MANY PEOPLE.
Alessia rolls her eyes, shaking her head a little as she looks at Gabe. "So much posturing." She murmurs in a low, low tone, leaning in closer to the forensic pathologist to make sure he can hear her, and no one else.
Empty plate before Dante he gives a smile to Silas's suggestion, "Good idea." He starts to get up from his seat to go towards said sushi.
Walter rolls his eyes a little. "Like I said, sore sports," he says, shaking his head in amusement. He turns then to the burger, the last bit of food left on his plate.
"It's called a dick-measuring contest," Jean-Paul clarifies for Alessia.
Harrison snorts lowly.
"Thanks for not just sticking them on the table." Dante quips, "Might have ruined the sushi mood."
Ilad's smile is quick: an ephemeral, sharp flash across his expression, there and then gone again. "Competition is healthy," he says, tone instructive.
"That would have been one way to conclusively answer things," Jean-Paul agrees, particularly bland.
"Someone on base must have a ruler," Walter remarks around the final bite of burger, swallowing. He pushes to his feet. Going to get more food? Nope, heading to the SUV.
He's probably getting a ruler. Jean-Paul glances after Walter as he takes another bite of sush-- no, wait, damnit. He finished his. He glaaances toward the table and contemplates how much of a pig he has been. "What does the winner of /that/ competition get?"
"Bragging rights, I think," Harrison says with a shrug.
"Affirmation of the biggest 'ego,'" Walter muses, digging in the back of the SUV, a glance back towards the group.
Dante is already at the sushi. Working on his sushi plate. Oooh especially the tempura ones. Yum.
Seeing Dante at the sushi allows Jean-Paul to find some measure of willpower. He eats ... a carrot.
Ilad still isn't eating anything, especially not anything phallic.
Al huffs out a sigh. "What is it with men an' their dick measurin' and wavin', anyhow. Is size /really/ that important, or is it just macho stuff?" Eyes dart over to Walter, a scowl.
Jean-Paul also doesn't say anything on this point, considering the company. His eyes do, however, glint.
"I don't know," Harrison replies in an even tone to Alessia. "/Does/ size matter?"
"You guys are the ones talkin' about measurin' them. Ah'm sure most of you have seen more dicks in your time than Ah have." Al responds in a light tone to Harrison with a shrug following. "Ah haven't been exposed to that big a cross-section to judge, thanks."
Al'd get to see what Walt's /actually/ doing over by the SUV. A wriggly yellow balloon is in his hand, being hefted experimentally as he looks back towards the table, smirking a little.
Jean-Paul /also/ doesn't say anything about /that/. He does, however, snort a tiny, tiny little bit as he takes a sip of his beer. Almost unnoticeable.
Uh, Gabe has just been keeping quiet or something this whole time, eating. Yeah.
It's a good thing Dante's not eating at the sushi plate but just serving himself stuff because otherwise the cookout may have needed the heimlich to be used. To the question Dante glances over to Al for a moment.
Ilad fails to comment on this conversation any further. He tips his head, thumb dragging along the curve of his eyebrow -- vague discomfort buried so far beneath his expression, which itself is mostly the bare curve of a smile, that you'd probably have to be a telepath to find it.
Harrison narrows his eyes on Alessia, possibly the tiniest bit skeptical, but doesn't comment. He picks up another piece of sushi and pops it in his mouth.
Madrox glances across that table with his slight squint and then focuses on Alessia. "I, for myself, have never seen one."
Walter hums a little tune as he loads the trebuchet. Hmmm, they're all by the food. That'd probably be a little mean. Funny, but... food!
"I imagine you've seen at least one," Jean-Paul says.
Dante glances over to Madrox, "That must be a big problem for you in the men's room."
Alessia arches an eyebrow at Harrison. "Well, /you/ were in tha Marines, an' all of ya have probably used locker rooms. You guys have pissin' contests. It stands to reason ya've seen quite a few more'n Ah have." She looks at Madrox. "You've never seen a guy's junk in the locker rooms or the showers? Don't buy it."
"You've never seen your /own/ junk?" Harrison adds on to the wave of skepticism, eyeing Madrox.
"No." Madrox takes his fork, cuts up his hamburger. Although this is not the way you eat a hamburger. "I have never seen it. I have a rare condition. Anything below the waist and poof. It's completely invisible."
Alessia coughs, and it sounds suspiciously like 'Liar'.
Jean-Paul bites at his lower lip and swallows the smile threatening to break. He says, "That sounds inconvenient," in a remarkably level way.
So, Gabriel clears his throat about all of the junk talk, and then winds up laughing about it, anyway. Oh, boy. He squints sideways at Madrox for that line and then just winds up laughing harder.
"Really feel bad for the janitor now," Dante replies sadly, turning back to the food.
Jean-Paul adds, "I guess you could learn by touch."
"So you can't see any junk, or you can't see your own and just avoid the rest?" Harrison asks. Let's test Madrox's imaginary logic.
Hey, look, something to distract from penises! It's a big, yellow balloon, that goes WAY wide, soaring over everyone's heads to burst on the other side.
"It is inconvenient. But through prayer and remarkable coordination, I cope." Madrox slants a glance to Harrison. "The form-" he glances up at balloon, "-er."
"Jamie, Ah don't see the cards out, but Ah'm callin' bullshit." Al grins, before she's up on her feet, and running towards Walter to push him out of the way and get some water balloons.
Harrison's gaze lifts to follow the path of the water balloon. "Seriously?"
Belladonna arrives in time for -- water ballons, what? "What?" is an easy enough way to jump into the conversation, right? Right. "--the hell?"
Jean-Paul opens his mouth to continue the conversation in an even more helpful way, and then just arches his eyebrow. He eats the last vegetable hastily, before it gets splooshed, and grabs his bottle of beer to duck away from the table.
