Remy's party - Remy, Seph, Kaci, Pete, Kitty, Zenith, Illyana, Tom, Amadeus, Nadia
=SC= Lexington Reservoir - Santa Cruz Mountains - California
Deep in the Santa Cruz mountains is a lake dammed by a low concrete rise. The reservoir is bordered on all sides by mountains, and for a short expanse by a high metal fence marked HIGH VOLTAGE. A thin gravel road meanders its way along the lake's edge between water and fence for some distance, leading to a gate and a gatehouse which is ominously labelled 'Use of deadly force authorized.' Just beyond the gate, a secured boathouse is visible to the side of the road.
A sandy shore and thin blades of grass lay between road and lake, an inviting stretch of beach for those who can ignore the looming presence of the secured fence. A turnoff leads to a small dirt parking area nearby, with a paved boat ramp that extends down toward the water to a small dock. Several yards away, an elevated wood cabin and shed overlook the shimmering blue waters and sit beside another small dock.
Spring's sun has brought California warmth to the day, and evening's sunset gilds hills and valleys and the riffling water of the lake with a golden glow. Along the strip of sandy beach, a charcoal fire crackles in a pit, and a massive metal cookpot is suspended on a trivet over the flames. Within it, a broth of spices and salt bubbles and boils around russet potatos, sections of corn on the cob and, oh yes, twenty pounds of fresh crawfish, staring up in red-boiled glory. Citronella torches have been jabbed here and there into the sand, ready to provide both light and bug repellant at need, and a promising steel bucket of a size suitable for watering cattle has been filled with ice and stuffed full of various forms of alcohol. Remy is clad in old jeans and an older t-shirt, comfortable and broken in, and featuring a running stick figure in white-on-black on the t-shirt half of the ensemble, standing before the flames to check on his boiling crawfish while a hand-rolled and green-smelling cigarette dangles from his lips.
"Good grief," opines Natalie as she appears from the dirt road between reservoir and town and draws up on Gambit. She's adopted capris and a black tank in homage to the weather, letting the sun shine on arms still browned from Nicaragua. "You really went all out - what's this all about, huh?"
Kaci arrives on scene with a large covered bowl in her arms. She grins and sets it atop one of the ice bins and pulls the lid off, "Potato salad, like I promised. Mmm, that corn smells wonderful."
"The reason f'it is classified an' in the files," Remy intones solemnly, with a flick of ash from the tip of his joint before he takes a hit, and offers it over to Natalie with reflex politeness that doesn't think to account for whether or not she smokes or not. "An' that looks fuckin' awesome, Kaci. Get y'self a beer."
Amadeus has basically followed his nose, it's not hard to miss twenty pounds of fish. He stops at the pot, wearing his usual tanktop, blue jeans and sneakers, then crouches down about five feet from it. "All that fish..."
Kitty picks her way lightly down the trail, detouring when she reaches the fire. A tupperware box is clutched to one hip, causing a orange tanktop to flash a little bit of her stomach. It's paired casually with some skinny jeans and plain white flip flops. In her other hand, she clutches a bottle of rum. This is the side she uses to shrug a shoulder, saying to nobody in particular, "Wasn't sure what to bring. So, I brought some liquor and chicken wings. Spicy."
Natalie's eyes widen slowly behin the frames of her glasses as he extends the joint. "This kosher for high alert, Gambit?" she wonders with a gaze slanted up at him.
"Thanks," Kaci laughs, then pokes through the various cans and bottles to pull out a strawberry daqueri. She doesn't open it yet, however, and instead goes to stand by the fire. Hot sunny day, jeans and t-shirt, and she's still standing by the fire.
"I brought--" Amadeus doesn't finish, he looks back and spots Natalie, then turns his gaze to the pot again. "Nothing really."
Zenith judges her moment to show up as best she can, trying to slip in unnoticed when there are plenty of people already there for buffering. She doesn't bring any food, just herself, feet in flip-flops, summery skirt, and tank top. She lingers on the fringes for a while sizing everything up.
"Just don't take any more'n y'feel y'can work through later," is Remy's philosophy on indulgences. The joint remains offered, paired with a crooked grin and an eyebrow lift. "This the part where I'm s'posed t'say that all the cool kids are doin' it?" he wonders with a laugh, before he turns back to the cook pot, nods once, and apparently finds it good. "Y'brought y'strength," he opines to Amadeus. "Grab y'self those oven mitts over there, and I get you t'pull the strainer out o' the broth an' we can get started on eatin' these... -and- them chicken wings I see over there."
Natalie snorts softly as she reaches forward to take the joint, pinching it between her fingers without hesitation and tugging it between her lips with the air of one who's had practice. "Look at me," she deadpans. "Giving into peer pressure -- what're you cooking?" she wonders, offering the joint back to Remy and glancing between Amadeus and the fire.
Clever co-conspirator Nadia arrives, though she does not come bearing gifts of food nor booze: her contribution has already been made. Her favorite, oldest Sex Pistols t-shirt rides high over her waist, but it is paired with dark jeans and an equally dark button-down shirt, unbuttoned. There is the tell-tale silver glint of an inhibitor over her ear, partially hidden by her hair, which ahs been left unbound. She moseys toward the fire, trying to look nonchalant and totally like she's supposed to be here.
Kaci turns her back to the fire and gives a wave to everyone. With the hand that isn't holding a still-unopened stawberry daqueri, she waves at Kitty, Natalie, then spots Nadia approaching the fire and gives her a wave as well.
Amadeus stands up straight and walks to grab the oven mitts, fitting them on with slight distraction when Natalie puts the joint in her mouth. He shakes his head dismissively, focusing on carefully hefting the strainer up with both hands. "Hey! Where do I put this thing?"
With a rifle through the cooler, Kitty grabs one of the beers in there, not caring the brand. She twists the cap off her bottle, walking over to Kaci with a grin. "Hey. You feeling better today?"
The joint returned to him, Remy is about to take another drag when Nadia is spotted out of the corner of his eye. He freezes. He then, after a moment's thought, takes the drag anyways and waves her over. "Here," he directs to Amadeus, pointing towards where a sheet of plywood has been propped atop a few upended fire logs and covered with newspapers. "Pour 'em out onto the newspaper."
Zenith starts forward to say hello to Nadia, as someone else also out of the conversational groups, but then she gets waved over by Remy. Zenith only pauses for a moment, and then ambles over anyway. "The food looks impressive," she tells Remy.
Amadeus heads for the plywood, appearing to be straining, though it's more from trying to be /very/ careful than anything else. "Fish, fish, fish..." he repeatedly whispers to himself, then finally pours them out on the newspaper.
Kaci nods to Kitty with a smile, "Of course! Why wouldn't.. Oh, from the other day." She grins, "I found a box of chocolates and a nice sappy movie and everything was fine after that. How 'bout you?"
Natalie's gaze follows Remy's, moving swiftly toward Nadia before she glances back toward the birthday boy with quietly raised brows, silent inquiry. She coughs and twitches her lips at Amadeus, then moves swiftly away as a glance up catches Zenith's approach. About time to find a drink, really.
"Good," Kitty responds, with a smile at Kaci, happy that she's feeling better. After a sip from her beer, she lays a hand on Kaci's arm in a quick gesture of friendship. "Going to go say hello to others." She heads over to the make-shift table where Amadeus is. "Fish?"
Pete is, perhaps miraculously, truly dressed down tonight, dressed in old jeans and a short-sleeved shirt that displays both the faded remnants of what little tan he'd managed to gain under Nicaragua's blistering sun, and a small scattering of old scars come by less pleasantly. He is, little surprise here, bearing alcohol - a six-pack of beer which he heads over to the ice bucket to square away. He also bears something that looks suspiciously like a wrapped box. Curious, that.
"Crawfish," Remy corrects, as the bounty of crustaceans, russets and corn comes spilling out onto the newspapers in a cloud of steam and spices. "Come on and dig in, people," he calls over generally, with a wave of the joint-bearing hand. "Ain't no real manners, and ain't no real rules 'cept enjoy y'selves." He turns then, and if there's a brief flicker of surprise at seeing Zenith, it's brief, and soon replaced by a grin. "Hopin' y'do more'n look."
Nadia slips through the crowd to bump up alongside Remy, eyes wide in appreciation of the crawfish, now dead and thoroughly cooked. "They are more fun when they are moving," she declares them, her nose wrinkling slightly at the smoke produced from Remy's -- cigarette. She nods acknowledgement of Zenith, once she recognises her, but for the most part she is focused on the food. Which seems to be making her nervous.
"Oooh, Pete Wisdom," Natalie draws out as she closes in on man and ice bucket, ignoring whatever codenames are required just now. "You've got one of those for me, yeah?"
"Oh, I--" Zenith tracks Natalie's sudden move, and her expression clearly conveys 'oh, hell'. She flicks a glance quickly around, and leaves herself drinkless to go look at the food, rather than impinge on Natalie's space again. "Did you see them ahead of time?" she asks Nadia.
"So, we can just eat with our fingers?" Amadeus asks, making sure he's clear on the rules, even though there are no rules, and carries the strainer back to the pot.
Hereing the magic word to summon all southerners who enjoy crustaceans, Seph appears from the woodline wearing faded blue jeans and flip flops he's carrying a large cooler over one shoulder. "I just here a cajun say Crawfish? Hell yeah man. Oh yeah I brought party favors," Dropping the cooler on the ground near the group and opens it to reveal a wide range of hard liquors. . .and one wine cooler.
Kaci smiles warmly at Kitty, "Sure, and thanks." When Remy makes the call to eat, she tucks her unopened bottle under her arm, grabs a plate, and starts filling it up. Potato salad and corn, mostly, but she does take a single crawdad. The girl then looks for a place to sit, preferably near that wonderfully hot fire.
Peering at the little dead things, Kitty asks Remy with a playful bump of her hip against his, "How do you get the shells off? Or do we eat those too?" She notes Pete's arrival by hearing Natalie's voice, but stubbornly does not look over to see for sure.
Pete glances sharply at Natalie, eyes narrowed in half-disguised bafflement at the greeting. "Help yourself, love," he replies, a touch of amused irony shading the pet name used in lieu of codename. "Enjoying the party?"
Natalie's brows waggle up at the endearment, and she meets irony with a grin that looks like it might be a laugh at any minute. "Dunno," she answers, scooping a beer up and settling back to tug the cap off. "Just got here. But so far I've found a bonfire, weed, and beer, so it's looking good." Her gaze drops to the package and then lifts back to Pete with the vague glimmers of suspicion.
"Pinch the tail," Remy intones. "Suck the head." This double-entendre laden statement is given a bit more clarity of purpose as he hands off the joint to Amadeus for questionable safekeeping, and reaches for a crawfish to demonstrate. A series of twists separate off the bit with the eyes, leaving the tail meat exposed. He then proceeds to suck it out of the carapace, chews, swallows, grins, and tosses the shell aside. "Voila. Treat it like shellin' a crab if y'get a big one."
