alex+anthony+banagher+vanessa; normalcy?!

[amberhearted]

Who: Alexander, Anthony, Banagher & Vanessa
When: October 31st - November 1st
What: Camping!
Where: At the beach!
Warnings: --

For Alex, the festivity of October thirty-first was twofold: Halloween and his roommate's birthday. As with all gift-giving occasions, he presented Ravindra's presents in, perhaps not quite the most, but still an admirably convoluted fashion. Two costumes were individually wrapped in standard printer paper decorated with shitty Halloween-esque doodles in sharpie. These costumes were feline-inclined, though no one was stopping Ravindra from decorating his arms with each if he chose to do so. In recycled shipping boxes resided each gift, their 'packing material' fun-sized candies, and the boxes themselves taped normally, decorated with question marks, and placed on the island separating the kitchen from the living room.

Laid in front of them was a rectangular piece of cardboard framed in purple string lights. On it, in sharpie: Which one is the real present??

If Ravindra thought to flip it over: Both. :) PS cupcake in fridge. Happy birthday!!

Alas, Alex wouldn't be there to see his reaction (which was why he set up the presents in such a fashion in the first place) for the very simple reason that he was taking a few of the Numbers camping for the night. After all the paranormal bullshit and subsequent pressure from the encroaching police, leaving the heart of the city for a breather sounded like a good idea to him. Wanting to keep it on the downlow, he proposed the idea to Anthony, Banagher, and Vanessa, and was pleasantly surprised by their agreement. (Ravindra had been invited, too, but he'd declined.)

The normalcy of camping would do them all some good (or so Alex hoped.)

As much as a vampire, a zombie, a space person, and a metal-power thief could be normal, anyway.

(It might be worthy to note that Alex might look kind of sketch given his costume. Sorry, not sorry.)

Comments

set up

[amberhearted]

Once they've chosen a camp site sufficiently past the high tide level, unloading and setting up said site comes next. The layout of the beach makes it such that Alex is able to park directly onto the sand and use his truck as a windbreak when night falls. Their chosen area is sparse in vegetation; Alex wanted to avoid driving over plants.

There are still a few groups of people scattered along the shoreline. Further inspection will reveal a couple of groups with the same idea as them -- tents pitched or in the process of pitching -- but they're spaced out enough to afford the Numbers their relative privacy.

The two main tasks thus far are gathering driftwood for a fire and pitching the tent. Alex volunteers to handle the tent, though he wouldn't mind another hand.

the ocean itself!

[amberhearted]

The water's cold as fuck, but that isn't stopping some brave souls from messing around in it. The question is are there any Numbers present willing to do the same?

Alternatively, sand castles and all variants are still a respectable beach activity. You know you want to be a sand mermaid.

night

[amberhearted]

The sun has since disappeared beneath the horizon, taking the warmth of the afternoon with it. A few campfires dot the shoreline like disjointed Christmas lights, theirs included. The truck has since been re-positioned to prevent any wind from ruining their work.

Alex asked Banagher and Anthony if they'd each bring something for dinner and dessert, respectively. Alex volunteered himself for breakfast. Vanessa... was not asked to bring food because no one wants to spend their camping trip ill with food poisoning.

Sorry, Vanessa.

morning!

[amberhearted]

Time to recharge the fire, make breakfast, enjoy the beach a while longer, and then pack up and go.

Breakfast is canned biscuits with jam filling (jar jacked from the kitchen, sorry Ravi) and blueberry orange muffins. Naturally, there's too much in total because Alex couldn't decide between the two.

[argents]

Once he's hopped out of the truck and helped move a few things off of the bed and onto their campsite, Banagher spends a moment glancing over the other campers and the shoreline that seemed to dwarf their presence. It's cold and gray, but not overly windy, and the waves are loud. With nothing but ocean ahead and the absence of the city behind, it feels open. And way less claustrophobic than he's used to.

Realizing he's still holding a small cooler, he trots over to where some other supplies sit and scoots it into place.

"I can go look for firewood! There's probably some farther down where there aren't as many people yet," he offers, pointing off towards a lonelier section of beach. "Anyone else want to go?"

[doomedtheworld]

Hell no.

[doomedtheworld]

Banagher wasn't the only one noticing the difference between the city and the ocean. Vanessa had dropped the folding chairs she'd grabbed from the truck and then moved off a little, looking out at the ocean.

