open | we always are together

[morphogenia]

WHO: Kamala Khan
WHERE: House 6
WHEN: Dec. 13th; late afternoon aka KAMALA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY
OPEN TO: residents of house six, assorted cr of Kamala and the other house six residents - basically everyone who knows Kamala, Frank, and Jessica and is on good terms with them. It's basically everyone.
WARNINGS: Possible mentions of horror settings or past trauma since Kamala does live with Frank Castle and Jessica Jones who are their own warning. Honestly this is a rated G birthday log.

---

She wakes up super stoked to be alive. It's not unusual for her honestly. Kamala is more excited than usual if only because it's not every day you get superheroes coming over for your birthday. Granted she's seeing them more as ordinary people who do incredible things sometimes. That's a positive change as far as she's concerned. It doesn't change the fact that Kamala from like age seven and up would have seen this as a dream come true. Who is she to question the wisdom of tiny Kamala?

She spends a decent portion of the day (following breakfast) getting ready for guests. She styles her new, shorter hair cut as elegantly as she can, dresses in the hunter green dress and pants outfit given to her by the Observers because screw them it's pretty and they can't ruin it with what they pulled after.

By the time she finishes, it's time to greet guests and see what Frank's done with the rest of the house while she's been hiding out in her room to obsess over her appearance. She'll go around greeting whoever shows up, shoving food at them, and generally be grateful they came. It's her seventeenth birthday. She's away from her home, childhood friends, and family. Having anyone here today means a lot more than she lets on. It's about the only thing allowing her to feel happiness instead dwelling on what she's missing.

(ooc; top levels will be posted by Frank in like five minutes for setting info. please hold for those! feel free to tag those or make your own starter once they're posted. I'm flexible.)

Comments

[morphogenia]

[Her reaction is a lot more subdued since she knows her audience with this gift. Her eyes light up with a childish wonder as she takes it reverently from Bruce along with the card.] Thank you! If I didn't spend a ridiculous amount of time doing my hair, I'd put this in right now....

[She shakes her head. Who is she kidding? This is way more important than some well placed braids.] Actually forget it! I'm totally going to do it now.

[Kamala sets the card down carefully so she can put her crown on. Thankfully for Bruce she bullied Nakia into wearing these with her once upon a time for the sake of cute pictures. His is a lot more stable and therefore easier to put on than the ones they made. She actually claps for herself once it's successfully on.] It's perfect. Thank you, Dr. Banner. I am going to live my best Disney princess life thanks to you.

[notsoangry]

Oh, you don't have to.... [ Bruce didn't really expect her to just put it on, but he couldn't deny that once she did, it made him very happy. He doubted his decision every minute on the way there, but it turned out it was fine, so he releases the stress and tension in his shoulders. Phew. Present approved!]

You look very nice. Disney could only be so lucky to have a princess like you. [ He is terribly fond of her. She has such a good heart. He knows she genuinely would have been happy with nothing at all, but he's glad all the same he could come up with something.] We December birthdays have to stick together. We're the best ones.

[morphogenia]

[Kamala beams proudly. She knows he means it. Considering the source, she's determined not to get embarrassed and simply appreciate the compliment.] Obviously! Speaking of which, I hope you know I am going to see you on your birthday. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

[A beat since that's not necessarily true.] Okay so maybe I would miss it if the world was in danger, but so would you so it doesn't count.

[notsoangry]

I don't usually celebrate, but I learned awhile ago not to try and sneak it past others. [ In the Avengers Tower was the first time since the Hulk that he remembered he had a birthday, let alone celebrated it. He'd gotten a little emotionally overwhelmed at the time. It still felt like a lot, but he'd accept it now with a faint smile and a lot of pleased awkwardness.]

That would be quite a birthday, but I think we might be okay this year. [ Bruce crosses his fingers and shows her.] You know, I don't think I asked you before. How did you get involved in being a superhero?

[morphogenia]

[Kamala crosses her fingers with him if only because she lacks the power to be that useful right now. It's better they do after they get powers back if ever. She switches gears at the question. Kamala looks absolutely delighted to be asked.] Oh! Don't feel bad! You actually are the first, I think. Everyone just kind of takes for granted it was a thing that happened.

[She's not sure if it's a good or bad thing. Kamala gives it some careful thought before replying.] Okay so technically I started the night I got my powers? I wasn't Ms. Marvel yet officially, but I accidentally became the woman who had the name first to rescue one of my classmates. It was like a reflex, I guess. I just became the most heroic person I could think of and pulled her out of the water.

[Spoilers: shapeshifting is one of her powers.]

