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]

"Well, jeez, try 'glad to be here', then. You look like you got kidnapped or something and brought here against your will."

Ben will never understand people who can't get excited about barbecues.

[cazamitad]

"You know that's why they sell lighter fluid in the grill section right next to the charcoal, right?" Araña asks, bemused. She's in a new costume, that's really more of something comfortable enough to wear outdoors that she's managed to pull together - black bike shorts, black sneakers, a black lycra top with a white stylized spider design on the front, and a black domino mask. It leaves her metal arm visible, but since she's been trying to keep it hidden out of costume, she feels like it's a safe enough move. (Not that the Trailblazers won't all fucking recognize her...) Tommy's got Matilda, and she figures the guy trying to light the pit is most likely to be the dumbass who thought this was a good idea.

She kind of hope his optimism plays out, if only because she doesn't look forward to hustling M out of there if things go south.

[scribes]

"Not a problem."

Di was more accustomed to using old fashioned flint, but this would do. She took the newspaper, pull some pages around to roll and tie it up together.

"You're the host, right?" She set to carefully lighting up the newspaper and using it to coax a flame out of the coals.

[scribes]

Di notices and can't help but be a little bemused by that. It makes her wonder if that's just Orion's nature, if it's because he's a Cybertronian amongst organics, or if things like this just didn't happen much on Cybertron. Probably a combination of the first two, but what did robots do in their spare time?

"I've been alright," Sans stupid excursions with catnip, "glad that I'm here. It's been so long since I last attended a fun little event like this. Did they have things like this one Cybertron?"

[liberaition]

Kit is at the superhero barbecue in a completely unofficial capacity - Uplink has no interest in superheroes who aren't heads of corrupt corporations and aren't committing any heinous crimes of science. But Kit Peddler likes to know what's going on in her city, and a super powered cookout seems like as good a place as any to catch up on the gossip. Besides, it's a good place to test out her new robotic leg, now approaching its 3 week birthday. With her implant continuing to heal Kit has traded her crutches for a sleek brushed aluminum cane, and she's wearing a knee length sundress that shows off her cybernetic arm and leg nicely.

As a civilian, it's best to stick to the outskirts, and Kit finds herself standing near a young girl snapping way too many cell phone photos.

"You think the heroes will appreciate so much... publicity?"

[hugling]

"Uh, sort of. I mean, yeah, but I'm not really in charge or anything. I just thought it would be nice to do something fun, instead of fighting evil cyborg aliens. Like, for a change."

Teddy watches, fascinated, as the coals start to catch.

"Holy crap, you have like a gift or something."

[hugling]

"I thought it was cheating! But obviously I was totally mistaken. You don't have fire powers, do you?"

It's amazing how Hulkling can be so large and look so much like a little sad puppy at the same time.

"If I can't get a fire going everyone is going to have to eat raw hamburger and cold hotdogs."

[hugling]

Finnick. Weird codename, and definitely nothing Teddy has heard before.

"Cool. Are you new in town? Just, I don't think we've met before." Said with a casual shrug. It's fine if Teddy implies he's a little better connected than he is, right? Besides, it's not even really that much of a lie. He's technically sort of a CONDOR demi-agent now, for Skrull-related activities. Kind of. Which means he's sort of met some people who work for CONDOR. Like, once. That's a connection.

[pullingamiko]

Miko had kind of half-expected something like this to happen eventually. She turns to Kit (glancing over her cybernetic limbs with a raised eyebrow and keeping in mind to ask about those if she gets a chance - she sure doesn't seem to be uncomfortable with them, so maybe Miko could get a cool story here) and shrugs, turning her phone to glance over the photos.

"I doubt it'll be a problem. They're in a public space, I'm not getting too close or behaving in an invasive manner, everyone's in costume so no secret identities are at risk..." She talks like she's going through some kind of guidebook (she probably is), then abruptly changes tones.

"Besides, I'm not exactly being sneaky here, if anyone wants to make it an issue, they can just tell me not to publish photos of them. I also know for a fact that some people will not have a problem with this, anyway."

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick smiles wryly as he looks down at the soda he's just opened. It's always going to sound funny in his head, the ridiculous chain of events that brought him here. It's tempting to tell people where he's from just to see if they'd believe him, but it's not worth the potential of having to talk about the war and the Games and the people he still wishes he hadn't left.

"Yeah, I just got here," he says, looking back up with a smirk. "I guess I'm pretty new to the whole" - he gestures - "scene."

[thelittlemerman]

Well, Ben's not far off. Not that he was forced to the barbecue against his will, but this whole situation is far from his own design. He drops the smile because he's getting bored of this, but his tone is still light.

"Are you always this aggressive about making sure everyone's having a good time?"

[thanksoptimus]

He looks a little surprised for a moment, glancing at her while looking uncertain. Or maybe just really awkward.

"Oh, I imagine so," he says. Not that he really went to them or anything.