"Damn!" Walter can be heard to say, quickly grabbing another balloon, chucking it at Al, laughing a little, trying to fend her off long enough to start loading up more.
"I cope!" Madrox insists again as the balloon distracts. A fine time to get down to eating.
Too bad Belladonna missed the junk conversation. Gabe lifts his brows at the flying water balloon, and then watches Al go after Walter. He gives a small wave of a greeting to Belladonna before taking a sip of his beer.
Al dodges, and the first one she chucks is at Walter. Then? She's water balloon bombing at seeming random. If most of them seem to head Harrison's way, well... she throws like a girl, right?
"Hey!" Walter says, "let the people eat," he says with a chuckle, catching Al in the back of the head with one. He is dressed in a (now wet) white shirt and board shorts. "Hi," he says with an energetic wave towards Belladonna.
Jean-Paul clears out of Harrison's way, and gets back from the table to glance in the direction of the balloons. He still has the bottle of beer in hand, though, so he retreats back to the food tables to set it down where it isn't gonna get knocked over.
Harrison frowns as one balloon lands nearby. Nice throw. He makes an annoyed sound when he's forced to lift his hand up to block another one. Unfortunately, blocking water balloons still doesn't tend to block the water. "Fuck you, Fiore!" he snaps over at her. "I'm trying to eat!"
At the sounds of the ballons splooshing and getting hit from the backsplash of the balloon landing behind him, Dante steps forward away from the blast. "Son of a..." Oh right, there were water balloons. He even filled them. Ha ha. He shifts over to non attacked potato salad, getting another dab onto his plate.
Pausing near the food, Jean-Paul says to Dante, "So this is like sacred ground right here, yeah? No one will throw here?"
Also in board shorts: Belladonna. /Not/ also in a white shirt: Belladonna. There is a return of Walter's wave, but though she is not as food-oriented as /some people/, this is a cookout, right? "I heard," she pitches her voice upward to be heard, "some kind of free-food rumor goin' around," as she angles -- thattaway. Foodaway.
"They better not." Dante murmurs in reply, shifting over to the buns, "Waste of food."
Alessia laughs. "Have to whip it out first, Brady. Afraid you can't measure up?" There's only one more toss in the mechanic's direction, before Walter gets the last hurled at him.
"That's what I thought." Jean-Paul darts to snatch up a couple of balloons. He necessarily has to pause at the container holding them, however, rather than just grab and rip away and break them.
"Wait, are we /still/ on that?" Walter asks, taking one to the chest. Wet t-shirt is less exciting on guys. He hurls one at Jean Paul at the pause, though if it will even connect is anyone's guess.
Madrox is still eating through hangover headache and trying to do it inconspicuously.
It hits Jean-Paul even as he darts back, and the fourth water balloon that he was pulling up -- as indicated -- rips and splooshes over the side of the container. He retreats from the splash of water, getting only a bit damp, to take his loot and come to stand by Dante and Belladonna. Hi, guys.
As Belladonna approaches the food table, Dante gives a nod, setting his plate at the table, "Might want to just hang out around the spread until they run out of ammo. At least when eating." To Jean-Paul's return he smiles, "Oh hey, how was your trip? Bring us anything?"
"I wouldn't want to run the risk of getting it near you and catching something," Harrison says, still snappish with a temper that has much less enjoyment of the situation than Alessia apparently does. OMG BALLOONS STOP.
After brief consideration, Jean-Paul offers Dante and Belladonna each a balloon from his stash. One each? How convenient.
Gabe just, uh, watches the while scene, brows up. He's almost afraid to get up to get another beer at this point.
Al laughs. "Oh please, Ah already admitted my lack of seeing a lot of dick. That's the /best/ ya can do, Brady?" Just for that, she retrieves another balloon to hurl at Harrison. Just one. Swear.
That crack of Harrison's earns him another Walt balloon, the boy actually having camped out near the bucket, the jackass.
Dante looks to the balloon and gives a nod of thanks as he takes it. "Thanks."
Belladonna collects her balloon from Jean-Paul with a lightning-fast grin, and hefts it carefully, carefully. "Thanks, Jean-Paul," she allows, eyes a-narrow as she looks back to the crowd. Harrison is considered and dismissed, but she asks her companions: "So, who's the best target?" instead.
Running his finger along the balloon's smiling face, Jean-Paul looks to see who has yet to be targeted. "Someone dry," he suggests to Belladonna, even as he picks Walter for his hit. Revenge.
One of these balloons hits Harrison squarely in the head. He looks very, /very/ unhappy about the fact. "You just want to see it so bad you're going to throw shit at me until I show you?" he growls over at her. "This part of your education or something?"
Dante glances to Belladonna, "That's not much of a throw." He frowns, "How about the ones hogging all the balloons instead?"
"Ah just wanna see it so Ah can point an' laugh, really. Not my fault you're so shy. What's the term, shy turtle or somethin' like that?" Al is NOT camped out next to the bucket, and she's stopped chucking balloons. For now.
Walter loads the trebuchet. Everything's better with siege weapons.
Madrox is, uh, eating /faster/. It is mayday fast.
"You know, Fiore, if you're really just dying to see it--" In some ways, Harrison is not shy. Being in the military helps with this. He unbuttons his jeans and drops trou. "Congratulations. You've seen Harrison Brady's cock." He throws his hands up exasperatedly.
Belladonna answers, "Noted," to Jean-Paul, with the same kind of up and down eye-- worth it? doubtful-- before she turns, and hurls her waterballoon, similarly, at Walter. (In accordance with Dante's suggestion.) "Go get us more, Zippy," she says, with a-- woah woah woah. "Not unless you share with the whole class, Brady!" she calls through cupped hands, at full volume. HI HARRISON.
