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The Fourth of July. A great holiday to be sure, but considering that it's America Chavez's literal birthday, it's one that involves a special occasion. In this case, a bit of a private time set up at the place where other people would likely not suspect.
The roof. Which has a picnic blanket laid out, some Coke bottles on ice, and the sun just dipping into sunset as the shadows start to form… and soon, the fireworks are going to go off. And what better spot could you look at them?
"The fireworks are different out here," America observes quietly, staring out toward the horizon. "I mean, they're- brighter, I guess? But not as many colours." The expression being used is a thoughtful one, and the smaller of the two women frowns faintly as she shifts closer to Carol. "And it's gorgeous."
A coke bottle is snagged from the ice and the dimensional traveller takes a deep breath, settling in on the blanket. "Dimension are weird. Look who I share a name a birthday with…" She She shrugs a little bit.
Carol slips an arm around America as she scoots in and smiles, getting herself a coke bottle out of the ice bucket as well. Then she hmms and clinks her bottle against America's, "Well, this is definitely brighter than Niflheim. But then again, deep space is brighter than Niflheim." She grins over at America, "So the fireworks where you're from have more colors, but not as bright? Huh." She ponders that a bit, tilting her head as she looks up towards the sky.
"Light pollution," America responds with a slow shrug. "if you think NYC is bright now? In sixty years, at least int hat timeline, the stars are completely gone. It's all lit up like the sun is rising all night long in most of the city, just from the light hitting the atmosphere." She gestures with her bottle of coke fbefore taking a swig. "They might even be brighter, but… You know. Relative light density."
Carol wrinkles her nose, "Well, that sounds… actually kind of sad. You always need to be able to see the stars." She shakes her head, looking up towards the stars as they start to peek out. Granted, it's still the city, but it's 1964, so the brightest ones are visible at least. "Gotta keep shooting for something after all." With that, she takes a swig of soda, then smiles a bit, "Still, though… sometime it might be interesting to visit there. Or would my presence totally warp the timeline or something and cause reality to implode?"
"I… don't know if I want to test that?" America responds slowly, tilting herh ead slightly as she does. "We can hop realities but maybe not to ones that are like this one's future without… Um. A lot of people, actually. There are some similarities and then a lot of stuff just isn't there that's here." She shifts her weight from left toright, rowning faintly again. "ANywya, I- don't know if I can get us back to that exact timeline. I think we'd need to search for a similar one on our own." Now America takes another swig of her drink. "But anyway. We'll keep shooting for the stars and we can find out sometime…"
Carol ahs, and rests her head against America's. "Well, I'm not in any rush. Just glad you didn't have to pull us out of the fire… or, well, icebox, in this case." She wrinkles her nose, "I swear these so-called gods trade mortals the way people trade baseball cards." And she doesn't mean that in a nice way, either.
"No reason we need to rush. You don't age all that fast. I have no idea if I do but either way… We got time." America shrugs at this and then takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. She leans her head against Carol's in turn. "Mmm. Do I need to come punch out a God next time, babe?" She asks in an ot quite teasing voice. "Because I'll do it. Wouldn't be the first time."
Carol laughs a bit, "Maybe… apparently Kai is in the clutches of Czernobog. Russian god of nasty shit, or something." She grins over at America, "Don't worry, if you age a little faster, you can just catch up." With that, she plants a kiss on America's cheek, then hmmms, "Though I don't think I'm ever going to live down what I said to Hela." Her eyes roll a bit, as a hint of a blush touches her cheeks.
"…What did you say to Hela?" America asks curiously, shifting her wieght slightly until she is facing Carol on the blanket. She blinks a few times and then focuses her gaze onto Carol, her eyes narrowing. The coke issipped, but she's squeezing the bottle pretty hard, enough tos ee the muscles in her hand flex. She doesn't really move otherwise, however.
Carol blushes again, and looks skyward, "Okay, so I was trying to be flattering, because well, she's dark and evil and terrifying and majestic and all that stuff, so I just went with that line from Fellowship of the Ring. You know, the book?" She grins, "Dark and terrible and beautiful as the storm, etcetera. And then I realized, /oh shit/ I do NOT want her thinking I think that because I certainly do NOT." She laughs a little, "But the look on Loki's face was absolutely priceless when I said it, though."
