1793/Birthday Beach Baloobas

Birthday Beach Baloobas
Date of Scene:	12 March 2015
Location:	New York-199999
Synopsis:	Toph turns 14 and arranges a beach party!
Cast of Characters:	Maya, 20, 119, 127, 300, 301, 385, 434, 554, Ayako Hasekawa, 578, 665, Starbound Flotilla, 678, Shigure, 691, Sanary Rondel

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    As always Malibu is sunny and warm, and the warm weather is certain to make today even better. And since its early afternoon the sun wont go down for a long while yet. Which is good, as today has been busy with preparing for all of this. Unlike last year she has gotten a fair bit of help this year. Though of course Toph herself has been busy as well.

    Down by the beach it seems like theres a volley ball court, the net set up and with some balls of varying sizes about. Several parasols are set up as well to offer shade from the strong sun, and there are several beach chairs set out as well. And of course there are coolers set out by each parasol, each filled with cool drinks and ice pops. Heck, theres even one with beer for the adults. Under one parasol there is also a music system set up, and various rock music is playing and echoing along the beach.

    Up on the patio there are two men by a Mongolian barbecue griddle, busy preparing their own coolers filled with various food that they have prepped. Because one thing that the blind earthbender had mentioned was that there would be some really good food. Actually, it was Tonys idea. But like always the man has some pretty good ideas. What kind of person doesnt like food like this? Though of course the chefs have been warned that they need to make vegetarian variants as well, considering that there are some people who dont eat meat. Either way its all fresh and bound to taste rather good once they get started.

    Where is the birthday girl? Why, shes on the beach, perched on the head of a statue she has bended; a life size badgermole. This one has been bended with great care, and it holds its claws infant of its torso to form a table thats currently empty. There are other earthen statues scattered around the beach, along with pillars that streamers and balloons have been fastened on them to liven the place up. Toph is of course dressed for the occasion in a tankini top covered with cartoony skulls, complete with shorts. Its not like she intends to go swimming today, after all.

    No, right now shes waiting for people to arrive. Her birthday party last year was great fun after all, and shes certain this year will be even better!

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     Jinxel... doesn't really have that much of a relationship with Toph, to be honest. In fact, the last time they met may or may not have involved Dinosaurs and a kidnapped Badgermole. Still, she is here now, looking a little lost and uncomfortable.

     Why is she here? Well, that's simple. Applejack and Pinkie Pie dragged her along, because she's become a bit of a recluse in the past months and they're trying to correct it.

     Applejack is here of course tending to various Apple-Related food items for the birthday girl, and Pinkie Pie is here because PARTY!

Defiant (554) has posed:
     Defiant always look so uncomfortable outside of his green and gold powered armor. He's only in a pair of swim trunks - green and black, patterned with scales and draconic symbols - given that that is apparently what one wears to a beach party.

     He's never been to a beach party before. The silver of his prosthetic arm glints in the afternoon sun.

     In a matching green and black bikini and lightweight jacket, Dragon walks hand in hand with Defiant. Just as tall as her partner and just as athletically built, the pair still have a certain imposing aire about them, even on the beach.

     The pair wander with purpose down towards Toph and her badger mole statue. Dragon raises her hand in a little wave and Defiant - Colin - seems to treat the general atmosphere like he's about to come under fire. He's way out of his element and he knows it.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Sneaking into the party wasn't exactly the operation that Yari imagined she would get. Especially when her orders included the lines 'Gather Intel' and 'Disguise Unnecessary'. Thus, with a little bribing, the Centurion has hired herself on to the waitstaff for the party. Namely, as bartendress. The one-armed Au Ra is manning a long table that looks suspiciously close to a portable bar, complete with liqours of all kinds. Her outfit is part one-piece bikini and part bartender's outfit complete with bowtie and top hat with her horns curling awkwardly around the sides.

She's currently mixing herself a blue-colored drink, spinning around a pair of bottles in the air by juggling them with one hand, quickly pouring the booze, and smacking it back against the slightly wobbly counter. Sand isn't a good stabilizer.

"Open morale-boosting bar. Guaranteed to offer social lubrication within the first three drinks or your money back." Deadpans the Centurion as she goes about sipping her drink and observing. A glance over, and she spies her 'target', the birthday girl.

"Happy Birthday Miss Toph." Offers Yari politely, setting out a small wrapped package. She might be a horrible conquerer, but she knows etiquette.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
DYNAMIC ENTRY!

It's difficult to say where exactly Rock Lee came from. Maybe he jumped from an airplane, or a glider. Perhaps the water and the only reason he's dry is because he dodged the wetness. Either way, Lee lands on one knee, holding his hand up with what appears to be a rock in his hand.

"I have searched day and night for the ultimate gift. Braved snowstorms, fought wild ninja rabbits, and even had to dance for an evil snake princess. But finally, I have found it, the ultimate gift!" The rock, to her senses, would very clearly have at least 40 different kinds of rock lodged into it, creating a single one foot in diameter stone that he's managing to hold in his palm. To any with sight, it's full of various rocky shades, some that shouldn't even naturally fit together. Like marble and a chunk of jade. "I found an area of the Multiverse where various worlds converge onto a single point. So I punched the ground as hard as I could and pulled the piece of rock out!" It looks quite rough, but it does keep a very spherical shape. "I call it... The Birth Stone!"

Maya has posed:
So it's Malibu, it's so nice and warm. She also like the sun, Maya's dressed casually today, she's got a black t-shirt with a logo for something called Morganrote. With a black gold tiangle cargo pans and she's looking far more relaxed than she normally is, she's also carrying a package under one arm as she arrives. Also Maya's hair is /lose/ and flowing freely today, amd there's certainly a lot of it.

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    It's pretty simple, why Kirikou shows up. Toph put out an open invitation for anyone who wanted to show up, but she made a special point of letting him know that, Confederate or not, he was welcome. He's not likely rude enough to crash a party, but he would never deliberately skip out on something like this where a friend directly invited him.

    He's prepared for the warmish weather of Malibu, it seems. Shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. The shirt has a discreet DC logo on it; the only sign that it's actually a uniform rather than a perfectly casual thing. It's otherwise kind of ... well, not uniformy. It's got racing stripes and flames and stuff. Maybe he just silkscreened something he liked over a plain uniform tee, or something like that.

    In tow, Kirikou has the Twins. They're likewise dressed for beach weather, but their standard overalls make an appearance too. As they approach, they begin waving towards their friend Toph. Either they don't realize she's blind, or realize all too well that she's perfectly capable of telling that they're waving.

    Kilik's slightly more subdued, but he looks cheery enough. "Hey, Dirtbender!" he calls out eventually, getting close, and holding out a smallish parcel. Bit more than fist-sized, and moderately heavy. It does NOT, one might add, contain anything earthy or rocky. "Catch!" he calls, lofting it her way. Hopefully it also doesn't contain anything fragile.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    MALIBU IS BEING INVADED BY ALIENS

    They are here to have a party. They got kind of an invitation from Toph, sort of! Though only a few of them are here today. It looks like George, Pavo, and Albert are all staying behind. Seft, Moonfin, and Biteblade are the ones here today, and they've come in force! Biteblade is here mostly examining the massive earthbent badgermole. "Wow!" They hiss in impressed tones. "Isss way big! Ssso cool! Tiny rock, what isss?" Looks like they're curious about what that thing is! Biteblade's not wearing anything, but since they're a walking plant, that's not exactly a problem.

    Moonfin is currently at work setting out the gifts properly at the table. It would seem Biteblade got Toph something larger than normal to make up for, you know, stabbings. Since Toph turned out to be okay, and possibly a friend, after all. Moonfin seems more apathetic about that, though the three-eyed fishman wearing swim trunks can't look too out of place here or anything like that. It's a beach! This is where he belongs.

    Seft, the robot-girl in conservative beachwear, is currently building a massive sandcastle a short distance from Toph. How in the world she's managed to make a two-story castle with full, proper medieval ramparts out of loose sand, the world will never know.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    A party? Ayako loves parties! So of course she would come to Toph's birthday party! Well, that was the intention, anyway. The Water Spirit has a tendancy to get lost easily in places she's not familiar with. So after a few hours of getting hopelessly lost in California, she decided to stop trying to find her way on foot.

    Ayako flies on in up high, sitting sidesaddle on the broomstick normally reserved for her witch and maid outfits. She finally found the place! She hops off of her broom from pretty high up and floats down to land gently onto the sand, pushing her skirt down with her hands as she does so. The broom up above dissolves back into the water vapor it was made from.

    Ayako cheerfully walks over to Toph. "Happy Birthday, Toph!" She smiles brightly and then opens up her star-shaped purse. "Let's see... I know I have it in here somewhere... Ah." A very dull gray rock is withdrawn from her purse. "Here you go!" Appearance wise, the rock looks utterly and completely ordinary. But it's actually a chunk of Chromite! Chromium ore! It's quite water eroded, making it smooth rather than the usual ragged chunk expected of a rock.

Shigure has posed:
    Look, out to sea. There's a trail of boiler smoke approaching rapidly. As it gets closer, the source becomes visible. A rather tall, lanky girl with dark brown hair, a black serafuku with white and red trims. She's got a pair of cannons sticking up over her shoulders. She skates across the top of the water, and ascends the beach with a little hope and skip to arrest her speed.

    It's Shigure, the demure Destroyer from the Fifth Force Recon fleet! And she's got a box in her hands! It's a nondescript shipping box, no decoration or anything like that, but it's marked with TUFF on the front... maybe she misheard the Earthbender's name? Inside the box are examples of corals and sea shells from the beaches at Hikari, as well as some pretty pearlescent stones from the shallows. "H-Hello... I, hope I'm not intruding..."

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Artyom has recieved an invitation to attend a birthday party. It's only natural that he'd attend, given the one responsible for the message. Of course, he sort of wishes it wasn't on... a beach. Beaches are kind of not his thing. Too much water, he can feel it just over there, swishing and sloshing about endlessly into infinity and back again.

At least it doesn't feel as depthless as Leviathan. Still kind of unsettling though.

