough costume: ridiculously large, gold hoops, a black leather vest with the union jack symbol sewn onto the back, a short red baby doll dress with a cinched waist, an over-sized black belt, and knee high boots (which luckily were flat enough that she wasn't an additional five inches. Damned clunky heels trend.) . Her free hand was tightly grasping a small, bright red clutch that she had charmed to be big enough on the inside to fit her Harrington jacket and flat Oxfords if she needed to make a quick escape.

Releasing her arm only to adjust the red bandanna wrapped around her hair, she marched over to the bar in hopes of passing the night quickly.

"Chilly?" Serenity seemed confused for a moment, then she looked down at herself. "Oh, the outfit. I'm not cold in the slightest. I've been wearing this while I put the decorations up, to get in the mood. Hold on-" She leaned in closer to Melanie, hoping her two friends wouldn't hear over the music.
"Mel.. What are these guys' names?"



Selia was about ready to walk the plank, really. A seagull- a real, live seagull- had very nearly pooped on her, Jake was nowhere to be found, and neither were any of her other friends. After all, Serenity's guest list was rather overwhelmingly large, and none of her fellow underclassmen stood out in the mass of people dressed in their buccaneer's best.

"It's Chuck, you idjit," said the referenced, lifting up his makeshift napkin eyepatch. "Nice seeing you too."

The other didn't pipe up, so Mel spoke for him. "And One. We were all sort of clustering about before the party, and it kinda seemed rude for Chuck and I to ditch him behind... I hope you don't mind. And, hey!" She brightened and put on a more common accent. "The more the merrier, am I right?"

Unfortunately, the social outlook was bleak for Selia. Antonio was still in a self-imposed pariah for the murder of that anonymous lad that went down the year prior, and she and Eric had never been too close to begin with. And, of course, Fry was poring over Holly as always. He approached his girlfriend and slid his hands over her eyes -- though, on a second thought, perhaps her breasts would have been more apropos. "Helloooo, Hoe-lly," he cooed into her ear.

"Oh, Chuck! It was the eyepatch, sorry." Serenity flashed an awkward smile at Chuck. She had only sort of known who it was- priorities, of course.
"It's completely fine. The more the merrier." She repeated, giving Melanie a kind of odd look that very clearly questioned what she was doing with two young men before the party. "So, um.. What exactly is clustering?"

"You know, hanging out and that. Nothing like what you're assuming, I'm sure," Mel laughed, giving Serenity a light conk on the forehead. "None of us really had anything to do all day, and, you know, Chuck and I are rooming and One's just down the street..." She went to gesture to the albino, but he'd meandered away to the bar, hoping he could kill his mind a bit. "Yeah, anyway..."

"Right. So, what's it like, rooming with him?" Serenity asked, acting as if Chuck wasn't even there. "I mean, if I roomed with a guy, it wouldn't end well. And, are you seeing anybody right now? I might as well ask, because if I didn't, you know you wouldn't tell me. I met this really nice man the other day-- Wait, sorry, you haven't answered my question." She had that awful habit of trailing off about herself.
"Are you seeing anyone?"

"Have we really not spoken in that long? Geez." Mel crossed her arms. "You're behind." Charlie kind of looked off to the side, putting his eyepatch back in place, and pretended he was eyeing someone across the room. "I mean... yeah, Ser." She looked up at him, then back to her friend, hoping she would get the hint.

"Well whoooOH MY GOD!" Serenity screamed, jumping up and down. "You're totally fucking your roommate aren't you? That's totally amazing I cannot believe this I'm so happy for you what does he look like naked are you guys like in a serious relationship or are you just roommates--" She trailed on for a few minutes about this before running out of breath and just staring at the both of them, wide eyed.

(NOBODY PLAYS SERENITY LIKE SERENITY.)

They both kind of just stared back.

(I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW I CAN'T EVEN)

"Well, I'll take that as a yes. That's so great. So, if you could, you know.. Elaborate on what kind of relationship this is. Ooh, do you sleep in the same bed?" Serenity's eyes were alight with the flame of fresh gossip.

"I'm... gonna..." Charlie gestured off in no particular direction, then headed the other way.

Mel sighed. "Did you ever grow up?" she asked, a laugh still ringing in her throat. "I could tell you about it later, if you really gotta know. It's pretty casual, honestly."

"No, never. You know me. And, good, tell me later, I want to know everything. Maybe you could sleepover!" Serenity grinned again, starting to roll around on the balls of her feet. "Speaking of which, I was thinking of paying Angel a surprise visit. Ooh, we could talk all about guys, this could be just like back at Hogwarts. I've missed you so much."

"I probably could, actually. I'm pretty much wearing my pyjamas. May as well." Mel grinned. "Did you sent Anj an invite? I didn't bother passing on the word about tonight. I figured you had. And you know him, he hates peer pressure. Whatever that means."

"Well, yeah, I did. But I assumed he wouldn't want to come. You know, he's so.." Serenity gestured with her hands, trying to come up with the word.
"He's too classy for this. But just in case he did come, I did dress down. See?" She waved a hand down at her general lack of clothing.

"That too. Plus, considering--" Mel stopped herself and groped for something else to bring up besides Serenity's past parties. That was just a little too broad. A little too negative. "Considering what he's had to wear to the last few!" She giggled. "Poor sap. We've seen every bit of him by now. That one skin-tight suit... I still feel bad about that."

Libby moseyed over to the bar, where she spotted Amanda. She hurried over and tapped her on the shoulder and then subsequently ordering a "scotch on the rocks, please, thanks."

Holly giggled and turned around, giving her long-time boyfriend a hug and kiss. "Hello, Fry." she grinned. "I'm glad you could make it."

That memory elicited a lewd grin on Serenity's part. "I certainly don't. And nor do I mind seeing every bit of him, either. I still have the pictures in my--" She paused, took a sip of her martini, and eventually came up with some acceptable alternative. "My scrapbooks, from all of my parties."

"You scrapbook? Oh, of course you scrapbook. Jesus. You would, wouldn't you?"

Fry smooched her back. She could feel him smiling. "You look..." He scrunched his face slightly, pretending to think of a word. "Hmm..."

Amanda turned, smilingly widely. "Long time no see stranger!" As she spoke she fiddled with the little umbrella in her fruity martini, "Hell, I don't think we've spoke since you moved into your new place. How's life?"

"What's wrong with scrapbooking?" Serenity sounded hurt- scrapbooking was one of her favorite things to do. It didn't take any skills on her part, except for a good sense of design, which Serenity definitely had.
"I have a scrapbook of us.."

Libby received her drink and took a sip. Mmm. Good stuff. "Life's pretty good. I just finished up my first year of medical training! Only two more to go." She raised her glass. "How's life for you?"