metalogs | [OPEN] Maybe not a literal monster mash

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[OPEN] Maybe not a literal monster mash

Who: Jason Todd

robintohood and you. Also a mingle!
What: Various antics at Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge during October
When: Throughout October
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A for now. Will edit if needed.

[There may be some changes to the timeline now but Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge is still open for business. There are always people looking to have a good time drinking and blowing off some steam with a good song. It doesn’t matter if they’re ordinary civilians or some of Central City’s more... colorful characters. Just be nice to the bouncers and check your weapons by the entrance first.

To reflect the fall season, Descendant has included seasonal drinks like pumpkin beer, apple cocktails, and spiced maple bourbon.

Meanwhile, some of this month's most popular songs seem to be reflecting Halloween, such as Highway to Hell and Monsters. Or maybe you want to do a more classy number like Witchcraft? Descendant looks like a speakeasy after all. And in a total coincidence, Time Warp has also shown up on the popularity chart.

If you drop by at Descendant on a Coyote Ugly Night, you’ll find the atmosphere considerably wilder and wetter. You might’ve even already seen some of the social media posts and videos of the employees performing. They certainly look like they’re having a good time.

Perhaps you’re coming in during a more normal time. Come by for a drink. Maybe rent a private karaoke room or karaoke on stage in front of others if you’re feeling brave. There are some bar games around too.

You can always just people watch as well. Those who are especially observant might notice that some of Descendant’s customers are a bit... furtive as they keep their heads low or quickly scurry to one of the private rooms.

There’s always the reading room too for those who want a more quiet ambiance.

And then there's the very select few who are allowed upstairs in the attic apartment.

Whatever the case may be, Jason will be around. As Descendant’s owner, he’s a busy guy with plenty he has to do]

((OOC: Jason will be around but feel free to mingle! My contact information is on this journal's profile and I'm in the game's Discord server. Also feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns as well. I also have a feedback post.))

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🅲🅾🆈🅾🆃🅴 🆄🅶🅻🆈
→ ᴀᴋᴀ ʜᴇʏ ʟᴏᴏᴋꜱ ɪᴛꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɢɪʀʟ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ

Jean lived on Krakoa—with its nightly, dusk-to-dawn, screaming concert, body's swirling rager—long enough to know the buzz of a coming party as it zips through the conversations of people around her as well as the snatches of stray, passing thoughts that aren't entirely blocked out, so Jean brings herself on down to the Descendants Karakoa Bar on "Coyote Ugly" night.

She'd say she's surprised, but it'd be a lie and a disservice to Dazzler and Cheney. Jean doesn't avoid sitting in the splash zone, but if any water goes flicking her direction, there's a faint fizzle of pink-orange in the air that appears about half a foot from her and redirects it toward the floor. (She never happens to look toward it as it happens, either.)

Two seats are waiting for two of her friends at her table, and she has a cocktail in hand as she watches the dancers. The drink is Barbie pink, with a darker pink swizzle straw (did the bar have the latter? No? Gosh, crazy how that happened). Her whole life is a zoo, but she doesn't live under a rock. New York had movie theatres everywhere, and she hadn't missed out on the movie event of the year any more than anyone else.

Now, all she has to do is wait for her company.

Jason is wearing a tight white wet tank top and tight pants as he alternates between performing on the bar, taking orders, and walking around with a jar to collect extra tips from customers. It's when he switches from performing to taking orders that he notices Jean.

He recognizes her from her network post asking for Bruce. He and his brothers had apparently come to an unspoken agreement to play dumb while tracking the comments. Jason hadn't banked on her becoming a customer but this is all for the better. They need to assess who she is. Anyone who knows Bruce and knows the work he does could either be an ally or a dangerous foe. She also might already know about his family and that's something they have to keep track of.

He walks over to Jean, unashamed that he's still wet from his performance. He also mentally notes the straw that definitely didn't come from Descendant's inventory.

"Hey, can I get you anything?" He asks with a smile.

Jean doesn't pay much attention to the tight, soaked clothes. Between the life of Bobby underfoot since her mid-teens and the plethora of very beautiful, often since Krakoa sometimes very unclothed, people that covers so very many on Krakoa, even if he weren't basically still a child, it wouldn't stand out much.

She still wants to offer him a towel she doesn't have, and that's very her, too.

The smile is flawless, but the frisson of seriousness that emanates from deep, down behind it isn't. It could be anything, though, and so Jean smiles back easily. "Do you have a food menu, too? I'm waiting on friends, but starting to feel a little like I could eat, and ordering a round of apps they could arrive to probably wouldn't go amiss either."

"Yeah, sure. One moment," Jason says, still smiling and ignorant of Jean's psychic abilities. It just takes a couple of minutes before he comes back with three food menus.

"Here you go. You in the mood for anything in particular?"

He's also wondering if her friends also know about Bruce.

