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Strawberry Princess	HAITI, NORD DEPARTEMENT      This forested mountainside overlooks a city, though at sufficient distance that the light pollution begins to recede and the colorful concrete-or-metal buildings blur together into a quilted whole. The air's cool this time of evening- and this time of year- but still not as cool as it "ought" to be in less tropical regions, abetted by the humidity. The sun's starting to set on the other side of the mountain, casting half the sky in pleasant orange tones and letting the first pinpricks of starlight shine through.      At the base of the mountain is the entrance to a facility that's been carved into its stone, a place that Strawberry described as "lego-brutalist": the Reignition Project headquarters. But you're not going there. You're going further up, to a quietly meadowed plateau with a trio of two-story reddish-wood cabins. They look to be relatively new, although one can't be sure; it's plausible they're just very, very rigorously cleaned and maintained.      In the center of the semicircle defined by the three cabins is a crackling log-fire, the kind designed to burn for hours; it's encircled by stones and easily five feet across, with a few convenient logs arranged around it for seating. There's a bunch of simple metal skewers, a cooler with hot dogs, and a nearby table with buns, condiments, and stuff for s'mores. Strawberry Princess is perched on one of the logs in what's now become her casual outfit, a white button-up shirt with black jeans and a comfy surplus jacket open around her shoulders. She's doing marshmallows, but every one of them has caught fire and turned out blackened-burned on the outside and oozing-gooey on the inside.      As people arrive, she'll stand up and wave (flaming marshmallow-on-a-skewer and all), eager for the company. But she's not alone here. Maybe forty or sixty feet off to the side, a middle-aged woman in a white labcoat reclines on a rock by a wide clear river, periodically casting her fishing line out; she makes no effort to draw attention to herself, but stands out anyway. There's a couple of other fishing rods laid out beside her in case anyone feels like helping.      There's also a young teen sitting on the sloped roof of the rightmost cabin, twenty feet off the ground; his light green magical boy costume has a knight-like aesthetic to it that's completed with gauntlets and cape, with a diadem atop his head instead of a helmet and a uniquely spear-like wand. At first he's playing on something like an old-school Gameboy, but as the Elites arrive he perks up and not-so-surreptitiously watches them. He doesn't make any attempt to descend or announce himself, though.      Lastly, an arm-thick black cable snakes its way out of a hole in the ground perhaps twenty feet behind the cabins and coils around itself like a resting serpent, likely hundreds of yards in length. Its end connects to a point on Strawberry's wand, lying in a padded carrying-case nearby like a precious musical instrument. There's nothing actively going on there at the moment, unless one feels like poking at the wand or its reactor for curiosity's sake.      Plugged in, its operational timer reads:        88:88
Doctor Strange	A rectangular, borderless window to another place opens. Through it, there is visible a number of other such windows, set into rich mahogany walls. Most of them are obscured by the man standing front and center. He wears an aged pair of jeans, sneakers, and a plain white t-shirt with an unassuming grey zip-up hoodie over it. He steps through that portal, into the meadowed plateau. The portal closes behind him, neatly, as if someone had pulled a shutter down following his departure.      That man is Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. He has, tucked under his arm, a yellow foam finger with a blue #1 painted on either side. He approaches the campfire, bend over, picks up a skewer. It is stabbed into the extended index finger of the foam glove. Offering a wave of a scarred hand to greet Strawberry, and the as-yet unknown magical boy, he proceeds to the marshmallows and impales two on his skewer.      "Strawberry. How's it going?" he asks conversationally, using the foam finger to toast the marshmallows.
Kale Hearthward	Kale Hearthward arrives via air, because if you've earned the ability to fly, why not use it at every opportunity that it's practical for? The trees rustle as he drops down, coming to a pinpoint landing not far from the firepit. While he's as armed as he always is, he's traded the dueling cape for a more casual look - jeans and a t-shirt, with a band logo ('RAT KINGS') worn under a light fabric jacket that matches his feathers. Oh, and he's carrying grocery bags with him (fabric ones that won't tear under the strain of flight). "Hey! Strawberry!" he calls, waving. "I brought some stuff!" "Here-" he sets his bags down nearby the campfire and opens them. "Look - dark chocolate bars, containing no trace whatsoever of milk literally stolen from babies... some vegan hot dogs... and..." He holds up a package of vegan marshmallows. "Marshmallows containing absolutely zero ounces of powdered bone goop! Great stuff, right? Definitely better than what you're eating right now, I bet." He tries to force the vegan marshmallow package into her hands.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Attend REIGNITION DAY PARTY     It's more like a social gathering, don't you think? Arthur's arrival here takes in the sights and goes the slow routes, wandering in by foot rather than using his Gate to get there. "WHAT UP, YO." He calls out, waving back to Strawberry Princess. Only NOW does he take off, drifting weighlessly over the lodge-site's grounds to settle in a reclining position, floating in zero gravity near her.     "Heard you had a lot of GOOD STUFF worth CELEBRATIN', and a lot of CELEBRATIN' to do for your GOOD STUFF. You havin' a GOOD TIME? I wouldn'ta gone to HIT THE LODGE or nothin' for that, you like the ol' CAMPSITE STUFF?" He drifts into an upside-down orientation, smelling the scent of the burning marshmallows from above. "This for another NIGHTMARE SANDWICH kinda thing? You got an awful lotta HEAT up in this for a S'MORE, dawg."
X	Out of place. He felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb .. but it was his own fault, he supposed. He had never really invested much in the way of casual modifications for his body and, unfortunately, he looked rather ridiculous with clothing layered over his armor. After teleporting in a short ways away and entering the scene, he struggles to push that self-consciousness down. How long had it even been since he'd been to a purely social outing? No ulterior motive. No politics to keep up with. Just ... a calm and pleasant evening with others. X really can't remember. If it had ever happened, it had likely been in his earliest days, when Doctor Cain had still been alive. Mimicking the motion of a breath he didn't need, the blue armored android moves to greet Strawberry as well, after watching her interaction with the others who'd approached her before him. "You've had a difficult road, but you still haven't given up. Here's to your future success." It's a six-pack of fruitfully flavored soda pops made with /real/ sugar. That's what they said, anyway. Given the other hand-forcing going on, he politely deposits the mini-cooler they were being stored in nearby, within easy reach. "For those of you I haven't had the chance to introduce myself to, my name is X."
Tony Stark	As 'promised', there's a missile in the sky, leaving a trail of disturbed air and weaving holes into clouds. As it lands in a mild cloud of sand and the force-whump of comic decceleration -- the kind that Strawberry is Very Clear is terrible for humans to actually fly in -- Stephen Strange's portal opens right in front of the event, and his foam-finger disgorgement totally ruin's Iron Man's entrance. When the portal closes, Tony Stark stands next to his latest Prime Armor in a hawaiian shirt open at the chest to reveal a white t-shirt featuring a classic Iron Man armor in a chef's apron holding a spatula with a charcoal grill in the foreground with the caption "I Just Want To Grill", board shorts, and flip-flops. His armor, next to him, is a tiger stripe orange-and-black affair. Smouldering at strange for a moment, Tony sighs. "Jarvis, make like a Tiger and-- do whatever it is a cereal mascot does." Jarvis' voice comes from the armor's closed faceplate. "And, what, sir? Give them tooth decay? Hardly. I am wonderful with children." Tony chuffs. "Name every child you're good with." Jarvis pointedly makes a synthesized inhale-of-breath sound and Tony immediately holds his hands up. "I got the picture." He waves to Strawberry. "Heya, Strawberry the Princess. As requested..." He thumbs at himself. "Tony." He thumbs at the Prime Armor Jarvis is inhabiting. "The Tiger. Happy Anniversary."
