I know you like it sweet, so you can have your cake.

[killtime]

WHO: Martyfam & open to CR!
WHERE: Maurtia Falls #10
WHEN: Backdated to September 19th
WHAT: It's the monthly family dinner/Archie's dang birthday!
WARNINGS: Will be updated as necessary.


It's the monthly get-together — and Andy is, to her credit, trying to make it as normal as fucking possible, given all the shit that's happened in the past several weeks. She does more than her usual schtick of sitting on the stoop smoking a cigarette and half-wishing the painfully domestic ritual would be over already. This is her family. Important words have been said. Feelings are out there. And she said she would try, so she's trying. She goes to the grocery store and buys actual groceries (not just a six-pack for her to hoard in the bathtub later). She rolls her sleeves up and cooks. She sends out brief text messages, reminding everyone that their asses better show up at the house. And internally, she tries not to dwell too hard on why it feels so important to do this — to make sure this happens and that all the usual suspects are present.

There are, however, two noticeable food items that were, in fact, not prepared by Andy. Both happen to be cakes. One was delivered by the robot that had, at one point, punched the absolute shit out of her. It's bakery quality to the finest detail, decorated tastefully like something out of a food magazine. In meticulous icing letters, this first cake reads: Congratulations on the resurrection of your dead guardian! Lovely. The second cake is less ostentatious, decorated in particularly nonthreatening frosting flowers. And that would be unremarkable entirely, except that the first cake had already annoyed Andy and resulted in her accosting the person who brought the second. Alas, poor Archie.

This eventually leads to the revelation that it's Archie's birthday. Which would also be fine. Except nobody in this damn house knows how to celebrate a birthday properly. Not Andy, for certain — she hasn't celebrated a birthday in a couple thousand years. Martin and Rex aren't much use either. Combined, they don't even stack up to one middle-aged man. The best Andy can manage is some last minute, store-bought balloons — some of which say "It's A Boy!" because the store ran out of "Happy Birthday" ones. The rest will have to be left up to the capable hands of Cassandra Igarashi.

All in all? Just the normal chaos of the monthly family dinner.

Comments

ANDY | OTA

[killtime]

1: Preparations
[ Admittedly, it's been a long while since the last time Andy cooked anything properly. Why bother, really? Her diet mostly consists of cigarettes and alcohol. But that doesn't mean she doesn't know how. You don't live seven thousand years through hundreds of different cultures and not pick up a thing or two. She's not exactly tidy about it — but whatever she's making in the kitchen smells pretty damn good, even if it looks a little like a war zone.

There's her special chicken noodle soup on the stove — something mild for the less experienced palates in the house. Skin-on chicken wings, a little thyme and a few bay leaves, a touch of tomato paste, onions, carrots, and hearty egg noodles, all simmering over the heat. She's already taken out a shepard's pie and set it out on the counter to cool off — beautifully crispy pastry over golden potatoes, bacon, ground beef — and there smell of butter and cinnamon coming from the oven is a classic baklava, for dessert.

In the middle of it all, Andy with food all over her shirt and smudged on her exposed forearms, looking just a little harried. ]


2: During Dinner
[ Okay, well — it wouldn't be a "normal family dinner" if Andy didn't take a second to step outside and smoke a cigarette, even if she has been putting in a little more effort in terms of being present. Centuries of old habits don't change over night, and she doesn't think anybody will really notice if she goes out to sit on the porch with a cigarette and a beer. She just needs a few minutes to puff away and think — then she'll go back inside and pretend like she doesn't still lose sleep over how close she was to finally resting forever.

Later, she might be found scrubbing dishes in the kitchen sink — another part of the whole family dinner ritual — or sitting out on the couch with Rex the fish, casually feeding him a few crumbs of "Congratulations you're not fucking dead anymore" cake. Or straight up passed out on that very same couch, because putting in that much effort into any one thing is exhausting for anyone, even an ancient immortal. ]

2

[h2no]

[this is deeeeefinitely not the direction archie expected anything to go-- he'd told himself he was gonna bring cake to the next dinner regardless, it just happened to land on his birthday... anyway, after andy had accosted him (and he'd angrily eaten half the flowers in silent protest), everything basically falls back to normal. even with the ballons appearing - another thing that... look, archie knows how to celebrate a birthday, but he's in his thirties. this is all confusing him, because like a fool he assumes they would know that none of this is necessary. the rabbit hole of this strange house dives ever deeper.

he sort of catches andy outside. he's brought mightyena along with him because of how well he got along with martin. it was mightyena that ventured outside after about an hour of hanging around, wanting some fresh air for himself, and archie had seen andy moping and smoking while he was about to come out to see how the pokémon was doing. mightyena stretches in the backyard, archie grabs something he'd got for andy and carefully opens the front door to hold out his gift of... everclear.]

