apocalypsehowcomm | [log] now, the party don't start 'til I walk in

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[log] now, the party don't start 'til I walk in

Who: Akechi, Mercy, Ren, Monika, with the second prompt OPEN MINGLE to anyone who wants to hang out at a club with Monika and co. for Monika's birthday (or just hang out at a club adjacent to Monika's birthday)
When: September 22--Monika's birthday
Where: shopping, then a club that accepts older teens (with wristbands if you're under drinking age)
Summary: It's Monika's birthday, and the decision has been made to go out and party. First, apartment A1 (including Honorary Roommate Ren) goes shopping to prep for said partying, and then they and anyone else who wants to tag along go to the club. Also, Akechi is one of the people going to this club, which will probably be funny.
Warnings: nothing major expected; potential for teen alcohol use; if anything happens in a thread just put warnings in the subject line please!

A. tryin' on all our clothes, clothes [CLOSED to Apartment A1 + Ren]
[If they're all going out for Monika's birthday, it's important to have the right style. It wouldn't be fair to call Mercy's outfits old-fashioned when it's not exactly her fault she got shot forward centuries in time, but now that Mercy is here, Monika is going to make sure she fits right in at the club. Also, it wouldn't hurt to pick out a cute new outfit for herself. The area of town she suggests isn't too expensive, but it's got some good clothing stores.]

Okay everyone! Priority number one is getting a great outfit for Mercy, but if you find something you like, you should grab it. [Treat yourself, this is going to be fun!]

B. DJ, blow my speakers up [OPEN MINGLE-STYLE; threadjacking encouraged!]
[It's the kind of club that accepts teens over sixteen but changes to 21 and up after a certain hour of the night. That makes it a more popular spot than some teen clubs might otherwise be, and the atmosphere is already electric by the time it's dark. The music thumps a bass you can feel in your chest and the dance floor is crowded, but not enough that you can't find a place to squeeze in if you want. If you're under 21, you have to wear a glow-in-the-dark wristband, but there's plenty of non-alcoholic beverages to try out. And of course, if you have a convincing fake ID, your options are a lot more open (just don't let Monika know!). The lights are a multicolored show of their own keeping time to the music, though the flashing is kept to a minimum.

If you're looking for a break or just want to sit and eat, there are booth tables available--small ones for more intimate moments and larger ones for big groups. Monika's picked one of the large ones as her Designated Birthday Table, if you're looking for her, but there's free ones all over the place if you want to have time to yourself! The food here's pretty good, too.]

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[Somebody has not actually managed to get inside. He is, instead, lurking around the outside-- in the lower half of his mask, in several layers of dark-colored shirts, looking actually pretty much like a creeper-- kind of waiting for Monika to come out so he can at least see her. He's asked around about what a "birthday party" is for, so he knows why she's here. He just. Can't make himself go in.

But that does mean he's around to get spotted by Aelwyn, and he does in fact happen to have a lighter. He fishes it out, flicks it open, and sparks a flame, holding it out for her.]

[Oh. Hello terrifying cyborg man. Thank you for the light. She makes use of it, sparking the cigarette alight. She takes a drag of it before she speaks up.]

Thanks. I don't think we've spoken.

Here for the party?

[He hitches a shoulder, not a yes and not a no, then flips the lighter closed and tucks it back into a pocket.]

It's too loud inside. Too many people.

Suppose I can understand that. [Despite her party animal aspects, it's still a bit much to be surrounded by people she doesn't think even like her that much. She's not sure when that changed for her.]

You know Monika all that well?

[Knowing her well is probably a big much, but he does know her, at least.]

I teach her to defend herself. Or to escape and not hurt herself. We have not gotten to much actual defense yet.

[A little, but it's still mostly escape methods of varying types at this point.]

How is she at it, then? She doesn't strike me as a particularly experienced combatant but maybe she'll surprise me.

[She rather hopes so.]

Not experienced at all.

[So really, she guessed right.]

But a quick learner. With time she'll be all right. Not amazing, but able to stay alive in most situations.

[Which, frankly, is what he's really aiming for. Let the actual fighters handle the take-downs while the less combat-oriented of them learn enough to get away.]

Well, if she'll be good enough to survive then she'll have the time to reach her way up to amazing.

I never understood what the point of thrusting freshmen into life or death scenarios and telling them to survive was. Just seems counter-productive. [Apparently the high schools of Spire are a bit fucking batshit.]

It's surprising we haven't had any casualties yet. Just mysterious... [She raises her hands and puts two fingers on each hand to indicate the heavily audible quotation marks behind her words.] "...Disappearances."