[notsoangry]

[Bruce thinks it's a strange product of being around too any super powered people. They all assume each other have them without asking details. But he likes the details. He knows a few people who are science experiments like him, and a few who are natural born, so he's curious to know where she falls in it.]

So, shapeshifting? [He adds, with a smile.] Ms. Marvel must be pretty special if she's who you thought about immediately when you wanted to save someone. [ Betraying his ignorance of any version of Carol Danvers in their world. Their people didn't all match up, although he's very interested to know if there's a Kamala back home. Just out of curiosity.]

Were you born with them or was there an outside influence?

[morphogenia]

I'm a polymorph with healing abilities... so far. I don't exactly have a lab to really get to the bottom of this. [The Inhumans who did, well, she's not eager to join their cult. She uses resources when offered, but she keeps a distance otherwise.

Kamala spares him that backstory in favor of her passion: talking about Captain Marvel.] Oh and she is! You need to meet her someday! Her name is Carol Danvers. She used to be with the Air Force like War Machine! She's so amazing. Easily Earth's Mightiest Hero! No offense, but she's more powerful than the Hulk and it's so amazing to see in person! I totally love her.

[Obviously. She pauses her gushing to answer the rest. Kamala sobers up a little because it is a heavier topic for reasons that will become clear soon enough.] Both. There's actually an alien race called the Kree who experimented on humans thousands of years ago. No one knows why they stopped or left our planet since obviously their experiments were a success. I'm guessing either the Asgardians caught them or one of us got to be too powerful to control. Anyways, I'm a descendent of one of those people. When I got exposed to the Terrigen Mist, long story, it activated my powers which really worked out for that girl not drowning at a high school party.

[notsoangry]

[Bruce chuckles.] No offense taken, although I can't speak for him. I'm pretty sure he likes being the biggest and strongest. [The opposite of Bruce himself.] I hope I do get to meet her some day. Although it always feels strange to say that when it probably means she'd have to come here, and I shouldn't hope this on people. But if she so happened to be here, I'm sure it would be a pleasure to meet her.

[Bruce listens to her explanation. It's fascinating, honestly. There aren't that many superpowered people where he's from, but also their knowledge of what is out there is limited. Terrigen sounds familiar but he can't put his finger on why.] Worked out for her, yes, but also worked out for everyone else you've helped since. I'm sorry powers make you a target though. It can be a thankless job, sometimes. Do you have a team too?

[morphogenia]

[She's on the same page as Bruce as far as Carol goes. Kamala hasn't met her yet. She's kind of nervous about it. What if her idol hates her?? It's her birthday. She decides to leave her insecurities alone for the day in favor of answering Bruce's question.] Not really. I mean I team up with people. I teamed up Wolverine to save one of his students! And that was fun. There's a woman who is supposedly our ruler who I worked with that one time a group of Inhumans were trying to enslave-kill human beings and take over the world. I'm pretty sure she counts me in with them even if I didn't exactly sign up. She even sent a member of her family to be my bodyguard after I teamed up with Wolverine.

[Kamala sighs wistfully.] I really miss him sometimes. If he were here, we'd totally be home by now.

[notsoangry]

[ That's interesting! She didn't say her own role model could save them, but this Wolverine fellow could, where the rest of them hadn't been able.] Who is Wolverine? Is he that powerful? [Here he would have his powers nixed though, so they might not have access to whatever he could do. He's taking her word for it without question.]

[morphogenia]

He's a mutant who helps run a school for mutant kids, protect our planet with like ten different superhero teams, and generally is a guy you can turn to when no one else will help you out.

[Kamala clearly admires him. She doesn't want to be him the way she does Carol on her most insecure days. He's worth the respect he gets, she thinks.] Wolverine isn't the most powerful guy around, but his main team is the X-Men. They deal with situations like ours all the time even when people are awful to them. They always manage to save the day. I know they'd bail us out if they knew what was going on.

[notsoangry]

[Bruce knows the word mutant now and how specific it is to a certain group of people, not mutated by science the way he was. And she too was born with the power in her. He knows he would never choose to be who he is, who the Hulk made him, it was his mistake that led there. People who just existed and were still feared and hated, that was wrong. He wishes it could be change, but he's not even a little bit surprised it is.]

He sounds like a great guy. I still don't know if we have mutants in our world, I feel like we'd know by now if we did. But we also just found out about sorcerers, so. [It's definitely possible.] Do the Avengers not do any of that there? Do they not have the same prejudice against them? [It seems weird, that they wouldn't since they too were super powered, but prejudice rarely made sense.]