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

[morethan084]

Yeah, basically.

[Daisy smiles, realizing how messed up it sounds when someone else says it.]

There are these things called terrigen crystals, and once you’re exposed to the mist from them, it triggers the gene.

[Daisy shifts a little, uncomfortable by the memory it brings forward.]

Or if you’re human, it kills you if you’re not fast enough to stop it from spreading.

[cruelyethuman]

How is that fair.

[Her explanation is still so far from his own, crystals and transformations. A world removed from the gentler explanation of his world, the strings that bind the universe together. That vibrates inside every single thing ever created, hiding in all things and Grisha were the lucky ones. Born with a stronger bond. A firmer string, and the ability to manipulate it. Small Science, because only madmen and the most powerful ones touched the true magic of life.

Merzost. The enthralling substance that allowed for creation of life from nothing.]

But you learned by accident. Someone tried to kill you.

[morethan084]

No.

[It's been a long time since Daisy has even thought of Raina, and thinking about her fills her with a mix of emotions.]

They knew what I was before I did.

[Daisy smiles sadly, making eye contact with him before looking away.]

I knew I was--

Different. But I never expected to be, you know, this.

[cruelyethuman]

[There had never been a time 'before' for him. His legacy and Small Science drilled in to him in infancy and every day since. His mother had made sure he learned, and learned it well, what they were. How the world viewed them and what it would do, in its ignorance and fear, to those like him.

The Darkling still nods, eyes following Daisy's as she looks away.]

Is it that bad, being what you are? No- [a short shake of his head] Being who you are?

[morethan084]

I used to think it was.

[Daisy looks up at him again, the sad smile still on her face.]

I was terrified of what I could do. Even went as far as to find a way to reverse it. Then I met—

[Lincoln. Her mother.]

People like me, and I realized how amazing it was. To have the gifts we do.

[Daisy laughs to break up the tension she feels in her body.]

What about you? How old were you when you first got your powers?

[cruelyethuman]

[There's a sudden bolt of almost-recollection. Of another young woman, standing instead of sitting, asking him to take her Small Science away before the burden of them were too much to bare and Daisy sad smile is a close copy of Alina's.

Of other Grisha, sitting. Standing. Always asking for the same impossible thing, to be otkazat’sya. To be useless and plain, bland and blending in to the tapestry of life. Small, short lives lived in the background of history.]

It was good, that you found others like you.

[A safe place to grow. Like-minded and equally gifted, like the Little Palace.]

Some days it feels as if I've always known. [He smiles.] I can't imagine not being able to use my Small Science.

[morethan084]

Yeah, it was.

[And then there are days that she wonders what Lincoln's life would've been like if they hadn't met. Maybe he'd still be alive today. Death really does follow her.]

Why is it called that anyway? 'Small Science'.

[cruelyethuman]

They used to call it magic.

[The words leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.] Or miracles. But only after the Grisha died, of course. Sankts and Sanktas, blessing the land and dying for it.

[His eyes slide away from her, lost in the memory of long-dead saints. Of the stories meant to scare children in to behaving, or the witch in the woods would eat them alive. The man who can run like a wolf would skin them, or the waves would rise up and swallow them.

Grisha, living in the shadows, hiding to stay alive long enough to control this surging power underneath their skin.]

We call it Small Science because that is what it is. There are rules that even we can't bend. An order to all things, even for those of us who can manipulate it. The theories behind what we can do, has been rigorously tested for centuries.

[morethan084]

So they'd act like you guys weren't behind any of the good you did? That's so messed up.

[But not at all surprising. Hell, the media really loved to twist things she did so she was never shown in a good light.]

Rules like what?

[cruelyethuman]

We didn't, they claim. Saints did, and they all suffered for it. Each one living short and violent lives, filled with anguish and pain. Since we are all still alive, we're too human to be saints and too different to be anything but dangerous.

[A fact not even centuries could erase. They were feared, cast out and killed in great numbers. Less now, with the formation of the Second Army. His Little Palace, granting sanctuary to all how might want it.]

We cannot make things from nothing, our powers come from being more deeply connected to the-- fabric of the world. The tapestry that makes up everything, we can manipulate it. [Or, tear it apart.] It looks a lot like that you can do, Daisy.

[morethan084]

[Frowning, Daisy looks down at her hands as he explains the awful things his people have gone through.]

I'm sorry.

[She knows saying that doesn't make what's happened okay, and she can definitely relate to what he's gone through.]

I moved a mountain, when I first got my powers. It was the first time I wasn't afraid of what I could do.

[Daisy smiles sadly, remembering that time with her mother. Before she knew the truth of her motives.]

So what is it you do, exactly?

[His powers confused her as much as they impressed her.]

[cruelyethuman]

Why are you sorry. You didn't do this to my people.

[The ones responsible would live to regret it. One way or the other.]

Pardon me? [He turns to Daisy fully, brows furrowed.] A mountain? That is truly marvellous.

[The Darkling twitches his fingers and shadows pool in the palm of his hand, like a skein of yarn unravelling across his hand.] I summon shadows. I control them.

[morethan084]

I know. I just--

Can relate is all.

[Daisy smiles at his response. It's nice to not be feared, even if in the past people have had good reason to be afraid of her.

Watching as shadows pour out of his hand, Daisy looks from the dark mist up to his face.]

But shadows can't slice through things. Normally. How do you do that?

[cruelyethuman]

Then, I'm sorry as well. No one should have to... relate to the things that happened to my people.

[With a smirk, showing off because he can and they're safely hiding his hands from view of the other guests, and the Darkling slowly strokes his palms together. The shadows congeal, growing darker as they push together in to a thin line hovering between his hands. No wider than a hair, the Cut lingers.]

There is darkness in all things. My shadows find it and severs them from the whole, the darkness between rocks and the shadows that will always live between the cells of a body. It doesn't cut as much as it... separates.

[A flick, and the blade disappears, leaving nothing behind.]