Open A View of Something Familiar

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot peered out, watching the city expanse below and leaning towards the glass as close as he dared without getting smudges on the high window. The noise of the party behind him had dialed down to a soft murmur as he took a moment to enjoy the site of the New York night spread out beneath them, reveling in the familiarity of the buildings and cars.

He'd missed this, both being home and helping his mother with her work. She was catering some fancier wizarding party tonight, and Elliot had done his best to help where he could. He spared a glance for the chocolate fountain she'd put together at the main buffet, a pretty impressive center piece that she'd spent most of the day working on. He'd tried to help, watching her animating some of the chocolate swans swimming around the massive bowl since they hadn't covered animating in class yet, but hadn't been able to do much but get chocolate everywhere.
Getting to hear her laugh at his shoddy decorating skills had been worth it at least, she always gets so stressed on catering jobs.
Having always made a mess when he tried to help serving or during the actual events, Elliot was forbidden from helping any more and instead was content to try and burn some time taking in the view instead. That usually meant he'd be holed up in the kitchen or some back room somewhere for the night, but for once Elliot didn't mind a bit of a crowd, enjoying taking in the familiar view after being off at school for so many months. Plus he was pretty sure he'd some other kids around. It'd be nice to talk to kids his age that don't all have kiwi accents again. Finally stepping back from the window, Elliot cast a glance around the room before eying the buffet set up again. Maybe he could sneak something off of it without his mom noticing.

 

[Kace Corelli]

It went through one ear and out the other every time his dad had mentioned this fancy, wizarding dinner party. Having gone to a fair share of them growing up in the city, Kace ignored his dad's rules and what was to be expected of his behavior. The man was a nuisance in the young boy's ears, running everything down one last time before they stepped into the fireplace. Kace eventually agreed to everything that was said as long as Wendy came along. If he had to endure this, might as well be with someone that he knew and Wendy so happened to be of magic blood. A muggelborn, but of magic blood no less. He thought of inviting Elliot, it crossed his mind to get in contact with the boy. But if he thought this dinner party would be lame, imagine what Elliot would think of it. Wendy used to this stuff and scene, Elliot may not be. Kace went in his best gear, in addition to Wendy, Jenny was coming along to be the hawk eyes his father wanted her to be. What his dad never seems to understand, Jenny had a totally opposite effect on him. Not one he paid for, Mr. Corelli like how they clicked and kept her around either way. Stepping outside the fireplace, Kace patted his jacket off a bit. He coughed into his sleeves, never ever getting used to that. As soon as they all made it to the dinner party, everyone disapparated.

It turns out they all had their own agenda coming to this party, including Wendy. She ran off to talk to a bunch of famous quidditch players attending the event. "Wow, rude! Ditch me, why don't cha!" Kace called after his friend, who turned around to laugh and wave at him. She promises to be back, Kace grins and shrugs. He won't get in the way of her meeting some incredible quidditch players, it's not everyday one can meet them amongst the muggels in the city. Kace didn't see where Jenny disappeared off to, and he wasn't going to stand around wasting time to find out. Kace slipped on the heelys blades under his shoes, heelys a kick-as invention made by muggels for kids like Kace. These shoes don't discriminate. Kace started gliding down on the smooth floor, heading into a random direction. With a big a*s grin on his face, Kace was tearing down the floor, then he suddenly stopped, noticing a very, vaguely familiar head full of curls. Kace rode right behind the boy, tapping his shoulder when he was mere inches away. "Yo, ELLIO!" Not one to be at all subtle, Kace greeted the boy in the only way that comes across natural to him. "Hey dude! What are you doing here?!"

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot was distracted from eyeing up the buffet table by a tap on his shoulder, flinching and turning as the loud greeting. "Kace! Woah, hi," He'd been pleasantly surprised to find out Kace was also a New York local near the end of the school year, but Elliot hadn't honestly been expecting to run into him anywhere anytime soon. Kace had mentioned they should hang out, but Elliot hadn't been sure if he was being sincere or just being polite. The other boy always seemed so confident and friendly it threw Elliot a bit for a loop to have it directed at him. "My mom did the uh, the food," Elliot pointed a bit lamely at the spread nearby. "Are you here with your family too?" he said, glancing at the room behind Kace, half expecting to see some older version of Kace loudly greeting other party-goers as well.

 

[Kace Corelli]

Kace broke out in his famous grin, displaying a set of almost perfectly align teeth. Almost, because he always thought his choppers were big as heck. It didn't bug him or anything, they were just a big set of grills. "For real? Yo! I thought about asking you to come here and chill but I thought it was gonna be whack," Kace shrugged. It still had the potential to be lame, but it just became a lot less boring with another friend around. Wendy may have ditched him but finding Elliot may have made up for a ditching friend. "Oh yeah, my dad somewhere mingling with these snobs, he should be somewhere around here. And Jenny, I have no idea where she went," Kace looked at the current room they were in, his dad could be seen casually conversing with mature wizards and witches. He always looked like a muggel sports agent, whatever that entails. "Ya mom cooked? I gotta try this!" Kace wander over to the spread and started digging in with no shame.