Hey, [he says, to get her attention.] This one's for you.

[coming back when you don't really want to sucks, and while he'll never be able to truly understand how she feels... it's something, right? it's not even the best gift, arguably one of the worst possible ones, but sometimes you just need a really fucking strong drink after dealing with the porter's bullshit. what's better than the strongest?]

[killtime]

[ Andy glances up when Archie speaks, letting the familiar sound of his voice draw her attention back out from whatever dark corner of her own mind it had wandered off too. The bottle in his hand earns a faint, wry twist of her mouth. She reaches out for it. Like hell she's gonna turn down shit that's 190 proof. ]

It's not even my fucking birthday. [ With an exhale, she flicks the butt of her dwindling cigarette away, scooting over and patting the spot on the porch next to her before she gets to work opening the booze. Almost as an afterthought, she adds lightly: ] About the whole cake thing...

1.

[darkov]

[Andy is incredible. she took on so much initiative to make so much of this herself, rather than resort to the tried and true Rex response of simply ordering out. that would probably be a point of concern, considering how abysmally homemade dishes have been since Anderson's departure, but...but the kitchen smells so nice under Andy's efforts.

Martin, who likes to help in what little ways he can, can't help but pause again to marvel at all this. remember his sad potato soup? remember how it was the saddest state a potato could be in? look at potatoes now.]

...Wow...

[something he peeled didn't die immediately in failure. amazing.

he wipes the peeler off with a towel and looks back over to Andy, eyes big.]

How do you know how to do so much like this? All at once?

[killtime]

[ Honestly, she's not one hundred percent sure how she's pulling it off either. Maybe it's all those field skills she has, repurposing themselves for the nigh Herculean task of cooking two or three dishes at once. Situational awareness for managing the stove and the oven at the same time — keeping each step of the recipe straight in her head like she would with the plans for a complicated mission. Put like that, she doesn't have to dwell so much on how domestic it all feels. ]

I'm old, kid. You picked up a lot of things after seven thousand years. Forget about half of it, but there's still enough left rattling around in there to scrape a decent dinner together. [ She wipes her forehead with her arm and just manages to smear something half on her face and half in her hair. ] You wanna check the oven for me?

1

[ct_7567]

[ Hey. Hey, Andy? What the fuck? Since when is she a gourmet chef? After so long without Anderson, Rex had (quite cheerfully) resigned to either relying on Archie's seemingly endless fountain of goodwill for some decent home-cooked food or grabbing take-out. It's fine. He likes take-out! And while he can muster together a few meals for himself and Martin that mostly consist of putting together pre-made ingredients or heating things up in a pan, it doesn't seem right to serve it to their motley crew during their monthly get-togethers.

Which is why when he steps into the house and is smacked in the face with the smell of good food, both familiar and not, he can't help but wonder if Archie had felt moved to come early and use their kitchen instead. But there's Andy. Cooking. There's something impressive looking already cooling on the counter, all crackly and brown in all the right ways that what Rex cooks isn't, and the whole thing smells almost as though he's walked into someone else's home - but a home nonetheless. ]

Andy? You can cook?

[ You'd think that after all this time, this would be less impressive to Rex, especially considering her lifespan. Somehow, he'd just never imagined her cooking, as though she spent all of her days happily throwing something she killed over a fire and leaving it at that. ]

1(ish?)

[consulinchief]

[Roland was just minding his own business, trying to make it back to his own house a few spots down when he spots a woman accosting a delivery boy. He recognizes the house--it's Martin's--but admittedly not the woman. Without hesitating, he yells out and runs towards the commotion.]

Hey! Leave that man alone!

2

[versusseeker]

[Hey, Andy. Remember this guy? He's definitely a new face as far as family dinners go, but he certainly remembers yours. It's possible that Andy might not have noticed him wandering around the party before - he is a pretty quiet guy. He doesn't mean to catch her at a bad time, either - he's just coming outside to get a breath of fresh air and let his larger Pokémon do the same. He waves when he sees Andy, an easy expression on his face (if not a bit flat, but that's just Red).]

archie / ota

[h2no]

a. cake

[the flowers were a deliberate choice. coincidentally, the only other cake available that had frosting on it was a shark decoration, and thinking of martin's sensibilities, archie opted against it. it's best that entire event was continually swept under the rug. he puts thye box on the kitchen table (after swiping some frosted flowers for himself and double-taking at the other cake) and leaves it happily at that. he grabs a drink for himself and skedaddles out the kitchen and andy's way - best not to poke that bear again - and slips into the living room. rex the fish is swimming in circles as usual, and he can't help but smile to see it looking in good health.]

