ota; beach bonfire

[prontissimo]

WHO: Luca Paguro, Alberto Scorfano, and ???
WHERE: Stardew Beach
WHEN: Evening of Sunday, 20 November
WHAT: Luca's 14th birthday party! Mingle at a bonfire on the beach. They brought... lasagna...
WARNINGS: none! mention of sand fleas?


[ Come Sunday evening, as advertised, Luca's party is all set up on the shores of Stardew Beach. There's a roaring bonfire for folks to gather round, built by Alberto and Luffy under Katsuki’s careful instruction. They've piled some wood into makeshift benches around the fire for people to sit and chat and eat. On a nearby picnic table, the boys have laid out a small spread of food. But being their first "human" birthday party (and Alberto's first real party period), they didn't exactly hit the bullseye with what to serve at a beach bonfire...

They brought pasta. They carefully shlepped a huge pot of trenette al pesto and a large tray of lasagna, plus all their other party supplies, on the bus, on the train, all the way to the beach. Diligence. They don't know about hotdogs. While unorthodox, it's genuinely tasty food, though — and Alberto hasn't accidentally poisoned anyone in at least a month or two...! So also safe to eat, bonus! In addition to the pasta, they have a bowl of leftover Halloween candy, a cooler full of bottled water and an impressive array of energy drinks, and off to the side, a small stack of frying pans, a collection of myriad spices, and a bunch of kitchen knives...? For filleting and frying fish, naturally. Alberto's also brought fishing poles, so now anyone can cook up whatever they catch. Like any normal human child's birthday party.

One normal human thing they managed, though: a birthday cake. That is, if you have a forgiving definition of what a "birthday cake" is... The icing did not fair well being stacked on top of the hot lasagna on the way to the beach. Plus this is Alberto's first attempt at cake decorating or baking anything in general, thankfully once again under Katsuki’s watchful guidance... It— probably tastes fine. Let's assume it does. Just don’t look at it.

They've got two telescopes set up for any fellow star-gazers, one courtesy of Danny, and Luca brought along a couple constellation guidebooks on how to read the stars. For the less bookish types, Alberto's brought along a light-up soccer ball and a light-up Frisbee, accounting for the darkness. They've brought a few cheap swim goggles for anyone trustworthy who'd like to sneak off for a swim with a sea monster. But for those who stay on land, Alberto's also brought three fishing poles, a couple hand nets, along with tackle and bait — but not worms or something normal, of course not. No, he has an old paint can he's filled halfway with live sand fleas... Took a while to catch them all by hand himself, but it's fine; they've found more than enough sand fleas for everyone. Anyone prone to poking their nose into random containers will probably regret this one, sorry. Bleck...

All in all, it promises to be a fun birthday party — but definitely a birthday party like no other... You only turn fourteen in a human city in another country in an alternate dimension in the future once, right? ]

Comments

PRESENTS

[prontissimo]

[ There's a small pile of gifts by the cake on the picnic table, for those who brought Luca birthday presents. Leave it, log it, either way; y'all know what to do. 🎁🎂🥰 ]

[senorita_perfecta]

Even though Isa hasn’t met Luca just yet, she does make an effort to spoil, I mean, surprise him with some pretty neat gifts. The first of which is a big sticker book of glow in the dark stars that the birthday celebrant can use to decorate anything with.

The second gift is another big book, an astronomy book that has tons of HD quality space photos from the James Webb space telescope (despite not knowing what the aforementioned telescope is until she had purchased the book itself).

And last but not the least, she has brought along a very warm and fuzzy blanket decked out in yellow and white stars in time for the colder months.

[schrodingersghost]

[ Danny had only talked to Luca a few times, but that wasn't going to stop him from dropping off a present. Plus, you know, fellow astronomy guy. He adds a new constellation guidebook and a t-shirt with a terrible space pun on it. ]

[a_cute_batata]

Luz was pretty happy to be able to celebrate Luca's birthday! With the suggestions by Alberto, Luz made sure she had packed a few interesting things for Luca to sink his teeth into.

*Map of the galaxy

*Astronaut "ice cream"

*A local Planeterium ticket!

*A bracelet of the planets in the solar system

Luz just hoped these were enough to be a pretty decent aspiring astronomer starter kit!

[neverbreaks]

Luisa hadn't been sure about attending at first, because she'd only met Luca once. But the invitation had been open, and there wasn't anything wrong with giving a gift anyway, right?

And since she had met Luca during the convention, and remembers the video game that he'd been playing at the time. Somehow she managed to find not only a copy of that game, but a sequel of it and bought both for him. Hopefully he and Alberto have a console in order to play them.

