CLOSED | Dylan's 15th Birthday

[codicies]

Who: Dylan Brock codicies, his housemates, and those invited to the party — which is pretty much everyone he's had a positive interaction with.
What: Dylan's 15th birthday party, a bonfire cookout!
When: October 8
Where: Home of Diana Prince in Little Love, KS
Content Warnings: none (but will label things if asked)

Dylan's 15th Birthday Bonfire

Toplevel Prompts:

SETUP

(CLOSED to Dylan's housemates & anyone who might have showed up early to help prep)

Setting up for the party beforehand.

FOOD

Autumn has set in. The daytime is cool, the evenings are chilly, and there's a bonfire roaring in one of Diana's fields. Dylan's been prepping food for the party all morning — There's sausages, s'more supplies, and shish kebabs stacked with meat & vegetables. There's even some sweet potatoes! He saw a video on Japanese street food and wanted to try cooking potatoes on the fire in foil.

As for drinks, of course water and soda are available, but he managed to borrow some coffee urns from a kind caterer in town in exchange for a little manual labor. Now he's got a great setup for hot coffee, hot chocolate, AND hot cider all evening!

There's also a VERY large sheet cake for serving later. He'd been offered a brain-shaped cake, but the pictures had been a little too realistic, and he didn't think he (or the guests) would find it all too appetizing.

Though he's a little afraid the brain cake is still coming out, whether he likes it or not, but the sheet cake will be what he uses to blow out the candles, thank you very much.

SWORDPLAY

One of the gifts Dylan received was a real-life sword from Diana! He's been taking lessons from her and is ready to try it out. There's a little clearing a little ways from the bonfire where he's trying it out. If you want, you can come and spar — with Dylan, with Diana, or even with each other. With swords, sticks, or even with fists!! Come join the impromptu Fight Club.

EDIT to add: there are real AND wooden swords available for sparring, as well as wooden & straw dummies to practice on as well!

GAME TIME

There are frisbees, a football, soccer balls, even a ninepin set?? Do you have these games in your world? There's all kinds of fun sports gear available. Or you could grab something at random and start a game of Calvinball.

FIRESIDE

With the daylight fading, the fire becomes the center of activity. As you roast marshmallows or weiners (or grab one of those potatoes out of the fire) everyone huddles around, seated on rocks, stumps or lawn chairs as we all sing songs and tell stories.

Any spooky tales from your homeworld? Any songs you'd like to sing? Dylan had gotten a few guitar lessons from Jaskier before he disappeared, so if you start singing, he'll try to follow along with chords!

FIREWORKS

oh my god who brought those. please don't set any crops on fire. EXTINGUISHERS ON STANDBY.

WILDCARD

Any Standard Bonfire Activities I've forgotten, go ahead and throw them in!

After-Party Sleepover

(CLOSED to Dylan's housemates + Nico, Will, Hunter, Hibiki, and Chris Yukine)

Six teenagers sleeping on couches & air mattresses in the living room, watching movies... what crimes will they commit?

Comments

[sixthdeadliest]

We didn't do the best job of being backup outside of combat. We're a more militaristic operation and we've only recently started taking into account Rex's emotional health.

[He's not proud of it, but he doesn't want Otto to get the wrong impression and think that everything is flowers and sunshine.]

Rex isn't in charge of the operation for obvious reasons. You don't put an amnesiac fifteen year-old in charge of forced plasma cascade bombs. Providence existed before Rex, but we've changed our tactics to adapt to him and his abilities. Still have a lot of adapting to do on both ends.

[sixthdeadliest]

[Well, if you're not going to get the tinder, he'll get it himself. Gonna just talk while he starts gathering what he needs.]

Survival training and random tests of that survival training. Master's favorite trick was to take me out on the pretext of a mission and then dump me out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but what I had on me and what I'd been trained to do. No special equipment since I might not always have that on me should I get into some sort of wreck. The goal was to survive, reach civilization, and then contact One for pickup.

[Let's see...some paper, some sticks both big and small, pine needles, a few twigs, and a nice dry open pinecone. That'll be especially helpful!]

[He goes back to where the man's...friend...had been trying to make a fire, starting to arrange things.]

The inclusion of the remote ignition termination system was a particular boon to these random tests. He didn't even need to be in the vehicle with me. Just track me on the GPS and kill the engine when I'd gotten to a location he thought would be a good challenge. [Six gives a slight frown.] It's also how he used to drill me in how to crash land a plane.

That is such a cute icon OMG

[sixthdeadliest]

"It was pretty atypical." He then gave a small shadow of a smile. "Things like birthday parties are still new to me."

