They had had dinner in Rome, enjoying the marvelous views of the city underneath the hazy night sky. Almost everyone present were at least eighteen years old, allowing them to drink, but even those younger were able to order a glass of wine or some other spirit. Italy's policies on alcohol were a lot more loose than those in the United States. After dinner (and a little too much gelato), they had gone to the Stark Villa. It overlooked the water, with at least eight bedrooms in the house and a private pool.
"Okay, Mare, what's next?" Guin asked, as she unlocked the door and let everyone inside. Mary was the maid of honor, meaning that she was running the party. Carolina, Annie, and Allison were serving as the bridesmaids.
"I'll be honest Guin, did not plan that far ahead. I'm up for suggestions though, not use to this sort of thing at all," Mary responded as she walked in after Guin, looking around the house which was pretty large. She walked over to the couch and picked up a pillow.
"Guessing it pays to be rich sometimes, cause this place is huge... Hey Guin, catch!" she said instantly before she threw the pillow at Guin, and managed to hit her in the face with it.
Allison had never been traveling for pleasure much, but to say she was excited about a trip to Italy to celebrate Guin's wedding was an understatement. She may have drunk a bit too much because she was feeling very fine. So much so she had put her phone away, leaving contact with Oshea out of the question. This was a girl's trip, after all. And damn if they didn't deserve it.
She was curious about what the next thing would be, but Mary had given her an idea.
"Ooooh I have an idea. Let's have a pillow fight! And we can wind down after with a game, maybe. Truth or dare? This isn't a sleepover but its damn near close to one. And I never had a sleepover before." Iris had made no effort to stay sober, though it'd be an exaggeration to call her outright drunk. She was tipsy, which didn't do much to alter the already eccentric girl's personality, only really slightly increasing her tendency to let out thoughts in the form of half-thoughts. A city vacation wasn't exactly her usual cup of tea, but getting to know the girls of the X-Men was heaps of fun, especially if free food and drink was included.
"Oh hell yeah!" She exclaimed when Allison put forth the idea, a big, excited smile dancing on her lips.
"Sleepover-themed bachelorette party sounds dope!" She said, before adding,
"I've only ever had sleepovers with my mom, which isn't as fun as it sounds." Cassandra was pretty surprised that Guin had called her to invite her over for her bachelorette party, she definetly did need to take some time off and relax, and requested the time off. She was also there with her sister Carolina which was also a plus, since they didn't really have much contact aside from a few phone calls here and there. It kind of reminded her of the Christmas party that she and her team had months ago, she laughed a little bit seeing the wanting to start a pillow fight first.
Carolina was excited she was of course going to have as much fun as possible as well, and having her sister there with her to the party was also really nice. She did take a few drinks here and there as well, feeling more relaxed as well she couldn't help but giggle slightly when Mary threw a pillow at Guin and quickly went and grabbed one and hit Mary with it at the back of her head.
"This will be a lot of fun." Antoinette had been enamored with the Italian countryside as soon as they landed. It was absolutely gorgeous here and the people were so friendly. At dinner, Antoinette engaged in a bit of a wine tasting and was feeling as if she were floating on clouds. Her head was buzzing a bit but not so much as to impair her completely. She walked into the Villa behind her friends and trialed her hands over different objects as they all convened in the living room. She had been surprised that she would get be one of Guin's bridesmaids, only thinking she was invited to the party but she was honored all the same.
The pillow fight started and Antoinette grinned before she gathered a couple and threw one at her best friend Carolina before she took the other and took aim on the bride-to-be. No one was safe from a pillow fight.
Guin was at least slightly tipsy, as she picked up the pillow Mary had thrown at her. She had had a few pillow fights at boarding school. Despite what she liked to claim, she hadn't been a
complete loner. She and the other rich girls had done some of the stereotypical sleepover activities, especially towards the end of term.
"I'm gonna kick all of your asses," Guin warned, a smile of pure mischief on her face. She then went at a charge with the pillow, jumping on Mary in an attempt to tackle her
and hit her with a pillow at once.
"Hey rude!" Mary responded to Guin with a bit of a laugh as Guin managed to tackle her. She instantly grabbed another pillow though and swiped at Guin with it, hitting her over the head.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" she added before hitting at Guin again with the pillow, still giggling.
