I'll follow behind you on rainbow road

[paragon]

Who: CAPTAIN AMERICA WANTS YOU
Where: The Baromanogerneson Residence (i.e., 5031)
When: May 9th
What: Mario Kart and subversion, two great tastes that taste great together.
Warnings: Please warn in subjects as needed!
[Open]

The thought had formed pretty much as soon as he'd opened the box that was left on the front porch. The people here need a way to talk. There are two rooms in the house where they would be free to do so. He'd come home one day — not long after the body had disappeared from the upstairs bathroom and all the cameras he'd ripped from their wiring between there and the garage had been put back in place in their absence with a friendly maintenance note left behind that all fixtures in need of repair had been seen to, along with a bill for the expenses — to find Natasha sitting on the bed, writing a note in Sharpie. He'd leaned against the door frame and watched her hold it up to the cameras and make a deal: Steve wouldn't break any more cameras, if they give them the privacy of their bedrooms. As there had only been the three of them at the time (despite the insistence in his head that the house has always been filled by his teammates, just as he remembers of the last few years before Wayward Pines), that had meant the master bedroom downstairs, and Bucky's upstairs.

It had actually worked, though Steve wouldn't have trusted the word of whoever's behind the cameras himself if it weren't for Natasha's daily inspections, and so far the deal's held.

But it's not — can't be — a luxury only afforded to them, for their own sakes. He's told others here and there, and he knows his friends have, too. It's not enough, but nor does he have a way to get people over without arousing suspicion. But then there's the Nintendo system. A little unorthodox, as far as his own methods go, but he'll work with anything he has.

He doesn't put it down anywhere in writing, letting news of the party travel by word of mouth and hoping that's enough to keep it out of the wrong ears. At least for now. There's a chance — a good chance — that it will eventually get the Sheriff's attention, but by then it will have had the effect it's supposed to and given the people here the chance to speak to each other truthfully. And if that comes down on anyone, it's gonna be the people prepared to deal with it.

The day of the ninth is a rainy one, a good day to stay inside and play games with friends. It also provides a good excuse to use the master bedroom just off the end of the foyer as a temporary coat room. Straight ahead in the living room, Mario Kart is all ready to go, and in the kitchen next to that, snack food and drinks are available.

((ooc: THIS IS A MINGLE POST. While I will be tagging around with Steve a bit, this is mostly to give people a chance to chat with each other without the cameras watching. Per Natasha's deal with the powers that be, the cameras in the master bedroom and Bucky's room upstairs have been removed. Natasha will be greeting people at the door and taking them on a "tour" (i.e., to the master bedroom to explain the camera situation, why the party's really happening, and that they are not to discuss the lack of cameras while elsewhere in the house). Feel free to wander in there any time for a chat, or simply enjoy some Mario Kart and refreshments! Commenting around is encouraged, and please note in your top-levels whether they're open or closed. If you have any questions for me I can be found on plurk (jeeps) or discord (jeeps#9644).))

Comments

Steve Rogers | Open

[paragon]

[ Steve plays winner a few times. He thinks he's gotten the hang of the game pretty well by now, especially given Natasha's propensity for trash talking (he's never been a man who could let that go, and he's sure as hell not gonna start on Rainbow Road). As far as ruses go, it's a pretty easy one to keep up, and necessary if they're gonna pull this off without showing their hand to the people watching. They may be able to avoid the cameras, but Steve's always stayed well aware of the small bump on his thigh, same as the one he'd stopped Nat from cutting right out of her own leg in the beginning. The time will come for it, though.

So they're not here to play games, not really, and he doesn't mind handing off the controller to other takers. He watches them play, talks to others on the sidelines and keeps the snacks comings — making himself available to talk, basically. Though he might end up using Bucky's room so as not to monopolize the one downstairs. ]

caroline forbes • open

[coy]

[ Caroline plays one or two rounds and loses on purpose, despite her competitive nature. If only because she doesn't want to draw attention to her better than your average bear vampiric reflexes. She could probably beat some people but not all of them.

However, she has other reasons not to win, she wants to be available to talk to people, without being heard. She wants to get information and maybe share anything she might know (which isn't much right now).

And Steve, if you think that your not!sister would show up empty handed, you are so wrong. She brings quite a few snacks and might even be caught subtly re-arranging the way the rest are laid out for the guests because... that's Caroline for you. If she's not hovering in the kitchen, she might be offering to get someone a drink or having one herself where the noise is... less.]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe scouted out the man he knows (and barely remembers) is Caroline's brother. They certainly have looks in common, though Steve has a good deal of weight and height on Caroline and like. Anybody else.