"Is that thing big enough to be out unsupervised?" Walter cries out, letting the trebuchet fire!
Jean-Paul glances. It perhaps throws off his aim at Walter. He doesn't /stare/, though. C'mon. It's a twitch of his eyes to the side and then he looks forward again. Good time to steal more balloons? Yes.
Wow, um. So. Gabriel just clears his throat and finishes his beer and looks over... there. At a nice tree. Hi, tree.
Kitty's changed, lime green bikini making an appearance over cutoff shirts as she makes her way back to the reservoir. While she doesn't get to see Harrison Brady's cock, she does arrive in time to see Harrison Brady's white ass, causing her to turn red. "Isn't there law against this?" she asks, hiding her face behind a hand.
Madrox is - distracted from eating, by something other than water balloons. Explicitly. "Uh."
Dante rolls his eyes as he looks towards Alessia, and indirectly off to the side of his peripheral vision a misplaced... "Oh Christ." Dante shakes his head deciding upon his target with that moment. He looks to Al, moving forward to get her in his range before chucking the waterballoon at her hard.
"Jesus Christ!" Al actually blasphemes, looking away before the jeans fully drop away. "For the love of ... Pull your pants up, man. Ah don't need more mental scarrin--!" That shout ending in a yelp as she's hit with water balloon, hands dropping away from blocking her vew so she can go get some more ammo. And no, Harrison isn't that impressive.
"Kitty!" Walter says with a wave, laughing a little. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on, but come on, I'll let you use the trebuchet! Maybe if we pelt him enough, he can blame it on the cold!"
"So we've got flying balloons and incidental nudity. I'm not sure what kind of party I'm at," Madrox confides, turning his head brisk (so he is actually confiding to his hamburger), "but I'm damn sure it's making my headache worse."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Harrison says. He rebuttons his jeans over his TOTALLY IMPRESSIVE COCK, DON'T GODMOD. "Don't ask for what you can't handle." Zip up.
Entirely a point of view thing really.
Walter's greeting leaves him distracted enough that BOTH balloons catch him, plastering his hair over his face, and his shirt to his chest.
"Indeed," Ilad rumbles in Madrox's direction, rubbing at his eyes with thumb and forefinger. He has been hovering nearish the food this whole time, so he probably is still dry. And boring. "In the land where I come from, increased age is usually a sign of heightened maturity," he tells nobody in particular.
For that, Ilad gets a water balloon when Jean-Paul gets to the container. He grabs a few more, and then goes high.
"More like don't ask for what would turn me off all men altogether. Eww." Al wrinkles her nose, giving Harrison a grin. "Ah'm only kiddin', Brady. Ah'm sure you're average." And JP beats her to soaking Ilad.
Unarmed, Dante shifts back towards the food table
Kitty doesn't seem too scared by flying water balloons, so she doesn't rush over to the weaponry. "I think I... will sit out of this," says the newly dried off phaser, moving over to grab a fresh beer from the cooler.
Ilad takes water balloon hits like a man with an overabundance of dignity: that is, he continues to stand there, with a narrowed blink and an exasperated expression, except now his grey shirt slicks wetly to his upper body. After a thoughtful moment, he tips his head to the side, and withdraws something small from his pocket.
Jean-Paul drops another one on Ilad after a moment's consideration from on high.
Madrox finishes his plate and still dry himself, leaves off further commentary toward staying unnoticed and slipping out into the trees. Can he do it??
Harrison scrubs a hand against his scalp, spraying clinging water droplets from his hair, and moves with a silent, steady level of annoyance to the cooler for another beer.
Belladonna, still by the food, cheers Harrison -- though she does falter slightly disappointed when the clothes go back on. She, /she/ tips her head up to squint at Jean-Paul, offering a grin and a too-cocky single digit salute for the /inevitable/ water balloon. Still, however temporarily, dry, she angles toward the beer.
There's a wary eyeing of the wet Harrison by Kitty as he approaches, but she's nice enough to hold out a beer for him. One of Jean-Paul's fancy beers. "Looks like what I did didn't end up mattering," she points out teasingly, eyeing the wet man.
Taking another bite of his food, he considers the scene before him before giving a shrug and starting to walk straight for the bin.
Taking another bite of his food, Dante considers the scene before him before giving a shrug and starting to walk straight for the bin.
Fresh exasperation written in his expression as water bursts over his head and shoulders, Ilad looks a bit drowned-rat as he shakes out his arm, water soaking his dark hair to his scalp. He shakes water droplets off himself.
"Oh come on, you even put on the swimsuit, you're prepared now!" Walter says with a laugh, watching JP fly up. "Oh crud," he remarks. He considers the trebuchet. Naw, too much freaking math to try and hit an airborne target. He grabs another balloon, hefting it gently as he tries to catch Jean-Paul off guard. There! He throws it. If he misses, who know where it'll land.
"What you did?" Harrison echoes, bland and blank, as he snatches the beer from Kitty. He digs in his pocket for his keys and pulls them out to use his keychain bottle opener to pop the cap.
Jean-Paul hovers with another balloon in hand. He bobs it gently in his palm, and rolls it from one hand to the next. When he catches the lob from Walter, he zips to the side, speeder midair than he ever is on land. (Fewer things to run into and trip over.) Why don't you hit Madrox with that one, instead? Huh? HUH?
Too bad Isabel isn't here.
Alessia does however, take up some more water balloons and ponder her targets. One balloon gets whipped at the slinking Madrox, but likely hits a tree first. The next one gets held onto, considering.
"Dripping, the water on you. Getting you wet," Kitty reminds him carefully, holding out her own beer towards the man with the bottle opener in a silent plea.
