Everybody Wants to Party with You [Open/Mingle]

[hallelujahjunction]

Who: Dan and everyone – feel free to mingle with each other!
What: Dan’s turning forty and it’s party-time.
Where: The Pole
When: After Shitty Little Town, before Halloween
Warnings/Notes: Drug and alcohol use, general Dan warnings.

I. Let’s Get It Started, No More Hesitation

Dan didn’t expect to get this far. He really didn’t. He was supposed to be dead by twenty-three, and then when that milestone came and actually passed, he just assumed that the lethal profession he threw himself into would snatch him into the dark sooner rather than later. It’s only in the last few years, partnered up and with his creature needs stably met, that the horrifying possibility of a death by natural causes has entered his consciousness. It dogs him throughout the week leading up to his birthday, this looming sense that he may need to make peace with getting older, with losing his looks and physical capacity, of turning from an asset in the field to a liability.

He doesn’t want to become a burden. He knows his loved ones would rather he become a burden than prematurely become a memory, but he thinks that must be much easier to think from the other side of things. Everyone he’s close with is imbued with myth powers for now, possibility forever, and in Bunny’s case is stewarding god-like powers. Meanwhile, doing what he can to hide his heartburn and his back pain and the way his right shoulder cracks when he raises his arm above his head, Dan finds it very easy to conceive of how he’s going to be less pleasant and less fun and less capable as the decades shuffle by, and how all this time with the people he cares about will eventually become less enjoyable all around.

It would be easier to just be dead, and it bothers him all week, so he does what he does best, which is to distract himself. In this case, he’s planning a party.

He considers doing something tasteful and subdued, a nice night in with close friends and a bottle of wine and a charcuterie plate or something, then decides that those sorts of mannered engagements can be relegated to his forties. Today, he’s thirty-nine and three hundred and sixty-four days.

The yetis and Dan are quite tight at this point, and they assist with decorating the communal relaxation room with non-denominational décor, everything from paper lanterns to an inflatable bouncy castle. Dan doesn’t seem to have themed this party at all, instead just wishlisting every indulgent thing he could come up with, from a chocolate fountain to a pin-the-nose-on-the-snowman game. There’s cornhole with red and green sparkly hacky sacks, a table loaded with all sorts of cheap sugary snacks and drinks of various proofs, a photo strip booth, a karaoke machine, a bunch of Polaroid cameras, and even some fireworks for later in the evening. Technically, it’s a Halloween party, so there are cheap costumes available for those who haven’t brought their own. Phil the yeti has DJ powers.

Everyone’s invited.


II. Anybody Just Won’t Do [Closed to Bunny]

Dan knew Bunny wouldn’t be particularly keen on a rowdy party, so he set aside two days after the party for their own little date – he needed the day after the party to sleep off the hangover, and Bunny was doing a milk run in Mongolia.

He sleeps in, occasionally peeking at Bunny doing his t’ai chi but mostly just enjoying his warm bed and the smell of the tea Bunny brews, figuring he’s going to let Bunny do what Bunny does best and take control and boss him around a little. When Bunny’s talking over him, it bothers Dan, but when Bunny’s ordering Dan to have a good time and taking him out on a date and surprising him with things to do and places to see, there’s nothing he likes more. So he lets Bunny wake him up.

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan laughs out loud when he sees Miguel rolling up in extremely normal clothing. He was taking bets with one of the yetis on the likelihood of that scenario, and now he's out forty dollars, though he has no idea what the yeti wants the money for.

"I tried it for about twenty seconds before I realized I was on my way to herniating a disc," he says with a chuckle, sidling up next to Miguel. "I was hoping you'd make it. I tried not to make it too noisy for you."

DJ Phil's been asked to keep the music to a dull thump specifically for those with heightened hearing.

"Your gift ain't ready yet, though."

[ninjavampire]

"My gift?"

The noise level seems to be okay, because Dan genuinely throws him off with just those few words. This was Dan's celebration, after all.