There's the whisper of that name. One of a handful of things her mind is triggered toward in this world of billions. Anywhere. Everywhere. Anyone. Everyone. The whole planet over. (Not beyond it this time, but only because there hasn't been a reason to let her presence and powers stretch that far here.) It's not the first time she's heard it. But it's the first time it's been someone right in front of her. Even when she wasn't overtly listening specifically.

Her eyes don't narrow, her expression doesn't change,
but her focus sharpens a little, speculatively considering the boy.

"For the moment, definitely cheese sticks for me." It's been forever. "Or something fried, but not too greasy. It's been a whole, but bars and dives call for bars and dive food." A beat, looking down at the menu she was holding, skimming words. "Maybe a sampler or two for the girls, so they have options once they get here, too?"

Jason maintains his friendly customer-friendly mannerisms while still assessing what the situation could turn into.

"Sure. We can do mozzarella sticks and fries to get you all started," he says. "I'll throw in stuffed mushrooms too so it's not all fried carbs. How many of your friends are you waiting for?"

"Just two." Jean makes a decision,
one among many in the options.

"Carol and Ororo. They've both been here a lot longer than me this time." Transparency is an easier wager, even when it's laced with more. "The last time I was here, this wasn't here, but the place looks like it's thriving well, and the community has come out in force to love it."

A beat and the wry twist of a smirk.

"Or at least these specific nights. Congratulations."

Jason laughs, knowing Jean means the Coyote Ugly Nights.

"Thanks," he says. "It'd be waste to dance and get soaked wearing too tight clothes if the customers didn't like it. We've been at it for a while now."

And it's paid off nicely every time so far. The whole family has been benefiting with the extra income. Vigilante equipment like theirs don't come cheap.

"How long since you've been back?" he then asks.

"A year and some change, all told." It's an easy admission.

"Which would be less strange if it weren't for all of time changing on this planet just two days before I was the only person to appear in this first new Confluence since." Irony. A sign. It's hard to tell. That voice calling to her. Come find me in Sunset Falls... still trailing in loops at the edges of her thoughts, too.

"The first round twice. I can't say what I think of not being one of many this time yet."

Jason furrows his brow a little as he takes in Jean's words.

"It must feel pretty weird. A lot of new changes to take in this time?" He asks, keeping his voice light and his curiosity seemingly casual.

"Not as many as you'd think."

For anyone else, the answer would assuredly be yes. But Jean Grey was never and would never be an 'anyone else,' and time liked her a little too much sometimes. This was nothing like being thrown into the far future twice right after her wedding. This was nothing like being thrown hundreds-then-billions of years forward into an evil future that had to be unwritten.

Before even touching being thrown back,
whether inside or outside of the omniverse at the time.

Politely. "Is it for you? After all, you were right here on both sides of the change."

Jason hadn't anticipate the conversation going in that direction so quickly. His cover is that of an ordinary civilian who just owns a bar. He purposely shifts his expression to that of surprise and mild confusion. He can't show his cards already.

"What do you mean? I've been in Central the whole time," he asks, pretending to misunderstand.

Jean gives a gentle hum, nonchalant in note, first. Not apologetic, but thoughtful. About how his take is all too cavalier and unconcerned about what frisson should touch it, if of the assumed. She remembers all too well what Frances said. About who remembered (and who could not) and the coinciding factor between the two, how much weaker and less consistent it was each step away from the Guild Leaders themselves.

"And do you remember the time before this one? Before the change?"

Jason's quick to mentally calculate how he should answer that. Jean clearly knows a lot more than he does. Maybe something in his body language gave more away than he wanted. Cass's ability to read body language was almost telepathic.

Ah... or is that what's happening now? A metahuman with psychic powers is certainly not too farfetched back home or here, especially now that there's been a massive spike in the metahuman population.

"It's not something I broadcast," Jason admits. On the surface level, his customer-friendly mannerisms remain but he recognizes that he has to be more careful. "Not something most people need to know."

The topic shifts, divulges, said without being said.
"You don't need to worry that I'll say anything."

There's no apology to it still—one does not ask the wind to apologize for blowing, and too much of her world has wanted mutants to apologize for everything from the moment the spark of life brought them into existence—but there is quiet, honest amendment in it. "I truly am only here to see my friends."

She is better at reading people than most—both because of her powers and in ways that have nothing to do with her powers, and instead who she is and how she chooses to embrace the world and all people within it—but she hasn't attempted to dig into him. Not even passively. "And I do hope the time change hasn't affected your establishment much. It really can be a capricious type of thing."

Jean could not reliably say the timelines have finished their weaving and rewriting yet.

Instead, apropos of maybe offering the hand of a second new start. "I'm Jean."

Jason takes Jean's hand and shakes it, pretending to look relieved. He's still trying to get a better read on her.

"Name's Jay," He replies. "And I'm glad you're visiting."

That part is true at least. Jason doesn't know all of the people the previous Bruce associated with.

Jean smiles, a warm flutter of transparent pleasure, at the shake.

"Me, too. It's been a while, either side, since I've had a night off."

