entrancelogs | ( open ) Hot Tub Cinema Party...

Entry tags:

( open ) Hot Tub Cinema Party...

Who: Darcy Lewis & YOU!
Where: First Floor, Room 16
When: October 13th in the Evening
Rating: Probably up to PG-13, will update as needed
Summary: Today is the 2 year anniversary of the coffee shop, it's time to celebrate in a not!typical way.
The Story:

There was something to be said for distraction sometimes being the best medicine. The past month had been interesting, but it was time to move forward and celebrate a milestone. The coffee shop had been around for 2 years and somehow was still standing after everything. It had gone through a facelift about 5 months ago and was about to go over another baby one to make room for the celebration. The look of the shop hadn't changed, but there was suddenly a locked door to room 16 as of 10/11 that hadn't been there before considering the shop had previously spanned 2 rooms. Posters were placed all over the mansion as well as a digital invitation in the evening of 10/11, announcing the celebration.

Coffee Shop 2 Year Anniversary Celebration
First Floor, Room 16

10/13 @ 7:30pm
Come one, come all!

BASE CODE BY TESSISAMESS

As of the 13th, the coffee shop is decked out with streamers, balloons, and confetti to celebrate the 2 year anniversary as well as some festive luau-style drink options to tie into the plans for the evening. The menu features a lot of frozen and chilled options that pair nicely with the party later. As people start to arrive, there are two dressing rooms available with closets for anyone who needs to change as well as a plethora of towels. Drinks are available both in the coffee shop and at the bar in the cinema room, alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions. There's also a wide assortment of food and goodies that come with a little warning about moderation on all fronts while in the tubs. Once everyone's settled in and the movie starts, there'll be a little bottle delivered to each hot tub for the group to decide whether or not they'd like to add some bubbles to their party. First movie of the evening will be a little more family friendly with The Goonies, the second film, Labyrinth, going a little further on the risqué spectrum. Various pool-type toys are available, including beach balls to casually toss at other people or the screen.

[ ooc: feel free to put up top levels/claim a hot tub and tag around. This is a mingle post! Hit me up on plurk @

riddlesinthedark or PM me if you have any questions. ]

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[She can't help but chuckle at his first response.]

I mean, I feel like I am, so y'know. Misery loves company. But there's something to be said for getting out.

[She takes a cookie, eats it to fill the silence, give herself something to stop her from talking so much. But he asks, and she wants to oblige. It's kind of fun to make herself sound like the big damn hero, for once. Like she went through it all and it's all a funny joke in the end. But another part of her knows he... gets it. Gets it in a way she doesn't have to describe, because she doesn't know if she could.]

I turned myself in. They were technically a terrorist group. I was wanted. [She pauses, taking another cookie and biting off a piece.] Spent 6 months awaiting trial, trying to warn them there was a huge impending invasion. The work I'd done with them was a band-aid for the apocalypse. I went back to humanity as a whole because I knew I'd need their help if I was going to do anything about it. But they sat around and kept me in lockup until, y'know, the fuckers arrived. And then it was oh, Shepard, save us! Shepard, why didn't you tell us sooner? Oh, why didn't we listen when you said the Reapers were real?

[She makes sure to put her plate down before the last couple lines so she can do the appropriate, and highly sarcastic, jazz hands.]

Before I came here, I was at war for the better part of the last year, even though I was barely on the field. My job's mostly getting other species to pledge their armies to save Earth and fight instead of running. Frankly, I'd rather be on the ground.

[Anything to avoid... everything that's happened.]

So, hah. No rest for the wicked, right?

[She's not sure if she should ask about him, but he did about her. So she feels it's fair.]

What about you? After you woke up?

[ Trading war stories is something that soldiers inevitably do. It's not often that you come across someone else who's been there. Obviously their situations are completely different from each other, but when it comes down to it, war is war. And they've both been through that, even if Shepard's role had been somewhat different than Steve's.

He's still been used as a propaganda tool, if not as a diplomat. ]

That sounds... more than a little frustrating. [ An understatement. Steve would have been pissed in Shepard's situation. ] I'm not sure I would have had the patience to do what you did, but... I'm hoping it all turned out okay in the end? [ Shepard is here, sure, but people can be brought to Wonderland after death. She isn't carrying herself like they lost the battle, but she also seems to prefer taking on a casual air when talking about these serious subjects.

Of course, it's only fair that Steve tell his story in return. He grabs for his own cookie to pick apart, mainly just to give his hands something to do. ]

Well, less than a month after I woke up we had an alien invasion to deal with. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The war I'd fought before was against other humans, you know? [ Steve can't actually say which one is scarier. Is a hostile species of aliens with unbelievable power worse? Or is knowing that your fellow man could carry so much hate for their own kind worse? There's probably no good answer to that question. ]

After that, it's been less full-blown war and more damage control, keeping the world safe against specific threats. [ Steve pauses, glances up to the ceiling, and clears his throat. ] Well, except for the robot army.

