🎃 HALLOWEEN MINGLE 🎃

[benames]

You are cordially invited to Cisco and Winn's Not-Too-Terrifying Halloween Costume Party!

Who: everyone ( yes, you too!)
Broadcast: N/A
Action: aboard the Iskaulit!
When: current



[ on the night of the 28th, the lecture hall will open its gates though it'll look remarkably different. Winn and Cisco would have decorated the corridors leading to it with Jack-o'-lanterns made from the pumpkins gathered at the little patch on the planet. The hall itself will be similarly decorated, along with other traditional scary Halloween decorations made from paper and fabric ( don't ruin the little paper spiders, they took hours to make! ). There will be music from various times of Earth-1 and Earth-3, so don't be surprised to find Lady Gaga playing alongside the Spice Girls! Feel free to make requests or otherwise, just show your skills on the dance floor!

There will be a bar run by Nami offering free sodas, though you'll have to pay for your own alcohol ( remember, don't drink and fly! ). Alongside the bar, characters will find a few tables offering candy from Earth-1 won by Cisco at the game room with a little sign reading TAKE ONE, LEAVE SOME FOR OTHERS and quite a lot of space chips and protein dips as well as various candy from all over the different planets ( cleverly hoarded by Winn! ) and a large selection of pumpkin pies and pumpkin treats. Characters will also find a line leading to Cisco's trusty ice cream machine, though it'll only offer peanut butter flavored sorbet.

At the corner of the hall there will be a karaoke machine with a little sign-up sheet. Characters could sign up solo or in groups and list the song they'd like to sing. Keep in mind though, the entire hall will be able to hear your rendition of Sexy and I Know it!

Adventure-seeking characters will be able to follow signs reading HAUNTED HOUSE and reach a large hall that was turned into a maze by large cardboard blocks painted black or covered by dark fabrics. Making it out of the maze won't be too hard and the maze itself won't be too frightening but will be mildly startling. It'll include some nifty engineered animatronics of witches, scarecrows, scary clowns and skeletons as well as holograms of ghosts! The song featured in the invitation will also be heard here, on repeat. It's a good break from the dancing and for some private conversations and moments.

Remember, costume are mandatory! you don't want to be caught by tonight's pumpkin kings, do you? ]

Comments

[mucked]

[ oh, now she will laugh. ]

Me? A dancer. No -- not at all. [ a little ironic, she thinks, given her costume. but that's neither here nor there.

putting it mildly: ] But I saw a few of the shows. His shows.

[passingthrough]

Hey, there is nothing wrong with being a dancer. [She practically grew up on a diet of ballet and modern dancing.]

His shows? You were around back then? [It surprises her when she knows it shouldn't. She's hung out with plenty of people from what she'd consider the past like Allen.]

[mucked]

[ -- she'd not cast any aspersions on dancing. more on herself, and the likelihood of her ever taking the stage. it was laughable, really. no matter what angie had said about her legs.

brusquely: ] Back then wasn't all that long ago, for some of us. But yes. I was.

[passingthrough]

Right. Sorry. My grandpa used to tell me a lot of stories about World War II. [She holds out a hand.] I'm Kitty. Kitty Pryde.

[mucked]

[ she takes kitty's hand with one of her own gloved palms. the shake is firm, but brief. ]

Peggy Carter. From aboard the Starstruck. But before that? 1947.

[passingthrough]

Windrose. With squatting rights on the Tourist. [No year given because that's madness.] Good to meet you. Are you and Steve friends?

[mucked]

[ friends? cue a minor inner panic. peggy has been dodging questions like these for most of her post-war life, and it seems strange now that she should be permitted to meet them head-on. with honesty, and the freedom to expect no crass judgment in return. she clears her throat. ]

He's my -- security officer. [ oh, that falls flat. peggy doesn't fluster or blush, but she does expression a minor floundering before she clarifies: ] And a very good friend. I met him before the, ah -- [ she gestures at kitty's costume. ] Before the spectacle.

[passingthrough]

I'm sure he's a very good security officer. [Looking somewhat amused by that description.]

I think my costume feels mildly insulted. [She smiles though.] For what it's worth, I know there was a lot of propaganda with him, but I always liked how much it meant to my Grandpa that people from his new country were fighting to protect our people there. He liked telling me stories about Captain America. His sister died in Auschwitz, but Steve saved a lot of lives. I'm sure a lot of people did, but he was the one Grandpa had a picture book of when he'd tell me stories.

