all_inclusive | All Hallows Haunt and All Must Have Fun

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All Hallows Haunt and All Must Have Fun

The fog had begun near the dusk hours, coating all the plants and flowers in the garden. It settled, heavy, and blanketed everything with a new cover that was only matched in mood by the graveyard that had unearthed itself from the grass and the moss. Names were etched on each gravestone, but the most unnerving part was that every few steps, if you stopped and listened very, very carefully, you might hear a knock of a human hand against hard wood. It was almost as if the dead were being called upwards.

The maze stood normal, but inside around the corners, there were things lurking and waiting.

Outside might have become frightening and gloomy, but the contrast to indoors was stark. Inside, carved pumpkins lit with candles turned the ballroom and restaurants into amber-lit abodes, costumed partygoers twirled to the music played by the band in the lobby (while the DJ had set up in the conservatory). Candy and small hors d'oeuvres circulated on the trays of immaculately clad waiters and though outside it was stormy, foggy, and spooky, inside was a delight of themed drinks, delicious food, and the manic and half-crazed mood of people in the midst of their fun.

The party for Halloween had begun.

And there was no telling when it might ever end.

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He frowns at her. "I don't need AA. Or a sponsor," he says. He steps around her feet and shoves the candy bowl closer to her before he sits down, bat leaned against one leg. "Your assumption is that all drugs are bad," he says flatly.

"Well, sure. Some people take them for health reasons and I get that. But just getting high? I don't see the point. I'd rather something... like an emotion that made me soar." She side-eyes Harvey. Really, she shouldn't have said that. Because now he was going to mock her. Look at her, prepared for Harvey's mocking. Really though, she had felt like she was soaring when he had kissed her.

"We'll get high one day. You'll see," he says in response to the first part of what she says. Then, he quirks an eyebrow at her. "Emotion?" He smirks and shakes his head. Harvey doesn't do emotions. Well, not in the traditional sense. And if you press him on the subject? Let's just say, it won't go well.

A frown bends his brow. "Hold on - are you hitting on me?" It's intoned as a simple question, no mocking. Not this time.

She scoffs at his offer to get high with her. Dawn doesn't ever see that happening so she doesn't take it seriously. Her smirk is one of amusement more than anything else. She wouldn't even press him on the emotions thing. She's figuring out that Harvey doesn't do things like anyone she has ever known before. It's a whole new way of being. She just has to take him as he is and try to keep up.

But when he asks if she's hitting on him. Her face twists as she makes a 'pshh' sound and shakes her head. Then she hesitates and shrugs. "Maybe a little. I flirt sometimes. Sometimes flirting is a thing I do. So... yeah. Get used to it."

He's a little disappointed that he doesn't happen to have a joint on him now, but he'll have to save that little surprise for another day. Maybe he can find someone in the hotel with access to the outside world, or someone who has their own stash on-hand. His networking skills are pretty good when he wants them to be.

"It's a 'think you do'?" he asks. It's just a thing she does? Like tying her shoes or chewing gum? Another shake of his head. "Own it, if you're going to do it."

Edited 2015-02-25 00:12 (UTC)

"Yes, it's a thing I do. Okay? With... people I like." She says in her defense, trying to sound like she's 'owning' it. "I mean why do pretty people exist in this world if they weren't meant to be acknowledged and appreciated?"

Well Harvey, she just called you pretty.

His eyebrow is getting a bit of a workout during this conversation. This time, he just laughs, because her response is almost ridiculous. "Given the subjectiveness of 'pretty', your logic is a little skewed." Though, he might almost preen a little at the 'appreciated' part. She can appreciate him all she'd like.

Well, it's not the first time someone's called him pretty. Though, the last person to do it wasn't necessarily hitting on him. He prefers Dawn calling him pretty than the previous person.

Edited 2015-02-25 01:57 (UTC)

"It's only subjective from other people's views. Not my own. To me, pretty is pretty." She argues if just for the sake of arguing. And she might be digging herself a hole here, but she really doesn't care right now. "And if I'm the one saying you're pretty, then you're pretty."

She rips open a packet of pop rocks and spills some onto her tongue. They make their popping and cracking sound as she keeps her mouth open, tongue partially sticking out.

"I mean, you can appreciate me all you'd like," and he might give her a thousand-watt grin, because he is that much of an egotistical bastard. "But I didn't mean that you couldn't think that I'm pretty. The definition of 'pretty' is subjective, so assuming that pretty people are here specifically for your appreciation may not be a logical follow." He leans across the candy bowl and whispers, "It also sounds like you think pretty people have no other skills. And I'm pretty sure I showed you a few of mine." And yes, that was meant to be just as suggestive as he made it sound.

