Summer's Wednesday Night "Room Party"; Kasambi Estate Pool Area and Deck; Wednesday Evening [02/22].

[somethingwithturquoise]

Just because Summer wasn't behind the bar at Caritas this Wednesday didn't mean that there wouldn't be jello. In grand school trip tradition, since pretty much the dawn of time (or, at the very least, the dawn of Summer being a part of this school), she had spent the majority of her day getting ready for her big "room" party, although this time around, the term was being very loosely applied, because when you had a space like this, shoving a party into a bedroom on a technicality was practically a crime.

So after a morning of mixing jello and then portaling around to get other supplies (there may have been a detour over to Ethiopia, while she was at it, which she did not want to talk about, but boy, was it a good thing she had a party to focus on right now, the narrative could say at least that much!), she was now back to get things all set up and decorated with your standard fairy lights and something to softly, unobtrusively pump music into the air, with the jello shots and moddable snacks and other drinks all laid out not only on tables on the deck, but also awaiting in the water, as well.

Which could be dangerous, sure, but they had a nine foot tall shark man that could not get drunk as a lifeguard, they'd be fine!

And, of course, she'd dressed the part of a pool-side party goddess, and she'd tried her best to keep the jello shots in the spirit of the trip with local ingredients, and she had them all displayed with a nice little placard that she'd quick-printed:

Wednesday Room Party Jello Shots!

Mango Sticky Rice
'Sriracha' Pepper with Indonesian Sambal
Coffee with kopi luwak
Durian
Rambutan
Piña Colada with King coconut
Mangosteen Cosmopolitan
One-Day-Late Mardi Gras
Ash Wednesday

The Room Party is Open!

[[ Flying OCD free! Open to all faculty and their guests, who definitely would have received a text invitation at some point! Students will definitely have to try to get through the bouncers, though ]]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

And, of course, as Stark's stylist and temporary borrowed clothes provider this week, the shirt was definitely going to catch her attention as something she was fairly sure she hadn't seen before.

"New shirt?" she asked, sounding and looking fairly impressed, actually, that he would take it upon himself to do a little upgrade for the party.

[stykera]

"It is," Stark informed her, looking hopeful. "Do you like it?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I do," Summer said, with an approving nod and a little bit of a closer inspection, looking him up and down a little. "A little more structured, but still nice and breezy, with an interesting accent to draw the eye. I see you're still pairing it with my shorts, though...A whole new ensemble was a bit too much?"

[stykera]

"In case I ended up the pool," Stark explained. "For the floating jello. I like the lights. Where did you find that?" He gestured over at the floating cooler.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I, uh, portaled out for some errands," said Summer, her attention going to the floating jello in question, to help focus on the successful aspects of the party-supply run of her own worldly excursions that day and less on the clearly very unsuccessful attempts at dragging her boyfriend here for at least this one night because Wednesday Jello Room Party was Important To Her.... "When we were talking about having some of it in the pool last night, I figured it would be a good idea to really incorporate it more. Any party with a pool that doesn't have floaty booze and snacks is not a party with a pool worth having."

[stykera]

"Oh. I forgot about your portal gun," Stark said. "Good idea. It looks good. People should enjoy it. But you set it all up yourself and I could have helped."

You were supposed to be having fun, Summer, not stressing over party details!

"But you did a very nice job. You always do."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It wasn't even that much work," Summer insisted, and, besides, she had needed those party details right now, Stark, because she was desperately trying not to stress out, or worse, be sad and depressed on Wednesday Jello Room Party Night about other things she was refusing to acknowledge right now.

Only in Summer World could eight different jello shots all made from locally sourced ingredients, plus two bonus ones to guilt the Catholics, be considered not that much work.

"But thank you," she gave her head a magnanimous nod in appreciation for him noticing. "I just want everyone to have a good time."

[stykera]

"They will," Stark said. "How could they not? Unless...are there jellos I ought to avoid, tonight?"

He would be happy to help distract Summer (not like that!) if needed. Maybe she could drag him to a spa tomorrow to Aggressively Relax! Or they could go on a very long excursion. Or have some weird conversations. Or a combination of things!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Or maybe destroy a fucking planet? There were options!

"The last one does have activated charcoal in it," Summer warned, "but that's probably the worst one. This spicy pepper one is not fucking around, either, and the coffee in the coffee shot is definitely that coffee that was shit out by adorable jungle critters, so, you know. Fair warning on that one, but it's also, apparently, like, one of the most expensive coffees in the world."

[stykera]

"Coffee that was what?" Stark asked. Surely he hadn't heard that correctly.

"Maybe I won't try one of everything tonight."

Unless someone needed drunken conversation later!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Oh, that just meant he'd have to have more of the ones he did like.

