MINGLE | The "Everyone's Tired and Hungry" Post-Mission Pizza Party

[groupiedrifter]

CHARACTERS: Everyone! A free-for-all general chill-out time, thrown haphazardly together by a mad scientist.
LOCATION: The Mess Hall
DATE: Sometime after the mission. Y'all know.
CONTENT: The Orb Crew tries to relax for a hot goddamn minute.
WARNINGS: Likely drinking or drunkenness, the usual party antics. Very mildly image heavy, NSFW for naughty threads, properly marked.

It seems the party has been properly set up for you all! But of course, there's an exuberant amount of 'Newton*' flair added to it, and people can find all sorts of random things — markers for drawing on the pizza boxes (which he distinctly requested, super important) cover the tables, and it's clear by the one designed like a Pikachu and a dinosaur that he's already began scribbling on them. He's also made... board games literally comprised of pizza boxes as well, including Chess and Connect Four, which is lovingly set up side-by-side on a table and done with intent to annoy.

They've got one deck of cards for games, no chips; you'll have to just make some of your own out of pizza box cardboard. The most grand of all creation appears to be a normal-sized Skeeball table, made of flimsy material, with oranges for balls. It may or may not last the night, but it sure works for now!

There's a very strong bottle of liquor from their last mission open for everyone, and, well, it will get you drunk quite fast if you're not careful. But it's also a Bring Your Own Beer situation; hope you guys asked Viv for some to plan for the party!

Lastly, there's classic bar rock playing from an iPhone rigged to a speaker that looks very very cobbled together, from loose bits and bobs from the lab's many boxes. If you go fiddle with that phone's playlist, you may be able to find a small collection of songs that aren't rock, but are likely from the 90's or early 2000's.

And yes, there is a couch with a sign on it, designated specifically for people who wish to nap. If they'd like. Don't be rude, let people lay down when they're sleepy. (Maybe Newton just put that there for him, honestly.) There are 50 pizzas total, which is practically a whole-ass pizza per person, so enjoy! (And thanks, Viv!)

Feel free to bring your own flair to the party, if you'd like.

These are just a few things for a m b i e n c e.

(*If you mention him, he will appear like a terrible omen.)

Comments

[callada]

I sleep very well.

[Combat applications are limited, though, but he makes do. After a moment he snaps his fingers again, dropping the barrier and letting the sound from outside their immediate surroundings flood back in.]

I can calm the vibrations in sound waves. Drop them to nothing. That's about it.

[morethan084]

So, basically, you're a remote control.

[A smile spread across her face at her own lame joke.]

[callada]

A what now?

[Yeah, he can tell it's a joke based on that face she's making, but it's well over his head.]

That an Earth thing?

[morethan084]

[Daisy presses her lips together to keep from laughing. She didn't think that she'd have to explain what a remote was.]

I didn't think it was just an Earth thing, but it's a device you use to turn some electronics on or off, or to control the volume.

[callada]

Ahh. We don't really have those. Electronics, that is.

[Well, all right, they do to some degree, but they're usually government property or incredibly basic. Or stolen government property. None of this remote control stuff.]

A lot of you come from places where electronics and robots and all that seem so common from what I keep hearing, though. More even than this place, if you set aside the whole ship in space part.

[morethan084]

That sounds--

[Daisy pauses, thinking of the right words to use.]

Like a nightmare.

[An amused smile spreads across her lips. She's on a roll tonight.]

Being in space? Not really new for me, personally. First time I've had a full blown pizza party in space though. So there's that...

[callada]

But not your first pizza party, I take it. I like this better than a pizza party at sea. The waves tend to spill the beer.

[Beer is not exactly limited to pizza parties either, to be fair, but it's the only part of the average pizza dinner he goes for.]

The electronics thing, though, I get it. I have to admit, I don't think I knew what I was missing. You can just... turn on lights! Or send messages to people's heads without having to remember where you last put your transponder snail.

[morethan084]

[Daisy laughs at his excitement over light switches. If that blew his mind, then wait until he heard about cellphones.]

That ones new for me too—

[Hold up.]

Transponder snails? What? Like, actual snails?

[callada]

Well, yeah.

[And his is still in his pocket out of habit, and perhaps the hope that some day he'll get a call. He pulls out a hand-sized yellow snail with what clearly looks like an antique telephone receiver and rotary dial attached to the shell and lets it sit there in his palm. It blinks its large red eyes, then retracts its eye stalks, but otherwise doesn't really do much.]

I haven't gotten a call since I got here but I guess it can't join the network we're all on. Must not be something it can pick up.

[morethan084]

[Daisy doesn't do a great job of hiding her disgust. She's been to a lot of planets, but there are just some things that are still odd to her.]

Do you have to, you know, feed it--?

[She can't look at it too long and instead cranes her head to look up at him again instead.]

[callada]

Sometimes.

[Bothered by transponder snails? That's a new one on him, but maybe they're just so normal in his world that he never thought about it. With a shrug, he stuffs it back into his pocket where it came from, grinning with amusement.]

I've never met anyone who actually almost recoiled from a transponder snail. D'you have the earpiece things at home instead? Or... phones?

[She did mention that i-phone (or was it eye-phone?) earlier but that was just playing music, so it's hard to say if that's related or not to the type of phone that Ed told him about.]

[morethan084]

Where I’m from, most people see them as pests. Uh, no offense.

[Or that big.]

Well, we can’t communicate via each other’s minds when we use them. But we do have them. Usually people use them when they’re on the field or undercover.

We also have phones like this one.

[Nothing with eyes.]