He seems nice. Definitely charismatic. The tenor of the rooms change when he comes and goes, and Poe would mark him out for research and recruitment if this were a different place and he had different people to go home to. Steve, Poe concludes, is the kind of person who leads, intentionally or not.

By the time he finds the man in a rare moment of solitude, its in one of the bedrooms upstairs. Poe pauses at the door, non-alcoholic beverage in hand, and raps his knuckles lightly on the doorway to announce himself. ] You got a minute, or are you taking one?

[paragon]

[ Natasha hadn't needed to give Caroline the rundown. She's been to the house, she knows it; to Steve it would've been unconscionable not to have already told her. So he doesn't take up her time now, when there are probably other people she cares about that she needs to talk to. He just stays aware of her, less to keep tabs than because it's something he wouldn't know how to turn off if he cared to, though she mostly stays in his periphery rather than in the midst of things. Which isn't really how he remembers her, but he's not sure if he ought to trust that. It wasn't really her, any more than it was him.

Still, this is the third time he's checked on things in the kitchen only to find her hovering there, nudging things around with a critical eye, and this time he doesn't leave her to it. He goes to her, slipping his hands into his pockets and leaning back against the counter slightly. ] When are you gonna get started on the furniture?

[volitaunt]

[ He's remembered more since the last time they spoke. His mother, losing her, the General recruiting him into the Resistance. The mission that killed L'ulo, who might as well have been his uncle. The past few days have been a seesaw of emotion between remembering the loss of family and discovering the existence of it here. (A cousin, a half-cousin, a nephew, a sister he lost fourteen years ago so hazy that he forgets she exists and feels the worse for it.)

He watches Caroline from the kitchen doorway as she rearranges things, bottle of root beer in hand. He shouldn't let the sight of her center him. He should fight this. Right now he doesn't have the energy to try, which means the best thing he can do is keep a good chunk of the room between them. ] What're your criteria? For the way things go?

[ It's not a mocking question. He has no eye for this kind of thing. ]

[coy]

Shut up, [ she says quickly, instinctively, like a little sister would to her big brother. She looks up at him, suddenly sheepish as she laughs, her hands stilling and then laying flat on the counter] Sorry, old habits die hard. [ Whether that's the obsessive organization or the fact that she just told him to shut up when he teased her, your guess is as good as mine.

She hadn't wanted to stay on the edges, honestly. But she was trying to force herself to accept this new place, to not get lost in the fake emotions of being a part of a family that wasn't hers, of having a brother (something she'd always longed for). And well, it had been a bit for his sake, considering what she was. She wasn't sure if she could lie to him for much longer, given that their shared, false memories gave him the edge to be able to tell when she was keeping something from him.

Caroline just didn't know how to say it, how to explain it, without him freaking out and disowning her. If her own mother had done it, if her own father had tortured her because of it, what would a fake!brother do?

Welp, there was always compulsion even if the idea sickened her.]

But if you want my opinion, I do think the room would flow better if the couch was on the other wall-- [ She's teasing him now, giving his side a gentle jab of the elbow.]

[coy]

[ The thing is, Caroline would be there for him in a heartbeat if he'd reached out. They were in a precarious sort of situation, teetering on the edge of real friendship and still reeling from the fact that whatever deeper affection they felt for one another wasn't true, no matter how real it still feels.

She glances up from adjusting the salsa bowl, looking like she's been caught red-handed and she lets out a breath, looking amused.] It's about flow. Salsa and guacamole go first, along with the dip, then chips at the end because you just fill your plate with however many chips you think you'll need for them. [ She then points to the veggie tray.] Then comes the veggie tray because after you load up with the unhealthy stuff, you either go somewhere else or you pile up to try to make yourself better for eating so much by getting something healthy.

Pietro Maximoff | open

[windchasing]

[ Pietro has never actually played a videogame, not that he can remember (or even that he can't remember). So when he heard about the party, he'd been skeptical. But Allison was going, and Mr. Rogers was not so bad he supposed, and even if Pietro is very, very much not a party person - well, how bad can it be?

So far, the answer is, medium bad. Or at least that's how Pietro's Mario Kart performance can be categorized. He understands the controls well enough, but actually hitting the correct buttons at the correct time, while properly accounting for both the graphics lag and the controller lag? That takes him more than one entire minute to master. And that's terrible. ]

Why would anyone want to win a fake race? [ he grumbles as Koopa Troopa rolls to a sad halt in 7th place. ] These carts can barely break seventy-five.

[ He could go faster than that at a brisk walk. ]

[volitaunt]

[ Therein lies the problem. Poe doesn't want to reach out. He got in touch with Cassian, after meeting Caroline the first time, but that had been different. Then he'd been angry, wired.