Mira had been fairly quiet regarding everything, watching everyone else first. She wasn't one who typically was used to this sort of thing, it was definitely a bit strange to her. She actually wasn't even too sure what a pillow fight was (having never had one) but she got the idea fairly quickly with people grabbing pillows left and right and throwing them at each other. This was definitely weird, however, she was not one to back down from any sort of fight (no matter how silly) and she instantly grabbed a pillow to defend herself with, as well as deciding to just hit Allison with one of the pillows as well. She couldn't help but smile slightly at this whole situation.
Glad to see everyone jumping on board with her idea, she was about to launch her pillow-pummeling when she was hit anawares by Mira. A grin forming on her face, she turned to her new foe.
"You made a powerful enemy this day," she said in a joking manner as she cocked her pillow like a gun before running forward, swinging her pillow at Mira's head. She'd have to take the powerhouse down first if she had any hopes of gaining the upper hand on Guin, though she was sure Mary could handle her for now.
Iris' grin grew wider as the chaos of the pillow fight ensued. She'd had been in pillow fights before, with her sisters when she was younger, and then occasionally with her mother later on in her teen years. This situation wasn't exactly a mystery to her. The only mystery was what side she'd choose. As Alison brought down a pillow on Mira's head, though, Iris made her decision. She scooped up a thrown pillow up from the ground, speedily walking up behind Alison, slamming her fluffy weapon into the back of the blonde's head. She followed it up by giving Mira a fake salute, saying with a crooked grin,
"I've got you covered, commander!" Carolina turned her head around and faced Annie and started to giggle a bit as Annie hit her on the head with one of the pillows and then swung it as hard as she could at her friend's head.
"Hey, I thought we were friends?" Carolina said teasingly as she went in and hit Annie again on the side with her pillow. Cassandra meanwhile reached over for another pillow and then swung it at her sister as well, which she turned around and faced her.
"Hey, aren't we family so aren't we suppose to be on the same side or something?" Carolina asked jokingly as she went and hit her sister back in retaliation, and Cass went and hit her in the head again.
"Nope, not when it comes to pillow fights." Cassandra said back to her sister jokingly, having had a few pillow fights in the past.
"No one is safe in a pillow fight," Antoinette countered and went in for an attack on Carolina since Guin was well under siege. Antoinette kept her attention on Carolina, adopting the two on one mentality and slipped around to Carolina's unprotected side to attack her from behind. Antoinette smiled and laughed as she attacked her best friend and there were counter attacks. There hadn't been this much pure, childlike join in a long time. For any of them.
"You guys are picking sides? It's every bitch for herself!" Guin announced, laughing. She hit Mary over the head and grabbed a fallen pillow, standing up from the ground as she smirked.
"I'm dual wielding, so I get a +7 attack bonus now, right?" she quipped. She hit Mary again with one pillow and with her other pillow, she hit Iris in the back of head, cackling the entire time.
"Wait! Does anyone want Jell-O shots while we fight? 'Hydration' is important!" "This isn't dungeons and dragons Guin," Mary couldn't help but say in response to Guin as she threw another pillow at her head, not really caring that Guin had asked about Jell-O shots in the meantime.
"You should keep your guard up Guin don't you think? Though I wouldn't be opposed to Jell-O shots, Guin." Mira rolled her eyes slightly at Iris's response, but she giggled when Allison hit her over the head with a pillow.
"Oh really? You better watch yourself," she said instantly as she swung her pillow at Allison again, though she also grabbed another pillow and threw it at Cass, hitting her with it. She was more or less ignoring Guin's question since she wasn't exactly a drinker and was the youngest one there, so it all depended in her mind what everyone else wanted.
Allison felt the hit from both sides, turning to see Iris. She put her hand to her heart,
"Et Tu Brutus??" she said before smiling. Doble-teaming didn't seem allowed as it was every woman for herself. Allison grabbed another pillow, dual-wielding them.
"Jell-O shots sound excellent. But for now...it's war!" She unleashed her pillow-fueled fury, striking Iris and spinning to send a pillow flying at Mira. She held up her remaining pillow as a shield. Who knew who else would be joining the fray?
