"Hello! You have reached the voice mail of Charlotte York. I apologize that I am not available to receive your call at the moment, but leave a message and I will try to get back to you at my earliest convenience. Thank you for calling, and have a nice day!"

"Hello! Thank you for calling the York Gallery. No one is available at this current moment to take your call, so please leave a message and we will return correspondence soon. The Gallery's current hours are Wednesday through Sunday, one o'clock to eleven o'clock pm. We are still building at the moment, but please call again to hear about our upcoming gallery exhibits, events, and shows."

The main event was finished (and not even...too much of a disaster...right?) and now it was time to fully celebrate the happy new couple, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Cooper.

With a lot of drinks, a lot of food, some dancing and hopefully nothing weird. The reception rooms of the Saint Clements were impeccably decorated and welcoming, and it was sure to be a long, enjoyable evening.

It had better be, anyway!


[[ OCD on the way, of course up! Go, go. Have fun. ]]

Tomorrow was the big day, so, of course, Charlotte had headed out to the wedding site early so that she and her flock of bridesmaids could start getting things ready. There was a lot of work to do, so Charlotte was extremely glad that she had Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha there to help her through it. The timing of the wedding was exceptional; with no other events going on at Saint Clements Castle this weekend, there was no problem at all in getting the place for the weekend and she'd set up a little reception in the ballroom for anyone who might have come out for the wedding early.

So much to do, and Charlotte was just a flurry of activity and excitement for tomorrow. Everything was going so well, too, so hopefully it was a good sign that everything should go smoothly for the big event!


[[ eee, wedding! Of course, since everyone on the island got invitation, everyone is invited to attend, arrive throughout the day today, or show up just for the event tomorrow. This is a general catch-all post for anyone who might want to come out and enjoy pretty, pretty Saint Celements castle early, and so there's OCD on the way up if'n you wanna come play! ]]

Finally, finally, finally! Charlotte returned from the post office with a combination of excited butterflies in her stomach and worrisome twists that all the weirdness had meant that the invitations had gone out too late. But it was a small island, so she was sure at least all the Fandom ones would get to where they were supposed to by tomorrow. She realized that actually sending them by mail was a little overdone when she could probably deliver them all by hand within an hour, but that was just how things went, and, by tomorrow, everyone would have one waiting for them. Yes, everyone. They didn't even know everyone, but Dale was a very important person in this community, being Sheriff and all, so it just went to reason that everyone should be invited.

( Cut for Invitation! )

[[ lol Charlotte haaaates me for only getting these out now. And, yes, everyone will receive an invitation. Because Charlotte's insane. Post is also open, if you want to stop by!

No matter where you were, shopping anywhere else would never quite amount to shopping in New York City, and Charlotte had almost thought that, really, she should be taking Irulan there, but her nose for brand names lead them to the much closer Chevy Chase. Charlotte had a few reservations about shopping in an area named after an actor, but those reservations passed as soon as she was actually shopping and then it was all about clothes, clothes, clothes.

And, really, it was better this way. If they would have gone to New York, she'd blow so much more money. This was better. Safer for her checkbook.

She was currently drooling over a Yves Saint Laurent dress when she gushed to her shopping partner, "And when we're done here, we've got to go to the Vuitton store and look at shoes. I can't let you leave without going to the Vuitton store and look at shoes."


[[ for that princess with the hats! And NFB for distance, natch! ]]

It had been a very good Easter weekend for Charlotte, although she had been fairly nervous the whole time. She knew she'd likely visit her parents in Connecticut for it, but she had to admit, the decision to bring Dale with her and introduce her family to her new fiance had been sort of a whirlwind decision. It had gone...smoothly, though, that was good, and they got back to the island all in one piece last night.

And then Charlotte went to catch up on what they had missed through the old radio broadcasts, and she frowned, listening carefully. She remembered the last time this had happened, and an adorable little Chinese girl had shown up, obviously adopted, but definitely hers. This year, no children had shown up, despite the fact that, as it stood, she was in much more of a 'starting a family' position than she was last time. Was it because they were gone during the weekend? Somehow a wee little Cooper had passed them over, knowing they wouldn't be there?

Or was it just a sign that, just as there hadn't been any little McDougalls, there wouldn't be any little Coopers, either? Charlotte sat for a long time after the last broadcast ended, and, when Elizabeth Taylor went to poke her nose at her to see what was up, the poor dog was subjected to some major, major, much needed cuddling.