His grin makes her give him a look that says 'really?'. But that look devolves into a small grin. Yeah, he likes being told he's pretty. Maybe he likes it too much, enough to be annoying about it. But also enough to be kind of cute. "If I'm the one appreciating them, then why isn't it logical?"

She looks over to him when he leans over, stopping just before pouring more pop rocks on her tongue. "Oh you are such a tease!" She shoves at his shoulder. This is her response to being reminded of his kiss or of him standing behind her in the other room only minutes before.

"Me?" he presses a hand to his chest. "I'm not a tease." Of course he's a tease. Where's the fun if he isn't? "I've been rather straight with you. I told you I wasn't sleeping with you. But I never said I wouldn't kiss you." He never said he would either, but that isn't the point. Maybe he takes a little pride (a lot, really) in putting her off guard, but it tends to yield some fantastic results.

He wags a finger. "You, on the other hand, lie to me about everything." Where's she going to go with that? Though 'everything' is an exaggeration and he knows it.

"You are so... I am not... That isn't even a..." Dawn trips and stumbles over her words not even knowing where to start.

"Like I'd want you to sleep with or kiss me ever again. Been there. Done that. Not with the sleeping with but with the kissing." She's just going to ramble about that for awhile. "And besides it wasn't even a fair kiss. You caught me off guard and I had to come back in and show you how it's done, Mr. Harvey 'I'm so full of myself I can't see past the end of my own nose' Specter. You are such a tease!"

She shakes her head, crinkling up the empty pop rocks package and throwing it at him. "And I don't lie about everything! You! You're the lying liar who lies."

She's not really helping her case much. It doesn't matter. He's enjoying the conversation. If he wasn't, he'd've already gotten up to leave.

"Oh, you would," he counters. "I'll bet your thinking about it now." Though he does arch an eyebrow at her long-winded nickname. He leans in a little. "Let me ask you something - have you ever before?" Yes, he's asking about sex, but she may need him to clarify. He might be amused if she does.

As for lying, well, he hasn't actually lied to her. As best he can recall anyway.

No. She will not admit to thinking about it right now. He was the one who brought it up! Of course she was thinking about it. Her skin feels warm and flushed and she just shakes her head at him. She won't say those words out loud because... well, she's stubborn.

Then he leans in and asks her that. "Have I...?" She asks, shaking her head. And for a moment she does have to think about it. But then she realizes what he's asking and her eyes grow wide and doe like. "Yes." She says defensively.

But then she deflates a little. "With two people... not at the same time." She probably seems pretty pitiful to someone like Harvey. A joke.

He nods at her answer. She's nineteen. He's not expecting her to have had sex with two dozen people already. That would be insulting. And while he's a giant dick a good bit of the time, he can sometimes manage to not be.

"Did you like it?" he asks and this one almost sounds like a perfectly innocent question. This is just conversation. Doesn't everyone talk about sex this nonchalantly?

The question does sound innocent enough and that gets Dawn to settle back into the cushions of the couch again, some of the defensiveness seeping out of her. She lifts her shoulders in a shrug. Having sex with Nick had been a mistake. It was Kenny she had had feelings for. Dawn just royally and purposefully messed that up. And then Xander who she had once loved and no longer loved in that way. That one had been messed up, not by her, but by the universe.

How was the sex?

"Nick was a mistake. I try not to think about it." She says. "But Xander was good. I liked it. Now it makes me ew cause I love him like a friend, but... it was good when we were together."

He can almost hear the thinking going on, but not in the way he could 'feel' it before with all of the empathy in his head. This is just standard Harvey Specter observational skills.

"Dawn," he says softly, "mistakes are a part of life. My question was - did you like it. Did you enjoy doing it. Forget about the people. Just the act itself." Yes, he's aware that the 'who' is just as important as the 'what', but that isn't his current question. He's making her think and separate things.

Her shoulders slump a bit and her lips twist thoughtfully. It was hard to separate the who from the act itself. She had never thought of it that way. The who had always been so important to her sister. And that had rubbed off on Dawn. In fact, Dawn had gleaned a lot from her sister. That was why she had messed up so royally with Kenny and Nick.

And maybe the fact that she had to think so hard about it was telling in and of itself. "It was alright. There weren't explosions. The Earth didn't move. But... that doesn't mean it wasn't good."

Maybe he grins at her a little. "You do know that TV and movies lie about the first time being great, right? It almost never is. Especially if both people have never done it before," he explains. "But, the people you were with, did that affect how you felt about the sex itself?" Don't ask him why he's having this conversation with her. Maybe it's to keep from eating fifteen pounds of candy. Maybe it's because he doesn't have any pot on him that he could show her how to smoke. Maybe that 'power up' room affected him more than he thought it had even after the powers wore off.