Yo, [he says, cheerfully to anyone that enters. even anyone that seems like they're not interested in talking, which given many members of this weird little group is... likely any of one them.] What number are we at now? This is like... the fourth, right?

b. p...arty?

[around the time andy disappears to get the balloons, archie releases mightyena while he's standing in the garden, the dog materializing in a flash of light. he glances over to the windows of the house, seeing blue balloons slowly pop up. he's so confused. mightyena looks over to the window. he is also confused. archie crouches down to scritch behind the hyena's ear.]

Don't worry about it, [he says lightly.] You just gotta stay lowkey and hang out with Martin tonight, alright?

[the pokémon nods, pawing the ground for a few moments, then trots back inside. archie follows him, stopping for a moment to grab some cake.]

Better eat it sober... [he says to himself. he has a bad history with cakes and drinking.]

wildcard

[u know what to do]

i know what to do

[darkov]

Um...

[some time later on in the evening, after several explanations of this birthday-situation have been made, Martin's vanished for a bit, and has only come back down. he tugs slightly on Archie's sleeve for his attention, his other hand behind his back.]

a

[consulinchief]

[Roland takes his eyes off the fish to look over at the man in the bandanna--Archie, he believed his name was. At the question he sheepishly rubs at the back of his neck.]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

gremlin ota

[darkov]

[there is...a lot of cake this time around, and Martin is not wholly prepared for it. so much sugar. there's a lot of points where he just stands still and stares at something or someone while a rush of sugar makes his head swirl before he's spurred by a sound or something to move again -- sometimes for more cake. between that and Andy's incredible cooking, he's a bit overstuffed and queasy by the end of it.

but it's not upsetting. actually, it's...really kind of nice. the ambiance this dinner brings is like a comfortable blanket draped over him, warm and secure. maybe not the perfect fit, since there's chilly gaps where key people are missing -- Anderson, Akira -- but there's a pokemon hound in his lap at the point where he even realizes there's a gap at all.

this...can't be properly nostalgic, can it? that must be some bit of foreign memory mixed up in his head, back as Peklabog when his power let him sponge memories from people. from that, he has the faintest feelings of familiarity to things like this -- birthdays, noisy family gatherings, house pets...

but this one is his, right? right here.

well after dinner is properly served, Martin sits cross-legged on the couch with mightyena's head in his lap, absently petting him as he wonders on this, staring at nothing in particular.

when he's not spacing out like this, he helps pick up dirty dishes to clean up, or move things around as directed. or even not as directed -- look at all these small things he can do unsolicited and be a contributing member of this little family organism!

...he has no idea what to do with the balloons, though.]

local boy

[h2no]

[it's after dinner when archie's made himself one of his disgusting strong coffees. he's still puzzling over what to do now the nights getting on a bit, and is strongly considering leaving when the others start to wind down to find somewhere to spend the rest of the night. go home? don't be ridiculous. he saunters into the living room where martin and mightyena are reclining and silently sits down next to him, reaching out to give martin's hair a ruffle.

mightyena wakes up with a grunt and lifts his head, looking around, then deciding to also give martin a sign of appreciation. big slobbery cheek lick: INCOMING.]

[consulinchief]

[Roland certainly hadn't intended to stay for dinner, but one thing led to another and, well... here he still was. After making sure there isn't any work to be done in the kitchen, he wanders out into the living room and spies Martin petting an odd-looking dog.

It's a cute sight.]

Is that your dog?

dee is such an embarrassment this was difficult to write

[d33tached]

[D33 has also consumed unholy amounts of cake at this party that he was barely invited to, but unlike Martin, he is a bottomless void when it comes to things like cake.

[Holy fuck is cake an amazing invention.

[He's got a plate of it in his hand when he notices Martin.] Ah. Good evening, Martin. [Has this kid been here this whole time? He's so quiet.

[D33 nods toward the plate in his hands.] Have you tried this? It's quite pleasing.

[His voice is still rather monotonous and he carries himself just as stiffly as he always does when there are strangers around, but...he doesn't sound irritated by any means. How can you be when there's cake around? He can look past the social anxiety for cake.]

OTA!!

[ct_7567]

1. CAKE?? BALLOONS???

[ Rex is puzzled.

He often finds himself puzzled by things on this planet, though he's never certain whether it's a quirk of his background or a quirk of this planet alone. He's pretty sure that this is genuinely odd, however, and winds up hovering between the "It's A Boy!" balloons and the cake ostensibly congratulating Martin for Andy not being dead. Which can't be right. ]

It's a boy. [ ... ] What's a boy?