Shyra	Shyra arrives on scene with the rest of the partygoers. She is wearing the same clothing as always, but thankfully it's workable for a party. In her hands is a bindle which she places on the table and unwraps, revealing a big pile of cookies! About half of them are the standard butter cookie recipe that she mysteriously started using some time ago, while there's a small variety of variations, some with dollops of fruit jam baked into the center, some with sprinkles, and the inevitable Chocolate Experiments in which Shyra tries to determine the optimal ratio of Chocolate to Not Chocolate in a cookie. Minor Baked Goods delivered, Shyra immediately turns her attention back to the group and putters around, looking at the others present and immediately moving towards Strawberry Princess to give her a happy wave. "Strawberry Princess! I'm glad you're having a celebration today!" She smiles warmly to her friend, and looks two the other two present, tilting her head. "Are these your friends too, Strawberry? Helloooooo!" She says, bouncing on the balls of her feet and giving them an exuberant wave as well. And then there's the other Paladins she hasn't had the chance to meet, too! They /also/ get a wave, but Shyra seems to be quickly approaching Maximum Cheer. Today is already turning out awesome!
Tina Natsumi	Approaching from somewhere is Tina, wearing something incredibly... Not loud for once! A simple orange button-up, a red vest, and blue capris just for that little bit of cold air without going all the way to shorts. Very movie postery, and she doesn't even have her usual (or any) hat on. Spotting some familiar faces already, she raises a hand in a broad wave, her face already lighting up before her voice can travel far. "Hey there! Thanks for the invite, SP! Oh. And don't worry." She pulls her phone out of one of her pants pockets, flipping it arund a few times slowly before sliding it right back in. "No stream tonight, no performances or anything. Just some time to relax. Well. Unless anyone followed me, but I'm pretty sure that's not happening." She laughs, moves over to clap a hand against Strawberry's shoulder lightly, then glances backwards just in case. Can't be too careful.
Archer EMIYA	Generally, when one is invited to a get together, it's on the person inviting to provide food. Sadly, Archer is a MAN, with a MANLY need to PROVIDE or else he's completely invalidated... It's actually really just because he wants an excuse to cook for a group, but shhhhh. He arrives with no real fanfare, dressed in jeans and a red flannel jacket and sack of vegetables and pot in hand. He silently acknowledges everyone with a smug smirk and a wave, before setting up shop near the fire. There is absolutely zero time wasted as he gets to peeling, a small knife appearing in his hand as he starts removing the skin off of potatoes, dropping the naked spuds into the metal pot with a loud thud once they're done before moving on to the next.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry instinctively covers her mouth to hide a giggle as Strange approaches- the foam finger gets her, it looks like. She's slouched forward at first, but as he settles down nearby, she reclines backwards and blows out the fire on her marshmallow. "I'm doing pretty great, Mr. Strange. Thank you. It's... it doesn't feel real, I guess. That any of this happened. Or that it's been a whole year. But we always had these 'birthdays', back when... when I was a magical girl 'for real'. So I think doing another one, it might- cement things. You know?"      The green magical boy up on the roof hesitantly waves back at Strange, in a kind of gently awestruck way, once he realizes he's being looked right at. Cover blown, alas.      Kale's aerial approach gets more of a rise out of the kid- he swooshes into the sky at a gentle, non-aggressive speed, holding his wand off to the side in a friendly gesture. He doesn't get close, but circles around the bird-man at a respectful distance like an orbiter before returning to his prior position atop the roof, evidently satisfied with whatever examination he's made of Kale's aerobatic form. (Stark's later entrance is, evidently, too high-speed to allow the same kind of scrutiny.)      Strawberry, for her part, regards Kale's offerings with a kind of shocked gratefulness, like a patient who went under an appendectomy and was told in the recovery room that the doctor also removed a malignant tumor. "Oh! I... I didn't know that they had bones in them. I guess I was lucky not to get one," she murmurs before looking back up at him with a smile. The burnt carnivore marshmallow currently on her skewer is flicked off into the dirt; she immediately sets to burning one of the vegan ones instead. "Thank you, Mr. Hearthward! I bet these'll taste great."      Arthur's spatial disorientation doesn't bother her at all- she's very used to the subjectivity of 'right-side-up'. "I've never really been camping proper," she tells him a little sheepishly as she holds the vegan marshmallow in the fire. "Thought I'd do the 'Easy Mode', right?" She is making a very deliberate attempt to speak his language there.      "It's not for a nightmare sandwich, though! Unless a s'more is a sandwich. I'm- not really clear on that. But look, I found the trick!" She pulls the marshmallow out of the fire- it's currently literally ablaze, combusting under its own power. She waits a few seconds, then blows it out with a vigorous puff. "See? It cooks itself. You just gotta time the extinguishing right."
Kale Hearthward	"Yeah, see? You don't need those," says Kale, grinning at her. "Seriously, bone powder goop - I've had to really do my research on what is and isn't okay to eat - did you know," he adds, "The average person has forty pounds of undigested red meat in their colon? That can't be healthy for you." He grabs a skewer and follows Strawberry's marshmallow-burning example, figuring that that's how it's done.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Wince yourself inside out by looking at the BURNMALLOW     Arthur makes the face that clearly, clearly indicates he's trying his hardest to, but he can't. >Arthur: Clarify the most important point     "Nah, S'MORES ain't a SANDWICH." He shakes his head, waving his hands vaguely. "They're technically part of a HELLA EXOTIC FOOD CONSTRUCT SUBTYPE. They're a LUNCHABLE." Shut the absolute fuck up. >Arthur: Suggest the alternatives     "Y'know, lotta difference between PERFORMATIVE HEAT and the REAL HEAT. Get it up on that FIRE at a LOW TEMPERATURE, motherfucker ain't gonna LOOK like it's BURNING, but it'll get NICE AND TOASTY. Easy to guess that BURNING OUT on the VISUAL END is the only time when things are COOKIN' UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES." He idly chatters. And then, through clearly no connection at all in the train of thought... "So, a whole YEAR, huh? How many of those MONSTER ASSHOLES you PULPED in a YEAR? Can get a HELL OF A LOT DONE in a STRAIGHT THREE-SIXTY-FIVE."
Doctor Strange	"Hi..." He takes a breath. "Ar-thur, Ar-cher, Kale, X, Lilian, Tina, Shyra, Tony... Tiger." The voice might be familiar to Kale. The face... probably not, unless he's seen pictures around the Astray. Arthur, however, absolutely will recognize him. This is the kind of stuff Strange wears when Arthur is invited over for Fighting Games. He doesn't seem much confused by the presence of Tiger. Suits are Tony's Thing.      "You *are* a magical girl for real. There's your wand, right over there." Strange nods towards the charging wand, hooked up to that thick cable. It's good enough for him. He then pulls the marshmallows back just as they begin to brown, then goes to get a pair of graham crackers and a few squares of unmelted chocolate. "Casual is a good look for you, Archer," he says, looking over his shoulder as the skewer in his foam finger bobs up and down. "Do marshmallow skewers count as swords? Because if Arthur says something about smores being lunchables again, you should totally... you know."