I’m guessing transponder snails don’t play music or play games?

[callada]

[So that is a phone for calls of some sort and not just a music player. Learn something new every day out here. Usually multiple things.

It's interesting, worthy of an eyebrow-raise, when she mentions undercover work so casually. He'd definitely noticed the utility of the thing, especially the mind-to-mind function enabling anyone to be silent in conversation anytime they like. Okay, maybe that's also a bit of a bummer though, since it makes his skillset a tiny bit less unique, but he's never been under the illusion that he's particularly special.]

Not usually. I know they're working on breeding some to display images, though. Even moving images, which - from what I've seen here, that's a lot less exciting to all of you than it is to everyone back home. I guess if you wanted to broadcast a band playing, all you'd have to do is hook a snail up with a better receiver, and then have it call whoever you want to play music at.

[But, you know, no recordings. It's a snail, they don't exactly have much memory going on there. He nods to the phone.]

Doesn't it just feel a little... cold, though? A box like that can't really do emotions or voices right, can it? At least with how this place is set up we can see faces if we want.

[Yes, that's right, the implication is that calls over snail-tech somehow display emotions beyond just the tone of the voice on the other end. Ever seen a snail grin with delight, or roar with anger? There's a new and enjoyable set of mental images for her.]

[morethan084]

How do they--? You know what? I actually don't want to know.

[How they're bred. The image in her head is gross enough.]

I mean, you can talk on the phone?

[She's not sure she really gets what he means by that. If you're texting, then obviously, you're just typing everything out. Tones are harder to get sometimes if you're just texting.

The devices this place gives us don't have it, but, we have a thing called Facetime back home. You can use it to see each other and chat that way.

[callada]

Ah. Well, and these earpiece things somehow do video. I didn't realize that thing could too. The snails tend to adopt, you know, expressions or features like the person who you're calling. Part of their telepathy stuff I guess, somehow. Feels more organic than what I was picturing that did.

[But he shrugs it off. Phones are not the best topic or anything, he's just constantly baffled by the technology differences and until he figures it all out here, he'll keep running into stuff like this.]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this place though, even if it's really different from what I'm used to. The science changes, but the things people want and need are pretty consistent over time, aren't they?

[morethan084]

[Okay, those things are becoming creepier by the second.]

They can--?

They can read your mind?

[Sounds like Daisy's worst nightmare.]

Yeah, that's something I've noticed too. Everywhere I've gone it's all the same basic needs. Food, shelter, sex.

[As Newton proved only a little while ago.]

[callada]

[He quickly shakes his head at her horrified question, and laughs a little. Look, the stuff about people needing things can wait, because first he needs to clarify this:]

No, they read each other's minds. You call by punching in a numbered code but that just tells the snail which other snail to link up to. Then - say I talk into the receiver I've got. The snail on the other end mimics my voice and expressions perfectly, might even shift its head shape a little to its eyes look like mine, and that's how they relay the call to the person listening. It knows what I look like because of the telepathic link from the one looking at me.

[Surely that's less weird. Snails peeking on his thoughts? Hell no. No thanks.]

[morethan084]

[Daisy's eyebrows are practically in her hairline at this point.]

You realize that's not any less creepy, right?

[callada]

[The laugh comes back, heartier now. Man, it's kind of nice just hanging out and talking to people and not stressing about every little thing for once. Daisy's fun company, even if he feels a little bad that she's clearly so horrified by something he thinks of as totally mundane.]

Normal enough to me. And now you've got me trying to think of what else from my world would come across as strange to you, since it's obvious we come from really different places. Do you have merfolk in your world? Or fishmen? Maybe longarms?

[He's going to guess no, just because if those races were more common, you'd think one or two would have turned up here. But hey, maybe he'll be proven wrong.]

[morethan084]

[Daisy looks equally lost as she does surprised when he starts listing off things she's only thought to be as folklore. Well, merfolk anyway. She's never ehard of the other two.]

Merfolk are only in fiction. As far as I know.

[Would it be that surprising if they did actually exist? Not really.]

What's a fishmen? Half fish, half person?

[callada]

Well, no, 'cause they are people. Just not human.

[Which, normally he wouldn't give a shit about pedantry like that, but given it's a hot political topic in his world right now after Fisher Tiger's revolution, it's hard to let it go.]

Fish people. Most of them walk as well as they can swim, they have two arms and two legs like we do, but other traits that take after sharks or carp or whatever. Gills, teeth, fins, scales... [He shrugs.]

[morethan084]

[His world is sounding more and more...

Interesting. Snail phones, fish people.]

What about you? I don't see any scales.

[Daisy winces after the words leave her mouth, realizing how that might've come across.]

Sorry, that was rude.

[callada]

No, no, [he says, waving it off with a quiet laugh.]

Don't worry about it. But, no, I'm entirely human. Far from the tallest human I know, actually, if that's why you were thinking I might not be. Last crew I was sailing with had a guy who was seventeen feet tall.

[Who he completely and utterly loathes, but that's not the point.]

[morethan084]

And do all humans have the ability to control the volume of sound? Or is that just a you thing?

[She's still impressed by that. Could easily come in handy when you're tired of hearing others talk, or are trying to sleep and the neighbors are being noisy.]

[callada]

Just a me thing. Other people of any races can have powers, but it's not that common. There's way better powers, though. I know a girl who can change her limbs into whatever kind of weapon she likes, and a guy who can create and control ice, but here I am making things quiet.

[He's good at self-deprecation, despite his ability's genuine utility. Still, he's also a little jealous sometimes. Why can't he make his arm into a rifle whenever he wants?]