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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh right—I thought you meant no school at all, pretty silly of me... You know, even though I was surrounded by my classmates in middle school, I didn't have any friends. I mostly did stuff by myself. It wasn't until high school that I made friends again for the first time in years."

It's why he doesn't appreciate being pranked, but he's unusual in that he very much takes things in stride. Perhaps too much. And, he can tell by her demeanor and her continued conversation that she's not here out of malice. Perhaps it's not cool or even wise to tell a stranger he got picked on in school because some people take advantage of that, but Izuku isn't too interested in being cool.

"I moved once too. Mom was really worried. Having my friends around made it easier."

UA decided to house the students for safety reasons after the class was targeted, but Izuku doesn't say. The Villains who did it know his name, his school...

That does cause a minor twinge of guilt. While Rosie was just trying to have fun, that's... often the problem, isn't it? She's only thinking of her fun and not how it might affect the other person. Something to work on, she's aware, but still has trouble passing up on the opportunity to prank.

"Oh, yeah? I moved a lot my whole life, actually, so that's kind of why I was homeschooled. No real point in making all those attachments just to leave again, I guess." At least, that's what she told herself.

"That's really hard."

Izuku isn't one to fool himself about that. Mostly he just threw himself into his favorite hobby, and there he derived some happiness. It didn't do much for his social skills though. Izuku felt how lonely it really was when he started making friends in high school, because never before did the contrast of what he didn't have feel so stark. Being alone is manageable for him, but it wasn't something he chose.

"Did you at least get to see some neat places?"

"It could be," she does concede, a little softer and sincere in a moment of lucidity through the buzz. She's probably sobering up some by now, honestly, with how fast her body metabolizes alcohol generally. She'd agree with the sentiment of it being something that was familiar but not necessarily desired. Even if she thinks she's better off on her own, that's just protecting herself from the hurt of knowing what could have been under different circumstances.

"But you know it! Honestly, that more than made up for it sometimes. I got to travel all over the states, even! My favorite was Texas. Big, open fields and stars as far as the eye could see..." A wistful sigh. "Much as I love Tokyo, it isn't great for stargazing."

His eyes sparkleas he tries to imagine Texas. He's a city boy. All he knows is that it's a huge US state as big as some countries. Because his favorite Hero named his moves after US states, Izuku memorized all of them.

"There's always a lot of light pollution in Tokyo. It's not that far from where I live--uh, lived." He's not sure when he'll see home again. That realization hit him hard in his first weeks here. "I've always lived in the city. I always thought that when I became a Pro Hero, I'd serve in a metropolitan area."

It sure is! When they'd told her it would take a day driving to get across the state, she hadn't believed them. It was such a simpler time back then, really, everything so new and fun to experience in the world of humanity.

The correction does see her pause. Right, they... Their worlds aren't really as they used to be, are they? That's such a strange concept sometimes. "Pro Hero? Are they, like, a league or something where you're from?" The concept of 'superheroes' is reserved to only comic books and movies for Rosie.

Even when he did move once, it was just into his school's dorms. This move into this world was not by choice, and he can't visit his mom for the holidays.

Sometimes he forgets that other people don't know about something that's so commonplace in his world. Every kid in his middle school wanted to be a Hero. Once, heroes were only in comics too, until Quirks started appearing.

"It's a profession. I'm studying to be a Hero in school. We do rescue work and crime fighting. I'm Midoriya, but my Hero name is Deku."

Some Hero he is, face rubbed raw from trying to scrub off the marker... And isn't "deku" an insult, like the sort a schoolkid would use? At least it's written differently, as he demonstrates by tracing the katakana with a finger in the air. Must mean something different to him then, but he never bothers explaining outright.

"Huh," she hums thoughtfully. In her world, genetic mutations are what caused vampires, werewolves, and the 'commonplace' monsters in a lot of media. It's always interesting to know how it works other places... She wonders if it'd been more like his, would Heroes also be the things of reality instead of just fiction?

Maybe. Part of her though does have to worry folks would just use it for bad instead of good.

"Well, that's cool! I mean, that you guys have a school for it. I imagine getting powers and not knowing what to do would suck." She follows his tracing of the katakana to see it is different than what she was originally imagining. It is an odd choice of name, but- She can't knock anyone for choosing a name that suits them. "And are you sure it's alright for me to know your actual name? Comic books led me to believe that was a bad thing for heroes to give out!"

"Oh, well that used to be the case when Heroes were just vigilantes and things were pretty tough for them. But now it's more like a stage name next to our real names. It's okay for you to know them. People have known mine from the start."

For better or worse. Izuku recalls that time he ran away and went incognito for a bit. Acting so differently and being covered in muck, he was barely recognizable, and he didn't give out any name at all. It was a lot like those historical times he read about in his textbooks. He barely slept.

"It is pretty crazy that the world in comics came to life. But reality is always a little different than stories. Being a Hero is different than what I thought it would be when I was a kid."

So, that was how the begun? Strange to think that, like he says, the world as only known in comics for Rosie was his reality. It must have been incredible. She knows better than most though: stories are usually romanticized. The reality tends to be a lot more complicated, messy, and sometimes difficult than what you see on a comic splash page.

"I think a lot of things are," Rosie agrees, giving a small sigh. "Like, I didn't think I'd be drunk at a pool party in another reality helping someone wipe marker off his face, but- Here I am!"

She's taking things in stride... Maybe the liquid courage helps. As for Izuku, he turns pink with embarrassment again. Time will tell if he can live this down.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, but I think I better let you sober up..."

Before she draws on someone else's face...

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

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