do you wanna dance, do you wanna fight?

Mike blamed the snowpocalypse of last week. But not entirely. Not when it was all over his track record that he Did Not deal well with the holidays in general, and this one in particular. But at least this year he'd actually made it all the way to Christmas Day before he'd caved in and felt the need to run, run, run as far away as he could get and just lose himself somewhere unfamiliar until New Year's was closer than Christmas.

But there was also a bigger difference, this year.

"Babe, can you find a station that's not playing the same five Christmas songs over and over?"

This year, as Mike's pick-up rolled along the road getting further and further away from Fandom, he wasn't alone.

[ooc: NFB, for the girl. Happy holidays!]

It was Halloween, and after a long four-year break, it finally meant that there was a party at the mansion again. There were Jack O'Lanterns outside lighting the way to the house, and bat cut-outs and balloons in the shape of ghosts and skulls all around the house, and creepy looking candy on the snack table.

And a bloody goblin in the fridge. This time, it had a name tag identifying it as April, because Mike was a sentimental fool.

There were also way too many kind of jello shots. And too many versions of Monster Mash on the Spotify playlist for this party, but at least Mike had made a sign with instructions on how to find the playlist and add songs to it.

[ooc: OCD up! OPEN TO ALL! If you're an adult, you got an invitation! Happy Halloween and welcome to long overdue mansion party! ]

Mike did a lot of his work in the space he rented on the mainland, these days, just because it was easier on the transpo side of things when he didn't have to get elaborate rikshaw contraptions and people to carry big pieces of furniture just to get them off the island. But he still liked working on some of the smaller pieces in his workshop at home. Like the vanity table he was assembling today. He'd had to go digging through his storage room to find the old mirror he wanted to use for it. And he'd found it - but he'd also found a big damn box of Halloween supplies from the couple of parties he'd thrown.

Well, at first he'd just found the bloody goblin.

And he'd screamed about as hard as he had the first time, all those years ago. But then he'd laughed, kind of a lot actually. You know, he missed April, a little. And a little more around this time of year. And... it had been way too long since his last Halloween party. Maybe, it would be time for another one. At the very least, he'd hauled the box out of storage, the mirror under one arm and steadying the box against his hip with the other one.

And so now the box was on a side table in his workshop.

(He'd turned the bloody goblin so that it faced the other way.)

And while he worked on the vanity, he was listening to the radio. It made for good background noise, and also that was his girl reading the news, so of course he was tuning in. Which meant that he also got to hear the very end of the broadcast.

"... Wait, what?"

[ooc: Open!]

Mike was turning thirty-six today.

And he wasn't doing a goddamned thing about it. Hey, last year he'd straight up forgotten about his birthday, and that one had at least been one of those big ones that ended with either a five or a zero. He didn't really see a reason to make too much of a big deal of this one, either.

Okay, so he had a beer in hand. And was just lounging on the couch like a man who'd at least decided to relax for his big day. Wasn't that enough?

[ooc: Primarily for that lady friend of his, but open!]

"-- Well, uh, see, my wares take more time to make so Black Friday sales aren't really my --"

The holidays weren't Mike's favorite time of year. Not by a long shot. He had a tendency to hermit it up, or to go far away and make life choices of dubious level of smarts. So you'd think he would've been thankful (no pun intended) for this distraction.

But he wasn't.

Maybe it had to do with the demanding voice at the other end of the line. "Look, Mrs. Woodward," he said, just barely keeping from snapping, "I'm sorry but there's not going to be a sale. And shouldn't you be too busy today to be trying to haggle with me about tomorrow's prices anyway? So, happy Thanksgiving. I have to go now."

When he hung up, he turned his phone all the way off on impulse. Today was going to be a beer and Netflix kind of day, he was pretty sure of it now.

[ooc: Idk. But open, sure.]

Mike had a fuller house this weekend than he'd anticipated. And you know what? He was okay with that. He liked having his own space but it could get a little lonely, too, and stress had been piling on him over the last while, between doing repairs for the shark damage on the house and trying to keep his business on its feet.

So even if there'd been more supernaturally enhanced pairs of ears in the house than would've been ideal for a night with a lady visitor who wasn't going to be in town for long... Mike was really freaking happy. He knew all of this was fleeting – Brooke would leave, and so would his assorted werewolf-adjacent friends – so he was just making a point of enjoying himself as much as he could while it was all happening.

And since he was a good host, he'd wandered into the kitchen in his sweatpants and his ratty tank and was making breakfast. A whole ton of it. Eggs and bacon and toast, the whole lot. Coffee, too, of course. And yes, he had at least half an intention of bringing Brooke breakfast in bed, but that remained to be seen.

It was a good morning out here at the mansion.

[ooc: Open for all of the people staying here, and visitors too, what the hell.]

This week was just no good.

Mike wouldn't have minded the constant distractedness so much if he hadn't had a furniture order he needed to fill by next week. He needed to get like a medal or something for his work ethic, though. He'd stayed home all week – apart from a few store runs and a couple of quick work things off the island – just doing his level best to focus on the task at hand.

The furniture. Not –– anyway.

... He was so glad he lived alone now. Or at least not with a werewolf who knew what he was doing whenever he was doing it.

Although right now? Yeah, he was in his workshop, trying to get this goddamned chair finished so maybe he could go out and have some fun tonight. If he just held on for a while and focused.

[ooc: Open post for whatever!]

It had been way too long since Mike had last done that.

Not the sex, obviously. But taking a girl home with him the same evening he'd met her for the first time. For all the angst he'd had over the last while about weddings and people settling down, he had to admit his old ways also had some merit.

Waking up right now? Naked and not alone? He felt pretty good, yeah.

[ooc: For the girl!]

It was Friday evening and as had been promised by the posters earlier this week, that meant party time! The mansion was ready, and the mustaches were ready.

No really, there were theme-appropriate balloons.

All that was needed now were some people to have a good time.

[ooc: OCD up! Come party!]