hallelujahjunction: (Happy - Lean)
Dan Sagittarius ([personal profile] hallelujahjunction) wrote in [community profile] nightlogs2024-11-11 08:47 pm
Entry tags:

Everybody Wants to Party with You [Open/Mingle]

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.
bringinghopewithme: (022 - I'll know my name)

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-11-27 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
"If it's in France, we can get a cake. You get those for birthdays, don't you?"

Bunny opens up the tunnel to Europe anyway. There aren't earplugs manufactured to the level of his sense of hearing, or the shape of his ears, but every club like the one where they first kissed is full of adults who no longer believe enough to see a giant rabbit in their midst, and one of them's a silent disco. This is the only place Bunny can comfortably share a dance with Dan. He doesn't even need to wear headphones to hear the music, so many of them are pumping the volume so hard.
bringinghopewithme: (039 - walking on your hands)

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-11-29 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
It would be expected that Dan would be getting side-eyed by people who see him kissing or snuggling the air, but instead, every adult in the room's eyes just sort of glide past, seeing that Dan is interacting with someone but not processing that that someone isn't human. The mind of the nonbeliever sees what it expects, not necessarily what is there. No one is paying much attention to Bunny and who or what he is; when Dan isn't interacting with him directly, that's when people get too close, walk through him, sending that shudder down his spine that he sure loves Dan a lot, to put up with.

"No worries, I've felt worse," Bunny chuckles, cuddling Dan close. It's true he's biding time until Dan's done dancing, but in the grand scheme of things the time isn't going to be that long. There's a lot he can do for a lot of time, when an afternoon feels like a blink in the grand scheme of things. And Dan is having the time of his life, which is the point of the moment.
bringinghopewithme: (003 - the sun it rises)

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-12-04 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
Bunny pulls Dan against him, forehead to the top of Dan's scalp. "You got it."

A few people do double-take when Dan appears to disappear into a hole in the ground that suddenly isn't there anymore. But the club is dark and the presence of myths has a way of sliding off the brains of even adults who see.

A nice cake disappears out of a nice bakery, with a gold nugget left behind. Half that cake gets eaten in a hot spring; the rest in bed back at the pole, to round out Dan's 40th.

"Here's to getting another year you didn't think you would," Bunny mutters in Dan's ear, as Dan drifts off.