"Someone told you? How?"

Miguel is stumped - he hadn't made a peep about his own day. He'd rather not remind himself of getting a year older and being no closer to unlocking the mysteries of the multiverse. Ok, maybe a little closer, but not close enough.

[hallelujahjunction]

"You reckon someone with my name don't know a thing or two about astrology?" That's not any part of how Dan found out, but Dan doesn't like to reveal his sources as a general rule; part of embedding himself into a community so thoroughly, and thus being privy to every last scrap of gossip, is discretion.

He and Miguel have known each other for a little over a year now, and Dan's paid attention to the rhythms of Miguel's moods. The times they've shared working at whittling and carving for their ofrendas is still fresh in his mind.

"Besides, making something for you took my mind off the fact that I'm on my way to being elderly and ineffectual and regretful of my youthful indiscretions." There it is, there, the insecurity Dan's obviously using this party to try and counteract.

[ninjavampire]

His nose wrinkles a little at the word ‘astrology’, but Miguel can’t complain when he’s been living in a world of pure myth for a year now. It’s the harmless flavor of cantankerous mood from him.

He’s silent for a moment, deliberating on his response. His instinctual reaction is ‘You didn’t need to’, but Dan’s heard that from him enough times to start to feel repetitive. So his expression finally settles into a softened gratefulness that Dan somehow managed to worm his way around his own self-isolating secrecy. And he doesn’t need a lecture about his own insecurities.

“Thank you. I look forward to seeing it.”

He presents the box. It’s compact enough to be held in the large palm of Miguel’s hand - or two, for Dan’s. If he jostles it, there will be the dull rustle of a well-secured interior with nothing loose to rattle. There is enough weight to it to seem like a substantial amount of metal, or crystal, or some other dense material makes up most of what’s beneath the colorful wrapping.

“This is for you. You should wait after the party is over to open it. All this excitement may be a bit much for it.”

[hallelujahjunction]

"Oh!" Dan takes the box, grinning. He doesn't rattle it, but he does tilt it slowly side to side to feel if anything moves around in there. "It ain't a kitten, is it? Bunny might could kill me if I brought a kitten home."

He pulls it to his chest. "Thank you, Miguel. I'll do my best not to let me curiosity call the party to a close too early."

He pats Miguel's arm to guide him to cornhole. "Now come on, I got bets I can keep up to you with hand-eye coordination."

[ninjavampire]

"No. Not a kitten." he reveals the clue so that Dan would not wonder too much.

Though, maybe it isn't the worst thing in the world for Dan to get used to having something to look forward to in his future. Even if that future was just a few hours from now.

He follows along to the game, already wondering how to play this so that they both enjoy it and don't trip on Dan's worries. The man could do quite well with a lasso, he's certain this will be easy enough. Picking up a red hacky sack from the pile, Miguel notices some of the sparkle coming off on his palms. So it goes.

"Did you play this often back home?"

Maybe questions will avoid too much attention being paid to score-counting and comparisons.

[hallelujahjunction]

He sets the box down where it'll be safe from getting stepped on or investigated by roaming elves.

"Whenever we had downtime at the farm," Dan says, idly tossing the blue hacky-sack hand to hand without seeming to even pay attention, an early indication that Dan's actually quite good at these sorts of things. Hustling people with bets over coordination games - pool, ring toss, darts - is one of his favorite means of putting cash in his pocket. It's not his fault if people don't realize that he and his siblings frequently had nothing to do in their bunker besides entertain themselves with simple games.

He isn't trying to hustle Miguel, but he makes a show of eyeballing the distance to the hole, testing the weight of the hacky-sack, biting his lip, all as if this is more challenging than it is. He throws the hacky sack and hits the board and tumbles upwards into the hole with a sandy plapp sound.

"Beginner's luck," he says, taking a sip of his drink.

[ninjavampire]

He notices the playfulness with which Dan handles the hacky-sack and figures that the answer to his question is ‘Yes’ before the reply comes.