Iris wasn't surprised by Mira's lack of gratitude. In fact, she'd been half expecting Mira to wack her with a pillow in response to her cheeky comment, but that didn't happen. Her salute put her in a position that wasn't exactly defensive, so when Allison struck, there was no protecting herself. The face full of pillow sent her stumbling back a little bit, and she was gearing to throw her pillow at her assailant, when Guin's words distracted her. She twisted her head around to look at the bachelorette, head tilted.
"The fuck's a Jell-O Shot?" she asked, having never heard of such a thing. She was no stranger to alcohol, but she tended to stick to things that came directly out of a bottle.
"That's totally not fair!" Carolina said pouting as her own sister and best friend started to hit her on both sides with her pillow as she laughed a little bit. She then threw her pillow at Annie's head and quickly snatched Cassandra's pillow and smacked her on the head with it, when Cass turned towards Guin.
"I wouldn't mind some Jell-O shots. Cass said before getting hit again by Carolina.
"It's alcohol mixed with Jell-O which is made in shot glasses. Carolina answered Iris.
Antoinette squealed and abandoned her pillow before she tackled Carolina to the ground and sat on top of her.
"I like Jell-O, so alcohol infused Jell-O shouldn't be bad," she noted. Antoinette hadn't drank much before her time at the school and during the Scarlet Witch world change, she had drank more there as well. Or at least, that Antoinette had memories of drunk infused nights. She didn't mind the warm feeling alcohol gave her but she wasn't a complete fan of it.
"Jello-O shots it is, noble Valkyries!" Guin declared. She threw a pillow at Mary and then one at Allison for good measure, before half stumbling, half running to the kitchen. The household staff had prepped the place for just about everything the partiers could want. Guin eyed the prize and pulled out a tray of Jolly Ranchers flavored Jell-O shots, all made with vodka. She didn't mind the tequila version, but vodka was by far her favorite.
"Cheers!" she said once she had passed a shot to everyone, before downing her blue raspberry wonder.
"Ooh, you know what? Shots and truth or dare sound brilliant... Mary, you start us off then." "I mean, Truth or Dare sounds like fun let me think for a moment..." Mary said, contemplating who she should ask a question. She knew that odds were if she asked Guin, odds were that she would choose the dare (she is a Stark after all and she knew that at times Guin could be a bit reckless). So she was leaning towards asking someone else the question to make things more entertaining. Mary took one of the Jell-O shots, downing the drink as she thought about who to ask. Mira looked at the alcohol, picking up one of the shots and sort of sniffing it, unsure really of what to do with it. Drinking alcohol wasn't something she typically did, but she shrugged somewhat and downed a shot herself.
"Alright then... Carolina, Truth or Dare," she said towards the younger Reed, looking at her.
Carolina laughed a little bit when Annie decided to tackle her to the ground and laid there on her back groaning a little bit, as she looked over at Guin as she decided to switch things up. She smiled when suggesting Jell-O shots with a game of truth or dare, she gently rolled herself off of Annie and grabbed herself one. While Cass went over and grabbed one herself, and they both downed theirs quickly Carolina looked at Mary for a moment.
"Uhm, truth." Carolina said.
"Alright, I'm going to ask a tame one first, leave the weirder probably more embarrassing ones for later. Since knowing at the least how Guin tends to be the questions and dares are going to go really crazy really quickly," Mary said, looking at Carolina.
"Do you have a celebrity crush, and if so who is it?" Carolina looked at Mary for a moment as she thought about who her celebrity crush was, she liked both guys and girls honestly though she liked girls a little bit more.
"If we are talking about celebrities' then Katherine McNamara she's a really cute redhead." Carolina said blushing slightly.
"Guin Truth or Dare?" "Yeah, McNamara is hot," Guin agreed, before smiling widely.
"Dare. Let's fucking do this!" she cheered, downing another Jell-O shot. In some moments, it was easy to forget that Guin had been a drug addict and she spent a portion of her high school experience in a rehab facility. But with her downing Jell-O shots (just two so far) like candy, it was probably a bit easier for people to imagine.
Carolina thought for a moment as she took a quick shot from one of the Jell-O shots as she thought of a question looking over towards the kitchen and smirked a little bit.
"I dare you to dump the kitchen trashcan over yourself." Guin smirked.
"Game." She got up instantly and walked into the kitchen. She didn't really like wearing nice, clean clothes anyways - her favorite pieces were covered in grease from the lab and generally had a million holes in them. Pietro, for some reason, was bothered by those choices. He had started finding the most damaged shirts and shorts and burning them. She opened up the cabinet under the sink and pulled out the trashcan - there wasn't really that much in there. For the most part, it was just the empty powder packets for the Jell-O. There wasn't anything liquid.
Of course, Guin wasn't going to do this on herself in the kitchen - that wasn't bold enough! With a huge smirk on her face, she walked back over to the circle of women and stood in the middle.
"This is the money shot, girls," she said, before turning the trashcan upside down over her head and letting the garbage fall, laughing the entire time.
"Iris - truth or dare?" she asked, still giggling as she threw the trashcan aside. It hit the ground with a soft thud.
Iris was in the middle of laughing at the bride's display when she heard her name. She quickly quieted herself, perking up as if she'd forgotten she was even there until she was addressed. She gave Guin an impish grin.
"Do I look like a truth kind of girl. Dare me, Stark!" she exclaimed. As if to show how ready she was, she slammed back the bright red shot that had been sitting undrunk in her hand since she got it. Her face contorted; she didn't mind the vodka, but the Jolly Rancher flavoring didn't even taste like the fruit it was trying to mimic. Another thing to add to the list of things she hated about the 'civilized' world.
Guin thought for a moment, before she walked back into the kitchen. She reached into the fridge and grabbed the ketchup. Picking out a glass, she filled it up with the red condiment and triumphantly returned, handing it to Iris.
"I dare you to chug this," she challenged.
Iris tilted her head as she looked at the cup of red, an eyebrow raised.
"Uh...what is it?" she asked, gingerly taking the cup from Guin. She didn't wait for an answer, however, instead bringing the cup to her lips and beginning to sip. As she took her first mouthful, she pulled it away from her lips, face twisted up in disgust. To her, it tasted like someone had mixed sugar into melted plastic within a few feet of a tomato. But she brought it back to her lips, drinking down the sludge, though with its consistency, the word slurping would perhaps be more accurate than drinking.
After what felt like forever, she set the glass down. Save for the thin layer of ketchup clinging onto the sides and bottom, it was empty. As soon as it was out of her hands, she snatched up two Jell-O shots and downed them. They weren't pleasant, but they washed out the sickening taste that remained in her mouth. Feeling queasy, she grabbed the trash can Guin had just tossed to the side, holding it between her legs and positioning her head over it in case she needed to puke. She looked up at Guin, and despite the unpleasant experience, she still grinned.
"I'm so downgrading your wedding present," she said, before turning her head towards Antoinette.
"Annie, truth or dare?" Antoinette grinned at Guin tipped the trash can over head, rather tame for dares Antoinette thought but she didn't mind. She was certain they would get more extreme as the night went on. When Iris chose dare, Antoinette watched Guin curiously before she covered her mouth and held back a laugh until Iris started to chug the glass of ketchup. She wiped back tears and patted Iris on the shoulder before the girl questioned her and Antoinette smiled.
"Dare," she said boldly. There would be time fore truth telling and confessions later on in the night.
Iris raised her eyebrows, seemingly both surprised and impressed by Antoinette's choice.
"Oh, fun, gimme a second..." Iris said, pursing her lips and putting a finger inquisitively on her chin. She raised her head from over the trashcan, scanning her surroundings, looking for inspiration. After a few seconds, her lips spread into a wicked grin.
"This is such a beautiful place, truly an elaborate show of wealth. If it's alright with our slightly inebriated but still very gracious host," she nodded towards Guin, impish mischief in her eye,
"I dare you to steal something from the Stark Villa. Something expensive. And keep it as a souvenir, a reminder of this lovely occasion!" Antoinette watched Iris look around the house for inspiration and sat a little straighter, feeling a bit more confident in her task. However, Antoinette should have known that taking longer would mean a more difficult dare. Iris wanted her to steal something from the villa and Antoinette's face paled. She had never stolen anything in her life. Her nose started to twitch and wiggle as she thought the whole ordeal over and looked over at Guin before looking over the Villa herself.
