[ dec / open ] what even is the point of december without christmas presents?

[princessvegas]

WHO: Julie + others
WHAT: December catchall
WHERE: Places
WHEN: December
WARNINGS: Language, etc. Specific cws in subject headings.

[ ooc: dec catchall, starters in comments, bitchcraft or bitchcraft#2753 to plot. ]

Comments

[ open in the Horizon ]

[princessvegas]

[ Julie's domain is always easy to find and enter. It is, after all, a nightclub -- designed to be seen and to lure, with the promise of music and alcohol and fun, all lurid pink neon and glittering crystal features. The doors, open whenever Julie is in the building, usually let faint bass throb over the entirety of the Horizon, and the ambient noise of roughly a hundred manifested partiers occasionally floats out from within.

Today, however, it seems to be replaced mostly by... bells. Jingle bells. Those of equivalent Earths might recognize some of the more classic songs, "White Christmas" and "Santa Baby", but there's plenty of other interesting Christmas songs in the playlist too. Just in case you can't possibly take another round of "Last Christmas".

Inside, while the ordinary trappings of the club (crystal chandeliers, lush booths, a truly fascinating amount of neon lighting) are still there, things have begun to take a distinctly more festive direction. Enormous wreaths hang on the doors, and it only gets more intense from there; holly garlands drape along nearly every horizontal surface, wrap around decorative statues of reindeer and snowmen that never melt. Twinkling lights, in both white and color, wind all along the ceiling, strategically hung from the rafters and down the walls. Sparkling snowflakes hang down as well, alongside weighty paper decorations, fanciful flowers and fans, in every hue.

And there are trees everywhere.

Trees, towering twenty-footers, not just evergreen but in pink and white and gold too, stand proud throughout the room, in corners and in the center of open spaces. They're all covered in ornaments, jewel-hued baubles and cleverly blown objects, tinsel and ever more lights. Despite the unnatural shade of some of the trees, they all smell strongly of fresh balsam and... is that a hint of peppermint? Many of the trees have a plethora of gifts underneath them, wrapped in coordinating wrapping paper

This has not, however, been done without a lot of effort. Throughout the room, there are little piles, empty boxes and tangled cords, ripped up pieces of paper stuck to discarded glue guns. Nails and tiny spare lightbulbs dot the floor where they haven't been picked up. Empty boxes lie in nests of wrapping paper, waiting to be properly decorated and set under the trees that still have bare floor below them.

Continuing to the back half of the club, things get a little more construction site -- there are stacks of wood, even more electrical cords, hammers and power drills. A half-built manger next to a single sleeping lamb and a plastic baby. And, at the loft, a twenty-foot ladder at the balcony railing, which appears to have its own star at the top.

Julie, barefoot and still in her default gold dress, glinting and certainly not winter-appropriate, is at the highest rung of the ladder, affixing more garland to the railing. The greenery and lights are draped around her like a stole, and she has nails and hooks held between her lips. And she does not appear at all to be concerned about being two stories in the air. While she has not yet dressed to match all this sudden holiday cheer, she does have on a headband made of jinglebells and holly, which rings out every time the ladder shakes unsteadily underneath her.

She never reacts to the wobbling. ]

Horizon

[jealousbitch]

[ Lloyd much prefers hanging out in Julie's more lively domain, though the truth is, it's mostly just because of her presence there. Things are different from the first time he'd brought her to the Horizon, but that's only because she's got her wits about her, now.

Coming into her domain this time, he's delightfully taken aback by all the garlands, trees, and lights. It looks like a holiday card took a shit all over the place and then started experimenting with drugs. Needless to say, he's into it. It looks fucking amazing and still so Julie in its styling. He takes it all in, weaving through the trees and decorations in search of that mop of bubblegum pink. When he finds her, it's at the back of her club where things are a little more disorganized.

He sees the ladder wobble and darts over to steady its base, shouting up at her with a hint of worry. ]

You're gonna break your damn neck if you fall from up there!

[princessvegas]

[ If anything, the ladder suddenly being grabbed startles her more than the wobbling. She grabs the railing with one hand, pink garland in the other, and looks back down at him as if he's just said something stupid. Granted, she always kind of looks at him like that, and there's no particular venom behind it this time, but that's definitely her expression. ]

Lloyd, I can't break my neck in here. It ain't real, remember? Besides, I used to climb trees way higher'n this when I was a kid.

