2025-01-19 - Mike and Glenda's 50th Anniversary

It's the 50th wedding anniversary of Mike and Glenda Elgin and their three children have pitched in to have the celebration here on Fable Island over looking the lake from the roof of the resort.

It's not a dinner party, but instead a wine/champagne and hors d'oevres. Extra wait staff have been hired because the restaurant downstairs is still open and also needs staff.

The area is decorated accordingly and wait staff wander around with trays of food and drink. Entertainment is being provided by a man singing and playing a fancy electric piano. Warmth is provided by strategically placed space heaters, the tall tower ones.

Lee, in his burgundy and black chef's uniform with gold trim, black pants, and black Crocs, is currently standing near where the wait staff come and go, checking food before it is passed around. Though he is often checking with the guests to make sure everyone is satisfied.

And where does that extra waitstaff come from sometimes? Nora's, the employee diner. Look, Gabe's not above taking another gig when it's essentially the same thing, just better event pay. Thusly they are working tonight's anniversary party, dressed in one of Spellbound's catering uniforms which is just a tailored black suit with a dark purple button down underneath. They have the first two buttons of the shirt left undone as they cruise around the deck picking up discarded glasses and small plates to ferry them to collection bins for the bussers.

Eventually it's time to pick up another food tray, so they speed it up to head towards the kitchen door. What does speeding it up look like? As if they are skating on rollerblades. But in reality, their feet aren't even making contact with the ground. They're just barely flying, which they've done on and off throughout the night and to some of the guests' amusement.

Lee is in professional mode now. There is a night and day difference between this person and the off the clock person, but that is for another day. He has been a bit of an enigma for the guests, they see the white hair, braided in a long coil and twisted into a knot, pinned into place with wooden hair sticks, and expect to see an older man. But no, instead they get the face of a much younger man, not at all what they are expecting. It can be disconcerting for the older generations, but Lee has no F's to give for that nonsense, though he isn't rude.

The man has noticed the various us of powers through the evening, and as long as they don't cause a scene, Lee isn't going to say anything. Having not seen Gabriel working one of these events before, when they stop to have the food double checked he speaks "Be sure to hang around after this is over to get your cut of the tip." and with this crowd it won't be a bad one.

The clinking of a spoon against glass fills the air and yet another person has attention pulled to them "Isn't this just a wonderful evening," the man says before launching into a toast for the celebrating couple.

"I bet he is going to talk about being instrumental in how the couple met, and how they never would have been together if it weren't for him." he says in a low tone to Gabriel.

Gabe pauses in front of Lee for last looks, then gives him a nod when he says to hang around after. "Oh, thanks. I appreciate that." They're about to zoom off again when someone gets a toast started. This of course means that all the servers are on pause for a moment not to interrupt or accidentally do a faux pas by being noisy.

Lee's quiet comment gets a lopsided smile skewing up one side of Gabriel's face. "For every couple that says it was destiny, there's one drunk guy behind it saying nah, I invited you to that party, didn't I?"

Well Lee isn't to far off, the long winded anecdote is about a party, so Gabriel gets points for that one, but it also involves him spilling a drink on her, and the now husband letting her wear his jacket so she wasn't walking around topless, or some such. Lee looks at Gabriel and he actually doesn't have to look up. Amazing! "And if you tell them that you invited them they still will be like it was destiny that you invited me."

"I take the Megamind philosophy on destiny, it's the path we choose, not the one chosen for us." The whole evening Lee has pretty much been all business face, except when having to speak with the guests, and here he is quoting some cartoon movie villain in regards to something deep, like destiny.

The speech goes on long enough that the guests having to listen to it are starting to look bored, one even goes so far to heckle him "I guess if you would have given her your jacket, you would be married to her now." that gets a some laughs from the crowd, even the husband chuckles, while the wife turns pink and tries to hide her face by sipping her wine.

Seeing as it's this couple's 50th anniversary, it'd be pretty awful for a septuagenarian to have to walk around topless in this chilly weather. Gabriel's brows lift at the drink spilling. "Messy." Especially at this age. There's a slight lean closer to Lee to pick up that comment, then they smirk and nod quickly. "You get it."

That Megamind philosophy actually has Gabe doing a double take at the chef. "Megamind had a great way of looking at things, when you really think about it." They look rather impressed with that callout.

