Fly Away to a Cafe

[halfbread]

Who: Everyone who wants in!
What: The V-Day Café! (Yes, that's what we're going with, no, you can't make WWII jokes.)
Where: The Big House
When: Valentine's Day, mostly evening but various times
Warnings: I have no freakin' clue, it's probably going to depend on individual threads

At 6:00 sharp, the doors are officially open on the first ever Camp Half-Blood Valentine's Day Café. The two biggest rooms on the first floor of the Big House have been turned into dining rooms, one decorated in a much more traditionally "romantic" oeuvre for couples and the second into a relaxing place to hang out just among friends. Both rooms are serving the same menu, and both have a good number of tables set up to accomodate visitors. As people finish eating, the waiters and waitresses will roll around a dessert cart for people to make selections from. Enjolras will be incredibly reluctantly providing serenades in the romantic dining room with some assistance from Cosette, while Chiron's boombox has been borrowed and tuned to the local pop station for the casual dining room. Have fun, everyone!

Comments

Couple's Dining

[halfbread]

In the couples' dining room, Lydia has plainly spent a lot of time arranging things. There's about ten tables, each with a globe light hung from the ceiling above them, with gauze netting in different colors cascading in something of a cone from the light. The tables are laid with white table clothes overlapping a red one, and a full set of nice plates, two almost-wine glasses, and good silverware at each chair. A small vase of three red rosebuds sits in the middle of each table as well. The atmosphere is quiet, ethereal, and romantic - definitely the work of an Aphrodite kid.

Ms. Cresta & Mr. Odair

[annieisntokay]

This was all Lydia's fault, okay? Seriously, it was all her fault. She was the one who had picked out Annie's dress, her shoes, done her hair and makeup, everything. The result though, was rather stunning. Even the dress Lydia had picked out had long enough sleeves to cover her scars. But, all things considered, her anxiety was still through the roof. Without her hair to pull at, Annie had taken to twisting her hands nervously in her lap as she sat down, gazing across the table at the one and only Finnick Odair, surf champion and, well, her date.

Maybe he did really like her.

...Maybe.

"This is, uhm, wow. Peeta and Lydia really did a good job."

PRETEND THIS IS NOT FIVE DAYS LATE

[findthisdistracting]

Even without the help, Finnick would have been deeply appreciative of spending an evening with Annie. As it stands, though, he couldn't quite take his eyes off her upon her entrance, nor did he want to. He was dressed in something along the lines of this, vest left unbuttoned with a white dress shirt underneath. Hey, at least he's wearing a shirt. In any case, he gave her a hopefully-not-nervous smile as she took her seat, and nodded.

The somewhat gob-smacked look on his face should be proof enough of his feelings here, Annie, he didn't look this way for just anyone.

"Yeah, they did. I kinda, uh, figured they would."

Ms. Thénardier & Mr. Strider

[ospreyed]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Scream and shriek and panic about it, whatever you wanted to do, but please, do not look Eponine's way as she strides up to the Big House holding hands with none other than Dave Strider. Or maybe it should have been the other way around. Either way, it didn't particularly matter, because they were here. Together. Holding hands.

From there, they moved to their table, Eponine walking with surprising grace in her heels, her bandage dress and the rest of her outfit fitting in quite well amidst all the decorations.

Still, Eponine is, well, nervous was a good way to put it. This was her first official outing with Dave as his girlfriend. As a girlfriend at all. And what that meant for her, she wasn't even sure.

Looking across the table at Dave, she smirks that Hermes' girl smirk of hers. "It's so... valentines-y." Wow, Eponine. Great use of your words. She glances at the wine glass. "If only they had real wine. Don't think they'll lift the curse for one night, do you?"

[wordtechgodhood]

Cry havoc and release the dogs of war, Eponine Thénardier actually has a boyfriend that she's taking out in public!

Dave has no complaints, to be honest, at least not right now with this fine lady on his arm. Say what you will about Eponine but she scrubs up well. He's pulled out a smart black suit with a red tie to match her dress, his ever-present shades on his face as he returns that smirk.

Such a Hermes girl, Eponine.