Kitty raises one of her eyebrows, laughing with a shake of her head. "Maybe I'll just take the easy route," she ponders, picking up one of the crawfish, then phasing both herself and the shell, allowing the actual meat to fall out onto a plate. She picks this up after chucking the shell and nibbles on it with a wink at Remy.
"I helped," Nadia tells Zenith, the unmistakable ring of pride in her voice. "They have to be kept alive until time to be cooked. He did not explain why? But I helped." She watches the little demonstration of how one eats them with some amount of trepadation, looking to Zenith and them back to Remy before scooting closer to the table. She hesitates, but snatches one up. Then hesitates again.
Pete catches the suspicious glance and sighs heavily, though the amused glint in his eyes and faint quirk to the corners of his mouth make a lie of it. "Doesn't anyone get suspicious enough to check the files? Cajun's getting on in years. --And I think that makes it our solemn duty to do something absolutely dreadful to him before the night's out."
Amadeus takes the joint and looks around, then hides it behind his back when he spots Nadia. Nodding at the demonstration, he pulls his head back, as if to tell Remy 'Get over here, quick!'
Zenith picks up a crawfish herself, and sort of messily approximates what Remy demonstrated. She then offers that one to Nadia, and picks up another for hereself. "Is it weird having seen them alive, then?"
"We've had drunken brouhahas more weekends than not since I've been here," Natalie points out, tipping her beet bottle up for a slow swallow. She slants a gaze sideways toward Remy next to the fire, then looks back to Pete with a slow, wicked glance. "Yeah? I like dreadful - how old's he now, you know?"
Walking over to the pile of crawfish he grabs a couple of the red crustaceans and drops them on a nearby plate before going to sit beside his 'acquired' cooler of alcohol. Pinching the tail of one of them and sucking on the head, it takes him a second before the flavor hits him and he remembers he doesn't like them. Without whiskey. Reaching into the cooler he pulls out a fifth of Jack and twists the top off before up-ending it to his mouth. "Damn, Cajun. Ain't had nothing like this since I was on that Res a few years ago," Seph says as he pops the meat of one into his mouth.
Kaci watches Kitty's method, looks at her crawdad, then back at Kitty's plate. "Hey, um, Kitty? Wanna do that with mine?" She laughs softly and makes her way that direction, still carrying both her plate and unopened strawberry daqueri. The girl doesn't have a hand free, but she gives Saph a smile and a nod.
"Had 'em ordered up special, an' got Nightmare here t'help me smuggle 'em into the building," Remy notes to Seph with a nod towards Nadia and a crooked grin. "-And- she's damn' good at keepin' 'em alive. Barely any losses from the ones that were kickin' when they got here -- y'want them alive up 'til y'cook 'em 'cause the dead ones go off real quick," he explains in an aside to Nadia and Zenith, before he snags another two crawfish to accompany him closer to the booze selection. A return nod is given to Amadeus in passing.
Late enough to the party that it is already underway, but not late enough to miss out on culinary flashbacks, Sal's arrival is announced by a curl of cigar smoke and the steady thud of booted footfalls. In jeans faded to white at the stress points and a plain grey t-shirt, she ambles first in search of beer, keeping a sharp eye on the table full of crawfish.
With a soft smile at Kaci, Kitty admits, "It'd take a lot longer to phase out every crawdad individually. I was just showing off a bit." She piles some of the potatoes and corn onto a plate, taking some of her fried chicken. Finding a seat near the fire, she eats her food silently, observing the people around her.
Pete laughs shortly at that, and tips his head towards Natalie in a nod of acknowledgement. "Fair enough. And twenty-four," he replies. He claims a bottle of beer for himself, flicking the cap away and taking a long swallow.
Amadeus slowly makes his way over to Remy, discrete! He puts the joint into his left hand, then digs into his pocket to try and pull out a hand full of already rolled up joints to slip to him. "You didn't get these from m--" The other joint suddenly burns his hand, causing a yelp and all the other joints to fall to the ground for everyone to see. "Shit!"
Natalie laughs and watches Remy for a moment, eyes lingering thoughtfully as she sips. "Twenty-four," she echoes, musingly. "Still a baby." Says she of three years age on him. She shifts, rearranging to settle herself alongside Pete so that she can tip her head toward him and wonder quietly, "Is dreadful specific, or still hypothetical at this point?"
Kaci awes at Kitty and laughs, "Wonderful bit of show-off, though, you have to admit." The girl finally sits on the ground with her back to the fire, close enough that she'd be warm even if it were snowing out. The unopened bottle is placed beside her, and the plate goes on her lap where she starts to husk her corn. When Amadeus yelps, the girl turns to look his direction with wide eyes, "You OK?"
"It is a little weird," Nadia admits, answering Remy's grin with one of her own. It is hard to miss the way she stands a little straighter when he praises her crawfish-sustaining skills, though she waves off the praise with a quiet, "It was not hard." Really. She thanks Zenith, but startles when Amadeus drops his jointly bounty -- she manages to fumble her crawfish, but catches it before it can hit the ground. She still doesn't actually /eat/ it.
Zenith's attention wanders to Natalie and Pete, and after a quick flick of motion to help catch Nadia's escapee if she doesn't manage it herself, she gathers up a plate and takes a few crawfish and some of the other food, and heads for Remy. "Thank you," she says, very polite, before heading for the trail back to the base.
Taking another swig from his bottle Seph muffles his laughter at Amadeus's fumble before he takes a bite out of his remaining crawfish, shell and all, then stands to get more of the delightful critters and some of the potatoes. "So Kaci, when we going on that other date?," Seph asks eyes gleaming with a hidden joke as he looks towards her.
"Sacre Dieu, Madcat, y'a marijuana pinata there," Remy laughs, as the joints go a-scattering. Having hands full of crawfish, he opts not to join in collection efforts, although there's a sotto voce "Thanks, homme. Sweet stuff y'got," until after he's dispatched another two crawfish to the depths of his belly.
Pete gives Natalie a slight, wry grin. "Most here are," he replies, from a further seven years along. "And hypothetical still. If it were a little earlier in the year, I'd suggest just dumping him in the lake and having done with it, but as things stand, we may have to get creative." Amadeus' curse catches his attention, and he looks over, raising his voice to call, "Very graceful, Madcat. You should give lessons."
"Water's still got to be freezing," Natalie answers with quiet amusement, tipping her head toward Pete to keep her voice low before her eyes widen on Amadeus. "Holy shit, does he have a pocket full of joints?"
Kitty calls out, "Hey, Zephyr. You heading back up already? We'll miss you down here." She smiles friendly at Zenith, bright white teeth flashing. She pulls her hair away from her face and finally glances at Pete, being drawn by his raised voice. This time, she's the first one to frown in his direction.
Beer achieved, Sal annexes herself a plateful of crawfish, corn, and potatoes. Madcat's mishap resorts in a snort, but she doesn't engage -- instead, she, her beer, her plate and her damn cigars find themselves an unclaimed stretch of beach, and -- claim it.
Kaci looks up at Saph, then grins, "Date, huh. When was our first?" She blows her bangs out of her eyes and takes a bite from her corn cob.
Amadeus gathers his pile of joints, used to quick collection when someone's banging on his van door. Joints stashed away again, he walks to grab a plate so he can finally eat.
"I believe he does," Pete confirms. He eyes Amadeus in mild bafflement for a moment longer before glancing back at Natalie to remark wryly, "Graceful and /subtle/." His gaze tracks over the party, fetching up on the frowning Kitty. He gives her a smile in response - pleasant, and to all appearances genuine. Just to be contrary.
"Glad you could make it," Remy calls over to the departing Zenith, with a bit of bemused speculation as his gaze drifts around to find Pete and Natalie closeted together. He shrugs a shoulder, snags a bottle of beer from the ice tub, and proceeds to cruise over towards Kitty and the chicken wings with a flash of a grin. "Good call," he approves.
Laughing at Kaci's question he takes a seat next to her, his front to the fire as he tips his bottle back up and thinks for a second. "I could say it was the day I blew your shirt off in training but you didn't really take me to dinner. So I'd say last night after you whooped my ass then fed me lazagnia," Seph wispers to her in the patented wisper of most people who are tipsy, which means anyone within three or four feet could hear him.
Nadia is abandoned by Zenith. Woe. She watches the joint-collection warily, then applies herself to the task of finally -- finally! -- eating one of the little critters she so cleverly kept alive through the night. Pinch tail, suck head, right? (Right.) She looks surprised by how easy it is, and by how good it is. So she goes for another.
Natalie flashes Remy a bright, shining smile as his gaze slants past them and then breaks into a quietly snickering laugh. "Oh, shit," she says, drawing in a deep breath and then a long swallow of beer. "Think he's sharing?" The wander of her eyes floats past Kitty, who gets a curious gaze, but no comment.
Zenith lifts a hand in a wave to Kitty, shakes her head and mouths something apologetic--probably 'too much work' or something equally mendacious, and then she's gone.
Kitty ponders throwing her half-eaten corn on the cob at Pete, but then things better of it before determinedly ignoring his smile, him, and everyone in his direction. Very adult response. As she arrives at this decision, the spots Illyana, and hops to her feet, "Yana! You made it," she makes her way quickly to Illyana, throwing her arms up to hug her friend.
Kaci rolls her eyes at Saph, "Only because you didn't fight back." She shrugs and uses her fingers for a biteful of potato salad, then licks her fingers clean. She still hasn't opened her first drink, nor the one Saph brought. "If you want more of my terrible cooking, there's fruit salad on one of the ice buckets over there," she tells Saph.
"I'm fine." Amadeus says as he starts to load up his plate with crawfish, and very little of everything else. When he takes a seat, he holds one hand up, glancing to Nadia momentarily, then announcing, "While you all saw a big pile of joints fall out of my pocket, this will be a very pot free party. We have, um, easily influenced minds present."
"She's wearin' an inhibitor," Remy points out. Helpfully.
Illyana arrives via her teleportation, red light blooming as a warning before she herself appears initially beside Nadia, though her gaze goes immediately to Kitty, too. "I thought it would be the right place when I felt so many of you right next to each other," she comments. Once hugged, she hugs back a little bemusedly.
Pete glances at Amadeus, then Natalie, then back to Amadeus. "I'm sure he would if you asked nicely," he replies, solemn tone undercut by a ripple of obvious amusement. He takes a sip of his beer - and nearly chokes at Amadeus' PSA. "Jesus Christ. Is he actually serious?" The flicker of red light catches his eye, and he raises his bottle in a greeting salute to Illyana.
Natalie snorts hard enough to choke on a swig of beer and breaks into a moment's coughing.
"There is also alcohol I am not drinking," Nadia is quick to point out, though her smile when she taps a finger against her inhibitor is a little bit strained. Illyana's sudden presence at her side is like a breath of fresh air, the absence of mental touch aside, and some of the strain in her smile eases.