    And so he arrives, barefoot on the sands. Travelling clothes aren't proper for parties, so he's in a button-down shirt and a set of relatively formal-looking pants. Still barefooted though. You don't wear shoes on a beach. There's a package under one arm, comprised of a simple white box wrapped in a ribbon, because birthdays mean presents.

It's not a landsurfing board this time. Though that would be pretty appropriate, maybe, given the beach.

    "Toph," he says, coming up to the birthday girl. "Happy birthday," Artyom says with a smile, offering the girl the box. It's... pretty heavy, actually. What's even in there? "I hope it's going well so far?"

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya dislikes modern cities, she find them too crowded. But a party for a freind she will to make an execption after a bit of travellling she find the beach where the party is taking place. She human sized, for the moment. She carrying small neatly gift wrapped package with her.

"Happy Birthday Toph! I'll put your present with all the others..", when Toph does get around to opening it she will find a bottle with a generic liqud metal! Non toxic of course! Then she goes about mingiling with everyone else here.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    As hot as Malibu was, it was much more comfortable than Sanary expected. Even with a long white coat on, she still looks rather comfortable just wandering about the beach. Rather than her dirty old tunic, however, she's wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants under the coat while carrying a rather massive sack over her shoulder. It smells of grease and fried food, and there's little chance that whatever's in there is healthy in any way at all.

    "Hope I'm not late! Uh... Where's the food go?" She hefts the sack over her shoulder briefly for emphasis, the greasy food smell drifting from the bag. She's keeping her eye off for the time being, listening closely for any sign of Toph's voice or direction in general.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Sweet, the guests are arriving!

    Toph perks up where she is perched, offering a sincere grin as she raises her hand to wave, first at the ponies. "Heya guys!" And yeah, she knows AJ and Pinkie well enough, and Jinxel? She does remember the poor skittish pony who seemed to pull away when she had torn down a metal door to get to that kidnapped baby badgermole last year. "Hey... I don't think I got your name?" she inquires. Well, it appears that Toph isn't mad at the pony, at least not now that things have been settled.

    Defiant and Dragon are more familiar, and the pair is waved to in return. "Just sit down anywhere. And you should know that the point of these parties is to relax, not to be even more tense, Suzy." Why yes, he does not escape that nickname anytime soon. Lucky Defiant.

    Did Pepper arrange for an open bar as well? Or is that Tony's doing? Right now the blind girl can't be sure. All she knows is that she does not know this lady here, so she arches her eyebrows when she presents the gift. The birthday girl then points down to the claws of the badgermole statue. "Just put it there on the present table. And you are...?"
My, even more colourful people are arriving, relatively speaking. In both cases. The sudden arrival of Lee does leave Toph a bit confused, and she turns her head a bit. Though the surprise turns to a grin when he offers what he calls the ultimate gift. "Huh... Now that's something I haven't seen before!" Toph chuckles, then reaches a hand out... and the rock flies upwards and into the claws of the badgermole statue. "Thanks, Rocky."

    And there is Maya as well. The girl earns a wave in greeting, and Toph looks rather pleased. "Glad you could come, Maya! And heya kids!" There's no missing Fire and Thunder being enthusiastic, and well... they are rather cute. She waves back, though when Kilik calls out she snorts. "What?" When she realizes he is throwing something at her her eyebrows raise, and she blinks, nearly pushed back off of the top of the rocky badgermole with an 'ooph'. "What the crud...?" It doens't feel like a rock, but it's hard like one?

    While the last time Toph met Biteblade face to face they were fighting, it seems like the plant thing isn't malicious in general, so... why not invite the Flotilla? The fact that Biteblade is curious about the badgermole statue seems to be something Toph approves of, and she smirks. "A badgermole. The original earthbenders, and the creatures I learned earthbending from. This one is lifesize, though not as large as some of the bigger ones."

    Ayako's arrival is surprising as well, as Toph is unable to notice things approaching from the air. Though the wellwishes on her birthday does make her smile, and she blinks when it's clear that she has a gift to her too. Even if she can sense what it is it's still fun to pretend like they can surprise her, you know! As the chromite is presented she grins widely. "Thanks! Set it along with the other gifts, will you?"

    And now somebody arrives from the sea? Man, there's a lot of people coming, huh? Shigure is waved over though, and it doesn't look like Toph considers this intruding. "Come on! Join the fun, the chefs are probably done cooking soon!"

    Artyom is another person that is pretty tough to mistake for somebody else, considering how large he is. The eight feet titan probably doesn't need to crane his head far back to look up at her where she sits on the head of the statue. "I should say it's pretty good, Goldie provided a decent birthday brunch. Set the gift down with the others, and I'll open it in a bit!"

    Freya seems to have caught the memo, and Toph nods her head. "Glad you could come. Hope you have a solid appetite!"

    The familiar voice explains who the unfamiliar body shape is, and Toph perks up. "Oh, heya Sanary!" They did talk about meeting up sometime, and this is the first time Toph has met the blind Confederate. "They are cooking food up on the patio, you didn't have to bring anything to eat!" Toph explains with a slight laugh.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
"Centurion Takane, Miss!" Salute goes the bartendress! The Au Ra does just that, depositing it on a table.

Then she spies Sanary, and gives a happy little wave that she swiftly supresses. Then it's back to making drinks and generally being a good bartender.

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     "Oh, um... hello miss Toph," Jinxel replies with, somewhat relieved that there doesn't seem to be a grudge. She was afraid when AJ and Pinkie brought her along that Toph might still be mad about that whole incident.

     Even if Jinxel's sole contribution to the entire affair was to sit there while the badgermole clung to her, like some kind of big plushie.

     "It's Jinxel, I used to go by Jinx, but now that there's another Jinx around, I figured that would be too confusing, so I'm using my real name now instead of my nickname..." Then she perks up a bit as she reaches into her saddlebag for her gift, "Oh, I brought a gift for y--"

     Then just as she's pulling the bag out, suddenly DYNAMIC ENTRY!! occurs directly behind her.

     With a startled cry, Jinxel tosses the bag up in the air out of reflex, then a moment later realizes what she's done and tries to catch the thrown back. The first time she hops up, it bounces off her hooves as she makes a grab too early. Again she tries, and again she fumbles the bag.

     Then it bounces off her head, and she makes one final lunge to catch the bag before it falls in the dirt, diving facefirst into the sand.

     But at least she caught it!

     "Phleeeh... eeehehehe..." Jinxel says as she stands up, spitting sand from her mouth as she hands the bag over to Toph... and inside is ROCK... candy.

     A whole heaping amount of rock candy, of a variety of colors and flavors.

     "I wasn't sure if you could bend Rock Candy like you could normal rocks, but even if you can't, it still makes for a delicious treat!"

Defiant (554) has posed:
     "I'm not tense," Defiant protests, looking up at Toph. He's a horrible liar, one can hear it in his voice.

     "We have a present for you," Dragon says, "Just not here. We'll have it delivered. I hope that's okay." r
     Defiant nods, and then says: "I'm going to get a drink. Want anything?" The question is directed at both Dragon and Toph, even if it might not seem like it.

     Dragon shakes her head, and then takes a second to tie her hair up. "Surprise me, Colin," she replies, and steps around the badgermole statue, her interest piqued by Seft and her sandcastle. Like, from one artificial intelligence to another, it's very precise work. "Do you build these often?" Dragon asks.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure sets her present down on the table with all the others. She then blinks at the sheer number of people here and almost instantly regrets sortieing to this gathering. The shy Destroyer girl kinda, shies away from the group, going over to one side that's out of the way and trying to blend into the background. Don't mind the flower arrangement with 12cm cannons sticking out of it.

Maya has posed:
Maya looks to Toph as she's greeted and she grins.

"Good to be able to make it Toph. It seems things are pretty packed already."

MAya' going to drop off her gift while she's got a chance. She does take note of the badgermole however that was curious that they taught humans to bend earth. She also does not doubt that the core of the tale is indeed true.

"It's been quite a year for you hasn't it Toph?"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony didn't arrange for an open bar for his adopted daughter's fourteenth birthday. He WANTED to, but Pepper wouldn't let him. However, when the bartender shows up with the caterers, he assumes she must have changed her mind, saw the reason of his position that there would be adult guests to entertain as well as folks Toph's age. So he doesn't question it. It's not as if he can't /afford/ an open bar.

While the guests are arriving though, he's absent from the scene, letting Toph be her own hostess while he makes some final arrangements with the separate catering company bringing the cake. Yes, he arranged for a cake, despite his trolling earlier and claiming that was Toph's responsibility.

Eventually, though, he makes his way out to the beach, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and sand-appropriate sneakers, and trailing behind him on a motorized cart on treads, is Dummy. The robotic arm swivels around as if looking curiously about with its claw hand, which grips a small toy shovel and has a sand bucket dangling from it. Evidently the bot wants to build a sandcastle too.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako nods her head once and smiles brightly. "Alright!" She walks her way over to the present table and wow! That's a lot of gifts already-and a lot of rocks. Her chromite is placed with the gifts on the table as she giggles softly and scratches her cheek sheepishly with a pointer finger. Well, as long as Toph likes them, there shouldn't be a problem.

    After that, Ayako walks over to one of the beach chairs underneath an umbrella and lies down comfortably on it. It's very warm, after all, and Ayako isn't exactly a fan of the sun. She doesn't eat; and she definitely wants to stay far, far away from the cooking area. Other than that, she curiously watches the other party guests. People watching is one of her hobbies!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Sanary laughs easily at Toph's response, turning towards the direction of her voice. "It was the only thing I could think of! Hope everyone likes pork!" Even with the magitech eye, the healer resists the urge to actually turn it on for the time being. For the time being, she's content with relying on hearing to figure out where people are and drawing a mental map of what she has and hasn't kicked over so far.

    Hearing Yari, she tosses her a light wave and does put in enough energy just long enough to get a glimpse of her at the bar along with the surrounding area before turning it off again. She could've sworn she saw some sort of horse and several cannons from the corner of her eye in that moment, but...