Fair enough. Can’t make the game too easy for him, then.

Miguel has spent the better part of a decade making sure he doesn’t push the gamut of ‘normal’ when he attempted to live his ordinary life. He can restrain himself well enough. But that doesn’t mean he has no sense of competition.

The red hacky-sack is tossed into the hole with the sort of effortless agility he did all things with.

“Do you have more of those?” He points to Dan’s drink.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan whistles when he sees Miguel make the shot, which is unsurprisingly precise. Dan expected nothing less from Miguel.

"Cornhole pong?" He says, laughing. "I do. Rum again?"

While talking, he casually tosses another blue hacky-sack into the hole, barely looking as he does it. He winks and grabs Miguel a drink, returning to hopefully see Miguel tie up the score.

[ninjavampire]

"With something sweet, in honor of the day."

Maybe tipsy hacky sack is the sort of entertainment they'll find here. The second toss seems more indicative of Dan's skill level. Good! He'll tie the score for good measure.

"Was that last one a warm up round?" he asks, suspicious of the antics from before.

[hallelujahjunction]

“Painkiller,” Dan says, putting a cocktail into Miguel’s hand. Dan’s been putting his bartending skills to use tonight.

He takes another blue hacky-sack. “It went in the hole, didn’t it? Don’t matter how it gets there so long as it gets there. But let’s throw some complications in, make it interesting. Every shot you miss, you drink, every shot you nail, you add in another complication. And you drink.”

He swaps the hacky-sack to his left. “I’ll start. Non-dominant hand.”

Dan’s as adept with his left, and the hacky-sack sails in. How nice to just be goofing around with Miguel instead of trying to swap wisdom about dead daughters or focusing on a mission.

[ninjavampire]

Miguel takes the drink and pauses for a moment, just realizing he didn't quite feel so paranoid about accepting it as he did a year ago. When it came from Dan, it had grown into feeling 'safe'. Somehow. When was the last time he let himself goof off?

The red hacky-sack flies into the hole with no discernable impact to his aim. So he drinks, and mulls over a wrinkle that might entertain Dan.

"Hm."

Rather than a toss, he drops the hacky-sack onto his knee and does a few experimental bounces, unknowingly turning this into a game of half-cornball, half-footbag (fútbol, maybe). A few silly ankle-tricks later and the bag tumbles into the pile with all the others.

"Now with no hands." he glances over.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Clever and impressive," Dan muses, taking a drink and drumming his fingertips against his lips as he considers his approach. He doesn't trust his coordination with his feet to be as impressive as with his hands, especially after watching Miguel do keepie-uppies, but he considers his options.

He takes a ladle for the punch bowl, wipes it clean, and sets the hacky-sack inside the spoon-end. He lays the length of the ladle over the edge of a plate to make a sort of see-saw, and he arranges the angle just so. He isn't sure this is going to work, but it's an entertaining enough attempt, and he's sure Miguel will appreciate the ingenuity.

He brings his forearm down on the handle of the ladle, which flips and sends the hacky-sack flying; it hits the cornhole board, tumbles, and just barely ekes its way into the hole.

"Whoo!" He toasts himself and grins at Miguel. "Eyes closed for the next one."

[ninjavampire]

"I should have expected something ridiculous." he remarks, arms crossed at the ladle-catapult Dan made for himself. He accepts the worming around his rule and meets the next one with a little more deliberation.

Eyes closed, he exhales a bit and taps his foot. Although he was tuned to his body, he relied mostly on his sight the same as any unaltered human. Removing that is what gets the first blemish on his precision.

Tossed with just a bit too much force to land perfectly, Hacky-Sack #4 clips the inner edge, slides and flops unceremoniously... eventually making it into the hole. It was far closer to a 'miss' than any of the other attempts. He'd just been skating on tracking and agility with no real practice for the game.

