Story: "The Path of the Sun" Part 2
Oct. 27th, 2014 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the Schrodinger's Hulk series, a crossover between Hulk and Schrodinger's Heroes. It is a sequel to "Safe Keeping" and "Two Spirits, One Past," and "For the Very First Time." It fills the "original characters" square in my 6-11-14 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fanbingo fest, and the "sunny" square in the public card for the Birthday Bingo fest.
Format: Fiction
Title: "The Path of the Sun"
Fandom: Hulk/Schrodinger's heroes
Summary: Bruce is not a fan of birthdays, nor of parties in general. Pat is pretty sure he can change Bruce's mind.
Required Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Notes: Gentle coaxing, laid-back planning, low-key celebration, party food, games, team as family, cottoncandy fluff.
Begin with Part 1.
"The Path of the Sun" Part 2
Bruce's birthday dawned just as sunny as ever. The sky was a bright, piercing blue. Butterflies danced over a cluster of blooming cacti. Now and then, birds sang from the trees.
There were no flashing, colored lights to give Bruce a headache or make the Other Guy antsy. There was no crowd. There was no noise other than the wildlife and the low rumble of Dakota's dilapidated car pulling into the parking lot. There was only the Teflon Tesseract and the team that was starting to feel like his, feel like what people said family was supposed to be.
Bruce felt weird, watching the party preparations. He wasn't used to anyone making a fuss over him, even if it wasn't much of a fuss. (Bruce was still amazed that someone had listened to him for once. That was new.) Alex laid out the giant chess set. Pat was setting the food on a picnic table, its blue-and-white checked tablecloth fluttering in the breeze. Dakota and Ash lugged an ice chest between them, already full of beverages, bottles of beer carefully distinguished from cans of coke.
Dakota had his long hair done up in two braids wrapped with leather. Ash wore hers in a single tail down her back, fastened by a heavy band of silver studded with turquoise. Bruce felt underdressed in his secondhand t-shirt and jeans, but new clothes still made him uneasy. Then Betsy showed up in flip-flops, cutoff denim shorts, and a tank top with a can of whoopass on the front. After that Bruce forgot all about what he was wearing.
Betsy and Bruce strolled over to see the large ring-toss tourney that Bailey and Chris had created. The targets included bottles, ceramic jugs, wooden poles, barrels, several pieces of PVC pipe in assorted diameters, and a pink flamingo with a bandanna tied around its neck. There was also a pegboard propped up against a tree. The rings ranged from palm-size on up to hula hoops.
"Where did you even get all this?" Bruce asked, staring around in bewilderment.
"Workshop," Bailey said.
"Toy store in town," Chris said.
"Giveaway box," Dakota added.
"The targets all have scores on them," Pat said. "Easy targets start at one point, harder targets earn more. Difficulty is based on a formula comparing the diameter of the target to the diameter of the matching rings, and accounting for obstacles. There are candy and novelty prizes for anyone who wants to keep score." He pointed at a basket.
"Hmm," Bruce said thoughtfully. He picked up the nearest set of rings, as wide as his spread hand. He calculated the trajectory with care, and managed to hang one on the pole. It was not the innocent joy of youth that he recalled, but it gave him a quiet sense of pleasure.
When Betsy handed him another set of multicolored rings, and pointed Bruce gently toward the pegboard, he did not demur. Neither did he keep score.
Nobody called him on that. They just let him play.
* * *
Notes:
Lawn chess may use a temporary or permanent setup.
In the South, "coke" is a generic term for soft drinks.
Leather braid wraps are a popular hairstyle in various tribes. You can make your own. Turquoise and silver are especially popular in Navajo jewelry like Ash's ponytail holder.
This is the whoopass design on Betsy's tank top.
Ring toss games come in many variations.
The giveaway belongs to the Native American gift economy. Dakota is bifocal, running a thrift store but also maintaining a giveaway box where people can take something or leave something. It has to be something nice: the "free junk" box is separate.
[To be concluded in Part 3 ...]
fanbingo fest, and the "sunny" square in the public card for the Birthday Bingo fest.Format: Fiction
Title: "The Path of the Sun"
Fandom: Hulk/Schrodinger's heroes
Summary: Bruce is not a fan of birthdays, nor of parties in general. Pat is pretty sure he can change Bruce's mind.
Required Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Notes: Gentle coaxing, laid-back planning, low-key celebration, party food, games, team as family, cottoncandy fluff.
Begin with Part 1.
"The Path of the Sun" Part 2
Bruce's birthday dawned just as sunny as ever. The sky was a bright, piercing blue. Butterflies danced over a cluster of blooming cacti. Now and then, birds sang from the trees.
There were no flashing, colored lights to give Bruce a headache or make the Other Guy antsy. There was no crowd. There was no noise other than the wildlife and the low rumble of Dakota's dilapidated car pulling into the parking lot. There was only the Teflon Tesseract and the team that was starting to feel like his, feel like what people said family was supposed to be.
Bruce felt weird, watching the party preparations. He wasn't used to anyone making a fuss over him, even if it wasn't much of a fuss. (Bruce was still amazed that someone had listened to him for once. That was new.) Alex laid out the giant chess set. Pat was setting the food on a picnic table, its blue-and-white checked tablecloth fluttering in the breeze. Dakota and Ash lugged an ice chest between them, already full of beverages, bottles of beer carefully distinguished from cans of coke.
Dakota had his long hair done up in two braids wrapped with leather. Ash wore hers in a single tail down her back, fastened by a heavy band of silver studded with turquoise. Bruce felt underdressed in his secondhand t-shirt and jeans, but new clothes still made him uneasy. Then Betsy showed up in flip-flops, cutoff denim shorts, and a tank top with a can of whoopass on the front. After that Bruce forgot all about what he was wearing.
Betsy and Bruce strolled over to see the large ring-toss tourney that Bailey and Chris had created. The targets included bottles, ceramic jugs, wooden poles, barrels, several pieces of PVC pipe in assorted diameters, and a pink flamingo with a bandanna tied around its neck. There was also a pegboard propped up against a tree. The rings ranged from palm-size on up to hula hoops.
"Where did you even get all this?" Bruce asked, staring around in bewilderment.
"Workshop," Bailey said.
"Toy store in town," Chris said.
"Giveaway box," Dakota added.
"The targets all have scores on them," Pat said. "Easy targets start at one point, harder targets earn more. Difficulty is based on a formula comparing the diameter of the target to the diameter of the matching rings, and accounting for obstacles. There are candy and novelty prizes for anyone who wants to keep score." He pointed at a basket.
"Hmm," Bruce said thoughtfully. He picked up the nearest set of rings, as wide as his spread hand. He calculated the trajectory with care, and managed to hang one on the pole. It was not the innocent joy of youth that he recalled, but it gave him a quiet sense of pleasure.
When Betsy handed him another set of multicolored rings, and pointed Bruce gently toward the pegboard, he did not demur. Neither did he keep score.
Nobody called him on that. They just let him play.
* * *
Notes:
Lawn chess may use a temporary or permanent setup.
In the South, "coke" is a generic term for soft drinks.
Leather braid wraps are a popular hairstyle in various tribes. You can make your own. Turquoise and silver are especially popular in Navajo jewelry like Ash's ponytail holder.
This is the whoopass design on Betsy's tank top.
Ring toss games come in many variations.
The giveaway belongs to the Native American gift economy. Dakota is bifocal, running a thrift store but also maintaining a giveaway box where people can take something or leave something. It has to be something nice: the "free junk" box is separate.
[To be concluded in Part 3 ...]