    Details details. First things first, she heads for the patio. Granted, there is a bit more cheating with the eye just to find the grill, but she does eventually make her way over there. She greets the two men at the barbecue with a brief nod, then hands over the large sack. "I don't know where you guys want this, but... Home specialty!"

    It's a pig. An entire roasted pig, even, along with a pile of freshly made pork rinds crammed into the sack with it.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    "Of course," Artyom says with a nod. Not that Toph can probably tell, admittedly! "Though I'm not sure who you mean by Goldie. Hm," he rumbles, and goes to set the gift down among the others. Many of them seem... Distinctly earthy. Hm, this might be trouble.

Ah well. He's sure it'll be fine.

    The colossal swordsman peers over at the... The robot-arm-on-a-cart. That's not exactly something you see every day. Especially not one building a sand-castle. Huh.

    Something else catches his attention, too. A girl, thin, kind of mousy looking, not an odd sight at another girl's birthday party. But THIS girl has mortar cannons strapped to her back. Or maybe connected to her back? Anyway, she seems suspicious. Artyom makes a curious noise and moves over, inclining his head inquisitively. "Excuse me," he asks of Destroyer-Girl, peering at her guns, "Is there a particular reason you have brought those here?"

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure eeks a little and peeks up at Artyom. "A-anno?" she asks, then shifts, bringing a cannon barrel into her peripheral vision. "A-Ah! I-I'm sorry!" A force of will makes the cannons and the torpedo racks on her thighs glow white, before vanishing. "I-I sortied through the Equipment Ramp... I-I forgot it Outfitted me..." she says, scuffing a foot and fidgeting nervously. "I, um..." She looks away from the Titan, rubbing her left upper arm with her gloved right hand.

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kilik looks a bit apologetic as his present smacks into Toph. He thought she'd catch it! Well ... okay, he hadn't thought at all. It's sometimes hard to remember someone like Toph is blind. At least he wasn't throwing around anything dangerous, fragile, or anything of the sort. And it's not like he did a wind-up pitch or anything.

    She's fine though, which is the important part. And Kirikou decides to back away briefly from the focus of attention. He doesn't want to be pushy, and figures if there's anyone who needs to relax a bit he'd better let them get to it. He'll be back for the food, but for now... there's other things he can do. He looks around, seeing a few familiar faces. After a moment he grins, heading for the beach.

    On the way, Kirikou's gaze passes across Shigure. She's interesting. And yes, probably moreso for wearing a pair of cannons like a backpack than because she's a kind of cute tall schoolgirl sort of figure. The sort of girl-next-door look he's a bit weak to.

    Deciding he might as well, he stops as he's about to pass the ship-girl by. "Heey. I like the backpack." he grins. "You should go check out the party! Have fun! See you later?" he asks. No, not being pushy, not flirting. He's not the type. Just being friendly, and continuing on so Shigure doesn't feel obliged to speak... or threatened by his approach.

    The person he's actually TRYING to approach is down by the beach. "Heeey dad." he says to Tony Stark as he approaches, holding out a fist in an offer to tap knuckles. The greeting is insincere, perhaps a bit mocking, but the fist gesture is intended as pure respect. Toph calls Tony 'Dad', and she's the master of nicknames. Kilik calling him 'Dad' is nothing more than a similar nickname. Hopefully it won't piss off Tony too much! Or make him misunderstand the intent...

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Huh. Giant beassst, bend rocksss. Floran think, would be tough. Ssso, like animal ssstyle, punchy artsss? But from actual animal, and not perssson pretending to be animal. Isss cool!" Biteblade says. They intend to climb deftly up as well, if Toph will let them! "Hey! Metal friend! Get Floran sssome meat!"

    Seft gives a beleaguered sigh-like buzz and comes down from her huge sandcastle. She speaks up to Dragon, in a feminine synthetic monotone. "Cheerful. On occasion. I am disassociated from my Hivemind, but there are certain routines that I will indulge that it would normally enforce, simply because they are enjoyable. Among these routines are construction within the acceptable cultural influences." The robot girl's visor blinks blue a few times. She sends a quick message to Moonfin to go get the damn food. "Friendly. I am sure it does not make much sense, so I will not demand you think of it as especially logical." And here comes a mobile robotic arm! Seft seems to think this is either really cute or really gruesome, the reaction isn't quite clear. "Cheerful. Hello there. Feel free to make any additions you wish to. All contributions are appreciated."

    Moonfin is the one getting stuck with meat duty. He is a little stuffy when he comes in and inserts himself into the conversation with Artyom and Shigure. "The presence of a blade as much designates a man with intent to draw as a man with intent to never draw. Such cannons, I would assume obey those same ideas. Or perhaps it was absent-minded mistakes." And then he's kind of speechless at the entire pig Sanary brought, giving her an incredulous three-eyed look that seems skeptical that she even exists, doing this right now.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
Artyom glances as Kilik swings by, then glances again as he retreats. Easy come, easy go, it seems.

    He looks back to Shigure just in time to see her dangerous bits disintigrate into little motes of light. Artyom nods, "Ah, well, that's fine then. I had thought--" He shakes his head, taking notice of her... nervousness? Or is she just being shy? In either case, it reminds him vaguely of an injured kitten, and so he relents. "Nevermind," he says instead, "I am Artyom. And you are?"

And then, a Moonfin.

    "I'm not entirely sure what you mean, philosophical one," he says with a quirk of a brow. "Ordinarily, that would be true, but this is a..." Artyom's gaze flickers towards the bar, "Relative peaceful party, yes? So guns would be--"

Ah, no, he was going to move on from this subject.

"Sorry," the Titan shakes his head. "It's no problem, really."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Dad? Ok look kid, Toph gets to call him Dad because he actually adopted her. The same privilege is not extended to every random urchin who decides to be cute at him. Particularly Confederate ones. Tony stops in his tracks and looks at Kilik, one eyebrow climbing upward as Dummy trundles on by him to stake out a primo patch of damp castle-making sand.

But then something seems to click in his brain, and he returns the fistbump casually. "Son," he replies in the same tone. "Got your homework finished already? Done with all your chores? You remembered to put TWO coats of wax on the Benz this time, right? And the chocobo stable had better be spotless."

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya smiles and giggles a bit at Toph comment. "Oh I can have a very big appetite when I want to!" She takes a rum and coke from the bar. She notices the whole cooked pig, pretty impressive. She looks over at Shigure figeting around. "Oh are you going to shoot of fireworks later?", she says to the ship girl. She spot the sand caslte making robot. "Hmm mabye a bit later."

Shigure has posed:
    "Sh-Shigure... Shiratsuyu-class Destroyer, Number Two ship." replies the girl, bowing formally in Japanese style to Artyom. "I-It is a pleasure to meet you." Kirikou gets a little glanced look at the 'drive by Yo-ing' but she doesn't respond to him, merely scuffing a foot again and folding her arms in front of her. "I-It was an accident... I-I forgot that Deploying automatically equips the Fit-out... and I don't feel the weight unless I'm using them..."

    Moonfin gets a curious look, she's not seen a Hylatol(sp?) before, so forgive her if she gives him a similar look as he's giving Sanary... it doesn't last too long, as the natural shyness of the girl takes over again. "I-I wouldn't want to disturb everyone when they are having fun..."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Jinxel, huh? Toph grins at that. "Well, you certainly sound friendlier than Miss Trigger Happy does." When Jinxel startles and tosses the bag around, Toph blinks... then snickers a bit. It's a bit amusing, and Toph does accept the bag personally instead of pointing it to the gift table. "Oh, nice! I have made some of this. And well, since it isn't earth I can't exactly bend it. But I will eat it, thanks!"

    Defiant? Now he earns a snicker as Toph doesn't even turn her head towards him. "I can tell that you're lyyyying~!" she sing songs, though she sobers up at Dragon's words. "Oh? Delivered? Is it big? Is it metally?" Of course she's hopeful, she's a teenager! "And sure, get me some iced tea, will you?"

    Maya's question is returned with a nod, though Toph does elaborate a bit. "Yeah... been a whole lot of stuff going on, though being adopted is kinda the biggest thing I guess?" she offers with a shrug. Speaking of which...

    When Tony finally shows up Toph sits up a bit straighter and raises her voice. "HEY, GOLDIE! About time you got off of your ass!" And... Dummy is with him.

    Toph can indeed tell that Artyom is nodding, and as for who Goldie is? He should know that when Toph just yelled out the name and Tony showed up. But she does point at her supervising officer and adoptive father. "He is. Tony Stark. But Goldie is one of my nicknames for him." One of those nicknames is kinda reserved for her though, it seems... she hears Kilik greet Tony, and she arches an eyebrow, only to blink when Biteblade /climbs up onto the badgermole head too. Though Toph doesn't try to stop them, nodding a bit at their observation about badgermoles. "They don't only use it for fighting, and my bending style is closer to their movements rather than the moves other earthbenders use," she explains. "And of course it's better," she adds with a sniff. As for food? "If you go up there to the caterers they will probably give you some food now... Oooor if you wait a moment they will carry it down here."

    She does catch something though, and she sighs a bit at Freya. "No fireworks please. To me they are just /noise/."

    By now the caterers are sending people to carry down the food, and it is set out on the tables there. Freshly prepared meat of various types, along with some vegetables for the ponies and others who do not eat meat. All in all there's a lot to choose from. And as this happens, Toph decides to speak up.

    The blind girl clears her throat, then stands up and claps her hands, raising her voice loud enough for everybody around to hear her. For a tiny girl she does have a loud voice. "Thanks for coming, all! We're going to have some fun in a bit, though for now grab some food and eat! Otherwise Pepper will nag at us! Trust me, we don't want that. So dig in and enjoy! Sit wherever, grab a drink, toilets are inside the house and to the left when you enter from the patio! Upstairs and downstairs are off limits, and my room is especially off limits even if Goldie won't enforce it as much as I will do! And believe, I will see you if any of you try to sneak in!"

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    "A... Destroyer?" Artyom asks, inclining his head again, "A bit small to be a destroyer, aren't you?" Artyom remembers that one time he saw 'destroyers.' They were huge ships surrounded in catastrophically poorly chosen elemental barriers, given the situation they were in. "Though I suppose anything is possible, out here," he says with a slight shrug. "Like I said, don't worry about the weapons. Nobody was hurt, yes? So you can relax."

