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

[demigoth]

[ Oh no, his hand is being held prisoner.

His stomach does a little flip because everyone will see them holding hands, and he doesn’t know everyone yet. ]

His guardian? Why does he need a guardian? His dad’s here. He practically attacked me at the county fair.

[qualityfriend]

[She gives a sly grin.]

I have a better idea.

[Grabbing a pen and piece of paper, she starts writing on it. "This is a stupid pointless essay. I know you're not even going to read it, just like the last three which were all basically the same. Worst teacher ever. Stop wasting our time." She picks out the thickest red pen, writes a big B at the top and "Good work, keep improving", then crumples up the page and throws it in the fire.]

[qualityfriend]

No; at first I didn't think I had anything to offer, and I'm used to the Justice League and it's invite-only to established heroes. Then, well... I started hearing more about the Alliance, and I didn't really like it.

[doctopoda]

[Otto snorts.]

I get that. I did join them, and I can't say I'm a huge fan.

[sol_annoyance]

[Will shrugs lightly.]

I might've made an assumption. I haven't met his dad yet.

[...Hang on. He gives Nico a look.]

What's this about him attacking you at a county fair?

Re: [sleepover]

[badbutsadboy]

[Given that Earth had been the place where Belos had come from, he'd expected the rituals to maybe be a bit...dire. But maybe the things he should expect instead are the things that might have shaped Luz.]

So it's like a moonlight conjuring just... without the conjuring?

[He actually looks hopeful about that.]

[He'd read about moonlight conjurings, and deep down, had always wished he could do normal kid and teen things like them.]

[After all, they were partly about getting together to spend the night with friends, eating junk food, and telling stories.]

[But he'd also known that even if he'd grown up a normal kid instead of the Golden Guard, he'd never have been invited to one. Even if the whole point wasn't necessarily the magic ritual, it was still a part of the whole thing. Who would invite a magic-less witch to that?]

[So he starts to look very excited now, at the prospect of this being a conjuring without expectations of magic.]

[And even if it was something that required magic, he had magic in this world.]

cw: mentions of child abuse

[badbutsadboy]

[It is tremendously kind. In his reckoning of Earth, he's wondered how it could create someone like Belos. What terrible forces could shape someone like him?. And they were out there. Their google site and wikipedia had made that clear. He'd already done some deep dives into Earth history, especially about witch hunts.]

[Earth present seemed to enjoy witch-hunting too - at least on this Earth.]

[But Earth had also produced Luz Noceda.]

[He shouldn't be so shocked at the kindness, but he is. He shouldn't be so shocked at the gentle touch, but he's surprised at that, too.]

[He almost pulls away on reflex, because being touched by Belos was rarely a positive thing, even if he'd had to tolerate it. Even a hand on his wrist or on his shoulder rarely stayed affectionate. Touches often started parental and gentle and then turned possessive. Squeezing. Painful.]

[And afterward, there were so many times he'd had to get a wash basin and soap to try to scrub the black stain out of his cloak, knowing that his uncle would be upset at his lack of decorum if there was a stain the next time he saw him, even if he'd caused it in the first place. Magical laundry potions had never quite seemed to do the job on their own, no match for his uncle's curse. It'd taken some elbow grease.]

[But he's had at least a few times of being touched in ways that don't hurt, by Willow and Gus, by the flyer derby team, by Darius. When the students and the Resistance had met up, and Professor Bump told Darius about saving Gus and fighting beside them against the coven scouts, and warning them about the Day of Unity, Darius had pulled him closer by the shoulders and been so proud.]

[So he knows touch doesn't always come with something sharp as an afterthought, even if it's what he's used to.]

[This is like the flyer derby team, right? He and Dylan fought side by side and won against an enemy together. That meant camaraderie. Maybe the beginnings of a friendship.]

[Still, even if it's just friendship and most likely a very basic kindness, his face goes beet red and it spreads to his ears.]

[He eventually withdraws his hands, because he feels exposed, but one of them just goes to rub his neck and he doesn't look displeased.]

[Just awkward, but not displeased.]

Thank you.

For, uh, being so nice, but also for inviting me to a human birthday party.

[He turns to go back to meal prep but doesn't look unhappy. He still looks pleased.]

I've always been interested in the human realm. Portals sometimes open up between my world and the version of the human world attached to it so there are sometimes things that cross over. Objects. Papers with writing. My friend Gus collects human artifacts; he used to be the president of the human appreciation society at his school.

And I heard stories growing up. My unc - [He quickly self-corrects.] The man who raised me said he'd been there before. He told me about your green trees and how the rain doesn't boil.

[One of the few things he hadn't lied about.]

I'm also interested in your human cultural rituals, especially the ones human teens do.

[a) Learning normal teen things was nice. b) Might as well get in touch with what might possibly be his heritage, if he'd been made as an echo of a long-dead human.]

[badbutsadboy]

I think that depends on the definition of "dark." And what it is you think is inevitable.

Death is inevitable. Getting older until you die, whenever that happens, is inevitable. Bad things happening sometimes is inevitable.

[His expression grows darker.]

But the expectations people have for you sometimes aren't.

[He suddenly sounds less sure and takes a part an uncooked marshmallow with his fingers, curious about what it might be made of.]

At least, I hope so.

[He needs to believe it's not all inevitable. Because the inevitability of life is different if you're just a copy of someone else, and the inevitability of death hits an extremely different way when you're locked in a cycle of rebirth and death, in that order.]

[He knows he'll die someday, possibly young, maybe shortly after he goes home, but at least he'll have broken the cycle of being discarded by Belos. Maybe he'll get to live longer as his own person than the others did, even if it's only a little while.]

