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#Post#: 2829--------------------------------------------------
Wherever You Are Feels Like Home
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: November 21, 2013, 12:28 am
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I really do have to apologize. I've changed the summary a
smidge, sorry! I've restyled dear Lottie for this one, I do
hope you two don't mind. Gary wanted to come out for a bit to
play so I hope you don't mind me pairing him with dear Lottie in
her new state. I also have to apologize for the playlist I just
couldn't bring myself to shorten it and it's a bit on the sappy
side, forgive me. :( There's something about it that's helping
me get into the characters heads. Try to figure out what song
belongs to each person/couple ;) I'm also quite ticked at
Spotify about not having the original Beatles catalog, although
I suspect it has to do with a policy agreements so I apologize
for not having the originals on hand, although one does come
Across The Universe (some Beatles fans didn't like the movie but
I found it quite lovely but I digress.) I'm still working my way
through this and might just have something postable by Sunday or
Monday. I'm so so sorry for dragging along with this one.
HTML http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5471/10972979366_5b5823676c_z.jpg
HTML http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/10973067634_84e6c6f77b.jpg
Theme(s)
You Give Me Love - Faith Hill
Andante Cantable
Playlist -
"
HTML https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:user:highlandfling22:playlist:7DMad662qfsE6bcn2KtCyt"<br
/>
Tagline - Sometimes the road to a lasting love is paved through
friendship that's spanned the years.
Attire -
HTML http://www.polyvore.com/feels_like_home/collection?id=3111560
Summary -
All Thea Avery wants out of life is someone to come home to,
someone she can trust and spend the long lonely nights with.
Recently dumped at the alter (well technically it was the
rehearsal) and trying to find her place in the world again she's
found herself in a bit of a rut. It's been a year and her love
life's a disaster of epic proportions until an old friend renews
her sense of self and opens her eyes to a whole new world she
wasn't even aware existed.
Cast of Characters -
Benjamin "Ben" Chase - The legal eagle of the bunch, part time
painter and philosopher in his down time. Has been known to help
his friends out with the odd speeding ticket now and then. Does
quite a bit of pro bono work for the firm Black and Potter where
he's just been made junior partner. Is the joint owner of
Sirius, an overly friendly Wolfhound. Is the nemesis of a tufty
orange alcoholic cat.
Cassiopeia "Cassi" Thorpe-Chase - The poetic one of the group,
enjoys a bit of shopping now and then and is quite the
knowledgeable one when it comes to hosting dinner parties and
choosing just the right wine. Wife and part time secretary to
Ben (at least when he brings case files home), runs a small web
design company from their Mid Town apartment. Is other joint
owner of dear Sirius and sole carer of Jackie, a tufty marmalade
cat with a taste for beer.
Alexander "Alex" Selby - The musical one of the four. Is an
accomplished cellist and is an established member of the local
theater orchestra, although to make ends meet he's not above
teaching the odd night course at the Adult Education Annex. Has
been known to be quite good in the kitchen, not that he'll ever
admit it. Owner of Bach, a rather finicky Russian Blue that
wants nothing more than to spend his days lounging about and
eating his food from a can.
Amalthea "Thea" Avery - The quiet one. Has a mean green thumb
and bit of a sensitive nature. Her career in Botany soon turned
into nothing more than a hobby and now she wiles away her days
behind a desk at the Social Services office on the Upper East
Side. Is admittedly a horrible cook. Is the proud owner of
Severus, an aloof black cat with a dour personality but is quite
fond of orchestral music.
#Post#: 2832--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wherever You Are Feels Like Home
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: November 28, 2013, 4:41 am
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I'm so sorry this took forever to post, I've had snippets of it
in the works for a while and I have to also apologize for any
grammatical errors. I do hope you enjoy! ;D
Where there is love, there is pain. - Spanish Proverb
March 5th 2011 ( New Haven Connecticut Wedding Rehearsal )
"Alright, now lets get the groom's parents over here, there we
go! Family of the bride, over to the left please. Oh my you're a
tiny bunch aren't you? No matter, it just means that the lovely
couple took great thought into asking you even though her
parents couldn't possibly afford a wedding like this."
