Kill A Man (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oooooh!" said Mark. "That's pretty! You should be a street performer! You could act like it's some clever smoke machine doing all the work. You could do it in between cleaning up the streets of criminal scum!" With anyone else it'd have sounded mocking, but tone shifts like that were part and parcel of dealing with Mark, even while drunk. Maybe especially while drunk. He pointed to Trevor, waved his hand, and said, "Aaa...nah, I was going to suggest something, but you're already doing pretty good. Hey, this one time the other day, when I was messing with my powers, I created life! It was cool. But not as cool as those animals. Can you do one of you and Erin?"

[angrydurf]

As the attention was thankfully drawn away from him once more Mike looked up and watched as Trevor experimented with his work on mist animals. As the liquor fueled psychic on his lap continued to leak calming influence he relaxed from his earlier mortification enough to speak once more. "Those are pretty good you do that before?" he asked curiously it looked as if he had experimented with it at the least.

[Gizmo]

"Not really," Trevor told Mike with a shrug as he attempted a rough simulacrum of a pair of human silhouettes. Unsatisfied with the result, he let out another stream of mist from his mouth, pushing the new cloud up and away to disperse above them. "Had to learn control. When my powers first developed... tended to 'mist' by accident. Inconvenient." That was understating things considerably; he'd been forced to remain home under the pretense on an illness for weeks, and even then there had been a few close calls. Trying again, he managed for a much better pair of figures, though there wasn't much to identify them as being anyone in particular apart from their respective heights. "Tear ducts release nothing but mist now, so that's tricky. Lapse when I'm... distracted."

[Electra]

"I like it," Erin said, reaching out a hand towards the figures but not touching the mist. "They're cool, like looking at shapes in the clouds, except I guess they'd be storm clouds. And they're really close to the ground." She sighed with relief that she'd managed to get out an entire set of ideas without being interrupted by the hiccups. "Who's up next?" she asked Trevor, looking around the tub at their friends.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Me me!" said Mark, drunkenly waving his arm. "I'm full of hilariousness, and also booze!" He was getting a little sloppy by dipping into the champagne, but still was vaguely coherent. "Wow, I don't think we've all ever been drunmk together like this before! Pretty wild, huh? I guess it's the pause that refreshes. Or no wait, that's Coca-Cola. Anyway, I think American drinking laws are dumb now! This stuff isn't so bad, and I don't feel impaired at all. In fact, I bet I could..." He looked out the window, a speculative look in his eye. "No...no, not till after the game," he decided.

[alderwitch]

"Mark is having bad thoughts," Alex shared, likely unnecessarily. She snuggled closer in Mike's lap and rested her cheek against his shoulder, her entire body relaxed against him, "Bad, bad thoughts. And not like the bad thoughts everyone else is having. I mean, like, probably should not use his powers drunk-en-ly."

She over enunciated each syllable, blissfully unaware that her own drunken use of her powers was what was causing all of this in the first place. She tucked her nose against Mike and announced in the same 'sharing facts with the class' tone, "You smell good."

[angrydurf]

Glancing to Mark's pondering s and his drunken imagination likely inflating even marks foolish plans to ludicrous scale he slowly shook his head, "I don't think that's such a good idea." he murmured but relaxed as mark decided to put it off. He Smiled down at Alex as she spoke with a wide grin of amusement at her drunken state that one only gets when also drunk, "Mmm You too." he mumbled before his mind caught up with what he had said and his eyes went wide as he studiously looked at anything but the other people in the room.

[Electra]

Erin yawned, her roommate's intoxicated relaxation and the hot water beginning to catch up with her. "Come on Trevor," she urged, running a damp hand over his hair, leaving it somewhat tousled. "It's your turn again, remember? You gotta truth or dare someone, or we're all gonna fall asleep and Mark's gonna jump out of the plane. Then we'll have to go find him, since Mike and I aren't on the ground to catch him like usual."

