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

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

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.

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Having come from a galaxy where sentient beings can have more than one head, Kylo's not particularly disturbed by hair dye— though his mouth does tug into the slightest twist of a smile at her attempt to explain it.

It's... cute.

"I have legs," he assures her. "I could give myself more, if I wanted. I could melt myself down into a pool or draw myself up as a mountain. I could become the grass beneath your feet, or the air in your lungs. We're not limited by our physical bodies, here. We can be anything we want. Anything that suits."

Relief floods her face once he promises that he has legs. In her current state, the idea of a legless man somehow wandering around this world is terribly concerning, and she's glad that he possesses all his limbs.

She considers the idea of being something else for a moment, and a pair of gossamer fairy wings briefly appear on her back, which delights her for the few seconds they're there. She does not have the proper mentality to maintain it for very long, especially because she was only trying to see if she could do it, but she's satisfied.

"I'm Julie Lawry," she announces, holding her hand out to him.

He makes something of a valiant effort, but Julie's unguarded relief and pure delight at her ability to draw forth a pair of delicate wings has Kylo's amusement spilling out onto his face. The expression is a little awkward, clearly unpracticed and even a little unpleasant in its unfamiliar twists, but it's there all the same. A smile from the dark lord of the molten mountain.

"Kylo Ren," he replies, wondering for a brief moment if he should warn her away from grasping his fiery hand— but really, it should only burn her if she expects it to. He has no desire to harm her.

"You must have been part of the second group of summonings."

It genuinely does not occur to her that he should, theoretically, be melting her hand right off. After all, if he has real legs, then he must have real arms, and real arms don't burn people straight to the bone. She shakes his hand with the confidence that is somehow only possessed by deeply intoxicated white girls, beaming at him.

"Yeah!" she says, tilting her head to one side, then begins ticking off the major events of her arrival to now. "They threw me down in the dungeon for a month, didn't even ask my name before they decided I was guilty of... somethin'. They never did say what they thought I did. I mean, I did wind up in solitary, but I was already locked up down there before that happened. Then that guy let us out, and now I'm here. It's the first time I'm ever meetin' most folks, and I gotta do it here, but that's okay."

Then there is a brief pause, and she seems to realize something. "Oh!" she says, holding up hand. "You don't have a drink. You need a drink. Wait here." She jogs away (surprisingly well, considering her state of inebriation and the fact that she's wearing five inch heels), then comes back with a red Solo cup filled with quite possibly the strongest drink ever created in Abraxas. The cup is pressed into his hand despite any objections, with only the most authentic grin. "There you go. I made it myself, the punch."

There is a very real possibility she will cry if he rejects it. This is what you get for not just letting her think she was hallucinating, Kylo.

Kylo doesn't exactly object or reject her gift, but he does peer down at the offered beverage warily before returning his somewhat unsettling stare right back to Julie's face. He's holding the cup, which is more than enough of a concession in his definitely always correct opinion.

"And how did you get yourself confined in solitary?"

Somehow, even with the strangely flat delivery, there's just enough of an emphasis on the you to suggest Kylo finds it difficult to believe Julie could earn herself such treatment.

Holding the cup is enough to satisfy her, and her attention immediately flickers to the newest shiny object in the conversation, his question about why she was locked up. And boy, is it a subject she has a lot to say about.

"Fightin'," she says with a scoff, rolling her eyes. "There's this French whore, 'bout as smart as a sack of shit and half as pretty, and she spit on me. I warned her before she did it, don't pick a fight she couldn't win, but she decided to do it anyway, so I whooped her. She don't learn, neither, won't leave me the fuck alone even now. Anyway, you'll smell her comin' if you ever meet her. She keeps connin' other people into babyin' her because she acts so pitiful, but that's all it is. An act."

She doesn't think that Kylo would be suckered in by Eponine's show -- he doesn't seem like a bleeding heart even a little bit -- but she still finds it necessary to spread the word. Who knows what kind of powerful people that girl might otherwise string along into coddling her?