He spent the previous night taking apart his motorcycle, the previous day working the farm from sunup to sundown, then came home and started putting the bike back together. Today was another day buried in the guts of tractors, smeared with the bile of engine grease and lubricant.

He can't even talk to BB-8 freely, which is driving him and the droid crazy. Normally, being around people helps, but right now it's a reinforcement of everything they aren't allowed to do. He shouldn't be at a party, he should be gathering intel, building weapons, doing something.

Poe relaxes a little as he listens to her, talking about casual human behaviors like parts of an engine, functioning together for a specific set of variable results. ]

This is why I could never be in politics. Junk food and vegetables are complicated enough.

BB-8 and Maybe That Other Guy | Open

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8, as usual, came with Poe.

The droid left his partner to scan the house, and had been on his way to find Poe and report back about the cameras missing from some of the rooms when he got distracted by the goings-on in the living room.

Specifically, the tiny pixelated pod racers.

Which is why BB-8 is now directly in front of the TV, trilling excitedly about having found something familiar. ]

[coy]

[ The thing is, Poe, being at parties in this place is all about gathering intel. It's just a different way, it's Caroline's way. Gossip is just a different form of intel.

And as she goes on to explain, others might feel foolish for thinking so much about the placement of snacks but Caroline takes pride in her ability to make a party go on without a hitch. It's something she's quite good at and food placement is as important to her as perhaps the position of a particular valve is to Poe.

Which he seems to understand because he doesn't scoff at her or laugh, he just acknowledges that what she's talking about it weirdly complicated.]

Ah, you see, [ she plucks a carrot from the bowl and before she takes a bite--] there's not always a huge difference between a carrot and a senator.

Danny Fenton | Open

[invisibill]

[You know what was weird? Going to a teacher's house to play video games.

But there was food and there were games to play. Danny couldn't really think of a reason not to go.

He wanders around, going back and forth between the food and the excitement around the screen. Every now and then he stops to talk to people he recognizes.]

Ana OTA!

[seeyaduke]

[When Ana had played video games, the systems they'd had had been beyond Mario Kart. However, Ana's father, whom she was close to was a giant nerd and always insisted that she play him on that rather than on a better game with cooler graphics. It served her well now here, though because as she was watching most everyone involved, they seemed to be a bit... Well, in the end she supposed they were all Steve's friends so that was to be expected.

But she won a game or two, and then lost several more with appropriate 'aw's and damn its. And maybe one or more shits when she got hit with a shell.]

Kaulder | OTA

[byironandfire]

[Kaulder has by now been given a house and a job - teaching Biology at the school, of all places. He has done his best to obey the rules posted all over town as well as he can, at least until he can figure out what the hell is going on, and why he can't remember anything. He'd heard from Ana that he should show up, and so...here he is.

Gamely, he tries to play Mario Kart a few times before giving up and allowing himself to mingle, watching people around him and quietly eavesdropping on conversations. Someone has answers about what's going on here, and they can give them to him in the rooms without cameras.

He just doesn't know who.]

Clary Fary | OTA

[babyhunter]

[Steve is by far one of Clary's favorite teachers but then art is by far one of her favorite subjects. When she heard about the party she had to stop by and given her tendency to watch big gatherings more than participate in them she brought her sketchbook. Part of the time she can be found sitting in the corner with her eyes flicking between the crowd and the white page of her book. Even with the loud buzzing of conversation Clary will zone out and fall into the dense murky darkness of her thoughts.

Learning about the camera's didn't help her relax. Neither did the the heavy weight of the Stele in her pocket. It all feels so odd.

After being dragged into one of the matches Clary's voice rings loudly over the room.] I did it! I can't believe I won! I love having the blue shell when I'm in second! [That evil evil blue shell.]

Clint Barton | Open

[arcum]

[ He's getting used to living in a full house. Somehow though it just feels like this fits. The people. The chaos. Though what feels new and strange is watching Steve stare at Natasha sometimes like she's a Turducken. It's off putting and he's decided that somehow the relationship is more than little bit gross. But at least there's Sam and sometimes Bucky. Though sometimes he wonders if Bucky is auditioning for Nirvana. But this is just home he's decided. With his increasingly strange friendships and his room with no door. Which he needs to start work on soon.

Answers are the reason they're here. Answers and some sort of real talk that can occur in the room that Clint still doesn't want to go into. No matter how much you can talk in there without being seen. He does not want to cram himself into Natasha's sex den to have a chat with some strangers about the truth. He would rather take a flying leap off the roof.

