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

[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.

[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."

[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."

[thanksoptimus]

Orion accepts her hand easily enough and starts to get to his feet, carefully observing the disks from a safe distance. He does seem relieved about what it actually involves, though.

"It reminds me of a Cybertronian hobby called 'lobbing', albeit less potentially damaging." He looks at her and smiles very slightly. "I am not sure of the extent of my control over this body, but I will, as they say, give it my best shot."

[scribes]

"Well, these things are just made out of plastic so unless one of us starts throwing it at an incredibly high velocity it shouldn't be damaging at all" Di joked.

It did make her wonder just what the hell a size of a frisbee, or similar object would be for Cybertronians to toss at one another. More damaging indeed.

"What did you use for lobbing?" She picked up one of the frisbees available and held it out to Orion so he could inspect it for himself.

[thanksoptimus]

"A ball of scrap metal as large as my torso," he says, and then pauses for a moment. He takes the disk and inspects it, briefly. "...My other torso, I mean."

[scribes]

Were she of appropriate size, that actually sounded kind of fun. Dangerous, but hey that just made things a bit more exciting, didn't it? Di leads them to an open area.

"Did you ever try your hand at it?"

[thanksoptimus]

"Only technically," he says. "One of Megatron's associates from Kaon decided to involve me in a game and I think it was at risk of removing my entire processor."

[scribes]

Di didn't really understand what that meant but it was obviously not good. Breakdown had used that term too. He had wondered if she had overheated her processor back when she had...made some not so good decisions so maybe it was the equivalent of a brain? It did fit the name.

She would have to ask Orion about it at some point. Curious as she was, now that they were going to be playing and needed to put distance between each other, shouting out questions and answers about Cybertronian anatomy might just be a liiiiiiiittle suspicious.

"This seems like a good spot." She jogged a couple feet ahead of Orion and turned around, holding her arms out. "Try tossing it!"

[thanksoptimus]

It's shaped like a discus and that at least give him a clue at how to throw it properly. He frowns and raises the frisbee, moving it around experimentally before tossing it to her.

It does that thing when it catches the wind the wrong way and sort of flops to the ground inelegantly. Orion stands there staring at it, not especially surprised.

[scribes]

...well then.

Di just stared at it for a moment, pursing her lips to keep from giggling before she jogged back, picking it up.

She stood by Orion's side demonstrating a proper hold.

"Try like this. When you hold you want to make sure that your thumb is on top, your index finger is on the rim, and the rest are on the underside."

[thanksoptimus]

He watches the way she's holding it and then nods. It makes sense - he needs to get the velocity under control, is all.

"Perhaps you should show me," he says, and takes several steps away from her to be ready to catch it.

[scribes]

Di moves back as well and at a fair distance she takes a throwing stance, pausing for a moment so Orion could see her, before she throws it. It drifts towards Orion at an almost leisurely pace, heading straight for his chest.

[thanksoptimus]

Orion catches it, albeit sort of awkwardly, by sandwiching it between his palms instead of anything more graceful. He tosses it back to her, and manages to get the spin going properly this time. They volley it back and forth a few times, until - at some point - the sight of a burly man wearing spikey armour catches Orion's eye from across the field.

The frisbee hits Orion square in the forehead and bounces off and into the grass. The impressive thing is that Orion is completely non-responsive to it and just keeps staring.

[scribes]

It was nice to focus on this. Simple. low key, but without the loneliness that accompanied so many of the solo activities she tried to distract herself with as of late.

With Orion here and the noise of so many others around them it was a rare moment in which Di almost felt completely at ease.

When the frisbee hit him right on the head she couldn't hold her laughter this time, especially with the way he didn't even acknowledge it.

"You alright there?" She turned in the direction that he was looking to see what had distracted him so much.

[thanksoptimus]

He turns to look at her, blinking.

"Excuse me?" he says, obviously distracted. He reaches up a few moments later and touches his forehead, as if wondering what that strange residual feeling is.

[scribes]

She makes her way towards Orion, eying the man he had been looking at curiously. Whoever that was, they certainly stood out but Di knew it had to be more than that.

"Is that someone you know?"

[thanksoptimus]

He glances at the man one more time before focusing on Magdal. He looks contemplative. He isn't entirely sure yet, but his gut reaction was unmistakable.

"...Perhaps," he says. "Perhaps someone very important."

[scribes]

Di keeps looking between Orion and the the person who caught his attention.

"Are they Cybertronian?" Perhaps another avatar? It really was impossible to tell unless you were close enough to notice the lack of scent.

[thanksoptimus]

He pauses for a moment, and then nods.

"...Yes," he finally says. "I believe I told you about Megatron...at great length."

[scribes]

Oh.

Di resisted the urge to take another look at Megatron. No wonder Orion had become so distracted and tense. If Signless showed up here she would probably have been on the receiving end of a frisbee to the head.

"Do you want to talk to him?" She asked quietly.

[thanksoptimus]

"I am considering it," he says, frowning wistfully. "However, our last parting was not on good terms."