Having absolutely no idea what a French is (and not much more of a clue about whores, if we're being honest, though Kylo wouldn't admit it), Julie's description doesn't actually give him much of a picture to work with. Still, he offers her a slight twist of his lips in the shape of a knowing smile, because he definitely isn't one to be fooled by a performance.

And certainly not one designed to elicit sympathy.

"They do enjoy playing saviour when it flatters them, don't they," he comments lightly, glancing around the gathering. "I would say I've never met so many heroes so intent on running away, but it is all they ever seem to do when faced with a fight that won't make them feel good about themselves."

Dipping a little dark for a picnic party there, perhaps, but Kylo isn't particularly bothered with what is and isn't appropriate cookout conversation. Customary critique on the very concept of heroism delivered, he turns his attention back to Julie's core concern, transparent (at least to him) in the wording.

"Playing weak and pitiful to earn sympathy only works on weak people with a pitiful need to put the goodness of their hearts on display... and even then only once. She'll destroy herself. There's no need to put any effort into ensuring it."

"I'd say it's 'cause the idiots who brought us here didn't only take heroes -- I sure as hell ain't one and never wanted to be," she says, looking back at the crowd of people. "I mean, shit, you want strangers to come save you, maybe pick ones who know how to do it. And don't throw 'em in prison for no reason, either." Julie scoffs and gestures at the others, their smiles and laughter as they converse. "But most of these folks, they're only interested in the kiddy shit anyway. It ain't hard to take care of some dumb, starvin' slut. It's a cheap way to feel all self-righteous. But they can't handle the big leagues."

She sighs, as if tired by the idea of softness and sentimentality. It kind of grosses her out, at least when it isn't aimed at her, and she doesn't usually want it anyway. "The people with real power, who could actually save this place? Those stupid mages mostly locked 'em up in the dungeon. So why would they help now? Most of 'em are probably gonna help the other places, just to spite Thorne for what they did."

After all, she knows what her group's plan is. To make Thorne pay.

Kylo's smile shifts, his eyes dark and steady.

"That would be unwise," he points out softly. "Ambrose made mistakes, the way people who are frightened and desperate always do, but Thorne's goal is the only one that serves us. If Cadens destroys the Singularity, we'll be destroyed along with it. Ignoring the Singularity strands us here permanently. Working against Thorne out of spite will only weaken us."

Better, in his opinion, to benefit from Thorne's unique position in the world while improving his own. And knowing as he does who chose to stay behind, and the power at their collective command?

"Better to reshape Thorne to work for us. Change has already begun."

She lets out a soft snort, pausing the conversation to pull out a joint and lighter. She sits lotus-style on the ground, at the base of Kylo's volcano legs, and looks up at him, taking a long drag before she answers.

"Not all of us wanna go back where we come from. I don't agree with none of the places that guy told us about, and I know me 'n mine ain't about to forgive Thorne for what they did to us. Even if I did agree with 'em, why would I help 'em? They're just gonna throw me back in the hole, all because some asshole who ain't ever even talked to me says so. Would you really be defendin' 'em if you'd been locked up for weeks? It's a lot easier to think they're right when they been kissin' your ass for months, but you got more in common with every person in here than a single one of 'em out there."

Kylo looms as a necessity really, the withered grass at his feet sizzling softly though never quite bursting into flame. He's quite a comfortable heat source to sit beside, and probably will be right up to the moment he very violently isn't— but he poses no real threat here, anyway. Nothing does. (For now, at least. The Horizon is likely no more stable in its behaviour than he is.)

"You have it inside out," Kylo offers. "It isn't about helping them, defending them, agreeing with them... or about wanting to go back. The Singularity is the key to all magic. All worlds. Understanding its power would make anything possible. That's what I want."

