[SEMI-OPEN MINGLE] Baby dive in, the water feels fine

[agoddessonce]

WHO: Storm agoddessonce and friends
WHEN: a weekend in July
WHERE: At the Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach - Poolside
WHAT: Ororo felt like arranging a small, private pool day (semi-open mingle log)
NOTES\WARNINGS: Alcohol will be served so some underage drinking might slip through the cracks (please know that Ororo Disapproves Though). If your character has ever interacted with Ororo, even once, then please feel free to assume she'd invited you over to come and spend the afternoon at her place. Swimsuits highly encouraged!

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the pool;

The pool at the Institute is sparkling and inviting under the sun, glittering under the shade of the old mansion. It's a shame to see it go to waste day in and day out, so Ororo has invited a few people she's already met through her months in Etraya to use it. The water itself is cool and refreshing, and though there's an impromptu sign at the edge that proclaims POWERS ALLOWED - BUT NO HORSEPLAY to discourage rough play, there's also a tall diving board set up at one end. Guests are free to use it as they will. If any injuries occur - there's a reasonably well-stocked nurse's station inside the mansion!

Ororo had also spent a couple of days visiting Kwik Trip to see what kind of floats they could get for the day. Various pool floats are available (donut rings, pool noodles, and a dubious looking tank floatie) for guests to use and share. Try not to bother anyone who's just trying to relax!

the food, the drinks;

Ororo has no plans for the day to turn into anything particularly fancy or rowdy; she'd just wanted something casual and simple, an excuse to take a swim with some friends new and old, and to get to know the people of Etraya a little better. What better way to help people feel more open and relaxed than with a couple of drinks? There are a couple of coolers sitting around, open and full of ice and snow, with soda, juice, beer and a selection of fruity, ready-to-drink cocktails for guests who might want a drink to help them relax or break the ice.

She trusts people to self-police, generally, but will still personally, stringently remind folks to keep the alcohol from anyone sixteen and under. Do not test her! :)

There's a grill going as well, with typical barbecue fare: burgers (both vegan and beef), hot dogs, chicken wings and roasted vegetable skewers. Ororo has probably asked a friend or two to take turns manning the grill, but anyone is welcome to cook their own food to their liking. Plates are available to one side, with a range of salads, snacks and sauces and dips. Guests can dine at various seating areas set up around the poolside and in the shade.

the poolside;

There are plenty of loungers sitting around, to share or to drag into a corner to use for yourself! It's a day to relax as much as it is a day to mingle. People are free to bring their food and drink over to them, or use the chairs to work on a sun tan.

There's a basketball court not too far off from the pool here people are encouraged to play a game or two. Perhaps something easy that doesn't need a team - Horse, or a game of one-on-one? Ororo doesn't know the exact rules, but as long as no one's bursting any basketballs, she won't be upset.

the mansion;

Tired of waiting under the sun? Need a bathroom break? A select few of the mansion's rooms are open to use - the kitchen, the nearest bathrooms, and the rec room for anyone who wants a nap. If you wander upstairs, there are numerous rooms that don't see much use - one wing houses old classrooms and study rooms, an empty library, some faculty offices. The other wing has some locked bedroom suites - only a few of which are currently, actually in use. Be warned that if Ororo or some other X-Men sense or catch you lingering up here, they'll gently (... or not so gently, depends on who catches you and how they catch you) redirect you right back downstairs.

The elevator and the sublevels are completely off-limits and impossible to break into, kept secure by a combination of private codes and mutant biometrics. Nothing to see here! Just carry on. ♥

The party will last til the evening, at which point Ororo will invite people to come into the large kitchen of the mansion to piece together some dinner, or dry off or take a quick shower. If anyone's too tired (or too drunk) to go home, she'll personally take charge of turning the rec room into an impromptu blanket fort for people to sleep on couches. It's fine, none of the furniture is actually vintage or antique around here. Probably.

wildcard;

Feel free to come up with your own starters for poolside shenanigans! If your character has threaded with Ororo even once, assume you've got a personal invite for them and a +1. Hoping to keep this mingle light and easy to foster a bit of CR before the mission log goes up next week!

Comments

[wannasmash]

Izuku isn't a party person, but he wouldn't pass up an invitation from Storm, probably the coolest Pro Hero at this event, and the chance to scope out the training parts of this facility. And perhaps meet others like Storm of course. Izuku has been busy just surviving, and several people have indicated to him that he is not thriving.

Having some rescue training, he would be remiss if he didn't survey the pool a bit while not swimming himself in ordinary blue swim trunks. He's a jacked short stack with a very youthful face. He's covered in scars, most notably on his right hand and a large reddish-brown one on his upper arm.

"Hi Storm! Thank you for inviting me. I could ask you that. Is there anything I can help you with?" He's helpful to a fault. He insisted on helping with dishes when he ate over at the Todorokis'. Even now he has a few stray empty cups stacked in one hand.

