Spring Born [Open Mingle Log]

[vernal_miss]

Date: April 27th, Saturday
Characters: Open to all for the weekend, family for during the week as desired

---

Spring term holiday may have ended Monday, however, waiting to come off of a short week is not so bad either when it comes to finding a time during which all of her friends would be available. Especially when that patience allows for a little time to regain a taste for sweets after Easter!

On the Thursday after the holiday, Ornella turned eleven years old officially. After school, she had hurried home to enjoy a quiet familial celebration of her birthday with a favorite dinner and gifts. Nothing too exciting, but certainly satisfactory for a school night.

The weekend is when the real fun starts.

In the afternoon on Saturday after a morning of preparation, Nel has her birthday party consisting of friends mostly her age from class. She had designed the theme of a water dwellers party - inclusive of merfolk and swamp creatures. All attendants are given a headband with paper fins sticking out on the sides, and paper fins to stick on their feet. The difference of the merfolk and swamp creatures comes from the personal touches. Merfolk are painted with glitter makeup and add paper sea shells to their headbands, while swamp creatures are facepainted and draped with a few green streamers. Blue plastic table covers serve to control mess and designate the 'water' zones for games. Fingerpainting of course is included, but other games occupy plenty of time. Especially karaoke, in honor of sirens. Snacks are kept simple as well with green jello swamp muck and wafer cookie clams with frosting holding them together half open with a sugar pearl. All of it goes over well, and those few hours pass smoothly with the indoor party kept under control.

After her younger guests have all departed, Nel lends a hand in the clean up in order to ready the house for a second gathering. Earlier in the week, her Mum had extended an invitation on the Network for the Numbered to come over for dinner. A chance to spend time together on Nel’s birthday celebration, and even meet her wife, Janice. No gifts necessary, but strongly encouraged. To anyone that wants to bring a present but is at a loss what would be suitable, Mary Ann has a list of ideas at the ready.

As other Numbered arrive in the early evening, Nel is there at the door to greet them with a bright smile, glitter lingering on her skin at her cheeks and eyes despite efforts to wash it off. The tween is dressed in a maxi romper with a teal floral print and has had assistance in wrangling her hair with a complex braid to hold the front back with the rest. Each one is welcomed into the house and offered an open seat in the living room to sit and talk until the dinner is ready. Not that anyone will be left waiting long before they are invited into the kitchen to dish up plates and return to the living room to sit.

Comments

Weekend Birthday Bash! OTA; gift-opening can happen later or in-thread.

[iamnotgod]

That evening, Walter comes armed with two presents - a new sketchpad for Nel, complete with a choice packaging of colored pencils - and the pictures he'd drawn back in November, when they'd been feeding the bluebirds.

It seems only right to make them a birthday gift.

However, the gifts aren't offered to her immediately unless she specifically asks to see them.

[vernal_miss]

“Hallo Walter!” Nel says as she opens the door for him, elated to see the first arrival to the gathering. The girl holds the door to let the man in, and bounces on her heels as she waits for him to take off his shoes once he has entered and the door is closed. The moment he is free of his shoes, she throws her arms around his middle with a happy little squee.

“Thank you for coming!”

[iamnotgod]

He's surprised at being the first, though he's not entirely sure that surprise is reasonable - but he's not surprised Nel is the one opening the door.

He grins a much more reflexive smile when Nel hugs him, though he has to do some creative balancing work to hug her back.

"Thank you for having me! For having all of us, even. Though," he continues.

"Does this count as having that picnic, or would we have to make that a separate venture?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie and Ben arrive arm-in-arm for the Number portion of Nel's party each smartly dressed; Ben in a shirt and jumper combo, and Sadie in a rose-print dress, and both with their own wrapped present for the young girl. Greeting Nel at the door they enter the house and once inside Sadie makes it her mission to go around and speak to everyone, sometimes accompanied by Ben and the rest of the time by herself to catch up with some of the Numbered that she hasn't seen very recently.

[vernal_miss]

Upon opening the door to see who had arrived next, Nel ‘ooo’s softly only to then giggle happily as she welcomes the couple inside. Neither Sadie nor Benjiro are exempt from an enthusiastic hug. Finding that they both have presents for her gets a bashful titter and she points out the table top reserved for gifts. Honestly it would have been amazing enough to have this second party without any gifts at all!

