(no subject)

[onlyimmune]

WHO| SEMI-CLOSED - Ellie, Howard, Venus, Mindy, Orc, R, Wyatt, Hawkeye. (If you think your character has a good reason to be there, ping me and we'll see if we can work them in.)
WHAT| Ellie's birthday.
WHERE| The Laser Tag place.
WHEN| A couple days after the crowning.
Warnings| None!


The crowning had been weird as fuck, no lie about that, and Ellie was having a hard time really integrating into her new home, despite having been there since before the Arena had started. She was fairly cheerful - outwardly at least - but deep somewhere inside everything was still eating at her, slowly.

The idea of a birthday party was a welcome distraction.

She'd never had a birthday party - not a real one, anyway. She'd once gotten an extra ration card for her birthday from Riley, but that was about all she could think of. Birthdays were generally only marked with a 'oh, so you've survived this long' - kids were more mouths to feed and usually unwelcome ones, especially after her mother had died.

But this wasn't home, and no one had yet told her that dying in the arena meant that she wouldn't age - that though her birthday should have just passed, she was in fact back to herself a month or so <i>before</i> her birthday. Thankfully ignorant, however, she could celebrate. And she knew who she wanted.

Howard figured out most of the details and she had let the rest of them know where to meet - just in the lobby of the Laser Tag building, before they got all geared up. Ellie was brimming with a low-key excitement, she'd never played laser tag before but it sounded like something out of a science fiction comic so she liked it. She was there first - way too early - and waited for her friends to arrive.

Then, after everything, they'd have cake.

Comments

BEFORE LASER TAG

[onlyimmune]

[the_marshal]

The invitation came as a surprise, both because Ellie hadn't mentioned the occasion the last time they'd spoken and because it had been some time since he'd celebrated a birthday. Including his own.

Here in the Capitol's loop, aging by weeks and months only to get yanked back again... there didn't seem much point in it. But if it's what Ellie wanted, he certainly wasn't going to deny her.

Wyatt arrived later than most of her guests, have no idea what laser tag even was, much less where to find it, but he made it. With a happy bunch of daises in hand, a wild spray color - purple and blue and green - against a sunshiny yellow wrap made of delicate tissue, and a carefully wrapped gift tucked into his pocket.

Both for the birthday girl.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Holy shit, an invitation to a birthday party. Mindy had never even so much as had friends back where she was from, let alone a reason to go to something like this. She might have felt wary even if the words Laser Tag weren't there in bright letters. Laser tag. A game WITH GUNS.

It had been long enough since Mindy had her weapon of choice, any weapon really. She barely had one during the games and wasn't even allowed to walk around with one now, so all she could do was use what they had in the training room. This was not the same thing, and Mindy found it annoying that her reflexes might actually be dulled if she didn't get to do this stuff in a more action paced setting. She was so there.

She arrived late too, not sure at first what to get Ellie. What DID you get for someone who survive an apocalypse and now lived in a totalitarian government? She opted for a video game.

Arriving, she noted the older guy. A boyfriend? Nah, way too old, and Ellie would have mentioned him. Looked seasoned enough for the games though, that was for sure.

[the_marshal]

Waiting for the birthday girl, Wyatt was at no loss for things to take in. From the wild children, laughing and chasing each other round and round, to the muffle high-pitched whine he could hear in the distance, to the cake, which he could smell - sweet and sugary - from where he stood by the table.

Watching a pair of smaller children gallop by, toting their strange weapons, he spotted Mindy, a stranger to him, but, he figured, a friend of Ellie's.

Politely, he reached up to tip his hat in greeting.

[onlyimmune]

Ellie was already geared up and ready to go when she spotted Wyatt. She was dresseed in a black body suit with bright green stripes down her legs and arms, and a vest. In her arms was a large laser gun and across her lips was a massive grin.

"Wyatt! You made it! You ready to represent the Wild West? I expect some intense gun slinging."

[the_marshal]

"Wouldn't miss it," he grinned. "Happy Birthday, Ellie."

Holding up the flowers so the bright, happy heads flashed at her, a spray of color, he glanced down at the gun in her arms - not unlike the rifles the Capitol had given them before sending out to hunt the aliens with - one eyebrow twitching carefully.

"Representin' it how?"

[swill]

What the heck was laser tag, he had asked before. The question had soon been put out of his mind and it didn't resurface until only just now. He had bundled up sufficiently to walk and lose himself in the Capitol without fearing the cold so much, so of course he got himself lost. Between searching and getting there, he remembered that birthdays were celebrated with presents and that he had promised Ellie a very special book.

He enjoyed the opportunity to look for it, the opportunities that arose from stepping from one specialty shop to the next even more.

He stepped into the laser tag building to find Ellie and some of the other guests already inside, with the book of illustrations, explicit and raunchy and entirely inappropriate, gift wrapped and under one arm. Because a deal was a deal, and truth be told he didn't see the harm in it if only he could convince her to never open it in public. He peered this way and that, and spotted the equipment and thought he understood the game as well as he should. Of all the things...

He puts the book on the table and exclaims- rather, complains, "It's a shooting game!" And he figured he was a mite too attached to the girl if he found it so offensive. The table in the lobby had its benches, and Hawkeye let himself fall into one. He was born tired, it wasn't his fault that finding a seat and sitting on it was an instinct by this point. Besides, he wasn't going to play that game and his detours had significantly wasted him. "Why not just ask for ponies?"

[onlyimmune]

Ellie is already geared up and ready to go, with a fist full of daisies in her hand that Wyatt gave her, when she sees Hawkeye arrive. She grins and steps over.

"Yeah!" She replies to his complaint, utterly unphased by it. "You don't have to play if you don't want, but I dunno, I figure pretending to fight is loads better than actually doing it, yeah?"

She plucks out one of her daisies and slips it behind his ear before he can complain. "It sounds fun, so don't be a party pooper."

[swill]

Why did this exist, he wondered now. Why have guns to play war with when the people and their children were shown the live videos of murders? And how could he voice these things now, with Ellie so oblivious to the meanings of everything she had been armored with, of the gun she'd play and laugh with? Christ, why wasn't anything made simple? He doesn't frown, though, and doesn't think it's for lack of trying. Guns were everywhere. Violence was everywhere. What could he do about it?

"Yeah, yeah, you figure," he says, as dull and dreary as she had instructed him not to act. It was his parroting, his mimic, and his only retort. Why spoil her fun? And how could anybody ever think this would be fun?

It confused him- it really did. And still, he remembered asking his dad for a BB gun as a boy, and he remembered being firmly told 'no'.

She places a daisy behind his ear and his face goes red. He chuckles, breathless and sheepish. She was oblivious to everything, this girl. And he slams his hands on the table and declares, "I wouldn't dare poop for your sake." And he points at the flowers and says, "Those are very pretty."

Re: BEFORE LASER TAG

[celebrityskinned]

If Venus knows how to do one thing, it's how to party. She's arrived today all smiles and bubbles, carrying a gift she hopes can double as her secret Santa Christmas present for Ellie: a superhero leotard, with a big E emblazoned on the front. For shits and giggles.

She sits down on a table outside the laser tag area, drinking a diet soda. She flops the gift down - it was wrapped at the store, by people who are much better at that sort of thing than Venus. "Hey, birthday girl. How old are you now, twenty-six? Twenty-seven?"

[onlyimmune]

"Venus!" Ellie exclaimed with a grin as she skipped over.

"Old enough for whatever you have in mind," She replied, though the grin kind of off set the effect. "But if anyone else asks, I'm fifteen now."

Fifteen years and she wasn't dead yet. It was a feat, for people born after the apocalypse.

"That for me?" She asks, knowing the answer perfectly well.

[celebrityskinned]

"Nah, it's for Chuck-E Cheese." Venus reaches her arms out to give the birthday girl a hug, as is customary, she learned at Xavier's Institute. She gives her a squeeze.

"Have I missed the fun yet?"

Re: BEFORE LASER TAG

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Best birthday ever!" Mindy said, grinning. "I didn't even think these existed in this world! Who else is gonna show up to this thing?"

She was here, and she had a gift too: something pretty archaic, but it was one of those video games you used to pass the time, and it worked.

[onlyimmune]

"Yesss," Ellie said, grinning over at Mindy.

"Though I've never had one so I'm not exactly a great judge. Uh - let's see. I invited you and R, Orc, Venus, Wyatt, Hawkeye - and Howard, obviously, he helped set this all up. You did Laser Tag back home?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy waves her hand sideways. "Nah, but you don't have to worry about me. I have a pretty intimate relationship with guns. So you still have them in your world?"

Re: BEFORE LASER TAG

[paidinbeer]

Orc actually seemed to be in a better mood then usual.

Maybe it was because he'd gotten his stylist to put him in vaguely regular clothes, or maybe it was the idea of doing something as normal as a Birthday party...but he smiled when he arrived with a box under his arm.

"Happy Birthday." That was the first time he'd said that unironically in over a year...and he'd seen alot of birthdays. They'd all been tragic.

[onlyimmune]

"Orc! You made it!" Ellie said, grinning as she ran over.

"Thanks! Howard's here too. You ready to shoot some lasers? This is going to be fucking awesome."

DURING LASER TAG

[onlyimmune]

Re: DURING LASER TAG (Sorry it took so long!)

[hit_girl_mindy]

Ok, she was ready. Armored up, gun in hand, stupid ass helmet on her head. Teams were set, and of course she was teamed with the birthday girl.

This was just as much accessing people as it was fun. How well could they shoot? What were their strengths, weaknesses? These questions were important. Also, she kinda DID want to make a good first impression.

"You ready?"

[celebrityskinned]

Venus is on the other side, and she doesn't bother to disclose her location with her voice so much as with a rally of shots as soon as the buzzer goes off while she darts between two pillars. She ducks to the ground and rolls behind a tire, safe from one angle but exposed, unfortunately, from the others.

CAKE

[onlyimmune]

Re: CAKE

[shambler]

R stood there like a lump for most of the laser tag: in his defense, they'd stopped doing laser tag years before he died. Now he was wobbling in front of the cake, staring down at it, wondering if the Cure that's running through his veins will allow him to taste it for a change. If it'll taste like fluff and sugar instead of ashes and emptiness. The candles are lit yet but he can imagine what they'd look like. The smell of candles being blown out. He remembers that, somehow.

His head comes up as he hears the birthday girl approaching. Ellie.

"Pretty...cake, Ellie," R groans. He's been careful not to get too close. He might be slightly less Dead than before, but he's been having problems with saliva production recently. One of its side effects.

Last thing he wants to do is drool on her cake.

[onlyimmune]

She hadn't really expected much of him during laser tag but she was glad he came anyway (it meant she got a bunch of points from taking pot shots at him).

"Thanks!" She said to the compliment, grinning. "It barely even looks like food to me, but what do I know."

"You look great though, R!" She sidles up beside him and leans down to sniff it. "So can you even eat this stuff?"

Re: CAKE

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard doesn't especially want to stay around for cake. In all honestly, parties aren't really his thing, and he's doing this mostly to give himself a good distraction from preparing for the next Arena. A nice break in his routine of practicing in the training room and fattening up.

The cake, though. He hates eating in front of people. Bad enough he has to do it at parties, but in small groups it's worse - in small groups the nervous tics and the way he swallows things whole like a snake are so much more obvious.

Ellie seems to be enjoying herself, and that's good - maybe he can hold it over her head later. Howard sits on a table and swings his legs, turning the present he got for her over in his hands (he thinks she might be like Julie and like old-timey things, so he got her a keychain with a laser pointer).

[onlyimmune]

"God I fucking love Laser Tag," Ellie gushes as she swings up into the seat beside him, beaming.

"That was the greatest fucking idea on the planet. I really owe you one, Howard." She pauses, and the smile grows: wide and honest.

"Thanks."