Tina Natsumi	"Never heard of a nightmare sandwich... What's in it?" Tina asks as the topic is brought up, peering over at Emiya and his work with the potatoes. "Need a hand over there?" She offers before having her attention stolen by the burning marshmallow. She actually looks surprised at when Strawberry blows it out, looking a bit skeptical yet intrigued by the whole process. "And that thing ain't dried out on the inside? Like uh. Like Kale's colon goop?" She laughs, she exagerrates a gagging noise, then grabs a pair of skewers to try the marshmallow burning trick. While she does that, though... "Okay, but then is a sub that's not cut open all the way a sandwich? How strict are we going with the structure and the ingredients here?" She asks, holding back a snicker at Arthur while getting up to bring one of the (probably) cooked marshmallows over to Emiya. "Don't hang out just cuttin' stuff up all night now. You're part of this, too, guy!"     A beat, and then she follows X's lead finally. "Oh! Yeah. Tina Natsumi. Nice meeting everyone for real real."
Tony Stark	Tony has to be a hero, here. Tony, an Avenger, must right the world. So Jarvis loudly starts in on 'Well, Actually, I believe any sandwich is more of a contextual--' while Tony moves to Tina just to 'achachacha'. "Ix-nay on the olon-cay, champ. People are eating."
X	X nods his head in greeting to Strange, standing off to the side, head angled upwards to look at basically everyone here except for Tina. It was funny, how even after his frame had been made taller, he still stood a good head and shoulders shorter than most people here. It was just in his cards, he supposed. "A sandwich by definition is comprised of two pieces of bread and some form of filling. A graham cracker is, rather than a bread, a cracker. A s'mores can't be a sandwich, from that perspective ... but, I hear its really delicious."
Strawberry Princess	Once the other hand-forcing is over and Strawberry's found a decent place to deposit the superior Boneless Marshmallows, she pops up to her feet and foists a handshake on X anyway. "Hey! I'm really glad you could make it, Mr. X." His awkward discomfort hits her a moment later, though she doesn't quite successfully place its origin: "Have you never been camping before? Director Velt's an expert about it! But we're not doing the hard stuff tonight anyway, so don't worry."      Either out of deep gratitude or a terrible, terrible sweet tooth- probably the latter- she immediately snags and cracks open one of those Genuine Sucrose soda-pops, orange-flavor, and starts sipping from it. The flavor must mix horribly with the marshmallows, but she seems perfectly happy with the combo.      Tony's arrival sets off several automated defense systems that have to be manually disabled, as his suit can likely tell from the wide variety of high-intensity radio beams being pointed at his pod in flight. But ultimately nothing comes of it; the mild faux pas of "attempting to splash a guest with SAMs" is averted.      Strawberry passes her marshmallow-skewer to her offhand again to shake with Tony- and the empty suit. "Hi, Mr. Stark! Hi, Mr. Jarvis! It's- I don't think I've met one of you, but it's still great to have both. I guess you're, uh, together?" The way she makes eye contact with the suit very clearly implies she thinks Jarvis is a real, embodied person. She hands both of them a Very Burned Marshmallow with a heartbreakingly earnest generosity. You're not just gonna not eat it, are you?      Somehow, by the time Shyra putters her way around to the fireside log where Strawberry has re-seated herself, Strawbs already has at least two of those cookies crammed into her mouth- her sweet tooth drives her to phantom thievery that'd put Robin to shame. "Mmmph! Mmph, mm-hmm. Mmm-" After a second, she gives up on trying to communicate via closed-mouth hums and finally chews and swallows the cookies. "Oh- yeah, sorta! That's Spearmint Page, and that's Director Velt." The boy in green waves down to her with a little more confidence than earlier; the labcoated woman briefly turns her head before going back to fishing.      Being mid-marshmallow once again, Strawberry doesn't rise for Tina- that might spoil her delicate flambe!- but offers a hand and a sunny smile to her nonetheless. "I'm glad! I know that's- kind of your thing. The streaming. But this is supposed to be... relaxing, right? And I get- sort of tense, I guess, with that many people watching. Or listening." Tina was absolutely tailed part of the way- but by friendly Reignition Project security spooks, not by rabid superfans. In several ways, that's at least somewhat more comforting.
Lilian Rook	Lilian Rook has been at the stage where she sort of regrets encouraging someone she considers a friend (or at least as close as it gets) to 'make a day out of it' on principle, because 'now she has to go, because she promised, and there are lots of other things she could be doing, and it'll be fine but *really* isn't this so wasteful? But she suggested it, so she can't not show any faith in it.' and that entire mental routine, for most of the day leading up to the outing.     Arriving at the mountain only to see that they haven't afforded Strawberry Princess a luxurious getaway far from civilization, but just up the slope of their own base, has her starting to stew in a certain kind of vicarious take-offense she hadn't felt, nor cared to name, since hearing that the poor woman worked at a gas station after saving the world. Lilian has spent a significant amount of the way up putting together exactly the piece of her mind she intends to give whoever she finds.     When Lilian actually gets there, and sees Strawberry wearing something approximate to real clothes, sitting by a fire roasting marshmallows, jumping up to wave happily at arrivals, all of those previous things tip over like a limp chain of dominoes, and the sails of general aggrievement fall flat. Despite a solid effort at trying to get mad again, Lilian comes away a few seconds later with a half-assed thought about writing it down and coming back to it later.     Lilian herself *pretends* to arrive via normal means, because coming up the trail, at least for the last stretch, is something she considers both polite arrival and generally just sensitive to the context of the occasion. She's dressed herself 'warmly enough', with a light charcoal patterned jacket and boots selectively accented with bright green and lined with white fur, both looking like something out of a concept artist's 'future winter catalogue' portfolio and something that might slightly upset PETA. She has something approximating a backpack with her too, but she carries it by the top strap in her hand, rather than actually wear it. The only thing she hasn't fully deprived herself of is that orichalcum lily hairpin, despite settling for a '''lazier''' semi-casual up-do.     "Now now, what have I told you about choice of words? Don't go and use things like 'for real'." she says to Strawberry after initial greetings are exchanged. "Unless you're saying that you've gotten so good at it that the yearly benchmarks don't seem as significant any more. In which case I might permit it." She looks around more for the show of it than anything else. "And I'd assume you now have more friends than ever before. Isn't that right?" Only when she gets closer to Strawberry does she use an inside voice to ask "So? How about him?" She uses her eyes only to gesticulate at Spearmint Page. "Work friend? Or . . . ?" Not even Strawberry can be too dense to understand the tone Lilian is using.
Strawberry Princess	Archer tries to avoid drawing attention to himself, but is victimized by it anyway. The boy in green hesitantly descends from the rooftop, watching the potato-paring with the rapt attention afforded something familiar yet just exotic enough. He floats closer and closer over time, like a panther stalking up on... what do panthers stalk, exactly? Antelope? Capybaras?      Finally, when he's close enough to be heard without raising his voice, Spearmint Page attempts to bond with the Multiversal stranger over one of the acknowledged Universal Boy Things. "Your knife is cool," he says politely.
Kale Hearthward	Kale's attention is immediately drawn by the mention of COOL KNIVES. "Oh hey - you're the one that buzzed me on the way in, right?" he asks Spearmint Page. "You like flying?"