Later in the party, after food has been served, Nel will make her way over to Sadie again, “I think the roses on your dress are so pretty!”

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie smiles at Nel and kneels down to offer the young girl a hug, "Thank you very much Nel, your braids look wonderful! Have you been having a good day?"

[catted]

Later in the evening, Mary Ann takes Sadie aside under the pretence of needing her help in the kitchen to prepare a last dessert.

Once she's sure that nobody is there to directly overhear them, she asks: "Have you told your parents yet about the Numbered business? How did it go?"

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie is more than happy to assist Mary Ann and follows her into the kitchen. She wasn't quite expecting Mary's question but Sadie doesn't appear to be overly bothered by it.

"Oh, I told them that morning, I really wouldn't have been able to hide the ears for very long at all and I thought it best to get it done as quickly as possible, like ripping off a plaster," Her gaze flicks towards the lounge and then back again, a soft smile pulling at her lips, "Ben told them about him as well...It made it a little less daunting. As for my parents, there's stuff that they're concerned and worried about but they said that they'd support me and Ben as best as they can."

[warped_replica]

Accompanying Sadie at their arrival, Benjiro is wearing his usual facemask with the collared shirt covered by a loose and thin sweater. Arms linked, he follows her in through the doorway and greets the birthday girl with congratulations. His contribution to the gift table is placed beside Sadie’s present, and he follows her to talk with more of the Tilly family and their Numbered friends. As he stands with Sadie, he does so often with one shoulder behind her own and an uncharacteristic if small slouch to his posture.

The gathering coupled with his top layers and facemask makes him feel a bit too warm, but dinner offers a reprieve. Facemask off, he’s very careful to keep to his usual technique at home to keep his mouth hidden and simply listens to the conversations around. Sitting down while eating also allows him to sit fully straight, a relief for his back. As soon as his plate is clear and cup empty, that facemask goes right back in place.

Tag order Sadie-Ben-Walter?

[iamnotgod]

It's another good sign, seeing how Ben and Sadie are acting with each other, though Walter does pick up on that slouch with some concern.

"Evening, both of you," he greets upon approach, smiling warmly.

Sure!

[dragoonrouge]

"Hello, Walter!" Sadie pulls Walter in for her customary hug greeting, "Isn't it great to have everyone getting together so soon after our first full meeting and for a much nicer event too!"

She glances around, "Do you two think it would be alright if I take my hat off and contacts out, Dr Tilly's wife knows about the Numbers right?"

[catted]

Later into the evening, Mary Ann will try to catch Ben in a quiet minute for a private conversation, and if she can't catch him alone she'll facilitate an opportunity by asking him to come outside with her and help her pick up some more drinks from the shed.

Once alone with him, she starts rather bluntly - but really, he can probably guess what this is about, anyway.

"Watching you tonight, you really don't look like you're okay," even in a space that should be safe, "can you tell me what it is?"

[warped_replica]

Readily having agreed to assist with retrieving more drinks from outside, he follows Mary Ann out of the party and towards the shed. When she questions his nervous behavior, his steps fall out of rhythm slightly and recover in the next stride as guilt makes his shoulders sink even lower.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was so obvious...” he replies straightaway. It had more than simply crossed his mind to decline the invitation to avoid causing any issues at the celebration, but Sadie would never have allowed it.

A breath taken, he answers her question more quietly in a sour note, “It’s...it’s getting harder to hide. I’m growing again.” In more ways than one.

After the party

[iamnotgod]

As the festivities are winding down - presents opened, food devoured, with thankfully-few surprises in store - Walter puts his mind back on to something he noticed about Ben.

And has been noticing for the past while in their interactions, frankly.

"Ben?" he asks, voice quiet though still loud enough to cut through the gentle murmur currently permeating the Tilly household.

"Before we head home - there's something I wanted to ask about."

[warped_replica]

More relaxed than he had been early on in the party, Benjiro is leaning sideways against the back of the chair he has been occupying for a short while. He had turned his phone back on minutes ago with anticipation of the party ending shortly, and he is replying to a message when Walter comes over.

Looking up from his phone at the sound of his name, he taps the screen dark and looks attentively to Walter. Something seems off, if only by the way Walter is broaching a question so carefully. He glances briefly towards the rest of the party to gauge the distance for the conversation but is uncertain whether or not this is something that should be discussed in another room or outside, “Sure. What’s on your mind?”