Or people just leaving.

[He's not sure how mysterious it is when people can just catch a bus out of town. Still, he's not really blaming ADI for the situation here.]

There has only been one violent problem so far. The kelpies. And the children didn't have to go fight them if they preferred not to.

I think based on the way ADI's reacted to it that it's probably not quite so simple. But maybe, if we're being optimistic.

[Like. Maybe????? But also, no.]

Oh, I wasn't talking about this world, I was talking about mine.

[Is ADI reacting badly to it? Hmm. He's still not sure some of those people didn't just... walk off. He can think of plenty of reasons ADI wouldn't like that.

But he's not here to argue, either.]

Your world sends children to fight?

[A pause. Remembering a tiny Yelena. And he adds,]

Mine does, too. Sometimes.

Yeah. Ours doesn't have organizations like this for each individual planet, it just has high schools that churn out bite sized killing machines.

[She's gradually starting to figure out how unbelievably fucked up that is.]

[Winter nods slowly, looking away.]

Yes. I taught eight year olds how to murder people. I don't know how many. Not whole high schools worth, though. I'm pretty sure.

I'm not actually sure if the elementary schoolers do any killing... I know they do it in the middle school. Hm.

You're military, right? Like, a state super soldier kind of thing?

HYDRA.

[And, because she probably doesn't know what that is, he adds,]

Secret organization. Ties to many branches of many governments.

[He pauses, then asks,]

Why do you need so many people who can kill, in your world?

[She nods. Fair enough. She's suspected that KVX's whole coup was sponsored by a similar government conspiracy.]

Well, just as an example, there's a giant eel in space that's about the size of half a galaxy, and he'd very much like to rule all of reality, so he sends smaller but still ridiculously massive eels to go try to pull that off.

There's also gods of evil that want to start wars, enslave all of humanity, corrupt the very soul of the universe... And that's just the big ones that can't be killed. The smaller threats make these monsters look pathetic. Including a Hydra, funnily enough.

But beyond that, there's just mortals who are rotten to the core and need to be put down. I'm sure you can understand that. [She'd consider herself one of them, but whatever she doesn't need to go into that.]

Edited 2021-10-16 06:35 (UTC)

[ ... huh. He's silent a moment, using that moment to vividly imagine all of that with something like curious interest and maybe some nostalgic pleasure, like he's imagined things like that before. Then he asks,]

Can children do anything against. Giant space eels? Can individuals?

[He's pretty sure if you pitted him against them, even at his best, he wouldn't manage to take down a giant space eel or evil gods.]

Not individually! But they can foil plots of the smaller minions. But generally when they're in groups that compliment their strengths and cover their weaknesses.

My sister, for one, helped kill an ancient dragon that wanted carve an empire out of the world. She was fifteen at the time. She had her friends and a magic artifact that I'd basically handed to her, but still! [She's proud of her!

She's a bit amused at his reaction. That nostalgic curiosity is the most emotion she's seen out of him thus far. The truth is, he'd also probably get absolutely wrecked if he tried to fight an adventuring party from Aguefort. He might take out one or two of them but there's a lot of firepower that comes from even the sophomores or juniors.]

[Ah, right. Magic. It's hard to look sour when half your face is hidden by a mask, but he does kind of give the impression of it. Of course it'd be magic. A giant space eel was probably a magic enemy, to begin with.

So he allows,]

There is no magic where I come from. It is very. Unfamiliar to me.

[She raises a brow.]

In the same way there's no magic here?

[He shakes his head.]

There is magic here. It is tied to the fear things. And strange creatures like the kelpies. We don't have anything like that on my world. I am the strangest thing I have ever heard of, there.

[To demonstrate, he holds up his left hand and pulls the glove off. There's no illusion over the metal arm, since it's not magic or hard to cover up. Just metal. His sleeves are long, so she can only see the plates of his hand, but it's still clearly not a normal hand made out of flesh.]

Oh, I know.

[She looks at his arm, bemused.]

It's just that from my understanding of the multiverse, there's no such thing as a world completely without magic. Just worlds with less of an understanding of what it is and how it works.

[She's wizardsplaining your own world to you, sorry Bucky.]

What metal is that?

[He shrugs.]

If there were magic, I would be trained in how to combat it. Otherwise I could be a liability to HYDRA.

[Which is not entirely true, maybe, but it's his own understanding. He shifts the plates intentionally so she can see them move, clicking up and then down his fingers.]

Titanium alloy. Nearly indestructible. I know what it can do but not the specifics of its construction.

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[log] now, the party don't start 'til I walk in

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