She'd lived in the city her whole life and, more than that, she'd made it her own. The closeness of the buildings, the crowds of people, she'd learned how to use them all. Here, she just feels small.

So, it's quite a sight to her and she takes a few moments to look out at it before getting down to business.

"I'll go." She says, walking back to where she'd left the others. "I should help out somehow and I don't know anything about setting up a tent."

[scramasax]

A request for which Anthony did all persnickety looking-up for something "appropriate" (which is to say at or workable into a convenient enough size and taking the technical occasion into account), that needn't have been handled with bare hands during the process of getting it made (on the subject of food poisoning), and that required neither much energy nor particular careful touch in making (with advancement in status came a lowered center of default grace; he'd rather not run the risk of bringing an essential failed practice product for it).

He'd been waiting out the brighter part of the day after the tent was pitched inside and around it, primarily - for the sake of both staying out of sight and out of the brightest of the sun. He'd been quick and glad to see to relocating outside once the sky had started getting darker, and bringing out his offering - brownies with pumpkin, stacked in a Tupperware in actually very neatly-cut pieces, on which John had given the clear - Anthony himself is minimally able to test things; it's a mercy for the practice of cooking that he's able to smell well enough, still! Also seeing where he might do his part in getting the fire going - allowing for letting his eyes adjust to its presence nice and intimately as it does.

[doomedtheworld]

Vanessa might be just a little bit wounded by that. Just a little. Just because she might have gone a little overboard on a few things everybody acts like she tried to poison them. Also, they were just a couple of sissies anyway. Still, she could have brought hot dogs or something. Hmph.

Well, whatever, she'll just sit next to the fire, wrapped up in a big, heavy coat with her hood up because fuck cold. She could be the bigger person about it, she could let it go.

....

"It wasn't that bad." Apparently, she could not.

[amberhearted]

Well, that's okay because Alex will enjoy it for the both of them. All four of them, even!! Because he's high on the victory of setting up their tent and nothing, especially not common sense, will stop him from celebrating.

With a loud whoop, the oldest member of camp tears down the sand and slides like a pro baseball player into the water.

[amberhearted]

Alex was exceptionally pleased to find Anthony leaving the safety of the tent as evening set. Earlier, he'd suggested Anthony enjoy himself outside and pass off any possible inquiries of his status as a costume given that it was Halloween, but he didn't push it.

"Knew I could count on you," is his chipper response to the pumpkin brownie offering. Indeed, Alex had specifically asked Anthony to handle dessert because of his and John's adventures in baking. If the lemon meringues were anything to go by, the brownies might be just as delicious.

Though Alex doesn't eat much solid food at all nowadays, he accepts a slice with a grin.

[amberhearted]

"What wasn't bad?" asks Alex, as his raggedy costume cloak falls from above to drape over her head.

[doomedtheworld]

Vanessa looks up just in time for that cloak to fall over her head. There's a second of flailing to get it off before she gives Alex a particularly baleful look.

"My cooking."

[doomedtheworld]

Alex is totally welcome to become a vampsicle if he wants to. Vanessa will just stand a good distance away from the water with her arms folded over her big, heavy coat.

"You're going to freeze in there!" She calls from her place on the beach, safe and sound from the frigid depths of the ocean.

[amberhearted]

'Frigid' is absolutely accurate. Though Alex is noticeably colder than what's considered normal, he isn't cold enough to mitigate the temperature difference between himself and the water.

What results is another whoop that gets eaten up when Alex's head disappears under water. He shoots up a second later, shaking his head like a wet dog, sending droplets of salty, cold water in every direction.

"Nuh uh!" he calls back, grinning like a madman.

Yep, freezing.

[scramasax]

Sheepish appreciative grin.

He isn't quite sure it looks adequately like a grin.

Mumbles a "thank you" - knows it may sound odd but still wonders exactly how Alex does, so to speak, get along with ordinary food; what part of it is in response to the "knew I could count on you" is a bit abashed with an awkward internal short toss, given the contents of the conversation last week. "Hope it -- erm -- wasn't a bad choice..."

Nothing heavy in it, still sheepish and pleasant - in a way that'll hopefully compensate for anything lost to his ability to emote via facial expression - if trailing off quick and dried-out.

[amberhearted]

The cloak is dry and blessedly not salted because Alex had just enough sense to throw it off before running into the water earlier.