His face scrunches up with harmless embarrassment at hearing the ungainly slappp on wood, and tentatively opens an eye. Somehow, it's in. But it felt far more like luck.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Drink up," Dan says at the successful blind toss. Unlike Miguel, he doesn't care if his hacky-sacks smack the board - it's the same points one way or another. He probably could send it sailing through unobstructed for most of these throws, but he isn't trying for perfection. He's still intentionally downplaying his skill.

Still. "Reckon it might not could surprise you to know I done paid for a lot of food and gas by hustling at pool and darts."

He takes a good long look at the board to memorize the distance, closes his eyes and- it makes it in, but no more ceremoniously than Miguel's did. He drinks.

"Sometimes I dreamed about making a living in a traveling circus doing trick shots and juggling, back when I was a kid. Alright, what challenge next?"

[ninjavampire]

"The bigger surprise is how you've managed to fund your monster hunting with Pool and Darts." He drinks his good amount.

What to do next - Hand stand? Longer distance? Hanging upside down crosses his mind, before figuring that'd just be petty. Or might Dan find it fun, if he also gets to handle some web? The thought lingers there. He wasn't in disguise, so it didn't have to be limited to 'normal', just... fun. That does seem to be the most '' fun '' option.

So, he makes a line of lightweb above to hang from in archetypal spidery fashion. He'd forgotten to set the drink down, but it remains in hand un-spilled somehow, tangled intuitively in the line of red.

"May as well show off now, before I drink more of these."

The fifth hacky-sack sails in to join its brethren.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Well, not exclusively pool and darts. McDonald's do always seem to be hiring." Dan's charming enough that he can usually walk into an entry-level job just long enough to pick up a paycheck before getting fired. He figures it's also wise not to tell Miguel that sometimes he's turned tricks, flipped stolen property and dealt drugs to put money in his pocket; he doesn't imagine Miguel's ever been so near to ruin and so desperate as to find those particularly sympathetic decisions.

He scoffs at the new challenge, but Dan will try just about anything once. "If I get dropped on my head and break my neck, you're explaining this to Bunny."

By now, Dan suspects that the only way he'll win against Miguel is to outlast him with what he presumes is his superior alcohol tolerance. He waits for Miguel to get out of the web and clambers up it himself, inverting with surprising ease. Being upside down doesn't actually faze him, and he makes up for the wobbliness of the web with practiced core strength.

He tosses the hacky-sack in, then, toes pointed for elegance, brings his legs into the splits and flips himself back over to land on one foot. "I used to poledance to fund my hunting life, too. It's been a minute but the muscle memory's all there."

He takes a drink, racking his brain for something that'll actually challenge Miguel and considering proposing something he knows he himself can't manage just to add the dynamic of a miss to this game. "From on top of a yeti's shoulders."

[ninjavampire]

"You won't touch the ground while I'm spotting you. Promise." he says with a bit of a smile, which manages to look mischeivous while he's hanging there on a thread.

Slipping off his web with liquid grace, he stays just out of arms reach while Dan climbs up, ready to spring if he has to. He's glad that he doesn't though, because Dan seemed rather comfortable up there without any help. Elegant, even, with his dancer's moves. He was ready to explain that Dan need only use the web, not necessarily match the position, but he finds himself pleasantly surprised with the show of acrobatics.

Fair play. He downs the last of his (somehow intact) Painkiller and raises a hand.

"Next drink, first. I'm curious about your double life as a dancing monster hunter."

Time for refills!

[hallelujahjunction]

"We'll call it a draw for now and play a new drinking game. You know, the game where we get to know each other even better." A.k.a. shooting the breeze. Dan finishes his own drink and goes behind the table with the booze to throw together some more cocktails. He makes something fancy for each of them.

He hands the hacky-sacks to a yeti, who challenges yet another, passing the game to the next players.

"Ain't a double life. Monster hunting's always been the main gig, but ammo and gas don't pay for themselves and I do like to sleep in a motel sometimes, so I been doing any entry-level job I could might find for decades now." He wags his eyebrows and takes a drink. "Honestly, I've loved stripping. Late hours, get to perform, payment in cash, fun audience. What about you, weirdest job you ever had?"