[ She starts to descend anyway, at a clip that's actually fairly impressive, leaving the loose garland hanging from the balcony. The lights glitter off her dress as she moves. ]

[jealousbitch]

[ The look on her face doesn't change his, because that's just 90% of their unspoken communication. ]

Okay, but still. Safety and all that shit. [ He looks up the full length of the ladder and his frown deepens. Nah, nah, that's not his thing. ]

I tried climbin' a tree once. Fell and broke my damn wrist.

[princessvegas]

[ She's down in less than a minute, jumps backward off the third step to land lightly on her bare feet. All she can do is roll her eyes and shake her head a little. ]

Lloyd, I swear to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you are the biggest mess I ever met. [ There's no ill will in her voice -- she says it the same as she might state the weather, with an affectionate brush to his cheek as she passes by to get to her shoes. ]

What's up?

[jealousbitch]

[ Look, he might have been high at the time? Who's to say, he can't remember it vividly to even pinpoint how old he was. He huffs in laughter, soaking in that brief stroke of her fingers against his face, following her. ]

Sorry we can't all be graceful ballerinas and shit. [ He shrugs. ] Nothin' much, just came to check in on ya. And it's a good thing I did! All this is pretty damn awesome. You do it all yourself?

[princessvegas]

[ There's a satisfied sigh as she takes a step back and looks out on the front half, mostly finished, her hands on her hips. ]

Yeah. Y'know, I never cared too much about Christmas back home, but like, it got to be December and... I dunno, it just felt real empty. Plus, I mean, I'm sure whatever holiday they got comin' up next is gonna be just as bad as Eifstide, so at least we can all have a decent fuckin' Christmas here. Not just us, but everyone else from the other worlds that have Christmas too, like Sam and... well, I guess he's gone now, but Brad was from a world almost identical to ours. Even had a pandemic at the same time. Theirs just wasn't as deadly. But we can make anythin' we want here, so we might as well have a bomb-ass Christmas, right? [ She pauses briefly before adding, ] We can add Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too, if we need to.

horizon.

[gynvael]

[ A day or two after he's returned (home, as Ciri calls it, and he supposes it is home, with her there) Geralt sends Julie a note. It's brief, as expected, a short message that he's back in one piece, to pass that onto Nadine, as well—but the fact that he's taken the time to send anything at all says something. He takes another week before he ventures into the Horizon. Most of him has healed; the only stitches that haven't come out are the ones going up his back, though it no longer looks as grisly as it once had. He has not, particularly, bothered to leave his injuries behind in the real world, hasn't even thought about the idea of doing so.

Julie's is the first place he goes. The path to her domain is a familiar one by now. The inside, on the other hand. That's new. It feels like he's fallen into...he doesn't even know what. There's no comparison for it on the Continent. He recognizes the shimmery trinkets, the decorated trees. They're not unusual during Yule in some towns and cities. But he's certainly never seen trees in these colours. Or so many trees in one place. Usually, there's one, if they even have a tree at all. Sometimes it's a decorated log.

He steps carefully over a strewn bit of tangled string and piles of wood. (He hasn't any idea what half this shit is.) When the ladder wobbles, he reaches out to steady it. He'd question why she's doing this by hand when she can imagine what she wants into existence, but as someone who built his cabin log by log and hammered every piece of furniture together—he gets it. ]

Planning another party?

[princessvegas]

[ When he catches the ladder and speaks, she looks down through an armful of pink garland, which she then tosses several feet to land on the other side of the balcony. Her climb down is certainly not one of someone who has a fear of heights or really any solid self-preservation -- she's down quickly and skips the last three rungs entirely to land on her shoeless feet.

It doesn't surprise her that he's still got all the injuries, wouldn't surprise her if he was masochistically manifesting his own soreness, either. She does, though, sweep a judicious eye over him(as if she were qualified to decide what is and isn't healing acceptably) as she reaches out for him, takes his shirt in her hands with a grin. ]

Nah. Christmas shindigs never measure up to Halloween. This is just decoration. I'm sure whatever shitty holiday they have here is gonna fuck us all, so I figured I'd put a good one up for anyone who needs it. How're you?