They're still holding a tray of mini bruschetta crostinis as the speech continues. "Lord. Wrap it up already. You're losing the crowd," they murmur with a flat expression. And then, what's this, a flush from the wife. "Did you see that?" Gabe asks Lee under their breath. "She's in trouble. That face was giving exposed."

"He did. The character was not the villain we wanted, he was the one we needed." Lee has heard that somewhere, though he couldn't tell you where. Hearing something repeatedly from different places will do that. "And where else does the blue, bald-headed guy get the girl." Well Avatar, but he wasn't bald, or the villain.

He looks around to see what Gabriel is talking about, and notices the blushing wife. They weren't the only two to notice either, it causes some speculative glances between Glenda the wife, and the man that gave the toast.

The music starts up again, and things are about to go back to normal, with the staff going about their jobs when a man that has definitely had to much to drink, staggers his way to toast guy, we'll call him Norman. "Tell the one about how you and Glenda got locked in the storage closet during the work conference shortly after they got married." the drunk guy laughs and claps Norman on the back "When we finally got you out of there your shirt was buttoned all wrong."

"True. Finally some representation for the blue, bald headed guys," Gabriel smirks. Seriously though, this tray isn't getting lighter and the longer they hold it, the more tempted they are to use it as a frisbee. "See what I'm saying, though," they gesture with an upnod at all the funny looks going around. "Something's up. Should we bet on it?"

Betting with the chef? Good idea or bad idea?

With the music starting, they take a step forward only to halt in their tracks again. Blue eyes flick from Norman to Glenda, then their face assumes a neutral look though their eyes are screaming oh shit I was right.

"Shut up!" An older woman snipes from the back.

"Norman's fallen off the wagon again, hasn't he? Ignore him!" Someone else adds.

Mike is not having it.

"I've been to enough of these things to know better than to take that action." Lee has stories. "Anniversaries and anything wedding related is ripe for drama." Lee's dark eyes scan Mike and Glenda, and then the rest of the party crowd, wondering where the most drama is going to happen. One would assume that it would be the married couple, but the kids are a good source of it too.

Lee reaches out to stop Gabriel from moving forward, but they stop on their own. "We have a potential situation on the roof deck." he says in a low tone tapping the ear piece looped over his ear. Technically its so he can communicate with the kitchen in case something is wrong with the food, but it works for this too. The person in the kitchen can tell management, who can send people up in case things get crazy.

It's Mike's turn to change a shade of pink. Anger? Humiliation? Who knows which, "What is he talking about Glenda? What does he mean locked in a closet?" the three adult children are looking shocked, the daughter stands up "When was this? Was that the conference in Omaha?" Mike continues.

"Dad..." the daughter pleads as she pulls on his sleeve "Not in front of everyone."

Glenda for her part has grown even redder, her eyes filling with tears.

Norman tries to backpedal, sending the drunk guy the dirtiest of looks, before waving his hands "It's not like that at all." he nervously tugs on his tie. It's exactly like that "Glenda and I..." he is trying to come up with something on the fly. He doesn't remember the story he used back then. "went into the closet to get more chairs..." he looks around to see if anyone is buying this. Skeptical looks are all around. "The door swung closed."

"So..." Gabriel's eyes flick to Lee, one side of their mouth twitching into a smile. "Does that mean you lose a lot...or?" Going straight for the jugular with that one.

But there's no going anywhere now, especially not when Lee's talking to someone on his ear piece like that. Gabe hasn't yet had to deal with this level of client shenanigans so they seem cautiously alert.

As the drama continues to unfold, Gabe actually grimaces. "Not Omaha." Because that seems to be the worst part of this.

"Yeah, that door was notoriously finicky!" One of Norman's old co-workers has the gall to interject. "I've gotten stuck in there plenty of times."

"Have you?" the man's wife grumbles right next to him.

"Okay maybe not plenty."

A wry grin comes to Lee's face at the jab from Gabriel, "It means that of all the bets I do make, I win." that may or may not be true, but Gabriel doesn't need to know that.

"Better than Des Moines. That place is the worst." his tone is droll as he says it. Not that he has ever been there, but he has heard things. Maybe he's heard things, or maybe he is just as catty as Gabriel. Time will tell.