X	X looks away, briefly; a very human nervous tic, before he turns his green eyes back to her. "I haven't, no. I've never really done anything like this before, the closest I can think of in recent memory were the gatherings I attended for the World Government, though those were largely of a political affair." That it meant all this socializing without any kind of ulterior motives in play put him out of his element went unsaid, his uneasy look replaced by a gentle smile as she kicked back with one of the refreshments he'd brought. He'd been momentarily worried that he may have err'ed with all the chocolatey sweet treats coming around, but if she enjoyed it then he was more than satisfied with that. Spearmint Page and Velt. Marking those two down in his head, he gives the greenish boy a small nod as he closed in on Archer to get a better look at his knife -- an understandable sentiment, though it wasn't one he felt he could really relate to. And then there was that woman, the Director of the magical girl program, he inferred. She apparently liked to fish? Or, maybe she was just trying it for the first time. She seemed like something of a loner, at least to X. While Strawberry's attention was captured by Lilian, X decided to use the opportunity to slip off towards the water, lowering his voice so as to not scare away any fish that might be about. Looking down at his hand and recalling the vigorous shake that was sent his away, he considers it briefly before lowering it back to his side. "It's good to meet you, Director. Do you fish often?" Looking at her attire, he felt like he could relate to her on some level. She probably didn't have anything besides 'work wear', either, and that made him feel a little less oblivious.
Tina Natsumi	"Hey, hey, blame Kale over there! I... Why did that come up again?" Tina looks from Tony to Kale as she tries to remember the reason, laughing again after a few moments and nodding once at the currently-not-Iron Man. She got the hidden signal easily enough. Instead, she turns her attention over to the green boy. Raising an eyebrow, she chuckles lightly and gives Emiya a brief nudge with her elbow before gesturing towards Spearmint with her head. "There ya go. Looks like you got a fan already." She finishes her own skewer and taps her fingers to her head in a casual salute to the boy, only then realizing that she just got marshmallow gunk in her hair. This is her life now. Velt also gets a salute that's followed by a not-so-subtle attempt to remove the gunk, and then Tina turns her attention to Lilian when she arrives. "Yo! The marshmallow thing works!" She calls out as though that's self-explanatory, already eyeing the campfire in contemplation. On one hand, more sugar. On the other hand, not filling up on too much sugar. She'll pace herself for now. Tina approaches Strawberry again, nodding again while cleaning off her skewer so as to not waste what's left on it. "Yeah, I get the feeling. It's nice to just be able to turn off sometimes. Not worry about the... Y'know. Performances and stuff."
Doctor Strange	>I guess you're, uh together?      Strange turns with his completed smore to give Tony a very slight, but smug smile. Munch. He's honestly not sure what's going to happen there.      *Now* Lilian is here. Time. What a funny thing. "Hi, Lilian," repeats the Sorcerer Supreme, between crunchy, chewy bites. The foam finger skewer is set down on the table with the smore supplies. This is done so that a soda with real sugar can just happen to appear in his now-free hand. He doesn't start on it until the smore is finished.      That happens about the time that he decides to head over to Tony and Tina, getting closer to the fire. The can is cracked open. "Props for sticking to the Tiger bit."
Strawberry Princess	Arthur clarifies his thoughts on s'mores, lunchables, and the burning of food. "What's a Lunchable?" she says, with the total nonchalant innocence of someone unaware they're unsealing an extradimensional evil. This is a virgin timeline, as yet unstained by hammy cheese crackers, and if Arthur invites that demon to trespass this ground it will be on his own head. "And anyway," she continues with a wry little smile, "maybe I identify with the crispy marshmallow. Right? It's burning bright for a little while, and then it goes out, all burnt up. But it's only the outside that's ugly. The inside's still fine."      There's a pause of a few seconds, and then she throws back her head and laughs. "No, no! I just like the way it tastes- the crunch. I'm sorry."      Tina will discover that marshmallows done Strawberry's way are, indeed, deliciously gooey on the inside- though the external carbonization gives them a paper-thin, bitter-crunchy outer layer that could be generously called an 'Acquired Taste'. "Of course a sub's not a sandwich," she says defensively, in between munching on a scorchmallow. "It's a sub. It's not... if it's not two distinct pieces of bread, then it's not a sandwich. Otherwise a gyro is a sandwich, right?"      Strange gently scolds her, and she starts to mount a defense, but it falls apart after a moment of reflection. "You're right, Dr. Strange. It's... it's easy to think of myself as less 'real'. Because it's- artificial, what I do now. But that's not really right, is it? I wouldn't call Mr. X or I4 'not a real person' because they're artificial, so..." She gives a chagrined grimace-smile. "It's not fair to do something like that to myself."      Lilian's arrival is greeted with maybe the most enthusiastic wave of all- it nearly extinguishes the (fifth? sixth?) marshmallow that's auto-combusting at the end of her skewer. She's clearly somewhat awestruck at the fashion on display, only to be jarred out of it by the rapid followup to Strange's scolding. She brushes her hair behind one ear as a kind of fidgeting before replying. "No, it's... the yearly benchmarks, they're more important than ever. They used to be counting down, you know? Happy you'd made it that far, but... sad you only had a few years left. But now they're counting up. It's however long I can do it for. And I'm gonna do it for a long, long time," she says, re-establishing eye contact with Lilian to drive in the weight of the conviction.      The word 'friends' sends a near-invisible grimace shooting across her face, but her smile holds nonetheless. "How about him...?" Lilian's meaning is excruciatingly plain, but it's so out-there that it still takes a few seconds to rattle around in Strawberry's head and connect with a brain cell. "Spearmint's real good. He makes- crystals, that can help people. Helps a lot when I get sunburned. It's-" Finally the meaning slots in, like a bouncing DVD screensaver hitting the precise corner of the screen, and she erupts in nervous laughter. "Oh, my god! You- oh, god, no. No, it's not... never. Why would you say that?"
Archer EMIYA	Having finished with the peeling, Archer's now reaching back into the pot to dice them to pieces. Vegetable prep work is very slow and tedious. "Thanks. It isn't mine." There's a joking tone in Archer's voice, even though it's basically the truth (depending on your stance on intellectual property and knock offs). His gaze however, still remains concentrated on his work. "So are you really just here to praise me for my choice of kitchenware? Or did you have something else you wanted to say? Either or, I'm all ears." With the potatoes thoroughly finished, Archer begins rummaging through the bag he brought to procure the next set of vegetables. What he pulls out, however, is something weird. A long white tube. Kale, as the resident vegan of the group, probably recognizes it as a lotus root. Pre-peeled and ready to be sliced into...slices. Which he does. Cooking.
Kale Hearthward	Kale nods along as he watches Cooking happen. "Actual food," he says. "All of the processed stuff out in the multiverse has a certain appeal, but actual ingredients I can recognize is a lungful of fresh air." "What are you making, by the by?"
Shyra	OOH! A real cook is around! The arrival of Archer EMIYA gets Shyra's attention as well, and she watches him get to work on the veggies, her eyes bright as she seems to watch the way he's carving off the skin and working his way through the spuds. "Ooooooh." She breathes. Clearly, she hasn't had a chance to hover around someone doing real cooking in some time. Or maybe ever. Expect her to keep checking up on Archer's progress. Still, the sight of Strawberry immediately devouring her baked goods brings a happy smile to Shyra's face. She likes being helpful! She claps as she sees the way Strawberry devours, and giggles. "I'm glad you like them!" She says, helpfully producing a cup of milk out of her inventory to help Strawberry wash it down. She might not quite up to speed on Strawberry's dietary preferences. That said, there's the matter of the other two. Shyra waves again to Spearmint Page and the Director, but doesn't immediately pester them, she's already practically trying to go in multiple directions as it is with everyone here. Arthur, of course, gets an exuberant greeting now that he's given his attempt to disarm the imminent Sandwich Heresy. "Hi, Arthur!" She says, giving an attempt to provide the customary Cool Kid greeting. She manages about about 2 more hits in on the greeting combo than prior average. Progress? "I've been hearing you do a lot of things! I hope everything is going great!" Of course it's going great, why would Arthur ever admit otherwise? Right? RIGHT? Lilian, of course, immediately gets attention, the healer immediately hovering around the powerful personality like a planetoid being caught in a star's gravitational field. "You look /beautiful/, Miss Rook!" She says. At least she's being genuine about it even if it's certainly something Lilian gets regularly.
