MINGLE — NYE & Winn's Birthday PARTY!

[passingthrough]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: Broadcast — Earlier than now for planning
Action: Hotel Corona — Winn's birthday / NYE party!
When: Action — Dec. 31 / New Year's Eve

[Broadcast (open to everyone but Winn)]
At the risk for earning a reputation as a party planner, I have a thing for everyone to attend again. Don't worry, lots of other people are helping pull it together. It's going to be on New Year's Eve, but the real event is the countdown to Winn's birthday which is also on the first. It's going to be in a club we rented out for this in the red shift district. Starts around seven-ish. Ends when you pass out?

It's kind of a surprise maybe? At least the part where it's for his birthday. And if you don't know Winn but you still want to come that's fine too. You can trade a gift for Winn for a free drink at the bar. Otherwise, bring some money. Cake's on us though.

[Birthday/New Year's Party]
[The space is well decorated and so glittered you can probably tell Wrath was part of the team putting this together. Lots of Winn's friends came out to help whether it was getting decorations up, managing food, music, or chipping in to buy out the space and a drink for anyone bringing a gift. Not to mention drinks for the birthday boy all night.

There's a table for presents and another one with a spread of openly available food though the bar has appetizers you can buy too. There's a big cake at one end because of course there is and some punch that didn't start the night spiked at least. There's space for dancing and a karaoke machine set up on a small raised platform for those who want to try their hand at entertainment.

The night really kicks off when Winn walks in and instead of a balloon drop there's a fluffy blue stuffed bear drop. Feel free to take one of those home. There are a lot.

When midnight comes closer some people will file out to one of the observation areas to get a good view of the nebula for the big countdown. Bring your own person to kiss!

Comments

[notmutantbutmiracle]

"Mutant?"

[Wanda repeats the word. Not sure if she likes the sound of it.]

Your powers come from your DNA... so they are passed down to you by your parents?

[passingthrough]

[Don't worry, they've found words to sound even worse.]

It can, but mutations can start spontaneously too. My parents were human.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

What did your parents think of your powers?

[Wanda tries to imagine how her parents would react to her own abilities and to her brother's.]

[passingthrough]

[Talking about her parents still hits her after all this time. She glances away and pushes through an answer because she doesn't want to be the one who can't handle a simple question.]

Never told them.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Yeah, Wanda immediately picks up on the fact that she just stepped on a sore spot. She bites her lip, curses at herself internally. Couldn't she do anything right at the moment?]

I... noticed this was also a birthday party?

[She winces slightly. It was a pointless question. The invitation to the party had already said as much, but she's desperately trying to change the topic of conversation to something more pleasant. She's basically praying she can somehow walk away from this conversation without causing more damage at this point.]

[passingthrough]

[Obvious or not, it's easier to roll with that. She's always better speaking of her parents when she's the one to bring them up.] Winn's. My boyfriend. It's tomorrow technically. Figured everyone would be too tired to celebrate by then.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

That's-- that's very thoughtful.

[Christ, she was struggling here. That voice cursing at herself getting louder in her head.]

You both have a lot of friends here...

[She thinks maybe mentioning the other party guests again, the people Kitty'd probably prefer to be around at the moment, might provide Kitty with an easy way to exit this talk if she wants. Wanda's feeling awful that she's pulled the young woman away from the fun for this train-wreck of a conversation.]

[passingthrough]

So do you. [Look at her being stubborn. How did she get all those friends?]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda opens her mouth to respond, but closes it again almost immediately. She looks as guilty as she feels now.]

I... I wish I remembered...

[She's wrestled with this a lot previously. She'd thought she had resigned herself to being defiant. All these people say they know "her," but they just know some other version of herself. Someone she is not, someone she does not want to feel obligated to have to live up to just for the sake of others' happiness. That's what she had thought... but now...]

[passingthrough]

Maybe you still will. If not, you'll make new memories. It'll work out. [Because it has to. You have to adjust to life because it won't adjust to you.]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[She still looks uncertain. Wanda wants to trust Kitty on her word, but there's still that one prominent source of doubt in her mind.]

What if I'm not the same Wanda everyone thinks I am? What if I never will be?

[passingthrough]

Also possible.

I can't speak for everyone, but in all the time I've been trapped in various multidimensional prisons like this I've only ever met one other person from my world. Otherwise it's been a lot of names and faces I know without the history to match. And I could treat them like strangers or I could feel a little closer to home. I'm usually happier when I do that last one.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda opens her mouth to respond, to ask more about these "multidimensional prisons" Kitty just mentioned, but she thinks better of it. Now was not the time for asking questions that dig into this woman's past. Instead, Wanda shifts to a more consolatory expression.]

That... that sounds hard... to have so many familiar faces and names around you, yet still find only strangers.

[passingthrough]

It's...different. But they don't stay strangers either. [Even if the connection is always a little complicated by the other versions of themselves.]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

How do you keep yourself from comparing the two? These people with the same names, same faces, but different backgrounds, histories, lives -- how do you not compare them to those you know from home?

[passingthrough]

...Who says I don't? I mean, I'm not trying to figure out who is better or anything, but I wouldn't know how to cut out those kinds of thoughts completely.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

But doesn't that... doesn't it kind of hurt? To be reminded of the differences between them and those you know from home?

[Wanda's worried she might be pushing this too hard, but she... she just doesn't want to cause Kitty any needless pain just by being around her and having the same face and name as a friend of hers.]

[passingthrough]

Eh. [Was that a good answer? No? Okay.] Of all the things that hurt it doesn't crack the top ten.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda ponders Kitty's words for a moment. She hopes that they might hold true for the others in the Fleet who seemed to know her before she'd even gotten to know them. That feeling as though she's not living up to expectations, of this mental image of who she is "supposed to be," has been rather alienating up to now.]

So... this must feeling like starting over, while to me it's the first time getting to know you...

[She smiles weakly, sheepishly.]

It seems you have me at a big disadvantage then. You already know more about me than I do about you.

[passingthrough]

I do. All the cards are in my hands! [She smiles lightly.] What do you want to know?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

I guess... how long have you been here yourself?

[passingthrough]

Eleven months. [Pretty much exactly.] And I was in a place like this before that.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Another place... before this one? Not your home, but another place like this?

[A flash of fear in Wanda's eyes. She had not even contemplated that there could be more than one such place as the Fleet.]

[passingthrough]

Right. I mean, it wasn't a space fleet. It was an underwater prison, but mysterious overlords kidnapping people from a multiverse and...are you okay? [Noticing she seems alarmed about it.]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Yes, I- I just had not considered that there were other places like this out there. It's... it's sort of daunting... to think about...