Happy Birthday to Meeerrrrrreeeeeeeeee [Open Mingle]

[abrightboy]

Who: The residents of ADI Apt B1 and YOU.
When: January 18th, from early evening onward.
Where: Apartment B1 at the ADI complex.
Summary: Tim Drake discovered Meredith Idlewild's birthday is today (by snooping in her stuff) and her boys decided to throw her a little surprise celebration since she, you know, looks after them and shit. Ofc neither of them knows how to do that, really, so Malcolm has recruited Neal Caffrey as Party Planner.
Warnings: To be added as necessary but none to start.


Thanks to Neal's intervention, the party Malcolm and Tim are throwing for Meredith is very nice, with tasteful decorations and good wine, alongside fancy finger foods and even fancier cocktails. Neal mans the 'bar' personally, mixing drinks for anyone who'd like to try one.

Malcolm and Tim will try to be social. It's for Meredith.

They did use Tim's connections, too. He recruited Jeff to slip invites onto people's desks if they work at ADI and take some over to Bonnie's. Meredith deserves maximum appreciation. The invites instructed everyone not to say anything to Meredith. When she comes home, it's meant to surprise her.

Early evening: SURPRISE!
When Meredith gets home, get ready to shout!

Mid-evening
Mix, mingle, eat and drink.

Late-evening
Your hosts will arrange a cab if you can't make it home; they already have a police lieutenant sleeping on their couch and tonight has been a lot of peopling for them. If they need to carry you down there... they're more capable of it than their slight frames would suggest.

Comments

[henchgal]

1. Early Evening [OTA]
Mere's had a helluva day, interrogating Khalil Nassir and handling paperwork on incidents related to Things of Beauty. She hasn't acknowledged the significance of the date at all, and really didn't expect anyone else to care. Birthdays were what children celebrated, when another year older meant exciting things. After 21, there's nothing gained by going around the sun another time.

But apparently there's people here who love her and want to do more than her family's tradition of a phone call and an off-key rendition of Happy Birthday. Quick, hide, here Meredith comes now, unlocking the door to B1 and stepping inside.

2. Mid-Evening [OTA]
A glass of white wine in hand, Meredith's trying to catch everyone to at least say 'hi' to. She wasn't reserving spoons for a party, so you might catch her leaning on furniture or walls as she raises her glass in greeting.

"Hey, glad you made it. How long have the boys been planning this, do you know?"

3. When Everyone Has Gone Home [Closed to the Party Planners]
Once the crowd has parted sufficiently, Mere moves to the kitchen to begin putting away cake and leftovers, a smile lingering on her face.

"You guys all know you didn't have to do this, right? I...this is the biggest party I've had since my bat mitzvah, I think."

What she means is 'thank you', even if those aren't the words coming out of her mouth.

X. Wildcard me.
Here's your chance to whatever in Mere's direction. I love you all, you wild beasts.

2.

[wolfssegen]

When Ches had seen an invitation to Meredith's birthday party, he'd only really thought about it for a few minutes before deciding to go - she's a good girl, he likes her, and he's enjoyed the time they've spent together so far. But he also makes a point of not hogging her attention all night. It's obvious she's got a lot of people here that she's closer to.

So he spends a chunk of the night meeting people he's never talked to and doing a bit of people watching. It's while he's people watching that he catches sight of Meredith and lets his eyes follow her around the room a little. She seems tired, though she's masking it well, and he catches her leaning against the wall a few times, taking the weight off of her sore joints. It only takes a few seconds of thinking about that before he finally makes his way over to her, wearing a warm smile on his face.

"Hey you. Happy birthday!" he says, his expression warm and genuine as he says it, and then he gestures to the nearby couch, "You want to sit with me and chat? I can grab you a refill of your drink if you'd like."

A pause, and he glances at the people on the couch, gives a little laugh, "Hey guys, make way for the birthday girl! We need the couch. Thanks."

[henchgal]

She knows what he's doing--it's not hard to guess, given her levels of exhaustion. What surprises her is that he's paying that level of attention to her, this early on. Most people just don't think about her level of fatigue, or notice when she's flagging. But he did, and that's...special.

"Yeah, just tell Neal it's for me. He knows what I'm drinking."

Under most circumstances back home, she'd never trust a guy (or someone of any other gender, honestly) to fetch her a drink at a party. But between Neal himself and the hyperobservant crime-fighty men in the room, she feels safe enough. Besides, she's (at least in theory) the center of attention, so people would notice if he did anything untoward.

And she doesn't think he would, honestly. It's early days, but Mere believes Ches to be 'one of the good ones', deeply and truly. And if he's not, someone will be sure to let her know they disapprove.