Julie does not seem aware of any potential threat that he might pose. Actually, it's very reminiscent of sitting next to the fire pit as she had been earlier, just with a guy in it. It's quite comfortable, all things considered.

She knits her brow, and the corners of her mouth turn down. "But how do you know that's actually what it is?" she asks. "That might be what they say about it, but how do they know? They can't even get close to it. It could be anythin'. It's like Stonehenge or those Easter Island heads. All they got are guesses 'bout what it is and what it's for, but no one really knows. And even if it is that powerful, what if controllin' it means the end of the universe or somethin'?"

With an incredibly long pull from her joint, she's quiet for a moment, then sighs and lets out a stream of thick smoke. "I've already gone through two apocalypses. I don't need another one."

"I can feel what it is," Kylo murmurs, gaze sliding away towards the very centre of the Horizon, the unseen artifact at its core. He can't see it from here, of course, but he doesn't need to.

"Can't you?"

Hm. Perhaps not, considering all the imaginary substances she's been partaking in. Even if she were as sensitive to the draw and flow of the Force as he is, that much indulgence would be quite the obstacle. He glances down at the bright red cup still in his hand, then to the smoke drifting into invisibility as it dissipates.

"I mean, I can feel that it's somethin'," she says, following his eyes into the distance, and there's apprehension in her voice. It's a foreign, constant feeling, a pull that she supposes must be whatever energy they're calling magic here. It was certainly nothing she'd ever experienced before she got here, and she doesn't know if she cares for the sensation. Like putting a collar on an old cat, her instinct is to back away from the connection, but there's nowhere to get away from it. The best she's been able to do is ignore it until her awareness of it dims so she can focus on other things.

She wraps her arms around her knees, taps ash into the grass. "Sometimes it's best to know when things're bigger than us. There's shit that humans ought not be messin' with, even when we do understand it."

"Not all of us are human," Kylo points out lightly, though he gets her meaning.

"Did they disappoint you? Humans. Meddling with power beyond their control. Or is this fear a little more... personal."

She snorts and shakes her head a little. "Shit I've seen, bein' human ain't the important part. It's just that's what there's the most of back home. Or was, anyway. It's almost all gone now."

Now there's almost nothing back home. Barely any animals, only tiny pockets of humanity left at all. Julie figures there can't be more than two, maybe three generations of humans left, at least not before they all get so genetically fucked up that it would be better to go extinct anyway. And that's to say nothing of any babies born without immunity to Captain Trips.

With a sigh, she rests her chin on her knee and closes her eyes for a moment, as if to shut out the memories themselves. It never works. "Humans are disappointin', sure. But I figure it probably ain't exclusive to us. I never met an alien, I don't think, but I'm sure if there's two of any species who can talk, one's disappointin' the other."

"I've met plenty," Kylo offers with a wry smile. "Aliens. And from what I can tell, your kind of human and mine are the same. Perhaps you have more options than you imagine, if the Singularity can be harnessed. Places you could go that are full of life."

He can feel the weight of death and loss draped around her shoulders like a sodden blanket, the threat of a chill that could reach to the core— he knows it, intimately.

"Where would you go, Julie Lawry? If you could go anywhere that ever was. All of space and time, and every possible variant of each."

"And I bet some of 'em are assholes, just like humans. Society is society, no matter how many heads or whatever they have." She is aware enough to realize that most aliens are probably not traditional little gray men from movies, but she can't summon what they might look like, other than having multiple heads. That's something she's seen in lots of movies.

The idea of not just anything that isn't Earth, but that isn't a dead Earth like hers, feels completely out of reach when he asks. It's something she almost can't remember, just an abstract concept now. Big eyes look up at him blankly for a long moment, like she's trying formulate an idea of what else there could be. All she knows is that she doesn't want the world she knew before, stranded and drowning in misery in a tiny, rural shithole where she could never be more.

"I don't know," she finally admits, quietly, brows furrowing. "Just not home."

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

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