afraid_of_marshmallows | Entries tagged with who: kamala khan

After everything that had happened this weekend, it was probably no surprise to anybody that Arden had fallen asleep...and then stayed asleep for the next twelve hours. Honestly, she was probably going to sleep for another twelve hours soon, but for right now, she was in a brief lacuna of consciousness. She still hurt pretty much all over, but it wasn't like it had been and for even that much of a reprieve, she was grateful.

She closed her eyes briefly, appreciating the touch of fresh air on her face. The roof, she realized. Somebody had put her on the roof. That was probably the only reason she felt even this good. She was stuck healing human slow, but it would be worse for her if she stayed inside. Let's just hope it didn't rain. But maybe Midnight would make her an overhang or something.

Reaching out to pat Midnight in general appreciation, she was surprised when her hand touched hair, not roof or blanket.

"Huh?" she croaked aloud, and turned to see Kamala, asleep, to her left. She turned the other way to see Cal, reading, with BD-1 on her right. "Hi?"

[That Arden is in bad shape is fine, but as so many other threads today, details NFB. Post limited, an open post will be up in the next day or so; canonically, Cal and Kamala's threads come first, both modded with permission.]

Arden drifted on a sea of pain, weaving in and out of consciousness. She was vaguely aware of voices, of people. They were speaking, but their voices were muffled, their words strung together. It was almost like listening to the chorus of Professor Beaker's meeps. It was too much to try to listen or understand, so she didn't. She just drifted in that place of pain. She was getting colder and every time she tried to drift back towards her friends, it got harder and harder. Every attempt exhausted her further. Maybe she should just stop trying. Maybe it would be easier to just let the pain bring her wherever it was trying to get to. Maybe she should--

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The noise seemed to echo and reverberate through the room. Arden startled herself awake, a sharp cry dragged from her at the pain of her body's abrupt twisting. For a second, she longed for the peace in the drifting pain sea, but pushed that thought away.

( Give me your hand/So I can tell you/Things will be alright )
( In a small pocket of time )
( Back in the present )

[Warning for trauma, extreme injury, depiction of abuse to a minor, and blood. Please know that in Cal's telemetry thread ("In a Small Pocket of Time"), there are descriptions of on-screen physical abuse. This whole but can be avoided by clicking the link at the end of the section, or clicking on the "Back in the Present" cut tag.

Once again, preplayed with the terrific

hasaknightjob,

moreofaponchoguy,

pocketpretzels, and

slothbabyproductions and

not_montalban! Radio is free to mention some kind of disturbance, but all details NFB please.]

Friday, after her "talk" with Callista, Arden had stumbled home, already feeling feverish and a little woozy. Midnight had been concerned and had made it easier for her to ascend the stairs, opening her door for her and everything, and Arden had taken a moment to pat the doorjamb and say, around a tongue that already felt thick and clumsy inside her mouth, "You're a good house, Midnight. S'okay. I'm okay. Just lock my door, wouldja?" before pretty much collapsing on her bed.

( And she hadn't been outside her room since. )

[Warning for trauma, extreme injury, discussion of past abuse, and just a whole slew of other unpleasant things. Preplayed with the fantastic

hasaknightjob,

moreofaponchoguy,

pocketpretzels, and Gum pulling triple duty as

slothbabyproductions,

single_man_tear, and

not_montalban! Radio is free to vaguely mention a disturbance, but all details NFB please.]

As far as Cal was aware, Arden had set this whole thing up to celebrate his win in paintball. After remembering the All-Purpose room existed and getting permission from Steven to use it, Arden had programmed in a decent-sized mountain for them to climb. If her side had a lot more hand- and footholds than Cal Climbing-Would-Be-My-Middle-Name Kestis' had, well...sometimes mountains grew that way. Or whatever. Hush.

Of course, what Cal didn't know was that while Arden was keeping him busy with a climb, BD-1 (the true architect of this party) and Kamala were busy setting up everything for the party proper. The top of the mountain turned into a beautiful landscape dominated by verdant trees so big there were houses built into them, with mountains shrouded in mist far in the distance, dominated by a tree even larger still. Arden had been very glad that BD-1 was able to communicate with Midnight, too; he'd had a very specific idea of how Kashyyyk was supposed to look and there was no way that she could have translated binary well enough to have pulled it off. Of course, beautiful alien vista or not, this was an Earth birthday party and some things were absolutely required. So there were a bunch of ~~moddable~~ pizzas (including two vegan, and several with very spicy toppings), soda, bowls of chips and popcorn, a fruit and a veggie platter, and, the centerpiece of it all: a chocolate and pistachio ice cream cake from Chilly Boulder with HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY CAL! written on it.