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot was a little disarmed in the face of Kace's full power grinning, but tried to let Kace's cheery, relaxed attitude carry him and take Kace's words at face value. Maybe Kace really did want to hang out with him. "In fairness, I don't know if I would have come. Mom does a lot of fancy parties and they're all kinda the same after awhile," Elliot shrugged back at Kace, before mentally backtracking, wincing at the potential implications of what he said. "Not that I wouldn't want to hang out, uh, I'm sure party's are a lot more interesting with you around.." Elliot trailed off, hoping he'd stop sounding so stupid if he just stopped talking and choosing to follow Kace over to the food instead. Talking about his mom was safer ground, and Elliot took the opportunity to sneak a few hors d'oeuvre as Kace dug in. "Yeah, she does catering and personal chef stuff all the time, she's really good," He was always proud of his mom, and kinda relieved she tended to do stuff like this and not working in a busy restaurant all the time like she used to. He had been pretty young when she still did that, but he remembered how unhappy and stressed she'd always seemed. "Oh hey, you should definitely try this one," he said, grabbing a toothpick and pointing at a crab roll near Kace's elbow. The decorative vegetable crabs his mom had arranged around the plate snapped at his hand warily, but Elliot fended them off gently with the toothpick, tutted at them.

 

[Acacia Dunn]

Acacia didn't want to be here. More painfully, she could easily imagine a world where she would want to be here. This had almost been her life, attending the same school her brother had, going to parties with her parents in the holidays, continuing her normal american life. It felt almost as though Mom and Dad were taunting her at this party, filled with Ilvermorny kids who all knew each other, and who Acacia had nothing to talk about with. She felt on the outside of every crowd, trying not to let her loneliness show on her face as she followed Mom around, only half listening to boring conversations about MACUSA business. Nothing in America felt like it was for her anymore. Her friends had all moved on to Ilvermorny life without her, they barely even wrote anymore, and she didn't know or much care about anything going on. She didn't feel at home in New Zealand yet, for sure, but this didn't feel like home anymore either.

So it was a strange relief when Acacia spotted a face familiar from the other side of the world. She was sure the boy by the snack table was a younger student from her own house, she knew she had seen him in the common room. Abandoning Mom's side quickly, Acacia made a beeline for the boy, barely even paying any attention, desperate for anything familiar to ground herself in this nightmare of a party. "Hey!" Acacia said cheerfully, smiling brightly. "You go to school in New Zealand too, right?"

 

[Kace Corelli]

Kace took a step after biting into some potato skins with melted cheese and bits bacon on top. He wolf down a few of them, humming in approval to the taste. Kace tried to verbally express his approval, but with a mouth full, he doesn't get anywhere close to something coherent. In his humorous mumbles, Kace tells his friend he didn't take any offense to him. Kace shrugged, then ate another potato skin. Elliot's mom sounded nice and much like a hard worker like his dad. Kace never knew his real mom, that subject never came to light in the past with his dad or Jenny. Kace had Jenny, he felt like he had a mom already, so it's probably why he never asked in the first place. "Yo, she has skills to pay the bills," Kace nodded, impressed with the woman's talent. Kace laughed while Elliot went fencing with one of the decorative animated crabs. They might not be allowed to do magic outside of school (in which Kace founded dumb as hell), Kace was entertained with the magic everyone else can do around him. He couldn't wait to be able to do magic without these dumb restrictions imposed on them.

Kace whirled around as another join them at the buffet table. Kace didn't know her, so it was likely she was talking to Elliot. It didn't stop him from answering, "Yes, yes we do," Kace dropped his arm around Elliot's shoulder, grinning at the girl. "What's your name pretty mama," Kace didn't know what he was doing. But he saw this plenty of times back at the dance studio with the older boys. Kace was flirting in front of Elliot.

Out of Character:

I'm sorry. He did it.

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot was happy to hear Kace praise his mom, incredibly proud of being able to share her work. Letting out a little hah of success, Elliot finally wrangled one of the crab puffs away from its animated guards, lifting the toothpick triumphantly. He wasn't sure if his mom enchanted them to be particularly fussy with him specifically, or if they were like that to everyone.
He looked up when they were greeted by a girl, and Elliot took a moment to process what she was saying before he could place her face. He was sure he'd seen her in the common room before, surprised that there were more American's around Hogwarts than he'd initially realized. Elliot stood awkwardly, as Kace slung an arm over his shoulders casually, watching back and forth between Kace and the newcomer, trying to read the room after Kace's pretty bold flirtation attempt. Was this weird now? Was he making this weird by being here? He wasn't sure he wanted to be around if Kace got shot down. Or honestly maybe even if he didn't. But Elliot also didn't want to disrupt Kace either, so he stayed put, trying to balance the conversation as gently as he could. "You're in Hufflepuff too, right? I've uh, seen you around before."