2019-09-27 - Party Planning

Ruby had ordered some Chinese for lunch and was currently sitting at one of the tables in the Initiative Room digging stuff out of the bag. She wasn't wearing one of her dresses today. She was dressed in those figure hugging pants of the 50's like the Pink Ladies used to wear and a black top that was off the shoulders. It made her look like an oddity, but a very pretty one. There's the usual music playing through out the store and she's in a good mood. It was hard to put her into a bad one.

And Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All is currently napping on the counter. His ears twitching as he sleeps.

It's another day and Raul shows up looking somewhat schlubby. Untucked shirt, a flannel button up over that with a rumpled look and jeans with boots to finish it off. He has a smoothie in his hand, evidently he might not eat the healthiest but he seems to dote on Ruby with surprise snacks of a healthier variety. As he goes into the Initiative Room and spies the Black Cat which is probably faking sleep and secretly listening to them with those twitchy ears, he sets the drink down on the table in front of Ruby. "Hey pipsquak, to nippy for a dress?" he wonders evidently not having caught her before he left for the morning.

Ruby turns just as she's slurping a noddle between her lips and there's a bit of a smile to Raul as she settles the chinese container down. She was absolutely on a cheat day it would appear. "You're in time for a late lunch." she grins at him as she approaches him. She slips her arms around him to give him a warm hug though her eyebrow quirks up, "Just a little nippy, yes. But that means I get to unpack all of the sweaters when I get home." she muses to that. "How has your day been?" she asks him as she motions him to join her at the table.

Raul loops an arm around Ruby's shoulders as he looks down at her with those slate dull eyes of his. "Good, I need to swing by Nicoles and get a haircut then I need to do a draft for my editorial with the newspaper." he explains with an off-hand manner like he's just rattling off his to do list. "How about you, chinese food. Were you feeling bored or did you just want to take a nap at work." he teases what with it being a noodle dish and almost sure to bring about the ITIS. "Did you talk to anyone about the costume party I was thinking about... or you were, one of us was."

Ruby looks up to him and there's a soft smile and a look of adoration to the man, "Got a hot date after the haircut?" she teases him. Then there's a curious look, "Did they hire you on? I think I might have missed that news." she tells him. Then there's a chuckle, "Umm, I was hungry and carrots and hummus didn't sound at all appealing. Ordered some chicken lo mein and rice instead." she admits. Then there's a grin, "I've not talked to anyone about the party. Was figuring we'd finalize stuff and then announce. But I do have a big custom order that the strip club wants me to do." she states.

"I haven't been hired yet no, but I figure I would lead with confidence and they'd certainly do it." Raul says with that guilt grin of someone who is flying by the seat of his pants, but expects it all to work out. "I could have a hot date, if you have somewhere in town you want me to take you." he offers with his hand coming up from her shoulder to tousle her hair leaving it mussed. "What do you want to finalize for the party, maybe I can make that my editorial. Why halloween parties are good and you should all go to them."

Ruby was eating while he was talking. It wasn't rude! She was going to have to open back up after lunch and she didn't like eating in front of the guests was all. "I think taking initiative is a good thing." she tells him with a smile. Then there's a warm grin, "Hmm. I'm not really picky about where we go. As long as it's not the morgue." she murmurs. "I like waffles. Haven't had those in awhile." she winks at him. "And do you want to have the party on Halloween or a day or so before or after?" she asks him. "And we were doing comic book theme, yes?" she adds.

"Comic book themed, here, booze, food... I don't think we'd need to do anything else... Best couples costumes, best individual costume. Can you think of anything you want to add?" Raul wonders as they go back and forth, even though Ruby's lunch clearly supercedes him, while he's talking at least! "Sure we can go grab waffles after the haircut, what's the waffle place around here?"

Ruby listens to him and there's a smile, "Think that's a pretty good line up right there for things." she tells him. "Nothing for me to add. Though if anyone comes dressed as the Winter Soldier they win automatically." she teases him as she turns to look at him. She rests her chin in the palm of her hand as she looks over him. "There's the Waffle Shoppe out on the outskirts or there is Grizzly's Diner. I'm sure we could get waffles at either place." she beams at him.

"You can pick, is there anyone we should get to sponsor or promote the costume party if we want it to be a big hit?" Raul wonders, as he slips from having his arm around Ruby to sitting on the other side of the desk. Likely extending her lunch break longer than the recommended sixty minutes!