And probably red Squishies, because Kamala had been deputized for setup.

Welcome to Keshyyyk, everybody. Hope you brought your party hats.

[Friends, neighbors, frenemies, and especially GFFA folks, please feel free to assume you've gotten an invitation emailed, texted, sent via droid and/or carrier pigeon...whatever! However it got to you, please show up and help Cal celebrate his twenty-first birthday in style!]

As soon as Kamala had turned back into a person yesterday, Arden and Eleanor had swung into action. Arden had contacted Mr. and Mrs. Khan to let them know that Operation Birthday Bash was a go and about what time she'd be by to pick up the cake, and then called Mr. Najaf to see if he would be willing to cook up a whole slew of gyros (including some vegan gyros in case Steven or Watts showed up) for Kamala's birthday the next day. She also messaged Bruno and asked Mr. and Mrs. Khan if they could pass the invitation on to Nakia, letting them know about the party and offering to arrange portal service if they could make it out. After that had come ~~handwavily~~ messaging everybody else to let them know that they were celebrating Kamala's belated birthday at Midnight Manor on Saturday evening.

And lo, now it was the appointed hour. Ellie was keeping Kamala distracted upstairs (Arden was not asking how), and she was here setting out drinks (sodas, though Mr. Khan had sent Arden home with a jug of 'sweet tea,' which she had been very appreciative of and had appreciatively poured down the drain once she'd gotten home), gyros, and setting out Mrs. Khan's cake, leaving a spot in case Ellie had somehow managed to find or invent a Squishie cake. Bollywood movies were playing on the TV (though currently with the volume very low), there was a karaoke machine on standby, balloons and streamers were up, the guests ~~Avengers~~ assembled...

Now all they needed was the co-host and the birthday girl!

[Open! If you're a student, a resident of Midnight Manor, or just think Kamala is cool, feel free to handwave yourself an invite!]

Okay, sure. Arden didn't know much more than what TV said about throwing movie nights, but surely she had the gist. Many ~~moddable~~ pizzas and sodas had been ordered from Pizza Planet - look, Arden loved sweet tea, but even she knew soda was necessary for movie nights. A truly disturbing number of bags of popcorn had been popped and put into bowls and a quick stop at T&C had been made to grab a couple of different popcorn seasonings in case people wanted to experiment with popcorn flavors.

All that was left was to wait for people to show up. She'd texted both Kamala and Cal in full capslock mode about the glory of this movie, and then had ~~handwavily~~ tried to contact as many other residents as possible to tell them about the movie night - texts, email, sign on the door, whatever. Sure, nobody had to come, but she at least wanted to make sure everyone knew they were welcome. She'd also invited Steven and Watts (while double checking that, yes, it really was okay to move furniture around the living room and also eat in there) and had made sure to get a few bags of unbuttered popcorn just for them. Did she think the butter flavoring had any actual dairy in it? No. But she was gonna be careful all the same.

Now she was just pushing the furniture around to make sure that every possible seat had a good view of the incredibly large TV and was in reaching distance of a bowl of popcorn and places to put their cups of soda and plates of pizza down. Midnight Movie Night was about to begin, showcasing the absolute work of art and cultural tour de force that 2 Fast and 2 Family 4 Oceans, the fifteenth 2 Fast 2 Family sequel that was also a prequel to the Oceans Edge series.

This was gonna be great.

[Open to all Midnight Manor Boarding House residents!]

Sometimes those crazy spur-of-the-moment ideas just happened to work out in your favor. Arden wanted a tattoo. Charlie knew plenty of tattoo artists in Baltimore. Have Fun Be Lucky Studio was highly rated and the artist whose work Arden thought was compatible with her style had actually had a cancellation that afternoon and it was supposed to be a very long session, so the gap in her schedule would very much fit in a consultation and the tattoo itself and still give the artist some time to relax in between appointments and that made her happy enough to offer Arden a First Time Tattoo discount.

It was almost like there was some grand force out there making things fall into place so she could get this tattoo. Weird.

And so, an hour or two after Shenanigans had finally wrapped, she was here in Baltimore, trying not to look super nervous, holding the rough design she'd come up with in one hand.

"...This isn't a stupid decision, right?" she checked with her friends.

[For the superhero and the wild one, please! And NFB for distance!]