thecapitol | (no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not even a laugh that first second, it's more like a wordless choke as Hawkeye gulps in a breath and feels himself tickled. After the grin plants itself, lopsided and heavy, the laughter begins to pour out. Truth be told, later he'll say the pun wasn't that great (holy hell, it was brilliant) and that it only took him by surprise. When the fit begins to subside, he begins to shake his head, careful to keep the little flower from falling.

He glances back at her, her expression, after having focused on the bench and table. And he promptly dissolves into snickering again. "That was bad," he says. Oh and an afterthought- "Happy birthday, you s-" no, no, he doesn't know her that well. "That was a terrible pun. You're nuts."

She can't help but laugh when he does, and when he adds in the 'You're nuts' she out-right snorts.

"Aren't they awesome?" She says, grinning, and flips the page to another. "Okay, okay, one more. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway," She says, trying not to giggle. "One hat says to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'.