fandomtownies | Around the Island; Sunday Afternoon [03/05].

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Around the Island; Sunday Afternoon [03/05].

There'd been a few whispers about it here and there on radio that made Summer feel slightly better about the tight time frame for the party, and, obviously, she'd be sending around a text about it tomorrow morning, but this afternoon, with the help of Stark, she'd be plastering around a few posters in all the usual places (and a few unusual ones, too, because why not?) for that little extra last minute reminder:

~Purim Party at Caritas!~
Starts Monday March 6th at Sundown!

Costumes and Potluck Strongly Encouraged!

But if you're just showing up to drink a whole lot of wine,
then that's fine, too!

Hit up Summer (555-SMMR) with questions!

See you there!

And you know what? As she was putting some of these posters up, she couldn't help but wondering how it seemed that all party posters seemed to magically just disappear shortly after; no one ever seemed to have to take them down again, really, which was pretty convenient, wasn't it?

Hmm.

[[open post is open, especially if you want to catch Summer or Stark in their party-awareness-spreading efforts! ]]

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Maybe the island wlidlife repurposed all of the posters? Maybe some ended up in the town hall or the museum? Who could say.

"Are you wearing a costume?" Stark asked as they walked. "For the party?"

"Oh, definitely," said Summer, with a nod, dutifully plastering a poster to a lamppost that looked like it probably got some good eye-traffic. "It'd be kind of a dick move if I were to be all 'costumes encouraged' and then not show up with one. Besides," and here there may have been a faint grin, that she would firmly deny had anything to do with any texts exchanged yesterday, "you know I love a good excuse to dress up."

"You do," Stark agreed, definitely not thinking about any pictures that had not been deleted yesterday and definitely not wondering if any impressions were made last night.

"Do you have something planned then? I don't really have any costumes. I do have the new mask Amaya made, for my birthday. The black one."

A part of Summer felt like she probably shouldn't say what she was about to say, but an impression had been made, the seal was broken, she was having a party tomorrow, she hadn't been in this good of a mood since getting way too high for class last week, and Stark had pretty much opened the door to this one so wide that she had no choice but to go barreling through it. And there was the added bonus of seeing Stark's response, something that she did not have the benefit of during yesterday's conversation.

"I don't know," she said, oh-so-blithely, "I'm having a little trouble, deciding between a few options..."

Funny how she seemed to be struggling with that so much all of a sudden!

"But a black mask," she added, "could lend itself well to a lot of costumes, I'd think."

Stark glanced over at her, opened his mouth to respond, and then quickly looked back at the posters in his hand.

"What were you thinking of?" he asked finally. "For your options? Maybe I could help?"

That was probably not a wise response. But it was what had come out of his mouth.

"Mmmm..." Summer's thoughtful hum was light and innocent, like such an idea had not even crossed her mind! She grinned over at Stark a little, so maybe it was a good thing he was so interested in all those posters. "Maybe! I could send you some pictures."

And this was not even just an attempt to fill Stark's phone with more shots of Summer proving to be a consummate professional at the most effective selfie angles, it was also to buy herself a little time since she actually did have a costume picked out with certainty, so now she'd have to scrounge through some of her old Halloween costumes to find something else.

Although that Fulgora costume from a few years back alone.

"....again," she added, just in case Stark had forgotten the last time he'd helped her out of a pinch like this.

"You could send pictures," Stark agreed after a pause. Ignore the fact that he swallowed hard before talking. "I don't mind helping. I'm happy to help."

He was going to risk actually looking over at her now. "Was I helpful yesterday?"

He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that. And yet he had asked.

With Stark looking her way, Summer knew she had to make sure to make the most out of whatever eye contact she could manage to snag, even if doing so softened her smile quite a bit.

"You were," she assured him. "Thank you. The pink dress was a smart choice."

"Did you make an impression?"

Stark, no. Why would you ask that? Why?

Why had he asked that? Any softness that had swept in sharpened again with a small smirk and a faint huff of a laugh.

"Oh, yeah," she said, and it was hard not to keep the grin from spreading with that answer, all the while trying to gauge Stark's reaction very closely. "Big time."

Because he wanted to know even though he didn't actually want to know! Totally normal feeling to be had in this totally normal friendship.

"Oh. That's... oh."

He wanted her to be happy and so that was good, right? Even though it was somehow disappointing. His face was almost certainly going through a few expressions now.

"I'm glad I could help then." Even if glad wasn't the right word.

And Summer, lower lip now caught between her teeth, tried to categorize and identify and interpret those shifts in Stark's expression, with maybe the slightest sigh when she'd mostly gotten through them.

She almost wanted to challenge him on that. Like, was he? Was he really glad? Really? But it also felt like something to put into her pocket, for now, for maybe later.

"So, obviously," she said, turning her attention now toward marring some poor tree with her posters, "I know I can trust you to steer me well on this costume thing, too."

