[ OPEN ] i know some places and i've seen some faces

[falcony]

WHO: sam wilson and anyone/everyone.
WHAT: captain america cookout.
WHERE: sam's horizon domain
WHEN: third saturday of september (aka, about 3 weeks after the jailbreak)
NOTES: see below!

HELLO ALL AND WELCOME TO SAM'S CAPTAIN AMERICA COOKOUT!!!!

Over the last week or so, Sam has been going out of his way to contact as many people as he knows to invite them to a cookout at his place in the Horizon. He knows that after the jailbreak, a lot of people were separated, and this was his first thought on how to bring people together. The purpose behind it is simply because Sam thinks that the one thing all of them have in common, opinion on the Singularity and their situations aside, is that they were all brought here and can actually access the Horizon. He sees merit and use in coming together when they can, especially in ways that don't involve the politics of the land they're now living in. So, what better way to do that than around food?

The long and short of it is - this is a peace meal. Leave your issues at the door. Sam has very few rules and there is very little he will give in terms of what this cookout will entail, but three things he will make very clear:

1.) There will be no fighting at his home. You want to duke it out? Take it somewhere else. There will not be warnings or second chances. Don't be an ass.
2.) There is no meeting or serious reason for this cookout. Literally, he just wants people to come together who may no longer be able to see each other due to the travel constraints. It's meant to be fun. Come have fun. (he knows y'all know what that is, even when some of you pretend you don't). Bring food if you want to! There is also a kitchen (if you know what that is) and places to crash. Hope you like seafood!
3.) Anyone who can come into the Horizon is welcome. He'd love it if everyone came, so spread the word.

The cookout itself is set up out front, with picnic tables and chairs and fire pits and lights abound. There are tables set up near grilles if anyone wants to do any actual cooking outside, and a table (probably multiple) set up with sides and napkins and utensils. There are a variety of different places to go and sit and hang out while you're eating. Anything and everything you can want is available - food, drinks, yard games, music playing from out in the trees that will remain consistent unless someone tries to find the speakers and hijack the playlists, etc. If you can't find something outside, you're more than welcome to check the house.

All throughout the party, too, there will be a new friend. Red, as Sam fondly calls him, is a blood-red hunting hawk with silver in between the feathers. He can be found circling around Sam quite often, or perched on his shoulders, but also if you are out and about you can often see him checking up on anyone and everyone. He's a very curious little bird, and also pretty sassy, if you want to interact with him.



If you haven't, or have, been to Sam's domain before, feel free to take a look around. Anywhere is open (save for one locked bedroom) so everyone has open access, but most of the cookout itself will be located in the front yard.

OOC: This is mean to be an OPEN LOG, so leave your TLs or closed threads below! This party will last basically as long as people want it to, but the idea is for it to be an afternoon into the evening. Y'all have free reign save for destroying Sam's home, but if you have any questions, hit me up on plurk (disarmingly or disco (dai#3757). Sam's TL is below, and he will be bouncing around like the good host he is, but lets get a little party started.

Comments

[photophobic]

Kylo blinks curiously at the plate of pastries Sam presents him with, but he doesn't reach to take one— why would he? He's not hungry, and he's definitely not diplomatic enough to realise it might be polite to sample his host's offerings anyway. That, or he simply isn't worried about being considered rude.

"An interesting choice," he comments, indicating their surroundings with a thoughtful sweep of his gaze. "I wouldn't want to... damage it."

Which suggests he has at least read the memo when it comes to the rules of the gathering, and also that his current level of volcanoing might be as tame as he knows how to make it. He glances down at the grass withering beneath his feet, then adds a clarification: "Your home."

[falcony]

A part of Sam had expected that reaction, somehow, and therefore doesn’t seem all that tripped up over Kylo’s lack of social graces. Instead, Sam will shrug and lean down to set the plate on the grass at his feet and with his now free hand, he’ll start picking at his own plate of pastries. Whether or not this is real or necessary, there is something familiar and comforting about it that Sam doesn’t mind playing into, if only for himself.

At Kylo’s comment, though, Sam gives a small chuckle. “Listen, man- anything damaged around here can be fixed, as long as you’re willing to do the work.” Which also may have something to do with both the rules that Sam has set and the house in particular. His eyes don’t go down to Kylo’s feet, he doesn’t need to to know what’s happening, but he does glance back to the other - like he’s considering what to ask, or maybe more specifically, how to ask it. He has a few different sets of things on his mind, things that he realizes only Kylo will be able to answer, and Sam is very aware of the precarious place it might put Kylo in.