Harrison makes a vague, noncommittal noise and pops the cap off Kitty's beer as well. "I hate parties."
Madrox continues his withdrawal, but, but he pauses to deposit the now-empty plate. Unfortunately, this means that he does not quite get beyond a tree when Alessia throws. The balloon blat-soaks through his back and he half-turns with a slightly grouchy resignation and a mutter of something like can't we do this later or-- before he's flashed a small smile through the grouch to show he is a good sport, and resumes withdrawal. Not fast enough, like.
"But the parties love you," Belladonna says to Harrison, with an eyebrow lift and a tip of her recently procured beer in his direction, too. Wiggle wiggle. "How you doin', Kitty?"
As everyone's throwing balloons at everyone else, Dante reaches the bin and starts withdrawing balloons.
Ohmygod Harrison is not your beer monkey. He opens /yet another beer/ and then stuffs his keys pointedly in his pockets so he can actually enjoy his own. He says nothing in reply to Belladonna, just scowls, and keeps an eye out for any impending balloons.
Once he's in range, Dante's head is Al's next target.
For a brief moment, Kitty looks like she feels bad for Harrison, offering up a comforting, "Stick near me. I'll make sure no more balloons land." She bumps up hesitantly against the wet man as she smiles brightly in greeting to Belladonna. "Good! I went back to the table last night and you were all gone."
"Your hatred is not very convincing," Ilad observes. He puts his lighter back into his pocket, and then peels his soaked shirt from his back, since skin dries faster than fabric. He balls up the shirt, trying to squeeze liquid out of it, but it's not really wet enough to need squeezing. Just wet enough to be annoying. Scars mark his hard, lean body, but only visible above his jeans are the curving knife scar at one hip and the faded bullet scar at his opposite side. He doesn't take a balloon. Fighting with water is for pussies.
The balloon doth hit and the Dante does get wet. Head turning up slowly, his lips form a straight line as he throws another balloon at Alessia.
Now would be a better time to try hitting Jean-Paul. His evaluation of his target freezes a moment as Ilad peels his shirt off, with the balloon caught in two hands. Because he really /is/ a /totally boring/ and /not at all interesting/ target, Jean-Paul pulls his gaze away to look for another person to hit.
Oh, I forgot to pose Ilad's necklace. He's wearing it. Hebrew letters in white cold dangling above his collar-bone. There.
Oh crap, a Dante. Walter hurls a balloon the short distance over to Dante, chuckling.
God.
Shirtlessness! Shirtlessness. Madrox finishes withdrawal posthaste to soak his head less - literally.
"I don't need your help," Harrison grumps down at Kitty. "I am zapping the hell out of the next thing someone throws at me."
Ilad asks, "What happens if you hit a fireball with a lightning bolt?"
"Sorry 'bout that, Kits," Belladonna says to Kitty, with a total hey-there (cheeky monkey) grin before her attention is caught, whoah, woah, by Ilad's stripping. "Is this the taking off your clothes kind of cookout, after all?"
Alessia does not find Ilad boring, chunking a water balloon at him, then another at Walter for fun. And just because the cooler crowd is feeling smug, she's trying to direct JP to dive bomb them with some hand motions.
They are by the food, the pussies. That is neutral territory. Jean-Paul lobs his last balloon at Alessia, instead, and then descends a bit, drifting over to pass a glance over the water balloon collection.
Kendra subliminates into a cool, misting fog of water vapor and disassociated molecules.
Oh crap a Wal-sploosh! Ok he's done. Dante retaliatory throws now!
"Fine, I won't help," Kitty says defensively, pulling away from her lean against Harrison. Not touching you, then! Her attention, too, is arrested by Ilad taking off his shirt. She's just admiring the necklace, right. Right. Maybe she wants one.
Belladonna lifts an arm to offer a loop around Kitty's shoulders. She will take leaning. "I'll throw, if Zippy up there ever brings them /back/?" she offers.
Harrison's beer pauses before it hits his lips. "No fucking clue. Maybe if we aim them right we could find out." Perhaps concerned for splashback, perhaps in some solidarity of elemental mutations, he lifts his free hand when he catches sight of Alessia's balloon aimed in Ilad's direction and lets off a sharp, crackling zap of electricity that bursts it harmlessly mid-arc. (Harmless assuming no one is right under it.)
Walter acks, trying to find some shelter from the Al and Dante balloons, but considering he's right on the other side of the bin from Dante, this is rather difficult. It mostly looks like curling fetal.
Alessia has time to dodge, however, running a few steps away from where she'd been standing, laughing. She's amused, and picks up a water balloon. Neutral territory her ass. She just holds onto it, getting another one to keep safe as well, for now.
Only a few scattered drops reach Ilad, a light rain falling across him as he moves to claim a chair by the table and sit on it. He sits straight, wet shirt crumpled between his hands. He says something crisply Hebraic, head tipping, and then adds, "--Not that I have any fireballs at the moment." His gaze roves the general mass of competitors, hunting for potential water balloon threats.
"You can't throw balloons and use me as a shield at the same time," Kitty chides of Belladonna playfully, scrunching up her face at the older woman as she steps away from the arm with a flicker of power usage that allows it to drop through her. She takes her beer and wanders over to just check out the cooler full of water balloons.
Ittt's pummel Walter time! Dante throws another one at the Dynamo before grabbing for another balloon, reaching another hand down to grab a second as he notes the dwindling supply.
Jean-Paul skims toward the whatever with the water balloons to grab a couple more, this time with a two-handed scoop that allows him to pull quickly, without need to slow much. Then he heads back up with his pair of bombs.