Tony Stark	IN THE PAST, A HALCYON BEFORE: Tony Stark shakes Strawberry Princess' hand after the entire anti-air apparatus of the island played gay missile chicken with the Iron Man Model Prime. Thankfully, nobody kissed a high explosive warhead on the lips. Jarvis, who is an AI in a mechanized heroing suit, somehow manages to stand up just a bit straighter and give the lanky magical girl a firm hand-pump. "Miss Princess - It's a pleasure. I'm JARVIS. Mister Stark has a... way with acronyms most people consider avant-garde." Tony, Vegan S'more in hand, gives a tired low-power smirk to Stephen Strange before explaining: "It stands for 'Just A Rather Very Intelligent System'. I had to twist a few words around. I had the voice sound in my head before the rest of it. If you're wondering who your future evil thermostat overlord is: You're shaking hands with him." The right optic-hole of the tigerstripe Model Prime flicker in an approximation of a wink. "Quite the opposite. I fully intend to only be a kind and caring thermostat overlord. Just a bit above comfortable, because I know the instruments trend low in reporting." Tony, more privately to Strange, gestures with his dripping vulcanized vegan sugar-puff and legally distinct brown grahm cracker that probably definitely isn't owned by the Kellog's company here. "Is this going to be us every time, Stephen? Grumbling and butting elbows? Come on." He pops the s'more into his mouth and chews thoughtfully. Thoughtfully, you see, is what a Carnivore American's default speed is while putting things labelled 'vegan' into their mouth.
Doctor Strange	"I'm not grumbling," Strange replies with dry mock-defensiveness. "Who's grumbling?" Sip. "I'm just here to have a good time with my friends." He extends an empty hand to Tony, into which there pops a quantum drink. Rapidly cycling between a sugary soda, a bottled water, and some sort of blended fruit health drink.      "Grab it at the right time and you might get the one you want."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Reply to DOCTOR STRANGE, greet the guy!     "Yo, what up, DEE-ESS? You been good since the, what was the LAST TIME? That PARTY over in PRINCESS HAUGHTY'S world?" He loses track of which adventures they go on, when they don't have anything to do with trying to beat the shit out of him in BURNRED: CONJECTURE DECODE: EXTENDED: SPECIAL EDITION. He turns and Lilian's right fucking there, too. What the fuck! He emits a kind of "pfffffffft" noise. "I mean, girl had plenty of the OLD WORK FRIENDS, right? Even if they DON'T CHAT TOGETHER anymore, still COMRADES and shit." He grins and turns over a few times. "But sure as hell way MORE FRIENDS NOW, I guess. I gotta count for at least FIVE."     He then asides to Strawberry, "Well, y'ain't LESS REAL NOW for a whole lot of REASONS, yo. Ain't even the ARTIFICIALITY. I mean, your whole... POWER FLOW THING, that was all EXTERNAL to begin with, y'know? You just ain't got IDEAS on what UNNATURAL SOURCE is givin' it. Whatever it is probably knows a better POWER SOURCE than a NUCLEAR REACTOR, I guess, but shit, that's still ARTIFICIAL. It's just HOMEGROWN ARTIFICIAL now." >Arthur: Challenge SHYRA'S growth!     Arthur, drifting, weightless, upside-down, starts spinning as he delivers the customary handshake, with all its fives, grips, grabs, bumps, pounds, daps, slides, arm-maneuvers, and finger-wiggles, adding an element of additional challenge to the rhythmic combo minigame. "What up, SHY'! Stuff's RAD, you ought'a see all the COOL SHIT hittin' BEHIND THE SCENES for real. Mostly THESE DAYS I'm fuckin' around with LILIAN'S work, gonna have MORE BUSINESS needin' doin' SOON."
Tina Natsumi	"Heh. No problem, doc." Tina gives Strange an affirming nod while giving in to the sugary goodness and going for another skewer with three more marshmallows. It's a risk she's willing to take, apparently! "That kinda reminds me, though... Uh. You prefer if we call you Doc or Strange or something else? On the job or here, even, in case you have a preference. Good timing, too, as Strawberry goes into the structure of a sandwich and raises the cursed subject from the dead. She furrows her brow, wincing a bit when she sticks a too hot marshmallow in her mouth and withdraws it quickly, then marvels at the goop before finally... ... Dodging that topic again! Instead, she fixates on the benchmark topic instead. "That's good, then. Counting anything down's kinda... Yeah, it sounds rough. Going up means it's more like age: Gets better with wine! OR... Wait." She taps on her forehead lightly. "Think I mixed something up there... Ah, whatever." Laughing again, Tina too takes a moment to understand what Lilian's hinting at before snickering and munching on one marshmallow. "You never know. I mean... Technically speaking, aren't most of us old enough for kids already?" She doesn't look up from her marshmallow skewer, though, as she starts meticulously splitting one into three chunks. Once it's split apart, she shoves that sucker right back into the fire. Even more cronch.
Lilian Rook	"Doctor." Lilian replies to Strange, in that way that would be using his last name if it didn't sound like a comment rather than a verbal nod of the head. She takes a second of real time to search index what the hell Tony and tigers have to do with each other, makes a faintly vexed frown, rolls her eyes and wordlessly dismisses the window. "You know, if you weren't regularly saving the world with those." she says to Tony, not bothering to finish.     When her meaning finally penetrates Strawberry's skull, dense as the core of her wand, however, Lilian finally bursts into open laughter, briefly pulling back the curtain on several consecutive seconds of genuine, harmless good-humour. It's almost surreal in how pleasant it sounds without any kind of 'wittily barbed' edge to it. Just laughing because it was funny. She clears her throat to stop it. "Why wouldn't I? In amongst all these people you like a great deal and are close to, a boy I've never seen before or heard of, whom for all I know you may have been seeing for quite a while." She does pause to consider something for a moment. "Albeit, he'd have to be very much pushing the border of he right age, wouldn't he? Never mind. I'm just surprised that you've never mentioned him, if you like him enough to bring him along. Or is 'page' more literal? Aspiring to the position of your personal squire, your esteemed ladyship." Lilian performs hand gesticulations indicating that she would be doing a parody bow if she was the kind of person who would bow even for a joke.     "Oh well. That's fine." she finally relents, backing off enough to reach out and pat Shyra on the head in a way that would be phenomenally easy to make look patronizing and yet somehow comes across with a 'the one cool babysitter' vibe. "Glad to see you out and about again, Shyra~" she says, smiling sideways at Strawberry in an 'I'll be back' sort of way. She needs the time to turn to Tina, look her dead in the eye, snap her fingers a couple of times in a visible effort to jog her memory on the correct verbiage she'd researched for dealing with this type of person, and finally raising a finger in recognition, pronounces: "Cringe."     She then moves on to the fire. Seating herself by it, she withdraws a messenger bag within one section of the larger pack, and a smaller, leather satchel from within that, finding a flat, ash-coloured stone from within, that she's already engraved with certain runes on both sides. Flinging it into the fire pit, between logs, like a well-rehearsed card trick, there's a fierce sizzle-pop and a bright orange glow from the coals, and a strong, regular heat blooms from the pit, largely overriding and controlling the irregular waft and swerving of the wood flames' convection currents. It is, unfortunately, more or less impossible to set food on fire by putting it in the flames, however plausible it may still be to char it if one tries really hard. It is coincidentally ideal for Archer though.     "Oh, outside of a present for Strawberry, I brought something for the director too, if she cares to come retrieve it." Lilian says, loudly enough to be heard, still futzing about with a large number of things packed into each segment of the bag with such efficiency that one might think her a habitual globetrotter.