"I didn't expect that." he says in surprise at the old co-worker "I never expect people to dig their own graves." there is some shaking of his head.

The drama continues to unfold as Glenda finally gets to her feet so suddenly that she bangs against the table, sending glasses falling and shattering to the floor. Spots of red wine splash on the table, her, and her children. "Give it a rest, Norman. You aren't fooling anyone." she grabs for Norman's other arm "Mike, it was a long time ago. You were working all the time, and I was lonely." isn't that always the case.

Mike pulls away from Glenda, he doesn't want to listen to this "Right after we got married..." he looks over to his oldest child. Who's eyes widen, he's done the math. "But Roger was born..." well that has people gasping and the side conversations start up, accusing eyes going to Glenda, and Roger, and a few at Mike. Though there are sympathetic ones too, for Mike and the eldest son. The latter is sitting there trying to wrap his head around this whole revelation.

"And yet you don't want to bet? Sus." Gabriel will just call him out on it anyway. "I've never been to Iowa. What were you doing there?"

The glasses crashing to the floor have Gabe sighing loudly. "Great." Because now that's their problem. They look over at Lee with a curious expression. "How long are you going to let them do this? If we bring out the dessert we can cut them off. I think she needs to be put out of her misery." A tilt of their head goes to poor Glenda. "Before she takes the rest of the table out with her."

Paternity tests aren't included with the appetizers.

"Well it's a bit late for betting now." Lee gives a slow sweeping gesture to the scene playing out in front of them and all the food. "We already know that something is up. Give me something better to bet on and maybe I will take that one."

"I was just passing through." the airport doesn't really count, or does it. If it does he clearly wasn't impressed by it.

Lee shakes his head at Gabriel "Situations aren't what we are paid for. Let management handle it. They are on their way up." he looks Gabriel up and down, appraising "Unless you know something I don't?"

"Dessert was a multi-tiered cake monstrosity, with sparklers. I worry someone's face will be embedded into it within ten seconds of being rolled out."

Glenda bursts into tears "Roger is yours. I swear it!" its more blubbering words as the woman tries to grab at Mike again. The daughter has begun pleading with both parents now "Mom...dad stop. You shouldn't do this here."

"Yeah, because you took forever," Gabriel deadpans as Lee makes that sweeping gesture. "Next time, we go double or nothing, if that's more enticing." They let out a dry laugh when it comes to Des Moines. "Just passing through and it left that much of an impression? Ouch."

There's not much argument against situations aren't what we are paid for. They just shrug and readjust their tray, shooting a look back at Lee when he looks them up and down. "I do not. I just thought the resort like...tries harder to keep customers happy? I don't know, I work at the employee diner."

The idea of a multi-tiered cake gets a grimace. "Okay better not then." So with nothing left to do by way of interfering. Gabe stands on the sidelines, waiting for someone to come take Glenda back to her hotel room.

"It's the stakes that are enticing, not necessarily the bet itself." Lee does nod his head once. "Next time, double or nothing. Look forward to it."

"If someone wants to prove me wrong, they can try. But not sure where I would find someone from there willing to do the things that would impress me." Lee can only shrug his shoulders.

The drama continues, it's all waterworks, and some raised voices, but neither food nor fists fly. More wine is spilled and glasses broke though. The rest of the wait staff are in a holding pattern as well.

"The resort does, but these people are in Karen mode. Unless you have manager on your name tag, they aren't going to listen." His name tag just says Lee on it. "Does it work differently at a diner?"

Management sweeps in tailed by a few security staff and they begin to corral, Mike, Glenda, the kids as well as Norman and drink guy and lead them away.

"Now we bring in the cake." He says to both Gabriel and into the ear piece. "You won't need that." He indicates the tray of bruschetta. "Now to clean up that mess." He heads over to the table that has wine and shards of glass and begins to do that himself. He gives no indication that Gabriel should help or follow.

The cake is rolled out, and the music has started again, both enough to get the guests attention away from the scene. Some of the wait staff moves to pass cake around on as it is plated, others to clean up the other table of empty plates and glasses.

Lee's comment about finding someone from Des Moines who can do something to impress him gets a curious loft of Gabe's brows. The question hangs on their face, but they don't ask it merely out of politeness of speaking to someone's superior. Gabriel's not the one in the chef's uniform.