Making a face at the mention of fruit salad, "People actually make that stuff? And even if I wouldah fought back Shugah, you still wouldah schooled me and yah know it." Stuffing a potato in his mouth chewing quickly then chasing it with a short pull from his, "But if you want to go another round sometime, I'll be sure to be the one doin thah cookin if you'd be willin tah be tha desert." Seeing the redlight from Illyana's appearance he almost sputters a mouthful of alcohol into the fire before he recovers.
Kitty leans in to Illyana, whispering, "God. That man is so frustrating. You'd think he'd leave us alone, since he hates the human race so much." She doesn't bother to say who she's referring to, but her pointed dismissal of a whole side of the beach is pretty obvious. She sips at her beer casually, remaining by Illyana's side.
Kaci grins at Saph, "Well, first, we gotta find me something to wear that doesn't vaporize in lightning." Her attention is diverted to Illyana, who gets a smile and a wave, before her attention returns to Saph as she catches the last of his line, "You mean bring the desert? Sure." Yep, right over her head.
New arrivals require greeting, and Remy even goes so far as to shuffle three crawfish and a selection of the potatos and cord boiled with them, onto a paper plate to carry over to the Kitty-Illyana cling zone. He offers them up with a playful sketch of a bow that nonetheless takes some care for not spilling his beer. "Glad y'could make it, Magik. Y'got anythin' like crawfish where y'from?"
Seph rotates his rear to face the same direction as Kaci and drapes an arm over her shoulder, "Actually I kindah like tha way I can make yah clothes dissappear. And, uh, yeah bring the desert." Taking his arm off of her shoulder he returns to his plate with gusto before he asks, "Yo Cajun! Where dah hot sauce man? I know yah brought some!"
"{Man}?" Illyana asks, taking a chance that the Russian word is simple enough Kitty might have picked it up. It gives her low-voiced answer a little more privacy. She gives Kitty a little more space, though she does pet Nadia's hair before she holds out a hand to take the plate from Remy if that's what he's offering. "Fish?" she questions, though she can see they actually aren't. "There are fish fish..."
Amadeus stares at Nadia, then sighs in defeat. "Alright, who ever wants pot, come and get it, but not Nadia. Under no circumstances do you give pot to Nadia, I will tell Bahir." he explains his conditions, /very/ seriously, then pulls out a hand full of pot and dumps it on the table.
"The pot fairy has ethics," Pete mutters, voice shaking a little with half-buried laughter. "Who knew?"
Kaci hides her face with her hands, briefly, mumbling something along the lines of 'god that was so embarasing.' As Seph's attention is diverted, she looks around to the others present, hears Amadeus' announcement, then pushes to her feet. She makes sure to grab her bottle, though still unopened, and softly says, "Guess that's my queue to wander on."
"The pot fairy has 'scared shitless of Bahir,'" Natalie answers with a smile twisted with amusement. She shakes her head and then straightens. "Much as I want some, probably a bad idea if I plan to drink any more than the one beer," she allows, and then tips her head toward Pete. "Let me know if you need any assistance with dreadful," she requests, and then wanders toward those who're huddled around food.
"Smarter man than I'd thought, then," Pete says, though there is, for once, no real trace of acid to the remark. He gives Natalie a brief grin, and nods once in agreement. "Will do."
"It will be okay," Nadia assures, "I think maybe it is time for me to go, anyway." She makes a gesture toward her head, indicating the inhibitor. "Is not the most comfortable." She does lot look entirely thrilled with leaving now, but gathers a few more crawfish and beats a hasty retreat back up the path.
"{Yes}," she responds, her voice low and Russian as well. She makes one hasty glance at Pete to indicate to Illyana who she's talking about, before resuming her very /mature/ tactic of ignoring his general direction. "Gambit, so what is the occasion?" she asks, changing the subject, hoping that the pot and liquor will make him talkative on the question.
"Crawfish," Remy supplies the particular identity of the crustaceans on the plate. "Also know as crawdads, mud bugs an' crayfish, amongst t'other names out there... but they -good-," he assures, cheerful in the face of any dubiousness. "Got 'em seasoned up... an' if y'want the sauce, use y'eyes, Seph. Tucked in with the beers."
"Those," Natalie opines, closing on on Remy and Seph, "Look /disgusting/."
A belated answer to Illyana's other question comes in the form of a smile from Remy that promises much and says little. "It's in the dossiers," he answers.
"He's twenty-four," Natalie supplies to Illyana, helpful and smiling over the neck of her beer bottle.
Illyana looks over at Pete, but seems to have entirely missed the point. Instead of looking frustrated too in a proper friend manner, she gives him a solemn nod of greeting. "{Need to talk to him soon,}" she mumurs, not really intending Kitty to get all of that. "Have you had any yet?" she asks Kitty, of the crawfish. "{Happy Birthday,}" she offers to Remy.
Grabbing the aforementioned bottle of sauce, Seph loads his plate for before he looks at the name on the bottle, "Louisiana's hottest Atomic sauce? Score, Cajun." Setting the Jack asside in favor of something softer on his liver, he picks up a beer and twists the top off. "Mad's done scared off my little healer buddy. What about us tossing him in the fire at the end o' the night, Cajun?"
Pete's gaze skims over the crowd, lighting here and there on faces more familiar than others. He remains, for the moment, where he is, taking the occasional swallow from his bottle of beer. He gives Illyana a very slight smile as he catches her nod of greeting, and dips his own head in response.
Amadeus begins taking large chomps out of his crawfish, not bothering with the instructions, he just chews them up finely before swallowing. "Hey! I didn't scare anyone off, I'm not even smoking tonight." he says before suddenly biting the top half of a crawfish off.
"I think y'done scared her off all by y'self there, O'Blis," is Remy's slightly buzzed critique as he waves a crawfish tail in Seph's general direction. "Classy approach, y'ain't so much got it, homme... also, she likes women."
"Who does?" Natalie interjects, brows lifting at Remy.
Kitty peers at Illyana out of the corner of her eyes, not able to catch the Russian sentence. She looks slightly puzzled, but instead of furthering the under-lying conversation, she beams at Remy, "Happy birthday! If I'd have known, I would have gotten you something."
"Kaci." Amadeus answers Natalie's question.
Kaci tucks her daqueri under an arm, still unopened, and grabs her crawdad with a hand, then tucks the now-empty paper plate into the fire. She wanders away from the crowd, back toward base, lost in her own thoughts.
Natalie's eyes widen and her head turns, searching for the other woman before they snap back to Amadeus. "/Seriously/?" she wonders, her tone clearly doubtful.
Shrugging at Remy's statement he states happily, "Ain't never stopped me before Remshot. Y'never know I may be the one to change her mind." Then hearing Amadeus, "Actually I think it's about time for a test o' manhood, boyo!" He points at Amadeus then at the bottle of hot sauce, "We take sips back to back, first one to give up loses."
Amadeus nods, stuffing the rest of his crawfish into his mouth. "She told me herself." But, then he looks a bit worried when she's walking away, and calls over, "Hey, Kaci! Where you goin'?"
"Uh-huh," Remy confirms from over by Kitty and Illyana, before turning back to talking with them, happily oblivious to any terrible plans with him at their core. "Ain't no need," he assures Kitty with a wave of a hand, after a curious peer at Illyana for her Russian. "With Zephyr's shindig just two days ago, I figure I just go f'givin' folks an excuse t'party without havin' t'shop."
Kaci stops when she hears her name and turns, "Hmm?" Then gives Amadeus a wave, even though the crawdad is still in her hand. She waits to see what he wanted, appearantly missing the question.
"What did I miss?" Illyana asks, half of Remy, half of Kitty, watching the interplay with Seph and Kaci. She looks wide-eyed and innocent at Remy, gesturing to Kitty. "She knows some Russian from my brother, I thought I should her in practice, yes?"
"And here we can pick out the virgin in the bunch," Pete says, very dry, as he finally pulls away from his claimed space to head in Remy's direction. He offers the wrapped package to the birthday boy, corners of his mouth quirking slightly. "--If you wanted that, you should have scrubbed the records."
"Where you going?" Amadeus asks as he waves her over. "Come on, sit next to me."
Natalie's gaze lingers on Amadeus for a disgusted minute longer before she winces away from his chomping and goes to fish for food that's /not/ animals boiled alive in their skin.
Kitty nods in agreement to Illyana's statement, backing her up by saying, "Yes. She tries to keep me on my toes, whenever she can. Otherwise, I'll forget all of the Russian Piotr has taught me." She sips her beer, saving herself the need to talk as Pete approaches. She shrugs to Illyana in regards to her question, thinking that Remy would know more than her.
Seph gestures at Amadeus's back, "Guy knows how to walk away quickly don't he? Oh yeah Cajun my present's up in tha boathouse behind that last boat I was workin on. Yah gonna love it, just keep it private." Setting his plate aside to begin whole heartedly nursing his beer he whispers to Remy, "Homebrew I been savin for a special occasion."
Beach party. Tom is late. He moves toward the gathering with a diffident air, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans, sneakers scuffing over the road as he trundles along. His mien quiet, he pauses at the edge of the sand to loom there. Loooom.
Kaci waves vaguely off toward base as she replies to Amadeus, "Not much of one for drinking. Besides," the girl pauses to glance at Seph, before finishing her answer to Amadeus, "Besides.." She can't really come up with a good way to say it, so instead she lets the topic drop. "Hey, Remy," she calls out, "Great party. Ya'll have a good night now, y'hear?" The girl does her best southern accent.
Amadeus frowns over at Seph, holding out a crawfish as he points at the man. "Hey! You really wanna challenge a guy who used to be a stoner to a 'who can eat the most stupid crap' contest? /Really/?"
"Just Seph puttin' his foot in his mouth tryin' t'hit on Kaci," Remy reports, hands in his pockets as both a Pete and a Seph approach. The Pete wins, and is rewarded with a "Y'got me there," a crooked smirk, and a curious look at the offered gift. There is, after all, a small possibility for comedy-sized explosions upon opening. "Maybe I just wanted t'see who'd figure it out... and damn, man. Thanks," is murmured back to Seph, and Kaci herself arrives before he can turn attention back to potentially defusing Pete's present. Tucking it under his arm, he sketches her a bow, and a "Glad y'enjoyed y'self, Sparky. Grab a bottle f'the road, eh?"
With one hand occupied with beer bottle and the other balancing an ear of corn, Natalie turns to survey the group, her expression settled into an absently thoughtful frown.
Pete looks studiously innocent - which is possibly a sign in favour of comedic explosions. "Fortunately, I think most of them mind their own buisness and don't go peeking," he tells Remy, grave tone masking faintly mocking humour. "Very upright and honourable, for spies."
Laughing at Amadeus, Seph proclaims, "Dude I spent three months in the desert with nothing to eat but peyote and habaneros. I think I can take yah!" A sad look crosses his face as he sees Kaci's stare. He quickly covers it with, "Of course if yah ain't man enough, I'll understand!"
