driftfleet | 🎃 HALLOWEEN MINGLE 🎃

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🎃 HALLOWEEN MINGLE 🎃

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? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ funny, how this evening began with her in doubt about the entire holiday and him more keen on it. By now, he misses the way she usually looks, the dark hair, her own clothes. Her lips leave a soft smudge of red on his palm and he smiles as she trails off, one metaphor leading to another. He'd kiss her properly if it weren't for all that audience. ] I think I understand. [ a quick spin and then she's pulled closer again. ] It's been quite a night, after all. [ enough to justify a metaphor running away on someone, surely ]

[ tonight is a good start. but that, like most of these past two months, is all it is: a start. dancing with steve tonight is like learning how to walk all over again -- having loved, and lost...and loved and lost again.

she thuds gently back against his chest -- pleasantly breathless. ]

And if we're fortunate, there will be many more.

[ it's a dangerous assumption, but one he can't help but humoring at least for tonight; that maybe after their shared grief, the loss of one another, that they've earned this. it doesn't feel like a stolen moment, not by far. ]

Well, the holidays are coming up.

[ something to look forward to, if Halloween is any indication. ]

Now, Christmas? I quite like. [ not least of all due to the last one, but she still stays mum on that point. ] All the cheer and all the spice. I'm looking forward to it.

I'll have to talk to Winn, I think he must have every decoration possible on the Tourist. I bet he has some Christmas things.

[ what a joyous little concept, the thought of another shared holiday. ]

Well, at least we'll have enough pumpkins for about a dozen pies.

[ she leans her chin on his shoulder -- comfortable, and honest. ]

Last year, there was a lovely little gathering held by a young woman named Rogue. [ a beat. ] A mutant, from one of the versions of the X-Men. It wasn't busy like this, and she played all the right music. I'd only been in the fleet about four months.

[ it's a new territory, not only the dance itself but this proximity between them. It makes him just nearly stumble on his feet but thankfully, not quite. he clears his throat. ]

We could try for one.

[ a gathering. ]

It doesn't necessary has to be this big.

And what? Host it ourselves?

[ -- at first, she sounds downright incredulous. but as they sway and turn in their steps, she begins to warm to the idea. ] You and I. Well. There's an idea.

[ after all, it's just about the only way to be certain she won't complain about the music. ]

One way to make sure it's not crowded-

[ it stands to reason, after all. a measure of control over an occasional gathering can only be maintained if one organizes it. ]

Invite the Starstruck. The others from -- [ she can't quite say home. the time discrepancy is a little odd. ] The Avengers. Our Rip Van Winkles might be awake by then.

[ though she's not convinced either tony or bucky would make good guests. ]

I was almost tempted to draw whiskers on his face last time I've been there.

[ he checks on bucky from time to time, makes sure all is stable, even when he's asleep. he doesn't like this one bit but at least they can still keep an eye on him. his thoughts flow in the same direction her own do, it seems that Christmas is his deadline. there are things to be fixed, to be amended before than. ]

Hank, Raven, Kara, Winn, Kitty.

[ except for the avengers, that seems to be his list. ]

[ they are cheek-to-cheek, and dancing without proscribed steps but instead letting the music dictate their movements. her conversation is hushed, and light. just for the pair of them. ]

Provided Winn doesn't take it as a personal affront against his party-planning, [ because she might have cast some light aspersions against the concept of a winn-planned christmas party down the line.

whoops. ]

Why would he think that?

[ he smiles, an odd thing for her to say, after all. but then, he sighs, angles his head, his next words are spoken, low and amused against her ear. ]

Peg - why would he think that?

[ it's damned tough to be tactful about all this with his words skating the edge of her ear. peggy smiles, realizes it's tasteless to smile, and does everything in her power to stop. ]

Christmas came up in our conversation. He asked me what I'd want to see served at his holiday party and I -- [ pragmatic realist that she is ] -- I may have explained to him I wouldn't necessarily preference his party over others. It was all very fine and honest at the time.

[ here's the kicker: ] Only it looks a little hinky if we now go and hold our own. [ not to say they shouldn't. she's very tempted by the thought of doing something as a couple. ]

Winn likes you quite a lot.

