16autumnroad | [Voice / Action: CH1 Floor 4, 5/1] Birthday Party (Joint post with Ino)

[VOICE, INO]
[A loud, familiar voice would be heard throughout the network today. Good thing it's not so early in the morning when it hollers or there'd be a lot of ruined mornings today despite the important announcement.]

Hey, Luceti! We've all had a lot of drama these past few days so, what do you all say about a little party? It's Chouji's birthday today and, of course, that needs celebrating!

Come by the first community building and you'll find the happenings on the fourth floor. See you there!

[With a little giggle, the announcement ends there.]

--

[ACTION]
It was only a little bit of a surprise to Chouji when he received an invitation to his own birthday party, delivered to the apartment door. These were things you just had to expect and accept with Ino as a teammate. Everyone on the floor along with Kiba and Asuma received paper invitations. Then he heard her network post, inviting pretty much everyone in the village. Ino.

He'd laughed and grinned when he woke up to a knock on the apartment door and the smell of chips that morning, a purple whirlwind demanding entrance to the apartment so she could decorate it. A glance down the hallway showed a trail of butterfly decorations, marking the path of Hurricane Ino.

Chouji gladly spent half of his birthday in the kitchen, likewise decorated with butterflies, cooking for his own party. He'd always been the team's cook, and there was no reason for that to change just because it was his party.

By dinnertime, the common areas as well as Chouji, Shikamaru, and Masaomi's apartment held enough potato chips to feed an army even without all the food Chouji cooked. Barbecue, of course, along with vegetables, rice, fish, chicken curry, miso soup, and one or two desserts. He made sure to include pudding, his thanks to Ino for her thought and effort.

Now they just needed some guests to help eat it all.

((OOC: I am very close to done with the semester and will be back to full tagging speed ASAP! I'll match whatever format you tag me in, prose or brackets.

Open to anyone! Threadhopping and mingling highly encouraged! It's a party.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Chouji is good at listening to everything Ikki says. He never tunes out her speeches, and at its conclusion, he nods to the pokemon. "It's good to meet you, Soren."

"I just had one a couple months ago at home, though." Between home and Luceti, he is probably about 3 and a half months past his birthday, hardly ready to turn another year older. He grins, accepting the present. Especially since it's coming from Ikki, he'll open it right away. A kid shouldn't have to wait for appreciation.

He opens the package and grins at the obviously handmade gift. "Thank you, Ikki! You made it yourself?" And Chouji will prove right away that he can use it. "I think I'll have some tea. Do you want anything?"

That's one of the reasons she likes Chouji - well, that and she was already inclined to like Shikamaru's teammate. But it's easy to see that he doesn't treat her entirely like a child, or at least doesn't dismiss her. Soren nods at the birthday ninja, apparently at ease.

"Yeah, that can be weird, but it's more fun this way don't you think? Because then you get like, EXTRA cake. And an extra year!!" Which is a typically childish way of looking at it, but she's a child. Ikki beams, nearly vibrating with excitement as Chouji goes to open her gift, and grins even more widely once he opens it up. "Yeah! I made it in art club. And I'll have tea, too!! What kind is it?"

"I'd never say no to extra cake," Chouji confirms with a firm nod, grinning down at Ikki. He leads the way toward the kitchen, putting a kettle on the stove immediately to start heating water.

"I really appreciate you bringing me a gift that you put so much effort into, Ikki. As for the tea, I'm having plain green tea. We might have something else if there's anything you'd prefer, though." Chouji opens one of the cupboards to check.

"Me either! That would be crazy. But did you know some people don't actually like cake?" Because those people are crazy.

"No, I like green tea! I mean, my favorite type is leechi nut, but they don't get those here often. That's a type of nut we have back home; it's REALLY good. And you're welcome, Chouji! Happy birthday!!!" Following him into the kitchen, Ikki found a stool to clamber up on, kicking her legs.

"I didn't! Who doesn't like cake?" Chouji will just look completely bewildered here, sounding just as incredulous as Ikki does, because how could anyone not like something so good?