[gynvael]

[ Is that what they call it? Christmas? He peers up at the bright lights as she makes her way down with startling quickness. It's nice. The decorations. A little much, but he rarely expects anything from Julie to be subdued and the whole thing is rather fitting for her. The pink matches her hair.

Truthfully, he can't tell how much of this is meant to be Christmas as her world does it and how much is Julie going the extra mile. ​]

In one piece. [ He steps closer towards her, fingers brushing the thin strap of her shimmering dress. He does seem to be better than she'd last seen him, moving without much of the stiffness lingering; if what happened continues to bother him beyond his wounds, the only sign of it is that he looks decidedly lacking in sleep. More than usual, anyhow. ] You? No trouble?

[ She seems in high enough spirits, so he assumes the situation is all right in Nott. Still. It's been a concern, how close they are to Thorne. After what happened, he knows he'd rather see Julie and her people away from there sooner rather than later, though he's aware of why they're staying for a bit longer. ]

[princessvegas]

[ The truth is actually somewhere in the middle. While Halloween had absolutely been Julie specifically going all out, Christmas is enough of a Big Deal™ in America that others from similar worlds will be able to back all of this fuss up. They'd probably still call it over the top, but not much more so than any luxury shopping mall's decorations. She doesn't even have one of her manifested friends dressed up as Santa.

The bags under his eyes are heavier than usual, but not nearly as dark as they were even after several days of bedrest, so she considers it an improvement. Trouble sleeping is familiar to her, given everything she's seen and lived through -- she'd tried to minimize it while he slept next to her, but she twitches and mumbles constantly in her sleep, where she can't block it all out. It's not just her, of course; Lloyd and Nadine suffer similarly, and she imagines most people from her world do (or did). It can't be helped. But Geralt looks better, and that's the important part, that he's no longer the wreck she found that night in Nott.

Shaking her head, she reaches up and delicately runs her finger over a healing mark on his chest at the neck of his shirt, brow knit slightly but otherwise unconcerned about it. ]

No trouble. Either they didn't care enough to bother lookin' for you, or else they figured you didn't make it all the way to Nott. [ Plus, it would be hard to search an already-rebellious city for a prisoner that wasn't supposed to exist in the first place. It'd be fertilizer for an uprising. ] We're okay for now.

[ They only need a few more months. Long enough for Julie to learn the fundamentals of how to actually channel magic, to make things happen by intention. So far, she hasn't burned down the tavern by accident, so it's going better than she'd expected.

She smiles up at him, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, the bells on her headband tinkling softly. ] Come upstairs, I made you somethin'. I can't believe I never thought to make it before.

[gynvael]

[ Sleeping like shit seems a common theme these days. Good to hear they've been left alone, though. Her reassurance relaxes him some. If it's been quiet up to now, it likely means they've decided he isn't worth pursuing. Makes sense. They got what they wanted out of him. And if he's the only one they managed to get to in the end, that's all he wants.

He's considering asking if she wants a hand putting her trinkets up or if she's looking for an excuse to take a break in her work (not that they ever need an excuse, truly)—then she says I made you something, and his expression turns curious. Hm. ]

Am I allowed a hint?

[ He moves towards the stairs, careful not to crunch anything of hers under his boots. Julie jingles faintly beside him as they walk; eventually, it tugs the smallest smile out of him. He's not sure if she realizes she must be one of the very few to just casually tell him she made him something, that the concept of it altogether remains a novelty to him. He makes no mention of it, just goes along with whatever she's got in mind. With her, it could be damn near anything. ]

[princessvegas]

A hint? I don't know that it would mean all that much to you, but... [ She giggles and pulls her arms back against her sides, as if to take away everything above her elbows. ] Big head, lil' arms.

[ Honestly, it's a reference that even most of her contemporaries wouldn't get -- the gesture is far more recognizable. Assuming, of course, that one knows what she's mimicking. But he won't have to wait terribly long to find out; she climbs the stairs just as quickly as the ladder, though she waits at the top and speaks over her shoulder as she opens the door. ] Okay, now it ain't full-grown 'cause there ain't room. I think full-grown ones are about twice as big, maybe a little more.

