(no subject)

[questionmarksthespot]

Who: The Pines Family, Soos Ramirez, and YOU

Where: Cherrygrove City

When: August 31

Summary: Dipper and Mabel reunite with their Grunkle Ford as they celebrate their technical 14th birthday

Rating: Probably PG at the worst?

Log:

[Birthdays are important to some people. Especially when you've shared every single birthday with one other person for as long as you both can remember. That's why Soos has spent approximately all his remaining Pokédollars on a slightly-temporally-questionable party for Dipper and Mabel.]

[Set up on the beaches of Cherrygrove are a few cheap tables of food - sheet pizza and chips and trays of that salad nobody really likes, and Pecha Pit Cola, and later in the day, of course, a cake. More notable is the rented PokéPetting Zoo, featuring a large pen of rideable Skiddo, with smaller pens of Buneary, Tepig, Swinub, a few Seel, one Snorlax pulling double duty as a trampoline bean-bag chair, and, perhaps regrettably, a small swarm of Drifloon.]

[There haven't been invitations or anything, but the beach is hardly a private area, and the more the merrier, right?]

Comments

OTA harass the birthday boy

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Dipper is actually quite impressed with what Soos has thrown together on such a short notice just for the twins.

Of course food is his first stop. How can a kid pass up pizza? Or soda? OR CAKE? He's not going far from the table when eating. Wish him a happy birthday all you want to, or come chat?

Otherwise he will be visiting the various Pokemon in the petting zoo. The Skiddo seem to be harder to ride than he thought since he keeps falling off of them. The Buneary swarm Dipper, so you might hear a screech for help as he's being just... well, probably cuddled to death.

And then there's the Drifloon. Just... why is something so dangerous so harmless looking?]

I'm watching you... You're not dragging anyone off today!

let the familial harassment commence

[meteorman]

[After the three-day trek from New Bark Town to Cherrygrove (which took more like a week because Ford kept stopping and getting distracted by wild Pokémon), Ford is plenty glad for an opportunity to eat real food. Not that he couldn't get by fine on what was in his pack and his own ability to scavenge, but, look. Pizza. Pizza.

He approaches the table at the same time as Dipper does, and places a friendly hand on his shoulder.]

You know, I'm having the strangest feeling of déjà vu.

OTA!

[meteorman]

[It might be strange for a grown man to be so incredibly hype about a petting zoo, but Ford Pines is not your average grown man and he has never seen most of these Pokémon before. He has his breeder's notebook out and can be seen sketching the various assembled 'mons with great interest. That is absolutely not what this notebook is intended for but until he can get himself a proper high-quality journal it has to serve as his sketchbook. It's fascinating to him that some are so clearly analogous to Earth animals, and yet others are clearly their own organisms.]

Now, hold still -- I'm almost done.

[It's funny how quickly he's fallen into speaking to Pokémon like people, but if his partner is any indication than many of them, if not all of them, are very intelligent indeed.]

pokemon!

[shiro2hero]

... Any reason you're yelling at the balloons?

[He knows he needs to head out to meet Keith, but -- he's been hanging out with this kid and his group for a while now. It would be rude just to up and leave them.]

[So he'll stick around a little longer before he runs off to collect his wayward teammate.]

Food

[meowbel]

[Just like Dipper, Mabel was really impressed with how much Soos got done so quickly! Now she had to make something for him to say thank you for all the hard work he's done for them!

However before she got to that, she needed to go and find her brother and fast! And the moment that she found him, she couldn't resist a giggle. With a pizza at her hand, she nudged him on the side]

Hey, Dipper, I bet you can't eat that pizza as fast as I can!

Harass the birthday girl!

[meowbel]

[Mabel wasn't sure how Soos was able to get everything done so quickly but whatever he did? She was sure impressed by it! Especially when they arrived not too long ago and were slowly getting the hang of everything!

But as Mabel wandered around, she could be seen eating as much food as she possibly could! After all, it was her birthday and she was going to party like there was no tomorrow! Come and chat? Or watch her shove as much candy or pizza in her mouth as she could?

Outside of that, she could be seen at the petting zoo and making sure she got to pet all the Pokemon over there! Watch her jump on the Snorlax? Or have a swarm of Drifloon hovering over her face? Or even watch her Eevee not getting along with a Tepig?

Or one could just watch her dancing in the middle of the place while she hums a certain song in the background.]

