[MINGLE LOG] I'M GLAD IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

[powerofmabel]

Who: The Pines Twins and EVERYONE (MINGLE LOG)
Where: The Jolly Roger
When: September 2nd
Rating: G
Summary: The Pines Twins are technically turning thirteen, and are having a giant birthday party to celebrate. EVERYONE COME EAT CAKE.
The Story:

The Jolly Roger has been decked out with enough streamers to give its previous owner a small heart attack, but at least the streamers are done up in red, black, and white to go with the pirate theme and not something colorful and obscene like Mabel might design if left to her own devices. Most of the tables for snacks ( including oranges to ward off scurvy) have been set up on the beach to give the guests plenty of room to mingle around without overcrowding the ship, and at various places around the party areas are large barrels full of fake plastic pirate weapons, eyepatches, hats, and other pirate accessories so everyone can get into the spirit of things.

The deck of the Jolly Roger has been turned into a sort of makeshift dance floor for people willing to get up and get their groove on for the entertainment of everyone on the beach, which is entirely Mabel's idea, because who wouldn't want to have a dance party on the deck of a pirate ship.

For the most part, it's a free-for-all, since the twins can't possibly organize that many people, but they're here, there, and everywhere, making sure everyone's having a good time and basking in all the birthday excitement.

Comments

Dipper Pines | ota

[krmvgivv]

[There's one birthday boy here, actually having a good time for once. He's been waiting to be 13 for a long time. Thirteen years, technically. Plus, he and Mabel rule at birthday parties, and they're always awesome. He can be found eating cake, challenging people to duels with a plastic sword, and even dancing on the pirate deck. He's still in costume and it's a great time to have fun and not think about any of the problems that have been plaguing him lately.

Very occasionally, he sneaks away from the crowd and pulls a rubik's cube out of his pocket. There are some problems that he can't ignore, and figuring out how to solve this stupid thing faster than his great uncle is definitely one of them. But for the most part, he's actually spending time with other people this party. And only partly because otherwise Mabel will throw his rubik's cube overboard. He's also just enjoying himself.]

[brainmeme]

[Amethyst corners him while he's chowing down on some cake, determined to have fun because even Dipper is letting loose and if she can't have fun when Dipper is then something's seriously wrong. Which is why when she approaches him she looks completely serious.]

Hey, Dipper... What's that on your cake?

[krmvgivv]

Do you mean the tiny sword? [Dipper pulls it out the cake and brandishes it at her.] I don't know, it seemed piratey.

[powerofmabel]

[the absence of a twin on a birthday is a very real problem in Mabel's book, so the moment she doesn't spot Dipper mingling, she sets out to hunt him down. it doesn't take long. the party area isn't that huge, and she figures he'd probably duck down below deck to avoid the people if he wanted some alone time.]

Still trying to figure that thing out? [she's more amused than annoyed with him for sneaking off- the fact that he's been having fun and socializing at all is good enough for her.]

[krmvgivv]

I've figured it out, I just can't do it faster than Grunkle Stan! [He holds up the completed rubik's cube, sighs, and messes it up again.] I don't understand! How did he do it in so little time? I've been practicing all week and I still can't get it under five minutes!

[charlastan]

[It's been a very, very fun week to be Stan. Pretty much every time he's spotted Dipper around the mansion he's been working on trying to solve that damn rubik's cube. If he'd known it could be that easy to distract the kid, he would have shown off this trick ages ago!

At some point, he spots Dipper off to the side, trying to solve the puzzle. Stan grins and waits until Dipper's done with the thing, and then calls attention to himself by prodding Dipper in the back with one of the toy swords laying around.]

Not bad! Still not as good as me, but eh. You're gettin' there.

[It sounds vaguely like a compliment, but he's grinning because he knows it's going to bug the hell of out the kid.]

[krmvgivv]

[Mabel's words have been ringing around Dipper's head, even though he's still been trying to get faster, and he looks up at Stan with a frown. Stan's being so smug about it, and it's making Dipper think.]

Yeah, well, how about you do it again?

[He holds it up, expression somewhere between challenging and angry.]

Since you're so good at it, I'm sure you can show me some tips. What algorithms do you use?

[goodwoofjames]

[Sirius can't say he gets the whole...pirate thing. Why would anyone want to pretend to be a pirate when they could pretend to be an auror, or Merlin? But he's glad to see Dipper's having a good time, anyway. Last he saw the kid, he was decidedly not enjoying himself. And neither was Sirius, actually, so he figures he owes it to the kid to enjoy the party just as much.

Which is why when he finds a plastic sword lying around, he gamely prods Dipper in the back with it.]

I don't usually duel with a sword, but I think I can manage. That or I could, uh, make you walk the plank? [That's the phrase, right?]

[krmvgivv]

Hey, it's my birthday. I get to make the plank walking decisions around here! [He grins and draws his own plastic sword, saving it at Sirius.] That or Mabel, I guess. We're co-captains.