[ In the center of the large, cotton-candy pink sitting room, is a T. Rex skeleton, fully assembled and standing. It's maybe seven feet tall at the hip, twenty-five from tail to enormous skull. She'd realized, after speaking to him, that the idea of just how big dinosaurs really were must be almost impossible to visualize. How big most of her world must be to him, she knows, but dinosaurs seemed like an easy entrance point, and it's something that she has definitely seen on school field trips, so it wasn't difficult to create. Plus, as an expert on dead monsters, this had seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to put context to at least one of the things she's talked about.

The dinosaur's face nearly brushes the chandelier in the center of the room, its huge jaws distended to show off a mouth full of foot-long teeth. The tail is curved as if in mid-whip, and the arms are, as Julie had said, very small in comparison to the rest of it. ]

This is a dinosaur, the most famous one. It's called Tyrannosaurus Rex, or just T. Rex. There are lots of other kinds of dinosaurs, but this is the one everyone knows. I thought maybe seein' one would make it make more sense.

[fourarmedandangerous]

Since establishing his Domain, it has become apparent to Goro that people will freely wander in and out of it as they please. Ergo, Goro will return the favour and because he is very big and monstrous-looking he expects that, as in most cases, people will simply let him have his way other than try inviting his wrath.

This place is...garish. The sort of pit Kano would probably enjoy, however. Though maybe not the more...festive decorations Julie has added to the place. Some sort of human holiday, which means nothing to Goro. He presses further in, pushing the revelers in the club out of his way, making little to no effort to be gentle, as they are not, in fact, alive.

In the back area, he spies Julie hard at work, and suspects he has found the Master of this Domain. If the thundering of his footsteps do not announce his presence to her, Goro simply folds his upper arms over his chest, and waits, watching her work with mild disinterest. He'll wait for her to notice him.

[princessvegas]

It's true that people can and do just walk around the domains of others, particularly nosy people like Julie, who consistently leaves a light coating of glitter all over everyone's belongings as she touches them without invitation. Her domain, of course, is meant for the company of others, to the point that the fake people don't ever seem to even care when they're pushed around.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on," she calls down in response to footsteps, which sound heavy but honestly, she's really high in the air, so she thinks it's just someone in thick boots, or maybe it's Volcano Guy. Volcano legs would be heavy. She's suspended in the space between the railing and the ladder, stretched out to finish linking a series of light plugs together, and when they suddenly illuminate in bright white, she straightens back up with a pleased sigh.

Then she turns and looks down, promptly shrieks and recoils, and sends the ladder falling backward.

It seems to almost happen in slow motion, the ladder clattering down with her in midair, a flailing mass of pink and gold that drops several feet but suddenly seems to catch on nothing at all. She's caught the balcony railing with her invisible third hand, although it's a struggle to keep hold for even the few seconds she needs to save herself from become a splat on the floor.

"What the fuck!" she yelps, kicking the air as a thick crash pad forms from nothing below her. The second it's done, she drops the rest of the way, bounces and then scurries away from this giant... thing. Where the fuck are her monster hunters when she actually needs them?

"What kinda insane mental illness bullshit is this look?" She gestures at the... four arms, the weird lizard-y skin, the everything of it all. "Just look normal!"

[fourarmedandangerous]

Goro watches it all, the ladder going down, Julie's fall, catching herself, and finally managing to reach the ground safely before skittering away from him, with the same mild disinterest, though his lip does curl in amusement at the antics his presence causes. He never gets tired of seeing people react in fear to him.

His head tils to the side. "Normal." He repeats, and his eyes narrow. "You mean "human."." They do seem to be omnipresent, in the Realms and larger multiverse. "Your kind always do insist that everything be made in accordance with your comfort in mind."

[princessvegas]

The failure here, is of course that she did not immediately assume he isn't human. Given that the only non-humans she's met since arriving (and it's not many) are all very human presenting, her assumption is that this is also a human who is instead choosing to appear this way only within the Horizon. And she can't fathom why anyone would want to look like that by choice.

If Julie was afraid of him in the moment that he caught her off-guard, the fear disappears when she snaps back, though the crash pad remains between them. "Well, humans seem to be the majority 'round here, so yeah, I'd say our comfort's way more important than whatever-the-fuck-you-are's comfort. Lookin' like some fuckin' Clash of the Titans stop motion bullshit monster. And you're in my goddamn domain! I didn't walk into your swamp and start talkin' shit, so don't think it works the other way 'round."