[ Look, he doesn't mean it literally. ]

2. EVERYTHING ELSE.

[ It's already been well-established that Rex can't cook worth shit. What he can do, however, is clean, and he busies himself both before and after the meal with tidying up, quickly and efficiently enough that by the time everyone sits down to eat, the kitchen's more or less clean, and all they have to fend with are leftovers and the dishes they're eating on. If you manage to find him when he's not cleaning, he's -- okay, when he's not cleaning, he's probably stuffing his face like he's a starving man, but most people here know by now that that's just how he eats.

When he's doing neither of those things, he's looking at his communicator - more specifically, he's looking up birthday parties on his communicator. ]

...the friends and family of the person whose birthday it is taking him or her by the arms and legs, and "bumping" him/her up into the air and down onto the floor. The number of "bumps" given equals the age of the person in years plus one "for luck". [ He looks over to where Archie's sitting speculatively, then back to his communicator. ] That can't be right.

what am i supposed to do - NOT respond to the stupid tags

[darkov]

Uh...

[he squints, trying to keep his eyes on the balloon and try and discern more clues beyond the puffy letters.]

The...balloon is?

2

[h2no]

[at first he'd been a little worried that the birthday thing would make the entire evening awkward and weird - but he only regret mentioning such a small detail about himself for all of half an hour. he's going to keep some of these it's a boy balloons, and he's honestly having a really good time. sure, he's getting joy from the general confusion of all this, but...

let him live. no-one's hurt. archie waves a little when rex looks over to him, suddenly looking mildly alarmed.]

What? That can't be-- that must be something from here. Usually we just punch their upper arms.

[...]

Don't-- don't grab my arms and legs. I will set Crobat on you all. Don't test me.

1

[queenofseers]

[ Look, Rex; Cass just walked in, and that is not the first thing she expected to hear. She's too tired for this right now.

She walks up, not even noticing the balloons yet. Rex...please... ]

Hey, Rex, can you not get existential on me the moment I get here? What?

2

[consulinchief]

[Roland listens to the description in barely contained horror. Who possibly wrote that?]

That's.... far more violent then what I've heard as a birthday tradition. "Birthday bumps" are usually light taps on the person's arm, certainly not hurtling them up into the air.

Cassandra Igarashi/Urdr | OTA

[queenofseers]

1. what are you people doing now

[ Cassandra's had a bad couple of months. She's hoping it won't get any worse- probably not something she should rely on- but at least she knows she can come to Maurtia Falls #010 and be around people she can actually stand. She walks in with coffee, obviously needing it, and...raises an eyebrow at the proceedings. What is this? Whose birthday is it? Is it a birthday? And who thought it would be a good idea to make a cake themed around Andy being dead for nearly a month?

She gives said cake a good glare, trying to figure out who'd have put it together in the first place. Seems flippant, as far as she's concerned. ]

Did no one think this was in bad taste? Or at least uncomfortable taste? Seriously.

2. we're party??

[ Where did these party hats come from? Don't ask. The more important thing is that they're here, and Cassandra is holding them.

Not that she's wearing one. But she needs something to smile at these days, and you know what would be funny as hell? Any of the people in this house wearing a party hat. Literally any of them. She's not usually the type to push something like this, but screw it- she's been miserable, and it needs to let up somehow. If she's approached, she's going to see if she can get anyone to wear one. ]

So. It's a birthday. Apparently. [ Not that she sounds especially enthused about that. ] Are you gonna put one on?

[ Please just give her this. ]

1.

[darkov]

Oh, that--

[Martin catches her giving the cake a very Cass-look and pushes away from the wall and over to her side.]

That was...was a gift. From Danger? The, um. She's...tall, and...and blue, and... [he looks around. is she here, in eyeshot?]

wwwwwwwildcard

[h2no]

[it's much later after the party. pitch black outside. a little cold, but mercifully not raining or windy. a good temperature for sitting outside with. with cass has taken over one chair, so archie decides to grab the back of another one that's laying on its side in the corner and drag it over.

he has a mug of something that's steaming - warm - but doesn't smell... sober.

archie knows cass isn't much for company at the best of times, but you know what? fuck it. he wants to sit here. he flops back into the chair, holding his mug of mystery fluid and grunts a light 'hello'.]

1

[killtime]

The robot brought it.

[ As if that really clarifies anything when there's a dozen robots running around. Danger doesn't even really live in Maurtia Falls, as far as Andy knows — but somehow she always seems to be in the neighborhood. She still isn't entirely sure if the cake is meant to be cheeky or sincere. Hard to tell anything with Danger's flat face and flat voice. ]

Whatever. At least she didn't bring over condolence cake while I was dead.

2

[consulinchief]

[Roland takes the hat and puts it on without any additional coaxing. He feels a little silly, but... she asked.]

You don't sound too happy about that.