Tom drifts across the sand, kicking up little puffs of sand with his manuevers upon the outskirts of the party. He investigates food and beer first, without any immediate inclination toward either -- in fact, he eyes the accumulated alcohol with an expression best encapsulated as mystified annoyance, an attitude that will put him far outside the usual X-Factor social circle. Once past the food, he plants himself in his spot and surveys the people with a thoughtful expression, shields drawn close over his telepathy and tongue running along his teeth.
"Natalie already thinks I'm childish enough without me getting into a hot sauce contest." Amadeus says before sitting his plate down, then scans the area for something. "Where's the beer? I need something to drink."
"The corn's not bad, if the weird boiled shrimp things are too creepy for you," Natalie offers, having abruptly appears somewhere just behind Tom's shoulder. "Madcat's chewing through them whole. I'd seriously avoid them."
"It wouldn't be hard to be upright and honorable compared to you," Kitty mumbles, ending her sentence by lifting the bottle to her mouth. She takes a big gulp more for something to do than actually wanting to drink. She itches to run away from the group, and hide herself away, but doesn't. Instead, she shoves her free hand in a pocket and moves her attention to Remy's present opening.
Illyana finally gets around to eating something, or at least picking it up, but Tom distracts her. Proably emboldened by the last training exercise, she bothers to go over and say hello. "Remy can show you the trick to eating things, I assume," she tells Tom. She's not doing very well with the shell of the crawfish she's holding at the moment. Her attention's not entirely on him, as she keeps frowning back at Kitty.
Shaking a beer behind his back he tosses it to Amadeus, "Yeah kindah figured yah were yellah. 'Course yah could change that." Looking at Remy he states tauntingly, "You a bettin man Cajun? How bout it? This little competition sound good enough to waste some money on?"
Startling a little at finding himself so suddenly addressed, Tom shifts his weight as he turns to glance at Natalie, brows lifting. Then there are two people talking to him. "That's okay," he says, this demurral suited to all occasions. "I mean, I ate already. I just saw the signs and figured this is where everybody was."
"I sensin' interestin' backstory?" Remy wonders, partway between mild and intrigued at the mumble from Kitty as he flicks a glance between Wisdom and Pryde. But he's soon much too engrossed in unwrapping the package to do more digging, listening for sounds of ticking and interrupted only by Seph's shout. "Naw," he calls back. "Unless I bettin' on you two burnin' all the hair off y'asses after drinkin hot sauce." And then: unwrapping! "Damn," says the Gambit, lifting a bottle that speaks of Good Alcohol from colour to clarity to the very label on it. "-Nice-."
Amadeus says, ""Hey, Tom! I met your mom." Amadeus calls over, then quickly grabs the beer when it's thrown to him. He pops the cap off with his thumb easily enough, but when it starts fizzing over his pants he yells, "What the hell! I'm gonna throw you into the goddamned sea you bastard!""
The small girl, Kaci, drops to the ground to sit crosslegged, facing the group but still away from it in the direction of the base. Her unopened strawberry daqueri is placed on the ground beside her, and she starts to pick pieces of shell off the crawdad, peeling it somewhat like a hardboiled egg.
"Hey, Tom! I met your mom." Amadeus calls over, then quickly grabs the beer when it's thrown to him. He pops the cap off with his thumb easily enough, but when it starts fizzing over his pants he yells, "What the hell! I'm gonna throw you into the goddamned sea you bastard!"
The humour in Pete's eyes cools, but he looks over at Kitty with a grin that is only very slightly sharp edged. "Why, thank you, Pryde. I'll take that as high praise, all things considered." He shifts one shoulder in a shrug in answer to Remy. "Not terribly interesting, no."
Seph laughing at Amadeus's situation he states belatedly, "That as strong as yah are man? And is that the best yah can come up with?" Seph motions at Amadeus, "Might as well finish this on a good note, boyo. Dunkin a kitty in some water would make this night complete."
"As opposed to the other things I could say? I suppose it is," Kitty agrees, and then frowns at her bottle, having finished the beer inside. She makes her way over to the cooler, her ears picking up on Seph's comment. She laughs, and playfully glares at Seph, "Kitty's don't appreciate dunking at all. You better not."
"I'm still trying to catch up," Illyana says to Tom, with a brief laugh, turning her attention from Pete and Kitty's back and forth to watch Seph and Amadeus.
"That's it." Amadeus stands up, then tosses his bottle /very/ far away; no one will be hearing it break. "We're not on base, I'm kickin' your ass." he decides, cracking his knuckles as he approaches the man.
Tom narrows a suspicious look at Amadeus, a tic of irritation reflected in the set of his jaw. "I heard," he says, affect flat. His mouth turns up at the corners, a slight smile of amusement for the sudden fizzy surge of beer. Ha ha, it's funny because it's not happening to him.
It's inevitable. In the wake of Kitty's departure, Remy makes a brief cat-claws gesture before the shouting from Amadeus catches his attention and something more serious cuts through the haze of bnhomie surrounding him. With a grunt, the bottle of Really Good Booze is tucked into a protected spot of sand between the cooking utensils, and he calls over a "Still on base, Madcat. Walk away -- no bustin' heads when we still on high alert."
Seph holds his hands up, then balatedly gives Kitty a once over, "A man just might sell his soul to be able to get you soaked." Looking back at Amadeus he grins as his eyes change color and he points at his chin, "Go ahead man, give it yah best shot!"
Wondering if she should go ahead and slip out now, or wait until after the fight -- just in case -- Kaci finally peels a bit of meat from her crawdad and nibbles on it. The girl glances briefly at the groups of people, but in end she watches the boys to make sure they don't hurt themselves. Her shoulders slump and she ducks her head -- this can't be good.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Natalie breathes, gaze caught by the circus that is male posturing.
Illyana crosses her arms, looking sort of darkly amused. She steps a little closer to Seph to try to be a distraction, more than anything. "Oh, I'm too skinny to be worth getting wet when Katya's around, yes?"
"Just wait until I catch you off the base." Amadeus says with a slight grunt, walking back to his seat to try and wipe the beer from his pants. "I'd have kicked your ass by now if I didn't have this cyanide thing in my shoulder."
"Isn't she adorable," Pete mutters to Remy, tone gone sardonic. His gaze tracks Kitty for a moment, then flicks up to take in Amadeus and Seph. He raises his voice enough to let it carry, affecting a bored tone as he says, "Do you think we'd be rid of the both of them if they let their little pissing contest compromise security?"
"I'm thinkin' O'Blis either can't hold his liquor, or it done made his penis shrink on him..." Remy mutters back. "Hopefully Magik distracts him, or we probably gotta haul his ass back." Grumpily, he leans down to scoop up his neglected beer and drink from it.
Seph laughs a little, "It's okay puss-puss, I'll catch you in the gym one day." Then he notices everyone staring. "Oh, uh, I make a helluva first impression don't I? Heh," then he glaces to see Illyana, "Uh, Nah, I ain't got nothin against Russian women. And I may just try." Mock-stumbling a little as he stands straighter he looks up the path towards Kaci and winks.
Shaking his head slowly, Tom lifts a hand to scrub at the back of his neck. He is wearing his judgmental face.
"Seph, are you trying to flirt with both of us? I'd have thought someone would have taught you better than to try to pick up on friends," Kitty suggests, glancing over at Remy. "You need to give him lessons." She gives Illyana a conspiratal grin, before plucking a beer from the cooler.
"What an asshole," Natalie mutters, and then moves forward, beer bottle in hand, to sweep past Remy. "I think I'm gonna head back and get some sleep," she offers to him. "Wanted to say happy birthday, though. I'll owe you a dinner or something sometime, yeah?"
As the situation difuses, Kaci relaxes a little. However, she doesn't miss Seph's wink and stumble. With a sigh, she pushes to her feet, grabs her still unopened bottle, and starts off toward base a second time.
"I've got ten on Madcat," Pete drawls. The round of betting, after all, is nearly compulsory. Much, much lower, he adds, "And I can't believe I've just said that."
Seph gestures openly with his arms, "Just tryin to livin thangs up a little, yo!" Hearing Kitty's statement his face breaks into a grin, "Well I always heard friends stick close together." Hearing Pete's bet he looks over, "Have a little faith, Yo."
"Drunk jackass versus stoned catbrain," Tom says, shoving his hands back into his pockets again and rolling a look out at the lake. "Tough call."
Pete's eyebrows raise, and he meets Seph's protest with a mocking smile. "I do. And it's /twenty/ one of the ladies will take you down first."
Remy's answer to that is a solemn clap of Pete's shoulder, mock-consoling. "I won't tell nobody," he promises, carmine eyes still dancing with amusement as he lifts them to Natalie at her arrival and flashes her a grin, apparently deciding to ignore any further progress towards Amadeus vs. Seph, at least until actual progress is made. "Thank you f'that, Aletheia... an' you can bet I'll take y'up on that offer."
"Not to be the Debbie Downer, but how about it's nobody versus nobody? Or I might have to make this an unexciting bout," Kitty threatens, sliding near Seph with a flash of laughter in her eyes. "After all, Madcat doesn't like hitting things he can't touch."
"Oh, I'm betting on it," Natalie answers with an amused grin before she hop-skips toward Kaci on her way back to base. "Headed back?" she wonders, falling into step. "I'll walk up with you."
Kaci hmms and looks up at Natalie. The girl's smile, which has been absent the past half-hour, returns. "Sure you don't wanna stay with the party?" she asks Natalie.
Seph places a hand over his heart at Pete's statement, "Yah gonna win that, I consider that fore-play." Looking at Kitty as she passes by he smiles in return, "And I always want what I can't have, and know it, shugah."
Natalie snorts and shakes her head. "I've watched enough dick-waving for the night. And party or not, we're still high-alert. I was headed back anyway."
Illyana edges over to join Pete, leaving Kitty to take care of the combatants. "{When do boys' other brains start working?}" she murmurs. "{The ones they're using now aren't serving them very well.}"
Kaci nods to Natalie, asking, "Which way you headed? I didn't really have a destination in mind."
"Home," Natalie answers, jerking her head toward the dark, wooded path ahead. "Big glass of water and /bed/."
Kaci mms and nods to that, "Still too early for me. I'm on call for clinic duty until midnight. Here, want this?" She offers the still unopened strawberry daqueri.
Natalie shakes her head, lifting her beer in indication. "Plenty for me," she answers.
Kaci nods in agreement, "Maybe I'll drink this later. Fortunately, I don't stay drunk long. Unfortunately, a single beer can do it." She gestures down at herself.
Natalie laughs briefly and gives a short nod. "This'll keep me happily buzzed for a bit. Long enough to conk out, anyway." So saying, she lifts her bottle for a slow sip and falls into a companionable silence for the walk.
