[ 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

[princessvegas]

Aw, you? Place like this made me think you were all wholesome angel fluff.

[ She gestures around the yard, the big house, places that to her ring of airy family dramas on TV. There are squabbles and problems, but they're always fixed by the end of the hour, and everyone hugs before the credits roll. No one in those families beats their wives or goes to jail for selling meth.

Laughing again, she takes a sip of punch and nods. ]

Okay, okay. I'll bring the party and cater it too, next time. How's that suit you?

[falcony]

[ he looks back over to her, one brow raised a bit dramatically. ]

No teenager growing up in rural Louisiana is all wholesome angel fluff. At least not the entire time.

[ granted, sam's idea of 'getting up to stuff' and julie's concept of the same are probably a little different. sam never got into the drug trade, but he knew his fair share of kids who did. saw what happened because of it.

plus - having a safe home to come back to and a family unit that stayed strong is a great foundation, sure, but it doesn't change the world they all grow up in. no one in those families beats their wives or goes to jail for selling meth, but what about their neighbors? that one kid in their class?

when julie laughs, sam's face splits into a smile. ]

Suits me just fine, actually. I did it this time, someone else can pick up the slack for the next gig. I'll even open the house up again- you cater and supply the alcohol, I'll handle the location.

[princessvegas]

Is that where we are? Well, guess you can't be all sweetness if you're gonna wrestle gators.

[ It's more than possible that Julie's only knowledge of Louisiana is based on either Mardi Gras or that reality show about alligator hunting. This party is very distinctly not Mardi Gras, although she would be more than excited to be present at one of those. ]

Shit, I got a whole club down the... over there. [ She gestures vaguely toward the area past Sam's yard, where other people's domains begin. ] It's real big and nice. Even nicer than where I was livin' back home. And the place even came with a fancy bartender. Sometimes there's some weird people there too, I think they might be fake, but they just dance so I let 'em be.

[ Julie's only real source of knowledge about how the Horizon works is someone even dumber than she is, so concepts like "you are manifesting crowds of people because of your crippling fear of abandonment" are not present here. ]

[falcony]

I can be mostly sweetness, though. I mean- look at me. [ he gestures to himself with a grin big enough that he might as well be laughing. yes, it's a joke, but he's also just being cheeky.

plus- don't bring up mardi gras. he's already working on his homesickness with this little backyard shindig. that's just going to be a whole different thing to work through.

maybe next time. he did just suggest their next party. maybe they can get something together? but when julie goes into her explanation of her domain, sam shifts all of his attention to her - curious, interested, one brow arching at her whole story about the people. ]

You got a club full of people at your place? Hell, that doesn't sound bad at all. It's been- [ well, months, but that's because he's been here for months. he huffs out a breath. ] Too long since I last partied like that. Do you own a place back home, or is that just more your scene?

[ he'll get into that whole 'fear of abandonment' bit later...not really the mood of the conversation quite yet. not on first talks. ]

[princessvegas]

[ She laughs and knocks back the rest of what's in her cup, gently depositing on the ground next to her chair when she's done. She shakes her head a little, swallowing, then waves her hand in the air. ]

Well, they ain't always there? Like, sometimes, if I'm just sittin' all alone, they start showin' up, but the only one that talks to me is the bartender, and he don't say much. Just asks what I want. But then if I just go in to do somethin' quick, like when I went to pick up the liquor and change clothes, then they won't be there. It's like I have to open it or somethin'. But I guess what's a club if it's just empty all the time, right?

[ She doesn't mention the fact that half of it is a barren, abandoned warehouse, dark and echoing and oppressively empty, like something out of a horror movie. Or, y'know, an apocalyptic plague wasteland. She's still working out what she should do with that part.]

Nah, I don't own anything back home. I had just moved to Vegas a few months before I came here. I was livin' in this huge fancy hotel, called the Inferno. I guess it was kind of the same vibe though, always full of people and music and fun. [ If your idea of fun is forced death matches and people fucking in the hallways. She likes it. ]

[falcony]

[ sam watches her knock back the cup, one brow raised when she comes back to her explanation, kind of only smiling a little as she seems to fight that last bit of her drink. ]

So they're like- magic stand-ins for a crowd at the bar? [ he hasn't even considered that, and he makes a sort of thoughtful face as he looks around them both. could he do that? probably - it's the horizon, who knows what you can do. but does he want to?

there's a whole mess of things he's already dealing with, making his domain look like his place back home. he doesn't think filling it with magic ghosts will help. and if he were any less happy and tipsy and warm, he might already start wondering what that means for her. but hey, this is sort of a first meeting, that doesn't seem too polite. ]

That sounds pretty dope, actually. What were you doing in Vegas?

[princessvegas]

I guess? I dunno. I mean, I didn't make 'em like I made some other stuff. I would remember makin' like a hundred random people. It's not anyone I know. Maybe the Singularity just wants to party.

[ It's honestly not exactly the Domain she would have crafted for herself, but it works, and she's not exactly motivated to change it. Why bother? It has stuff she likes, and it's not like any of this is real.