Not that that seems to be helping much. This girl is practically shaking like a leaf.

    Fortunately, Toph seems to provide an easy answer to that dilemma. "Hm, well, she is the host," he nods in her direction, then looks back towards Shigure. "There's no harm in getting some food, yes? A party is made to be enjoyed by its attendees- and right now, that includes you." He goes to pat her on her shoulder, right where those guns were just an instant ago. Though it's less of a pat and more of a nudge towards the food-table, "Come, it's all this way."

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya ahs! "oh sorry I totally forgot Toph! I feel a bit dumb right now..", she sighs and get some cheeze and crackers feeling like a bit of a fool.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    The smell of the meat cooking is definitely a welcome scent to Sanary, especially compared to the sea air elsewhere. She inhales slowly through her nose before sighing contently. "That's the stuff... Mm. You're doing good work, guys. Looking forward to trying it!" She doesn't seem to notice Moonfin's stare, apparently more occupied with the scent of the grill.

    She decides against staying there the entire time, though, and does end up following the caterers eventually. The healer ends up just standing there once the food is all laid out, paralyzed by the aroma of the spread in its natural environment.

    "Whoa. This is... Wow. So this is what birthday parties are like... People do this every year out here?"

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     "Oh, well, I'm glad that you like it either way," Jinxel replies as she takes a moment to tilt her head to one side and knock some of the sand out of her ears with one hoof. Then she takes a moment to glance off to the side before asking, "Um... if you don't mind me asking... how is that little badgermole doing? I hope everything is alright..."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako perks up when the food starts to be brought in. Not because she eats, but because she likes watching people eat! Mostly for their reactions. Some like food spicy! Some don't. Some have acquired tastes that makes some food delicious while others find it disgusting. For her, it's quite fascinating!

Defiant (554) has posed:
     "You like to build?" Dragon asks Seft, a smile on her face. "So do I, although I tend towards aircraft as opposed to fortifications. I'm not questioning the logic, just impressed by the level of craftsmanship." She takes up a handful of sand and lets it drift through her fingertips, rubbing bits of it between thumb and forefinger. "It could use a moat, to stymie anyone who attempted a ground assault," Dragon adds, off-handedly.

     Defiant makes his way back from the bar, drinks in his hands. He shuffles them over into one hand and holds out his cybernetic hand towards Tony Stark. "Tony," he greets.

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kirikou snerks at Tony's response, breaking into a wide grin. Both the joke and the knuckle-tap meet with his approval. But then, he liked Tony from first hearing that the guy decked Toph's father... and somehow it's not surprising that someone who puts up with Toph has a sense of humour.

    "You'd make me WORK? On a birthday?!" Kirikou protests, going along with it. "I skipped chores. I'll do twice as many tomorrow. THREE TIMES!" he grins. "Today's for food, fun. Maybe sand castles." he notes. "If you got some gear for the Twins around here somewhere anyways. Food first though!" he claims, sniffing the air theatrically. Roast meat. Is there anything better in any world?

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Yari finds herself torn. On the one hand, she's technically waitstaff, even if a semi-unofficial one. On the other, there's /FOOD/! Compromising as Toph implores them all to acquire sustenance, she grabs a passing caterer and soon she has a tray laden with delicious meat. Tail gripping a huge haunch of ham, the ninjette starts devouring it hungrily as her hand starts mixing drinks. She can multitask, this lizardess.

Soon there's a line of mixed drinks for just about anyone to grab. Which might be a good idea, as every few minutes, Yari starts to devour one of her own drinks that aren't taken up.

Someone might want to tell Yari that's now how bartenders work.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna isn't a big fan of the whole 'fashionably late' concept, although it does have its uses - especially when you're providing part of the entertainment. On the plus side, the fact that the party's basically started by now means that she's a little less likely to be spotted on her way down to the beach, at least until ...

There's an almost inaudible 'hiccup' from the sound system, almost literally like a missed beat as the song that's currently playing finishes, and then a different song - one that's probably NOT on the pre-arranged playlist or mix - starts up, a nice lively J-pop song. And the lyrics start ...

o/~    The blue sky is full
    Of our feelings, scattered and drifting
    It'd be so nice if you were my destined one
    But reality doesn't go that smoothly

Rather than clutching a microphone, Yuna's using a headset mic for the occasion; fortunately, it's waterproof - this IS a beach party, after all - and rather than a stage dress, Yuna's outfitted in a fairly demure one-piece (see above). She smiles, waving to the group - particularly to Toph - and makes her way towards the birthday girl as she continues singing.

o/~    In the shining wind,
    Feathers of dreams drift and dance
    Gather your courage for the future,
    Like that, so beautifully ...

She's not empty-handed, either; she's carrying a small, gift-wrapped box, although she diverts course to put it with the other presents.

o/~    The hot heartbeat starting to move
    Is etching the same speed as it did that day
    I like your straightforward expression;
    I want to keep looking at it forever

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony regards Kilik speculatively, one eye narrowed as if he's seriously considering whether or not to make his 'son' do his chores or not. "...all right, get the food," he relents. "I paid enough for it. I guess I'd better get my own share before it disappears..."

Which is when he's approached by Colin. Only they're in kinda public, albeit on his private beach, so he doesn't call him that. "Defiant," he replies in a slightly cautious tone. Yes, he knows he did the guy and his girl a solid not long ago. But it's still a little weird, seeing him standing in front of him being civil. "Glad you two could make it." One corner of his mouth twitches upward. "Drinks are on me this time."

Meanwhile, Dummy seems to be satisfied with the patch of beach he's chosen, and the cart settles into the sand, anchor pins unfolding from the corners to hold the robot stationary. He lowers his arm, letting the bucket slide down to plop into the sand, and then methodically begins to build a foundation with bucket and toy shovel. Since his whole 'body' is really just the one arm, it's a slow and painstaking process, but there's something determined in the 'bot's demeanor.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Out of no where, Rock Lee is swinging glowsticks in Yuna's idol colors with some rather precise movements, wearing a white headband that says Yuu-Chan in Japanese. Inexplicably he's wearing a white bancho coat over his jumpsuit.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Toph moves to jump off of the badgermole, then waves a hand at Jinxel. "Oh, she's fine! So is her mom. The pack is doing well, and those dunderhead dinos haven't dared to try harming them again, it seems." It's not hard to remember how Jinxel hadn't mistreated the poor thing, and well... she immediately surrendered when Toph gave the ultimatium.

    That bartender is acting a bit weird, isn't she...? Toph arches an eyebrow but doesn't say anything, and well, she isn't about to go drinking alcohol. Just what kind of bartender drinks more drinks than she hands out anyway?

    For a moment Toph snaps her head to the side when she hears something mess with the sound system. "HEY! What's th--" Then the music starts, and Toph looks rather surprised. Did Tony mess with her playlist, or did Jarvis do this? When Yuna starts singing though Toph's expression turns to a pleasantly surprised one, and she smirks a bit as she turns towards the singer. Okay, pop isn't her favourite genre, but she can appreciate the gesture. Not to mention the gift that is held out. And she begins clapping her hands in beat with the music. Hey, live music isn't bad!

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure blinks over towards Toph. She then eeks a little at the nudge from Artyom, but nods a little. "O-OKay... A-And I'm, um, I'm the spirit of a Destroyer... I-I can become the ship for fighting Abyssal Leviathans..." she explains softly, walking along with Artyom, since he's coaxing her over to where the food's at.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Music isn't exactly something that Yari gets to listen to often, aside from the occasional would-be singer back with her fellow Garleans. Yuna is no mere amateur, and the bartendress nearly drops her glass as she listens. The young Au Ra hesitates, then spying the odd young man accompanying Yuna, makes a decision. A pair of red mixed drinks are swept up in tail and hand alike, and the ninja smoothly moves towards the pair. Politely, as Yuna is engaged with Toph, it's to Rock Lee that she first offers a drink. Her tail tips the dirnk towards the young man.

"That was an excellent performance, Sir, Ma'am. Here."

Cue, eventually, drinks offered to both! Surely this can't be a poor idea.

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     "Oh, that's good to hear!" Jinxel beams, perking right up at the good news!

     Then the music starts.

     With a blink, Jinxel turns, then hops up, "Oh! Yuna!" It's been months since she's seen Yuna! "Helllooooooo!"

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya turns to see Yuna coming in singing! She smiles it been a while since she seen and heard her sing! As always she very good. She holler and cheers! "That was great Yuna!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Hahaha! Jusst bang, no firework. Almossst sad. If wasn't better things to do anyway, heheheh." Biteblade giggles. "Better celebrationsss, music? Dance? Floran tribe, like drumsss a lot. Big! Bomp bomp bomp, big hidesss. Noissse from trophiesss. Oh! Meat here!" Biteblade's whole face seems to split wide in a ":D" and suddenly they're on their way to go pick some up, hopping off the big statue eagerly.

    "Pleasant. Thank you, ma'am. I cannot take all credit; I have a Matter Manipulator, allowing for certain fine manipulation of terrain." Seft shows Dragon the unusual two-pronged yellow implement briefly, some kind of industrial tool, but she doesn't elaborate on precisely how it has shaped the sands. She does give a cheerful look though, her eye-visor displaying a "^_^". "Cheerful. That sounds good to add next." There's a few contemplative beeps. "Pondering. Aircraft. A high-skill field. Our Flotilla has no aircraft experts of its own, only spacecraft engineers. I have dedicated my skill to armor crafting, personally. Architecture is an expertise acquired by necessity."

    Artyom gets several nods from Moonfin. "She certainly does not seem the type to cause a commotion. It should be no trouble, Miss." The fish gives a polite bow to the shipgirl. "There is no trouble. I have worked, in the past, with those not unlike your allies and yourself. I believe I understand some of this." And then he's attentive to Yuna. This sounds like certain styles of traditional Hylotl music, and as such he will give it some rapt attention.