[doctopoda]

[That's a whole other thing! It's not really holding it all that close to him! Also, it doesn't seem to understand the gesture, just sort of sitting there while it happens.]

I am, thank you. It's been quite some time since I attended a birthday party.

[robintohood]

[Jason nods, feeling a little sympathetic to Otto. Dealing with a family that's at least twice as big as he remembered it pre-Confluence has been a jarring and emotional experience for him]

It sounds manageable at least, as long as you're different enough from the other you.

[doctopoda]

I saw a bit of him in someone's memory recently. Our features are similar, but he's about this tall.

[Otto indicates a height that's like, possibly a full foot shorter than himself. And - yes, he figures Jason probably means personality-wise, but he's not really prepared to get into his own relationship to being a notorious supervillain just now!]

[robintohood]

[Jason snorts]

Good enough. Shorter tentacles too?

[doctopoda]

Really? You seem to have a large family.

[There's like three other questions he wants to ask, but he's trying not to be rude.]

[definecat]

I'd prefer to only count Venom, Eddie and Dylan. Well, Toxin and their current host are pleasant enough, but the rest... [Sleeper can't help the slightly dramatic shudder.]

[doctopoda]

At rest. I couldn't say what his full reach was - they telescope.

[He stretches one of his out a little longer in demonstration. Just a bit, not near their actual full length.]

[doctopoda]

Hm. Well, if you're trying, that's already better than a lot of worlds.

[Otto hadn't been especially impressed by any of the adult heroes who were supposedly around in the second Peter's world. And of course his own Peter just had nothing at all.]

I suppose the Guilds are meant to provide a lot of that kind of support here. But in practice?

[He shrugs. Most of the teens he knows didn't affiliate in the first place, and even for those who did...they're not quite as hands-on as they could be, he thinks.]

[doctopoda]

I see. Of course.

[Family stuff. No worries, he's not gonna pry about that.]

Well, I'm glad your entire family is here, then.

[definecat]

It's definitely a luxury here that I can appreciate. There don't seem to be a lot of those.

[robintohood]

[Jason watches that tentacle, interested]

Huh. Helps with compacting them at least.

[doctopoda]

[Oh, dear, maybe he shouldn't have suggested that. Otto turns a little more fully to Will, only one of the actuators remaining focused on the sparring.]

That's perfectly alright, too. Not everyone is a fighter, no matter what family they're from. No matter how good anyone is, none of us would last very long if we didn't have any healers around.

[Weird that he's in a place where he's just taking "I'm related to a Greek god" in his stride now!]

[sixthdeadliest]

Honestly, I didn't expect much from either guild in the way of more personal protections.

[Jaded as he was.]

[doctopoda]

Fewer every day. You know, I do prefer a city, but this place is a breath of fresh air after Excelsior.

[we all know what's going down in Excelsior right now]

[doctopoda]

Mmm. They weren't originally intended for regular use, or I'd have made them even more compact than this.

[There are so many things he'd have done differently, if he'd ever had the slightest inkling that this might happen.]

[definecat]

[Sleeper eyes the tentacles and nods.]

Discrimination is never a pleasant thing to fall victim to. Especially when one does not have a choice about the thing being discriminated against.

[doctopoda]

For the best. They will help you with your medical issues, but for anything else, I guess we're meant to be self-sufficient. Though I can't say I entirely mind - I'd rather the hands-off approach to having them breathe down my neck.

[Especially given his, uh, frequent aiding of unaffliated metas!]

i

[doctopoda]

Shortly after arriving, Otto had gone to introduce himself to the hostess. It's only polite, after all. He's sent in the general direction of the kitchen, where he comes across Diana bringing out several trays - looks like there's even more in there. How much food did she make?

"Need a hand?" he offers. The actuators hover around him: look how many hands he's got!

[sixthdeadliest]

Agreed.

[One thing that had bothered him while working for Providence, particularly at the beginning, was all the bureaucracy. However, he'd found a reason to put up with it.]

[robintohood]

What were they originally for?

[qualityfriend]

[She gives a frustrated sigh.]

Does that ever work? Keeping someone away from "the life".

Hm, so you suddenly found out you had an older brother? That must've been- interesting. Glad you've worked things out and settled into a family dynamic now.

I know it's your right, as the younger sibling and the cat, to do whatever you want to annoy the older sibling, but could you not overindulge until after his birthday is over? [She winks.]

fireside

[qualityfriend]

[Dana's staring. Rude. But someone with robot arms is new, even for a Gothamite like her, much less arms that are cooking camping food. She catches herself and looks away, then replies with a small laugh:]

Y-yeah. It's beautiful. Not something I see often. Even other times I went camping. We were probably still too close to cities.