Sam’s tone, when he finally does ask, is a bit complicated. Curious, but obviously, even if only marginally, a bit hesitant. “How are things back at the castle after everything?”

[photophobic]

Now that's a far more enlightened approach than some of the others Kylo has encountered here in the Horizon. Certain individuals have taken even the temporary destruction of their entirely replaceable creations very personally— but he should have predicted that Sam would prove himself the more accommodating sort.

Particularly with the chew and churn it takes for Sam to put voice to his thoughts and ask that question. What a lot of concern he has, even for those he chose to abandon.

"The assault on the castle has the citizens of Thorne rattled," Kylo offers, his gaze steady. "Afraid. As they see it, dangerous, alien beings have been loosed on their world by a group of terrorists who seem to have no objective or agenda beyond satisfying their hatred of Thorne... and even those they had begun to trust would save their world from destruction have deserted them. They feel betrayed."

His lips quirk.

"Or were you only concerned with the fate of the Summoned?"

[falcony]

Enlightened may be one word for it, but Sam finds it has more to do with priorities. He’d been raised to respects his things, his home, his family - but they were all just symbols, in the end. Houses can be rebuilt, things repurchased - especially here, where everything can be made so easily. It’s the people, who hold the importance. The focus.

It’s why he’s here, isn’t it? Bringing the people together, trying for bridges where he can. And yes, he does still carry concern for the people of Thorne. He does not regret the decision to run, and feels leagues better knowing that those in prison have been freed, but as Kylo described the fear of the Thorne people, a frown pulls deeper at his mouth.

There’s a near imperceptible wince at alien beings. Kylo’s not wrong, but the turn of phrase hits Sam a little hard.

“The two who showed up - Thorne knew about them before? What are they saying they want?” Because ‘hatred of Thorne’ is a little vague for Sam’s taste.

The quirk of lips and question has Sam lifting a single brow, his expression still genuine, still serious. “Do I need to be?”

[photophobic]

"Oliver Abbot and Elizabeth Francis, enemies of Thorne, formerly hiding out in the dark of Nocwich? I would say those of us who chose to remain are in a better position than anyone who blindly put their trust in those two," Kylo replies mildly, hoping the emphasis on just how little the runaways know of the instigators carries his point as effectively as his being the first of the two of them to mention the plight of the ordinary citizens of Abraxas.

"Though if more of the prisoners had chosen to prove themselves innocent instead of immediately turning to looting and attempted murder of the defenseless, it would have been easier to demonstrate the flaws in Ambrose's policy."

Kylo's steady gaze suggests that easier hadn't, in the end, been necessary. Having chosen to protect the High Mage at potentially lethal cost had given Kylo and the others a much stronger position to advocate for themselves— and if Sam hadn't observed the fight with his own eyes he's almost certainly heard about what happened by now.

[falcony]

Names - Sam clocks them. Makes note of the information given.

"And did they explain why those two are enemies of Thorne?" There is not a lot of emotion, behind the question. Rather, there is a kind of no-nonesene need for information. "Beyond offering a bunch of people a chance to leave the place they didn't choose to be summoned to, I know nothing about them. What have they done? Should we be working on tracking them down?" Kylo is making a point, and Sam is seeing it, each step of the way and each piece of information he's offering. But again - Sam's not here to argue. If there is something they need to know about, something they need to work on together...he doesn't have any other people in the castle he can turn to.

It is the mention of the attack on Ambrose that has Sam sighing, rubbing a hand across his face. "I'm glad Ambrose had you and Ronan, and those others, there." Sam could mention how he'd stopped others from joining, how he'd very specifically Sam had caught some from the same thought, has convinced others to keep moving. How much he had vehemently been against anyone doing anything to the Thorneans, who couldn't defend themselves. How, from across the very same courtyard, Sam had seen the altercation and had thought about joining - almost in spite of the fact he had nothing, truly, to give. He'd just nearly joined, before being pulled in another direction, but again - all things he doesn't say. Things Kylo might be able to sense, possibly, but Sam just shakes his head. There's no use in defending what he hadn't done. He made his choice - and he's going to live with it.

"Is that what you're doing at the castle? Proving Ambrose's flaws?"

[photophobic]

Kylo watches Sam's face carefully, the dark pull of his eyes drinking in every detail. There's no way to know, of course, but it's unsettlingly easy to imagine that Kylo knows exactly what's passing unsaid between the two of them.