Still huffing, she straightens her dress, grabs her shoes and puts them back on, giving her another few inches. She doesn't like how much this guy towers over her, and while she knows that five inches is ultimately nothing, it makes her feel slightly better anyway.

"Whatever your kind is, you should look into some fuckin' moisturizer."

[fourarmedandangerous]

The rage of a terrified animal attempting to make itself look bigger to ward off predators. Goro lets Julie's anger roll off him, ignoring her as she snaps at him to look around her domain more closely. "Why should I not be in your domain? People come and go as they please in this place, it seems." His own domain has already had at least one visitor that he is aware of. "Am I not allowed the same right, little human? And my domain is a cave, not a swamp." He adds. That's...better?

"I am not...that." He said, as Outworld is sorely lacking in knowledge of Ray Harryhausen and his body of work, and he also didn't understand most of what she called him (though he'd agree with the Titan part, at least). "I am Goro, a Shokan of Kuatan. I am no human."

This one's impertinence and attitude do feel familiar to Goro, though he knows he's never seen her before. He turns back to regard her more closely for a moment. Ah...perhaps not met in person but he thinks they have conversed.

"You want be conquerer of Hell? Be my guest, but do the rest of us a favor and off yourself. Go fight the devil." He says, repeating the last words he remembers reading from her in that insipid network. "I believe that was what you said last time we conversed...Julie, was it?"

[princessvegas]

"You're allowed, most people just have better fuckin' manners about it. Y'know, like tryin' not to sneak up on folks when they look like... you," she says, gesturing at literally his whole body. She feels like maybe she once saw a story about a baby born with four arms in India or something, some kind of freaky birth defect. "And when other people come here, they don't storm right up to me like I did somethin' to 'em when I don't even know 'em. They have a drink or dance. It's a club."

Another mistake has been made here, and this time it's his; he assumes that Julie remembers any of the specific things she says. She does not, for the most part, and particularly not when it comes to conversations that had upset her in the first place. So there's a long, blank pause after he says her name, where she tries to force that sentence to mean anything. Who had she said that to? A few more blinks and it starts to come back.

"Oh, for the... that was you? Well, don't nobody wanna fight you here, numbnuts, so I hope you figured out macrame or whatever."

[falcony]

[ sam...should have known, in a way, that this is what he'd find when he decided to venture out to julie's domain. he'd been at the Halloween party, knew enough about julie herself, but still there's a bit of an appreciative awe that crosses his face when he steps inside and sees it all. the lights, the trees, the music. it shoots him back home, yes, but it also has him immediately worried - if julie actually went through the process of doing all this, or if she imagined it up this way.

thankfully, it's the horizon. and while sam isn't normally the type to impose, as he walks through the warehouse, there might be just a few changes made - garland straightened, boxes finishing being wrapped and set more specifically under trees, trash pushed away to the corners. because whether or not julie wants to have a picture perfect Christmas warehouse, sam figures he can help in small ways.

which is also why - as he makes it to the bottom of the ladder she's climbed, he's got a big bag of presents and gifts and tupperware in one arm, and he uses the other to - immediately - reach out and steady the ladder she's climbed. ]

Jules - I know we can't die up here, but save me the heart attack? Please?

[ and maybe the reason he's out here isn't as festive as his tone would assume, considering geralt's just now reached a more stable condition and it's only been a few days since h'd arrived, but sam's worried and couldn't sit still any longer. ]

[princessvegas]

[ It probably does not help Sam's nerves that Julie is not just at the top of the ladder, but balancing on the toes of only one foot as she reaches up with a nail gun. It's like whatever sense of self-preservation should be kicking in simply isn't there anymore, or perhaps it never was really there in the first place. She is, after all, from the part of the country where doing stupid, dangerous stunts counts as entertainment because there's nothing else to do. Either way, she peers down through an armful of garland, fires a last nail without actually looking, then begins to descend at a truly impressive speed, beaming. ]

Sam! [ She jumps off backward from the third rung and lands in bare feet on the floor, which is, of course, strewn with all manner of sharp debris. This is what having a toddler is like, Sam, except with slightly better conversational skills and less food stains. So, y'know, keep that in mind if you ever find a lady. She begins to take things from him with a face of concern, like he's the one who needs fretting over. ] Oh my god, why didn't you get Steven to take some'a this? You want anythin' to eat or drink?

