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

[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.

[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."

[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.

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick doesn't blink, but he does tilt his head a little as he looks at Teddy, trying to evaluate his intentions. He's developed an ability to tell when people want to be around him and to what degree, but there's a significant difference between the way Capitol people express themselves and the way everyone else does, so he's not totally sure.

After a moment and a thoughtful smile, he says, "Sure. I need to acclimatize myself. That is, if you don't mind."

[hugling]

Shit. Teddy grins, ever polite. "Yeah, totally. I work a lot of afternoons and evenings so my patrol schedule is kind of irregular, but I can drop you a message on the watch or something next time I head out."

As a Kree/Skrull hybrid, Teddy probably could swallow his own foot if he tried hard enough. What he really wants now though is for the ground to swallow him up, or maybe for a giant bird to swoop down and carry him off. Why does his mouth have to say stupid things?

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick's not entirely sure how he wants this to go. He should have some allies, but he doesn't have to go about it like this. He's not even totally sure that Hulkling is attracted to him, though he'll figure it out soon enough, and at that point he'll be up front. For now, he needs friends. He needs people who don't hate to be around him. So this is going to happen.

"Yeah, alright," he says, nodding and giving Teddy a grin. "But it'll have to be soon, or I'll die of boredom."

[hugling]

Oh, god. There was something about his smile that kind of made Teddy want to do anything Finnick asked him to, but kind of in a way that reminded him a little bit of his ex best friend Greg.

"Yeah, sometime before next weekend, okay? I gotta get out there, I've been kind of out of the country for a while, so I'm pretty eager to get back in the zone."

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick hums some vague assent, putting the prospect of all this out of his mind for now. He wants to take this opportunity to learn more, not to stew on the possibility that yet another person wants him.

"Out of the country?" he says, all conversational.

[hugling]

It's probably something to do with the muscles and the debonair attitude.

"I was kind of off-world, actually. Alien stuff." Okay, so maybe Teddy can't resist bragging just a tiny bit about going to space, but he was basically raised on Star Trek. How could he not?

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick raises his eyebrows, successfully pulling of a thoughtful nod when in his head he's having a minor crisis about the amount of knowledge he should have about aliens. Clearly 'alien stuff' is supposed to be relatively impressive but not altogether shocking.

"So what does that entail? It's all boring diplomacy, I imagine," he says with a wry smile. It's supposed to sort of be a joke, but with a bit of sympathy in case it really is boring diplomacy and not the exciting space adventures he's picturing.

[hugling]

Teddy takes a sip of his soda, and shrugs.

"Yeah, pretty much. But the space travel stuff was pretty awesome, actually. I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid - who didn't, right? - so it was pretty cool. Even the space food was like, surprisingly good, for rehydrated stuff in bags."

Teddy is clearly very excited about space and trying to play it very cool.

[thelittlemerman]

Finnick thinks it's charming that Teddy's so excited about space, although he can't help but be a little jealous. Not of the going to space part, more the wanting for anything more than a little peace part. Before the Games he had certainly had bigger dreams for himself, but now...

"You'll have to tell me all about it, when we go on patrol."