[He prods Sirius back with the sword. He is having a lot of fun, partly because he's very much not letting himself think about all the reasons why he hasn't been having fun lately. He's fine, and he's finally a teenager. Technically.]

amethyst | ota

[brainmeme]

[Amethyst doesn't really "get" birthday parties, but they're parties so what can go wrong, really? Aside from everything. She's uncharacteristically uncertain about the whole thing, not really stepping out on the dance floor like she normally would. She sticks to the food area on the beach, eating cake and taking bites out of oranges (without bothering to peel them first).

She is actually dressed up, though. She's in an old getup she hasn't donned for a long time, including an eyepatch over her missing eye for good measure.

Between taking over the food tables and staring at the twins like she expects something to happen to them, she's not really cutting loose like she normally would. What's up with that?]

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel zeroes in on Amethyst almost immediately, because she really did expect her to be the life of this party and something must be terribly Wrong for her to not be cutting a rug and doing her thing.

In hindsight, maybe she shouldn't pop out of barrels right beside her bestie to surprise her when she's in a state like this, but that's Mabel for you. Maybe a surprise will scare the party spirit into her.]

Amethyst! Is something wrong? You don't have an irrational fear of pirates, do you? [she leans out of the barrel a bit.]

[brainmeme]

Wagh! [And Amethyst is actually jumpy enough right now to freak when Mabel pops out of nowhere. In a way, though, she's also relieved she's got Mabel back in her sight. She hadn't seen her for a few minutes and that was starting to make her nervous. What if the spirit of birthdays past kidnapped her?]

--No? No, pirates are cool. You should have seen when those guys were all over the place. You couldn't swim into a pond without getting a face full of cannon fire.

[Sigh.] Nothing's really wrong, it's just... birthdays are weird. I don't see what the big deal is. So you're a year older. Woo-hoo. [She looks clearly uncomfortable talking about it.]

...Cool party, though.

Helena | ota

[donotcallmethis]

[Helena doesn't know Dipper well yet, she's vaguely aware he probably thinks she's simply a cold blooded murderer, so she's not sure what to do about that. But she has presents; for Mabel, a set of edible glitter in many different colors. She has no idea what Mabel may do with this, but Helena eats it like pixie sticks. And for Dipper, even though she does not know him well, she gets him nice leather bound notebooks. From being around Mabel she knows enough to know that he may like that sort of thing? Perhaps? If she's wrong, she will just get him candy later.

And then there is dancing to be had and she's not very good at it, but she is having a very good time.]

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel's immediate reaction to edible glitter is to start decorating her hands with little glitter designs, admiring them, and then licking them off indelicately.]

This is gonna taste better on pizza than regular glitter for sure.

[this child...

she beams at Helena.] So do we know how to throw a party or what?

[donotcallmethis]

You put glitter on pizza?

[Not that she has any qualms about it, just, she never thought of pizza as being a food that particularly needs to sparkle. She's going to have to re-evaluate a few things in her life.

Like: should donuts sparkle?]

I like this party very much, yes, it is very good. I am glad to be here for your party, not-so-little Mabel. You are having much fun?

[Helena is smiling the smile of someone who's ready to throw back some glitter-food.]

Stan Pines | OTA

[charlastan]

[Of course Stan is there! Why wouldn't he be? This is his great niece and nephew after all, and he didn't even have to put the party together! These kids went and stole a boat on their own and he's never been more proud of the little gremlins.

Down at the snack table there's another cake, more mediocre than whatever they came up with. It has all thirteen candles together in the middle so the flames will become one large torch that will take Dipper and Mabel's combined efforts to put out...if it doesn't accidentally light the whole cake on fire first. As for his actual gift, they both get the same thing - a small heist kit for each other them and a little teasing about their new lives as professional criminals/boat thieves. Dipper's has a black knit hat in it and Mabel's has a black sweater, naturally. Stan has one other surprise for them too, but that's up on the roof for after the party. Nothing's illegal in a world with no laws!

Stan doesn't go for full pirate garb like the kids, but he does use it as an excuse to get himself a new eye patch (not that he really needs one - anyone paying attention might notice that he keeps changing what eye it covers). He gladly mingles his way around the party, mentally taking inventory of all these people who know Dipper and Mabel but...there are also moments he sneaks away too. He can sometimes be found exploring the ship (part to see if there's anything valuable and part just a weird sort of nostalgia) or even just leaning on one of the railings watching the ocean, thinking about something far away. He doesn't linger long though - not when he's got a birthday party he's supposed to be at and guests to harass.]

Wirt | OTA

[singloversing]

[Wirt...isn't much of a party person. Time has been so confusing in Wonderland that he's pretty sure his own birthday came and went while he wasn't paying attention (which sounds really ridiculous, even to him, but he had other things on his mind at the time and it didn't really feel like January anyway). But, it's Dipper and Mabel and after convincing himself that he's not on the jerk list (sure, they bicker a lot but they're...probably friends, right?) he makes his way to the party.