[findingways]

Alberto had said that Luca liked to read, and knowing a bit of how curious Luca can be for herself, Moana had a couple of ideas of what to get for his birthday.

In the end, she decided on two books to give him: The Book of Unusual Knowledge just for some fun and interesting information on a broad range of topics, and What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles to challenge his mind.

[prontissimo]

a. fish out of water

[ Anyone close with Alberto might notice he seems a bit... off. He's acting normal, still his bold and boisterous self, but those who've spent a lot of time with him might find him a bit— watered down. Maybe there's something unnerved behind his eyes, his voice slightly distant at times, something in how and when his silences fall in conversation. He's a shade quieter than his friends might expect him to be on Luca's birthday; while he's very much excited and energetic, he's not bouncing off the walls. It's subtle, hard to place, but one of those gut feeling vibes that radiates no matter how good an actor he is.

The "everything's fine" front falls while he's fishing, using it as an excuse to withdraw from the group and be alone for brief blips. Anyone who joins him might feel that heavy mood hanging about him, may catch him scowling into the water, notice how aggressively he casts his line. He splits off like this quite a few times throughout the night. Thankfully, he manages to catch fish each time, or else his cover-up would look more suspicious... except, how many fish does the party really need...? ]


b. cutting up by the fire

[ Alberto makes good use of all his excuses to withdraw, though, by cooking them up for everyone to eat...! Once he returns to the group after splitting off to fish each time, he paints his smile back on and concentrates his efforts full force into socializing and celebrating — in fact, he's over-compensating being cheerful and talkative. He spends a significant part of the night like this, sitting by the fire and chatting in the mix with everyone while butchering and frying fish. He doesn't know what some of these fish are, so hopefully they taste good, but only one way to find out...! There had to be some culinary risk involved here, okay.

He goes the extra mile to seem jovial and carefree, even having brought along a joke book for conversation's sake. He whips "Jokes For Blokes" out of his pocket while eating some fish and pasta, subjecting whoever might be beside him to this curse of a gacha gift... ]

Okay, okay, here's an ocean-y joke: "Why do sharks live in salt water? ...Because pepper makes them sneeze." Ha! ...Get it?

[ He hopes so! ...Because he doesn't get it... The expectant look on his face shows that. ]


c. wildcard!

[ Alberto stays busy all night, and though his energy is simultaneously both frenetic and defused, he's still in high spirits, which are mostly genuine. He'll be involved with playing any games, stargazing, serving food, you name it. Catch him wherever you want him! ]

[schrodingersghost]

[Danny happily admits that he has no idea what you do with fish after the catching part, so he's happy to spend the evening going back and forth between the telescopes and sitting by the fire and chatting. He didn't know Alberto well, but something did seem to be a little off tonight. But not knowing how to bring it up, he just goes along with it. And well, terrible jokes were his weakness.]

Good one! Here's another one. Why are oceans the friendliest bodies of water? Because they always greet you with a wave!

[prontissimo]

[ Alberto gives a sarcastic grimace at that one, narrowing his eyes as if in pain of the pun. ]

Oof...

[ He likes that Danny just had that one in his back pocket, though. Alberto doesn't know many jokes off the cuff, so that alone is impressive. He skims the joke book again, smirking strongly at this one, shooting Danny a sly look. ]

"Why are there fish at the bottom of the sea?" ...Because they dropped out of school! Hah! I like that one.

A

[a_cute_batata]

[Luz had noticed that Alberto had seemed down today, and was faking enthusiasm, likely for Luca's sake. As someone who sometimes had to feign happy when she wasn't feeling too great herself, she caught on to the signs. Luz waited for the right opportunity and decided to join him in trying to catch and fry up some fish].

Room for one more?

[prontissimo]

[ Alberto wipes that scowl off his face as soon as he hears Luz's voice, turning to her with wide eyes and brows raised. After a beat, he smiles lopsidedly, giving a little nod of an invitation. But no surprise, he's putting that "everything's fine" facade right back up now that someone's here. ]

Heh, yeah. There's another fishing rod there, bait's in the can. ...Or, uh— There're hand nets if you wanna get in the water... Up to you.