"Hey, hey," he says, crouching down to pick up the discarded cloak and layer it more neatly over her coat.

Answer her honestly or try to glaze over the subject? She's obviously not happy about it...

He settles beside her, a few inches between them, and rolls a reused glass bottle of blood between his palms. (No big deal.)

"It wasss... something else," he decides on, which isn't much better than the truth, honestly, but he can't bring himself to lie about it.

[amberhearted]

"Naw, man, can't ever go wrong with chocolate."

Alex is pretty neutral on chocolate, but he has yet to know someone who straight up dislikes it (aside from being allergic, and that person had since come to terms with the loss).

After a bite and some chewing, he gives Anthony a thumbs up. At the same time, his phone goes off with a ringtone specific to Ravindra's text messages.

Upon seeing the text, his smile brightens with boyish delight. "Look, look," he says, shifting so Anthony can see his phone screen. On it is a photo of a cat in a red dress with white fur trim.

Or, more accurately, a blur of a cat in a dress.

"Olivia," he explains, enthusiasm still in his voice. "She hates costumes."

[argents]

"I forgot," he admits easily enough, with a curious look cast over at Vanessa. "It feels like I haven't gone camping in forever, but I know the beach okay."

Which is true enough, even if it was mostly talk to deflect the fact that her offer caught him off-guard, if only for a second. Banagher came here determined to leave everything else behind in the city, but he knows they didn't exactly leave off on the best foot the last time they 'spoke', and he's still admittedly sore about it. But there's no argument brewing, just a grab at his coat from where he slung it over the side of the truck's bed while unloading the heavier stuff.

"Besides, it's probably better if we go anyway, thinking about it," he grins at Alex a little. "Two sets of arms, and Beach Patrol might think you're sketchy and come after you."

[amberhearted]

In response, Alex pauses in his task to flip Banagher the bird.

[scramasax]

And on the ring Anthony's expression blanks and snaps to neutrally alert - he shuffles a fraction of a step back for Alex to check his phone without any differentiation between a call and a text occurring to him - is unmoving but pulled to move once Alex's speaking up and signaling registers, as "look" is the sort of command he's especially and eagerly compelled to satisfy - stumbles closer and edges in to take his look at the screen -

And he heaves out a laugh - just the one short one, quick and dry and very suppressed but otherwise natural and in spite of himself instant - "What's - what's that for - ?" he asks, also quick, and dry, and suppressed - not that, somehow, the thoughts of Alex and putting cats in dresses exactly seem dissonant.

That with the timing of this Ravindra would've been the one responsible with actually putting the cat in the dress is another thought that he doesn't manage to think to have presently.

[amberhearted]

Anthony's laugh fuels Alex's mirth. Smile widening, he flips to the second photo: another, more clear shot of Olivia.

"Christmas. Vin loves dressing the cats up," he explains, flipping to the third: a black cat in a pinstripe pseudo-tux vest. "Adhi."

[scramasax]

Another laugh a bit too unexpected to be as restrained on the third - a cat in a dress manages to look like one thing, fits any subconscious perhaps-stereotypical ideas of pets in dolls' or little girls' clothes, but is that a tuxedo made for cats?

"R -- Ravindra likes - this - ...?" tapers out of it; his surprise however mundane and mild's in it (and mundane, mild surprise manages to be a really very appreciable feeling) - his focus keeps centered peering at the phone screen.

[argents]

Banagher snorts a little, shoving his arms through his jacket sleeves and hurrying out of the campsite's immediate area, just in case of retaliation. Despite the fact that he's pausing to look over his shoulder, his expression is already lighter than it has been in days.

"We'll be back in no time!"

[amberhearted]

"Likes? He fucking loves it," says Alex, too amused by the photos and pleased both by Ravi's obvious approval and Anthony's light mood to catch his swearing as he usually did when speaking with the 'younger' crowd.

"Here," he continues, leaving the text for the gallery. He thumbs past the first two pages, and then settles on the third. Pulling up another photo of a cat in a costume, he hands the phone to Anthony. "Here, check it out-- there's lots more. Vin's nuts about his cats, they're like his kids."

And there are, indeed, more photos of the cats dressed in various atrocities costumes. Dispersed among them are various unrelated photos: of food, carpentry projects, and livestock from the 4-H clubs, to name a few. There are even a few selfies of himself and Ravi, and, actually, a few candid shots from the night he, Arthur, John and Ravindra had hit the bar.