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    "Well, I could get you a drink, I guess." Kilik muses, looking at Tony and shrugging. "I owe you a punch after all." No, there's no threat in his voice when he says it. He's not actually saying he intends to punch Tony, regardless of what the words might suggest. Tony once dished out a punch that Kirikou feels like paying back, that's all.

    Regardless, Kilik turns his back on Tony with an unthreatening wave, heading up for food. He pauses momentarily though, as the music changes. It's quite obvious this isn't canned music, or at least not canned singing. When others announce the singer, his eyes widen. No, he doesn't know Yuna. Not in person anyways. But while pop's not his favourite genre, he certainly doesn't dislike it! And anyone who can sing like that, live, he can appreciate.

    Seeing as he doesn't know the singer though, and obviously others do, he just listens rather than trying to approach the singer. That, and he's taking the opportunity to approach the food line and pick up something big and meaty to gnaw on.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Sanary does eventually cheat with the eye, pumping in just enough energy to get an actual look at all the food laid out and letting out an impressed vaguely-whistling-mostly-blowing noise. Her targets spotted, she flinches instinctively at the distortion of the sound system before relaxing again once she hears singing.

    "Really going all out with this..." There's an amused laugh from the healer as she starts stacking food onto a plate, taking a little bit from each dish to get a good sample for herself before starting to eat! She catches a glimpse of Kirikou just before she turns the eye off, giving him a brief nod while gnawing on a sizable hunk of ham.

    "Hey, Kilik. Is this type of... Everything normal for parties? This is /great/! The food, the singing, all this... Everything here."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna's song continues for a bit, but she's happy to wave to everyone in response to greetings called out her way. Rock's fan display elicits a bright smile from the blonde idol, though, and she accepts the offered drink with a polite bow to Yari in between verses. As soon as the song finishes, she taps the switch on her headset, shutting off the feed (for now), and Elner quietly lets the sound system pick up where it left off, the next song in the mix coming on smoothly.

There may be more singing later; that's going to be up to Toph for the most part. For now, Yuna needs to answer some of the greetings that came her way - and before that ...

"Happy birthday, Toph!" Yuna says with a big smile, raising her glass as in a toast. "And may many more follow behind this one, each happier than the last!"

If Toph intercepted Yuna before the gift could be added to the pile, Yuna is happy to hand it over to Toph directly. Either way, she sips (carefully) from the glass Yari provided her before turning to greet some of her other friends. "Hey Freya, hey Jinxel! Good to see you again!"

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    "Ah, I see," Artyom says, not really seeing. Not completely, anyway. What exactly is an Abyssal? Hm. "So that is why you're a girl, not a ship. Though I know of few vessels with girls for souls," he brings them to the Table Of Food, and gently nudges a plate into Shigure's hands. "I suppose there is a first for all things," he concludes, and begins shovelling various party-munchies onto his plate.

Mostly various barbecued meats. Artyom seems to appreciate those.

He looks to Moonfin, then, and nods. "Yes, please do not worry," he says. "I do not think anyone here will judge."

And then there's an... Idol singer? At a party? Well, why not? A party is about the most likely place to find those, offstage.

That guy with the bowlcut following her around is kind of weird though.

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya smiles and walks over to Yuna. "Hello Yuna! It has been a while! Been keeping yourself busy I assume?", she glad to see her friend again.

A-ko Magami (434) has posed:
    Arriving fashionably late, most likely due to issues with B-ko, is A-ko herself. She dashes in quickly, like the supergirl she is, and then rests with her hands on her knees. "Stupid girl, always interrupting me!" She stops in just as Yuna calls out Happy birthday, and she quickly grabs a glass and raises it as well. "H-h-happy birthday, Toph!" A-ko says with a blush on her face. "Sorry, but B-ko got in my way again!"

Defiant (554) has posed:
     "It's good to be here," Defiant replies, more pleasantly than his normal tone. It's still not exactly friendly but he's trying. He twists the cap off a beer and seems to be content to just stand there and watch for the moment, like a constant, protective statue.

     Now sitting by Seft, Dragon's eyes lock onto the Matter Manipulator. "Well, they do say that a tool is only as valuable as the skill of its wielder. It might help, but you're the one who has to use it correctly. Take me, for example - I've never made a sandcastle in my life. Even with that device, I doubt I'd be able to make something so impressive." She rests back on her palms, practically basking in the sun. "Necessity is the mother of invention, after all."

     She turns her head to glance at Tony's robot, valiantly attempting to construct a sand castle with one arm, a bucket and a spade. "I think someone needs some assistance, however."

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kirikou blinks when he's hailed, but he's quick enough to recognize Sanary, reaching out to touch the back of her forearm with his own, one warrior to another, for someone who fought alongside him. He laughs at her question. "Normal? Naaaah, this is pretty damn great!" he claims. "You should see the party for the old man's own birthday!" Kilik says. Though he's not sure that party would be better than this... it was different, but still damn good. "And speaking of great. I think you got the right idea there!" he says, gesturing to Sanary's food and acquiring his own gnawable at the earliest opportunity.

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     Jinxel comes quite merrily trotting over to where Yuna is, "Yuna! It's been so long! I haven't see you around in ages!" She smiles widely, "Busy making music albums I take it?"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"No, don't help him," Tony remarks aside with a grin to Dragon. "He wanted to do this on his own." Given Dummy's limited AI and Tony's tone, it seems more likely that he just wants to see what the 'bot comes up with left to his own devices.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Keeping the eye on the whole time is definitely easier than power it up and down every other minute, and... Well, Sanary can always depower it once she talks with Toph more directly.

    "The one that had the little... Uh. Robot with him?" Smirking at Kilik, she greets him with her own forearm before scooping some sort of beef ball into her mouth, letting out a pleased noise upon biting into it. "Definitely gotta go to more of these parties if this is what they're like."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Music is far better than fireworks," Toph agrees to Biteblade, then shakes her head a bit when the plant person goes to get some food from the poor cateters, who look curiously at the thing. Seriously, multiversal parties are always interesting. As if parties at Tony Stark's weren't eventful enough!

    Toph applauds when Yuna finishes her song, grinning from ear to ear. "Thanks! Next year I will be even more awesome, so sing a rockin' song then, huh?" For now she lets Yuna put the gift in the pile with the others, and the blind girl does offer a nod of her head to A-ko when she arrives. "Hey, better late then never! You were even more fashionably late than Goldie was! " And Toph does grab some food for herself from the tables, a big juicy piece of steak along with some crunchy vegetables. Though she guesses it's time to get started on the fun...

    Toph kicks down into the sand and twists her foot, and its density increases as it turns into a solid rock pillar that rises underneath her feet, and Toph raises her voice as well as she towers above the guests. "LISTEN UP, LILY LIVERS!" she begins, picking a bit at her food as she begins eating. With her fingers. "We're going to have a contest between those who have the /stones/ to attempt it! It will be rough! There will be blood, sweat and tears as you compete for the prizes" Again Toph kicks the pillar, and from the sand next to her something is /shot/ up into the air, and the blind girl snatches it from mid air, holding out a very elaborate crown made in shiny metal and set with various gems. It looks expensive, and its obviously something that Toph herself has made with her bending.

    "The winners gets one of this! Steel and silver, authentic gems from the Earth Kingdom! Your challenge today is..."

    Again Toph assumes a stance, setting the crown she throws her hand out in succession, and a part of the beach opens... to reveal small shovels, buckets and cookie cutters. "Build the best sandcastle ever! Three prizes to those who win in each category that I have selected and I'm totally not telling you until later. Get moving!"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Dummy, who came prepared with his own shovel and pail, ignores Toph's announcement and keeps plugging away at his masterpiece. So far it's no more than a kind of lumpy foundation. Tony glances that way, then back over the partygoers as a group. "And anyone who doesn't participate gets to say they were afraid to compete with a robot with only one arm."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "That seems to include you..." Toph says before she begins stuffing some chicken wings into her mouth, munching away happily. Oh yes, she went there.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
Artyom raises a hand. It's pretty easy to see, but Toph is blind. But he has a very important question! "Is it considered cheating if I compete?"

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Rock Lee has been wandering around, but then a -challenge- is issued. "I will build a sand castle that will spit into the very eye of all the Multiverse' creations!" he shouts, and then starts rushing to the moist water to toss wet sand into a pile, preparing his materials. "I am using my bare hands. If that is not cheating, then nothing is!"

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     Jinxel looks down at the bucket, shovel, and cookie cutters.

     Then she turns to look at the already built Medieval Castle made entirely out of sand nearby.

     :(

     With a bit of a dejected look on her fact, the Bad Luck pony picks up her spade and pail and finds a nice, quiet spot on the beach to start making her sand castle, even if she knows she can't possibly win against such staggering odds.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The question is noticed as easily as the held up hand, and Toph shrugs. "Join in, just don't use your geomancy to build all of it. That goes for all of you! This isn't the contest about making the palace of Ba Sing Se in replica!" Because that place sucks.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Yari offers a small bow to Yuna, top hat dangling precariously as she accepts the drink. True to form, Yari's drinks are about 99% alcohol, one percent juice. Sobriety and the Centurion just don't mix, especially when a celebration is called for.

Similarly so with Rock's drink. The evil bartendress is clearly trying to destroy livers with her craft this day as she taps into the darker side of her culinarian skills.

And then Toph Beifong issues a /challenge/. Yari Takane is no knight, but she has honor of her own, and that of the Legion to uphold.

"Glory and honor to the Legion! I accept your challenge, Miss Toph!" Then with blinding speed, the bartendress is upon the sand, pail, water, and shovel as she uses her impressive ninja arts to rapidly begin making a sandcastle in a blurr of motion that leaves afterimages. She's also somehow brought the bar /with/ her, right near Tony. She's still making, and drinking, her drinks as she descends into the time-honored traditions of insobriety and sand-castle making from Doma.

One or both of those traditions might be horrible lies. Yari is just a really fast lush.

Still, she's 'with it' enough to glance to Tony.