Tony Stark	Tony has an absolutely bulletproof defense for Lilian, as he slides on a pair of large-framed '''plastic''' smartglasses and taps the side, watching the Drink Lootbox flicker between the Ultra-SSR Limit Sparking Full Calorie Ice Cold Coke and the Grey-Quality Opened Can Of Minute Maid Lemonade At Room Temperature. "I got asked by a Princess-" The only princess here, really. "-to make a tiger pattern. I am a gift to--" His hand snakes out, with the flicker of Delicious Cold Phosphoric Acid And Sugar Bath For His Bezos Teeth promised in his eyes. Tony smirks. His hand comes away with the Kinda-Cold Blue Machine, which he shrugs and uncaps, chugging the health drink easily. "Meant to grab that." He asides, to nobody that believes him.
Strawberry Princess	A MINUTE EARLIER: Strawberry was still chatting up Tony and Jarvis, making vaguely untoward assumptions about their relationship. When it was clarified, she perked up, slightly embarrassed: "Oh! Okay. So you're like Mr. X or I4 then, right? I'm glad you could make it, Jarvis." Still not fully getting through, but closer! The talk of 'thermostat overlords' made her vaguely uneasy, but she tried to reciprocate the wink anyway. Emphasis on tried, because it turns out Strawberry Princess doesn't quite know how to wink.      BACK IN THE PRESENT: "I know I'll make myself a hypocrite," Strawberry says to X with a gentle grimace-smile, "but it's important to make time for yourself. Even if your work's important, too... that just means, I think, that taking care of yourself is even more so. Doesn't it?" However awkward he may be, she's clearly still happy just to have him around.      Director Velt, X discovers, is a funny figure- her gangly limbs say she must have once been nearly as tall as Strawberry, but she's crunched down several inches by late middle age and the poor posture of a paper-pusher. Her brown skin, long dark hair, and sharp green eyes (nearly as vibrant as his) make the white labcoat a natural fit- most likely it's a PR thing that became genuine habit. "Ah, you must be one of the Paladins," she says, her speech briefly somewhat stilted before she seems to recall the 'translation effect' and lapse into something more natural and vaguely Slavic-sounding. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage. Your name is...?"      She hasn't looked up at him yet, her eyes still trained on the bobber out in the stream; perhaps hasn't even realized he's not human. "I used to fish often, as a child. Pike, perch, once even mladica- with my father's help. Here, only carp. But it seems one never forgets." A short pause, then: "I wouldn't have come, but Strawberry insisted. So I'm keeping a bit out of her way. You understand."
Strawberry Princess	Spearmint is only too happy to show off his skills- he hooks both legs around his wand and then hangs from it upside-down in the air, the crown somehow staying on his head despite his dark hair falling down around it. "Flying's the best thing ever," he says with a cheeky upside-down grin. "I've never seen a real bird-guy before, though. Is it true you've got hollow bones? You ever broke one? I haven't."      "Knives aren't kitchenware," he goes on to insist, his attention seamlessly turning to Archer despite his continued inverted posture. "They're knives. They're good for all sorts of things, right?" There's a slight tinge of indignation to his tone, like he can't believe Archer would besmirch the name of cool sharp things like that. "I guess I just wanted to see what you're up to. Why are you cooking potatoes? There's hot dogs. Lucije's gonna do fish."      Strawberry very gratefully downs Shyra's glass of milk to chase the cookies, hands her back the empty glass with a bit of uncertainty, and then immediately follows it up with a swig of fizzy orange soda. Holy shit, her taste buds must be ironclad. "They're fantastic, Shyra! I know- a while back, you were having trouble with anything but cake, right? But I love the ones with jam in the middle. You're doing amazing now."      Arthur's aside provokes a kind of thoughtful unease with her, as she's taken the edge off of her immediate hunger enough to start assembling s'mores instead of eating her crunchmallows right off the stick. Unfortunately, Kale's Extremely Dark Chocolate doesn't quite work for s'mores; who knew it had a higher melting point? "That's the... tentative hypothesis, yeah. I don't like it, though. It doesn't- sit right. I know it's probably true- that the thing we're tapping into is bigger than ourselves- but that's not how it feels. It feels... personal. An extension of 'you'. You know?" Any further philosophizing is cut short when she stuffs an entire Anakin S'more into her mouth.      "Aren't most of us old enough for kids?" Tina asks. Strawberry finishes chewing her s'more before answering that. Then, in perfect simultaneity with Lilian's "cringe," she firmly says "No." More elaboration doesn't need to be given.
Tina Natsumi	That laughter scares her. Tina's never heard it before, and her mind is not prepared for it when it happens, but there it is. All that she can do is try to process what it is she's just heard, then go for some light-hearted teasing. "Damn, maybe I should've been recording tonight. Would've made for some good nightmare fuel." She laughs, but Lilian ends up getting right back at her with that single word. Strawberry's simultaneous response has her considering her options carefully, though, and when she finally speaks up, it's with a very obvious intent to shift attention elsewhere. "Wh... Where'd you learn that kinda language, young lady? I never taught you anything like that!" She feigns getting stabbed in the heart complete with clutching her chest, then winces upon actually stabbing herself (lightly) with the marshmallow skewer. The pain doesn't last long, though, once she remembers that she just made a TRIPLE CRUNCH MALLOW. Monch monch. Her curiosity gets the better of her sooner rather than later, of course, and she heads over to that table with Shyra's cookie pile to snag a butter cookie and a few Chocolate Experiments for herself, too. At one point, she event tries the Triple Crunch with a Chocolate Experiment. Judging from the look on Tina's face afterwards, her blood sugar is in danger.
X	'Ah' he realizes, with a slow blink. The vague sense of familiarity now that he got a better look at her was quite obvious. Give her another ten or twenty years and she'd most likely be hunching over as badly as Doctor Light had been, the few memories X had of the man. But, there was a sharp difference he noted, amusement ebbing away with a mild grimness. His 'father's ailing health hadn't entirely been on old age. Unlike him, this woman seemed to carry her misfortunes well enough that it didn't flatten her like a pancake. Even the very first instance of memory he had, as fresh and un-matured as his mind had been, it had been clear that Thomas Light was being eaten up inside and out by something. Some kind of deep and soul-rotting sadness. Realizing that he'd been quiet a moment too long, X's eyes re-focus on her, on the here and now. "My name is X. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner." "I've never fished before," he admits. "But I can relate ... it brings you back to a point in your life where things were different. Even if only for a little while. There's nothing wrong with cherishing those memories." "If it's that unforgettable, it has to be very special to you." he surmises. His reflection stares back at him from the water. It warbles with a ripple from under the stillness. "It's also not bad to make new memories. ... I have a lot of trouble with things like this, too." he says, reassuringly.     "It was nice meeting you, Director. I'll get out of your hair."