[Gizmo]

"Sure a whale or octopus or something would break his fall," Trevor suggested absently as he finished drawing the rear wheel of a motorcycle shaped cloud with his index finger, unconsciously leaning into her fingers. "Best not to test it, though," he agreed, blinking a few times as he willed himself to focus through the telepathically induced lethargy. "Mark, Truth or Dare?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"D-no, Truth!" said Mark, waving his hand. "Everyone thinks I'm too drunk to bubble everybody to Dakana, so I won't do it. I believe in practining safety and ood judgement, thank you! Gimmie the truthiest truth you've got," he said, waving his hand in Trevor's general direction. "I'm not too drunk to teo tell you the thruth about stuff and junk." He nodded, pulling himself up before his head disappeared under the water entirely, waving back and forth as he sat on the edge of the jacuzzi. "Yeah. Lay it on me, baby!" He giggled.

[Gizmo]

"Please don't call me that," Trevor requested calmly. "Ever. Ever ever." He was mildly relieved at Mark's choice; at this point, a dare would have had to have been worded with extreme care to avoid potentially catastrophic reality warping. It occurred to him, however, that given his friend's fragile emotional state of late, his question would have to be chosen with similar care. "Ah, got one. How would you design a line of Young Freedom action figures? Guessing you've considered it."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Aw, I'm sorry," said Mark, instantly apologetic as he looked at Trevor. "I didn't meant o be too friendly. I just, you know, thought that was how people talked to each other when they were buddies. Aw." He rubbed the back of his head and said, "Anyway, I'd probably keep my costume the way it is, because it's fully awesome, and use a standard 3/4 inch stale for their actual construction, I mean, those big toys are nice, but it's a lot more fun to have the little figures that you can stick in your pocket or your bag or inside your costum...er, inside your pocket, and go to town!"

He coughed, scratching his chin, and said, "I'd use Mike's new costume, of course, because oit's FULLY AWESOME! And eeveryone else's ois pretty OK. Maybe juse some kind of inernal fog unit for the Midnight, but that would probably have to go in an attached alley playset or something since it's hard to minaturize those safely." He was wobbling back and forth, as were his words, but his train of thought stayed intact. "Accessoires for eeveryone, like Erin's bat and Mike's new glame cape! And to go with it, a YIKES!" Suddenly, Mark catapulted backwards and fell off the back of the tub and onto the carpeted floor below, his Speedo flying away as his concentration was disrupted and the fabric gave way.

[Electra]

Erin reacted instantly, hoisting herself up to see where her teammate had gone. "Mark, are you o- oh, yuck!" She hastily pushed herself away from the edge, her eyes squeezed shut. "Somebody throw him a towel, guys. I'm sure he didn't crack his head cause he's Mark, but he's totally naked now. Unless you want a look," she offered graciously to Alex, still not daring to open her eyes more than a crack.

[alderwitch]

"Oooh?" Alex stirred herself up before looking up at Mike's face. "No, I'm good."

She focused, pointing one wet hand up at a towel, her face scrunched in concentration as it lurched off of its hook and began to weave its drunken way through the air, vaguely towards Mark, "This is hard. Mark, you might have to make a grab for that cuz... it's kinda like trying to do that thing where you touch your nose and walk in a straight line. I mean, things you can't do drunk."

[angrydurf]

Mike sighed heavily as Mark would place him in the absurd drunken concoction he'd so awkwardly modeled earlier. In his relaxed state he was about he last to react when Mark fell not putting together Alex's questioning comentary until he had already set her aside and stood to pass mark the towel, "You alright?" He asked perhaps more gruffly than he intended at the realization.

[Gizmo]

As Mark went flying, Trevor lightly smacked one hand into his face, a small paff of midnight mist releasing at the collision. "Ngh, team is developing an unsettling pattern of male nudity," he observed, casting his gaze upward as Mike saw to their disrobed friend. "That may be the signal to end the game, yes?" He looked over to the other young men, giving the larger and more conscious of the pair a questioning look, wondering if Mark required any immediate medical attention.