He rummages through the cupboard, looking past his usual plain teas, and then said, "Mmhmm. I don't think I've ever had them in tea, but they have those in my world too. Really sweet, right?" And then, he pulls a box out and displays it to Ikki triumphantly. "Ah, there's some lychee black tea here! Is black tea alright, or should we stick with the green?"

"CRAZY people!!! I don't get it." She's equally bewildered - and happy that Chouji is sane, of course.

"Yeah, sweet! It's the best kind!" They might be thinking of different leechis, but...that much overlaps. And the idea of having it again - Ikki lights up like the sun. "That's really, really all right! I haven't had any in forever...!"

"I don't either! Cake is wonderful!" Obviously Chouji and Ikki are the bastions of sanity in this crazy world.

Chouji can't help beaming at Ikki when she smiles like that, especially when it's over food (or drink). "Lychee is really good. Maybe I'll try this tea too." He's sure whoever it put it there won't begrudge them two cups of tea, especially on his birthday. Chouji sets it up in a teapot, ready to steep as soon as the water heats enough to be added.

"Are lychees where you come from red on the outside and white on the inside?"

"Yeah, there should be cake EVERY day. Although my grandparents might say no to that..." So would her parents. If they were, you know, here.

"Yeah, they're kinda red and round, you know?" Ikki makes hand gestures that aren't very illuminating, though her vocal answer was...more illuminating, honestly. "And really, really delicious! It's my favorite kind of tea."

"Your grandmother's here too? Is she as young as your grandfather is?" Because finding out exactly how Aang was related to Ikki did come as a surprise.

He nods at the description of lychee. "Exactly! And we should add sugar so it's sweet like actual lychee is." Chouji pours hot water into the teapot. Then he gets out the sugar bowl and sets it down in front of Ikki, intending to let her decide just how much sugar ought to go in. Yes, he is indeed giving the seven year old authority over sugar.

"She's a bit older. I just call her Katara, 'cause she doesn't like being called Grangran." Katara, unlike Aang, doesn't embrace the future. She feels trapped by it. Ikki doesn't know as much about Katara's feelings on that as others might, but she's well aware her grandparents aren't together here. It's mildly baffling to her, but she keeps well out of it.

"Oh! Yeah, definitely add sugar!" And then she gets full authority...

Chouji, you poor soul. Because he has just given the seven year old authority over sugar, and she is sure to add as much as she can.

Chouji frowns a little at that, musing, "I guess it must be a little strange to suddenly be someone's Grangran when you're still just a teenager." Aang always seems so at ease with Ikki and with being called Grandpa that the full surrealness of the situation never quite sinks in.

He laughs lightly, beckoning expansively. "Go ahead, then!"

Perhaps the seventeen year old whose favorite food is junk food may not be the best influence. As long as the sugar eventually dissolves and their tea doesn't crunch, Chouji is happy.

"Yeah, I think so, too. ...She's like Grangran sometimes, but she's also not, sometimes. I love her bother ways though." Katara, unlike Aang, didn't come into a sudden family after having lost her entire people. That's probably what makes the difference.

"Okay!" And Chouji really should have expected the several spoonfuls that get dumped in. Sickly sweet tea is a go.

It won't quite crunch, but they are definitely careening towards a sugar high...

"Is she like your Grangran and another sister or an aunt all rolled into one now?" Chouji wonders.

He just grins at her eagerness with the sugar, though. Lychee is so sweet in the usual scheme of things that the amount she dumped in will probably just make it taste more like the fruit it ought to. Besides, when has he ever objected to sweets? Or any food, for that matter, unless it was poorly cooked to the point of beyond recognition.

"I think so!" And, perhaps, a mother. Ikki hadn't seen her own mother in nearly a year, after all...

Things she tried not to think about.

"I never knew her when she wasn't super-old, 'til I came here, you know?" Ikki pushed the sugar back a little, having completed her task.

[Voice / Action: CH1 Floor 4, 5/1] Birthday Party (Joint post with Ino)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject