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

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 ]]

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"Yeah," Gladio admitted, with a soft sort of laugh and a smile that almost seemed a little surprised by that. "I am. I gotta admit, for all the stink I raise about being stuck on this planet, getting to visit places like this helps to take some of the sting out of it, you know? Hard to be mad, in a place like this..."

"There are much worse places to be stuck. And...yes. I wouldn't mind coming back here. Maybe I ought to take more trips. To warm places."

"Not a big fan of the cold, huh?" Gladio asked.

"No." Stark shook his head. "I'm not. I'd much rather be warm. The snow can be pretty but I'm much happier if I'm not cold."

He'd done a great job staying warm last week, at least.

"Too many bad memories in the cold."

Which was impressive, considering how very few clothes were involved!

To that, though, Gladio couldn't help a soft, sympathetic smile. "Yeah," he said. "I definitely feel you on that one..."

Gladio didn't have much experience with the cold, truth be told, except for Niflheim, and that was more than enough, especially if you wanted to talk about bad fucking memories...

"S'nice here, though. A little humid, but, like you said, better than the alternative."

As long as you kept moving it was easy enough to stay warm under those conditions.

"I don't mind the humidity so much." Of course, Stark also wasn't wearing leather.

"I might feel differently if I had more hair on my head."

Gladio's eyes went toward the top of Stark's head as if to verify that, yup, he was pretty good there, in that department, and then he rolled his eyes up toward his own hairline, giving his head a little bit of a shake, which didn't do much for what was threatened to be plastered on his neck, but his little ponytail did give a good swish.

"It's not that bad," he assured him. "Definitely not bad that I'm not gonna wanna keep the hair on mine."

He hadn't grown out that mullet because he hated having luxurious locks, after all.

"It's easier not letting it grow out," Stark said.

He'd been growing it out at one point but had stopped and never started again.

"But yours is fine, I think."

At least it wasn't very wavy or curly and threatening to take over the world in this humidity.

"You think?" Gladio echoed, with an amused sort of huff.

"I meant in the humidity!"

Stark ducked his head a little.

"It's very good hair."

Very easy to get your hands in which Stark was a fan of.

And Gladio couldn't help grinning just a little bit more at that.

"Thanks," he said. "I think so, too."

Even if he was now wondering about putting it up into a full ponytail, now that he was a bit more aware of the humidity and the sweat and all the clinging to his neck.

"You get a chance to try many of the shots yet?"

"Not all of them yet," Stark said. "A few. Did you? I liked the colorful ones. I think I'll avoid the coffee."

But the sparkly black Ash Wednesday ones looked really neat.

"I kinda like the sticky rice one the most, I think," said Gladio, as he considered it, "but I haven't worked through all of them, myself. There's a lot to pick from, even for Summer."

"There are. She must have been very busy all day."

Stark had no idea just how busy yet.

"But she said she'll relax tomorrow, at least."

"Well, good," said Gladio, with a nod. "She should. I mean, props to her, she does great with all these parties, but also, this is way too much work for a vacation. And this is coming from the guy getting up before sunrise just to run on the beach every morning."

"Her parties are always impressive." Especially, though he was biased, the one she'd put together just for him.

"But now she ought to relax. I hope she will. I promised I'd make sure she doesn't roast in the sun."

See? Gladio didn't even get his own Summer party; the one she threw for him, he had to share with Goose.

Not that he minded, of course; Goose was a pretty good guy, and one of the few people Gladio actually had to look up at to talk to.

"A little sunscreen can go a long way, huh?" he asked. "That's pretty nice of you, though, to help her out like that. I bet it'd be pretty easy to roast out here if you're not careful."

"She brought me here," Stark said with a shrug. "It's little enough to do in exchange and she's my friend. I'm happy to look out for her a little if I can. She's always helping me. And others."

"Yeah," Gladio grunted a soft laugh, looking over to where Summer was at the moment, shamelessly modded to be pouring herself another drink. "She can sure be a lot sometimes, but she's a pretty good egg. And if she keeps it up at the rate she's going, she's probably going to need the extra help when tomorrow hits."

"At least," Stark said, "she doesn't have far to go to our, her, the bed tonight."

"You two sharing...a room, huh?"

Oh, did you think that little word jumble would go unnoticed, Stark?

"She asked me to come on Saturday, when I went to see her for clothes. Barry couldn't come and she had space..."

And they were very good friends!

"She wouldn't let me sleep on the floor."

"Did you....want to sleep on the floor?" Gladio felt he kind of had to ask, now.

"I've slept worse places," Stark said evasively. "And it was meant to be her bed. I wasn't a planned guest, originally."

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

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