"Don't think so, but we gotta make these small sacrifices." He flashes her a wry, blood-red glance over the tops of his shades. "You look good. Did I say that already?"

... He definitely did.

[impetueux]

Cosette isn't shrieking. She isn't. In fact, she's putting quite a bit of effort into not doing that, thank you very much. But if she's staring pointedly over in Eponine and Dave's direction, she feels she can hardly be blamed.

She tries what she thinks is subtly sneaking over to their table, eye flitting back and forth between the two. "Evening! Don't you two look nice." Please say it so she doesn't have to, all she wants is confirmation...and maybe some minor interrogating. "I'm just taking a quick round around the room, but if you guys have any requests for me or Enjolras, let either of us know okay?"

Ms. Martin & Mr. Hawthorne

[ordinaire]

How could Anna refuse that sweet Aphrodite boy when he asked for her help on this? And honestly, hostessing the restaurant was all she could do without making a mess of things. So, with Courfeyrac's help, she set up a table outside and helped him decorate it in a really dreamy way. It was tucked far enough away that no one else saw it, but since Courfeyrac was waiting on tables, he'd just take theirs with his.

So, here's Anna, bouncing on her heels and waiting for one of the special guests to show up.

[lefthandedgenius]

Courfeyrac said to dress in her best, and she doesn't want to disappoint him. So she's opted for a vintage floral dress, hair done over her shouder pin-up style. Upon arrival, she smiles at Anna and admits with a smile, "I'm not entirely sure why I'm here."

Pre-Dinner Mlle Fauchelevant & Mssr de Courfeyrac

[dandylicious]

Courfeyrac had Anna's help setting up the table outside for their later plans, yes... But after having a quiet chat with Jehan, he managed to get the promise that he could treat his date to a nice meal before they helped out with the cafe.

He waited for her at the Big House, having swapped his jeans from earlier that day for a nicer pair of slacks, and even a sports jacket. He would have picked her up from her cabin, but....

He hadn't yet told Enjolras that he'd asked his sister to be his valentine... And Enjolras scared him sometimes. (Especially when he finds out what he did with that flower order earlier.)

[impetueux]

After getting Yang's help with getting ready and fussing over her hair about five separate times on her way over to the main house, Cosette is finally ready. She's clad in the little lace dress she's performing in, and thank god it's cute enough to double as her date dress.

"Okay, so you were right; the surprise is perfect. This looks beautiful." she smiles at him, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

Mr. Novak and Mr. Grantaire

[angeliaforos]

So this is pretty weird in general for Gabriel. Weird in the good way, of course, not weird in the bad way.

But still weird.

Because when he sent R those flowers, he was not expecting to have an actual Valentine this year. Seriously. He hasn't been on a date in, like, a year and a half, and that shit did not end swimmingly at all. So...'new and a bit alarming' doesn't even cut it at this point.

Still, he's walking into the room in a red button down and slacks, just kind of marveling a bit. "Jeez. They really outdid themselves with this thing this year." Not that he's been here for Valentine's day any other year, but.

[habitually]

Wrinkling his nose smoothing down his atypically uncovered but still-messy hair for the fifth time in the past 10 minutes, Grantaire walks in stride with his date. His date. Jesus, he hasn't "dated" someone in a long-ass time. Mostly it was just a series of-- well, they weren't "dates," to put it lightly.

"Courf was in charge, do you expect anything else?" he says with slightly blunted cynicism. It's definitely because of the sappy atmosphere.

[Open] A lark enjoying herself way too much

[impetueux]

Cosette's flitting around in between songs whenever she doesn't have to once again drag Enjolras aside to re-straighten his tie. (The boy feels the need to expose his upper chest like some 19th century harlot, she swears.) She's welcoming any requests people might have, so just pull her (or Enjolras) aside during one of their breaks to get a quick word in; don't worry, she doesn't bite.

Needless to say, the lark is enjoying being in her element, but she's only glowing figuratively.

[habitually]

Stepping away from his date for a moment to go to the restroom and find the dessert cart, R finds the blonde flitting past and he puts an arm out to get her attention since she seems to lost in her own enjoyment to notice him.