Over a year since they moved to The Treehouse, leaving behind the quiet of The Summer House and the raucousness of Krakoa both. Neither ever more than the gateway in The Treehouse away, but it was also different. Back into the belly of the beast in so many ways. Not a place for much rest, in very different other ways.

"When did this place happen?"

"Almost a year ago back in November," Jason says. There's no use hiding that piece of information. It's easy enough for anyone to find out just through social media. "It's not easy running this place but it's good to see how much people have been really enjoying it."

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heartofthedream - 2023-10-09 03:55 (UTC) - Expand

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Carol hasn't "gone out" in a long time. The last time she was being dragged out by the girls and teleported to a club in Las Vegas for the with her sisters. It's hard not to think about both of them on days like this but she puts on a sparkly dress and heals and makes her way to this bar that Jean and Ororo had told her about.

It doesn't take long to see Jean at a table and she waves to her before dropping by the bar and ordering a tonic water with lime. She sizes up the establishment, a bad habit unable to stop assessing any threats near by before she slides in to the empty chair by Jean, who looks drop dead gorgeous as always.

"You know, it's really not fair, you got to give someone else a chance to be the hottest person in a room sometime, Jean."

Jean had shown up a little early, so she had her drink and even a few plates & baskets of bar fare appetizers on the table now, too. She'd been a little hungry and thought Carol and Ororo might also enjoy the options piping hot and ready when they arrived. Jean stood up, leaving her drink on the table, with the curve of a smirk at Carol's compliment and teasing.

"As though you aren't a vision, yourself." She took a few steps to hug Carol and place a kiss on her cheek. Stepping back and letting her hand rest on the back of her chair, ready to return to it only if-when Carol was ready to sit, Jean's expression had turned softer, fond, and open. "It has been far too long since we bumped into each other, and for something not work-related, perish trying to think up the when."

Ororo steps inside not long after Carol does, already projecting her apologies to Jean for keeping her waiting. They hadn't arrived together, but she suspects what kept them away was probably something of similar nature (there was always some sort of trouble, somewhere, that they couldn't help but help with.)

Still, Ororo has come a long way from the woman who Jean once taught how to shop. She's also been to more scandalous clubs than this, no thanks to Alison and Yukio. So she makes sure she's dressed appropriately when she arrives, and it's with ease that she weaves through the people in absurdly high pumps to find her friends. She catches the tail end of their conversation when she finally gets there, and it makes her smile turn wry.

"It's not as if we are all regularly on the same planet, Jean. That makes planning a night out just a little more complicated, I think." She sets her own dark bottle of beer on the table when she's close enough, makes sure to dole out customary hugs before taking her seat. "I'm glad you chose this place, however. There is alcohol on Arakko, but no one knows the songs I prefer for karaoke."

When Carol hugs Jean she thinks about the thoughts of their time together. The fact that just before arriving here she'd just seen Jean. It makes her think of timing, of whatever place she is and makes a note to ask in the future to figure all that shit out.

She slides into the chair as she watches Ororo show up smiling up at the two of them hugging. Of course she's been seeing her since she got here.

"Hey to you too gorgeous," she says playfully, because what is girls night without a little bit of flattery to everyone going around.

Jean quickly waves off the apologies with little more than the curve of her mouth; simple, unfettered pleasure that Ororo is here and they get to have some downtime together. Friends in one place, without an emergency to make it so rare and cherished.

There's no such thing as being late in those circumstances.

"We'll have to get up there and do it again." A look to Carol after, too. "You up for some karaoke, too?"

"Also. These—" Jean says, gesturing to several different types of sampler plates scattered across the table, only one or two of anything tried, showing she's been nibbling at them. A little bit of this and that going down their bar menu appetizers assortment. "—are for everyone."

Ororo turns interested eyes over to Carol. She is a good friend, but not one she's really gone out with for a casual get-together. Not in years, and not for something like a Coyote Ugly night.

"You must. Join us for a song or two, that is." She taps Carol's drink with her bottle, regardless of its alcohol content. "Preferably before I have too many of these, so that we will sound somewhat decent."

She has a surprisingly high tolerance though - drinking with Logan over the years, and especially recently, had certainly made sure of that.

"What are you in the mood for?" Jean would already have an inkling, of course. Ororo only ever sings soul, or power ballads. And when she's had at least two beers, for additional conviction.

When Jean motions to the plate of fried food Carol is suddenly much more hungry then she expected and snags a cheese stick chomping on it in a very un-ladylike fashion as she looks over at the other two.

"Me? Attempt karaoke... I don't know, I think I'm more of a cheerleader who will clap loudly after the show," she says with a grin leaning in on an elbow to watch the other two.

"I'm even ready to start a fan club for whatever the new band name the two of you are going with," she adds just to really drive the point home.

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[OPEN] Maybe not a literal monster mash

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Trio Girls Thread! Toss Ororo in whenever you get to this, too! <3

late to the party!!

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Ah!! I forgot to follow for 3! Better tracked now!

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