She flops onto the couch and sets her cane down somewhere hopefully no one will trip over it.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm waits for Meredith to go to the ladies’ room, then scoots in to sit in her spot on the couch. This guy has been awfully attentive. Malcolm observes. It’s what he does.

“Hi. Malcolm Bright. Meredith’s roommate.”

[wolfssegen]

As used to being in a position of power as he is, Ches doesn't necessarily think about the issues around offering to refill her drink - in his pack, he's trusted unconditionally by most members and one of the duties he's taken on in his role as Alpha is to serve the pack's meals to them before everyone eats. Getting someone a drink feels like second nature, part of his job.

So he just smiles and nods, gets up out of his chair, "Of course."

Crossing the room, he gives Neal the glass and asks him for something for Meredith and something for himself, comes back and hands her the glass he'd brought for her, cupping his own whiskey on the rocks.

"So, long day?" he asks, then takes a sip of his drink.

[wolfssegen]

Ches is holding a glass of whiskey and watches Meredith step away to go to the washroom with a warm expression on his face.

He doesn't expect someone else to come take her place right away, but he smiles at the young man who does - good looking, with bright blue eyes and a slight build.

"Nice to meet you Malcolm. I've heard a little about you."

cw: mention of flesh-eating phone cases, interrogation

[henchgal]

"Two hours ago, I was in an interrogation room, pumping a man for information on phone cases that eat hands. Now I'm at a surprise birthday party. It has been a long day."

She accepts the glass of white wine, swirling it idly. As far as such things could go, her time with Khalil Nassir was not traumatic, but she had a big old spaghetti bowl of mixed feelings she wasn't sure how to sit with. They'd take disentangling eventually when there wasn't a whole party about.

"Not entirely a bad one, mind. Just. Busy, that's all. I'm happy everyone's here, of course. I...wasn't expecting anything. I hadn't even told anyone about today being my birthday."

2

[worthallthis]

Winter is not in the best shape after his run-in with the police and then a day or two of basically mugging people for their phone cases, but Meredith is important, so he comes.

The whole "surprise" bit was... too much for him. So he skipped that part. But he does poke his head in the door an hour or so after they were supposed to show up, looking kind of nervous. And also rough about the face, but Meredith has probably seen that already by now so it probably isn't too much of a surprise. It's just ugly. But it's a party for Meredith, so he's here, and he's at least going to say hi.

[henchgal]

Meredith doesn't immediately approach when she sees Winter. Instead, she stops to grab one of the brownies someone brought, to bring to him. Because he's important too, and this is how she can show it, in a small way.

"Thank you for coming. I'd hug you, but." But she knows how he reacts to touch, so she's just going to offer the plate and a bright smile.

[wolfssegen]

Something about the way she says that reminds him of Jasha, though he suspects that her interrogation methods are a bit less brutal. Especially when she says that it wasn't entirely a bad day.

Then again, Jasha enjoys his interrogations. The man is terrifying sometimes, even to Chester.

"Sounds busy. I'm guessing you weren't pulling any fingernails, hmm?" he asks, voice drawling a little, and then takes a sip of his whiskey. It's strong but smooth, just the way he likes it, burns a little going down.

"Wait, so if you didn't tell them it was your birthday, how'd they find out?"

[henchgal]

"I never touched him. Made him cry with words alone."

She's not really bragging, not really. Should she feel proud, for being able to do that? Is it a point in her favor that she's that good at reading people and modulating her response, pushing buttons like a lockpicker prodding at the pins inside a padlock?

Neal asked her, all the way back in October if 'that voice' was something she was taught or something she learned on her own, being ruthlessly smart and observant. And at the time she was surprised by the question, but having wielded it so successfully, she understands something more, now, about why he'd ask.

"As for the boys getting my birthday? ADI servers? Looked in my purse at my ID sometime in the past six months? Plenty of ways, I'm sure. We're all up in each other's business a little." She's clearly not worried about it.

2

[bossyboiler]

"I don't actually," Kate says. She has brought a gift. It's only appropriate. She offers Meredith a clear, cellophane bag that are filled with a dozen or so vanilla macarons. "Happy Birthday."

[henchgal]

"Oh! Wow, thanks. Let me hide these away so no one mistakes them for party food. I love macarons, so I'm not sharing." She's only slightly joking--she will share with her boys later (though she's not sure Malcolm can do macarons...)

"They really did manage to surprise me completely on this one."

[worthallthis]

"If you require a hug, I can let you do it," Winter offers, as if it's a mission he'll accept more than a thing friends do. "Kate hugged me once." It wasn't great, but it also was over quickly. He'd do it if Meredith needed it.