Walter rolls, getting rather muddy and dirty, behind the SUV. Shield him, unfeeling metal! He lets out a battle cry. "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrroooooooooyyy Jenkin~" he rushes the bin, trying to grab some more ammo, then get out of point blank range of Dante. His trebuchet, it is unguarded! Yes, Walter is a huge dork, why do you ask?
Alessia picks out another target carefully, creeping towards the table with her best innocent expression in place. Then she lets both her balloon fly, one after the other, thrown at Gabriel.
/Somehow/, Gabriel has managed to stay mostly dry in this whole chaos of water balloons. Skills, he has them (apparently). At some point, he wandered near the food to get another beer, which he sips at now, still watching.
Safe (for the moment) from balloons, Harrison drinks his beer. He watches the scene for one grumpy moment, then turns around to take his wet self back to base. Grararar.
Jean-Paul descends after a moment considering from above, with his two balloons in hand. He offers one to Ilad, gaze fixed firmly on his face. "Just throw one," he says. "One hit. Can't hurt a thing. Everyone else is doing it."
Yet another balloon is hurled at Walter's head as he fleees from the Dante.
Or, rather, now Gabe is not so dry. He blinks and ducks much too late when that balloon comes his way, one arm up to try to fend it off ineffectively. Ah, hm. Well, at least he isn't wearing a suit, right? When no more seem to be coming his way, he relaxes enough to eye Al with maybe just the hint of a grin. That is, until he pulls off his glasses to clean them.
Jean-Paul casts a shifty glance over his shoulder to make sure that no one is targeting him.
Alessia giggles, before she's moving to clear off empty plates and the like that have been left on the table. Then, it's time to get another snack.
Kitty considers the smiley face balloons for a long moment before turning back to watch the scene, raising her beer for a sip. Maybe she's referring.
Walter cackles as he runs. "Hi Kitty!" BALLOON! "Hi damn your name is long." BALLOON!
Wasn't Madrox going to soak his head? Perhaps maybe it was literal, for the Madrox that resurfaces has acquired a bucket somewhere and perhaps it was behind a shed somewhere close since it does not look like a sanitary bucket and the base is fair well caked in something. It's heavy enough that Madrox's re-approach is a bit uneven and he sets it down before he's reached the table proper and stands beside it, scratching under one ear. Awright.
Ilad arches his eyebrows at Jean-Paul with humor a bright gleam in his dark eyes. His gaze lifted, his smile curves his lips, quick and slight but wholly irrepressible. "Did you really just say 'everyone else is doing it'?" he asks.
Quirking an eyebrow incredulously at Walter, Kitty lets the water balloon pass harmlessly through her and splash against the SUV instead. "I told you I was staying out of it," she says lightly, smile tugging at the corner of her lips at someone throwing a balloon at her.
"Yes," says Jean-Paul. "I was being ironic." He extends the balloon, pushing it toward and then against Ilad's chest. Take it. Take it, take it.
Dante is KING OF THE BALLOON BUCKET MWAH HA HA!
Alessia looks at Gabriel, a little hint of a grin showing. "Didn't want ya to feel left out."
Still a little more wary of balloons than he was before, Gabriel settles his glasses back into place, blinking a moment to readjust, and then he casts a look over to Madrox. And Madrox's bucket. Uh. He clears his throat slightly and shuffles just a couple of paces away from it. Just in case. And after that, he just smirks at Al. "Uh-huh."
Ilad takes the balloon from against his chest, aware of his hair still dripping and the breeze drying other water droplets against his naked skin. He looks at it, for a long moment, as though he suspects it might turn out to be a fish.
Madrox gives Gabriel the gradual, sharp kind of smile that is not intended to inspire trust, but he moves away from the bucket, leaving it all safely planted. He proceeds toward the table, unarmed.
Al reaches out to ruffle Gabriel's now damp hair. "Honest!" There's a wink with that grin now, and she's eating berries with whipped cream.
Belladonna has her beer half-lifted when the impact from Walter's balloon jars her, spills her beer down her shirt, instead. Now she is twice-wet. There is a slightly cranky-- maybe jealous-- look at the still-dry Kitty, but she sticks two fingers in her mouth and whistles, sharp loud, at Jean-Paul. You know she is doing it at Jean-Paul because, after, she says: "/Zippy/." BALLOONS. STAT.
It has a smiley face on it. Jean-Paul's lips twitch in pleased fashion as Ilad takes it, and then he turns to seek a target for the one in hand. Spotting Madrox's return, he arches an eyebrow. He fails to heed Belladonna. Perhaps he thinks she meant Harrison: Zappy, Zippy. Only belatedly does he recognize that maybe she meant him. He turns to her with an arch of his eyebrows.
K
itty, as the unofficial ref of this water balloon fight, notices the bucket of water and shakes her head, moving towards it. "Now, this just isn't fair, Jamie," she tells him, reaching the table and stretching to pick it up.
"Gah," is Gabriel's reaction to the ruffling, plus a hand darting out to catch hers to stop it. Well, now his hair is a mess. He makes a feeble attempt at combing it into some semblance of not-so-crazy after he lets her go, although he doesn't look too annoyed about it.
Madrox quick-turns back as Kitty moves toward his sacred bucket. (It is full of - suspiciously murky liquid, by the by.) He pulls into an accelerated, if slightly cramped, jog, in fact. "Deterrent only! I'm a non-combatant, but no one's respecting the Geneva code, you know?"
There's another laugh from Al, leaning in to offer him a berry with whipped cream, and buzz his cheek with a kiss at the same time. "Thanks for bein' a good sport."
Ilad rises with his smiling balloon in hand, shifting with the plant of his feet. Then he hurls his water balloon at a trajectory of where he sight-guesses Madrox will be in a few steps. It won't be the first time he's violated the Geneva conventions.