"Ambrose's methods are flawed," he says. "His fears, and his desire to rescue his people from destruction, are very real. Focusing on the mistakes he's made is a waste of time and energy when we can demonstrate alternatives that achieve the same goal."

Goals, of course, being at the heart of the issue, as far as Kylo is concerned.

"I'm at the castle because Thorne's goals are the ones that serve us, and because they want to work with us. Methods can be changed. But you're not going to change the core, founding belief of the Free Cities or the communes of Solvunn. You realise we are all bound to the Singularity? What do you think happens to us if it is destroyed, as Cadens wants. Or if it is allowed to destabilise, or left alone, trapping us here indefinitely. No. Studying the Singularity and unlocking its secrets is the only way forward. For all of us."

[falcony]

There is a moment somewhere in Kylo's response that catches Sam's attention, a careful pull of his eyes. Maybe it is easy to imagine that Kylo knows what Sam isn't saying. And while there might be a relative amount of disbelief associated with it, Sam doesn't see a reason to comment. He has nothing to hide. No lies, he's caught up in.

"Ambrose's flawed methods nearly killed a girl caught up in them." Sam says in return, watching Kylo closely. "And while it wasn't Ambrose who did it, his methods kept her, and anyone else in that dungeon, at risk. Waiting around wasn't an option anymore." But Sam had tried it - he tried it for the months they were there, and despite his own rising concern, had been prepared to wait a little longer. The portals had just provided an earlier solution for a present problem that Sam couldn't risk anyone in those dungeons missing out on.

But Kylo does have a point, and maybe it's also easy to imagine that Kylo can read that as well - that Sam doesn't disagree with him, that he'd been hesitant about leaving the one place who they'd all known to bring them here. Who had the understanding of magic necessary, and who would most likely be the ones to let people go home. Sam, who has no propensity towards magic, who barely understands what it's even supposed to be, wasn't going to be of help in Thorne. Had already started feeling trapped and restless. But in the cities? He can do more out here than he could in that castle.

"You'd be surprised how much of a core belief can change, if you sit down and talk to people. And I can't sit back without trying." Pessimism has never sat well with Sam, and whether or not Kylo wanted to call it being realistic or not, Sam's decision wasn't going to change.

That is when he shrugs, not quite smiling but appearing less tense, less on the job, than he had a moment before. "Worse comes to worse, we'll keep each other updated through the Horizon. Unless you're actually ready to give up on everyone who chose to leave?"

[photophobic]

Kylo offers a thin smile that rather suggests he is entirely willing to let anyone who chose to leave to their own devices, actually, but it's Sam's comment about a girl caught up in Ambrose's methods that catches his attention.

"What girl?"

[falcony]

Sam does see the thin smile, thinks about whether or not he wants to comment, what it means for how he feels about this whole thing in the first place. But it's the sudden shift in Kylo, the attention that catches up on that piece of information, that has Sam deciding to go through with it.

"Relena Peacecraft." He says, with a dark, serious, and protective shadow to his brow. "You heard about her disappearing, yeah? How she'd been in the dungeons and then wasn't? It was Queen who took her. The Queen and that one mage- Grigory." Sam shakes his head, as if feeling himself get a little too worked up and pulling himself back from it.

[photophobic]

Kylo's surprise is immediately visible— a brief but notable departure from the usual set of his jaw, a widening of the eyes.

"Troubling," he comments after a moment, the weight of a frown crushing shock out of his expression. "Jolene and I had suspected Grigory's involvement, but not the Queen. I had thought Oliver might be involved, that he had used agents within Thorne to take her and use her connection to the Singularity to facilitate the breakout. Thorne's own Queen being involved... this complicates things considerably."

[falcony]

Sam is...not encouraged by the shock, necessarily, but he does feel better seeing the honest displeasure Kylo reacts with. He nods, once, before letting out a breath. "It's more than that." Sam mutters, his eyes scanning the groups of people at the party before coming back.

"She was willing to risk Relena's life, and one of her own people, to see if her experiments worked. They want our connection to the Singularity for themselves, and there are people in that castle who are willing to go to extreme lengths to figure it out. You can't blame people for taking whatever option they had to get out of that."

There's a look that breaks through Sam's expression, then. The hard lines of his frown giving way to a softer brow. He looks worried, which isn't a new expression, necessarily. But there is a kind of contrast between the angry protectiveness from moments before. "I'm not saying everyone in that castle is out to use us like lab rats, but man. If the queen's behind it, that place isn't safe. I know you can take care of yourself- but watch your back while you're there."