[ something which never fails to make him glad. his friends, well, save for tony, don't take to teasing either of them about this. it allows them to keep this simple intimacy between them even though by now, surely everyone knows. it doesn't feel as if they do, a little blessing for two people who have spent far too much time in the spotlight before. ]

He won't think much of it.

You're certain of that? He seems so -- easily rattled.

[ it's a judicious description. peggy actively avoids ascribing the words weak and willed to the young man, although she does meet his eagerness to please others with a fair heap of discomfort. winn is almost too nice; deep down, she worries that a personality like that is easily manipulated. easily harnessed.

not that she suspects he would crumble willingly to a bad influence, but she can too readily see how a bad influence masquerading as a good one could comfortably manage his more glaring insecurities. ]

By you? I was too, at first. Probably never met anyone like you before, I don't really blame him.

[ he smiles against her cheek. Winn reminds him a little bit of himself before erskine, the little guy, the one who can't really find his place in a world much bigger than himself. he is quick to assure him, quicker to protect - he lacks steve's confidence and it's that confidence he's very keen on creating and instilling and straightening. ]

Oh, spare me. [ they sway together, and it's all very sweet and tender. but peggy's voice brooks as little argument as she can manage. ] When I met you, you still had plenty of backbone to spare. You might have been clumsy -- but you were never cowed.

[ and that backbone caught her eye long before anything else did. she'd felt a kinship, there, when she saw him do what the other larger stronger recruits couldn't. ]

Peg, I called you a dame.

[ dryly. ]

I think as long as he didn't do that, he's still doing pretty ok for himself.

[ oh, hell. he's going to make her spell it out, isn't he? peggy sighs and draws back just far enough so she can look hims squarely in his eyes -- or as squarely as she can manage, now that he's considerably taller than her. even with the heels. ]

-- I took especial notice of you long before that particular conversational misstep, you realize.

[ there is something there, evident in his features; something softens at once. it's surprise, she evidently caught him unprepared. ]

I didn't.

[ it dawns on him that they've never really had the chance to discuss these things. this moment, suddenly, feels too important, too intimate, perhaps, for such a crowded room. ]

[ oh. peggy had always taken it for granted, perhaps. she'd felt something sharp and impressive in that first moment, when steve dove on that dummy grenade -- narrowly beating her to the same action. she'd felt akin to him in that moment. she'd felt similar. time had only reinforced it.

given his surprise, she presses her advantage -- explaining in a low whisper: ] Do you think Erskine and Phillips were the only ones weighing in on Project Rebirth and its candidates? Observing them?

[ that clipboard wasn't merely for show. ]

No ma'am.

[ he breathes, at once. maybe he should have guessed, or perhaps he never dared to. So much about Peggy is wonderfully familiar and so much else is still a mystery. in those days, before their, well, attempt at a conversation, she was all mystery, entirely too beautiful and wonderfully fierce.

she's exactly the same here and now, too, suddenly. he smiles - suddenly, almost shy in her presence. how did this happen? ]

Not at all.

Even then, I would have gladly -- danced. With you.

[ does his stature, and his strength, and his fleshed-out features make her a little weak in the knees? absolutely. there is no denying it -- not never, not since the moment she met him outside the vita-ray chamber. but the funny mathematics of attraction had started well before that re-introduction. despite his clumsy conversation, he'd still managed to say all the right things. he talked of right partners, of never running away, and of taking from life all which it was reluctant to give him. ]

And Erskine wasn't the only one in your corner, when it came to the final selection.

That last part I never had any doubt about.

[ erskine's faith had meant the world and still does. his words ring true to steve, especially as of late, not a perfect soldier but a good man, he once said and steve tries to live by those words as much as he can. peggy's faith is different in the sense of what she risked in its name. he doesn't forget that plane ride, doesn't forget her career being on the line. everything she told him, he held onto as well. some of it she won't know of ( all we can do is our best, she said, he doesn't forget ) but most of it is always present between them. ]

thank you, for that. I never told you.

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