noteful | Birthday Party for Laura/X-23

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Birthday Party for Laura/X-23

It's a pretty low-key party, all things considered, and not significantly different than the one Parker or Meg would have thrown in a dorm room for a friend at home, not-exactly-traditional menu not withstanding.

There's music, low enough to talk over (and maybe with a little more folk in the mix than one expects to find a party). Balloons and streamers in purple and blue and red. A place to leave presents. People to meet or catch up with.

And, most importantly, a chance to wish X-23 (or Laura) a very happy birthday.

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He tries not to look out of place, but even in casual clothes, no mask in sight, he looks like he stumbled in from elsewhere. Parties are not his thing anymore.

Meg's not wildly comfortable with mingling, either, but when your name is on the invitation . . .

"Hi. It's Charlie, right? I'm Meg Ford. I think we met once before."

"Yes. You're the student at McGill, right?" He has a good memory for faces, ironically enough.

"Yes.

"And apparently, we have a mutual friend."

Safe assumption about people you meet at a birthday party -- they know the guest of honor.

Or they're crashing.

"Yes. Laura and I are in more or the less the same line of work. And she's interesting to talk to." If challenging.

"Very interesting.

"She gives me things to think about.

"And she's a very good friend.

"I'm glad so many people came for her birthday."

"I'm glad she has friends who aren't heroes. She seems quite unused to how the world works, and it's good for her meet people who see things differently." Though he suspects that no one sees things like X does.

Meg nods.

"Well, if you want to meet people who see the world differently, Milliways is probably a good place to do that."

"I think that she finds Milliways easier to handle than an apartment in San Francisco, though. He life is weird from the start, and she can handle weird. But having a landlord and neighbors and living with people who can't do what she does? I think that would scare her if she could actually get scared."

"I guess it just depends on what weird means.

"That's one of those words that's always relative, isn't it?"

"I guess. Living in an apartment instead of a secret headquarters might be weird to her."

Meg smiles, slightly.

"I guess that's sort of what I meant when I said she gives me things to think about.

"When I talk to Laura, it's pretty common to wind up stopping to really consider things that I just take for granted.

"Which is good."

"It's more the other way around for me. I seem to have a knack for tossing things her way she never considered before."

"I guess a good conversation can always use a little of both, right?" Meg says, cheerfully.

"Yes. And Laura is surprisingly good at conversation. For a woman who never says more than six words at a time."

"If they're the right six words, that's all you need."

Laura is a good listener. That's the harder part of conversation, anyway, most of the time.

"Are you one of the friends she's taken to see her new place yet?" He's itching to go, but not to push Laura on it.

Meg nods.

"Yes. She took Parker and me. We had a slumber party, last month."

Laura picked her birthday at it.

"It's a very nice apartment."

"Any sense a super-hero with only newly formed connections to reality lives there?" He doesn't know anything about slumber parties.

Meg blinks.

"It feels like a place Laura lives," she says, a little uncertainly.

"Just wondering, is all. She often makes me wonder." His ever-present curiosity has a good outlet with Laura.

Meg nods, slightly.

"It . . . I wouldn't say there was anything about it that stuck me as something I didn't expect to see. I don't know how else to put it."

"Fair enough. I'll have to see about visiting it myself, I guess. Haven't been out that way in a while." Not since he died, certainly.

"Then I hope you'll get a chance to go," Meg says.

She'd never been to California before. Maybe one day she'll go see some part of it other than a friend's apartment.

"It might be nice." Though he does wonder what happened to Natalie Teeger, who was also from San Fran and was interesting in a different way.

"Anyway, I won't keep you. Enjoy the party."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

noteful - 2009-03-02 20:50 (UTC) - Expand

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