It took him a while to pick out gifts, because he tends to agonize over that sort of thing, but he's pretty sure they're both things that Dipper and Mabel will enjoy. They're both things from his own world that probably have equivalents in theirs, but he hopes they'll like them anyway. Dipper's is a legendary book of horror stories that honestly kind of traumatized Wirt as a kid, but it seems like the sort of thing Dipper would be into. Mabel's is Pretty in Pink, because brat pack movies might be the only bit of 80's culture he and Mabel can agree on. They're classics, even if she definitely should have picked Duckie in the end.

He definitely doesn't dress up though. Nope. He just turns up in his usual gnome-ish garb and mostly keeps to the edges of the party. There's a lot of party on the beach and he does make it down there for cake, but he kind of likes being up on the ship. It makes him think of the last ship he was on...which wasn't technically a ship and they weren't even on the ocean but it probably counts, right? Right. Maybe.]

[eatyourdirt]

So. [Beatrice is not dressed up either, because she's a bird and also because she's no fun. Either one would be enough to make her not want to dress up. The combination means good luck even suggesting the idea.]

How long til we can leave? And why are you even here? I thought you were too much of a loser for parties.

James Potter | OTA

[pottershotter]

[James hasn't known the twins long, but he adores them already, so he makes certain to pop by the party (literally, by apparating, because he's a show-off at heart). It's a fantastic party, and he'll immediately grab himself a hat the second he's on board, and with his red summer robes he actually does look a bit like a pirate himself, and he gladly gets into the spirit of things, dancing and smacking people with the muggle toy swords (and immediately pretending he did no such thing).

He only brought one gift for the two of them, but it's something that's meant to be shared - it's a Wizard Chess set, and Dipper and Mabel are each meant to keep one set of pieces for themselves, to be their magical chess army to lead as they please.

After gift-giving he'll stick around for festivities and mingling and anything else he can think of. It's been a while since he's been to a kid's birthday party, but after how terrible the last few events have been (including one that managed to kill him) he's determined to have a good time.]

[exceedinglybright]

[James isn't attending alone, of course, and it's not long before Lily turns up beside him with a drink in each hand, having already left her gifts for the twins among the rest-- a book for each detailing a number of magical creatures and their origin as well as a collection of wizarding sweets, complete with chocolate frogs she'd enchanted herself in lieu of being able to get the genuine article.

She smiles, offering James his glass before giving him a playful nudge with her elbow.]

Did I see you trying your hand at fencing a moment ago?

Beatrice | ota

[eatyourdirt]

[Beatrice is only here because Wirt's here and she doesn't really have any other friends or feel comfortable enough to want to be alone for too long. But she can't eat cake because it'll make her sick and she can't wear a costume or dance because she really doesn't want to and she doesn't know the birthday... people and probably wouldn't care if she did.

So she's mostly just sitting on the railing of the boat and looking kind of sorry for herself. It's been a hard week.]

[brainmeme]

You look weirdly sad. [Amethyst pokes her, somewhat hypocritically considering how she's been acting at this party.] Come on, bird, it's a party. Lighten up. Have some cake. [She shoves the plate of cake she's working on in Beatrice's face.]

[thneedifestdestiny]

[The Once-ler probably shouldn't even be here. It's not like he knows either of the twins well, but Mabel's a good kid, and Dipper...

...

...Well, Mabel's a good kid. Good enough for him to knit something adorable for her and pretend he cared enough to give something to Dipper in exchange for cake. Cake which he's taken up to the railing of the ship to eat, because it looks pretty empty up there at the moment.

After a long moment though, he realizes he isn't alone but there. There's a little bird just...sitting there. It always surprises him a little when animals don't just flee at the sight of him. It's enough to make him stare for a second, but then he squints. Wait. He knows this bird.]

...Sheesh, what happened to you? The human thing didn't stick?

Henry Mills - OTA

[henrydaniel]

[Henry's...not particularly in the party mood. He was a HYDRA agent, he said and did some really...really terrible things, and his moms are still both cursed. But he's also never had friends that have a birthday party before, and he doesn't want to lose that. So, he figures out what to do for presents (a set of books on myths and monsters from different realms for Dipper, and a huge scrapbooking kit for Mabel.

He doesn't interrupt them, but he does look around the Jolly Roger a little, missing Hook, just another person gone, even as he tries to plaster a smile on his face as he grabs food. And he mingles, even, makes small talk.]

You know, I've steered this ship and I know where the secret hold is.

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel all but pops up between Henry and the person he's talking to, emerging seemingly out of the ether, because she's just That Good.] You do?

[she glances behind her at the person she just interrupted and points behind them, gasping.] Oh my gosh, I think there's a kraken over there!

[she grabs Henry's arm and leads him away while they're momentarily distracted, grinning victoriously as she does.] So secret hold, huh? I love secret-y things!