Let's go to Comic-Con!

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A DAY AT COMIC-CON

San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) has been extending an invitation to the X-Men for several years now and they've finally opted to accept (with a little push from Remy LeBeau). How exciting! Time to hop on the Blackbird and head to sunny California to interact with the public.

The team arrives on Thursday evening and settles into the luxurious Rancho Valencia Resort and Spa, giving them plenty of time to unwind, explore the city, hit the beach, or maybe even attend the con on the down-low ahead of the meet-and-greet that will take up most of Saturday.

To the surprise of no one, the San Diego Convention Center has an additional crowd when the team arrives on Saturday: a gathering of anti-mutant protestors lined up and shouting about mutie freaks and the indoctrination of the youth. Some things never change. The head of security informs Kurt Wagner that there have already been multiple false reports trying to send sentinels to the event, but reassures them that they're handling all that. You folks just have a good time! ...And would you mind signing this photo for his kid? She's a big fan.

The hall set aside for the event is massive and filled with excitable fans, many of which are dressed for the occasion in cosplay X-Men uniforms or holding signs expressing their support for the mutant cause, thanking them for past deeds, or proclaiming their favorite members (which run the gamut from simple and sweet to intense and unhinged) or even ships (which are pretty much all unhinged). Remarkably, the event goes off without interruption. No sentinels. No protestors. No aspiring supervillains. It seems that security actually does have things under control!

The event consists of introductions, a Q&A session, a meet-and-greet during which fans can meet them and get their autographs or take pictures with them (at their discretion), and a cosplay contest that Emma Frost is recruited to help judge. It's all a little surreal.

Because of the number of fans, the event runs long and into the evening, but eventually they're able to wrap things up and return to the resort. Good job, team!

MORE VOLUNTEER SLOTS

Remy LeBeau gets the loudest reaction to their introduction. The cheers seem to go on for a solid minute. Who knew they were so popular??

During the meet-and-greet, Scott Summers is approached by a teen that quietly confesses to them that they're a mutant too and that their parents aren't supportive. Do they any advice? How hard is it to run away and join the X-Men?

[Character E] is, hands down, the most frequently cosplayed member of the team! Is this flattering, weird, or a bit of both? There are at least a dozen imitators visible in the audience.

While taking a breather in the restricted back rooms, Kitty Pryde encounters a confused attendee that compliments them on their amazing costume but questions why they'd choose to dress up as that X-Man? They're so lame. Okay, hurtful.

THURSDAY ⮾ FRIDAY ⮾ SATURDAY ⮾ SUNDAY ⮾ OOC

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THURSDAY

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The team arrives in San Diego and settles in at the resort.

THURSDAY NIGHT: Illyana & Rogue

[allhell magik 🖤 illyana rasputin]

"I do not bite, you know," Illyana informs Rogue as she watches her stack every stupid little throw pillow in the room into a divider in the middle of their comically large bed.

FRIDAY

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The team has a whole day to themselves in San Diego! Better make the most of it!

FRIDAY: Illyana & Laura at the zoo

[allhell magik 🖤 illyana rasputin]

Illyana and Laura are observing the grizzly bear exhibit when a small horde of rowdy teenage boys descends nearby. The children immediately begin discussing whether or not they could fight a bear, a topic of conversation which Illyana cannot help but eavesdrop on. At least some of the boys think they could win, and she tosses Laura a skeptical glance like get a load of these guys as they argue about it.

"That is crazy," Illyana says to Laura after the teenagers leave. "How do you think they came to that conclusion?"

FRIDAY NIGHT: Manny & Remy

[blindcut remy lebeau 🃏 gambit]

Everyone's back at the resort for the evening, either hanging out in the pool or out on the patio, and Remy is in a relatively good mood by Remy standards. He's a man of simple pleasures, and staying in a fancy hotel and being treated like a celebrity stokes his ego in a real way. There's also a low-lying anxiety about the event itself tomorrow, which he feels mildly responsible for, which is ever-present but slightly dampened by half a bottle of wine.

This is the energy he brings into the kitchen when he ducks inside to find Manny already in there.

"Hey," he says after taking a moment's pause at the threshold. Remy is exactly self-aware enough to know that Manny finds him irritating, and doesn't often attempt to interact with him. For a second he just makes like he's not going to do anything beside fetch the drinks and snacks he was sent in here for, but then he lingers for a second, clearly working up the nerve to say something else that he knows he probably shouldn't.

"Is she having fun?" he asks, sotto voce, after deliberating on it for a second. It is, to his meager credit, the first time he's ever made an inquiry of this nature to Manny.

FRIDAY NIGHT: Illyana & Warren by the pool

[allhell magik 🖤 illyana rasputin]

As the group hangs out around the villa's private pool on Friday evening, Illyana not-so-discreetly stares at Warren intermittently, observing his wings. Besides the charity gala, she hasn't had much of a chance to interact with him, and knows very little about him at all.

"Are you actually an angel?" she asks eventually as she hangs off the side of the pool near where he's lounging on a pool chair. She doesn't know anything about this, really, but it makes sense to her that if demons are real angels would be too.

FRIDAY: Emma & Open at the beach

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Despite enjoying the beach, Emma is serious about keeping her skin healthy - her bathing suit and cape-like cover-up don't do a ton in the way of sun protection, but she sits beneath an umbrella and has been religious about putting on sun screen. She's just finishing up another application when she sees one of her companions, and after a moment of thought, she tosses the bottle at them without any real warning.

"Put some of that on," she demands.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Kurt & Manny

[blauerdamon kurt wagner ⚔️ nightcrawler]

"Ist das nicht umwerfend?" Kurt is theoretically asking Manuel, but he's looking at anything but him. The fragile glass paneled roof stretches forty feet above them with plants hanging from it, pouring leaves down towards the visitors. Kurt has to consciously stop his tail from swinging back and forth with excitement.

He's not quite himself this afternoon. Blue fur replaced by pale skin, but more recently with a nose that's familiar. A little too big for his features, and a narrow jaw. His hair is black and a bit messy, and the swashbuckling mustache he'd asked for at 19 is gone. Kitty had gone over the photos of him when he had been temporarily "normal," and the results are impressive. He thought maybe it would make the disguise feel like less of a lie. He's not sure yet.

He runs a finger across a large, tropical leaf that dips over onto the path. He's content. Kurt can play to the crowds, but it's nice to have a smaller audience sometimes. "Do you have a favorite plant?"

FRIDAY MORNING: Scott & Emma

[seeingred scott summers ⊗ cyclops]

Scott wakes at his usual ridiculously early hour to work out, and disappears for a portion of the morning. He's back outside their bedroom at 9 AM, holding something behind his back. Something that is very obviously a vase of white roses and stargazer lilies, but he still pretends like this is a surprise and his girlfriend isn't a mind reader.

"Special delivery for a Miss Frost," he announces after knocking on the glass panel door.

SATURDAY

[367 367]

The team heads to San Diego Comic-Con for the big event.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Emma's Room Invasion (Again)

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

It's late at night, and most people have gone to bed. Kitty has a bed, technically, one of the two queen ones. But she hasn't been sleeping lately, much, and when she goes to lie down, the pillows are almost too comfortable. Her brain won't rest. Something's whirring inside of it, along with all the other adventures of the day. She types a question into a text for Selena, but erases it because 1)humiliating, 2) it's two hours later in New York and she's probably trying to actually sleep.

She rustles into her covers, Lockheed chirping in concern, but he's unable to provide comfort for her either. She waits about seven sleepless minutes before sitting all the way up. She lets adrenaline propel her through several walls before landing on someone who will have an answer, and probably a rude one.

"Am I the lamest X-Man?" she demands to Emma, floating in to the room clad in a big spa bathrobe with her hair in a thousand directions.

SATURDAY: Scott meets a mutant teen

[seeingred scott summers ⊗ cyclops]

Scott is startled by the question only because he doesn't see himself as anyone's first pick for help. Kurt is bright and charming, even with his demonic appearance. Kitty is approachable. Gambit and Rogue are cool. But Scott quickly gets down to business, first asking the kid to write down their name and where they live ("it can just be your city, if you're not comfortable giving your address to a stranger"), and providing his own contact info (including his personal cell number). He says he understands—Scott became a teenage runaway himself after he learned he was a mutant, but this lead him into serious trouble, so please don't run away just yet. There's a boarding school for young mutants, if that sounds like something they'd be interested in. He promises that he'll speak to the other X-Men and find a way to help without anyone getting into trouble, but in the meantime, if anything happens, they should not hesitate to call Scott.

Scott stays in the meet-and-greet after the teenager leaves, but he seems pensive and a bit distracted, as he keeps checking his phone.

SATURDAY EVENING: Kurt & Scott

[seeingred scott summers ⊗ cyclops]

Scott is untroubled by living in close proximity with so many people, but sometimes you really need a quiet, discreet place for a conversation. He's learned he can either find that place himself, or he can trust a teleporter to know where to go.

After dinner finishes up and people start going their own way, he bumps his elbow against Kurt's. "Hey," he says. "Can I talk to you? In private."

SATURDAY: Rogue & Kurt

[blauerdamon kurt wagner ⚔️ nightcrawler]

"Tschüss! It was very nice to meet you," Kurt assures the woman dressed as Mystique of all people. She'd been nice enough. Asked for a photograph with him and Rogue. It'll be so fast, she promised, just a quick picture as they were about to leave. Other people had paid for photos, but she was a single mother to a little girl who adores Rogue.

SATURDAY: Rogue and Maybe the Correct Remy This Time

[glovedup rogue]

Rogue has known Remy LeBeau for a full decade at this point. She's seen him at almost every time of day, every shade of light, emotion; through illness and injury. So one would think that he'd be easy for her to spot across even the most crowded convention hall. Not so true, today. She's greeted and then ducked away from no fewer than three people approximately his height and in very convincing full Gambit costumes. The last one took her doubly aback, because he was accompanied by someone who looked an awful lot like her. They'd been holding hands, no gloves.

Which had fundamentally irked her soul enough that the fourth (and probably him, she's pretty sure this time), Remy she encounters gets a bit of a rougher clap to the shoulder than the others, like her previous encounter was somehow his fault.

SATURDAY MORNING: Laura & Manuel

[wildlike laura kinney (wolverine)]

Most of the house (because this is a whole ostentatious house which Blue Team chose to book) left for Comic-Con barely ten minutes ago, and Laura has been pacing back and forth non-stop through the rooms and hallways. Like one of those caged animals at the zoo. Or an abandoned dog.

The comparison disturbs her. After she escaped the Facility, she hadn't known what to do without a master holding her leash. It took years for her to find her own identity, and she'd lived an incredibly solitary life before finding Rogue and Remy, and the X-Men. She doesn't know how to feel about her attachment to them. She'd fought so hard for her freedom.

Thoughtlessly, Laura extends her hand claws as she moves through the kitchen, focusing her chaotic emotions instead on the sharp sting of the metal punching through her flesh.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Kitty's Room Invasion

[allhell magik 🖤 illyana rasputin]

It's not long after Kitty returns from her excursion to Emma and Scott's room (and now very late at night) that Illyana pokes her head into Kitty's room unannounced.

"Can I sleep in here?" she requests, already moving for the second bed, which she can see is still neatly made. "My room is full of people."

SUNDAY

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Time to head home!

OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

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You know the drill.

VOLUNTEERS

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Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[allhell magik 🖤 illyana rasputin]

i am hiding in rin's house until weather conditions improve so i will be around and i would like to do things with everybody... remy is very much At The Con and illyana is lurking elsewhere, as is her wont

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Iiiiiiiiii would love to do things pls hit me up!! I'll post at least one open too~

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[blauerdamon kurt wagner ⚔️ nightcrawler]

I'd also love to get into some scenes! Kurt is being very attentive to fans and might make his friends late because he has a hard time saying no.

Warren is chilling in their resort or on the beach, because he... didn't want to go to a con, he's a CEO not an official X-Man

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

NERD PARTYYY
And I would love to thread wiv everyone pleeease. Kitty is very kid in candy store about this whole enterprise, so if there are reluctant characters who you'd like to join in the con, she's here to drag ppl. Rogue honestly mostly came because Remy wanted to but she's going to have fun once she's there and they both will be hanging around the con proper

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[empata Manuel de la Rocha (Empath)]

😌 Manuel wants nothing to do with the con for just...so many reasons. He'd consider walking by the convention center just to ruin some anti-mutant protestors' days with some subtle manipulation, but that's as close as he's getting. Catch him hitting the beach or exploring the city or whatnot instead!

I'm down for some threads if anyone wants him~