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, I'm good!" Mark sprang up, towel wrapped neatly around his waist, everything luckily having fallen into place. Even his hair was looking slicked-back and neat, no small feat with his crew cut. "A little bump on the noggin never actually hurt anyone," he said with a breezy wave, looking unruffled by his recent flashing of the entire team. "I fall off things all the time and nothing bad happens. Heck, I think it sobered me up!" It normally didn't work that way, but this was Mark. "If you guys wanna keep going, I'm totally good. Hey Erin, truth or dare?" asked Mark, ducking behind a table to pull a spare pair of boxer shorts on. "You're up, or at least I think you are."

[alderwitch]

Alex was drowsing at this point, cuddling back into Mike's lap once things had settled back down and Mark was obviously unharmed. Which was a rather lucky thing since if floating a towel was that hard, she should probably not be trying to heal anyone. She tucked her cheek against Mike's shoulder, one arm looped over his broad shoulders, half drowsing as the game played on.

[Electra]

Erin had been about to agree that she was bored with the game, but being the focus of attention again was enough to interest her for a few more moments. Especially since Mark wasn't naked anymore and she wasn't going to have to flee the area. She yawned and leaned against Trevor, partly because Alex looked so comfortable that way. The warm water really was soporific, especially with the effects of drunkenness-by-proxy. "Dare," she told Mark confidently. "Gimme your best shot."

[angrydurf]

Mike settled back down into the steaming water pulling Alex back on to his lap with a contented sigh as it was clear Mark was as expected unhurt. Leaning back he regarded the continuing game with a lazy half lidded stare happy not to be the center of attention. He tucked one arm around Alexs waist and looked to Mark to see what his unique outlook produced this time.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark studied Erin, looking from her to Trevor, a truly evil look in his eye, before his innate good nature won out. There was no reason to embarrass Trevor when it wasn't his turn to be dared, after all. That was for the person getting dared! "All right...for the next five minutes, after everything you say, add 'in bed.' Just like eating a fortune cookie!" He added brightly. "Or is that too dirty?" he asked, suddenly unsure, looking at Erin for her reaction. "I did that once when I was playing truth or dare over Christmas, but that might be dirty."

[Electra]

Erin considered Mark's dare for a moment, cocking her head and studying the reality warper. Finally, she cracked a smile, then mimed zipping her lips and tossing away the slider. If she didn't say anything for five minutes, she didn't have to add the rider on either. And especially in her artificially relaxed state, it wasn't at all difficult to think of what else she could do to entertain herself for five minutes. Turning to Trevor, she raised an inquisitive eyebrow, then went in for the kiss.

[Gizmo]

Trevor raised an eyebrow to match Erin's expression, immediately catching onto her intent and smiling faintly, one hand sliding around her back and under damp auburn hair as he responded in kind. The display of lateral thinking elicited a soft, gravely rumble in the back of his throat as he closed his discoloured eyes and leaned closer, remaining only aware enough of the others in the room to use his free hand to give Mark a brief thumbs up of approval before resting in on the small of Erin's back.

[alderwitch]

Alex made a sleepy little giggle that turned into a soft snore at the end. She was, by far and away not only the smallest but the most 'normal' by physiological standards. So alcohol not only equaled intoxication but with the hot water, turned into drowsiness and then slumber. Fortunately, for everyone, Alex's projection weakened substantially as the petite telepath slipped quickly into full-on sleep. So while the faint presence of her mind continued to brush against their surface thoughts now and again, she was no longer sharing her own emotional swings or the state of inebriation that she'd reached.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Excellent," said Mark with an approving nod as Trevor and Erin made out. "Yes, yes, I think the two of you have won Truth or Dare!" Still a little wobbly, but for the most part completely sober thanks to the knock on the head, Mark headed over to gather up his clothes. "I suppose we'd better all sober up before we land in Dakana. This is supposed to be one of the fastest jets in the world!" Dramatically, Mark began the process of pulling his costume on. "I'm not as drunk as I thought I was," he said thoughtfully.