SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE [open as heck]

[hugling]

Who: SUPER HEROES!!!!!
Where: Ernest E. Debs Regional Park!
When: Sunday!
What: SUPER BARBECUE
Warnings: Superheroes...



It's a pleasant evening at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, just a couple miles from downtown LA, which can be seen through the haze. Late March means spring is just arriving in LA and the trees are just starting to bud. Unfortunately, the grass is still kind of dead and dry.

The barbecue and picnic area isn't too busy, though the park does have the usual assortment of joggers, dog walkers, and cyclists. There are some balloons tied to picnic tables, and strung between two trees is a very homemade "SUPER BBQ" banner, courtesy of Hulkling and Starbreaker. There's still glitter glue on Milly's apartment floor. There's another posterboard with the rules written on it in big bold sharpie letters nearby, just in case anyone forgets:

• Don't be a jerk!!!
• Keep your weapons holstered please.
• Do not trash the park!
• ABSOLUTELY NO FIGHTING
• Anyone caught fighting will be asked to leave!
• Really don't be a jerk!

[OKAY GUYS!!! mingle! have fun! maybe some THINGS WILL HAPPEN, whoooo knows!]

Comments

[alienheroes]

"Uh-" Ooooh no. Oh no. He has no idea what he's doing. For a couple seconds he just stands there with a look of alarm plastered on his face, looking like he may be trying to find an escape route.

In retrospect he maybe should have come up with a more in-depth cover story before going to an "in-costume" social event. Or... or maybe he didn't need to! He can keep it up, he can do this. Yes.

He forces away the terrified expression as if it were never there, trying to replace it with one of casual confidence, as if he actually knows that what he is saying is true, and is not pulling it off the top of his head.

"Well, there are some things in common - I mean, the trees have leaves and stuff. But, uh, the leaves are- they're blue instead of green. And there are these things that are like, uum... they're like birds but they have six legs." Totally nailing it- wait no not quite. "And they spit acid." Perfect.

[bombsheltered]

Milly grins, though, laughing again. "Hey, relax, it's okay, neither am I. I mean, I almost went for the Trailblazers, but..." She shrugs. "You know! Life stuff. Anyway, us vigilantes have to stick together, right? Me and Hulkling -- the big green guy who put this together, he's my best friend -- we patrol and stuff together, so if you ever want to team up, you know...hit us up! We're always on the Watch."

[alienheroes]

He brightens up visibly; team-up offer? Awesome. "Yeah, totally! I'll-"

At that moment, he's interrupted by a very familiar and very unwelcome beeping. "Aw, man-" He tosses the frisbee back one more time before talking a couple steps back. "I, uh, gotta go! Right now. Later!!"

He bounds off, aiming for an area with more cover - and landing out of sight just before the brief flashes of red from the symbol on his chest give way to one big flash, leaving a considerably less massive, less alien eleven-year-old boy crouched on the ground as it recedes.

Ben stands up straight and glares at the now-red face of his watch for a moment. "Nice timing there," he mutters. But he did get out without being exposed; now he's just gotta wait another ten minutes.

[superball]

Fortunately for Ben, Eusine gobbles that story right up. Unfortunately for Ben, all it does is give Eusine more questions, and they run out of his mouth at the speed of an Olympic sprinter.

"Fascinating! Should I assume most life forms on your planet have eight legs? Is your species the only sentient one? What do these bird-like creatures spit acid for?"

Eusine pauses for a fraction of a second, finally realizing that he is dangerously coming close to sounding like a huge dweeb. Not that he doesn't want answers to these questions, of course, but there's no reason not to be smooth about it.

"Anyway-" he quickly adds, his already loud voice reaching critical levels, "I am the Mysticalman, expert on legendary creatures and wizard extraordinaire!"

He extends a hand.

"Please do allow me to welcome you with the Earth custom known as a handshake!"

[alienheroes]

Ben is struggling to come up with "answers" for Eusine's questions as fast as he can, but, mercifully, it looks like he may get some time to stall.

He doesn't comment on the "Earth custom known as a handshake" thing - sure, he's super new to this planet, let's go with that. He does, however, end up sort of waving his hand awkwardly in the air a few inches from Eusine's, as XLR8 doesn't really have hands so much as he has three knives stuck to the end of each arm and he's... not really sure how to grasp a human's hand with these without causing some kind of injury.

"Hey, wait, you're the Mysticalman?" Ben tilts his head, looking over Eusine again. "I've heard of you before." Once, from some stage magician in a comic book store.

He's not really sure how much longer he can keep denying how familiar this "wizard extraordinaire" is.

[superball]

Eusine was busy considering the logistics of shaking the hand of someone with blades for fingers when the last bit completely distracts him from his attempt at introducing XLR8 to the wonderful world of human greetings.

"You have?!" he exclaims, perhaps a bit too frantic for someone who is supposedly famous. Though to be fair, anyone would be excited to know an alien knows them. Unless said alien is an assassin hell-bent on murdering them, of course. But let's not think about that. "I mean- of course you have! After all, I'm the most promising hero of my generation. Journalists line up to get my interview!"

Well, he knows one journalist at least. Surely she'll want to interview him soon.

[alienheroes]

Ben almost points out the circumstances of his hearing of the Mysticalman, but catches himself just in time, because that would risk exposing his secret identity, wouldn't it?

Instead, he just replies, "You are?" He doesn't sound quite as incredulous as he maybe should, but he is sort of bewildered. He would think that he would have heard of this guy more in that case. He also doesn't question the bit about the journalists, because even if that were true, Ben wouldn't know it because newspapers are boring and he doesn't read them.

But the fact is, whether or not any of this is accurate - again, Ben needs to be making some connections here. "...hey, if you want to team up sometime, that could be cool!"