driftfleet | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe. Doesn't feel like that stops the need.

[ With all the shit that keeps cropping up, maybe letting their guard down isn't the best thing to do, anyway. ]

At least there's this. [ He nods to the party going on around them. ]

Enjoying a party and dance, even if there's at least two knives up your skirt.

[Or sleeves. As it were.]

Some people just weren't meant to sleep without a gun under their pillow.

[No doubting that's true of both of them, too.]

But this is nice.

Some people aren't aware why they should sleep with a gun under theirs.

[ People like them is the reason why. They know what creeps in the dark, lying in wait. ]

Mm. It's a decent change of pace.

[That's what she'd like to believe she's doing as an Avenger. Making sure other people don't need to sleep with a gun under their pillow—she's already gone that way. At least she could turn it to a better end.

She doesn't defend that to him, though. Not now. It seems like admitting too much.]

It is, while it lasts.

Never really lasts for long.

[ Not that he needs to tell her that- she knows better than anyone. ]

[That she does. It would be easy to let that bother her, too. Instead, she puts on a smile. It doesn't look forced.

At least, it wouldn't to someone who didn't know what to look for.]

That's why we have to make the most of it while it lasts.

[ The smile is echoed, at least. ]

Easy enough to do right now. [ What with his current dance partner and all. ]

[She gives him a thoughtful look. It's New Years Eve, and she's been drinking, she's been dancing, and that is without a doubt influencing her decision making just now.

That and, if she's honest with herself, her memories of how he'd treated her s a child.

Either way, she steps a little closer and goes up on her toes, moving in a way that's clearly not threatening, and kisses his cheek.]

You know... you might be a nicer guy than you realize.

[ Well, that's unexpected. Not unwanted, but coming from Natasha of all people, who isn't as up front with emotion. It says a lot more than words do. Nothing romantic meant by it, but it's reassuring, in a way. Were it another situation and were he someone else, it might be seen as a kiss of death. Or at the very least, extreme bodily harm.

It throws him off enough that it takes a moment to find his voice. ]

Careful, I have a reputation.

[ No, Bucky. Just.. no. ]

[Oh no, confirmation that he's softer than he seems.]

You think your reputation is going to scare me of?

No more than yours scares me.

[ Which it doesn't. He's not known for being the most verbose, either. Then there was that whole glitch where he tried killing people so that's working against him somewhat. ]

[That gets a snort, amused. Her reputation as a killer? No, she didn't figure. Unlike most men who'd say that though, she didn't think he was saying tit because he underestimated her or was distracted by her face.]

In that case, I'd say we can safely ignore the reputations.

Suppose they don't mean much here. Not in the way they do back home.

[ Although it's hard for the pair of them to avoid it all that much, even in the fleet. Everything sort of bleeds through. ]

[Her expression falls a little then the line of her lips turning more serious as she thinks of her time as a child, or the stories she's heard about Bucky's glitch. The way these things eventually come up in conversation.]

They don't until suddenly they do. Isn't that the way it works?

That's the way the world works. Doesn't matter where we are. Nothing matters until it's put into question or drawn to light.

[ People had known about his strength before- had seen it in person or in the Calibrations. It hadn't been who he was until he'd glitched and everyone got to see the monster wearing a dead man's ill-fitting skin. ]

[Natasha doesn't need to be a mind reader to follow the grim turn. Or to sympathize with it.]

It doesn't matter because it's not you. You're not just the things you've done.

And I mean it. I'm not worried about your reputation.

[She knows from first hand experience what he's capable of. And she knows why he's done it. At that point, rumors and mystique fade away.]

It would be pretty hypocritical if I were.

[ Boy, he sure knows how to kill a mood, doesn't he? Not that there was much of a mood to be had in the first place. Because there's nothing going on here. ]

I shouldn't have to explain it to you of all people. [ She understands. Truly understands and not the vague comprehension that most have. ]

Same goes for you. [ Doesn't care about hers- she's not what the Red Room made her anymore than he is what HYDRA made him. It shapes them, sure, but they're not monsters too far gone to save. ]

You don't have to explain.

[It's not the same in many of the details, some of them very important. Natasha had been a child when she was brought in; she had no adult identity before she was made into a weapon, and few memories before it. On the other hand, she had never been controlled as completely a him.

But it was similar enough that they understood each other for in the moment.

They both knew what it was not to be able to go back to some time before they were killers, and they both knew what it was like to try to move forward regardless.

Her smile in response is sad. Neither of them is exactly hopeful. But Natasha, at least, intends to survive. That means finding a way to live with herself.]

I won't ask you to, either. I just wanted to be clear.

[She appreciates that he returns the favor, but she's less sure how to acknowledge that. It skirts dangerously close to her feelings about herself and her own crimes. In the end, she lets it go without directly thanking him.]

MINGLE — NYE & Winn's Birthday PARTY!

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