Kaci walks with you back to the apartments, then goes up to the third floor lounge to see if she can get the TV to play a DVD.
The track record for awesome parties continues.
Deep in the Santa Cruz mountains is a lake dammed by a low concrete rise. The reservoir is bordered on all sides by mountains, and for a short expanse by a high metal fence marked HIGH VOLTAGE. A thin gravel road meanders its way along the lake's edge between water and fence for some distance, leading to a gate and a gatehouse which is ominously labelled 'Use of deadly force authorized.' Just beyond the gate, a secured boathouse is visible to the side of the road.
A sandy shore and thin blades of grass lay between road and lake, an inviting stretch of beach for those who can ignore the looming presence of the secured fence. A turnoff leads to a small dirt parking area nearby, with a paved boat ramp that extends down toward the water to a small dock. Several yards away, an elevated wood cabin and shed overlook the shimmering blue waters and sit beside another small dock.
Spring's sun has brought California warmth to the day, and evening's sunset gilds hills and valleys and the riffling water of the lake with a golden glow. Along the strip of sandy beach, a charcoal fire crackles in a pit, and a massive metal cookpot is suspended on a trivet over the flames. Within it, a broth of spices and salt bubbles and boils around russet potatos, sections of corn on the cob and, oh yes, twenty pounds of fresh crawfish, staring up in red-boiled glory. Citronella torches have been jabbed here and there into the sand, ready to provide both light and bug repellant at need, and a promising steel bucket of a size suitable for watering cattle has been filled with ice and stuffed full of various forms of alcohol. Remy is clad in old jeans and an older t-shirt, comfortable and broken in, and featuring a running stick figure in white-on-black on the t-shirt half of the ensemble, standing before the flames to check on his boiling crawfish while a hand-rolled and green-smelling cigarette dangles from his lips.
"Good grief," opines Natalie as she appears from the dirt road between reservoir and town and draws up on Gambit. She's adopted capris and a black tank in homage to the weather, letting the sun shine on arms still browned from Nicaragua. "You really went all out - what's this all about, huh?"
Kaci arrives on scene with a large covered bowl in her arms. She grins and sets it atop one of the ice bins and pulls the lid off, "Potato salad, like I promised. Mmm, that corn smells wonderful."
"The reason f'it is classified an' in the files," Remy intones solemnly, with a flick of ash from the tip of his joint before he takes a hit, and offers it over to Natalie with reflex politeness that doesn't think to account for whether or not she smokes or not. "An' that looks fuckin' awesome, Kaci. Get y'self a beer."
Amadeus has basically followed his nose, it's not hard to miss twenty pounds of fish. He stops at the pot, wearing his usual tanktop, blue jeans and sneakers, then crouches down about five feet from it. "All that fish..."
Kitty picks her way lightly down the trail, detouring when she reaches the fire. A tupperware box is clutched to one hip, causing a orange tanktop to flash a little bit of her stomach. It's paired casually with some skinny jeans and plain white flip flops. In her other hand, she clutches a bottle of rum. This is the side she uses to shrug a shoulder, saying to nobody in particular, "Wasn't sure what to bring. So, I brought some liquor and chicken wings. Spicy."
Natalie's eyes widen slowly behin the frames of her glasses as he extends the joint. "This kosher for high alert, Gambit?" she wonders with a gaze slanted up at him.
"Thanks," Kaci laughs, then pokes through the various cans and bottles to pull out a strawberry daqueri. She doesn't open it yet, however, and instead goes to stand by the fire. Hot sunny day, jeans and t-shirt, and she's still standing by the fire.
"I brought--" Amadeus doesn't finish, he looks back and spots Natalie, then turns his gaze to the pot again. "Nothing really."
Zenith judges her moment to show up as best she can, trying to slip in unnoticed when there are plenty of people already there for buffering. She doesn't bring any food, just herself, feet in flip-flops, summery skirt, and tank top. She lingers on the fringes for a while sizing everything up.
"Just don't take any more'n y'feel y'can work through later," is Remy's philosophy on indulgences. The joint remains offered, paired with a crooked grin and an eyebrow lift. "This the part where I'm s'posed t'say that all the cool kids are doin' it?" he wonders with a laugh, before he turns back to the cook pot, nods once, and apparently finds it good. "Y'brought y'strength," he opines to Amadeus. "Grab y'self those oven mitts over there, and I get you t'pull the strainer out o' the broth an' we can get started on eatin' these... -and- them chicken wings I see over there."
Natalie snorts softly as she reaches forward to take the joint, pinching it between her fingers without hesitation and tugging it between her lips with the air of one who's had practice. "Look at me," she deadpans. "Giving into peer pressure -- what're you cooking?" she wonders, offering the joint back to Remy and glancing between Amadeus and the fire.
Clever co-conspirator Nadia arrives, though she does not come bearing gifts of food nor booze: her contribution has already been made. Her favorite, oldest Sex Pistols t-shirt rides high over her waist, but it is paired with dark jeans and an equally dark button-down shirt, unbuttoned. There is the tell-tale silver glint of an inhibitor over her ear, partially hidden by her hair, which ahs been left unbound. She moseys toward the fire, trying to look nonchalant and totally like she's supposed to be here.
Kaci turns her back to the fire and gives a wave to everyone. With the hand that isn't holding a still-unopened stawberry daqueri, she waves at Kitty, Natalie, then spots Nadia approaching the fire and gives her a wave as well.
Amadeus stands up straight and walks to grab the oven mitts, fitting them on with slight distraction when Natalie puts the joint in her mouth. He shakes his head dismissively, focusing on carefully hefting the strainer up with both hands. "Hey! Where do I put this thing?"
With a rifle through the cooler, Kitty grabs one of the beers in there, not caring the brand. She twists the cap off her bottle, walking over to Kaci with a grin. "Hey. You feeling better today?"
The joint returned to him, Remy is about to take another drag when Nadia is spotted out of the corner of his eye. He freezes. He then, after a moment's thought, takes the drag anyways and waves her over. "Here," he directs to Amadeus, pointing towards where a sheet of plywood has been propped atop a few upended fire logs and covered with newspapers. "Pour 'em out onto the newspaper."
Zenith starts forward to say hello to Nadia, as someone else also out of the conversational groups, but then she gets waved over by Remy. Zenith only pauses for a moment, and then ambles over anyway. "The food looks impressive," she tells Remy.
Amadeus heads for the plywood, appearing to be straining, though it's more from trying to be /very/ careful than anything else. "Fish, fish, fish..." he repeatedly whispers to himself, then finally pours them out on the newspaper.
Kaci nods to Kitty with a smile, "Of course! Why wouldn't.. Oh, from the other day." She grins, "I found a box of chocolates and a nice sappy movie and everything was fine after that. How 'bout you?"
Natalie's gaze follows Remy's, moving swiftly toward Nadia before she glances back toward the birthday boy with quietly raised brows, silent inquiry. She coughs and twitches her lips at Amadeus, then moves swiftly away as a glance up catches Zenith's approach. About time to find a drink, really.
"Good," Kitty responds, with a smile at Kaci, happy that she's feeling better. After a sip from her beer, she lays a hand on Kaci's arm in a quick gesture of friendship. "Going to go say hello to others." She heads over to the make-shift table where Amadeus is. "Fish?"
Pete is, perhaps miraculously, truly dressed down tonight, dressed in old jeans and a short-sleeved shirt that displays both the faded remnants of what little tan he'd managed to gain under Nicaragua's blistering sun, and a small scattering of old scars come by less pleasantly. He is, little surprise here, bearing alcohol - a six-pack of beer which he heads over to the ice bucket to square away. He also bears something that looks suspiciously like a wrapped box. Curious, that.
"Crawfish," Remy corrects, as the bounty of crustaceans, russets and corn comes spilling out onto the newspapers in a cloud of steam and spices. "Come on and dig in, people," he calls over generally, with a wave of the joint-bearing hand. "Ain't no real manners, and ain't no real rules 'cept enjoy y'selves." He turns then, and if there's a brief flicker of surprise at seeing Zenith, it's brief, and soon replaced by a grin. "Hopin' y'do more'n look."
Nadia slips through the crowd to bump up alongside Remy, eyes wide in appreciation of the crawfish, now dead and thoroughly cooked. "They are more fun when they are moving," she declares them, her nose wrinkling slightly at the smoke produced from Remy's -- cigarette. She nods acknowledgement of Zenith, once she recognises her, but for the most part she is focused on the food. Which seems to be making her nervous.
"Oooh, Pete Wisdom," Natalie draws out as she closes in on man and ice bucket, ignoring whatever codenames are required just now. "You've got one of those for me, yeah?"
"Oh, I--" Zenith tracks Natalie's sudden move, and her expression clearly conveys 'oh, hell'. She flicks a glance quickly around, and leaves herself drinkless to go look at the food, rather than impinge on Natalie's space again. "Did you see them ahead of time?" she asks Nadia.
"So, we can just eat with our fingers?" Amadeus asks, making sure he's clear on the rules, even though there are no rules, and carries the strainer back to the pot.
Hereing the magic word to summon all southerners who enjoy crustaceans, Seph appears from the woodline wearing faded blue jeans and flip flops he's carrying a large cooler over one shoulder. "I just here a cajun say Crawfish? Hell yeah man. Oh yeah I brought party favors," Dropping the cooler on the ground near the group and opens it to reveal a wide range of hard liquors. . .and one wine cooler.
Kaci smiles warmly at Kitty, "Sure, and thanks." When Remy makes the call to eat, she tucks her unopened bottle under her arm, grabs a plate, and starts filling it up. Potato salad and corn, mostly, but she does take a single crawdad. The girl then looks for a place to sit, preferably near that wonderfully hot fire.
Peering at the little dead things, Kitty asks Remy with a playful bump of her hip against his, "How do you get the shells off? Or do we eat those too?" She notes Pete's arrival by hearing Natalie's voice, but stubbornly does not look over to see for sure.
Pete glances sharply at Natalie, eyes narrowed in half-disguised bafflement at the greeting. "Help yourself, love," he replies, a touch of amused irony shading the pet name used in lieu of codename. "Enjoying the party?"
Natalie's brows waggle up at the endearment, and she meets irony with a grin that looks like it might be a laugh at any minute. "Dunno," she answers, scooping a beer up and settling back to tug the cap off. "Just got here. But so far I've found a bonfire, weed, and beer, so it's looking good." Her gaze drops to the package and then lifts back to Pete with the vague glimmers of suspicion.
"Pinch the tail," Remy intones. "Suck the head." This double-entendre laden statement is given a bit more clarity of purpose as he hands off the joint to Amadeus for questionable safekeeping, and reaches for a crawfish to demonstrate. A series of twists separate off the bit with the eyes, leaving the tail meat exposed. He then proceeds to suck it out of the carapace, chews, swallows, grins, and tosses the shell aside. "Voila. Treat it like shellin' a crab if y'get a big one."