”Is it really stealing though when a Stark is present,” Antoinette asked.
She stood all the same and wandered the villa, looking for something she would find enticing. She found herself a medium statue of an eagle about to take flight from a branch, with its wings spread. It was a pretty standard looking piece. Antoinette detoured to the room she was staying in, grabbing her sketchbook before she returned to the group and quickly made a rough sketch of the statue.
” There, stolen forever,” Antoinette declared and showed Iris the drawing that would last as long as Antoinette cared for it.
” Allison, truth or dare.” Allison had been patiently waiting her turn, quietly excited at the prospect of doing something she had never been able to do before. Being the "weird girl" in school didn't offer many invitations to sleepovers. So when Antionette asked her, she felt very giddy. But that was also probably due to the alcohol. She also let it go that Antoinette technically did the dare, but what was the fun in that?
"I'm feeling risky, so truth. Give me your worst." There weren't too many secrets she held. She considered herself a pretty open person, more or less, especially after everything that happened.
Antoinette smiled at Allison and tapped her chin while she took a minute to think on what to ask Allison. She could have tapped into her intuition to ask the perfect question but what fun would that have been. Antoinette shifted and crossed her legs, moving her sketchbook and smiled.
"If you had an opportunity to leave the X-Men, would you?" The X-Men were a bit like family but it was also dangerous work. If the opportunity arose for any of them, would they leave?
Allison had to give Antoinette credit, it was a hard-hitting question. After all, hadn't she considered leaving before?
"If I had the opportunity now....no, I wouldn't. If you asked past Allison, she would have said yes in a heartbeat. After all, she lost the love of her life, was screamed at, targeted, and ridiculed by the court of public opinion. But it's my family. We are doing good work, even if it isn't appreciated. I can use what I have to help others. Not only that, but I grew as a person and you guys are my family now. So no, I would never leave." Allison felt emotional, so she took a breath before turning to Mira.
"Truth or Dare Mira." Mira was a little bit surprised that someone had turned and asked her the question, and her mind instantly blanked regarding everything. She wasn't really sure what to respond with right off the bat since she wasn't too sure about doing truth or dare for this game all things considering.
"Oh... Uh... Truth?" she finally answered a bit hesitantly.
Allison pondered a moment. Truth or Dare was a way to get juicy secrets out of people or make them do something embarrassing, but Mira never seemed comfortable with the team in general. She worked hard, fought with them, but she never seemed to enjoy herself, unless she was participating in a DnD campaign with Neil and Sara.
"All right. Bypassing all current relationships and interests, if all of the guys or girls were single that are part of the X-men, who would you be interested in. Oh, and you have to pick someone." She had a bit of a deer in the headlights look regarding Allison's question, since in all honesty Mira didn't really have an answer to that question. Her experience regarding dating and even really paying attention to people was virtually non-existent considering until she came to the mansion she kind of was an outcast regarding everything.
"You essentially are asking me to lie by saying that I have to pick someone, but the truth is I would pick no one." Mira answered truthfully, shaking her,
"I've never really been all that into dating or anything... Or really interested in anyone... Okay then, Cass... Truth or Dare?" she asked, looking over at her.
Carolina looked towards Allison for a moment.
"I don't think that is apart of the rules and defeats the purpose of the game, since the answer wouldn't really be the truth." Carolina said towards Allison once Mira answered her question, and looked over towards her sister wondering what she would do. Cassandra turned her attention towards Mira when she addressed her, and thought for a moment, before shrugging slightly.
"I'll go with a dare." Mira thought for a moment, not really sure what to have Cass do, considering the fact that this whole situation was an entirely new thing for her.
"Ummmm..." she started to say, before her mind completely blanked and she ended up looking more of down at the floor, not really sure what to do, so her mind went with the dumbest thing she could possibly think of at this point.
"...Lick the floor," she said with a shrug towards her.
Cassandra looked at Mira and smiled a little bit, at least it wasn't something embarrassing like running around naked, or dumping trash all over yourself.
"Alright then easy enough." Cass said as she got up and moved over towards the tile floor, and got down onto her hands and knees licking the grout between the tiles with her tongue shuddering slightly before getting up, turning her attention towards Mary.