That makes her sad. She would much rather this be real than any of the rest of it. Generic medieval village is not her idea of paradise. ]

The world I come from ain't so nice. Vegas is one of the only places left.

[falcony]

Who knows- but sometimes these places create things sort of on their own? Or mine does. Like if you’re going for a feeling, it’ll fill out the gaps to make sure you get there.

[ he shrugs, taking another long drink from the bottle. he doesn’t think too hard about how none of this is real, about how it all has to do with magic seeping it’s way into their consciousness. if sam does, it’ll freak him out too much about how long they’ve been here, what all he’s missing back home.

there’s enough going on, he doesn’t need to be taken out by his own homesickness. and think a party, this is supposed to be fun. ]

Oh. Sorry to hear that. [ he’ so curious, so so curious. but he won’t pry if she doesn’t feel like elaborating. ] But I guess if anywhere was going to survive, it’d be Vegas. I’m glad you got there safe.

[princessvegas]

Yeah, it was kinda obvious once we all got there. I mean, all the tourist shit had already shut down ages before, so the hotels were all nice and empty and clean. [ Which is actually incredibly important in a world that's absolutely littered with rotting corpses. Places to live that you don't have to do body removal, or at least a minimal amount? Yes please. ] There was already enough frozen food spread across the Strip to feed an army for five years. And the electricity kept up 'cause of the dam, not like most places. So it turned out great, considering.

[ She pauses to take a huge gulp of her drink, idly considering that maybe she should add another shot to it. Instead, she fishes a new joint and a lighter out of her pocket, takes a hit and offers it to Sam (because she is a good party guest, thank you) before she continues. ]

Wasn't easy. I only had enough gas for the first two hundred miles or so. Walked the rest of the way, I 'bout thought I'd die by the time I hit the border and the guards picked me up.

[falcony]

Tactically, yeah, makes sense. And that whole area has plenty of military outposts, so I'm sure y'all got all the ammo and weapons you might need.

[ it's a logical step, for him. if a world has gone to shit, you'll need the provisions, the food, the safekeeping for people - but you'll also need the weapons. the way to keep yourself safe, after. ]

Do I want to know what happened to your world? Or is that a "better to not think about it" kinda thing? [ he notices the way she looks at her cup, even if it's the barest of glances, and sam is half-way to sitting up to offer to get her another, idly thinking - himself - about if he wants to go ahead. there aren't that many people around, he can probably lay off on the protective host gig. but then she offers the joint and you know what? he likes the sound of that a lot better, taking it and taking a hit himself before passing it back.

sam leans back in the chair again, then, exhaling in a slow, easy breath. it's been years since he last had anything like this, but hey. none of this is real, right? whatever high he's about to have is entirely based on his experience, and he's had enough good ones that he's not too worried. ]

You walked your way across the Rocky Mountains? Shit. By yourself or did you have others that came along with you?

cw ableism

[princessvegas]

Oh yeah, we got everythin' we need. We even got planes and shit. And a bomb.

[ Which, honestly, she would maybe like to point out to her cult leader that getting a nuclear warhead delivered by a schizo nutcase was a bad idea. Mostly she just disagrees with the person he sent to get it -- she has no qualms with the whole "nuke roughly half of the remaining American population" of it all. Maybe, just maybe, he can reset things after having been in Abraxas. Surely she wouldn't die at home if they can only reverse everything else, right? The lightning ball would never have found her without that shit. Sound logic. ]

I mean, it's not a secret or anythin', and there's other people from my world here, too. No one's exactly sure what started it all, 'cause the government tried to cover it up at first, but basically the army, they were developin' biological weapons. Probably lots of 'em, but only one mattered when it got out. We call it Captain Trips, it's like... we say superflu, but it's more like pneumonia. The infected, their chests and throats and faces would swell up, all full of nastiness, until they couldn't breathe anymore from all the fluid. [ She pauses, takes another hit. She's well aware that it's a lot just to listen to, and she's already talked to one person who apparently lived through something similar but less severe in their world. So she figures that, the more people she can warn, the better, even if it's not something they can stop. ] It spread across the whole world in just a few weeks. And Trips, it's real infectious. Everyone died in like, a month. Two, maybe, by the time the last ones keeled over. Killed most of the animals, too. Over 99% of everythin' that ain't a plant. Those of us left, we're just... immune. We don't know why or how. Just that we are.

[ She looks up at the stars for a bit, her face a blank mask, numb from exposure to so much death and destruction in such a very short time. The words sound terrible even to her acclimated ears, but she can't bring forward the emotions anymore. ]

Most people died at home. My family all did, at least. Everyone in my whole town. I was the only one left. I was completely alone for a month, livin' in a store 'cause at least there was food and clothes and no bodies. So yeah, I walked all by myself. The only time I met anyone else was before I left, and those assholes ran off real fast. Abandoned me. Short bus sped motherfuckers, said they didn't need me. Anyway, the mountains didn't bother me, though. I got to see a lotta stuff while I was out there. It was the desert that was the worst.