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Hand on shoulder? Dipper does jump a bit. When he sees who it is his face breaks out into a huge smile!]

Grunkle Ford!

[THIS IS GREAT! Also yes déjà vu.]

Yeah, it's not everyday you run into family at a birthday party when you just had one a month ago.

[sneezelikeakitten]

Haven't you read the Dex entry for Drifloon? There are kids who grab onto the string hands they've got and go missing. Gotta make sure that doesn't happen here.

[There's no holy water or salt around.]

Re: Food

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Mabel! Just who he was gonna hunt down after grabbing some grub.

That is totally a challenge he'll accept.]

You're on! On the count of three! One.... Two... Three!

[AND THEY'RE OFF! Will it be a draw? Will one of them win? Will one of them start choking?... Who knows with these two.]

[meowbel]

[With Mabel trying to shove as much pizza as she could in her mouth, she was going to make sure she won this thing!

Of course, that's when she started choking just a tiinnnnyyy bit.

But nope, not going to give up there!]

[shiro2hero]

I haven't, no. That... seems like something people would mention.

[As he. Just casually picks his Aron up under his metal arm. You know. Just in case.]

Why would they gather them together like that?

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Dipper does the same, but unlike his sister, actually does chew!

Starting to choke just a littttttllllle bit, too.

NO GIVING UP EITHER]

[sneezelikeakitten]

Ochako called them cute. Soos probably thought they were cute, too, so he brought them into the petting zoo.

[Soos. Soos, Soos, Soos... you can your simple ways. Though at least he didn't pick something much deadlier.]

[meowbel]

[With all the pizza going down her her mouth, she still wasn't giving up! In fact, the moment that she managed to get all of it down?

She gave a huge smile on her face!]

S-See? Looks like Mabel has won the challenge!

[...Nevermind that a good portion of said pizza was still in her mouth and she didn't fully finish chewing everything yet]

[shiro2hero]

Ochako?

[But he blows out a breath. That. Really sounds like something someone from home would do. With the best of intentions, but still...]

Anyway to lock the gate?

[meteorman]

At least, it's not every day in a universe where time is linear in a single direction. For what it's worth, happy birthday. Perhaps skipping your first year as a teenager will allow you to bypass much of the awkwardness you might expect otherwise.

[That's wishful thinking and you know it, Ford.]

[meteorman]

[Since Ford has parked himself at the petting zoo, it's only a matter of time before he and Mabel run into each other there. He watches the Drifloon hover around her for a good couple of minutes (long enough to draw a rough sketch of them, since it's the longest they've held relatively still thusfar) before speaking up.]

Seems you've made some friends.

[meowbel]

[As Mabel tried to pet every single Pokemon she could find around the zoo (which was proving to be a lot more difficult than she thought with all the Drifloon around!), that's when she heard her Grunkle speaking up!]

Oh, I wouldn't say that! I think you made a couple of friends too!

[She said pointing to said Elgyem nearby!]

[sneezelikeakitten]

[HA!]

Nu-uh! I did! I actually swallowed all of my pizza!

[Or more than she has at least.]

[sneezelikeakitten]

A girl I was talking to over the network feed on my first day here.

[Good idea-...]

.... couldn't they just float over the fence?

[sneezelikeakitten]

[The Pines will never have a awkward free life.]

Or it'll be twice as bad because Mabel and I skipped that year. At least there's no high schools here.

[shiro2hero]

... Good point.

Maybe if you tied them down with a net.

[meteorman]

[Trying to pet every single Pokemon, both here and in general, is a valid life goal.]

Ah, yes! That's Eleanor. You've met, briefly. Eleanor, come here and say hello.

[The Elgyem floats over, though she stays close to Ford's shoulder. Apparently she's shy, but not too shy to raise a glowing hand in greeting. He hasn't actually put her back in her ball since he first let her out of it, the better to observe her.]

[meteorman]

There's not? Ah, no, I suppose there wouldn't be if the custom is to leave home at age ten or so.

[He's been doing his research, alright, and that's one of the simplest local customs to pick up on since it seems to be universal.]

Not that it matters much. If you wish to continue your education I can certainly provide you with one.

[meowbel]

No way, I finished all of my pizza! And it even has some sea food in it! See?

[Because get it? See food? Especially with her opening her mouth to show him!]