[She listens, bites at her mouth a bit. Fighting humans was always the worst part. Cerberus keeping itself so intent, so often that she's fighting them and not the Reapers. It's just always humanity, isn't it? Always them fucking themselves up. She can't help but chuckle a bit at the last part.]

Would you believe the alien threat I'm fighting is synthetic? Because I completely feel you on robot army and damage control.

[Also there was the geth a few years back, which was some serious robot army shenanigans. Plus the Geth, again, last year. And this year. Okay, she's fought a lot of robots too.]

But I get it. Stressful as hell. No real time to do anything you need to. Though I imagine you had it a lot harder, having to adjust to an entire new time. I only missed two years.

[She finishes her cookie to fill the space. They're both desperately trying to keep it light because they're teetering on the edge of something maybe too real for the both of them.]

Also, I still don't know if it's gonna turn out at all. I was en route to bust the whole thing wide open when I got dragged here, and now it's been six months. Met somebody during that influx of people that says it's gonna be over soon, but that just seems almost fake at this point. That it could have an ending at all.

[That she could find an ending where she lives. Where she could find an ending where it was... any kind of end at all, for the people she cares about.]

Edited (fffuckin html) 2016-11-15 04:15 (UTC)

[ So Shepard's dealing with alien robots? That would be a new one, seeing how Ultron and his army had been completely homegrown. Then again, the mind stone had spurred Ultron's creation and "birth," so there had been something otherworldly about him too. Steve scoffs and shakes his head. ] Oh, I believe it.

[ While her remarks about the difficulties he must have had are appreciated, Steve doesn't do a very good job of showing that, brushing off her comment with a shrug. It's true, the adjustment was hard, but he's mainly past it now and he's never liked to dwell on his struggles anyway.

He could grab for something else to snack on, but Steve finds that he can't even pretend at hunger now, not with the direction the conversation goes. Because the thing is, he knows exactly what Shepard's getting at, has been there time and time again. It never ends, not really.

After a quick look around the room to make sure that no one else here is really focused on them, Steve clears his throat and speaks in a hushed tone. ] If there's one thing I've learned, it's that the fight is never over. You might win one battle, but something else will spring up right after it. There's always going to be something else. [ It's doom and gloom, no doubt about it, and pretty heavy to be coming from someone who's supposed to represent freedom and that steady movement toward peace.

But this is the truth, and Shepard is someone who should be able to hear it. To know that what he's saying is right, even if they don't want that to be the case. ]

[Despite herself, she smiles at his answer. There is always something else. Even if she beat the Reapers, there'd be so much to pick up. The remnants of Cerberus still terrorizing the galaxy. The millions of lives lost. Entire planets all but destroyed, like Earth and Thessia. Planets actually destroyed, like the Batarian homeworld. Even if she saves the rest of life in the galaxy, somehow, there's still so many dead. There's still so much she's already lost.

But even across time, space, and universes, there will always be soldiers. Soldiers that understand the fight never really ends.]

Always gonna be some kinda war. Whether it's for somebody else or for you. Truth to be told, I haven't thought much past this one. It seemed kind of frivolous, and I'm not much for fantasizing towards fame.

[Being the first human Spectre was enough. This? Nobody's gonna forget her name for god damn centuries. She's not sure how comfortable she is with that.]

It's kind of comfortable, you know? Not like you're going to become useless. There's always gonna be somebody that wants a fight. But when you deal in war, somebody's gotta pay. Eventually it's gonna be you, over, and over again. Even if you try and leave it behind, it feels like someone else shouldn't put forward where you could've.

[She stops, forces herself to pull back. She doesn't want to get too intense, here. Not on somebody who's really just trying to help.]

But y'know. Just gotta keep goin', right? You'll never find your answers if you stop.

[ This conversation definitely escalated at a rate that neither of them were probably prepared for, but Steve finds a strange kind of comfort in it all the same. Shepard's fight is obviously on an entirely different scale than his own, but it doesn't matter so much. Eventually it comes down to putting your boots on the ground and taking the fight to the enemy, getting your hands dirty because someone has to do it.

Still, it helps to hear someone else voice the same thoughts that have churned around in his head for far too long now. Sometimes there's that urge to just get away from it all, but the knowledge that someone else would have to step up to take his place always keeps him from actually doing it. Not to mention that gnawing fear that without the consistency of the next fight to focus on, he'd have no idea to do with his life, no other purpose.

For all of those reasons, it's hard to wipe the somber look from his face as he watches Shepard and considers all the losses she's had to endure, all the sacrifices she's had to make. But she's still able to smile, shrug it off, and talk about pushing forward. Just like Steve does. ]

One foot in front of the other, yeah. [ He nods firmly, even if his chest feels a little hollowed out after this talk. ]

Of course, now that we're here in Wonderland we may as well be stuck in a holding pattern. [ Which can be both good and bad, depending on the day. ]

[Well, this certainly went father than she expected, but she's quietly happy that she had the right feeling about him to come up and talk. There's something about soldiers, about people who know this sort of fight, that she can recognize a mile away. And hell, maybe it's just her tendency to find other people who are willing to do crazy things without stopping for the good of the universe. But he moves the conversation forward, and she follows.]

