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

[badbutsadboy]

[It doesn't register that the cities being gone is an immediately terrible thing. It happened before he was bor - ]

[Created. Before he was created. Something Belos did in the earliest days of cementing his power, blaming it all on wild witches. They've at least rebuilt somehwat since then. The towns are growing larger all the time.]

[He looks at Otto a little wide-eyed with awe at the idea of a city so busy it never seems like night. Central isn't quite that way, some places are very run down and not busy even during the day, derelict.]

I like Central. Kind of. It's a little too crowded in places, though.

And it's strange to not be able to just go to the edge of town and see trees. You have those plant islands, parks, but it's not the same.

I'd like to see more of them someday. Like an actual forest. I grew up hearing about them. Green trees and rain you can actually walk in.

[doctopoda]

[The forests were also destroyed? And also acid rain???

Well. They're having a nice time at this party. Having a real reaction to all of that will just kill the mood, and won't do anything to help anyway. So Otto just smiles.]

You should try a state park. I've only been to the Adirondacks, near where I grew up - I've never exactly been the outdoorsy type. But they've got huge forests. Lakes and mountains too, if you like to fish or hike.

[badbutsadboy]

That's good. I was a little worried when seeing how big the city is that they didn't have big forests in this world or something.

[That would've been kind of dark.]

[He'd initially wondered if the city went on forever. ]

What makes the plants green? In our world, all the plants came from the body of the Titan, and you can tell everything grew from its body.

But I've searched on your webs and asked people and there was no Titan here, so I don't know where all the green came from.

[doctopoda]

That's because of chlorophyll. It's a green pigment in the leaves that helps the plants convert sunlight into energy.

[Otto loves scientific curiosity! And is also a pretty good science communicator, which is good because my googling immediately got more complicated than that!]

What is a Titan?

,

[badbutsadboy]

[ Hunter pulls out a notebook and pen and immediately starts writing that word down. ]

[He briefly looks up.]

This is my list of things to goggle to find out more about them.

[He pronounces "google" it wrong.]

[He also spells it "chlorofil" but that's enough for google to go on.]

And the Titan is...

It's hard to explain before explaining my world. Back home, the planet is covered in the Boiling Seas. A few things have evolved to withstand the heat in the water, but it makes most life impossible.

Where we all live, the Boiling Isles, it only exists because a massive being died and its body created the land. You can still see the Titan's bones, sticking out in places. They're huge. Its skull can be seen for miles and the Knee is so high up there's ice on top, like your mountains.

All life and magic came from the Titan, so the plants look different than the ones on Earth. Their shapes are similar, but the colors - you can tell they came from its flesh.

[There is deep reverence in his voice. Most people back home do regard the Titan as holy but Hunter was raised to be a zealout. Even if Emperor Belos had been lying all along about hearing the Titan and how it had big plans for Hunter, he still has the same faith in the Titan itself.]

[It's the way someone might have reverence for the life of an animal they had to hunt to survive. Its life, passed from it to them, is still a gift, whether it was intended to be given or not. The Titan deserves their respect and gratitude.]

[doctopoda]

It's pronounced "Google".

[He points out mildly; he hadn't known what it was before getting dumped here either. Share the knowledge!]

I see. You know, that's not entirely different from our plants. Decaying organic matter is important for their growth as well - though of course, it isn't all from one being.

[badbutsadboy]

Oh, I guess that makes sense. We believe that when someone dies and is buried, they became a part of the Titan again. And then a part of other things that are alive.

Here, I guess it's like...you become a part of the world again and a part of everything else that's died instead of the Titan. And then a part of growing things.

[There is something scientific and something a little spiritual in his concept of it, but his reverence for the Titan hasn't changed, even if his faith in his uncle has.]

[doctopoda]

Yes. It's something many people find comforting.

[Otto stares into the fire, ignoring the twinge behind his eyes. Rosie would have liked it. They'd never quite talked about such things - they weren't so old, they were both in good health. It was fine, wasn't it? Still, he knows she would have.

He doesn't know where she was buried.]