victory_road | Open party log, as promised!

Who: Fiddleford McGucket and anyone in Goldenrod who saw his post -- or hears the ruckus.
Where: The junkyard behind the Goldenrod magnet train station.
When: February 13th!
Summary: A WILD BIRTHDAY HOOTENANNY.
Rating: Moonshine.
Notes: Feel free to treat this like a mingle log and tag around!

When Fiddleford McGucket said party streamers, no one knew that what he meant was dozens and dozens of feet of plastic tape pulled out of old casettes and tied to any high-up piece of old rusty metal McGucket could find.

When Fiddleford McGucket said enough beans for everybody, no one could have known that there would be a bean can mountain over six feet tall piled precariously on a tarp.

When Fiddleford McGucket had said moonshine made from a Ribombee, it might have crossed some more fearful minds that he had meant that literally. Thankfully, he didn't. There are two jugs of the honeystuff going around, and if anyone who's obviously less than sixteen or so gets hold of one of them, they'll find the jar lifted out of their grip by a pair of dirty bandaged hands, possibly while McGucket himself is hanging upside-down above their heads from a garbage edifice. It's good, but don't drink too much of it. There's also nonalcoholic cider that's rather more plentiful. McGucket says it's made from apricorns, but no one is sure how he managed it. It tastes funny but it won't put hair on your chest, unless it does. It also looks not so different from that honeyshine. Be careful not to mix them up.

The banjo music, though, is exactly as promised.

The party is centered around a bonfire with a great big old pot hanging above it, full of cooking beans. The empty cans are being fed to McGucket's Trubbish and a wild one or two around. You might spot a Rattata or a spooked Pidove skittering out of a pile of trash, and McGucket himself has had to chase a Stunky away with his hat more than once.

But he greets every single party guest with a broad smile and a hearty handshake, and you're not leaving this party hungry if he can help it -- as long as you like beans.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's good at remembering things. ...Silent Hill drills that into you.

"I am, thanks for asking. It's a bit strange having an actual house to live in rather then the hotel jumping we were doing the last time I was here, but I'll get used to it."

Also new people to live with and his daughter has a boyfriend. Those are new things.

"I take it you know Fiddleford McGucket?"

"It's pretty nice having a house. We've got one out in the Sevii Islands, and it's great." It means Jean doesn't have to lug his ever-growing book collection around anymore, which is pretty sweet.

"Yeah! We met when he tried to steal my Trubbish." Jean chuckles at the memory; clearly the incident has been forgiven. "He's weird, but a really good weird, you know?"

"That sounds nice. Do you live with many people? I don't think I've been over to that area."

Also he's pretty sure that area wasn't there the last time he'd been here. But he's getting used to the, surprise this place got even stranger.

"He seems pretty friendly." Trying to steal someone's pokemon sounds like an odd way to a friendship but that's between them. He nods "Yeah....I've met a few people I'd describe like that."

Sorry Henry but you are one, though less so then when they had to hunt you down in the woods.

"Yeah, there are a bunch of us who live there. We rented a big, old house on the beach, and after we moved in, more and more people from home started showing up." Now it's a regular ~~Attack on Voltron~~ party house, full of people who need second chances and Pokemon.

"It's pretty nice. I lived in the barracks back home so I just got used to being around people all the time, and then I made a lot of friends here and now..." He shrugs. "Now we all share a place on the beach. You and Heather should come visit sometime."

Open invitation there, bro.

"I'll tell her about it."

He will keep that in mind. Because a beach sounds nice.

"I'm the opposite myself. I spent most of the past years before this place with only my daughter as company. I was something of a social recluse to be honest. I was getting used to being around more people the last time I was here. I still am really, but I'm better then I used to be."

So much better, but then again not having to be under a fake identity, hiding from a cult and keeping important secrets from your daughter will give you that break in stress. Also dying, dying surprisingly helped because well hey the worst happened already.

"That sounds like me and my mom, actually." Jean is an only child in a world where that's a rarity, and his dad was around but traveled all the time. For most of his childhood, it had just been himself and his mom, so he understands where Harry's coming from. If anything, this just reinforces the close bond he and Heather obviously share. "I was kind of a disaster when I first got the barracks. It gets easier to be social if you practice it."

Like he is! Right now!

"So I'm finding. Actually....I grew up with just my mother as well. I was more social back then, but for family it was just the two of us."

His own father had died when he was young. And then Cheryl's mother/his wife had died when Cheryl was young. The parallels are not lost on him.

"You said barracks. You joined the army?"

"I was in the Cadet Corps, yeah. And then I joined the Survey Corps." That's right, people don't just inherently understand what he's saying when he mentions those names, so Jean takes a moment to gather his thoughts. He's figured out by now that a lot of people, especially adults, are surprised that someone his age is a battle-hardened combat veteran--and Harry seems like that type--so he chooses his words carefully.

"The world I come from isn't so great. We have something called titans that we're fighting, and I joined the military to learn how to beat them."

And get a more comfortable life for himself and his mother, but then humanity received a grim reminder and everything changed.

Harry's probably more used then most to people and young people, being exposed to terrible things, just not on an army level. After all, his teen daughter killed God. He's also a lot more accepting of the existence of monsters and these titans sound like them.

He nods.

"The world I come from...isn't the best either. Though nothing near that level, it was more localized."

So just terrible for the poor saps who got sucked into the personal drama of a town cult trying to end the world. Or just the town itself drawing people in.

"That's brave of you though."

"I've heard that most worlds are better than mine."

Like, it'd be kind of hard not to be. Just make sure there aren't any giant, man-eating monsters and boom, there you go! Better than Jean's world!

He shrugs when Harry calls him brave, though. "Not really. I only joined the military to get a better life for myself and my mom."

"That sounds brave to me."

Doing something for the sake of your family is like a Mason family tradition.

"This would must be a nice break, I'm guessing?"

Jean shrugs, uncomfortable with being called brave, but he perks right back up when Harry asks about this world.

"Oh yeah, it's great here! There's enough to eat and no one's fighting all the time and they've got books!"

So many books, which Jean didn't even realize he liked until he arrived and actually had them available.

Harry nods and smiles at that last bit.

"Places with books are always preferable to places without."

You're talking to a fellow book nerd as well as being an author.

Open party log, as promised!

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