[Maybe he can die on his terms, instead of Belos'. Even if the Collector flicks him into goo, at least it'll be after he chose to go back and try to do the right thing. That's so much better than just being discarded.]

[He looks up at the Kansas night sky, with its sparkling stars. He'd rarely seen the stars from his room growing up. The Titan's ribs had always kept the castle in shadow, and the haze from the strange magical furnaces made everything hazy.]

[The outside word has always been clearer, sharper. Even though the dark is more crisp, the light is, too. ]

I think that both light and dark can be something false or...manufactured, it just depends on if the person making them is genuine or not. Whether they're being real.

[Dark and light have no innate value or realness. It's all conditional, all in what they're used for and how they're used.]

Where I grew up, everything dim and dark around me was fake. The castle was always so gloomy, but only because Belos wanted it to be.

[badbutsadboy]

[Hunter is curious and able to read it from the angle he's sitting at next to her.]

[What he's making is a little more involved, involves some cutting and some tape.]

[It starts to become apparent that it might be a mask.]

Did your teachers not actually read the assignments?

[He's actually surprised. The teachers at Hexside seemed so dedicated.]

[qualityfriend]

It depends on the teacher. This one was the absolute worst, though. Some of my classmates said they wrote essays like that, but I never worked up the nerve to try. I did stop giving a slag, though, and still got the same grades.

[She looks curiously at his creation.]

Part of a uniform?

[qualityfriend]

[She looks surprised.]

Even Loki didn't say that much. He was more circumspect in talking about his issues with them.

What did they do? Or can you not say?

[frenchkissed]

( he'd never!
upon seeing sleeper, though, he crouches down to as close to their level as he can get. )

CHILD.
SMALL ONE.
TINY THING.

...

WE ARE HAPPIER WITH YOU HERE.

[frenchkissed]

( yeah, honestly, how is dylan even allowed to have this birthday party. wasn't he grounded for life?

besides, who needs awkwardness when you've got lighting-fast gooey tendrils shooting through the house and stealing some poor teen's pancakes? not will. he didn't need those pancakes, either, so consider his plate taken for the good of the order. )

[definecat]

[Sleeper can't help the warm fuzzies that causes, and moves close to gain physical contact with Venom, using the touch to convey some of the wonderful, nurturing feelings that they associate with their parent, even if this isn't quite the same Venom.]

I like having you here, too. Not having to look after Dylan alone is nice.

[frenchkissed]

( this isn't a conversation they necessarily have aloud. spending so much time with humans, it takes a moment to get back on the symbiote-to-symbiote mental contact wave, but then it's there in full. all of venom's emotions are gooey—duh—and warm, if not tinged with uncertainty. he still can't believe that any version of him could be responsible for something as wise as sleeper or something as kind as dylan.

there's surprise and joy all throughout their connection. venom's lived for over ten-thousand years as a symbiote, and these past few months have been among his favorite. )

HE IS STRONG.
BRAVE.
DOES HE NEED SUCH CAREFUL TENDING?

ON KLYTAR...
WE CUT OUR YOUTH LOOSE AT A YOUNG AGE.
IF THEY DO NOT SURVIVE...
THEY WERE NOT MEANT FOR THIS WORLD.

[definecat]

Dylan is headstrong and stubborn, like his parents. But his heart is in the right place.

[In some ways it is easier to share as symbiotes, emotions and memories flowing as easily as words, but words are nice, too.]

But my parent did not choose to do that. They wanted me to be able to make my choices without being forced into them, to grow up without being forced to bond to another being to survive until I could choose to do so for better reasons.

Dylan...did not have a father like that until very recently. He was like a new spawn, left to survive or not without nurturing by his grandfather.

Tsa made me wonderful fanart icons...

[definecat]

"I have never had a birthday party, either. When one can expect to live for thousands of years unless killed, it seems less important."

They don't really know what to think about the idea that they might celebrate birthdays, too.

[doctopoda]

[Otto shrugs.]

If we were in public, maybe I'd be too. But we're among friends here. [Also. He sort of doesn't care that much.] They haven't done anything more to me than you'd expect. I just don't like the...marketing aspect of it all. This shouldn't be about social media and sponsorships.

[definecat]

And the commute would be problematic if one lived in one place and worked in another. Central also has a lot of anti-Meta sentiment, although it's more generalized. I have seen riots and violence lately.

[They don't travel well, or much, but getting caught up in the riots was not their favorite thing. It was difficult to try to take control of a crowd like that without causing permanent harm.]

I suppose that's another reason I prefer not to travel.

Good ooze kitty~

[sixthdeadliest]

Six blinked. "How old are you exactly?"

[definecat]

That sounds like the better plan. There is a time and a place for chocolate syrup. And it is not when parties are in the offing. There are plenty of other things to eat, too.

[They give a slightly cheshire grin, then take the bottle in a tendril and start towards the house.]

I'll just secure this for later...

[definecat]

"I think it would be more would the people we love want to share that day with us, don't you agree?"

Sleeper has gotten the idea that birthdays are mostly about spending time with family and friends. And maybe doing something special.

"Do you think I should pick a date to celebrate the anniversary of my spawning?"

[definecat]

"I am not certain, entirely. One cannot easily consult a calendar in space, and the time differences between here and my home Earth would be something to consider. Not an Earth-year, regardless. But we mature very quickly, especially given the unusually nurturing environment my parent chose to provide," they try to explain.

"I am the youngest of Venom's spawn."

[sixthdeadliest]

"Don't think I've met him yet."

He would soon enough though.

[definecat]

"I'm sure you won't be able to avoid them here."

However, their tone leaves some doubt as to whether that is a good or a bad thing.