"...Mister Stark, Officer of the Union? Centurion Yari Takane, XIV Legion of the Garlean Empire. I don't mean to spoil the occasion, but I'd like a moment of your time if that's acceptable and will not decrease morale, Sir." She offers quietly to the man even as she begins forming her sandcastle.

Overall, what slowly forms is a slightly crude Garlean defensive structure, more akin to a fort than anything else. It's all smooth curves, little lines of sandy-magitech, and eventually even a landing strip for airships included. She somehow manages to make tiny sand troopers too using the cookie-cutter.

Then the ninja leaps high into the air. Her single hand flows in hand-seals, and lightning crashes down towards her creation of sand!

The thunderous aetheric blast turns the entire work from sand into glass before she lands. Yari blows smoke from her finger, stands up, and inspects her work.

"...Acceptable." Her worst critical is always herself.

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya listens to Toph speech. "Allright! Time to get to work!", she heads a bit way to down the beach and shifts up to her normal 50 foot size and start working on a 1:1 scale sand castle! She humms a tune to herself as she does so.

Maya has posed:
Maya has been just chilling out for the moment at the party, there's food, there's people to catch up with, the junker seems to be enjoying herself. She also doesn't want to mob Toph too hard. Right she doe shope she'll also just take in everything really she's does however pauses to see wait booze pluse Rock Lee? Oh Fates...

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    This gets Kilik's attention, no doubt about it. Playing on the beach and building sand castles, that's totally a kiddy thing. And he just happens to have two kiddies with him. Besides, Kirikou is a competitive guy.

    He gestures to the Twins, sending them off to collect some sand gear. They rush off in glee, scooping up shovels, pails and whatever else they can scoop up with their relatively tiny arms. Meanwhile he turns to Sanary, considering. "Wanna team up? I bet you've seen some castles that'd be awesome. I got the workforce." he offers, grinning. Hey, team Fed here! Not that he's deliberately excluding Yari or Jinxel, but he doesn't really know either of them. He'd be willing to collaborate though. After all, what's the point of being a Confederate if you don't use poorly-defined rules to your advantage?

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Sand castles? The healer barely even knows what real castles look like! She can't exactly /admit/ that, of course, especially after the showings from Yari and even that tiny robot thing. "Eh? Uh.. S-sure! How hard could it be?" She laughs a little too loudly to mask her nervousness, watching the twins bolt off to get the gear.

    "Warning you now, though. I'm.. Uh. Probably not gonna be too great at making anything other than a box or a wall. The village had a wall, but... Yeah, that's about all I got. So we just gotta make it huge!"

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee looks down at his drink, tilting his head. "Juice!" he decides, then nods. "Thank you, I will require this to keep me cool during the effort it will require to create a work of art!" he thankfully nods, then leans in to take a sip. But before his lips reach the alcohol, he gets a wiff of it, and suddenly his faces flushes and his eyes go a little loopy. He wobbles back a few feet, then drops his drink into the sand. "Do not you tell me about Mudkips, ocean!" he shouts at the water. "I will... I will make the greatest... the greatest... the castle!" He appears to be drunkenly arguing with the ocean.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony Stark, officer of the Union as well as a laundry list of other titles, including 'superhero' and 'Dad,' blinks at the remarkable bartender. Since she brought the bar with her, he shrugs, accepting this occurrence under 'Multiverse' in his head, and reaches across it to pour himself a Scotch while she sand-architects. "Garlean," he repeats softly, frowning to himself. They're Fed-allied, aren't they? Not that there aren't a few Feds here today, but none of them are here on business. "Uh, okay," he agrees cautiously, just before Yari leaps and summons fricking lightning right in front of him. He yelps and scrambles backward a few steps, somehow keeping the glass of liquor in his hand from spilling, though his other hand presses over his chest as if to manually suppress an impending heart attack.

Dummy, meanwhile, plugs away at his own creation. Building on the foundation, his 'castle' seems to be developing with fairly organic curves. Unusual for a robot? Oh hell, who can ever understand the bizarre thought processes that go on in Dummy's programming.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is startled out of her people watching reverie with Toph's announcement. The sudden pillar forming and the thing shooting out of the sand does it too! She blinks her eyes slowly and... "Huh. Sandcastle building?" She gets to her feet and stretches. "Nnngh... aahh.." She smiles brightly. "I'll give it a try!"

    Ayako makes her way over to the revealed tools and takes a bucket, shovel, and a few star-shaped cookie cutters. It only takes a moment to tell one thing. Ayako isn't very good at this! She's very bad with physical objects not made of her own water that she hasn't practiced with.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     A contest? Now, /that/ is music to Defiant's ears. The man plays to win in all aspects of his life - even if it's building sandcastles at a young girl's birthday party.

     Stepping away from Tony, Defiant moves across the sand with purpose. Dragon is already picking herself up and tells Seft, "Well, no time like the present to learn! Good luck. Defiant, I'm already transmitting a design to your HUD. Should be possible with the tools at our disposal."

     "Looks good," Defiant responds, "We'll start from the inside and work our way out."

     The pair immediately fall into sync, working with shovel and pail and hands to craft a sandcastle. The sheer suddenness of their perfect synchronised sand-crafting might be startling. They don't speak a word.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna is noticeably wobbling on her feet as she lowers the glass from that first careful sip. Let's do some quick math here ...

She's only 145 cm tall, or four feet, nine inches.
More critically, she's a mere 45 kg, or 99 lbs.
And she has basically zero experience drinking.

"Whooo ..." Yuna shakes her head, focusing on Toph's pronouncement. "Okay. Sandcastles. Um ..."

She eyes her drink briefly, then shrugs apologetically at Yari before dumping the remainder of her drink into the sand. She keeps the glass, though, even as she wobbles her way over to collect a couple of cookie cutters, two buckets, and zero shovels.

Meanwhile, Elner cringes and starts praying to the Queen of Light that Yuna doesn't go wandering out to sea or something in her current state. Seems like the 'performance' part of the evening is over, as far as the tiny robo-faerie can tell.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    "Fair," Artyom nods at Toph, and begins moving towards a bank of sand positioned precariously near the waves. In a few hours, high tide will be a thing. Why is Artyom building a sand castle there?

    ONLY HE KNOWS FOR CERTAIN.

He seems to be pretty darned good at it, though. Clearly his skill at working with earth isn't limited to just his magical talents. The spade is really kind of small in his hands... So he just uses his palms! His shovel's back sees occasional use as a flattening tool, making surfaces nice and even.

He also seems to have... dug a pit, right in the center of his sandcastle-plot. Huh.

Jinxel (119) has posed:
     Jinxel is so totally outmatched by Medieval Robots, Ninjas, Billionaire Playboy Phylanthropists, and the likes, but that doesn't stop her from making a sand castle!

     Or at least a lump of sand that is vaguely sand castle-ish in shape.

     Hmmm, this is harder than she realized.

     With a frowny look of concentration on her face, Jinxel tries to straighten out the walls of her little sand castle and get the 'towers' to stop leaning awkwardly to one side or the other. It's not easy... especially with everyone around her teaming up to build sand castles or using schematics to build the perfect one or using cheaty ninja magic to instantly create them!

     Or... arguing with the ocean for that matter. o_o

     ... That boy ain't right...

A-ko Magami (434) has posed:
    "Ummm... Sandcastles?" A-ko asks. "Uh, I'm not sure I'm good at working with sand!" She says, sweatdropping and scratching the back of her head nervously. "I'll just watch instead." She also doesn't pay any heed to the offers of alcohol either, as she's not old enough to legally drink yet!

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kilik doesn't blink at Sanary's confession, but it does cause him to reevaluate. Winning is cool, but... well, this is a contest of SAND CASTLES. It's whimsical and fun, or at least it should be. He doesn't need steel and silver, from the Earth Kingdom or otherwise. Why bother getting all hypercompetitive about it?

    "Doesn't matter. Let's just have some fun huh?" he suggests to Sanary. "Oi, Jinx!" he cries out abruptly, raising his voice and hailing Jinxel. "Can we join your team? If you help the Twins here gather LOTS of sand and get it over here, we'll make the biggest sandcastle!" he grins. It may not be particularly great. No one on their team has much aesthetic sense here... but they can surely have enthusiasm and energy!

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Good! People are accepting the challenge and have already gotten started. Which means that she can sit back and eat and open her presents! The blind girl kicks the pillar down so she can walk over to the badgermole statue, and while she is munching on food she begins opening her presents. Man, this year is even better than last year! "Thanks for the gifts so far, gonna be fun to see what the rest of you have gotten me," Toph speaks up so they can hear. "Always nice with new earth and metal things for me to bend!"

    Each wrapped gift is unpacked in order, and she looks rather eager to get the wrapping paper off. Just what have everybody gotten for her?

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
A brief look. Rock Lee is arguing with the ocean after a mere whiff of her drink. Yari Takane actually grins for a moment.

And the excellent idol-girl is wobbling on her feet. There's a swell of pride in her heart. Her duties as bartendress have clearly been completed, despite the loss of drinks on both sides.

"I'd suggest three glasses of water each at minimum. I hope that you have enjoyed." She offers to both lady and fellow ninja. Cue six glasses of water on the bar.

But Tony takes up most of her attention, even as she glances to Sanary and Kirikou occasionally to track their own sandy earthworks.

"Oh!" That's right, sudden lightning techniques can be frightening. The ninja looks briefly apologetic, and even bows.

"My apologies. Challenges to the Legion's honor makes me...inconsiderate of others. To business."

She steps up close, whispering in Tony's ear if he lets her.

"I will be soon attempting the restoration of the Reptilonian city Freeport alongside my men. As I understand there's Union desire to ensure the planet's rebuilding goes smoothly, I'd like you to pass along this join contact channel and information to anyone available. Medicus, engineers, even mages would be acceptable as long as Mister Rex's and Mister Allo's people are seen to rights. Cooperation in this matter, as well as any suggestions or methods of increasing the morale of that planet's populace would be appreciated, Mister Stark." Comes the ninja respectfully despite the obscene amount of alcohol she's drank.

Yari very rarely has malice in her heart for those she fights, after all, so long as they don't violate her deeply held honor and morals.