[[ for that guy who lives with her plz! ]]

The apartment above the gallery was still very tightly barricaded; Charlotte, in her surprisingly easy effort to forget about the zombies entirely, had even stopped listening to the radio, so she wasn't actually aware that the whole thing had passed. It had been a hard decision to make, really, since Friday's radio had brought good news. But Mina adding vampires to the whole mix left Charlotte just wanting to blank out a little until the bunny business was out of the way.

It was all too much, really, and, besides, she had an eventual wedding to plan, you know. She was busy in her office, already going through her address book to already put together a potential guest list and gift registry. One couldn't ever be too prepared for this sort of thing.

[[ mostly for the buuuuunny, but can be open after that! ]]

Zombies? What zombies?

Even though there were clear signs of the fact that she was barricaded safely in her apartment, almost all thought of the increasing scourge outside had seemed to have left Charlotte's head completely.

It was hardly important in light of the fact that she was practically engaged, finally!

She did a quick check around the apartment to make sure any certain affianced bunnies hadn't returned, squee'd and babbled to the dog a little, before making a Very Important Call to New York.

"Carrie? Ohmygod, guess. What!"


[[ ahahaha, open, sure. ]]

Oh, sure. There were zombies outside and everything. But, to be quite honest, especially since she'd effectively barricaded the apartment above the gallery, Charlotte had other things to worry about.

Like a dog, running around the apartment, chasing a rabbit who was formerly her boyfriend. And Charlotte desperately chasing after the both of them.

"Eliza-- Elizabeth Taylor! You stop right now, or so he-- No! Dale! Not the new leather sof-- Or the bookshe--" *CRASH* "Ohhhh, nooooo!"



[[ mostly establishy, since there's no way she's answering the door. Calls are great, though! ]]

Usually, Charlotte loved having great big windows in the living room that overlooked the docks and the water. The view had been one of the main reasons she'd bought the property at 4 Apocalypse when she moved here.

Today? Charlotte was really hating ever having thought of putting in giant picture windows, but feeling very glad that she'd used very top quality and durable glass. In a way, it was sort of a blessing that those...those...those things out there had thrown so much crap at the window that she couldn't see them out there, flapping their disgusting wings and trying to hit the glass and scratch it with their claws, but then there was just the fact that there was gobs of God knew what all over her nice windows now!

This really was all way, way too much for Charlotte to handle right now. She was spending the rest of the day in one of her closets in the bedroom, where there were no windows, and where she could keep Elizabeth Taylor back from trying to go out there and bark her head off at the monsters, comforted by the presence of all that Chanel and Prada and Vuitton and telling herself it'll all be over soon, soon, soon...

To think, things had almost started feeling nice and normal around here, too.


[[ Establishy, but open, too! ]]

Charlotte York was not a happy camper. Spending the evening thinking you were some random slut ho bag was bad enough; the fact that it was a slut ho bag that she knew made it even worse. And Samantha didn't even have to decency to remember what her ex-husband looked like! Oh, she knew Samantha never really cared much about that sort of thing, but come on!

That had, somehow, thankfully, by a turn of fate, not turned out to be as disastrous as it could have, though. What was disastrous, though, was the massive handover stomping through Charlotte's head right now, like a ton of tiny elephants having a field day on her brain. Her stomach was all queasy and she was thinking of swearing off alcohol all together. Samantha Jones might have been able to have several drinks and a butt-ton of shots, but Charlotte York could not hold her liquor.

And poor Elizabeth Taylor, all confused as she kept going up to Charlotte laid out flat on the couch, leash in her mouth. "Oh, not right now, sweetheart." Charlotte hated having to say no to those big brown eyes. "Mommy's not feeling well; you'll have to wait until Daddy comes home..."

Another surge of a headache struck her and Charlotte let out a groan.

"My hair hurts..."


[[ open! ]]

A day like today was the perfect day to make Charlotte very, very glad that when she redid this place, she included a fireplace in the floorplan. And that it was gas, not electrical (you certainly didn't expect it would be a real one, did you?), so that the cold from the power going out wasn't nearly as bad.

Plus, there were the great big picture windows overlooking the docks, with a great view of all that snow. Good thing she didn't have much work to do today, considering almost all of Charlotte's time was being spent in front of those windows, holding Elizabeth Taylor up to it and babbling to her. "See all that pretty, pretty snow? Isn't it pretty? There's so much! Yes there is! You and Mommy are going to stay right here all day where it's nice and warm and a gas fireplace was such a smart idea, wasn't it? Mommy's so smart. Maybe if it calms down soon, you can go play in the snow, wouldn't that be fun, Elizabeth Taylor?"

Yep. She was pretty much going to keep going on and on and on just about all day. And not get tired of it, either.


