driftfleet | MINGLE — NYE & Winn's Birthday PARTY!

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MINGLE — NYE & Winn's Birthday PARTY!

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!

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

[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...]

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.]

[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?

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.

[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.

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.]

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?

...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.

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.]

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

[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.

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

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

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

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.]

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.]

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...

Yeah, sorry. [But she's not pulling the punch that much because...] It's kind of on the common side from what it sounds like. [She's talked to a lot of people here who had been to a lot of different places.]

[Wanda seems to deflate somewhat. A very apparent look of worry on her face. She's not really sure what to make of this revelation. There was no guarantee that just because other variations of places like the Fleet exist does not mean she will be taken there too. However, the possibility of it frightened her. The idea that, even should she somehow find a way to escape this place, she might just be whisked away to another -- perhaps one even worse than the Fleet.]

Hey, come on. This can't be solved tonight. Why don't you come back in and try to put it out of your mind and have a little fun?

[Wanda looks back over her shoulder at the way they came. Back to the sounds of the party still going on. She still feels unsure about going back to the party if for no other reason that it was hard to completely dispel the feeling that she was "crashing" it -- even if Kitty insisted otherwise. However, she didn't want to keep Kitty out here any longer like this. Of the two of them, SHE most deserved to be back there.]

[Wanda turns back to Kitty with a weak sort of smile back on her face. It does little to fully mask her unease, but she gives a single nod, signaling her acquiescence.]

Maybe get something to eat? There are some snacks. [And Kitty should be mingling back through, but she wants to make sure Wanda is okay.]

[She nods, her weak and sort of uneasy smile fixed in place. Together, the two ladies return to the party, but Wanda immediately breaks off to go stand by the snacks and drinks. Allowing Kitty to go back to mingling with her friends. She resolves that she'll stand around long enough to abate any lingering concern of Kitty's before making a quiet exit.]

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MINGLE — NYE & Winn's Birthday PARTY!

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