Family gathering version

[scarsolderthanyou]

Because spending his Saturday surrounded by a bunch of little kids that aren't actually related to him sounds exhausting, Sam is here for dinner on Thursday with a couple of wrapped gifts under his arm. One of them is suspiciously squishy-looking.

"Happy birthday, kiddo," he greets her at the door, still carrying his presents.

[vernal_miss]

Beaming up to her grandfather at the good wish for her birthday, she giggles happily as she replies, “Thank you!” Nel closes the door behind him once space allows, and not giving the presents more than a curious glance, she won’t let him get more than a step from the door without a hug.

Satisfied once she has a hug, Nel has an energy to her reminiscent of those days around the start of the spring season, bouncing along off her heels as she walks with him, “Dinner isn’t ready yet, so we’re playing board games. Do you want to play too?” Unspoken as it may be, she gives her grandfather a pleading look.

Maybe just one game?

[scarsolderthanyou]

He chuckles and pats her back a little before letting her go from the hug. Board games are an easy thing to give in to. Not exactly a hardship. "Sure, kiddo. Which one are you playing, and is there room for another player?"

[channingchanningchanning]

1. Let him in

It's the first time since the tsunami hit that Chad is out and about in human form. He's even clothed this time, though not quite well - after attempting to put on his owner's clothes and finding them way too small, he nicked some clothes of the family's boss, who may be closer to his height, but broader in the shoulders, so everything hangs off the tall blond man who is standing outside the Tilly's door, staring at it intently and trying to remember how humans announce their presence- bell! There has to be a thing that makes a sound somewhere. He never really paid attention, but he knows they cause very specific sounds to be let in...

But where is the tool for that sound?


2. He'll make himself sick, just watch him

Once inside, Chad lingers for the longest time, not sure what to do with this way too big body. Until he realizes that in this form nobody is stopping him from eating all the things.

...Someone should probably stop him from actually eating all the things.

Or teach him table manners.

Or explain to poor Janice why this guest is eating the food with his face without the help of hands or cutlery, at the most using his hands to roll food off the servicing plates to get it closer to the side of the table.

2

[dragoonrouge]

There is a large part of Sadie that is horrified of the way that Chad is eating, but there's a small part of her that is just amused by the dog-turned-human. He's trying.

"Chad, you're going to have to stop eating before you make yourself sick. Or will this have to be like the graveyard bones again?"

[channingchanningchanning]

"I'm not going to make myself sick. This body is really large so it can eat a lot," he explains with a tone of condescending benevolence, adding a charming grin to it. "And I'm allowed to eat all the things off the table because I'm human right now."

So why should he stop himself?

Also 2! Assume Walter is sitting, not standing. |D

[iamnotgod]

"... Chad?"

Walter wants to be sure he has the sometimes-dog's attention... and just his attention.

"Chad. I don't think you're expected to eat from a bowl, here. Not your usual way."

He taps quietly-yet-pointedly on the table - right where the cutlery is laid out on Chad's unused napkin.

"You still could, but then I think they'd be left with more questions to answer than they could do so safely."

Well, yet.

[channingchanningchanning]

"...Nobody is eating off the table," the dog-in-a-human-shape returns just as pointedly as Walter's tapping the table.

What a ridiculous suggestion.

[vernal_miss]

Should Chad stand there long enough, he’ll find the door opening without any sort of prompting as Nel decides to peek to see if anyone else is coming along in view. There are other Numbered who have not yet arrived after all. So when Nel spots the man standing there on the porch with some oversized clothes and an unfamiliar face, she halts opening the door a matter of inches to regard him with both caution and curiosity.

The invitation only went out on the Network. As such, she can think of two immediate possibilities. One, this man simply came up to ask something more mundane, or two, this person is associated with the Numbers and she simply hasn’t met him before.

“Uh…hallo. Can I help you?”

[channingchanningchanning]

He could tell her who he is. If it occurred to him at all that she may not know. Of course everyone knows who he is, silly.

"How do humans make the bell ring?"

The voice is unfamiliar, sounding a lot younger than he sounds on the network, but the line of questioning may be familiar, since they've had a "dog-human experience swap" before. Which is also the reason why he immediately assumes that that's what she is referring to.