The damn wedding planner was getting on my nerves, Marion, my
ever so thoughtful mother-in-law to be had hired the son of one
of her high society friends to plan this huge blow out bash and
I was itching to get the rehearsal over with and to slash the
planner's tires before going back to my hotel room to take a hot
shower. It had been a year of preparations and meetings,
fittings, and tastings and quite frankly I just wanted it over
and done with so I could take the time to actually spend time
with my lovely groom. Ahh, Wendell Goddard, the reason I was
standing here in the rectory of the only church on the campus
where his father, the esteemed Professor Richard Goddard taught
economics. In all honesty we were polar opposites, he had a
degree in Literature and I held a double in Botany and Social
Sciences. He was from the New Haven social elite and I was from
a working class family in Manhattan. While he vacationed and
took spring and summer break off in college I worked my way
through it scrimping and saving. His parents were pillars of the
community that barely spoke two words to one another and my
parents were high school sweethearts that almost never stopped
talking. Wendell was the boisterous party type that needed
constant reassurance and I was completely happy doing my own
thing, having dinner with friends, staying home and reading a
book, sure of myself. I should have known that it would never
work out, I was blind and incredibly stupid. I should have known
when I arranged a dinner with my friends to announce our
engagement. He was thirty minutes late to the restaurant and
picked a fight with my best friend Cassi's fiance Ben, an
upstart lawyer who just passed his bar, over his political
affiliation and which firm would actually hire a "Green Party
liberal nut",degraded Cassi's choice in red wine and her warned
her that her business might just be a flop.
"Who in their right mind would actually pay a small company to
do web design? Surly you're joking."
The coup de gras of the evening was when he told Alex, a very
well established cellist in his own right and all around nice
quiet Englishman to go back to England to butcher Bach and
Vivaldi because he stood no chance of getting a seat with the
New York Philharmonic. Needless to say I came to my friends
collective defense and then tearfully apologized to them as
Wendell stormed out of the restaurant. I ended up facing his
wrath by being locked out of my own apartment and ended up
calling Alex to see if I could sleep on his couch until Wendell
was over his little snit. It took him the better part of two
months to actually man up and apologize to them as a group and
to me for what he'd said. I'd assumed we'd chalked everything up
to the stress of planning a wedding. These past two months had
been almost perfect right up until now.
"Where could he possibly be?"
His mother sighed as she swept to me and told me to stand up
straighter. I bit back the urge to stick my tongue out at her
but thought better of it. I checked my watch and found that he
was absurdly late, he was supposed to be here an hour ago and he
still wasn't. I knew I was supposed to be having second thoughts
over this and butterflies and all that blushing bride
sentimental moment crap but I just...wasn't. It just wasn't
there and maybe it never really was there. The double doors to
the church swung open and in barreled Wendell's cousin Terry who
was doubling as his best man all but ready to keel over from
over exertion. He huffed and puffed something into Richard's ear
that made him turn an unhealthy gray green color.
"Oh..oh my. This isn't good at all. Did you ask the front desk
where he went? You're absolutely sure he's left?"
Terry nodded and held up a scan of the bill that Wendell had
paid in full with his Master Card and a photo copy of the sign
out sheet with a time signature of 1:45. The jerk had gone and
left me an hour ago and no one had the sense to check his rooms
first.
"Our Wendell would never do such a thing!"
Marion cried as she attempted to make sense of everything and
failed ; turning to me with a horridly cold gleam in her eye she
pointed a boney finger in my face and told me that I'd pushed
her darling boy away with all my independence and New York City
ideals. I was never meant to be wife material she'd proclaimed
in front of the collective Avery and Goddard clans in the house
of God on that sunny day in March. So, shamed and utterly
embarrassed unable to even utter a word I calmly deposited my
engagement ring at that vile woman's feet, threw my tiny
rehearsal bouquet at my would be father-in-law's head went back
to my hotel suite to pack my bags as the crowd in the church
broke up. I'd managed to pin a scathing note to my wedding gown
and left it at the front desk along with notes to my parents,
Cassi and Ben, and Alex whenever he decided to show up.
"Could you please make sure Mr. Selby gets this when he attempts
to check in?"
"My those don't look like happy tears to me, Thea. I know you're
a stickler for everyone being on time but I got caught in
traffic."
I turned to see a jean clad Alex just about ready to check in,
his duffel slung over one arm as he draped his garment bag over
the other.
"They're not, they're tears of shock and embarrassment. There's
not going to be a wedding, Alex. Wendell left me, he chickened
out about an hour ago."
"That little berk. He just up and left you an hour before the
rehearsal for the best day of your life? I hope that little
gob****e gets what he deserves. Is there anything I can do?"
Alex asked as he passed me a handkerchief and wrapped as arm
around me enveloping me in a friendly hug that for a moment made
my embarrassment and shame melt away.
"Give me a lift back home? I'll even pay for the gas to fill
your tank."
Alex gave me a warm smile and shook his head.
"You'll do no such thing, this is what friends are for."
"Precisely, now can we get going before us New Yorkers are
lynched by Connecticut's blue blood bunch?"
