driftfleet | Twenty-somethings gotta twenty-something

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Twenty-somethings gotta twenty-something

Who: Everyone invited, everyone gatecrashing (technically you're all invited, so...)
Broadcast: Who knows, maybe some drunken texting later on
Action: Iskaulit Pool!
When: 3 July

[It's a party for a narcissistic redhead who likes to be reminded she's alive. Come celebrate! Alternately, come sneak in and steal the food! There's a bar set up for drinks drastically lowered to cost-price or to-be-paid-later-tab, a non-alcoholic punch in case of wandering minors (spike it and Nami will end you) and random snacks.

Oh, and a pool. Which is heated. Kind of important, that part.

Step right up, I'm reliably informed we'll have Thor with his shirt off, take pictures while you can.]

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[ She blinks. And blushes a little. Whaaaaaaaaaaat is happening right now.

She attempts to disarm with Sincerity. ]

Maybe you should wait until you get to know me better before you try to compliment me. For all you know, I could be a terrible friend, and a worse person, with absolutely nothing worth complimenting.

[It occurs to him a little too late that what he said sounded a lot like flirting, which he was not doing because it never goes well and he's too smart to go around doing that. Definitely. Yes.

Sincerity is super effective!]

That seems unlikely based on the three times that I've spoken to you, [he can be sincere too, see?] but you make a good point. Compliments shouldn't be given out so lightly.

[ Her blush fades. Oh good. This is good. Yes. Everything is fine. ]

Well, I'm glad to hear that. [ Since, you know, she doesn't want to be a terrible person, or be seen that way. (But also, sincerity in that assessment could be a little flustering if she let it; she doesn't.) ] And I agree. Compliments mean more that way. [ She thinks of Sanji and... relents a bit. ] At least, it feels that way to me, especially if they're about things that you don't really know yet.

[ She finishes wringing out her hair at this point and drops her hands down to her sides, giving a little shrug as the heavy mass of it settles down against shoulder. ]

[Pavel really, truly, and sincerely doesn't think that she's a terrible person... not that his assessment should be given much weight since he has thought that of people who could have definitely been classified as terrible. But he's not wrong this time, he's sure!]

Of course. No compliment means as much as the one that comes from someone who is familiar with your less-than-complimentary attributes as well.

[He abruptly remembers his manners.] May I get you a drink?

[ She blinks at the change of topic. ] Uh, sure? Do they have soda over there?

Yes, I think so. Just a moment.

[It actually takes a couple of moments for him to retrieve drinks--a soda for her, water for him--but retrieve he does.]

No drinking for you ever? [Alcohol, he means. Obviously she drinks soda.]

[ She takes the soda before giving him a confused look. ] Drinking? [ Pause a beat. ] Oh! [ She takes a sip of her soda and shakes her head. ] No, I haven't yet. So I don't know what my tolerance is, and finding out in a place like this... doesn't seem to be a good idea.

[ She's been scarred by being in a life-or-death situation and having someone who should have been her biggest support become hopelessly, hopelessly sloshed and become a hazard rather than a help. Honestly... she just doesn't see the appeal. ]

Given the regularity with which bad things happen even in supposedly safe places like this, yes, I agree with you... as difficult as not drinking at all is to imagine.

[ She tilts her head to give him an inquisitive look. ] Why is that so hard to imagine?

It was a little joke. [He smiles sheepishly.] A very little joke. I forget that you're not from a universe with Russia in it. We have a reputation for drinking a great deal, all of us.

Oh, I see. [ And she does! Sort of. But she knows a way out of it anyway, and she's curious. ] I don't know very much about Russia. Most of our Earth studies in world sharing class were focused on the people who were actually from there, so - Japan and America, mostly. What's Russia like?

[ She still enjoys hearing about the different places where people are from, but she'll try not to question him too much to the point of getting homesick or anything. ]

[Pavel is so, so pleased to field such a question. Most people who know him make a concentrated effort to not encourage him to talk about his homeland.]