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya humms to herslef and keep working on her huge sandcastle! She got a nice pile going as she pats it down getting it solid, she hmms a bit start adding towers to it one which falls soon after she completes it. She doesn't give up and keeps working on her sandcastle!

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Wnen Toph gets to Yari's present?

It's a tub of ice cream. She's clearly bribed a mage, as it's still icey cold. The ice cream is home made, a type of vanilla soft-serve spiced with garlean garlic and a few other things that give it an exotic flavor indeed. An acquired taste, definitely, but it's made with skill and intent to show good will to the Union. Or maybe just to a little girl on her birthday.

There's a recipe for said ice cream tucked in as well.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Sand begins to fly as Lee runs around in his little area of effect. This area is easy to tell because he keeps up so much dust that it's difficult to see -what- he's working on in that little cloud of his. "AAACHOOOOOOUU!!!" he shouts as he jumps from the top of the sand cloud, suplexing a gigantic clot of moist sand. "You do not... do not... you do not underestimate my skill!" he shouts from behind his sand cloud, and a sea star goes flying out of no where until it safely lands in the sand, followed by a crab. "I will complete my castle, no matter what you send at me! I will bend the Earth with my fists!"

While what he's doing can't quite be seen, there's a sudden very lodu -thump- against the ground. "WAAAAHHHHATATATATATATATA!!! Forbidden Technique Number 225: Sand Punching no Jutsu! You are already sand!"

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
Artyom seems to have gotten her... A strange, rainbow-colored and bizarrely geometric mineral formation? But if she keeps it in her hand for too long, the stuff begins to liquify! If she sets it in its box again, it hardens back into a weird, jagged metallic thing, but in a different shape than it had been before. Despite being not-quite-a-solid, it still pings as more 'earth' than 'metal.' How strange!

There's also a earthenware bowl in there, presumably to hold the mineral and keep it all together in one place.

A-ko Magami (434) has posed:
    Once Toph gets to A-ko's gift, she'd more than likely find that what she's gotten for her is a rather unique thing. It's one of those Zen sand garden things. Apparently, A-ko was in a bit of a rush today and didn't know a lot about Toph, so she went with what the store clerk suggested. Hopefully Toph will like it!

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Stark flinches a little bit when the ninja who just summoned fricking lightning goes to whisper in his ear, but her words quickly settle his expression to one of surprised, but serious attention. He gives Yari a solemn nod in response. "I'm... sure I can rustle up a few," he replies mildly, as if he were discussing a simple matter of industrial trade or a request for a charitable donation.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Sanary definitely didn't get the memo about wrapping anything up for extra suspense, as her gift is just sitting in a heavy sack. When uncovered, Toph would find... An entire pig and an excessive amount of pork rinds. The pig has been roasted whole with a brownish tint to the whole thing. A little salty and a little sweet, it would taste vaguely similar to the type of barbecued pork called char siu in Chinese restaurants minus the red coloration to the meat. The pork rinds share that same flavor, somehow managing to stay crunchy even while being held underneath the pig for so long.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako has made a lump of sand! Yay! No really. That took a while for her to do. And then eeps softly when Rock Lee practically dives into the sand. She takes a moment away from her little sand castle lump to save the sea star and the crab that get... evicted from the sand cloud.

    Once they're safe from the festivities, Ayako resumes trying to work on her sand castle. Making them is so much more difficult than it looks! It is forming, though. slowly! Even though her sand castle is extremely simple.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
He keeps right on building that weird water-sand-castle though. It's starting to take shape, now. Six walls arrayed around a wide reservoir of sea-water. At the back of the reservoir, Artyom begins shaping a courtyard. He adds detailing to the walls and crenallations with a particularly lengthy bit of sea-shell. He's been accumulating those too, it seems... Only to shove most of the pile into the reservoir. Mysterious!

Soon, he starts on the castle. It looks like it might be pretty big by the time he's done with it!

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Meanwhile, Dummy is still working away, patting at the mounds of sand with the flat of his shovel, using the bucket to pile up more building material where needed for shaping. It's starting to not look like a castle. More like... a vaguely humanoid figure, reclining on a bank of sand?

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya is almost finised the main part of her castle, it has two towers made and start working on adding some details to the sides like some opening and a door at the base. She start digging a moat around the base, a pretty deep one you could swim in it. She hmms and starts working on a bridge as well.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Yari stands up straight at Tony answer, despite all she's drank, and snaps a sharp salute across her chest towards the man.

Her discipline, impassive face is marred by a quirk of her lips upwards.

"You have my gratitude, Mister Stark. Glory and honor, Sir! I hope you enjoy Miss Toph's birthday. Would you like a drink?"

Given Toph and Yuna, that idea might be somewhat questionable. She'll acquire the man another likely illegal act of boozeahol, then start using tiny flicks of Raiton to smooth out the edges of her sand-castle-garlean-fortification. She frowns.

"Mmm. I need more Reaper Units."

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kirikou's present to Toph is a giant jawbreaker candy. Like, huge. Bigger around than a fist. Maybe he's implying she's got a big mouth? Anyways, it's nothing fancy... but hopefully she'll like it.

    Meanwhile back at castle-building. The Twins are doing much of the work, honestly. They have the energy and enthusiasm, and are quite capable of using each other in Weapon form - a huge pot - to scoop up sand and have it hauled back to their staging ground... which rapidly becomes a staging pile. If Jinxel is around and willing, she can put her pony muscle to the aid of the sand-gathering effort. If not, Kirikou will use the Twins to move sand, foregoing the need for shovels and pails, using the Weapons' superior resilience to simply scoop sand up in bulk.

    When the pile is assembled, the Twins have some more surprises in store. Being Earth Shamans, they have some insight into the sand. Knowing when it's wet enough to stand tall, when it's too wet, when it's too dry to support weight. They may not be able to make the BEST sand castle, but they're damn sure going to try to make the BIGGEST - at least as big as anyone can make a construct of water and sand without using magic.

    And yes, Kirikou and the twins are having a blast.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Ah, thanks!" Yuna calls out to Yari at the suggestion/offer of water. "I'm thirsty, but I'll come pick some up in a bit."

The question is whether she'll actually remember to drink it rather than using it to soak her sand - but Yuna's already hard at work. She's not going big like so many of the other builders are; instead, she seems to be focusing on a small but detailed sandcastle. The two buckets have been loaded with wet sand; she's using the cookie cutters she picked up as molds to help add structural detail. And the glass her fateful drink was in also gets used as a mold, to shape turrets atop the peaks/towers of the castle she's putting together.

At least she's having fun, to judge by her enthusiasm in working and the smile on her face.

Richard Stadler (300) has posed:
Richard Stadler simply had to make an apperance at a Stark party... for a few reasons. Of course, there's showing solidarity for families with adopted daughters (they really needed a support group for when things got dangerous). There's also making sure that Tony doesn't exactly party Malibu into the Pacific Ocean. And the food. The food was nice. At the moment, he's going to be sipping on a glass of Perrier, observing everyone deciding to build sand castles in a manner that would get the judges to smile favorably on them. It... at least made sure he didn't have to think about the horrible gift he managed to bring. What the hell /did/ you get Stark's daughter? The damned girl could get everything she wanted! So it was back to the basics.

Stadler's gift happened to be a standard, adjustable armored vest, the type that made use of plate carriers and ceramic plates to defend aganist large caliber firearm rounds. That was earth based, right? It was at least more creative than the standard plastic card, with the words, 'One (1) Get Out Of Trouble Free' card, with a phone number printed on the back.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
As for presents, the little box Yuna added to the pile turns out to contain an MP3 player ... a voice-operated one, in fact. Plenty of space for Toph to load it with her own selection of music, although of course Yuna gifted a couple of her own albums for a starter set. It even has a text-to-speech Internet browser as one of the available functions.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony, fortunately, can handle illegal amounts of boozeahol. He's Tony Stark. Giving Yari another slightly formalized nod of his head in response, and another bemused stare at whatever the hell Dummy is making, he makes his way over to Toph at the gift table just in time to see her open up Stadler's offering. "That's pretty nice," he observes of the armored vest. "I mean, it's no /Iron Man/ but it might stop a bullet or two." What crazy lives do they lead that this is the sort of thing that comes up in casual conversation?

Dummy keeps creating. His 'castle' is definitely taking on the form of a person, seeming to lounge against a banked sand support to give it stability. He takes an extra long time working on the details of the face, delicately carving away at the sand with the edge of his shovel.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Woah, ice cream? The cold box makes Toph blink, her fingers running carefully over the item, and she opens it and takes a sniff. Smells kinda funky... maybe she can share it with Pepper later?

    More candy, the giant jawbreaker makes Toph laugh as she hoists it up. "Hey, your mouth is bigger than mine, Gloves!" she calls out, then picks up the box with the strange earth from Artyom. For now she doesn't inspect it further, but she is bound to have a fun time later when she realizes how it works!

    The roasted pig likewise earns a laugh, and Toph snickers. Like they won't have enough food for a while now after the party!

    Stadler's gift makes her hesitate at first. Just what is this? Though the moment she realizes it's an armored vest she is beaming brightly, and she even holds it up for Tony to look at when he walks over. "Yeah yeah, nobody has as awesome armor as you. At least until I make my own armor that will knock yours aside. And only I will be able to use it with my metalbending!" So there! Because Tony is fun to tease, and she tosses the ice cream over to Tony. "What flavour is it, does it say? It smells a bit... funny for ice cream."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Yay! Ayako claps her hands together happily. She's finished making a sand block. What, for her, who hasn't done this before it's a big thing! She sure used a lot of wet sand to just make one block, though. And now she's decorating said block with little blocks of sand to make the little wall ridges on top of the block.

    To top it off, she uses the star-shaped cookie cutter and a bunch of wet sand off on the side. She picks it up carefully and puts it on top of the block. Yay! A star on the roof! And with that, it's done. It's simple, and didn't take that much time. But hey, it's her first time making a sand castle! Ayako just claps her hands once while looking at her little sand castle.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Artyom's castle is taking shape. It's a big, stalwart thing, made nice and solid with sturdy-looking towers and buttresses fanning out to link it to the halo of walls surrounding it. But the tide continues to rise. Already, water is starting to fill Artyom's reservoir. He turns his attention from the mostly-finished castle to the conspicuous gap in front of the ring-walls. He immediately... hollows out a trench to allow more water to rush into the reservoir. And then he uses that same sand to start building what appears to be a large sluice.

