🎃 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]

-- Careful. Echo me too much and you'll start sounding like a grandmother as well.

[outstandingbalance]

No danger of that.

[mucked]

[ a snort. ] I didn't think it would be possible, myself, and yet here I am -- the old lady shaking her fist against the music of the youth.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha steps in a little closer, half turning so she's looking over her shoulder at Peggy and doing another shimmy of her own.]

You're not actually that old.

[mucked]

You're right -- [ pardon her a moment while she turns, fluidly, on the ball of a foot. a pin in her wig threatens to let go, but peggy barely notices. she's enjoying herself. ] I'm not. But the chronological distance plays tricks on the mind, at times.

[outstandingbalance]

Might be easier if you actually were that old, you mean? You'd have lived through it all.

[mucked]

Something like that. [ she concedes. ] It'd be a lot less jarring.

[outstandingbalance]

It just means you have more catching up to do.

[mucked]

[ peggy's grooving, now. the music is infectious and although her moves are little dated -- a little stiff -- they fit with the beat.

raising her voice above the volume: ] I head that Steve kept a list for that very reason.

[outstandingbalance]

[It's good enough for now. Exposure and confidence will help loosen Peggy up.]

Used to. He might still.

I'm not convinced it's the best way to get back in the world.

[mucked]

-- And what would be the best way?

[ according to you, miss romanoff? ]

[outstandingbalance]

Get out there. Fake it 'til you make it?

[They wouldn't have had that saying, but Peggy's a spy. Natasha expects her to get the gist.]

You don't agree?

[mucked]

[ dryly -- and fully on board for whatever ridicule it might inspire -- she answers: ] I would agree that the list would make excellent background research on how, precisely, to fake it.

[outstandingbalance]

Also a pretty good way to avoid immersion.

[mucked]

[ but --

her steps slow. the dancing stops. concerned, she asks: ] Is that truly what he does?

[outstandingbalance]

[Whoops. That got real. Natasha hadn't counted on that.

If it were almost anyone else, Natasha wouldn't even have hesitated to shrug it off, joke it off, wave it away.

But Peggy is on the short list of people who she can't do that with. She pauses her dancing as well, her expression serious to the point of concern as she considers how to answer.]

Steve's lost a lot. [She settles on answering.] I don't blame him for being hesitant to get back in the world. And in some ways, he's not doing so bad... But in others, yeah. He finds ways to isolate himself.

[mucked]

[ ordinarily a pillar of self-control, peggy now doesn't stop herself from peeking over her shoulder -- looking for a sight of her well-suited date. honestly, she can empathize a little with steve's position. she may not have ended up as displaced as him -- but she had come like an outsider to new york city only to promptly cut herself off from the world. it had taken the likes of jarvis and angie to pull her back from that isolation. ]

I suppose I can understand the inclination.

[outstandingbalance]

I can't say I don't understand it.

[Natasha realizes she's in a glass house on this one. Her dishonesty could easily be made for a way to keep her distance too—and she couldn't say it's wrong without more lies. But it's different. She and Steve and different.

She would hate to see him lose his humanity. It's part of what makes him such a hero.]

But you can see how that's not the best thing for him.

[mucked]

I can. I can, indeed. [ -- not least of all because she can remember with considerable clarity the debates that had surrounded project rebirth and its ideal candidate. steve rogers had been chosen for the strength of his character, and his indelible link to the people around him. he'd been thoughtful, and warm, and connected to a city he so dearly wanted to protect. no, not just city -- a whole bloody world.

she clears her throat and suddenly feels less like steve's friend and sweetheart and much more like the agent who had once assessed his suitability for the serum experiment. ]

Stubborn git. [ because she knows coaxing him away from that isolation can't be an easy task -- not even for natasha. ]

[outstandingbalance]

He is that. He is always that.

[mucked]

[ her agreement borders on intimate. ] Always was, too. He once gave me a very heartwarming tour of Brooklyn where he showed me every alleyway wherein he'd -- got involved in fisticuffs.

[ that's lightly put. ]

And I was the idiot asking him why he never ran away.

[outstandingbalance]

Not surprised. Pretty sure it's just not in his DNA.

[And apparently never had been.]

I can't tell you how much easier my life would be if we had roughly one man on the team who new how to compromise.

[mucked]

Thick-skulled, are they?

[outstandingbalance]

Thick-skulled, stubborn as they come and a lot of ego.

[A pause, and she adds.]

It's possibly I shouldn't include Rhodey in that count.

[mucked]

Which teammate is Rhodey, again? [ dot dot dot.

peggy tries to keep up. it's not always a simple task. ]