"Are you trying to make an impression tomorrow, too?"

Stark wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that, either. And yet.

"I'll try to help again. And... maybe you could help me find something?"

Except he wasn't going to send pictures.

"I am your stylist," Summer noted, looking over her shoulder at Stark with a grin. "That probably makes me the most qualified to help."

And, also, leaping on that now made it easier to avoid answering that first question, because she honestly wasn't sure what the answer to that one would be. Random hookups off-island had that nice comfortable cushion of distance and impressionability. Little hard to pull something like that, on an island where you could barely turn around without running into someone.

And yet...

"Is there any kind of costume you think you might like to do?"

"You are my stylist," Stark confirmed, nodding. "You haven't given bad advice yet."

For fashion or anything else, really.

"I don't know about costumes. When I dressed up for Halloween we all turned into things and I don't want to be singing and losing my mask again."

Even though he had backups now! Including the one fancy one that had only been worn once and was banished to the back of his closet.

"I'm not good at costumes." Lack of opportunity might have something to do with that.

He wasn't going to press about the first question. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know, anyway. And it wasn't his concern.

Or anything else, Stark? Really? Do we need to mention the shrimp?

"Well," Summer offered thoughtfully, "you could try and take inspiration from the holiday itself. That's what one of my costumes--" Well, the costume she was planning on going with, before she was so suddenly struck with indecision and all, "--did. It's a celebration of this Jewish queen who stood up to some asshole trying to kill all the Jews, so that's what I was going to possibly"--a very important possibly, obviously-- "dress up as. A queen."

Did advocating for shrimp in inappropriate dishes count as advice though?

"I don't think I would make a very good queen," Stark said, offering a small grin. Or maybe he would. He'd never tried that out.

"I think you would though."

That was fair; Summer did actually advocate against her own shrimp, in most cases.

"Oh, I know I would," she said confidently. "I have empirical evidence."

Well, as an god-empress (which meant it was a shame that excellent pun was going completely overlooked right now) and a warlord, but same difference, right?

"But now that you've said that," she admitted, "it's going to be hard to get Queen Stark out of my head now, not gonna lie."

"You've been a queen before?" Stark asked curiously. This was not at all surprising but it was interesting. Why wouldn't Summer have been a queen?

"What would your Queen Stark have to wear?"

There was no way this conversation could go wrong, right?

"Prom queen," Summer informed him, pulling herself up proudly, while the narrative was very upset over having forgotten clearly the most important title in that respect of all. "But I've also been a High Priestess, a warlord, and a god-empress. I think those all sort of fit nicely and neatly under the general umbrella of queendom, really.

"And you'd have to have a crown, obviously," she decided. "I think that would be the most important part, maybe a scepter. And then, of course, the next thought would clearly be a big fancy dress, but then you're just walking the thin line between subverting expectations and cheap gendered stereotypes, so the key factor would be making sure to do it in earnest, but, hey, I mean, if Harry Styles can pull it off, I'm sure you could, too."

Edited 2023-03-05 18:47 (UTC)

"So many titles," Stark said. "I had no idea you had been a queen so many times."

But again, he was not at all surprised.

"I'm not sure I would be able to pull off a big fancy dress. Perhaps I'll leave being a queen to you and I'll...I don't know. Do something else."

Edited 2023-03-05 18:58 (UTC)

"You could at least pull off a prince," Summer offered, encouragingly, not about to say king because she liked to keep things somewhat realistic and also if she did end up dressing up as a queen for this thing, that could just be...awkward, especially if she'd been the driving force behind it it.

"Oooh!" Clearly, a thought had struck. "Or Prince! How do you feel about purple?"

Maybe Stark could be a prince consort? For reasons.

"What does purple have to do with princes? And I...I don't have anything purple."

"Well, we'll get you something," Summer said, waving a hand almost dismissively at that, because, like, they were portaling to around to get her supplies after they were done with the posters, right? They could totally hop over to a Party City universe or Spirit Halloween planet*. "And, well, purple has historically been considered a very regal and royal color, but I'm not talking about generic lower-case p princes, but a specific Captail-Letter P Prince."

And thus, the all-knowing phone was extracted from Summer's pocket, and off to the google, where she pulled up a search and then handed the phone over to Stark.

"He was a musician. Old stuff, sure, but that's how you know he's good if even I still know who he is. But he had a distinctive look, and it would be a pretty clever play on the whole royalty thing....if that's the costume I go with."

_________
*Oh, you thought they were all just pop-up stores, huh, and not a weird alien migration pattern across various planets? That's cute.

"I wouldn't mind if we matched."

That was a lie. Stark would be thrilled about it.

"He's interesting," he said as he scrolled a bit on Summer's phone. "Maybe? I don't know. We can look at least. And see if we find anything for me."

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