Kitty raises one of her eyebrows, laughing with a shake of her head. "Maybe I'll just take the easy route," she ponders, picking up one of the crawfish, then phasing both herself and the shell, allowing the actual meat to fall out onto a plate. She picks this up after chucking the shell and nibbles on it with a wink at Remy.
"I helped," Nadia tells Zenith, the unmistakable ring of pride in her voice. "They have to be kept alive until time to be cooked. He did not explain why? But I helped." She watches the little demonstration of how one eats them with some amount of trepadation, looking to Zenith and them back to Remy before scooting closer to the table. She hesitates, but snatches one up. Then hesitates again.
Pete catches the suspicious glance and sighs heavily, though the amused glint in his eyes and faint quirk to the corners of his mouth make a lie of it. "Doesn't anyone get suspicious enough to check the files? Cajun's getting on in years. --And I think that makes it our solemn duty to do something absolutely dreadful to him before the night's out."
Amadeus takes the joint and looks around, then hides it behind his back when he spots Nadia. Nodding at the demonstration, he pulls his head back, as if to tell Remy 'Get over here, quick!'
Zenith picks up a crawfish herself, and sort of messily approximates what Remy demonstrated. She then offers that one to Nadia, and picks up another for hereself. "Is it weird having seen them alive, then?"
"We've had drunken brouhahas more weekends than not since I've been here," Natalie points out, tipping her beet bottle up for a slow swallow. She slants a gaze sideways toward Remy next to the fire, then looks back to Pete with a slow, wicked glance. "Yeah? I like dreadful - how old's he now, you know?"
Walking over to the pile of crawfish he grabs a couple of the red crustaceans and drops them on a nearby plate before going to sit beside his 'acquired' cooler of alcohol. Pinching the tail of one of them and sucking on the head, it takes him a second before the flavor hits him and he remembers he doesn't like them. Without whiskey. Reaching into the cooler he pulls out a fifth of Jack and twists the top off before up-ending it to his mouth. "Damn, Cajun. Ain't had nothing like this since I was on that Res a few years ago," Seph says as he pops the meat of one into his mouth.
Kaci watches Kitty's method, looks at her crawdad, then back at Kitty's plate. "Hey, um, Kitty? Wanna do that with mine?" She laughs softly and makes her way that direction, still carrying both her plate and unopened strawberry daqueri. The girl doesn't have a hand free, but she gives Saph a smile and a nod.
"Had 'em ordered up special, an' got Nightmare here t'help me smuggle 'em into the building," Remy notes to Seph with a nod towards Nadia and a crooked grin. "-And- she's damn' good at keepin' 'em alive. Barely any losses from the ones that were kickin' when they got here -- y'want them alive up 'til y'cook 'em 'cause the dead ones go off real quick," he explains in an aside to Nadia and Zenith, before he snags another two crawfish to accompany him closer to the booze selection. A return nod is given to Amadeus in passing.
Late enough to the party that it is already underway, but not late enough to miss out on culinary flashbacks, Sal's arrival is announced by a curl of cigar smoke and the steady thud of booted footfalls. In jeans faded to white at the stress points and a plain grey t-shirt, she ambles first in search of beer, keeping a sharp eye on the table full of crawfish.
With a soft smile at Kaci, Kitty admits, "It'd take a lot longer to phase out every crawdad individually. I was just showing off a bit." She piles some of the potatoes and corn onto a plate, taking some of her fried chicken. Finding a seat near the fire, she eats her food silently, observing the people around her.
Pete laughs shortly at that, and tips his head towards Natalie in a nod of acknowledgement. "Fair enough. And twenty-four," he replies. He claims a bottle of beer for himself, flicking the cap away and taking a long swallow.
Amadeus slowly makes his way over to Remy, discrete! He puts the joint into his left hand, then digs into his pocket to try and pull out a hand full of already rolled up joints to slip to him. "You didn't get these from m--" The other joint suddenly burns his hand, causing a yelp and all the other joints to fall to the ground for everyone to see. "Shit!"
Natalie laughs and watches Remy for a moment, eyes lingering thoughtfully as she sips. "Twenty-four," she echoes, musingly. "Still a baby." Says she of three years age on him. She shifts, rearranging to settle herself alongside Pete so that she can tip her head toward him and wonder quietly, "Is dreadful specific, or still hypothetical at this point?"
Kaci awes at Kitty and laughs, "Wonderful bit of show-off, though, you have to admit." The girl finally sits on the ground with her back to the fire, close enough that she'd be warm even if it were snowing out. The unopened bottle is placed beside her, and the plate goes on her lap where she starts to husk her corn. When Amadeus yelps, the girl turns to look his direction with wide eyes, "You OK?"
"It is a little weird," Nadia admits, answering Remy's grin with one of her own. It is hard to miss the way she stands a little straighter when he praises her crawfish-sustaining skills, though she waves off the praise with a quiet, "It was not hard." Really. She thanks Zenith, but startles when Amadeus drops his jointly bounty -- she manages to fumble her crawfish, but catches it before it can hit the ground. She still doesn't actually /eat/ it.
Zenith's attention wanders to Natalie and Pete, and after a quick flick of motion to help catch Nadia's escapee if she doesn't manage it herself, she gathers up a plate and takes a few crawfish and some of the other food, and heads for Remy. "Thank you," she says, very polite, before heading for the trail back to the base.
Taking another swig from his bottle Seph muffles his laughter at Amadeus's fumble before he takes a bite out of his remaining crawfish, shell and all, then stands to get more of the delightful critters and some of the potatoes. "So Kaci, when we going on that other date?," Seph asks eyes gleaming with a hidden joke as he looks towards her.
"Sacre Dieu, Madcat, y'a marijuana pinata there," Remy laughs, as the joints go a-scattering. Having hands full of crawfish, he opts not to join in collection efforts, although there's a sotto voce "Thanks, homme. Sweet stuff y'got," until after he's dispatched another two crawfish to the depths of his belly.
Pete gives Natalie a slight, wry grin. "Most here are," he replies, from a further seven years along. "And hypothetical still. If it were a little earlier in the year, I'd suggest just dumping him in the lake and having done with it, but as things stand, we may have to get creative." Amadeus' curse catches his attention, and he looks over, raising his voice to call, "Very graceful, Madcat. You should give lessons."
"Water's still got to be freezing," Natalie answers with quiet amusement, tipping her head toward Pete to keep her voice low before her eyes widen on Amadeus. "Holy shit, does he have a pocket full of joints?"
Kitty calls out, "Hey, Zephyr. You heading back up already? We'll miss you down here." She smiles friendly at Zenith, bright white teeth flashing. She pulls her hair away from her face and finally glances at Pete, being drawn by his raised voice. This time, she's the first one to frown in his direction.
Beer achieved, Sal annexes herself a plateful of crawfish, corn, and potatoes. Madcat's mishap resorts in a snort, but she doesn't engage -- instead, she, her beer, her plate and her damn cigars find themselves an unclaimed stretch of beach, and -- claim it.
Kaci looks up at Saph, then grins, "Date, huh. When was our first?" She blows her bangs out of her eyes and takes a bite from her corn cob.
Amadeus gathers his pile of joints, used to quick collection when someone's banging on his van door. Joints stashed away again, he walks to grab a plate so he can finally eat.
"I believe he does," Pete confirms. He eyes Amadeus in mild bafflement for a moment longer before glancing back at Natalie to remark wryly, "Graceful and /subtle/." His gaze tracks over the party, fetching up on the frowning Kitty. He gives her a smile in response - pleasant, and to all appearances genuine. Just to be contrary.
"Glad you could make it," Remy calls over to the departing Zenith, with a bit of bemused speculation as his gaze drifts around to find Pete and Natalie closeted together. He shrugs a shoulder, snags a bottle of beer from the ice tub, and proceeds to cruise over towards Kitty and the chicken wings with a flash of a grin. "Good call," he approves.
Laughing at Kaci's question he takes a seat next to her, his front to the fire as he tips his bottle back up and thinks for a second. "I could say it was the day I blew your shirt off in training but you didn't really take me to dinner. So I'd say last night after you whooped my ass then fed me lazagnia," Seph wispers to her in the patented wisper of most people who are tipsy, which means anyone within three or four feet could hear him.
Nadia is abandoned by Zenith. Woe. She watches the joint-collection warily, then applies herself to the task of finally -- finally! -- eating one of the little critters she so cleverly kept alive through the night. Pinch tail, suck head, right? (Right.) She looks surprised by how easy it is, and by how good it is. So she goes for another.
Natalie flashes Remy a bright, shining smile as his gaze slants past them and then breaks into a quietly snickering laugh. "Oh, shit," she says, drawing in a deep breath and then a long swallow of beer. "Think he's sharing?" The wander of her eyes floats past Kitty, who gets a curious gaze, but no comment.
Zenith lifts a hand in a wave to Kitty, shakes her head and mouths something apologetic--probably 'too much work' or something equally mendacious, and then she's gone.
Kitty ponders throwing her half-eaten corn on the cob at Pete, but then things better of it before determinedly ignoring his smile, him, and everyone in his direction. Very adult response. As she arrives at this decision, the spots Illyana, and hops to her feet, "Yana! You made it," she makes her way quickly to Illyana, throwing her arms up to hug her friend.
Kaci rolls her eyes at Saph, "Only because you didn't fight back." She shrugs and uses her fingers for a biteful of potato salad, then licks her fingers clean. She still hasn't opened her first drink, nor the one Saph brought. "If you want more of my terrible cooking, there's fruit salad on one of the ice buckets over there," she tells Saph.
"I'm fine." Amadeus says as he starts to load up his plate with crawfish, and very little of everything else. When he takes a seat, he holds one hand up, glancing to Nadia momentarily, then announcing, "While you all saw a big pile of joints fall out of my pocket, this will be a very pot free party. We have, um, easily influenced minds present."
"She's wearin' an inhibitor," Remy points out. Helpfully.
Illyana arrives via her teleportation, red light blooming as a warning before she herself appears initially beside Nadia, though her gaze goes immediately to Kitty, too. "I thought it would be the right place when I felt so many of you right next to each other," she comments. Once hugged, she hugs back a little bemusedly.
Pete glances at Amadeus, then Natalie, then back to Amadeus. "I'm sure he would if you asked nicely," he replies, solemn tone undercut by a ripple of obvious amusement. He takes a sip of his beer - and nearly chokes at Amadeus' PSA. "Jesus Christ. Is he actually serious?" The flicker of red light catches his eye, and he raises his bottle in a greeting salute to Illyana.
Natalie snorts hard enough to choke on a swig of beer and breaks into a moment's coughing.
"There is also alcohol I am not drinking," Nadia is quick to point out, though her smile when she taps a finger against her inhibitor is a little bit strained. Illyana's sudden presence at her side is like a breath of fresh air, the absence of mental touch aside, and some of the strain in her smile eases.