Walter zips back for more ammo, continuing to laugh as he grabs a few more balloons, then zips back out. He doesn't have JP's speed, but he's still pretty good at the entire 'moving target thing.'
At the invocation of being a non-combatant, Kitty /tries/ (not very hard) to protect Madrox as a water balloon comes for him. Alas, he's out of reach. Instead, she just phases herself to protect from backsplash of water, bucket in hand.
Another one to the back, Madrox foolishly turned from the main concourse of violence. He turns his head over his shoulder to seek out his assaulter, even as he makes too-far-away grabby hands at that bucket. "Come on, Kitty. I need my bucket. Like Bubba John needs a rifle under his pillow. Just in case! It's a dangerous world."
There might just be the hint of color to Gabe's cheeks with that, although they've been out in the California sun, haven't they? Uh, right. Anyway, he takes the berry with a small smile of thanks, maybe a hint of amusement, and then takes another sip of his beer, still more or less in damp observer mode.
"What is even in this, Jamie Madrox?" Kitty questions as she peers into the murky liquid, sniffing lightly while trying to identify it. She doesn't give the bucket back, alas. Madrox will just have to survive in his dangerous world.
Belladonna returns Jean-Paul's arch of eyebrows with a wiggle of her own, a clap and outstretch hand + fingerwiggle that means ... something. She sucks at mime. "Weren't you bringing some of those back?" is, in fact, a little clearer. YAY. (She is not making a break for the balloon bucket, thx.)
"Ah should head in, get a shower, more sunscreen if Ah'm gonna come back out here." Al says, eyes on her plate as berries dwindle in number. "Ya gonna be out here, or should Ah look elsewhere, Ah come lookin'?"
"I /could/," Jean-Paul says, rising slightly in a two-foot hover. "If you ask nicely."
Oh look, a hovering target. Walter aims a shot right at the small of JP's back, standing in about the middle of the battle ground, grinning broadly, the entire Al/Gabe exchange going on behind him, the boy too far off to hear.
"Pretty /please/," Belladonna says, "with a cherry on top?" Because she is twelve. "A /healthy/ cherry."
Now that Ilad has thrown a water balloon, his work here is done. He stands there, behind and a little to the right of Jean-Paul. His eyebrows arch high. "A healthy--" he starts to repeat, and then stops. He says something exasperated. It is not English.
Firing at a man from behind? How unchivalrous. Having made himself such an easy to spot target and facing the wrong way, Jean-Paul has no chance of dodging, this time. "Fi--/ck/." He twists when the balloon bursts cold at the small of his back, splattering those nearby (sry!). He squirms midair as if to shed the water. He turns to pelt Walter with his last balloon, and then goes to investigate the balloon stash. For Belladonna.
"Oh?" Gabe's brows tip upwards as he looks to Al, maybe just a touch of disappointment there. "Ah, well--" And he checks his watch with that, before continuing with, "I have clinic duty later." He sounds mildly apologetic.
BD <3 JP.
"It's real water. From the reservoir." Madrox, still unsure of his attacker, turns back to Kitty and steps forward. (It smells like muddy water. Far as that smells.) "Come on. I'm just one man. With no talents of my own but the animal cunning to find and use tools. Don't take my tool."
Dante fades into the background. Apparently not lobbing bright yellow smileyface water balloons at people is a good way to avoid attention.
Aw, Madrox's little speech touches something inside Kitty and she holds the bucket out to him in offering. "Ok, fine. You can protect yourself with it," she grants magnanimously. Now don't pour it on the unexpecting phaser, please.
Walter laughs, even as the balloon actually manages to hit his own payload, bursting them in his attempt to protect himself, soaking the twenty year old rather completely. The shirt's mostly a formality at this point.
"Well, Ah would ask ya to walk me to my door, but if you're havin' fun out here, that would be cruel." Al moves to throw away her plate, gathering her long ago discarded shorts.
Caught in a shower of droplets from the balloon exploding against Jean-Paul, Ilad starts an "Ah--!" sort of sound, and stops, and then stands there, folding his arms over his chest with the pull of a faint smile at his lips: this expression is a blend of humor and total resignation. Yes. He is wet. Okay.
Madrox would never do /any/ such thing (okay, maybe there's a brief glint in his eyes that says otherwise, but he does not act on the impulse. At least, not yet). He receives the bucket with the air of a supplicant. "I promise. I will only use it for good." He glances back out over the war. "Didn't see who lobbed that balloon at me, did you?"
Kitty's lips press together thoughtfully as she ponders what to tell Madrox before she finally lifts her shoulder in a shrug. "No idea, sorry," she lies badly, glancing towards Jean-Paul and Ilad.
Jean-Paul scoops up only two more balloons -- just /tw/... /three/ -- and then returns. He gives Belladonna two, and keeps the last for himself as deterrent as he touches back down between Ilad and Belladonna. "Sorry about that," he says to Ilad, very insincere about the splatter-zoning. He peels his shirt away from the small of his back with his left hand, bunching it tight to squeeze. His right holds his last balloon close.
Dark eyes dropping, Ilad glances at Jean-Paul sidelong, a pause before he responds while the veil of his lashes partly obscures the angle of his gaze. "I'm sure," he answers dryly, at length. He looks up into the sky, then, standing with his weight planted and mouth twisting, head angled back.
Gabe watches Al for a moment before answering, one hand tucked in a pocket of his jeans while the other lifts his beer for one final, long swallow, finishing it off. "I'll come with you. I should probably get a shower now, honestly," he says, with a small chuckle.
Belladonna drinks her beer, and eventually ends up peeling out of water-wet and beer-wet shirt: really, she shouldn't be such a whiner, because under the summer-weight button down she is totally wearing a swimsuit top that I won't take the time to describe. Lazy. Thus attired for Jean-Paul's return, she collects her balloon and cradles it carefully, close. "Thank you," is genuine enough, though she eyes the two of them for a moment before scanning the crowd again on another long pull of beer. Hnnn.