"Yes, I'm not stupid." She says defensively at first. "I know it's not perfect." No she did not know. No one ever talked to her about all of that. She just watched her sister make mistake after mistake with gus. And in turn, Dawn had made a lot of mistakes in that area too.

She calms down and shrugs a bit, picking at a wrapper of cherry flavored taffy. A part of her is telling herself not to confide in Harvey. Another part of her wants to because Harvey is being so cool about it all right now. "Maybe. Yeah. I guess it did. The first time was a mistake and it was... not good. And then with Xander... I wanted it to be good so I made it good... if that makes sense."

Dawn pauses, then looks over to Harvey. "You've probably had a lot of sex, huh? Good sex."

Her defensive answer gets a look that essentially says 'calm the hell down'. She does, and he'd like to think it was because of the look he gave her, but he won't admit it if it wasn't.

Harvey's usually pretty cool about almost everything. Almost.

"Why was the first time a mistake?" he asks gently and waits for her answer. Regarding Xander, he nods. It makes sense. Unless she means she 'magic'd' it to be good, then it doesn't make much sense, because why would you want fake good?

Does she remember that wicked shit-eating grin of his? It's back in response to her question about his sex life.

That grin of his is exactly what she would expect of Harvey. Of course he's had lots of sex. And of course it's all been good. Probably better than good. He probably has the best sex of all the sex that ever did sex.

She sighs and shakes her head, looking away again. "Because I was falling in love with his roommate. So I messed it up before it could get messed up as all things eventually do. Love is messy." If watching her older sister cycle through guy after guy had taught her anything, it was that truth.

Dawn pauses for a bit here, looking down at the wrapper in her hands. "You know how sometimes you think about all the hypothetical things that could or might happen and then you end up psyching yourself out instead of just letting things be good for however long good might last? I do that over-thinky thing too much. But Kenny was a great guy. Maybe too nice. His roommate, Nick, the one I had sex with, he was kind of a douchebag."

She shrugs and looks back to Harvey for any sign of judgement or poking fun at this or anything like that. "I hurt him before he could hurt me. And then he cast this stupid spell on me because he was hurt. Strangely, we ended up friends even after that."

While getting him to admit to any less-than-good sex would be like pulling teeth from an angry crocodile, but it has happened a couple times. Should the appropriate opportunity ever present itself and Dawn have the chance to sleep with Harvey, the sex will definitely be good.

Her answer makes him frown in confusion. "So, you were dating one guy, but falling for a different guy, so you screwed it up? Why not just date them both? Or sleep with the one just to find out what it's like, then date the other?" This would be a practical solution.

Her next question earns a shake of his head. "No. I don't imagine things that way. I set goals. Then I achieve them. The good always lasts." Harvey is that guy who turns what looks like a failure into a win from a different angle.

"Spell?" he asks, curious now. "Do I even want to know?"

"No. I was dating one guy and fell for him. Then I got cold feet and broke us up by sleeping with his roommate instead of with him." Classic self-sabotaging. From what Dawn saw, loving someone always hurt. She had started to feel that for Kenny. It scared her.

Her nose wrinkled. "What, like a threesome? I'm not sure that's my style. I mean if I had a style. It would probably not be that."

She listens to Harvey explain his no nonsense way of handling things, his way of handling people. It makes sense toward what she knows of him. "Your way is the best way. Except I'm not sure that's my style either. Nothing's that simple, you know?" People aren't that simple. She isn't that simple.

"It was actually a pretty cool spell, in hindsight." She says with a grin at Harvey. "Kenny was a Thricewise Demon and every spell he casts has three parts to it. So he cast his spell on me. And it turned me into three different transformations over an extended period of time. First I was a giant for awhile. Then I was a centaur. And then I was a living doll." Her hands form the height of something just a bit smaller than a barbie doll would be. "About that tall. It was kind of creepy. But... cool spell."

Oh no, Dawn - mayday! You hit on exactly the wrong topic. "Cheating." He blinks at her. "Cheating is how you chose to deal with it?" This may be the one time 'judge-y' is a thing. Like an actual thing and not just Harvey being an ass.

Regarding the threesome: "That could work, but that's not what I said. I said fuck the one to get it out of your system, then date the other one that you really like." The cheating thing is going to take a bit to wear off.

"Set goals, then achieve them," he says. "It doesn't take a specific style. The goals go with your style, not against it."

Now he does give her an incredulous look. "You cannot be serious," he says. What she's said makes absolutely no sense. Not to him.

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