"Shit out by adorable jungle critters," Summer repeated helpfully. "Civets, to be exact, which are kind of like mongooses, apparently? Anyway, they eat the coffee cherries, but they can only partially digest them, so people go around and get the partially digested coffee after they shit it out, clean it, roast it and turn in into actual coffee. It's, like, an actual thing. I'm honestly looking forward to potentially breaking Ignis' brain with that one, later."

[stykera]

"I'm not sure I want to try the coffee," Stark admitted.

Maybe after a few other shots he could be convinced though. But hadn't poor Ignis suffered enough?

"Do you have a favorite for tonight that isn't the coffee? Where should I start?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I really like the mango ones," Summer said with a nod, "and the pepper, and the Mardi Gras, too, even if that one isn't really trip-thematic, it's just really pretty and tasty. So maybe some of those."

[stykera]

"I'll find those ones to start then," Stark said, already reaching for what he was fairly sure was one of the mango varieties. "Did you have a chance to relax at all today? Or were you busy the whole time?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

There was....a pause, as Summer considered just lying and saying that she had relaxed, despite the fact what she wound up getting embroiled in was the exact opposite of relaxing.

"...I plan on doing the relaxing tomorrow," she said, answering the question without really answering it, and then promptly attempting to move on.

"What about you? How did you end up spending the day?"

[stykera]

"I went on another hike, this morning. They took us through the forest and to a village and to another beach. And there was a hand, to stand on and make wishes. Made of reeds, I think. The views there were beautiful. It's all beautiful here."

He paused, smiling faintly. "We're lucky. Getting to be here for a while. But I'm glad you're relaxing tomorrow. Maybe you should go to the spa?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"We are pretty lucky," Summer agreed, with a faint smile back. "And the spa's not a terrible idea, but honestly? I think I just kind of want to pass out on the beach a little, or at least by the pool."

And she was going to try not to think about how she could have been hiking through a beautiful forest, with a beach at the end and a hand made of reeds instead of, you know, coming to an inevitable conclusion that you'd been spending probably months trying to avoid, but that was a little difficult, right now, and she tried, instead, to focus on Stark's experience. At least he'd had a good day, then, right?

"And did you do it?" she wondered. "Stand on the hand and make a wish?"

[stykera]

"I did," Stark confirmed with a nod. "It was right over the ocean."

"And...whatever you do tomorrow, I hope you enjoy it. And if you'd like company you know where to find me."

You know. In their shared bed/room.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer's eyes may have drifted a little toward....yup. Their shared bed/room. That she was supposed to have been sharing with her boyfriend. The one she, as of just a few mere hours ago, she no longer had...

Summer might have needed a moment, before she remembered that she was supposed to be at a party right now.

"I actually might," she said, with a break in the dialogue that was not at all meant to be intentionally misleading for the briefest of seconds before the sentence continued, "need someone to come poke me with a stick after a while, in case I fall asleep and start turning into a roasted tomato in the heat."

[stykera]

No, he hadn't at all been hoping that she was going to say she did want company. It wasn't as if they weren't spending time together already and he hardly had an more claim on her time than anyone else here.

"I wouldn't want you roasting," Stark said. They already had Clare turning into a lobster on this trip!

"But I don't think I'll use a stick."
NOT DIRTY.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Look, Clare was Irish, Summer was a redhead. Lobsterfication was just inevitable!

"Okay, then," she allowed. "Maybe a nice, stiff drink, then."

...speaking of which, she was not doing nearly enough drinking yet tonight, and she went to go fix that, shifting to one of the tables to grab a cosmo shot and one of the bottles of vodka.

[stykera]

Stark was also a redhead (even when he wasn't looking female) but he was an alien and could be forgiven for not burning quite so easily.

"I could offer a stiff drink," he agreed. "Or even food. And maybe water as well."

Or anything else Summer might desire.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"...all of that," Summer said, pouring a little bit (okay, maybe a lot of bit) of vodka into a glass and reaching for some juice to mix it with, "sounds like a pretty good idea, actually."

If she was already starting to feel that post-break-up depression creeping in on her now, during a party, things like general sustenance and hydration were definitely going to be taking a backseat to moping and feeling sorry for herself tomorrow...

[stykera]

"I'll make sure I do that then."

It was only fair, even if Stark didn't know what was going on yet. Summer had been instrumental in getting him through his own issues last year.

"But first, more jello. The ones with the layers are very pretty." He was grabbing one now, in fact.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I still feel kind of bad about those ones," said Summer, wrinkling her nose, and knowing it was kind of stupid, but right now, she was feeling like talking about something just stupid and dumb and inconsequential, and with her proper drink mixed, she now reached for one of those shots with her other hand. "They don't really fit the Indonesia theme, but also I felt I had to still do something for Mardi Gras, you know?"

She actually had no idea how much Stark knew about Mardi Gras, if anything, but it didn't matter, as she threw back the shot and then chased it with a swig of her little mostly-vodka cocktail.