"Mm. I'll just move my defense system over--" Madrox glances over at Jean-Paul and Ilad, "--there. You can come if you want. I'll include you."
Well, there's the guy who started all of this, Walter, as he zips this way and that, laughing like a child as he keeps making trips back to the bucket, presently occupied with dragging it to be more centrally located. He chooses /now/ to be chivalrous?
"All right." There's a quick flash of a smile across her face, shoulders hunching a bit as he mentions he should get a shower. "Sorry, couldn't resist." She jokes as she heads towards the residences.
"This is your fight," Kitty says, raising a hand in a gesture of surrender. "I am staying out of this." Her beer is raised to lips as she steps back and glances from Madrox to Ilad and Jean-Paul. This should be interesting!
Empty bottle put in the recycling (they have a thing for recycling, /right/?), Gabe just chuckles again before giving a wave to everyone, or at least anyone who might look, and heads off with Alessia.
Stepping toward the table, Jean-Paul looks it over for his opened bottle of beer. On finding it, he falls back next to the others again and considers Walter's attempts to drag the balloons. Although his eyes narrow, the balloon cupped in his hand is not thrown. He takes a sip, glances after Alessia and Gabriel, and then notes the incoming one-man bucket brigade. He arches an eyebrow.
Awesome. There is something a little bit mean in Belladonna's eyes (but really, only a /very/ little) as she narrow-eyes at Walter. While he is distracted with his bucket-dragging, she takes another pull from her bottle, then sets it aside to fastball her balloon at his head. (She takes the low road to Jean-Paul's high.) Coulda been a contender.
Walter gives a bit of a stumble at the splash. "Oh, alright then," he says, sitting on the bin. Back to jackass. He grabs a balloon, chucking it back at Belladonna. Nyeh!
"Fight? Only aggressive defense." And Madrox continues onward toward Jean-Paul and Ilad with that bucket and another bucketfull of false confidence. "Hello! Don't mind me."
Ilad slants a narrow look sidelong over Madrox. "Hello," he says. There is some skepticism reflected in his expression.
"All right," Jean-Paul says, and doesn't mind Madrox once he gives him another sidelong glance. He rolls his balloon again in his hands.
Madrox sets the bucket down again and with a hopeful, "If you'll just leave that there," moves toward the table again.
You know why you shouldn't engage Belladonna in a waterballoon fight and then leave her without ammunition? Well, everyone will find out soon enough. She is steely-eyeing Walter on his bin-sit, then eyeing the ground around her. (and slightly further afield. Just how wet /is/ the --dirt.)
Baffled glance sliding after Madrox, Jean-Paul takes another sip of his beer. Right! Bucket! He watches the Belladonna-Walter faceoff, instead.
Walter watches Belladonna as she looks around, eyes going wide as he moves a bit from the bin. Okay, let's see... she can... oh god, she isn't. Walter quickly grabs the juiciest water balloon he can find and HURLS it.
Madrox ends up having a solid target. All he grabs from the table is a paper cup, and then he's heading back toward the bucket. Quiet. Stealthy. Surely no reason.
Belladonna side-steps, neat if inadvertent: the balloon hits ground, near enough to splash up her leg and re-soak already wet patch of ground. She crouch-scrape-scoops, comes up with a handful of mud (classy), and lobs. Her aim (again) is pretty good (better than with a gun: she throws a lot, and not like a girl), but it is mud. There is some splatter-patter on the way.
"Hey, hey!" This called over from Kitty's spot as she watches, directed towards Belladonna. "That's not fair! No throwing mud," she reprimands, moving to go get a balloon and step over to Walter to hold it out. "Take a penalty shot. You stand still, Belle."
The cup is probably not to drink the water, and it is unlikely that Madrox wants to taste Jean-Paul's beer, so...! He watches him with an absent glance slowly growing to a more prolonged curiosity. The fling of mud distracts him only a moment.
"Free throws," Ilad mutters under his breath.
Walter catches the mud in the back, his body turning to catch it in the small of the back. At Kitty playing ref, he lets out a smile and a chuckle, taking the balloon. He looks over at Belladonna for a moment, another glance towards Kitty. Let's test Kitty's reflexes, shall we? He tries to clap his hand, the one holding the balloon, of course, onto the top of Kitty's head, his entire body tensing for the mad dash he might find himself taking.
Madrox slips the cup into the murk and just holds it, side-glancing from Jean-Paul to Ilad, and Jean-Paul is watching, which is probably why Madrox sloshes the contents of his cup toward Ilad. It is likely unlikely to hit anyone, but it's an effort.
It's too close, too unexpected, for Kitty to react before the balloon bursts on top of her head. "Eep, Walt, I will...," she starts to threaten, wiping water from her face. "Do something really mean."
"No penalty shots for making your own ammo," Belladonna is quick to assert, though she seems moderately content to leave it at that, wiping her hand on her shorts and moving back to re-collect her beer. So there.
Jean-Paul draws his hand down his face with the tips of his fingers sliding along the bridge of his nose and marking a curve past his lips: he facepalms. "Jamie," he says. "That was half-hearted." He lectures: "You need to find your inner delinquent, really get in touch with that spontaneous aggression. Try again. Like you mean it."
Walter grins, relaxing a little as Kitty fails to immediately lash out. "There, now you fit in," he teases, patting Kitty on the back (assuming she hasn't phased.) He peels his shirt off, turning the now dirty garment inside out. "Maybe we should just let him and the dupes go through the rest of the ammo," he offers towards Jean Paul.