"Mary, truth or dare?" In Mary's opinions, a few of the things that had been said regarding the truths people told was getting a bit ridiculous, though the fact that Iris had asked Annie to steal something was a bit ridiculous. Typically committing a crime was frowned upon with the games, and stealing definitely fell under that category. However her attention was drawn away and she thought for a moment,
"Truth." Cassandra thought for a moment, looking over at Mary as she thought of a question for her, before settling on one.
"Tell us is there anything about your life you would change or wish you could have changed? That definitely was a difficult question for her to answer, all things considering. There were a lot of things that have happened over the course of her lifetime that she probably would have changed if given the chance to.
"Wow, that definitely is a hard one... There are more then a few things that I'd change," she responded slowly, thinking, before her mind went to what Allison had referenced, her being yelled at. Considering the fact that Allison had more or less the fact that Mary had snapped only really once during the course of her leading the team, she thought that was a decent track record.
"Probably the events that happened regarding OMEN... From me snapping from stress to not being able to prevent people getting caught by the organization. That entire situation is something that still bugs me, and I'd change a few things regarding how the entire situation happened and the sort of snowball effect that happened..." Guin had been a bit worried when people went for the negative drama inducing questions - and she had been annoyed when Iris asked Annie to steal something, especially since most of the items in the villa belonged to her late grandparents. The Allison and Mary drama though was something she did
not want to revisit during her bachelorette party. Maybe it was selfish of her, but they just didn't need that right now!
"Sooo everyone let's do a shot!!" Guin exclaimed, handing out Jell-O shots all around.
Psst, things are kinda taking a weird turn here, I might ask you to kidnap me, she whispered to her fiancé through their mental link.
"And yes, this shot is in fact required!" Guin added, before knocking hers back.
Allison fought the urge to dish out what she was being served, but this was Guin's party and it was supposed to be about her. If Mary wanted to act like this, it was her prerogative and one of the reasons Allison felt, at that moment, that they deserved better leadership. Mary has since proved herself to be capable and Allison assumed they had moved on. Clearly, she was wrong.
"Yes, shot please." She took the shot and downed it.
"I needed that." Iris raised her eyebrows, pursing her lips as Mary answered the question. She hadn't been there, and she hadn't really heard much about it, but just from reading the room, it seemed like there was some unsettled grudges that Mary's answer caused to surface. Despite not actually liking the taste of the Jell-O shots, she slammed one back as Guin instructed, hoping doing so would inspire those who actually needed it to follow suit.
"Alright, not sure what that was about, but from now on, how about we avoid asking or answering questions in a way that might cause us to go all Hector versus Achilles on each other, yeah? No reason ruin to ruin the bachelorette party of our blushing bride-to-be. In fact-" Iris said, before putting down the shot glass and digging into the pockets of her leggings. A second later, she pulled out a small bag of marijuana, as well as some rolling papers.
"Why don't I make us a few joints. After all, you can't be angry and stoned at the same time. As a wise woman once said, 'when you're high, you let things fly'," she offered, a tipsy smile on her lips.
Antoinette took her shot as instructed by Guin and took another for good measure. She sighed happily, leaning against her best friend and felt all warm and tingly inside.
"Perhaps we could go for a walk outside, or a late night swim," Antoinette suggested. She was far from ready to go to bed and they had to make sure Guin had fun on this girl's trip. Antoinette stood up, stumbled a little until she got her barrings, then walked over to the stereo to find some good music to play.
Cassandra listened to Mary's answer and nodded slightly towards her there was a lot of things that she wished that she could have changed as well sometimes. But you were pretty much stuck with them once things actually did happen, and leadership was really hard as well to she looked at Guin and nodded as she took a quick shot. Carolina went over and got up for a moment and gave Mary a friendly hug and smiled towards her, in her eyes Mary was a pretty good leader after all, she went back and sat down next to Annie and hugged her friend quickly and smiled.
"A night swim would be really nice." Carolina said.
Guin put an arm around Mary protectively. She grimaced a little bit as Iris offered the pot. Truthfully, she didn't care if other people smoked it, but she didn't trust herself.
"I'm gonna pass on the joint - but I'll bring the Jell-O shot tray to the pool, and some Mike's," she told people with a smile.
"Swimming under the moonlight sounds super fun."