[[ mostly just me being a dork, but definitely open! ]]

This sort of thing really was the trick to getting Charlotte out of her recent little funk. Planning, cooking, arranging. She'd been at it all day, even though she knew it was just going to be a quiet little get-together. Little or big, it was just a sort of natural high playing hostess and all that and making sure everything was all perfect. Apartment cleaned top to bottom, corner to corner, even if activity was only planned for the dinning room and sitting room, and then it was just a matter of the guests arriving.

[[ for those invited and their guests, please! Small OCD on the way is up! ]]

Completely unawares in of certain events in another part of town, Charlotte was settling into an afternoon routine: A cup of coffee, a light snack, and then settling into the office space in the apartment to get a little bit of work done for the next exhibit. She expected a fairly relaxing day, maybe a moment to spare to sneak down to the gallery and live vicariously through her employees for any good, juicy homecoming gossip. Little did she know, however, that uneventful would be the last thing that today held in store for her.

( And then there was a knock at the door... )



[[ preplayed with the ever fabulous pieandcoffee; NFI, but OOC always awesome! ]]

As they had planned, Dale had come to pick Charlotte up at the airport to accompany her back to the island, but, as quietly clinging as their reunion after that whole mess of the weekend had been, he'd left her to her privacy in unpacking, with the caveat that she shouldn't hesitate to bother him should she need anything. She didn't, of course; if anything, the solitude of the apartment was a little welcoming after a weekend of having to pretend that everything was okay in the face of her friends. But they were okay, weren't they? As she placidly went about putting away the spoils of her visit back to New York, she let her mind wander, uninhibited this time. First him disappearing like that and then his...'friend' showing up...when was going to be the next time something from Dale's past showed up to leave her shaken, and how was she really going to deal with it?

She didn't like the direction her thoughts were going, but they were drifting there, anyway. So she resolutely tried to think of something else. Going out tonight, maybe. Maybe a little extra work downstairs in the gallery while it was closed. And with the doors, of course, firmly locked.


[[ Establishing Charlotte's return back to the island, but the post is open should anyone want to come by! ]]

As much as she'd missed these late breakfasts out with her friends, or even everything else, the clubbing yesterday and the shopping and catching up, Charlotte still found that she couldn't appreciate these things nearly as well as she'd hoped. All she could think about was the reason she was there, a reason she hadn't shared. And she should have known it was only a matter of time before the girls called her out on it.

( Distracted Charlotte is Distracted )

But Charlotte, for the most part, hadn't heard half of what Samantha was talking about, since her mind, still heavy with worry, was distracted and back in Maryland. She just hoped everything was okay. She hoped Dale was okay. She hoped she was okay trying to pretend that everything was okay.


[[ more where-my-pups-were-all-weekend Establishly, unless anyone wants to get a hold of her via phone, and NFB for distance, OOC always welcome, tra la la ]]

There was a bit of sadness involved in returning to the island and her apartment and, eventually, to work, but there was also a bit of relief in it because, as strange as this place was, it was really starting to grow on Charlotte. It had been a long week, but a fun one, busy but mostly enjoyable, and it was certainly good to see the girls again, even if she found she had to hedge some of her conversations a little to avoid them thinking she'd gone insane in her exile from New York. She was happy to get back to things as...'normal,' though, especially with the next exhibit. So much work to do there!

But that could wait.

Had to wait, actually, until tomorrow.

Because, right now, the real question on Charlotte's mind as she settled in from the trip back was where she was going to put all the new stuff she bought. She really should have put in a third closet when she remodeled the place.


[[ establishy, but certainly open if anyone wants to swing by for a visit! ]]

Charlotte might have been a little late in doing this, but she finally managed to get an email to her employees before heading in for her class today.


( Cut for Email for Gallery Employees (Teddy, Eve, Kevin) )

To say that Charlotte was a little bit shocked when she came out into the kitchen to make some coffee and turned on the facet to find the water not exactly the color that water you'd want to drink should be would be an understatement. She turned it off quickly and tried again, and then let out a little groan in thinking that, already, the day was starting off on a low note, thinking she'd probably need to call someone in. But then she noticed that there was a certain aroma to it, not rust or sewage like she might have originally thought, but...

She reached for a glass and filled it; she took a tentative sniff. And then, against all common sense but quite ready to heave a second later, a tentative sip.

Yup, that was definitely rum.

"Oh," she said with a contemplative frown, "that cannot be good for the piping..."


[[ it was stuck in my brain, had to get it out. open if anyone wants to stop by, but especially so for that guy who probably stayed over last night, hum ]]