[agoddessonce]

"Hello Deku." She smiles broadly and fondly, amused at his use of Storm. But then - that was precisely how he'd met her, wasn't it? Perhaps that was how he best remembered her. Still...

"You know you may call me Ororo, yes? We are not on the field at the moment." They're just lounging around the pool, sharing food and drink among friends new and old. They're not even in a training session, though she makes a mental note to ask if he'd like to see those facilities some time.

"And please, don't worry - you are a guest here. I've got everything handled." So far it's been pretty unremarkable as far as incidents go, and she hopes to keep it that way.

[wannasmash]

The party's going splendidly. Izuku has not yet run afoul of the infamous punch bowl. Reluctantly he sets down the stack of cups.

"Oh—right, sorry. Then if it's okay with you, Ororo-san, you can call me Midoriya." Come to think of it, he's not sure if Ororo is her given or family name, but it's the name he's been told to use, so use it he shall. "We usually go by our family names to most people... But I think it's different in other places?"

He was Izuku when he was a little kid and Midoriya now to all but a handful of people. Katsuki is forever "Kacchan" to him, a childhood nickname. "Deku" was an insult Katsuki used to bully him with, but Izuku took it and made it his Hero name, written differently. With the addition of Hero names, it complicates matters. Most of his teachers go by their Hero names to their students and their family names to their peers. Mr. Aizawa is an exception. He is always Eraserhead in the field due to his stealth work even though secret identities are a thing of the past.

[agoddessonce]

"It can be different, yes. But I've been to Tokyo in my world; I'm familiar with your practice." Intimately, even. One of her dearest girlfriends was from there, how could she not know the customs?

"My apologies, if I have been addressing you inappropriately. Is Deku your codename, or a given name? May I ask what its significance is to your powers, if there is any?"

He'd already seen what she can do, and certainly why she was called Storm. Now she's just curious to learn a little about his own abilities. All she'd seen was his strength and speed, but those could be attributed to many things.

[wannasmash]

"Deku is my Hero name—a codename. It's uh, kind of a mean thing I was called when I was little, but one of my first friends in high school made a pun with 'dekiru'. She made me feel like I could do anything. So when it came time to choose our Hero names, I chose this one."

He smiles with warmth at the memory. His name isn't as simple as Storm, since it's something with layers between him and friends.

"So it has nothing to do with my Quirk after all. The, uh, super strength turned out a little different than I first thought anyway. Did you come up with your Hero name, or did someone give it to you?"

[agoddessonce]

"It's a name with personal significance. Very meaningful." That tells her a lot, actually. Rather than advertise what he can do, the name he's chosen is something almost sentimental. It tells her that being a hero is important to him, and not just a day job.

"Someone gave me the name Storm -- an English name, one I was given when I came back to America for when we would go on missions. In my mother's homeland, my people called me Windrider... so I suppose you might say that I am usually given names, rather than thinking of them myself." They were very straightforward in that way, even all the other names she's had over the years.

She looks around them, not just Etraya, but at the noisy poolside in the shade of Xavier's as it once was. Here, she had been Professor and Headmistress Munroe once upon a time, and even then... "But in a place like this, I think I prefer to just be Ororo. Does that make sense to you?"

[wannasmash]

Izuku is the sentimental sort. Just look at that kind face, that bleeding heart. Born Quirkless and told he would never make it as a Hero, he turned an insult into something he could wear with pride.

"Yes," he says readily. "Even in Japan in my world, Heroes sometimes call each other by their real names, because they're friends or they went to school together. Usually in the field we should stick to Hero names though. But I have to say... your Hero names are so cool!"

His voice rises an octave at the end. He will always be a fan of Heroes even though he is one (in training) himself.

[agoddessonce]

"They're not 'Hero' names, really," Ororo tries to say, but Izuku's earnestness is charming and a little infectious. She can't help but smile. "They started out as a codename and a title respectively. But I suppose if the public knows me that way, then... it is a little bit like that, yes."

"But heroes are commonplace in your world, then? Is that what they are called in your version of Japan?" His attitude reminds her a little of Kamala, in the few times she's been able to meet her. Excited and a little starstruck, even if she was as much of a hero as an Avenger would be.

[wannasmash]

"Yes. America is big in the Hero scene, and a lot of industry words are in English." Even before Heroes, young people like Izuku used a lot of foreign loanwords.

"It's a competitive job. Just about every kid in my middle school thought about maybe being one. Someone with a Quirk like yours and a cool head under pressure would do well! But me... I was Quirkless. Since Quirks got stronger over the generations, it basically became a necessity for Heroes to have one."

His eyes look to the side with a little bashful shrug, downplaying the various flavors of disbelief and derision he experienced. At least it seems to be in the past.