Came a call from Ben as he and Cassi waited for us in the lobby
their bags slung over their shoulders. I don't really think it
hit me until I got home and found out two things. One, I was
without a place to live and two I had become something Wendell
had shaped and molded just enough to make me bearable to him and
his needs. Of course, I never confessed to the second part until
about a month later when I was given a small house warming by my
dear friends to welcome me to my newest home, a tiny two bedroom
in the midtown part of Manhattan. As I found myself surrounded
with the people that truly loved me I broke down right there in
the living room amidst the half unpacked boxes and box of pizza
and bottles of wine.
"Oh God...n...n now what do I do?! I'm not even myself and I'm
sorry. I'm so so sorry."
Cassi and Ben were a little unsure of what to say, I'm pretty
sure they'd never seen me cry in such a fashion. Alex took the
opportunity to pull me into yet another one of his patented hugs
before looking me in the eye and saying in that low warm voice
of his.
"Don't ever apologize for him. I'll tell you what you can do
though, you're going to go out in the world again and find
yourself again and then you're going to find someone that's
worthy of having you to call their own. You can do it, it's
going to take time but you're going to be back to normal in no
time, Thea. Now, do me a favor and have the last slice of that
damn pizza and another glass of wine. This is a house warming
and I dare say that you've lost weight from all the stress that
little idiot had you under."
Without another word Ben passed me the pizza box and Cassi
pulling me in for a hug.
"Here here! Truer words have never been spoken."
She said before she topped off everyone's glass and flopped down
on the couch as Ben told a rather cheeky joke he'd heard from
another Junior Partner at the law firm he'd now been asked to
become part of.
For the first time in a very very long time I actually laughed
and found myself relaxed. All thanks to a little help from my
friends.
[center]*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*[/center]
"I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the
ages of this world alone." - Tolkien
December 22, 2012 Saint David's Church Manhattan
"If you keep moving I'm not going to be able to put your combs
in, Cas. You've only got one to go."
"I'm sorry! It's just..it's just...what if Ben...doesn't like
the dress or something? What if he gets cold feet and
decides...to..walk away?"
I stopped my fiddling and fixing and looked her straight in the
eye and told her the truth. The truth that even the dear
blushing bride knew in her heart of hearts, that the groom knew,
that I knew, and that the best man knew all along. That these
two people loved one another so profoundly that not even a
torrential snow storm in lower Manhattan could stop this wedding
from taking place. These two souls would be married today come
what may. Given the fact that half of the wedding guests and the
parents of the bride were snowed in at their winter cabin in
Rochester as was the mother of the groom all the way in Buffalo.
They each had called the evening before when the weather reports
they received were down right horrible and told the almost newly
weds to keep the date as planned and that large wedding checks
were on the way. Needless to say it was going to be a small
wedding but a joyful one none the less.
"Cassi, don't ever think that way. He loves you. He always has
and he's going to flip his lid when he sees you in this. I can
tell you with the utmost confidence that Ben isn't going to pull
a Wendell."
I adjusted her pearl hair combs for the last time and stood
back and smiled. My oldest and dearest friend stood with her
back to me, a small fragile smile played at her lips as her eyes
welled up with tears for the third time that day. She truly was
a sight to behold in her gown of fine ivory silk with a gossamer
like veil. I looked at her and gave her a reassuring smile
before she turned around and pulled me in for a hug.
"Thank you...for everything, Thea. Oh...okay...I can do this. I
can do this. I've known Ben for what? Twelve years now, yes.
Lived with him for six, seen him stark naked and everything in
between and why am I getting butterflies now? This is bad...oh
god what if I throw up?"
I bit back the urge to laugh and just shook my head before
rearranging her veil and smiled.
"Cassi, it's natural to feel like that, if you didn't I'd be
worrying. I never felt nauseous once when I was going to marry
Wendell and look what happened there? You're going to be just
fine, this is a new chapter. That's how it goes, new chapter new
butterflies in the stomach. Take a deep breath and let it out.
There, feel better?"
Cassi nodded as she did one final check and asked me for the
millionth time if I had Ben's ring.
"Yup, got it right here."
To prove my point I held up the tiny velvet bag that I'd
attached to my bridesmaid bouquet, a relieved look came over
poor Cassi and she calmed considerably. The music started up, a
gentle swell of Canon in D Major could be heard from our small
alcove room right off of the rectory.
"Well, there's my cue, are you going to be okay?"
