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

C

[doctopoda]

...that's an interesting cake.

[He wasn't around for the prep, but Otto does pause at the food table to check out this...brain cake. Who put that together and why??? Well, never mind, it's hardly the weirdest thing here.

That might actually go to Sleeper? He's definitely addressing them - he knows that the weird alien cat is Dylan's sibling, even if he doesn't quite know what that's all about. Really, it's not particularly his business.]

[definecat]

"It's red velvet. Perfectly acceptable to eat without any consequences," they say, amusement coloring their tone of voice.

"Would you like a slice?" It's no effort for them to extrude a couple of limbs to handle the utensils if so, but Sleeper waits to do so. Some people have issues with tentacles for some reason. Although this guy seems to have some extra limbs of his own.

[doctopoda]

Sure.

[He's not really that put off by it! He also doesn't seem to expect to be served; one of his own tentacles reaches out to pick up the utensils, though they transfer them to his hands to cut a slice.]

I'm Otto. Though I take it you know that. [Dylan had; they're both from that same universe with Bowlcut Otto running around, he thinks.]

[definecat]

"I don't really keep track of people who aren't already making themselves a nuisance to me and mine," Sleeper admits. They've seen the news, when Doc Ock was on it, but...well, what is that to them?

"Back home the most I do is maybe walking Dylan to school with Venom. I try to keep out of the spotlight. Family has enough problems."

They settle back as Otto moves to cut his own slice, just reaching a tentacle to snag a plate and move it closer for easy transfer.

[doctopoda]

[He smiles slightly at the sight of the tentacle. Is it weird that he feels a bit of kinship with other people who have them now? Maybe it was just inevitable.]

That's probably a good policy.

[He'll never complain about people not being up-to-date with his horrible alternates! He'd honestly rather no one knew who he was at all!]

It's nice that you're here together. It seems like more people have been arriving with friends or family, lately.

[definecat]

"Well, Venom and Eddie aren't exactly the same as ours, but it's close enough. But I'm not sure I'd want more of the family to show up," they say, honestly.

"Some of it is sheer laziness on my part. It's so much work to be out there interacting with humans when you're like me. I mean, if I wanted to pass muster, I'd either have to get a partner like Eddie, or create a whole human appearance from scratch."

[doctopoda]

Well! Otto has resolved himself that it was rude to ask, but as long as Sleeper's brought it up.

"You do seem to take more after Venom." He has no idea what their species even is, to be honest? "Could you create a human shape that would pass?"

[definecat]

"Venom is our parent. I inherited many abilities from him. And yes, I could, with work and attention to detail probably come pretty close in creating a human form that would pass muster. Whether it would be exact enough that people wouldn't experience the uncanny valley effect is the real issue. There are a lot of details to get right," they say. Also, they don't really see the point.

"But it would be like hiding. And I wish to be accepted for myself, not for a pretense of humanity or any other kind. A reason why I do not make a perfect cat replication, either."

[doctopoda]

That's understandable.

[Admirable, even. They're just lucky to be in a world where such a thing is even possible.]

Though I'll admit, I miss being able to pass for a regular person myself.

[definecat]

You were a normal person once. There usually aren't enough of my kind in any single location to really have some standard for normalcy.

[Not that they mind, really. There aren't all that many of their kind they would want to spend quality time with for extended periods.]

I'm already essentially the black sheep, although Toxin might be competition.

[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]

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.

[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]

[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]

...I guess not.

[Otto still considers it at least halfway his own fault; he didn't choose having the actuators be permanent attachments like this, but he sure chose everything that led up to it. And hell, he probably has some of that backlash coming to him. But that doesn't mean it isn't frustrating - he didn't do anything to any of these people. Far from it!]

We're thinking of moving to Central. Though that won't get me away from all of it - I still work in Excelsior. In prosthetics. [Which is also not a great area to be in right now, he's really just getting it from all sides lately.]

[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.

[doctopoda]

Would that we could all live as cats.

[It'd be a lot more peaceful, that's for sure!]

[definecat]

It isn't always a picnic. Sometimes people object to you eating chocolate.
Or insist on a pet deposit to allow one to stay in a motel, even if one is a perfectly well-behaved individual.

[But they clearly understand.

[doctopoda]

That's easy enough. Just don't ask them for permission first.

[No sense in paying a pet fee for no actual real pets! Sneak that cat-shaped goo alien in there! Do crime!]