[ Cuz it occurs to him suddenly, hey, they can do that! Basically everyone who's here tonight knows they're sea monsters...! And looking around now at all the others further up the shore, watching Luca and Danny at the telescope, friends around the bonfire, everyone having fun — it also occurs to him that's a lot of people. That's a good thing. They've been pretty discerning who they've told. Yet there are still about a dozen people here, only a couple new friends left out of the loop. It's a good reminder of how many friends they've made here, how much Alberto's life has improved here, how many people are still in his life here — he's gotta focus on how many friends showed up for the party tonight. How great it's been having friends like Luz and Katsuki and Luca by his side today, that's what he needs to be thinking about. He casts his glance back to Luz, giving a wider smile now — it's still soft, but it's far more genuine. ]

B

[senorita_perfecta]

(To be fair, Isabela admittedly isn’t the greatest fisher of all time, but she did caught a fair amount of it that can be used for the fish fry. Afterwards she did take some time off to stargaze through the telescope and enjoy the constellations in the night sky.

She did noticed that Alberto is partly feeling not like himself right now, but she doesn’t want to risk being a party pooper by asking why he is feeling super down. Might as well join the puns and jokes even if she is terrible at making jokes.)

Oh, this is very funny. I got something in return. What does a dolphin say when he’s confused? Can you please be more Pacific?!

[prontissimo]

[ Alberto wasn't expecting Isabela to retort with a joke of her own, it's true — she doesn't seem the jokester type. But he's tickled when she meets him with another, and grins at her in pleasant surprise. He skims the joke book again and finds another to read off, not knowing any jokes off the cuff, himself. ]

Ha! "Pacific." How's this— "Why didn't the clam give to charity? Because he was too shellfish...!" Haaa... Except clams are mollusks, not shellfish, but, y'know. Oh, well. Hey, hah, I can make up a new joke, this'd be better: "Why didn't the mollusk give to charity? Because he didn't give a clam...!"

[ Which is, in fact, just a common turn of phrase amongst sea folk. Not the most polite expression, but Alberto's not the most polite child — and it's for the sake of comedy, after all. He's pretty great at masking his grief, heavy though it is tonight, but he's also genuinely always down to clown around, and just as quick to pat himself on the back, too... Two things Bruno brought out in him even more. In a flash, it occurs to him how much Bruno'd get a kick out of this conversation, Alberto having told Bruno many a joke from "Jokes For Blokes" over text before, and the flash of remembrance feels like a little bolt of lightning struck him inside. His smile at Isabela falters for just a split second as he's reminded of this absence, but he disguises this twinge of pain with a big bite of fish from the plate balanced in his lap, forcing a smile back on his face even as he chews. Swallowing that fish along with his feelings, yup. ]

Wildcard--Time to meet the boyfriend

[callmekacchan]

[Katsuki had kind of vaguely mentioned he'd invited a plus one to the party. But when he first showed up to help he was alone. He didn't want to drag Yoosung along pre-party to be bored while he helped get a bonfire going and set up.

He told Yoosung to meet him there once the actual party started and once he spies his boyfriend arriving he goes to get him and bring him over to Alberto.]

Oy, Nickels. Someone I want you to meet.

[He leads Yoosung by the hand across the beach to where Alberto is seated. He's told Yoosung a little about the boys here and there. He definitely thinks he's going to like them.]

My boyfriend, Yoosung.

[Katsuki rarely uses actual names. But for the sake of introduction, he can let slide that, yes, he does in fact know that people have actual names.]

Yoosung, this is Alberto.

[The one he described as a Nightmare in a fond tone. Like it was a compliment. He is in fact stupidly fond of these fish boys.]

Yoosung's into stars too. I told him about your bathroom project.

[blurrier]

[Normally Yoosung would have been happy to arrive earlier help too, especially since he does have some party organizing experience thanks to his parents' charity, though granted that was less birthday and more fundraising. But that was also exactly why he couldn't help with this one, because he was already helping with preparations for the huge Christmas party next month. He could, however, attend this one, and he was always happy being Katsuki's plus one wherever he wanted to bring him.

He's got a fluffy pastel sweater on thanks to the weather and lack of sunlight, and a shooting star piercing in his right ear. The sweater has a velcro patch in the back, around where his shoulder blades are located. (Wings. The answer is wings. They're just not out at the moment.)

The young man with bleached blonde hair smiles at Alberto and waves his free hand in greeting, still holding onto Katsuki's with the other.]

Hello, Alberto~ Thanks for letting Katsuki bring me! A star-gazing party on the beach is such a great idea! Did Katsuki tell you my name means Shooting Star in Korean?

B - Cutting up by the fire

[schoolingfish]

[He doesn't, because Luca has even less experience than Alberto.]

Um...maybe it's something you need cooking experience to get?