Doctor Strange	What *do* you call Doctor Strange? "Anything's fine. 'Mr.' Strange makes me sound like someone's next door neighbor, though, so... preferably not that. If you get in on the ground floor of 'Stephen,' it'd just be you, the Ancient One, Baron Mordo, Yuuki Kuran, and, apparently, Tony." He inclines his head towards her with an arch frown. "So that's an option, too."      The comment about kids he lets pass silently; so too the 'I meant to do that.' There is a small sip from his grape soda.      "Y'know, it's been a while since we just... hung out. I think the last time was... that time I broke into your office, actually." He nods nonchalantly at Tony. "It's good that you could make it here. I like Tony-the-guy better than Tony-the-brand."
Kale Hearthward	Kale looks at Spearmint. "Yeah - hollow bones, actually, and I haven't broken any in a few years." Feeling a need to one up this strange, sassy child, he takes off a bit and spins forward in the air - also hanging upside down in-place now, dangling from his jet boots. "And he's cooking vegetables because not everyone eats meat," he says, and starts 'walking' in the air - moving forward step by step, upside down on an invisible 'ceiling' of air. It's akin to moonwalking - he's actually propelling himself forward steadily with the jetboots, but the movements do make it look like he's airwalking upside-down. And then, abruptly, he 'trips' and falls forward/upward - only to continue 'falling' up through his pantomimed ceiling and land on his feet, right-side-up, on another pantomimed ceiling. "Careful, I think there's a pothole there," he jokes.
Shyra	Arthur suddenly KICKING IT UP A NOTCH causes Shyra to panic, the healer almost flailing as she tries to keep up. It's a valiant effort, but she will need more practice. Clearly, she needs to gain more COOL KID EXPERIENCE by doing more COOL things. It'll come in time. But after she finally is left gasping for breath in the face of COOL KID SHAKE TURBO, she gives Arthur a little smile and giggles for a moment. "You're amazing! I'm glad you're doing so well! I'm trying to help as much as I can. Everything has been really complicated, but I'll keep trying my best!" She says, an endless well of enthusiasm and positivity as always, it seems. "There always seems to be more business!" She says, nodding. "We'll get to it and get it done!" The headpat from Lilian gets a big smile from Lilian, the enthusiastic healer not seeming insulted at all by Lilian's gesture. "Thank you, Miss Rook! I hope to continue helping soon!" She'll get to it, but you know how healers are sometimes. The empty cup of milk promptly ends up back in Shyra's inventory and she beams at the compliments from Strawberry. "You like them that much? Great! I'll make more of them for you later!" This is going to be a special kind of hell for Strawberry's caloric intake. Good thing she gets a lot of exercise. "I was doing some experiments and trying some new things when I saw some of the things other people were making. I wonder why I didn't think about trying it before?" She ponders, tilting her head as she thinks for a moment... But then she just smiles again. "Well, it's no problem! We'll make you lots of tasty things!" Some of it might even be healthy! To the side, Shyra peers at Tina, her hand reflexively straying towards her staff as she begins to wonder if Tina might need some kind of help for that sugar rush.
Tony Stark	SIDE JARVIS The suited AI cannot smile, as the only way of emoting he has is modulating running lights. The subtle-yet-meaningful suite of pings and sounds and 'vocalizations' the suit can make that convey quite a bit of meaning to their creator... Really doesn't have a way to ingratiate itself to anybody else. So, instead, Jarvis just nods (it seems exaggerated, in the moment, but subtle physical expressions tend to fall flat when you are contoured plates of armor projected by hexagonally-situated micromachines interlocked and connected to multiple hypertech reactors. Or a suit actor! With an apologetic shuffle, Jarvis tries to find a good place to idle the Model Prime he's inhabiting. He isn't really a party person when in a novelty-painted heroism platform. That is, unironically, the operator slash father of the armor and AI himself. SIDE TONY But he's not really partying. Tina's CRINGE comment goes unnoticed, with Strange bothering him more further and being half of the New York Comedy Stand Up Routinegers. "Yeah, when you broke into the second most secure building on the planet for giggles and a social call. I had to build a whole strategic AI just to deflect wizards after that, and then when the next wizard showed up none of it worked. So, yes." "Stephen." "Because I don't call Captain America 'Mister Rogers' and if I wanted to call you Doctor I'd make it a point to start cashing in all those offers for body-of-work review by all the colleges who want to bag a Stark as an alum."
Tina Natsumi	"I'll go with Doc for now, then. I'll save Stephen for when I actually earn it like everyone else." Tina replies, chuckling lightly at Tony mentioning that incident with the second Strange, then raising an eyebrow at the incredibly short list of names given that permission. "'Ancient One' like a... One of those unspeakable sorts, or one of those extremely old and tired types?" To be fair, she's never heard of someone actually called that. Luckily for Shyra and everyone sitting near Tina, she will survive! For now. Thankfully, she's moved on from eating marshmallows through sheer willpower to finally grilling up a hot dog and staring at the bun she's going be putting it in soon. The temptation to speak of it is strong. Not yet, though, since she's still trying to process everything that's being brought up surrounding the project. "Just be careful, alright, Strawbs? You, too, Spears. Nothing wrong with getting help from other people, especially if you're looking to do this kinda thing long term."
Archer EMIYA	Archer chuckles. He drops the knife he's holding to the ground, the tool dissipating in a cloud of green particles before it ever has a chance to reach the ground. "Settle down, no need to be offended on the knife's behalf. They are pretty useful though, I'll give you that." He replaces the lost knife with a new one via magical bullshit, this one shorter and thinner, as he reaches back into his bag and begins working on carrots. "As for why I'm doing this... I suppose the funny answer would be to say the current offerings offend my palate. Truthfully, it's because I felt like a potluck dish would suit the occasion, even if providing everything myself kind of defeats the point of a potluck."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: What can you do with the personalization of power?     "You ever thought about makin' it an extension of you? The reactor, I mean." Arthur says, tilting one head in a totally arbitrary direction because of his altered orientations. "I could help ya out with it. I know my nuke-shit, and I got good crafting stuff. I could help you do customizations, y'know? Hot-rod your shit, tune it to fit your maneuvers, that kinda stuff. Make it something more *Strawberry Princess*, less *Reignition Project*, yeah?" >Arthur: Offer PUNCHCARD ALCHEMY     "Hell, I could do it HERE and NOW if you're wantin'." He snaps a finger and several miniature gates twirl in the air around it like he'd blown bubbles.
Doctor Strange	Hmm. It was pretty much for giggles, wasn't it. "Yeah," says Strange, to Tony, his face a neutral mask. "It was pretty epic." Sip. If Lilian can say cringe, he can make people actually cringe.      "She's dead, now," says Strange in response to Tina. "But she still talks to me sometimes from one very specific mirror. Well... *using* one specific mirror." He gives her a scarred hand-wobble. "Anyway, we call her that because she's old, and no one knows what her actual name is, and she never bothered coming up with anything else for us to call her. ...she always seemed to be energetic enough, though." He shrugs.      A cutting board topped with cut carrots and a substantially sized bowl of rice appear near where Archer's working.
Tina Natsumi	First, it was the kids thing. Now, it's a dead person. Tina's expression takes on the distinctly stiff expression of someone quickly realizing they should probably stop talking for a while. Luckily, her hot dog's finished! That gives her the opportunity she desperately needs to just hide her face for the next day or three. Clearly.