Making a face at the mention of fruit salad, "People actually make that stuff? And even if I wouldah fought back Shugah, you still wouldah schooled me and yah know it." Stuffing a potato in his mouth chewing quickly then chasing it with a short pull from his, "But if you want to go another round sometime, I'll be sure to be the one doin thah cookin if you'd be willin tah be tha desert." Seeing the redlight from Illyana's appearance he almost sputters a mouthful of alcohol into the fire before he recovers.
Kitty leans in to Illyana, whispering, "God. That man is so frustrating. You'd think he'd leave us alone, since he hates the human race so much." She doesn't bother to say who she's referring to, but her pointed dismissal of a whole side of the beach is pretty obvious. She sips at her beer casually, remaining by Illyana's side.
Kaci grins at Saph, "Well, first, we gotta find me something to wear that doesn't vaporize in lightning." Her attention is diverted to Illyana, who gets a smile and a wave, before her attention returns to Saph as she catches the last of his line, "You mean bring the desert? Sure." Yep, right over her head.
New arrivals require greeting, and Remy even goes so far as to shuffle three crawfish and a selection of the potatos and cord boiled with them, onto a paper plate to carry over to the Kitty-Illyana cling zone. He offers them up with a playful sketch of a bow that nonetheless takes some care for not spilling his beer. "Glad y'could make it, Magik. Y'got anythin' like crawfish where y'from?"
Seph rotates his rear to face the same direction as Kaci and drapes an arm over her shoulder, "Actually I kindah like tha way I can make yah clothes dissappear. And, uh, yeah bring the desert." Taking his arm off of her shoulder he returns to his plate with gusto before he asks, "Yo Cajun! Where dah hot sauce man? I know yah brought some!"
"{Man}?" Illyana asks, taking a chance that the Russian word is simple enough Kitty might have picked it up. It gives her low-voiced answer a little more privacy. She gives Kitty a little more space, though she does pet Nadia's hair before she holds out a hand to take the plate from Remy if that's what he's offering. "Fish?" she questions, though she can see they actually aren't. "There are fish fish..."
Amadeus stares at Nadia, then sighs in defeat. "Alright, who ever wants pot, come and get it, but not Nadia. Under no circumstances do you give pot to Nadia, I will tell Bahir." he explains his conditions, /very/ seriously, then pulls out a hand full of pot and dumps it on the table.
"The pot fairy has ethics," Pete mutters, voice shaking a little with half-buried laughter. "Who knew?"
Kaci hides her face with her hands, briefly, mumbling something along the lines of 'god that was so embarasing.' As Seph's attention is diverted, she looks around to the others present, hears Amadeus' announcement, then pushes to her feet. She makes sure to grab her bottle, though still unopened, and softly says, "Guess that's my queue to wander on."
"The pot fairy has 'scared shitless of Bahir,'" Natalie answers with a smile twisted with amusement. She shakes her head and then straightens. "Much as I want some, probably a bad idea if I plan to drink any more than the one beer," she allows, and then tips her head toward Pete. "Let me know if you need any assistance with dreadful," she requests, and then wanders toward those who're huddled around food.
"Smarter man than I'd thought, then," Pete says, though there is, for once, no real trace of acid to the remark. He gives Natalie a brief grin, and nods once in agreement. "Will do."
"It will be okay," Nadia assures, "I think maybe it is time for me to go, anyway." She makes a gesture toward her head, indicating the inhibitor. "Is not the most comfortable." She does lot look entirely thrilled with leaving now, but gathers a few more crawfish and beats a hasty retreat back up the path.
"{Yes}," she responds, her voice low and Russian as well. She makes one hasty glance at Pete to indicate to Illyana who she's talking about, before resuming her very /mature/ tactic of ignoring his general direction. "Gambit, so what is the occasion?" she asks, changing the subject, hoping that the pot and liquor will make him talkative on the question.
"Crawfish," Remy supplies the particular identity of the crustaceans on the plate. "Also know as crawdads, mud bugs an' crayfish, amongst t'other names out there... but they -good-," he assures, cheerful in the face of any dubiousness. "Got 'em seasoned up... an' if y'want the sauce, use y'eyes, Seph. Tucked in with the beers."
"Those," Natalie opines, closing on on Remy and Seph, "Look /disgusting/."
A belated answer to Illyana's other question comes in the form of a smile from Remy that promises much and says little. "It's in the dossiers," he answers.
"He's twenty-four," Natalie supplies to Illyana, helpful and smiling over the neck of her beer bottle.
Illyana looks over at Pete, but seems to have entirely missed the point. Instead of looking frustrated too in a proper friend manner, she gives him a solemn nod of greeting. "{Need to talk to him soon,}" she mumurs, not really intending Kitty to get all of that. "Have you had any yet?" she asks Kitty, of the crawfish. "{Happy Birthday,}" she offers to Remy.
Grabbing the aforementioned bottle of sauce, Seph loads his plate for before he looks at the name on the bottle, "Louisiana's hottest Atomic sauce? Score, Cajun." Setting the Jack asside in favor of something softer on his liver, he picks up a beer and twists the top off. "Mad's done scared off my little healer buddy. What about us tossing him in the fire at the end o' the night, Cajun?"
Pete's gaze skims over the crowd, lighting here and there on faces more familiar than others. He remains, for the moment, where he is, taking the occasional swallow from his bottle of beer. He gives Illyana a very slight smile as he catches her nod of greeting, and dips his own head in response.
Amadeus begins taking large chomps out of his crawfish, not bothering with the instructions, he just chews them up finely before swallowing. "Hey! I didn't scare anyone off, I'm not even smoking tonight." he says before suddenly biting the top half of a crawfish off.
"I think y'done scared her off all by y'self there, O'Blis," is Remy's slightly buzzed critique as he waves a crawfish tail in Seph's general direction. "Classy approach, y'ain't so much got it, homme... also, she likes women."
"Who does?" Natalie interjects, brows lifting at Remy.
Kitty peers at Illyana out of the corner of her eyes, not able to catch the Russian sentence. She looks slightly puzzled, but instead of furthering the under-lying conversation, she beams at Remy, "Happy birthday! If I'd have known, I would have gotten you something."
"Kaci." Amadeus answers Natalie's question.
Kaci tucks her daqueri under an arm, still unopened, and grabs her crawdad with a hand, then tucks the now-empty paper plate into the fire. She wanders away from the crowd, back toward base, lost in her own thoughts.
Natalie's eyes widen and her head turns, searching for the other woman before they snap back to Amadeus. "/Seriously/?" she wonders, her tone clearly doubtful.
Shrugging at Remy's statement he states happily, "Ain't never stopped me before Remshot. Y'never know I may be the one to change her mind." Then hearing Amadeus, "Actually I think it's about time for a test o' manhood, boyo!" He points at Amadeus then at the bottle of hot sauce, "We take sips back to back, first one to give up loses."
Amadeus nods, stuffing the rest of his crawfish into his mouth. "She told me herself." But, then he looks a bit worried when she's walking away, and calls over, "Hey, Kaci! Where you goin'?"
"Uh-huh," Remy confirms from over by Kitty and Illyana, before turning back to talking with them, happily oblivious to any terrible plans with him at their core. "Ain't no need," he assures Kitty with a wave of a hand, after a curious peer at Illyana for her Russian. "With Zephyr's shindig just two days ago, I figure I just go f'givin' folks an excuse t'party without havin' t'shop."
Kaci stops when she hears her name and turns, "Hmm?" Then gives Amadeus a wave, even though the crawdad is still in her hand. She waits to see what he wanted, appearantly missing the question.
"What did I miss?" Illyana asks, half of Remy, half of Kitty, watching the interplay with Seph and Kaci. She looks wide-eyed and innocent at Remy, gesturing to Kitty. "She knows some Russian from my brother, I thought I should her in practice, yes?"
"And here we can pick out the virgin in the bunch," Pete says, very dry, as he finally pulls away from his claimed space to head in Remy's direction. He offers the wrapped package to the birthday boy, corners of his mouth quirking slightly. "--If you wanted that, you should have scrubbed the records."
"Where you going?" Amadeus asks as he waves her over. "Come on, sit next to me."
Natalie's gaze lingers on Amadeus for a disgusted minute longer before she winces away from his chomping and goes to fish for food that's /not/ animals boiled alive in their skin.
Kitty nods in agreement to Illyana's statement, backing her up by saying, "Yes. She tries to keep me on my toes, whenever she can. Otherwise, I'll forget all of the Russian Piotr has taught me." She sips her beer, saving herself the need to talk as Pete approaches. She shrugs to Illyana in regards to her question, thinking that Remy would know more than her.
Seph gestures at Amadeus's back, "Guy knows how to walk away quickly don't he? Oh yeah Cajun my present's up in tha boathouse behind that last boat I was workin on. Yah gonna love it, just keep it private." Setting his plate aside to begin whole heartedly nursing his beer he whispers to Remy, "Homebrew I been savin for a special occasion."
Beach party. Tom is late. He moves toward the gathering with a diffident air, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans, sneakers scuffing over the road as he trundles along. His mien quiet, he pauses at the edge of the sand to loom there. Loooom.
Kaci waves vaguely off toward base as she replies to Amadeus, "Not much of one for drinking. Besides," the girl pauses to glance at Seph, before finishing her answer to Amadeus, "Besides.." She can't really come up with a good way to say it, so instead she lets the topic drop. "Hey, Remy," she calls out, "Great party. Ya'll have a good night now, y'hear?" The girl does her best southern accent.
Amadeus frowns over at Seph, holding out a crawfish as he points at the man. "Hey! You really wanna challenge a guy who used to be a stoner to a 'who can eat the most stupid crap' contest? /Really/?"
"Just Seph puttin' his foot in his mouth tryin' t'hit on Kaci," Remy reports, hands in his pockets as both a Pete and a Seph approach. The Pete wins, and is rewarded with a "Y'got me there," a crooked smirk, and a curious look at the offered gift. There is, after all, a small possibility for comedy-sized explosions upon opening. "Maybe I just wanted t'see who'd figure it out... and damn, man. Thanks," is murmured back to Seph, and Kaci herself arrives before he can turn attention back to potentially defusing Pete's present. Tucking it under his arm, he sketches her a bow, and a "Glad y'enjoyed y'self, Sparky. Grab a bottle f'the road, eh?"
With one hand occupied with beer bottle and the other balancing an ear of corn, Natalie turns to survey the group, her expression settled into an absently thoughtful frown.
Pete looks studiously innocent - which is possibly a sign in favour of comedic explosions. "Fortunately, I think most of them mind their own buisness and don't go peeking," he tells Remy, grave tone masking faintly mocking humour. "Very upright and honourable, for spies."
Laughing at Amadeus, Seph proclaims, "Dude I spent three months in the desert with nothing to eat but peyote and habaneros. I think I can take yah!" A sad look crosses his face as he sees Kaci's stare. He quickly covers it with, "Of course if yah ain't man enough, I'll understand!"