Cassi gave me a much brighter smile and one last hug before
shooing me to take my place on her side of the alter facing the
best man on the grooms. I was rewarded with a grin from Alex, a
mutual friend of the bride, groom, and I since our years
together at NYU perusing our respective majors. Ben gave me a
nervous smile before the doors opened and the bridal march
started up. I've attended a few weddings in my time and I have
to say hands down that Cassi had to be one of the most graceful
brides I'd ever seen. Soft winter light filtered in through the
stained glass windows and bathed her in jewel tones offsetting
her ivory gown and radiant smile. An audible gasp came from Ben
as he looked at her totally enamored, much like the night they
met. To see a union like Cassi and Ben's almost made me green
with envy. I say almost because they deserved every ounce of
happiness that this life could give them. I normally don't gush
at weddings, it's never been my way but seeing them together for
their first dance at the reception hall, which turned out to be
a small gathering of maybe thirty instead of the previous
seventy-five people, really opened a flood gate somewhere in me.
So, as the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Andrew Chase
danced their first dance as man and wife to an instrumental
version of Something by the Beatles I sat at one of the smaller
tables snapping a few photos and crying nothing but happy tears
for them.
"Here, I think you need this more than I do, Thea."
A handkerchief popped up somewhere near the vicinity of my left
shoulder as Alex came over to keep me company. I dabbed my eyes
as he made himself quite at home in the fold out chair next to
me and looked at the glowing happy couple before us as they
glided about the dance floor.
"I think I've sprung a leak somewhere, Alex. Thanks for the
handkerchief, I'll get it back to after it's been
laundered...Alex? You okay over there? You're looking at me with
that goofy I shall woo you face."
Alex sat back for a moment and blinked a few times before
flashing me his usual mellow grin.
"Well, hello pot meet kettle. Here you sit with those damn doe
eyes of yours and you tell me I've got a wooing face?"
"Doe eyes, Alex you've gone mental."
"Wooing face, my dear you've gone barmy."
Neither of us noticed the change in the song selection as the
newly weds came off the dance floor until they shooed us onto it
as an old standard came on.
[center]A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant
A fair ground's painted swings
These foolish things remind me of you [/center]
"I do not have doe eyes, Selby."
"Nor do I have a wooing face, Avery."
"Oh, yeah right. You're talking to someone that's been wooed a
time or two in her life you've certainly got one."
[center]First daffodils and long excited cables
And candle lights on little corner tables
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you
The park at evening when the bell has sounded
The "Ile de France" with all the gulls around it
The beauty that is Spring's
These foolish things remind me of you
How strange how sweet to find you still
These things are dear to me [/center]
"Well, okay, fine maybe I do. Did my face work then?"
I was gently spun on the dance floor and gave him a coy look
before answering.
"Perhaps but I do not have doe eyes. What about that violinist
you were seeing? I really don't want to risk the wrath of
someone named...what was it?"
A slight groan escaped Alex's chest as we took a final turn
around.
"Intermezzo and no, we're no longer seeing one another. She
dumped me for some french horn player that had a seat with the
New England Philharmonic."
The music gently faded as we took our seats again and awaited
the cutting of the cake.
"Oh...I'm sorry, Alex. I really am. What the hell kind of name
is Intermezzo anyway? I'm mean I'm one to talk but what kind of
nickname could you possibly give her? Mezzy? Zoe? She struck me
as a real wing ding when you brought her over to Cassi and Ben's
for dinner last month."
Alex let out a dark chuckle as my chiding of his lost love and
flagged down the waiter for a glass of white wine only to be
passed by.
"So...what are you doing for Christmas this year?"
He asked as we watched as our dear friends cut the cake and
took great glee in smooshing it into one another's face,
giggling like school children and ultimately making me get misty
eyed all over again. I swallowed the lump in my throat before I
could answer.
"Oh not much, probably just staying at home, ordering take out
and watching It's A Wonderful Life. Maybe do a bit of reading,
why?"
"Oh no reason, it's just that I'm doing the same thing and
thought that maybe you'd like some company? I've got the fixings
for a fine Christmas feast and Bach's a bit lonely with just me
to talk to. I think he misses you. You spoiled him mercilessly
before you found that place of yours you know. He's been keeping
a lookout for you."
I mulled over the prospect of having company for the holiday,
well human company and smiled.
"I think I'd like that, thanks.
#Post#: 2833--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wherever You Are Feels Like Home
DIR By: Wolfy
Date: November 28, 2013, 6:44 am
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My apologies for not commenting before you posted the first
update! I really love the banner, your characters, the theme,
playlist and attire! ooh and the summary, of course. Everything
about this one if perfect and the first update was wonderful. I
feel so bad for Thea :( but am glad she has a good friend in
Alex and I can certainly seem them both becoming quite close. I
also have a lot of hatred for Wendell right now. Definitely
cannot wait for the next update! I'l try to be as patient as I
can :3
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