It is a wonderful country--the largest on Earth, and one of the greatest contributors to science and physics and space travel, and the most beautiful... but I'm biased, of course. There are wide rivers and deep lakes and enormously tall mountains, and there are days during the summer when the sun never fully sets.

[He just loves Russia SO MUCH.]

[ His feelings toward his country are clear in his voice and his enthusiasm, and Katara can't help but smile back. That's just... really nice to hear in someone. ]

Are you very far south, then? We have days like that with the sun too, in the South Pole.

No, far north. [Close enough, climate-wise. Not a lot of people appreciate cool temperatures and short, brilliant summers.] You have a lot of snow, correct? Cold weather, long winters?

[ She nods, smiling. ] There's almost always snow on the ground, even in summer. But we do get breaks long enough for flowers to grow, sometimes. We'd go on hunts for them. I bet it's pretty much the same thing in the north pole, although we didn't stay there very long.

Petersburg, the city that I come from, does thaw sometimes, and there are remarkable summer gardens. The South Pole sounds more like northern Siberia. Mostly snow and frost, but there are flowers in the tundra in warmer seasons.

Does the Water Tribe live in the north as well as in the south?

[ She nods. ] Our sister tribe. They're much more isolated than we are, though, well clear of the main shipping routes.

[ Which was why they managed to stay out of the war for a hundred years. All they did was shut up their boarders and refuse to get involved while the rest of the world was burning. Katara was sorry for bringing trouble to their gates... but not that sorry. She was grieved over Yue, who had been innocent and brave and kind... and what would have happened to her if the North had defended the South, had defended the Earth Kingdom without needing to be goaded into it? ] I visited for the first time during our travels. They had many waterbenders up there, and they made good use of the snow there, turning it into buildings.

That's impressive! [The snow into buildings, not remaining isolated or anything in that bracket text.] If inconvenient, I would imagine, when it begins to thaw.

[ She shakes her head. ] I'd imagine that it never thaws that much. But in the South Pole, even when we had those cities, we preferred to move into tents in the warmer season.

Neither of the poles have weather-independent cities? Buildings made out of stones or bricks? [That idea is so amazingly strange to him. He was a city kid before he was a space kid and he cannot conceive of a lifestyle where there aren't permanent, environment-controlled structures.]

[ She puts her hand to her chin thoughtfully. ] I mean, it's possible that some of the buildings in the north had different building material and were just coated with snow? But no, we haven't had anything like that in the South Pole for years. When I was a kid, I remember that our village was bigger, but everything changed after the Fire Nation attacked.

[ She doesn't really want to talk about that time, though, so she gives a little shrug. ] Why, what's your city built out of?

[Pavel is pretty good at intuiting when people don't want to talk about something, so he just nods.]

Concrete, steel... glass and alloys and things. Sometimes wood, but that is mostly dachas outside of the city. Everything is constructed to last for a very long time regardless of what weather we experience.

[ Well, now she feels like she has to defend her tribe's lack of... technology, for lack of a better word. Not because of his attitude toward it, but because of her own pride in where she comes from, and in the fact that they lived. ]

I'm... fairly sure that only the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom has access to steel, although it might be some other kind of metal. And I don't think I've seen concrete anywhere at home... maybe it hasn't been invented yet? Streets and houses in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation are usually just made of stone. It was the same with the Air Bender temples.

I'm not certain when concrete first happened, but your world is probably better without it. It sounds much more beautiful. [He sounds a little wistful.]

Is it uncomfortable, being in space? Or did the place that you were prior to this prepare you for an entirely artificial environment?

It's not as bad as it could be. You should have seen me when Luceti first got electricity in houses - in my world, that's primarily associated with lightning and used as a weapon. I was really freaked out. [ And MICROWAVES. What. They still made no sense to her.

That didn't stop her from USING them, but they made no sense. (Laundry machines, though? Those erased any lingering doubts about the benefits of electricity.) ] And at least... the space here has stars. [ A little flicker of a smile, something haunted about it. ] I like to spend as much time as I can on the planets when we're by one, though. I miss fresh air.

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