"You what?" America's eyebrows both loft and she studies Carol's face for a second, tilting her head slightly to the left. She is silent for a second, clutching her bottle of coke. For the record, the two women ae on the roof of the Avengers Mansion laying on a picnic blanket with a bucket of coca-cola beside them and a basket, watching the fireworks. She narrows her eyes slightly.
"As beautiful and terrible as the morning and night, fair as the sea and sun and snow upon the Mountain. Dreadful as the storm and lightning. Strounger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair." America recounts the lines without blinking, pursing her lips.
"You did NOT misquote Fellowship of the Rings to Hela. Opportunity. Wasted."
Down out of the sky, silhouetted against the light and the smoke from the fireworks comes a female figure… right towards the two laying atop the roof of the Avengers Mansion…
… might SOMEONE'S name have been said one too many times?! …since when does Hel wear orange? Oh… that's just Ultragirl, coming in for a landing.
Carol looks worried for a second, then laughs, "Hey! I got the quote right! Er, more or less. I was a little nervous, since, well, in Hel's dining hall under protection of guestright and all that." She grins, "But yeah, I think Tolkien must have watched her when writing that in the book or something." She shivers a bit, "Loki and Thor, they don't scare me. Hell, I punched Loki in the nose. But Hela?" Another shiver, and she leans in against America as a particularly big firework goes off not too far away, about to kiss her…
Which is, of course, when Ultragirl comes in for a landing, which Carol sees quickly and turns her head, "Oh hey, how's it going?" She waves up towards Ultragirl, Carol actually wearing jeans and a buttoned blouse, her sleeves rolled up as she is just chilling on the roof with America, watching fireworks.
"Oh. Hey," America calls, waving as Ultragirl htis the roof. She twists on the blanket, turning her gaze toward the fireworks overheard when Carol does so. The young woman takes a dep breath and then flops all the way to her back, icking her legs.Bare toes are wiggled. She's painted her nails for the holiday, apparently. Though, come to think of it, America is always patriotically dressed. She isn't even from this country. Realities are a funny thing.
"I'd punch out Loki without a second thought," the Latina mutters to herself. "Thor is usually pretty cool, though." She shrugs her shoulders slightly. "What's up, you?" This is asked of Susie, of course.
Susie, in her Ultragirl outfit, stops from completely landing to hover a few feet off the roof. "Uhm… I'm not interrupting anything, am I?", she asks, a blush on her cheeks. She must've caught the motion of the interrupted kiss as she was coming down. "… and … uhm… I was just flying around, watching the fireworks. They look pretty awesome from overhead, too!"
Carol grins, "Nope, not at all. Just figured this was a good perch to watch the fireworks." She waves to Ultragirl, "Must have been pretty intense… how close did you get? When I first got my powers, it was right around the Fourth. Flew up into the middle of a display when it went off. That was interesting." Her head tilts at Susie, "Did you want a Coke? We have a few here."
"Interrupting? Nah. Open roof," America responds reasonably. She takes another swig of her coke. "Want a cupcake?" She gestures toward the picnic basket before having her attention captured by a burst of red in the distance. If Susie investigates she'll find have a dozen red white and blue cupcakes. "I'm glad we didn't have any clouds tonight. I mean, you can still see the stars…. Hmm."
Susie, though hesitantly, finally does actually touch down on the roof. Reaching for a cupcake and a bottle of coke, she says, "I dunno how close I got, but I was close enough that they were REALLY big… and I even got up over the top of it all! It was really awesome… and kinda stinky." The last part is said with a grin as she sits down, crosslegged. "Only clouds I saw were from the fireworks!", she adds with a smile.
Carol laughs, "Well, gunpowder does that Susie." She smiles, "Sounds like a lot of fun… I thought about that, but yeah, gunpowder smell. I'd have to shower immediately after." She then pauses, then sniffs at Susie, before she chuckles, "I don't think anyone else noticed, but it drove me crazy."