    He crushes sea-shells, and embeds the front and back surface of the wall with the remaining dust and fragments. His hand glows softly, sending a ripple across the sluice. Its surfaces seem to... harden, covered in a lacquer of shell-like material.

    He sets the thing down in the mouth of the reservoir, cutting off any further flow of water into the inside of the walls, and then resumes work on the castle itself, adding details to the keep, walls and towers here and there, and filling out the courtyard with little buildings.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee suddenly leaps out of the dust and dives toward the ocean. "YOU DO NOT TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! I WILL SHOW GUY SENSEI WHAT I HAVE LEARNED!" He holds his hands out as if he's going to strangle the ocean, then starts tossing rocks and pearls and all sorts of random things from the sea and back into his cloud.

When he comes diving back out, he shouts, pointing down at the water. "I have defeated you! Do not bother me again! My taijutsu is the taijutsu that will part the sea!" There's a sudden hiccup, and he seems to just fall down quietly into the cloud. At least until he can be heard shifting around and slamming things again.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Having Kirikou's Twins helping with the sand-building is a huge boon considering Sanary's lack of sandcastle building experience. She's mostly following along with them at first, mimicking their techniques in building upwards. Eventually, however, she does start to get the hang of building for MAXIMUM POWER and focuses her efforts instead on building up the sandcastle as tall as... Well, herself. She can't reach too high above herself, after all, so there's still a limit there.

    Still, it's a marked improvement from the nothing she was managing at the start. Who knew sand and water could even make these types of things stand so well?

    The shouting and roaring from the bowl-cutted one draws an amused laugh from the healer, and she leans away from the castle for a moment to watch him in his ocean-fighting tirade. "Good work, guy! Kick its ass!" She does eventually return to working on the castle again, digging out tiny windows, a gate, and even a tiny moat to surround the whole thing. Defenses are important, after all, and what better defense than water itself?

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony takes the cold box and flips it over in his hands, looking for a label. "Nnnooo," he muses, "but the really fancy places never label their stuff. You're supposed to know what you're buying if you're spending that kind of money." He gives the ice cream a sniff. "Smells like vanilla," he declares, but his nose wrinkles. "And... garlic?"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Regardless of her current state, Yuna is still focusing diligently on her sandcastle. She doesn't have the powers or physical oomph that a lot of other competitors are able to bring to bear, so she's just trying to make it as lovingly detailed as possible.

She may or may not be succeeding on that front, but she's making the effort anyway. Eventually, she DOES get up to wobble over to the 'bar' and drink some of the water Yari put out for her and Rock.

... and then, with a considering sort of look on her face, she heads for the stairs up to the house. Bathrooms were on the right once you get in, weren't they?

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
While the other contestants are busy making masterpieces all around him, Dummy finally lets out a triumphant chirp, retracts his anchors, and rolls backward on his cart a little way to display the fruits of his labor.

It is not a sand castle.

It's more of a sand... statue, crudely but somehow lovingly shaped into a cariacature of his creator's face and form. A sand Tony Stark, lounging on the beach, one sand arm propped behind his sand head, looking out across the expanse of his private beach.

It is nude.

And anatomically correct.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     Work, work, work. With mechanical precision, Defiant and Dragon sculpt themselves out a castle. There's redoubts, parallels, defensive perimeters, sloped walls, overlapping fields of fire... and a moat.

     The pair stand up and dust their hands off, seeming quite satisfied with their work.

     It'd probably be hell for any crustacean attacker to try and conquer, but there's not much in the way of aesthetics. Ah well.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee steps from the dust, wobbling and flushed. Then starts to yell, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" as if he's trying to power up. Nothing actually happens, and when he stops yelling, he doubles over and throws up, then falls backward and passes out.

When the dust clears, a 10 foot figure of an extremely muscular Toph in her normal outfit that's ripping at the seems due to her massive muscles can be seen. And she's in a pose similar to Atlus. Except instead of holding a planet on her back, she's holding a large castle of sand. There are rocks for eyes and other ornate things that add flavor. But he's too busy being passed out to explain anything.

Richard Stadler (300) has posed:
Richard Stadler observed the sand castles as they were being built. Perhaps it was something of a distruct of new machines that he only looked occassionally at what the robot was building, instead looking at the structure's others were creating. The beeping and whirring does get his eyes back over in that direction, though, and-

Stadler happened to be taking a swallow of water at that point, which led to a violent reaction of coughing it up in a fit of shock and sudden dispair. He's looking away in less than a second, but if there was anything that could burn itself onto the back of his retineas like an atomic shadow, /that/ was it. "What the hell kind of robots are you building here, Stark!" He just calls out, making sure to look to the ocean, and just... walks toward his car. "God /damn/ it."

If nature didn't destroy it, he had some explosives in the trunk.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Toph leans over towards Tony when he checks out the ice cream and whispers for his ears only. "... let's eat it later and see who can stomach the most without puking."

    It seems like the people are really working on their castles. Except for Dummy... and Toph arches an eyebrow. "... why does Dummy know what you look like naked, anyway?"

    Let's not ask /why/ Dummy would make a nude Tony statue.

    Ahem.

    Standing up, Toph claps her hands again. By now her plate has been cleared as well, and she seems rather pleased with the gifts. As well as the effort put in by her guests.

    "OKAY! You have all done splendidly! But I'm afraid that I have only made three crowns for you guys. So... who made the best sand castle in my opinion?" Here she points.

    "The Feds did an awesome job by joining together in a large team, so they get to split one crown!" Toph says, then reaches her hand into the bottom of the badgermole statue and tosses it towards the twins for them to catch. "OR I could bend them into smaller versions of it if you want it to be fair."

    Next she points to... Rock Lee. "And Rocky is really enthusiastic about it. So why not?" Besides, Toph has an ego and likes having it stroked. The second one is tossed towards Rock Lee, landing partially on his head.

    The last crown? Here Toph holds it up, grinning like mad... "The final winner.. is the one who can catch this!" she declares, throwing it up into the air... who will catch it?

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
At Stadler's outburst, Tony's brow furrows in confusion. At Toph's question, he shakes his head a little. "...what? Why would Dummy--" and then he has a moment of intuition, and turns to see what the hell his robot created while his back was turned.

"...uh."

Dummy waggles his arm at him, as if seeking approval for a job well done. Tony raises a hand to his face, pinches the bridge of his nose, blinks hard and looks again. Nope, it's still there.

And then Stark relaxes his stance with a well-what-are-you-gonna-do shrug. It's not as if his robot sculpted anything /embarrassing/ about him. He sips at his drink. "Good boy," he calls over mildly.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure looks up when Toph shouts out. She blinks confusedly for a moment, before there's something thrown into the air. Presumably, people start leaping for it, but the destroyer is kinda frozen with eyes locked on the crown.

    Her plate drops, and before it even begins to feel the effect of gravity, Shigure is in motion. Up onto a chair, leap off onto someone's shoulder, then with a powerful push that shows her warship heretige, she's flying for the crown, arms outstretched. Grab, flip, land, returns to her plate, which she ALSO catches deftly.

    "Mmm, that is an interesting robot you have built." munch, munch.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    When Shigure catches the crown Toph lets out a loud hoot of approval, and she claps her hands. "Nice! Thanks for the sandcastles, now grab some more food and snacks!" Toph states loudly, looking pleased. This is just as fun as she imagined it would be. Heck, all the sandcastles are fun. And well, Dummy did make something, but it is technically not valid as it is not a castle.

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kirikou is not particularly interested in leaping to catch a crown. He's already earned one, and that's what counts. Earning it, not possessing it. He has no real reason to go leaping for another, though he thinks it might be cool to get two, one for each of the twins.

    He allows himself to be distracted by the revelation of the statues. One of Toph in her earthen 'glory', one of Tony in ... in his glory. "Could be worse." he remarks to no one in particular. "They could be swapped." he notes, grinning.

    Then he turns to Sanary. "Want the crown? It'd look better on you." he notes.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
    Do statues count as sandcastles? Probably not, although the sandcastle on the Toph statue does certainly seem to impress Sanary. The statue of Tony and his drawbridge draws a long, hard stare from the healer before she breaks into laughter. Kirikou's comment only drives her further into an uproar, nearly toppling over at that terrible mental image.

    "D... Dammit, Kilik. Whyyy." Wiping a tear from her eye, she raises an eyebrow before shrugging casually and taking a seat on the sand just to give herself a breather. "You sure? I mean, we could split it up between us and the... Um. Pots?" She gestures at the Twins, furrowing her brow slightly while trying to recall their names. "Or was it Pans..?"

Kirikou (127) has posed:
    Kilik could see having two little crowns for the twins, but honestly it'd be wasted on them. They'd be just as happy with Burger King crowns. As for him, he's got plenty of money. He's been a Confederate elite for long enough, with few enough real expenses, that money doesn't much matter to him. Greed is not one of his primary sins.

    So rather than make that suggestion, he shrugs. Turning to look at the sand sculpture that has Sanary so amused, he shrugs. "It'd look SOOO much better on you." he claims. Than on Tony Stark, is the unspoken implication.

    He's also pretty impressed by the quiet girl who nonetheless turned out super-athletic, but ... well, he doesn't even know her name. He remains quiet, sticking for now with his confederate team. "Pots, yeah. Pot of Fire, Pot of Thunder." he says, gesturing to Fire and Thunder in turn."

Maya has posed:
Maya has been muching some food she picked some food, she's just been having fun and doesn't mind just a chance to relx and see friends having a good time of it. This is something she wished she had more of in her life, and in a way she's got osme of that. Terran food has always been interesting to her given the meat selection is very alien to her. Large mammles were very rare on her world, with wulves, dogs and humans being the most notable ones. Nothing that was really food level was a thing.