Surprisingly he's good at this. It's all about hand eye coordination which Clint has in spades. There's a reason he gets hole in ones in golf or he always hits the bullseye in darts. Video games just take a little more concentration which he absolutely no problem doing. Another thing he doesn't have a problem doing? Stuff his face full of some snacks. But he does it politely. He has manners. Somehow. There's a female voice in the back of his head telling him to chew his food and be a good example. Whatever that means. ]

[seaweedbrain]

[ After watching a couple of games, Percy heads into the kitchen to investigate the snacks available. He doesn't actually know a whole lot of people here, which is kind of weird, but then he figures the town is big enough that there are probably faces he's missed or forgotten.

He enters when Caroline's around and watches her shifting and moving snack-bowls and drink-cups around, probably too focused to notice him for the moment.

It's weird, the sudden feeling that jolts him in the chest like an electric shock. That blonde hair, the meticulousness of her action ... it's so familiar, so reminiscent of something he can't put his finger on. But he knows it's important, he's just not sure why.

And then, just like that, it's gone. ]

That row of cups is crooked.

[ It's a teasing remark, of course, because there are no crooked rows of cups. ]

[seaweedbrain]

[ For a long, drawn-out second, Percy thinks that the droid is probably part of the video game experience.

(And he thinks, this is so cool, which is followed by, how much did this thing cost?)

But the video game is Mario Kart and there are little race-cars zooming across the screen and he doesn't remember spherical-shaped robots being playable characters, even if his actual experience with video games is less than most.

He'd been sitting somewhere in the back while people played rounds of the game, but now he gets up to approach the droid, reaching out to maaaaybe touch it. ]

Wow, you are cool.

[birdcostumes]

[Dude. Okay, listen.

Sam is no stranger to robots or artificial beings. He's been in Tony Stark's lab. He's met Dum-E, and while he (luckily) never had to deal with Ultron, he's heard about him in detail. He knows Vision, too, and thinks pretty highly of him.

But he's never seen anything like this little rolly-polly orange bot. BB-8 distracts him from his game, and Sam ends up losing the round spectacularly. Normally he'd be mad, but he just passes the controller to whoever is waiting for the next round before squatting down next to the little robot to look it over curiously.]

Man, I bet Stark would love to get his hands on you, little guy.

[seaweedbrain]

Uh, because it's fun, dude?

[ Well, it would be fun if he won more than the one time, anyway. And so far ... he hasn't.

He's almost 100% sure he's got quick reflexes and should, by all rights, be pretty good at video games ... but so far his winning streak isn't all that much of a streak and more like dumb luck, but he'll keep his spirits high for as long as he can. ]

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 gives a little high-pitched chirp of vanity, swiveling his head dome around just in time to look Percy in the, er, eye? as he gets poked. He introduces himself, then asks for Percy's name, hoping maybe this human will know Binary. Someone here has to! ]

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 tilts his head dome, giving Sam an equally curious once-over, both with photoreceptor and sensors. He tags the tracking device--everyone here has one, it seems--and chirps an inquiry to that effect, before adding that he doesn't know what a Stark is but he's Very Important to the Resistance and shouldn't be manhandled.

It sort of worked for Finn. ]

[birdcostumes]

[Sam doesn't understand any of that, and he can't tell that BB-8 is running sensors on him, but he definitely gets the sense that the bot is acknowledging him. The way he tilts his head even gives him the appearance of a cute, curious dog.

He starts to reach out to touch BB-8, but hesitates. Again, he's seen artificial beings with all kinds of ranges of intelligence. Is this cool, to just reach out and pet him? Vision sure as Hell isn't anybody's pet. Sam would no sooner treat him that way than he would any other person he knows, and he has no way of telling whether this little guy is a robot, or something more.

His eyes flick to what he thinks is probably BB-8's eye.] Is this okay?

[birdcostumes]

[Sam isn't the most skilled Mario Kart racer in the world. He was never really much of a gamer, to be honest. After living in the Avengers facility, however, he kind of got used to them, and the level of competition that goes along with them. Or maybe that's just his crazy teammates.]

You want them to go faster around crazy hairpin turns with no guard rails? [He laughs.] Or over banana peels?

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 makes a sound that, whether you speak Binary or not, is undeniably "yep!"

He's getting the impression that this is another human that doesn't recognize Compressed Binary. Poe told him once just to talk slowly to people like that, but BB-8 is 98.7% sure that his partner was joking at the time.

Still, to illustrate the inoffensiveness, BB-8 rolls forward to bump lightly against Sam's fingers, rattling off a series of sounds that mostly have to do with being a maintenance droid and the commonality of maintenance droids being patted, poked, or otherwise treated like small animals.

Just not manhandled.]