"I'd notice," America responds, wrinkling her nose. She finishes her coke and sets the bottle aside, still saring upward as more bursts of colour flash across he sky. Her free hand snakes out, over Carol's hip, and then snagso ne of the cupcakes from the container. It is liftedo ut with the utmost care and conveyedto Aamerica's side. "Six cupcakes, so definitely room for one more person to have two. Welcome to my party." WIth that America goes back to studying the sky. "Going to be too loud tonight to sleep, I bet. When does it usually calm down?"
Susie makes a bit of a surprised face at the mention of smelling so badly that one would need to shower… and sets down her coke to bring the now-free hand up to her nose, sniffing… and sniffing again. "I… guess I've gone nose-blind to it, now! I hadn't realized that I kinda got used to it after a while", she says, before reaching down and using her thumb to pop the top off her bottle of coke — superstrength and a measure of invisibility make a bottle-opener a non-necessity, apparently. "Thanks, but I think I'll only have one. I ate dinner before flying out."
Carol grins, "Well, we definitely have plenty, Susie." She smiles and shakes her head, "Also depends on which way the wind is blowing, if it clings to you or not. Like I said, just sometimes it would happen. Eau de Gunpowder, ooh la la." A wry look, then she takes a drink of Coke, "Sounds like you had a fun time, though."
"That's the thing, really," America observes with a shrug of her shoulders. "Take the other one home? It's a special occasion. Once a year," America Continues. "Sure, they light off fireworks in my honour and all, but…" She grabs another bottle of coke, yanking it from the bucket and then flicking off the cap in much the same way as Susie. "You smell fine. We all smell like gunpowder up here now. Somehow that's alwyas what my birthday smells like."
"Well… sad to say, but it did take a war for America to throw off British rule, right?", Susie says, before taking a big bite from her cupcake, and getting frosting on the tip of her nose in the process — which she doesn't seem to realize is there.
Carol gives America a wry look as she says it's all for her. "You sound just like me when it gets to be Flag Day, hon." She chuckles, and looks over at Susie, "A war, and a lot of French gunpowder, bless 'em all." She raises her Coke in a salute, "Vive la France!" With that toast, she drinks, looking quite comfortable lounging on the roof with America and Susie.
"Okay, fine. No one celebrates my birthday. You don't get a cupcake," America retorts to Carol, shrugging her shoulders slightly as she does. "That's just more for Susie." She wiggles in her spot and takes a sip of her coke. "French gunpowder?" She makes a face at that. "You'll have to tell me exaclty what happened sometime," America mutters quietly to Carol.
"Uhm… I think France supplies the Americans with guns and gunpowder for their war against British rule", Susie says, sipping at her bottle of coke. "Oh no! I need to get going! I forgot I was supposed to do something!", she says, before stuffing the rest of her cupcake into her mouth. "Ffumk oo!", she says, with her mouth full as she starts lifting up off the rooftop, taking her bottle of coke with herself and waving with her free hand — and still unaware of the blue frosting on the tip of her nose.
Carol gives America a wry look, "I celebrate your birthday, you know." And with that, she kisses the woman warmly on the cheek, not particularly caring if Susie is right there. Then she says, "France provided about ninety percent or something of the gunpowder for the Revolutionaries in America. Granted, not out of ideals so much as a way to screwing over Britain, but still."
"Whatever works," America responds in what isn't qutie a dismissive tone. She shrugs and then leans into Carol as Susie is flying away. "It's just kind of weird still. having someone else with my name have my birthday is one thing. But having it be a country? With one hundred million people? Whoever wrote the universe has a weird sense of humour."
Carol laughs softly, "Yeah, I can see where that'd be weird. I always thought it was cool that your birthday was going to be today though. Personally, I'd just embrace the celebrations and have fun with it." She leans back a bit, watching the fireworks go off, "Probably go on until midnight or so, I bet."
America nods at that, closing her eyes. She rests her head on Carol's shoulder as she replies, "I think I've got a lot to enjoy." WIthout elaborating she shiftsherself a little closer, rolling onto her side in order top half rest against the blonde. "Best birthday ever." A beat. "Wonder if we can find some ice cream."