[alienheroes]

The change of expression doesn't seem to faze Ben, if he even notices. "Well, I mean, I kinda consider it part of my job! Besides, nobody likes a party pooper." He gives Finnick a very faintly disapproving look.

[scribes]

She laughs "I've had a lot of practice I guess. Used to spend days on end traveling and camping." Her expression became wistful as she remembered those days. They had been the best of her life.

Once it looked like the fire was good and going she tossed the remains of the newspaper in and held the lighter out to him.

"It's a great idea--though does stuff like what happened recently go on that much?"

[scribes]

"You imagine so?" Di echoed, trying to prompt him to say more. Had he forgotten about that?

[thanksoptimus]

"I cannot confess to having attended any of them," he says, a 300 year old robot.

[scribes]

...aw. She gave him a small encouraging grin.

"Well, there is a first time for everything. Ever play a round of frisbee?" Until she had come here Di hadn't but hey. There wasn't anything particularly hard about tossing a disc back and forth. Maybe afterwards Di could introduce Orion to some others. She didn't really recognize many people here but most of them seemed nice.

[thanksoptimus]

Oh crap, playing things. If the activity is described as "playing" he probably hasn't done it much if at all. He decides to act casual.

"No." He's quiet for a moment before realizing that was sort of abrupt. "I have not."

[cazamitad]

"Sadly, no." She crouches down to eye the unlit charcoal as if she knows anything about BBQ-ing. She doesn't. But come on, like she can resist helping the precious sad puppy?

"Maybe if you wadded up some newspaper on top and set that on fire?"

[10thingsihateaboutme]

Karkat is pretty okay with the idea of a barbecue, as Earth things go – even humans can't really fuck up heating up meat, even if they tend to cook it more than he personally would prefer, and it takes place in the evening, which is always preferable for Nocturnal Guy over here.

He is definitely not coming along in case any of the more Earth-human-shindig-minded friends of his who are attending this get together end up in trouble or something.

He is loitering around waiting for it to get darker and for the meat to happen and/or for some dumbshit supervillains to show up when he notices there is something a little familiar? about Hulkling? He probably wouldn't have noticed at all if the dude hadn't straight up opened a conversation by telling Karkat he was a Skrull, but knowing someone is a shapeshifter kind of opens out the possibilities a little more.

He sidles over, ears pricked forward under his hood. He knows his own outfit doesn't do a tremendous job of concealing his secret identity on a planet where his own species exists in such tiny quantities, which is possibly why he feels less sensitive about questioning other people's. But then again, it's not like the guy actually even introduced himself by name, so really it's not like Karkat actually knows his secret identity.

"Hey," he says, frowning. "You're the Skrull guy."

[scribes]

"Want to give it a shot? It's not the most active sport we could be doing, but it's something." It struck her now that it might not be all that exciting since this wasn't Orion's real body. He had mentioned he could feel with it, but was there really any sort of challenge to controlling it?

Oh well, she'd see in a moment, she supposed. Di stood up and held out a hand to help Orion up.

"See those discs over there?" She nodded to a couple piled next to one of the picnic tables, "You pretty much just toss it back and forth."

[starscheme]

Who the fuck let this creepy guy in here.

Oh that's right, Breadkdown's pet Alternian did. How he'd let Sollux convince him to come to this shit was a mystery even to him. But, here he was. In avatar presence, anyway. Looking extremely out of place in a nice suit and a sour expression amongst all these happy superheroes.

Mostly he seems to be interacting with the same group of similarly strangely out of place people, but he at least seems to be behaving himself for now.

[hugling]

Teddy sort of raises his soda in a mock toast.

"Welcome to LA, then. It's crazy, but you get used to it eventually."

It was kind of disconcerting how normal kidnappings and alien invasions had become, actually. Usually Teddy tried not to think about that.

"Maybe we could patrol together sometime, I could help show you around." The words are out of his mouth before Teddy can really stop himself, and even he is surprised. Crap. Maybe Finnick will politely decline.

[hugling]

"That sounds... interesting." He doesn't want to say it sounds awesome - spending days traveling and camping could mean 'I backpacked in Europe' or 'I used to be homeless and on the run and had to sleep outside.' You never could tell, with this crowd.

Teddy shrugs. "I mean, not that often, but with so much superhero activity in LA it's kind of a huge target for supervillain stuff like that. There's always something going down somewhere. Not usually something so huge, though."

As an afterthought he adds, "Thanks a lot for your help with the fire, everyone would so have been eating cold hot dogs."

[hugling]

"Yeah, maybe. Here, I have a bunch of last week's LA Times." Teddy crumples up Tuesday's sports section and crumples it into a ball and sets it aflame on top of the charcoal, where it burns brightly for a few seconds and then disintegrates. The charcoal remains cold.

"God damn it." He resists the urge to kick the fire pit. "Stupid fire. I was a boy scout for like two months, you know. I should theoretically be able to do this."

Deep breath. "I'm Hulkling, by the way. And I'm usually better at stuff."