Ruby gives a laugh, "Hmmm." she murmurs thoughtfully. "And I think there's a few other places doing Halloween focused things, so not sure if it's a thing that needs to be sponsored or not." she admits. "Just need to do advertising and stuff, which is easily doable via social media and the printed word." she points out. Apparently she wasn't caring how long he took!

As the healthy smoothie option isn't required at the moment Raul opts to begin sipping some of it through the straw himself while watching Ruby. "Alright then you do the social media, I'll spread the word of mouth, and now all we need to do is decide on prizes for the costumes. Best costume, best group, and what did I say the third category should be again?" he wonders idly to himself with an audible siiiiiiiiiiiiip from the smoothie.

Ruby gives a smile to him and there's a moment taken to lean over and smooch his cheek, "You're the best." she murmurs to him. Then she's listening to the man and his ideas. "Well, I guess we could do a gift card to the store as a top prize? Maybe a commision of some kind." she states as she thinks on things. Then she looks to him when he sips from the smoothie, "Honorable mention?" she asks him.

"Best genderswap costume?" Raul counters with a waggle of his eyebrows at the red-head. "Honorable mention always feels like the pity vote to me." he further admits with a sip of the smoothie afterwards a bit of a smile on his lips post smooch. Clearly Ruby is able to make him suffer through Stormageddon and other things with adoration and praise. He's rather easy to keep content.

Ruby gives a thoughtful look to that, "Sure, that sounds like a good category." she tells him. Then there's a chuckle, "It might be a pity vote, so we don't want people to feel bad." she admits. "And did you want to go to the gym with me tomorrow? Just going for a forty five minute work out, got too much to do the usual time." she admits.

"Yeah, we agreed on... What was the name of the place?" Raul asks with a furrow of his brow, his tendency to miss small details evidently playing up once more. "Kelly's Gym or something?"

Ruby gives a nod to that, "Yeah, Kelly's Gym. It should be open again, there was some weird fire that they had and they had to repair things." she admits. "And I'll just leave Storm at home tomorrow." she tells him. "So we don't have to leave him around the shop or take him to the gym. They might frown at me for having a cat in the gym." she muses. She leans over to brush her thumb gently over his brow, "You're going to be fine." she grins.

Raul gives Ruby a dubious look at that and points the smoothie in her direction despite the noodly chinese dish she is cheat daying with at this very moment. "Sure you don't want a smoothie? Ten out of ten girlfriends say they prefer health food unless it makes them feel guilty." and then he flashes a winning toothy grin. "Also they take sympathy on their doughy boyfriends when they get winded by free weights at the gym."

Ruby just gives him a soft smile and then she leans in to take a sip of the smoothie while she looks at him. Then she's leaning back, "I'll drink it over the day." she tells him. "Thank you." she grins. "Ugh. Health food. I wish I could just eat what I wanted and spend thirty hours in the gym." she laughs. Then she gives a laugh, "I love my boyfriend and if he gets winded I'll definitely make sure he takes it easy." she tells him.

"You say that now, but thirty hours in the gym and just as much time at all the best restaurants in town, you'd miss out on the MCU and the new DC run of comics." Raul teases with the sip from Ruby on the smoothie he slides it over to her and gives his hair a run through with one hand. "So what have -you- been up too? Besides Stormageddon and things around the shops?"

"See, you're always here to talk some sense into me." Ruby winks at him. She then gives a bit of a look around the room when he asks her what she's been doing besides running the shop and dealing with the cat. She gives a look back to him, "I've been practicing again. Thinking I might go back and try a competition sometime. Probably after I've knocked the rust off again." she admits.

"Practicing what?" Raul clarifies as she has a few 'oddball' hobbies that she might be in competitions for. "If it's your cosplaying then you should get your wink perfected. The judges love a good wink when you pose." he says in a wry tone hinting that he's pretty sure it's not cosplaying.

Ruby gives a bit of a an eyebrow quirk, "My knife competitions? Have we not had that talk?" she asks him as she watches him. This was going to be awkward if they hadn't. But she would cope. At least she wasn't bringing up the Jedi tricks she could do!

"No I remember, it's just you're a competitive girl so I didn't want to assume." Raul points out with a shifty eyed look perhaps hinting that he forgot she competed in knives too and he may have meant something else compeltely. "Where have you even been practicing, the backyard?"

"I'm not super competitive, not really. I just like doing it. And I'm a good sport in either case." Ruby tells him. "And mom doesn't like that I take after my father so much. So I don't tell her." she shrugs. Then there's a headshake, "I go out to the woods. Had a little place set up years ago when dad was still around." she admits. And he'd never been invited!