As for how it works at a diner, they lift up a shoulder in a shrug. "It's all employees? If someone does something I don't like, I tell them to fuck off and usually my manager agrees? But that rarely happens and a flat look is enough warning to set them straight."

Oh here come the suits. Thank goodness. When Lee says they won't need the bruschetta, Gabe nonchalantly picks up a piece and shoves it into their mouth. Look, it's all going to go to waste anyway. "Mm. That's good basil." Then they turn around to send it back to the discard pile and grab a broom. There's no way they're letting Lee do this by himself.

As they sweep, they glance up every so often to watch the rest of the party awkward themselves up around the cake pretending like nothing ever happened. "Remind me not to make a public spectacle out of my 50th anniversary," they mumble to Lee.

The questioning look is perfectly mirrored at Gabriel. "Assuming you're not from Des Moines?" That would be just his luck. Randomly insulting a city right in front of someone from there. "No?"

What Gabriel tells him about the diner has him grinning "You know how many times I have wanted to say that to some rich socialite when I worked in Manhattan?" The implication is LOTS.

Lee has folded the shards of glass into the tablecloth so no one will hurt themselves picking up the pieces. The whole thing can be tossed as far as he is concerned. "Yeah, everyone knows that 51 is the cause a huge scene anniversary."

"New York City. More curious about these things that impress you, if I'm honest?" There, it has been said. So much for good impressions first day out of Nora's. Lee's subsequent comment about wanting to do the same in Manhattan has them stopping to look back at him over their shoulder. "How long where you there? And where did you work?"

They hurry along and sweep the smaller pieces, guiding them right into a dustbin that one of the other servers has brought over. The joke about the 51st anniversary gets a little smirk, then they hand off the broom to someone taking the rubbish back to the kitchen. "I'm ready for this debacle to be over."

But it's not quite, and there's still more cake to hand out and champagne to refill and just like that the whole last hour of the event elapses and guests starts to filter out. Proper custodians have arrived to remove table linens and folding chairs. Thusly all the servers make it into the back room to divvy up the tips they'd managed to scrape together. Gabe folds a bundle of one dollar bills into their jacket pocket, then starts to head for the door.

The look that Lee gives Gabriel at the statement is to get with suspicion. "Why do I feel like this is a trap and I am setting myself up for judgement?" He suspicious and amused since by the end of the question he is grinning. "That for one, honesty. But I doubt you are looking for the gimme answers.* Another appraising look "Small things, doing things that are unexpected that you don't have to do. Thanks for helping with this." The cleaning of the glass. Gabriel has impressed him twice already. "Being yourself, unapologetically. Not letting people take advantage. And a lot of things that aren't coming to me. Having been put on the spot with the question."

He passes of the tablecloth, warning the staffer of the broken glass in it. "A few years. I apprenticed in a few kitchens there. Osteria 57, Jiang Nan, and Bad Roman." Two upscale places, and one unique, but more affordable to most people. "I think I liked Bad Roman the best."

"The sooner the better." Lee doesn't have much to do since cake isn't his responsibility. He's a chef, not a baker. So he basically does the same as the other staff, makes sure no one is bereft of drink or cake.

"You should get the rest of your tip in your paycheck." Lee tells Gabriel as he falls into step beside him. He didn't take part in the splitting of the cash tips, letting the wait staff have it all.

With the guests having departed he pulls the hair sticks from his braided bun and unwinds it. The sticks are pocketed before he loosens the braid, running fingers through the long white hair, only pausing to hit the elevator button which causes the door to open.

"Because it probably is, Lee," Gabriel smirks back at him. They have name tags, so even without proper introduction they know that much at least. They're quiet as they listen, taking it all in with a mild expression of amusement that's more noticeable in their eyes than anywhere else. "Being put on the spot is the best place to be. People tend to tell the truth that way."

Their brows quirk up in some form of recognition of at least one of those restaurant names. "Damn. That's impressive."

As they both head over to the elevator when the party's all wrapped, Gabriel shoots a questioning look Lee's way. "You cleaned. And you also served cake and poured drinks. I'm not trying to tell you to say in your lane but...you're the chef? Why are you helping?" It's said bluntly, sure, but there's an underlying curiosity here for Lee's motivations. As if they need to understand him better.