[ninjavampire]

The worrying part of him hopes he didn’t dissuade Dan from trying more sportly antics. No, best not to overthink it. It was Dan’s birthday, so Miguel will follow where he leads.

“Between the world-hopping and babysitting two hundred variants of Peter?”

Well, if he wanted ‘weird’, there is a smorgasbord to pick from.

“I’d rather babysit double that amount before navigating someone loathing you in civilian life but being fixated with you in the suit. Being the city mascot makes sure life is never boring, I’ll tell you that.”

Just thinking about how that played out made him want to drink. So, down the hatch it goes.

“The attention wasn’t always bad, though.”

[hallelujahjunction]

"I ain't gotten to know Peter much. He got mad at me for disabling a smoke detector so I could smoke indoors, which I probably deserved." Dan laughs. "I wouldn't have could thought of you as someone who enjoys attention."

He's always just thought of Miguel as someone who resented attention, who considered managing other people's interest in him as just another distraction from what needed to be done in a competent and orderly fashion. He's long figured that Miguel sees himself less as an individual divisible from his work than as an obligated mechanism that the work is done through, and he's glad for evidence to the contrary.

"The mayor put you up to being the city mascot of Nueva York?"

[ninjavampire]

Dan earns the lightest of side-eyes. It was rude to smoke up someone's place, even if the fire hazard was minimal! But he moves on to the question.

"Catching enough derailed sky-trains and burning hover cars will inspire people to put your face on things, regardless of how the mayor feels." he says lightly, figuring the current one must find him a necessary headache and a boon just like the last. Ironically, being a headache for authority figures is something of a favorite pastime.

His record as Spider-Man had gone splendidly in some sort of screwed up, inverse principle of how miserable his personal life had become. Still, he was thankful he had an escape with his other identity.

"Talking to the public was never the problem. Seeing hope in people is what convinced me to continue this when I first started."

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan gives Miguel a smirk that those who know him well recognize as I'm married to one of the landlords and I do what I want.

"I knew you were an optimist deep down," Dan says, finishing his drink and pouring himself another. His tolerance is so high that he doesn't feel any need to pace himself, and besides, it's his birthday and if he gets wasted, it's not like the yetis won't tuck him in a warm corner to sleep it off. "It's the hope for me, too. Seeing it in others."

He finds it so hard to nurture in himself, so maybe he can get by on the hope of others, of being around it and buoyed by it like a tide, of tending to it like a garden and enjoying the fruits.

"Tell me your favorite heroing story and I'll tell you mine."

[ninjavampire]

He scoffs a little at that. An optimist?

"That's a nice way of putting it. Here I was thinking I'd started to sound like a cliché." he says, finding himself at the bottom of his drink and following Dan for another.

His body tended to process things quickly. If he was persistent, he could outpace the toxin-resistance and enjoy the onset of a pleasant buzz for a little while. It took less than one would expect for someone his size, but it didn't last too long. So he lets himself bask in the extra warmth of his face for however long he can draw it out.

"I'm interested in your dancing." he says. "We've talked plenty enough about 'heroing'. How did you get into that - the dancing?"

[hallelujahjunction]

"Well, clichés are popular for a reason."

Dan's smile softens a little, dimmed but deepened by a wistful nostalgia. "My mom was a theater minor in college."

So the illiteracy and lack of education wasn't generational.

"We didn't have much to do during winter after chores so teaching us ballet and piano kept us busy and quiet. When I was on my own as a young man, I was looking for work and ended up in the gay club circuit and that's where I picked up dancing that was a little less...mannered." The club circuit was another good match for Dan, and he misses it. "My mother would have could been mortified. Anyway, I worked a place called the Zodiac for a few weeks and that's how I got the name Sagittarius. Everything was on-theme and someone else already took Scorpio, so I was a good sport about it."