Water in cup form is not so efficient a projectile as water in balloon form, but Ilad is not so far from the bucket that the muddy slosh does not splatter across his calves in the arc of its descent. He looks down at his newly wetted jeans, and then across at Madrox, turning in a pivot on the earth. Half-naked and unarmed, he arches his eyebrows, palms lifted.
There's a grumble about not wanting to fit in as Kitty leans slightly away from the patting, eventually just taking a step away. "Party seems to be winding down. I think I might raid the leftover food and bring some back for people who couldn't be here," she states before moving toward the food table to see if there is anything scavengable.
Madrox stoops and gets another cup-full (by rights, a half-hearted slosh like that ought to be paired with crippling regret for violating the Geneva code against poor Ilad, but regret does not appear to be in evidence). He stands up, poising cup, sizing Ilad up again for attack. But it's Walter he responds to first, "Only one duplicate here. It'll have to be me." Another moment and, "I used to have a very vibrant, vital inner delinquent, but he was mostly concerned with kidnappings and clever plans and awkward revelations." He half lowers the cup, apparently heart-not-into-it, and then with a decent suddenness and speed flips the contents out at Jean-Paul this time. Heart more into it.
Jean-Paul recoils and brings his arm up, but that isn't enough to prevent a more /heartfelt/ slosh flipped sudden in his direction. The balloon in his hand bulges with his tight grip, but does not pop. He laughs in a brief snort of breath and says, "Better." He wipes his neck, chin tipping up, an squeegees away the dirty water with the swipe of his hand down his throat. "It's all in how you channel it."
Belladonna approves of dirty-fight in her waterballoon fights: she tucks her bottle into the crook of her elbow so that she can applaud Jamie's effort.
"Well, that's disappointing," Walter muses, picking up the bin, a sudden, mischevious grin lighting over his features. Jamie has a bucket. Walter has /all/ of the remaining balloons, in a nice, handy container. He checks it's weight experimentally.
"Well, and I suppose I should commend your resourcefulness," Ilad says, with a faintly dubious glance down at Madrox's bucket, "or perhaps your ... persistence."
"Yes. This is a bucket of resources right here. Of - aggression for the channeling. Inner fire for the exploding. Anyway." Madrox steps back and moves as if to tip over that bucket of his. "That's all I wanted to do. A little persistence."
Jean-Paul holds out his last water balloon to Madrox, wordless.
Walter starts walking towards the others with his bin of balloons, grinning broadly to them all. Once he gets what he decides is 'in range.' He starts to swing the bin a little. One... two...
And that is as good a cue as any: Belladonna sidesteps away from the group, long-strides away from the group, intent clear: that is, to exit. (She might help with the food. She might not.)
Madrox pauses, distracted from his bucket tipping to reach for the balloon. He does not notice Walter - not yet.
Walter swings, the balloons escaping the bin, spraying out in a sort of cone, quite possibly hitting everyone in the general direction of JP and the others.
Belladonna gets caught, one-two splat in the back-- but she doesn't turn to retaliate. /This time/. Just long-legs off -- off. Thattaway.
Yup, that is a rain of balloons all right: a shelling, even. Ilad's reaction to the shelling of balloons is pretty similar to his reaction to all the rest of the party's liquid projectiles; a little more spluttering, though, as a couple of them smash into him at once. He curses, Hebraic, sharp, with a nicely hard 'ch' to snarl in his throat in the midst, and shakes his head, shaking water droplets from his body in the bright sheen of the wet splatter across golden skin. He doesn't QUITE shake himself off like a wet dog -- really, the air of wounded dignity is more like a cat anyway.
Thus the pushing continues. Jean-Paul gives just a slight smile when Madrox takes the balloon, watching to see what he does with it. Clearly, he is watching too closely: he misses the fling. He has just enough time to bite off the first syllable of a curse on spotting the balloons, to skip back a step -- even a long step -- but it still isn't far enough. He gets nicely pelted, soaked thoroughly so that fabric now plasters front and back. He finishes the curse with the last sploosh of the balloons. "{--Jesus Christ.}"
Madrox side-steps far too late and only manages to knock his bucket on its side for another long, splashy splatter - away from him. He takes several on his side, his arm raised in futile defense. But on the other hand-- it gives him a target. Madrox's recovery is more accelerated than it might otherwise be. He turns on his heel, and lobs his balloon hard toward Walter.
Walter acks, blocking with the bin, but fairly futiley, as he still catches the splash.
Ilad drags his hand through his soaked dark hair and comes away with wet fingers; his sharp gesture throws a sluice of water from his hair to the ground. "Well, then," he intones, his voice all that is left of him to be dry.
Walter laughs, and slips off to help out with the cleanup, maybe even pack up some food to take back with him.
"Take - that," Madrox says as the weakest post-battle cry ever, then gives the empty bucket a light kick for good measure. "So I suppose I'm going to bed."
"/I/ am going to get changed," Jean-Paul says, peeling his shirt away from his torso an then letting it slap wetly back into place. He looks own, gloomy. "Wet socks."
"Wet /everything/," Ilad says, tone one of grousing. He pads the step or two back to the table to collect the crumpled ball of his wet shirt. He looks a little bitten-lemon about it, like he might seriously consider stripping down and walking naked all the way back to town just to avoid having to hoof it in wet jeans and squelchy shoes. Throw the cat in the bathtub -- you know, he likes /hot/ water.
Madrox takes one last look over the table, and departs, dripping, but oddly satisfied.
Jean-Paul agrees lightly, "Wet everything." Looking own at his splashed-and-watered beer, he reluctantly pours out the rest and leaves the bottles with others for collection and recycling. "Later." He takes the fast route back, and even then, doesn't manage to air dry.
Big WET party!