Tom drifts across the sand, kicking up little puffs of sand with his manuevers upon the outskirts of the party. He investigates food and beer first, without any immediate inclination toward either -- in fact, he eyes the accumulated alcohol with an expression best encapsulated as mystified annoyance, an attitude that will put him far outside the usual X-Factor social circle. Once past the food, he plants himself in his spot and surveys the people with a thoughtful expression, shields drawn close over his telepathy and tongue running along his teeth.
"Natalie already thinks I'm childish enough without me getting into a hot sauce contest." Amadeus says before sitting his plate down, then scans the area for something. "Where's the beer? I need something to drink."
"The corn's not bad, if the weird boiled shrimp things are too creepy for you," Natalie offers, having abruptly appears somewhere just behind Tom's shoulder. "Madcat's chewing through them whole. I'd seriously avoid them."
"It wouldn't be hard to be upright and honorable compared to you," Kitty mumbles, ending her sentence by lifting the bottle to her mouth. She takes a big gulp more for something to do than actually wanting to drink. She itches to run away from the group, and hide herself away, but doesn't. Instead, she shoves her free hand in a pocket and moves her attention to Remy's present opening.
Illyana finally gets around to eating something, or at least picking it up, but Tom distracts her. Proably emboldened by the last training exercise, she bothers to go over and say hello. "Remy can show you the trick to eating things, I assume," she tells Tom. She's not doing very well with the shell of the crawfish she's holding at the moment. Her attention's not entirely on him, as she keeps frowning back at Kitty.
Shaking a beer behind his back he tosses it to Amadeus, "Yeah kindah figured yah were yellah. 'Course yah could change that." Looking at Remy he states tauntingly, "You a bettin man Cajun? How bout it? This little competition sound good enough to waste some money on?"
Startling a little at finding himself so suddenly addressed, Tom shifts his weight as he turns to glance at Natalie, brows lifting. Then there are two people talking to him. "That's okay," he says, this demurral suited to all occasions. "I mean, I ate already. I just saw the signs and figured this is where everybody was."
"I sensin' interestin' backstory?" Remy wonders, partway between mild and intrigued at the mumble from Kitty as he flicks a glance between Wisdom and Pryde. But he's soon much too engrossed in unwrapping the package to do more digging, listening for sounds of ticking and interrupted only by Seph's shout. "Naw," he calls back. "Unless I bettin' on you two burnin' all the hair off y'asses after drinkin hot sauce." And then: unwrapping! "Damn," says the Gambit, lifting a bottle that speaks of Good Alcohol from colour to clarity to the very label on it. "-Nice-."
Amadeus says, ""Hey, Tom! I met your mom." Amadeus calls over, then quickly grabs the beer when it's thrown to him. He pops the cap off with his thumb easily enough, but when it starts fizzing over his pants he yells, "What the hell! I'm gonna throw you into the goddamned sea you bastard!""
The small girl, Kaci, drops to the ground to sit crosslegged, facing the group but still away from it in the direction of the base. Her unopened strawberry daqueri is placed on the ground beside her, and she starts to pick pieces of shell off the crawdad, peeling it somewhat like a hardboiled egg.
"Hey, Tom! I met your mom." Amadeus calls over, then quickly grabs the beer when it's thrown to him. He pops the cap off with his thumb easily enough, but when it starts fizzing over his pants he yells, "What the hell! I'm gonna throw you into the goddamned sea you bastard!"
The humour in Pete's eyes cools, but he looks over at Kitty with a grin that is only very slightly sharp edged. "Why, thank you, Pryde. I'll take that as high praise, all things considered." He shifts one shoulder in a shrug in answer to Remy. "Not terribly interesting, no."
Seph laughing at Amadeus's situation he states belatedly, "That as strong as yah are man? And is that the best yah can come up with?" Seph motions at Amadeus, "Might as well finish this on a good note, boyo. Dunkin a kitty in some water would make this night complete."
"As opposed to the other things I could say? I suppose it is," Kitty agrees, and then frowns at her bottle, having finished the beer inside. She makes her way over to the cooler, her ears picking up on Seph's comment. She laughs, and playfully glares at Seph, "Kitty's don't appreciate dunking at all. You better not."
"I'm still trying to catch up," Illyana says to Tom, with a brief laugh, turning her attention from Pete and Kitty's back and forth to watch Seph and Amadeus.
"That's it." Amadeus stands up, then tosses his bottle /very/ far away; no one will be hearing it break. "We're not on base, I'm kickin' your ass." he decides, cracking his knuckles as he approaches the man.
Tom narrows a suspicious look at Amadeus, a tic of irritation reflected in the set of his jaw. "I heard," he says, affect flat. His mouth turns up at the corners, a slight smile of amusement for the sudden fizzy surge of beer. Ha ha, it's funny because it's not happening to him.
It's inevitable. In the wake of Kitty's departure, Remy makes a brief cat-claws gesture before the shouting from Amadeus catches his attention and something more serious cuts through the haze of bnhomie surrounding him. With a grunt, the bottle of Really Good Booze is tucked into a protected spot of sand between the cooking utensils, and he calls over a "Still on base, Madcat. Walk away -- no bustin' heads when we still on high alert."
Seph holds his hands up, then balatedly gives Kitty a once over, "A man just might sell his soul to be able to get you soaked." Looking back at Amadeus he grins as his eyes change color and he points at his chin, "Go ahead man, give it yah best shot!"
Wondering if she should go ahead and slip out now, or wait until after the fight -- just in case -- Kaci finally peels a bit of meat from her crawdad and nibbles on it. The girl glances briefly at the groups of people, but in end she watches the boys to make sure they don't hurt themselves. Her shoulders slump and she ducks her head -- this can't be good.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Natalie breathes, gaze caught by the circus that is male posturing.
Illyana crosses her arms, looking sort of darkly amused. She steps a little closer to Seph to try to be a distraction, more than anything. "Oh, I'm too skinny to be worth getting wet when Katya's around, yes?"
"Just wait until I catch you off the base." Amadeus says with a slight grunt, walking back to his seat to try and wipe the beer from his pants. "I'd have kicked your ass by now if I didn't have this cyanide thing in my shoulder."
"Isn't she adorable," Pete mutters to Remy, tone gone sardonic. His gaze tracks Kitty for a moment, then flicks up to take in Amadeus and Seph. He raises his voice enough to let it carry, affecting a bored tone as he says, "Do you think we'd be rid of the both of them if they let their little pissing contest compromise security?"
"I'm thinkin' O'Blis either can't hold his liquor, or it done made his penis shrink on him..." Remy mutters back. "Hopefully Magik distracts him, or we probably gotta haul his ass back." Grumpily, he leans down to scoop up his neglected beer and drink from it.
Seph laughs a little, "It's okay puss-puss, I'll catch you in the gym one day." Then he notices everyone staring. "Oh, uh, I make a helluva first impression don't I? Heh," then he glaces to see Illyana, "Uh, Nah, I ain't got nothin against Russian women. And I may just try." Mock-stumbling a little as he stands straighter he looks up the path towards Kaci and winks.
Shaking his head slowly, Tom lifts a hand to scrub at the back of his neck. He is wearing his judgmental face.
"Seph, are you trying to flirt with both of us? I'd have thought someone would have taught you better than to try to pick up on friends," Kitty suggests, glancing over at Remy. "You need to give him lessons." She gives Illyana a conspiratal grin, before plucking a beer from the cooler.
"What an asshole," Natalie mutters, and then moves forward, beer bottle in hand, to sweep past Remy. "I think I'm gonna head back and get some sleep," she offers to him. "Wanted to say happy birthday, though. I'll owe you a dinner or something sometime, yeah?"
As the situation difuses, Kaci relaxes a little. However, she doesn't miss Seph's wink and stumble. With a sigh, she pushes to her feet, grabs her still unopened bottle, and starts off toward base a second time.
"I've got ten on Madcat," Pete drawls. The round of betting, after all, is nearly compulsory. Much, much lower, he adds, "And I can't believe I've just said that."
Seph gestures openly with his arms, "Just tryin to livin thangs up a little, yo!" Hearing Kitty's statement his face breaks into a grin, "Well I always heard friends stick close together." Hearing Pete's bet he looks over, "Have a little faith, Yo."
"Drunk jackass versus stoned catbrain," Tom says, shoving his hands back into his pockets again and rolling a look out at the lake. "Tough call."
Pete's eyebrows raise, and he meets Seph's protest with a mocking smile. "I do. And it's /twenty/ one of the ladies will take you down first."
Remy's answer to that is a solemn clap of Pete's shoulder, mock-consoling. "I won't tell nobody," he promises, carmine eyes still dancing with amusement as he lifts them to Natalie at her arrival and flashes her a grin, apparently deciding to ignore any further progress towards Amadeus vs. Seph, at least until actual progress is made. "Thank you f'that, Aletheia... an' you can bet I'll take y'up on that offer."
"Not to be the Debbie Downer, but how about it's nobody versus nobody? Or I might have to make this an unexciting bout," Kitty threatens, sliding near Seph with a flash of laughter in her eyes. "After all, Madcat doesn't like hitting things he can't touch."
"Oh, I'm betting on it," Natalie answers with an amused grin before she hop-skips toward Kaci on her way back to base. "Headed back?" she wonders, falling into step. "I'll walk up with you."
Kaci hmms and looks up at Natalie. The girl's smile, which has been absent the past half-hour, returns. "Sure you don't wanna stay with the party?" she asks Natalie.
Seph places a hand over his heart at Pete's statement, "Yah gonna win that, I consider that fore-play." Looking at Kitty as she passes by he smiles in return, "And I always want what I can't have, and know it, shugah."
Natalie snorts and shakes her head. "I've watched enough dick-waving for the night. And party or not, we're still high-alert. I was headed back anyway."
Illyana edges over to join Pete, leaving Kitty to take care of the combatants. "{When do boys' other brains start working?}" she murmurs. "{The ones they're using now aren't serving them very well.}"
Kaci nods to Natalie, asking, "Which way you headed? I didn't really have a destination in mind."
"Home," Natalie answers, jerking her head toward the dark, wooded path ahead. "Big glass of water and /bed/."
Kaci mms and nods to that, "Still too early for me. I'm on call for clinic duty until midnight. Here, want this?" She offers the still unopened strawberry daqueri.
Natalie shakes her head, lifting her beer in indication. "Plenty for me," she answers.
Kaci nods in agreement, "Maybe I'll drink this later. Fortunately, I don't stay drunk long. Unfortunately, a single beer can do it." She gestures down at herself.
Natalie laughs briefly and gives a short nod. "This'll keep me happily buzzed for a bit. Long enough to conk out, anyway." So saying, she lifts her bottle for a slow sip and falls into a companionable silence for the walk.
Kaci walks with you back to the apartments, then goes up to the third floor lounge to see if she can get the TV to play a DVD.
The track record for awesome parties continues.