Yeah. Finding things to do between events can get harrowing. At least there's plenty of time to party.

[And make the conscious attempt to not get drunk every night.]

And uh, hey. Thanks for talkin' to me about this. Especially since this is our first official meeting and all. It's nice.

[ Steve doesn't even have that temptation to get drunk, seeing how he's physically incapable of it. Unless he goes out of his way to get his hands on some of that Asgardian mead, and he's usually more disciplined than that.

Waking up in cold sweats and heading down to the training room to pummel punching bags until he feels numb, though? That he knows how to do.

The thanks takes him aback for a second, but then Steve nods. ] Yeah, no problem. It's... good to talk about, sometimes. [ Shepard doesn't seem bothered by the fact that their chat has brought down the mood in a situation that's meant to be about fun, so Steve's relieved for that.

He clears his throat, shifts his weight, and adds one last sentiment. ] If you ever, you know, need someone to talk to about this kind of stuff, you know where to find me. [ Meaning that he's little more than a phone call or a text message away. ]

[Poor Steve. Shepard's not sure she'd have made it this far without at least a little alcohol.]

Hey, you too. I've mostly been trying to stay in form here, but I've got a lot of time.

[She's still smiling, despite it all. This is about as honest as she gets outside of, y'know, heavy emotional breakdowns, so... this is healthier. Sort of. Kinda.]

Glad I caught you here, after all.

[ Probably a lot healthier, yeah. Steve does what he can to avoid the breakdowns, and chats like this one at least lets out some of the tension. ]

Likewise.

[ He takes a look around them, then fixes Shepard with his own smile. ]

So, gonna try out one of the hot tubs?

[ He has no idea if this is her kind of scene, but he's certainly curious now. She had mentioned partying, hadn't she? ]

Edited 2016-12-02 16:53 (UTC)

[She quirks an eyebrow, smile turning into a smirk.]

You gonna come with me, or just interested in seeing me in a swimsuit?

[Listen. Listen. He's cute. It's worth a shot.]

[ Okay, well. Steve hadn't been expecting that. They'd connected on the pretext of being experienced soldiers, so the flirting comment is completely out of left field. ]

I wasn't --

[ Here he thought he was used to this kind of attention, but Steve finds himself tongue-tied. ]

It's not really my thing. [ He should probably make that clear first, because the last thing he needs is to be peer pressured into one of the hot tubs. ] I was just curious if it was yours. ... Not that you'd look bad in a swimsuit, either.

[ Wow, did he fumble that or what? ]

[She snickers, just a little bit. Sometimes it's just fun to ruffle someone's feathers, especially since it's usually people coming after her when she doesn't have a good response.]

Never tried a hot tub with people. My old SO had an apartment he leant me that had one at one point. I mostly came to bum around the food, but it might be fun for a little bit. You just here to see the films? Or catching up with friends?

Darcy's a friend of mine, so I wanted to support her. [ Steve searches her out in the crowd, then nods to her. ] I was here when she first started the coffee shop, so it's kind of weird to realize it's been around for two years now.

[ So "catching up with friends" is probably the most accurate response, considering all that. ]

You've all been here that long?

[Damn. She's the longest-staying member of everyone she knows from home by far. But two years is... a lot. A hell of a lot.]

Well, sounds like you're passing the time all right. I'd say a bash like this really makes use of the unlimited resources.

[ Steve nods, a little surprised that Shepard's so shocked by that. It's not like he's the longest-staying person in Wonderland by far. ]

There are other people who've been here for well over four years. But Darcy and I have had the longest stays from our world.

[ It's true that Darcy is a master at making use of the closets for gatherings like this. Steve's used to it by now, but it really does brighten the place up from time to time. ]

Didn't realize it was that common for just... everybody. Guess I had the impression it was more like one or two holdouts who've been here a long time.

[Two years is more than the entirety of the war. Being two years away from that, it's... much. Will she remember? Will it matter?]

At least you're doing everything you can to keep your heads on straight.

[She looks back towards the hot tubs.]

I think I might actually try one of those out. But thanks for talking to me, Rogers.

Yeah, we... try.

[ Even if it's with silly stuff like this. Steve may not be great about getting into the spirit of it, but making an appearance and talking to people like Shepard can help.

It's probably a good thing that Shepard is going to take the chance to relax. Steve may not be comfortable enough to join her, but he still liked their chat. ]

Same to you, Shepard. Enjoy.

[ He nods to her and then lets her go. ]

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( open ) Hot Tub Cinema Party...

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