"Why am I not surprised you're up there?" Flitting his green eyes over to the stage she'd climbed down from. He does smile though, as he's actually having a really good night so far. "Having fun?"

Ms. Ramirez-Arellano & Mr. Grace

[toobitter]

Reyna was still getting used to this whole dating thing... To this actually having someone liking you back business. Still, she dressed nicer than she usually managed, in a short purple dress and black cardigan.

As they were seated, Reyna pushed her hair over her should and smiled slightly. "They really went all out on this, didn't they?" she mused quietly.

Casual Dining

[halfbread]

In the casual dining room, there's more colors everywhere, and the tables are larger - each seats six, so some groups might end up being put together for seating purposes. A different brightly colored tablecloth is on each of the tables, and the plates in this one are less fancy as well, also more colorful. There are still flowers on each table, but they're informal multicolored bouquets of wildflowers (with sunflowers prominent among them) just to make the atmosphere cheerful. As if to make the point that it's still Valentine's Day, different colored hearts have been cut out and hung up on the wall as well, but the overall effect is still more one of a fun hangout than being bludgeoned over the head with lovey-dovey stuff.

open~

[burnblonde]

Yang would begin her own work shift later to help serve couples. Right now, however, she wanted to take some time to enjoy herself. After all, it was in a way her mother's holiday (sort of) so why not celebrate a little.

Besides, Yang had to eat too.

Yang plops down at a table with bright orange being a predominate color and waits for the food to start being served or more people to arrive and chat with...whichever comes first.

[allnerves]

This is a wonderful operation, Annabeth thinks walking in with Percy in tow. She's done a little bit to prepare for the event, braiding her curly hair nicely with two red studs in her ears and gray dress with a red belt around her waist. Simple but nice, the way Annabeth liked it.

It had been her idea to support the project, joining everyone in the casual dining section rather than finding themselves a couple's table. They had their own plans for later.

"Let's grab seats," she says excitedly, tugging on her boyfriend's hand.

Dora and Hephaistion

[justdora]

Dora was thankful that there was a separate room for casual dinners- she didn't want to have to be stuck staring at all the lovey dovey couples while enjoying her food... Because she totally intended to enjoy her food.

Standing outside and waiting for him to show up, she was glad that she opted for the pink dress that had pockets in it... so she could shove her hands in them as she waited.

Kitchen

[halfbread]

The kitchen is crazy, okay? Peeta and Jehan did a lot of the preparation work ahead of time, but of course all the cooking has to be done on the spot and both ovens and all the eyes on the stove are going full blast. It's hot back there, and a bit steamy. If you come in, you'll see chopped veggies everywhere, pans of desserts waiting to be plated, soup simmering on the stove, and timers going off every five seconds. It's controlled chaos - and you might want an apron. The boys sure are wearing them.

[shylyintrepid]

[Should anyone want to find Jehan before the post-dinner party, he's here.

And he'll hand you something to eat, too. Especially if you're Nico]

[longmayshereign]

Despite Mary's upbringing, the nuns had made sure she's no stranger to hard work, and the best way to make friends is to help people with theirs. So she shows up in the kitchen, hair braided back, and dressed as plainly and as comfortably as she can manage.

"Hello! How can I help?"

Post-Dinner Celebration for Workers

[halfbread]

After everyone else is gone, the working team gets their own little party for a job well done. Peeta's even saved something special for everyone who's worked on this - a three-layer cake, one each of white, chocolate, and strawberry, each layer frosted in flavored buttercream that matches the cake inside and decorated with various butterflies and birds. Good job, everyone, and enjoy all the food you want.

[shylyintrepid]

[To his brother, when he sees that cake:]

Did you make a deal with Gabriel to hide that cake, mon pain?

[moointhedark]

Charlie has been working all night in his tuxedo t-shirt as a waiter. He's gotten to see one of his best friends on her first date (which he will tease her about later) and meet other campers, which is pretty cool. All in all, it's been a good night, but he's ready to unwind.

Unwinding for him means stalking the cake. (And what a magnificent cake it is.)

No one will mind if he takes a bigger than usual slice of chocolate, right? He is a teenager now, after all.