[Because he's assuming Alberto does get it, and he knows pepper is used a lot in cooking.]

[prontissimo]

[ Alberto gives Luca a funny, sheepish smile in spite of himself, faltering a second before coming clean. ]

Well... I've got cooking experience, and I don't get it either. Ha...

Luca catch-all

[schoolingfish]

a. Go Fish

Luca's a bit worried about Alberto. He knows how hard losing Bruno is for him and he can tell Alberto's a bit off...but he also knows that Alberto is trying to push that down and enjoy all of this, so Luca doesn't want to bring it up. Alberto wanted to throw Luca an awesome birthday party, and he did put together an awesome birthday party, so Luca isn't going to put more stress on Alberto by letting the party fail. He's going to have fun despite his worry because that's what Alberto needs right now. Maybe if they get caught up in all the fun they can even take Alberto's mind off things.

For now, though, he decides to head out to catch some fish. Sure, he might not be as much of a fisherman as Alberto, but it's still nice and relaxing, and they can always use more fish for the cookout, right?

b. Stargazer

It's much easier to shift his thoughts away from his worry and focus on his excitement when he gets to the telescopes. Sure, he provided one of the telescopes himself and he can look at the stars whenever he wants, but it's so much more fun when there's someone to share it with.

"If you look up that way," he says, pointing, "You'll see a red dot thing, and apparently that's a whole other planet!"

c. Pasta and a Game

Luca may be a nerd, but he's a surprisingly athletic nerd, and his speed and agility seem to help him a lot when he's playing soccer. After a few rounds of that, he decides to settle down and take a break, heading over to the fire for something to drink and some pasta.

"It's kind of fun playing that in the dark with the ball all lit up like that, huh?"

d. Just Keep Swimming

Later, he heads out to the water, looking out over the waves that lick the shore. It does seem like a nice night for a swim, and most of the people here already know about his secret. It's also dark, so those who don't are unlikely to notice anything unusual and if they do...well, even if they react badly, they're vastly outnumbered here by people who know and support Luca and Alberto, sea monster or not.

If someone who already knows his secret approaches, he asks, "Wanna go for a swim?"

Completely oblivious to the fact that a cool fall night is, perhaps, not the best weather for a human to be going for a swim.

Just keep swimming

[callmekacchan]

[Katsuki is weird about large bodies of water. They freak him out. But he's been making strides to tackle it as best he can. He's still not ready to face it head on enough to go swimming, but he can get closer now. It's a start.

He comes over by the water because he sees Luca has wandered closer. He isn't surprised to find Luca is thinking about swimming. It's not a concern. Seamonsters can't drown or anything. So the low light probably isn't an issue for Luca.]

I don't swim. But I've been curious about how you guys do. Nickels brags about how good you two are at it.

[He can always be lookout if Luca wants to go for a dip.]

[schoolingfish]

Oh! I can show you!

[And, very excited to do so, Luca turns and dives into the water, flicking his green and blue tail out of the water to show it off before diving under. Then, gathering momentum, he races up, jumping out of the water, though not going high enough to dry off before he hits the water again. Then, once in the water, he races out before turning back. Once more he swims down before jumping out of the water, this time going high enough to change back to human for a second before diving back in. After that bout of showing off, he swims back to Katsuki.]

What do you think?

Stargazer

[a_cute_batata]

"Wow!"

Luz had to admit it was nice to be able to look out and put her head to the stars instead of thinking about how she had to leave here eventually, or that she was honestly having a really nice time here.

"Kinda wish we could see it see even closer! This is still pretty awesome though!"

[bossy_boots]

Nearby, Ghost chased whatever things she could find, or imagine were there. Amity watched her, leaning her head on Luz's shoulder.

"It really is," she said, with a slight sigh.

[schoolingfish]

"That would be awesome! Like...if we could actually go up there and see it from close up...that would be amazing."

He pauses, looking up, daydreaming about going up to the stars and seeing them from only inches away.

Just keep swimming

[findingways]

Normally Moana would be quick to accept any chance to swim, but the even in this realm it was getting pretty cold, and she's already feeling a bit sluggish as it is.

So as much as she hates it, she shakes her head a bit while giving Luca a small smile. "I wish I could, but I think I'm gonna have to sit out this time."

[schoolingfish]

"Oh. Is it a human thing?"

Her not being able to swim right then, he means.

"I can just hang out on the shore, then."

After all, if none of the guests could swim it seems a bit rude to just swim off and leave them here. Unless they wanted to see his sea folk form, then he'd be glad to go in to show it off.