[ Does this sound like a manic overcompensation yet? ]

[falcony]

[ no, it really doesn't. like at all. sam watches as she balances up at the top, a frowning immediately pulling at his expression as his one hand holds the ladder steady. if she falls, he's gonna be dropping everything he's holding and that won't be fun for anyone, so he hopes. and hopes.

and then she descends and sam feels like he can breathe again, shaking his head in that way that only someone who had to be in charge of younger cousins can. he pulls the box away from her when she tries to start taking his shit from him and instead moves to give her a hug with his free hand, because that is where things are and now that he can think about literally anything else, they might as well greet each other. ]

I can carry my own shit, girl. Come on. [ sam says it with a kind of easy exasperation, and then a grin. he's down to just poke fun about all this, to help her with some Christmas spirit and some decorating because he definitely needs a distraction after everything, but that is when he catches onto the speed at which she's talking.

he sets his free hand on her shoulder, leaning down to search her eyes for a moment. ] You take something, or are you stressed? [ and then, with whatever it is he finds in her eyes, he sighs and shakes his head. squeezes her shoulder once before dropping his hand. ] I am hungry, though, so you can tell me about it over food.

[princessvegas]

[ She stands on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, kiss his cheek, and scoffs when he doesn't let her help carry all these things. Instead, she grabs her shoes and puts them back on before she clears a nearby table of its collection of debris. She does this by just sweeping it all onto the floor with her arm, where it clatters and then disappears. Why she didn't make it disappear in the first place is simple: she had approached all of this as if she were doing it at home. Sure, she didn't go buy all this stuff, but she hung every strand of lights and tinsel garland herself.

She takes a seat and props her elbow on the table, chin in her hand as she looks at him, rolling her eyes. ] No. I'm sober, Dad. Promise.

[ Well, on the Julie scale, she is. She starts drinking Bacardi at 8am, but she hasn't taken any drugs. This is good ol' fashioned avoidance. Ghouls attack and then your FWB gets tortured so you spend all of your money getting him home while your best friend decides you need to learn magic based on emotions that you are very obviously barely in control of at any given time? Well, what do you know, it's Christmas! Decorations must be done, presents must be wrapped, no time for thinking.

It's not that she understands that's what she's doing. She just knows that it's very important this year that she get as hard into Christmas as she possibly can. ] What'd you bring?

[falcony]

[ sam let's julie move, watching as she picks up her shoes and completely clears the nearest table (clears may be pushing it, but eh. this is julie's place, after all. he'll take the free table to set down his box, giving her a look as he starts to unpack it all. ]

So you're just stressed, then. [ another pointed look, as a casserole tray comes out, alongside some homemade eggnog and probably some sort of baked good. and even with her rolling of her eyes and the overly loud presentation of the warehouse. he knows a good avoidance when he sees it, has probably put forth a similar effort himself. ] You want to talk about it?

[ because you know what, julie. all those points? totally valid. in every way. but sam can't tell her that much if he doesn't know it, so for now he's treading that in-between ground of knowing something is off but not sure if its ground to push yet or not. especially when she shifts the attention to his goodies - food and decorations and a couple of small gifts galore. ] Not much. Got my Titi's eggnog - tequila, by the way. Legendary. A chicken spaghetti casserole because why not. And these are just for fun- [ he sets aside the small gifts, wrapped in little bags and tissue paper. ] Nothing all that special but everyone needs something under the tree, right?

[princessvegas]

[ It's all going to disappear anyway, Sam, it's fine. Just make a mess, who cares. This is her approach to most things in the Horizon.

Her frown is more on the confused side than the truly unhappy side, and she occupies herself by opening the various containers of food. Only the eggnog gets a side-eye; despite her love of nearly everything containing alcohol, she finds eggnog to be a questionable and suspicious beverage. It's just melted ice cream with raw eggs in it, basically! Weird. ] I'm not stressed. I don't have anythin' to be stressed about. Nothing happened to me.

[ Which is probably why she's being so avoidant about it -- she doesn't feel entitled to being stressed. She didn't get kidnapped and tortured. The ghosts didn't attack her. Everyone is learning magic, or at least most people. What right does she have to feel personally strained by it?

She creates some plates and utensils, and her bartender brings over a tray that holds two pitchers, one of sweet tea and one of beer. ] C'mon, it's lunch time anyway.