The length of Lee's hair also comes unexpectedly, not that the wrapped up braid didn't give away just how much of it he had piled up in there. Gabe's stuck looking at it for a long moment as Lee combs it out.

Well Lee should have expected that answer from someone who seems to be at the higher end of the snarky scale. “I guess, but I have no reason to lie to you. And I started the whole impress me conversation.” About some mid-west city, but still.

“I am a chef now.” Emphasis on the now. “But I have been a server, a buser, a dishwasher. If there is a menial task in a restaurant I have done it. If I can help make someone’s job easier, I will.” He studies Gabriel for those few brief moments he explains “It’s not complicated, no need to overthink it.

“It wasn’t like this before New Year’s.” He says as he lifts a lock to examine the ends. “White I mean. It was always long.” He steps into the elevator turning back to face Gabriel, “I swear the magic must be trying to turn me into a nine-tail fox.” He lifts his hands behind his head to mimic fox ears, closing and opening his hands to mimic the movement. Not that foxes ears move that way.

"We're talking about judgement, not lying," Gabe points out mildly but they're just as quick to drop the subject and move on to the altogether more interesting list of jobs Lee's had. "That makes you better than half the snooty I-won't-touch-a-dirty-dish people I've met." They look back at him when he mentions not to overthink it, brows lifting. "Just curious, is all."

With Lee mentioning his hair, Gabriel wrenches their eyes away to step into the elevator. "It's nice. It's got like it's own zip code over there." They smile lopsidedly as they glance at the sheer length of it, then look up at the ears Lee's miming with his hands. "Can you also turn into animals? I hear people can actually do that here. My New Year's Change is just..." they hold up their hands to show off the faint glow their skin emits, then gestures at their face. "Glow worm vibes."

"Only half?" he gives a mock sigh of disappointment, a hand going to his heart and he shakes his head "I guess I am going to have to try harder." now that the shift is over he is a lot more animated. "Having lived in New York yourself, I will assume you have met a lot of those types."

He brightens at the zipcode comment, and covers a laugh with a hand "Zip code. That's a new one. I like it." he hits the button that will take them to the floor with the staff lounge and changing rooms on it. "I don't think so..." he hesitates as he answers the question "When I learned about the various magics that people can do here, I tried a few, didn't try that one, but I don't think so..." he is about to say more when Gabriel holds up their hands to show off the glow.

Lee reaches for one of those hands to pull it closer and examine it, and unless Gabe pulls away with turn the hand over before realizing that he probably should have asked first "Oh sorry." he lets go. "That's cool. You are your own light stick!" he sounds excited about that, and impressed "What are you doing later? A bunch of us are going to the club, it's Eurovision night. You should join us."

Gabriel huffs out a laugh when Lee presses a hand to his heart. "Not just lived," they add, "I'm from there. Born and raised in Chelsea, then spent the last eight years or so in Brooklyn. But to your point, yes. I certainly have."

They seem somewhat surprised when Lee says he tried a few different kinds of magic. "Wait, you can do that? You can try? I thought they just...hit you when you least expect it? At least that's what happened to me." Their brows shoot up when their hand gets pulled closer but they don't yank it back, instead letting Lee examine as he pleases. "It's definitely...something? I guess as far as random changes, it could be worse." Once their hand is returned to them, they shove it into their pocket.

"Eurovision night? Good for that DJ being diverse with the music choice. But...I'm probably going to just dive under a blanket after that shift. Rain check?"

"Fancy." again impressed by Gabe being a native Chelsea resident "That explains the never touch a dirty dish snooty people." but that's really a lot of NYC, and not just one neighborhood. Though he mostly means just having lived in the city ALL their life.

"You can try anything..." Lee has that tone of voice that suggests failure is usually the outcome with you do. "I have only been here since the beginning of November, I have no idea how it works, or the typical way in manifests." he gives a smile that he hopes suggest support, maybe encouragement "Well I know who I want around if I am ever stuck in a dark building, or cave, or something without a phone or flashlight." being able to glow is useful.

"Okay, sure." he may be disappointed briefly at having is invitation being turned down, but recovery is fast. "After that shift, I don't blame you. That was a lot to witness." the elevator dings as it gets to the floor that Lee selected and the door slides open "Lee Chen, I'm in the directory." he walks out turning toward the staff changing rooms "Have a great sleep." he calls out as the door slides shut.