[mucked]

[ ms. pryde provides salient, thoughtful points -- but peggy finds herself feeling more than a little unsettled by the rush of words and the sharing of sentiment. she simply isn't prepared to dip so deep into conversation upon a first impression. ever the spy, her heart hangs back. whatever honest admiration she might feel for the other woman's honesty, she suppresses it. it isn't the time; it isn't the place. she's had a bit too much fake-whiskey to try and unpack the delicate layers of a tragedy that happened decades ago for kitty's family, and barely two years ago for the world back home. fresh, lurid scars. she always has trouble discussing these matters with people to whom the war was semi-distant history. it unsettles her.

instead, she only skirts the surface of their chat: ] A picture book? There's one I'd never heard tell of before. I wish I could have seen it.

[passingthrough]

[Kitty definitely trends toward honesty. Keeps things simpler which is good. Life is complicated enough as it is. Of course sometimes she uses it to reach out and connect and sometimes she wields it more like a shield or a weapon to keep people out or cut them. In this case, it's just something she's had on her mind because of the uniform and this is when it chose to spill.]

It was old and worn and more than a little cheesy. Grandpa improvised the story as I got older. I'm not sure how much I know about Steve is actually true or not. But from knowing him here I don't think he was that far off at least in spirit.

[mucked]

Most of what came afterward was -- embellished, certainly. [ a tightening in her throat. this conversation is well outside of her comfort zone, clearly. ] Some of it ludicrously so.

[passingthrough]

Sure. I mean, I wasn't even sure he was ever a real person until I realized who Steve was. [Even though her grandfather had insisted. But she's picking up on those not so verbal signals.]

So, how long have you been with the fleet?

[mucked]

A little over a year, now. [ she eases back into her politeness. ] Which may or may not tip my scales towards veteran status. I'm not certain. What about yourself?

[passingthrough]

Less. Impressive we went this long without meeting. I showed up at the start of February. I'm on Vision's ship. Do you know the other Avengers? [They weren't exactly around for Steve's first run.]

[mucked]

Likely my fault -- the Starstruck keeps me busy. [ and she's never felt the urge to wander, so to speak, socially. peggy doesn't make friends. ] But I do know the Avengers. The Maximoff siblings are aboard my ship, for two.

[ and she has a professional relationship with most of the others -- occasionally frigid, it would seem, with bucky. ]

[passingthrough]

I've visited Wanda a couple of times. I didn't really take the opportunity to explore. [Which she would normally do, but both times were pretty intense talks they were having.]

They were both on my team back home. [Or Wanda had been while she was still alive.] Things worked out a little differently in my world.

[mucked]

I hear that a lot. [ the differences -- the uncertainties. ] For what it's worth, they all might as well be from a different world to me, as well. Since, as you've doubtless worked out, I predate the lost of them by a good seven decades.

[passingthrough]

Yeah... That's a lot of future knowledge to take in. [How's that working out?]

The only person from my version of a universe is from a few years into the future. And that's already too much. [Things went really well and then they spiraled down to the actual worst.]

[mucked]

Think about it for too long, and you're liable to feel like a train on pre-designed tracks. Inflexible.

[passingthrough]

Mmm, it definitely feels like that. [Especially knowing that she has seconds to change things if she goes back. And seconds would be enough time. She could phase instead of being a fool in love. But would it be enough time to realize where she was or what was happening if she did keep all her memories? And how would she even begin to change them other than keeping herself alive a little longer.]

How do you keep yourself off the tracks? Or do you?

[mucked]

I trust my instincts. [ above all else. above others. even above steve. ] To stick with the analogy a little longer, I think I can stomach the tracks laid of my own inclinations.

[ not choices. not will. she speaks of the primal, knee-jerk moments that shape the broader strokes of life. ]

[passingthrough]

Hmm. I remember instinct trusting. Mine went a little off the rails after I spent almost a year in a multidimensional prison that turned out to be a virtual reality. [Has a way of making a person doubt all their senses when everything tracked as real and then it wasn't. Or maybe that was the illusion, but not being sure just makes the rabbit hole deeper.]

[mucked]

That'll do it, I imagine. Although I suppose one's instincts don't go wrong in circumstances such as those. More like the data can't be trusted -- even if you react to it precisely as you should.

[ a sly way of at least absolving kitty of her mistakes, perhaps. or else a means of moving the conversation on without probing too deeply. hard to say whether she's being sympathetic or hard-hearted. ]

[passingthrough]

True. [But sometimes it's easier to feel like a failure than to feel helpless. Since that's a terrible conversation though...] I should probably get some more mingling on. Wouldn't want anyone to miss out on the costume. It was good meeting you though.