But he does definitely take the plate. "But. Thank you. This part is for. Your birthday?" He doesn't quite know what birthdays are about, aside from apparently the day of a birth? Whose birth? Meredith's? Why are they remembering it? Very strange.

[henchgal]

"Hugs aren't a requirement. Especially for you; I know how you are about touching. I don't want to force discomfort on you."

She remembers how shitty he'd looked after carrying her home drunk.

"Anyway, yes, birthday. I'm 29 now. Which isn't an important number, but I guess the boys wanted an excuse to celebrate or something." Or they care about her. A lot.

[wolfssegen]

"Impressive."

He means what he says. Generally, Ches is much more used to the old-fashioned torture version of interrogation, used to Jasha's version that involves lots of brute force and threats. The idea of someone interrogating with just words, to the point that the mark breaks down and cries, is pretty impressive. More impressive than the violence, in most ways.

"Well, I can definitely see that." he says in response to her comment that she and the boys are up in each other's business a little, "Sort of like a little family, hm? It reminds me of my pack, we're all in each other's business too, but maybe more than a little. Especially me and mine."

After all, he has to be in everyone's business, and he has to be transparent. He's used to having very little privacy outside of his own brain, and even then there's a bit lacking sometimes.

[henchgal]

There's a flash of a smile when he praises her interrogation technique, but it doesn't linger too long. It feels like a weird thing to accept a compliment for.

The rest is easier to respond to. "...yeah, a pack's probably not a bad metaphor for what we have going on. Maybe a dysfunctional one, and I couldn't tell you who the alpha of ours is. But we do our best work together. Tim and I actually arrived at the ADI office together, stuck in the same server closet."

And the experience of working with him in their attempt to escape ADI custody and get away was enough for her to pick him as a roommate.

[wolfssegen]

"That sounds nice. I've never run into a pack that didn't have an Alpha before, at least not a real one. Found family is a bit different than a pack, I guess, even if a pack can definitely be a found family. The best packs are, anyway."

A little shrug, and he smiles a little at her comment that she and Tim had arrived here together, "Really? That sounds like a good story. Care to share it?"

He's interested, really, but also interested in learning more about her, in understanding her and where she's coming from, what she's about. It's an instinct, for him, to try to get this kind of information from people.

[henchgal]

"Well, after he kicked down the door of the server closet to get us out, we tried to pretend to be interns to get information on where we were. But we got caught when we tried to sneak out the lobby. Security didn't recognize us, you know how it goes."

She laughs, playing it off as a dumb shenanigan instead of what was (at the time) the second-scariest day of her life.

[wolfssegen]

"Huh. Different reaction than I had. Then again, I showed up in the air ducts and had to crawl 20 feet through spiderwebs before I found a grate I could squeeze through. And it wasn't easy, my shoulders barely fit through the grate and someone had to yank on my feet. I wasn't in any position to play intern."

Taking another sip of his whiskey, he savours it a little, eyes sinking shut, smiling a little.

"Pretty clever of the two of you though."

[henchgal]

"Clever's what I've got. I'm never going to be a good fighter--Winter's mostly teaching me self-defense with my cane--but I've kept myself going with my wits. Even before here, really."

The hand not holding her glass moves to brush his thigh lightly. "What are your thoughts on ADI so far?"

2

[aelwyn_aberration]

Aelwyn jolts slightly when she's spoken to, her own glass shaking just a bit. Ah, hello birthday girl. She's had a weird day. She smiles at her and takes a small sip of her own glass.

"No idea. Their time management is something to be admired, however. We've all been pretty busy. They must really care about you."

[henchgal]

"Yeah, it seems like they do. I mean, we've managed to share living space for six months without killing each other, so I knew they thought I was alright, at least, but this is a surprise."

It's been a weird day all around. For Meredith, it was her first interrogation ever, and she's still not sure how to feel about the success.

[bossyboiler]

"You're very welcome. I'm glad you like them." Kate likes that Meredith appreciates her gift. (She would be very surprised if he could.)

"One of the last things I would expect here is a surprise birthday party. It's very thoughtful of them to put on. I wonder how they found out."

[henchgal]

She grins, leaning against a wall and making sure her cane isn't a tripping hazard.

"Maybe looked in my personnel file, maybe looked in my purse. Maybe decided I had big Capricorn energy going on and picked a day at random. Honestly, none of those would surprise me at this point--especially from Tim, if I'm honest. I'm at the point where I don't have any major secrets from him."

She still has one thing she hasn't really told Malcolm yet.

Perhaps she really ought to.