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

Gift + Potential Swordplay

[sixthdeadliest]

"Happy birthday, Dylan. Thank you for inviting me."

The small, neatly-wrapped box had required a trip back to Central City to find an appropriate shop that could make the item. It wasn't as symbolic and personal as a tanto -- he didn't know Dylan well enough for something of such heavy significance -- but the little foldable kogatana was a useful little knife. Primarily used for woodworking or sharpening pencils, but deadly in a pinch should someone try to hurt the kid.

[codicies]

Dylan's delighted to get anything, really — this is the first time in his life a birthday party of his had this big of a turnout.

He tears into the paper, eyes going wide as he sees the small knife in the box... and he grins. Dylan has no idea what kind of vibe he gives off that inspires people to keep giving him blades, but he hopes it continues.

"A pocket knife?" He looks back up at Six, beaming. "Thank you so much!"

[sixthdeadliest]

"It's a kogatana. A bit different than the pocketknives you typically see in the States."

When Dylan opened the blade he would see that the edge wasn't curved like a typical pocketknife. That and the edge was much bigger.

"They used to be standard school supplies for Japanese children in addition to being used by woodcarvers. The blade can go quite some time without sharpening due to the design and the forging process for the steel. It's a small, versatile knife that can be used to do basic carving, sharpening pencils, or defend yourself in a pinch. Unlike pocketknives, that one blade is designed to be multifunctional so you don't need additional blades in the handle."

[codicies]

Dylan stares down in awe at the knife, running a thumb along the flat of the blade. "Wow. I can't believe schools somewhere used to have blades for school supplies." He looks up again, looking ecstatic. "This is a really cool gift. Are you good at any of those things? I mean the carving and stuff?"

[sixthdeadliest]

"They were for hundreds of years. Until someone recently decided that they shouldn't be."

Idiots.

In response to the question, Six rolled his shoulders. "I can do some very basic carving but nothing elaborate. I'm not an artist. I do have a lot of skill with blade fighting, knives and swords specifically."

[codicies]

"Man, why would hey stop? Idiots."

Still, Dylan's small pout is quickly gone as Six explains his skillset, and he lights up.

"Oh! Diana's teaching me to sword fight. Do you want to have a bout??" He looks down at the kogatana, carefully folding it. "Not with this, though. I wanna keep it nice until I have to use it."

[sixthdeadliest]

"Because somebody thought that instead of teaching children how to handle dangerous items responsibly it'd be better to just disarm them and make them easier prey."

Allegedly it was to preserve the innocence of children. In Six's experience, taking away any way they had to fight back enough to escape was the worst way to do it.

Six smirked. "I wouldn't have suggested using that unless I knew you had any sort of skill with knife-fighting to start with. Swords are fine. Live steel or wooden?"

[codicies]

Dylan looks a little smug as he answers. "I've been learning for over a month now. I think I'm ready for live steel."

[sixthdeadliest]

"All right. If you'd prefer using your new sword -- " He'd seen the gift when it'd been given. " -- I'll use one of the practice swords here. Even things up a little with us both using unfamiliar blades."

Not that there was likely to be much difference in the outcome. Six had almost two decades of experience.