Strawberry Princess	Lilian's earnest, good-natured laughter affects Strawberry on a visceral level- she can't help laughing along with it almost as hard as Rook does. When they both taper off into silence, her face is bearing an earnest, sunny smile (along with slightly laughter-moistened eyes) unlike any she's worn in memory. "Gosh, no. I was... I guess I was sort of keeping him secret. But it's not like that. He's... because of what he can do, the healing, he's worked really hard- like I was. Everybody needs him."      "So what he needs is privacy. And, sometimes, a break. To eat a hot dog and some s'mores. You know?" She looks at Lilian with a kind of wavering uncertainty, dimly anticipating that her friend might disapprove of the sentiment. "I wouldn't say we're close- haven't had the time to be. But we're alike. Or, we were- I was. You know."      When Lilian magically alters the fire and Strawberry discovers that it's impossible to set her marshmallows ablaze now, she briefly grumps and then improvises a solution: instead of using the fire for its God-intended purpose, she rummages around in her pockets, pulls out a Zippo lighter, and commits further brazen blasphemy by just setting her marshmallows directly on fire with that.      "An extension of me," she repeats after Arthur, genuinely pondering his suggestion while casually committing Food Sins that could damn her directly to Flavor Hell. "Like, putting stickers on it? I'm pretty sure they'd burn off, but-" Then he clarifies further. "Oh! Using magic to change it. I mean- if you're sure it's safe. And Director Velt gives the okay. But gosh, I can't even imagine what I'd do to change it- I never thought about that. What kinds of things did you have in mind?"      Shyra's comments distract her from that for a moment: "I'd absolutely love that," she replies with a gushing smile, her face still residually lit up from Lilian's laughter earlier. "They keep telling me I don't eat enough, so you're a big help. And- I think it's because you're growing as a person. Creativity doesn't create from nothing, you know? As you get more experiences, you get more creative, too. I know I used to be... narrow. And now I have lots of new ideas. So I'm proud of you."
Strawberry Princess	Director Velt lets out a one-syllable laugh- hah- at the robot's introduction. "'X'. How droll. It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure." Something nibbles at the bobber; she yanks the fishing rod to try and set the line, but it doesn't snag anything. Reeling it back in to make sure the bait's still there, she casts out again before speaking. "Those memories... when I first learned to fish, there was no such thing as magical girls. Can you believe that? I suppose it is special."      "But worry not, 'X'. You've not been a bother at all." Her eyes finally settle on X's reflection in the water, offering her the first glimpse of him. She stares, he can tell, for several seconds; her posture ever-so-slightly stiffens. In the distance, Lilian calls out to her. Director Velt reels in her line and starts to pack it away. "I suppose I've been found out," she says under her breath. "Let's head back together, why don't we?"
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry perks up once again at the mention of a 'gift', responding with the expected awestruck anticipatory gratitude, plus a splash of the entrapped embarrassment someone shows when the restaurant wait staff swarms to their table to sing Happy Birthday. Her eyes get real big and practically sparkle for a fraction of a second, then she buries her face in her hands for several more. "Oh noooooo," she groans softly, with an undercurrent of Christmas morning thrill. "Liliannn. I can't believe you."      Once she's adequately grappled with her mortification, though, she pushes herself up and lopes over, hands fidgeting in her pockets. "God, but what *is* it? You can't just say that and not tell me what it is! Is it a hair-pin?" Embarrassment gradually subsides to giddy excitement; she cranes her neck and looks at Lilian's hands as if to get an early peek, despite not even knowing where it's stashed.      Director Velt, for her part, limps into the circle of firelight and leans against a convenient tree, keeping herself just out of the way except for acknowledging Lilian's presence with a nod and a slight smile. This is Strawberry's moment, after all, and she knows it.
Strawberry Princess	Spearmint Page is briefly visibly in awe of Kale's aerial prowess, but then clamps down on it and scrunches his face up to try and pretend like he's totally cool and not impressed at all. "So you have broken bones," he says triumphantly, unhooking himself from his spear-wand and trying to ape Kale's stunt as best as he's able. "What'd it feel like?" The direction-agnostic, reactionless thrust of his faint translucent sparkle-wings lets him imitate the movements remarkably well, but his air-walking form is poor- Kale's theatrical skill far surpasses Spearmint's.      Once he's up there, he hops back onto his spear side-saddle, but this time right-side up like a witch perched on their broom. He's probably about to pester Kale with even more questions until Archer summons a new blade. "Oh man," he whispers. "You have knife magic. ... I wish I had knife magic. How'd you get it?" He latches onto the 'providing everything myself' part though, and synthesizing it with the earlier 'it isn't mine', he says slyly: "But you're not providing everything yourself, are you? You took that knife from somewhere else. Or you copied another knife in the world. Right?"      It seems like every magical child here is almost as savvy about powers as Strawberry is.
X	X's lips twinge upwards at her response to his name. "I suppose it is." Out of the corner of his own eyes, he catches her gaze on his reflection. The stiffness of her shoulders and the dawning creep of suspicion, or perhaps, realization. He wondered what conclusion she had drawn about him with that look.         X does not pry. "Yes, that seems like a good idea." he says, and waits for her to begin heading back to do so himself. The evening seems to have began winding down, at least, that was the impression he had as the Director takes up residence under a conspicuous tree and Strawberry coos over her gift. X himself stoops down to grasp ahold of one of the fruity beverages he'd brought earlier. It was supposed to be flavored in a rich and fizzy blue-raspberry. It was a wholly artificial flavor, created by humans as no such berry actually existed in nature, nor did it actually taste like a combination blueberry or raspberry. His green eyes scan over Spearmint Page, Archer, the Director, Lilian, Strawberry, Stark and Strange, soaking in the picture of them intermingling.         Pssss.... The cap of the bottle is popped off easily enough, and X takes a sip. It stains his artificial tongue a bluish color. Let us say . . . that this glass is filled with either bourbon or mud . . . we couldn't tell the difference, either way. Because we are reploids -- we exist only to fight and know nothing of "justice" or "ambition".         Isn't that right, X? His body would break down the material and dispose of it. He could mime the motion, certainly, but there was no taste. It may as well have been mud in his mouth. Pulling the bottle's lip from his mouth, he smiles for Strawberry's moment. It didn't matter that he couldn't taste it, being here and now reminded him of a nebulous 'something'. That there was more to being alive than simply existing, that no matter who or what you were, you could grasp something more. This is her moment, this party was the something 'more' she was making for herself, or at least a representation of it.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Summon PUNCHCARD ALCHEMY EQUIPMENT     Arthur snaps a finger, summoning a few gates that brandish huge brushed-metal geometric equipment stations. "I mean, nuclear engineerin' ain't *that* hard to figure out -- and you could *tune* it, to fit what you do better than the eggheads thought. Hot-rod the motherfucker, except with, you know." He gestures, broadly, vaguely.     "Literal rods, that are literally hot."     "Could make it more *you*, you know? I don't think I can make ya not be a nuke-powered mahou or nothin', but maybe I could help ya be a nuke-powered mahou who did her own reactor in my fuckin' punchcard crafting system." Fingerguns accentuate the meagerness of this offered gift. "Who knows what kinda tunes we could make. Maybe tradin' some performance metric for another one, I dunno! You know ya priorities best. Maybe ya always wanted a little more burst output and a little less baseline output or some shit. Make that reactor *your* reactor, for real."
Archer EMIYA	"A rare genetic defect specific to me, sadly. Terminal too." He speaks once again in his half joking tone as he uses Strange's provided cutting board. The rice however, is left alone for now because you add vegetables to rice, not rice to vegetables. Archer will forgive Strange though, because he is American and thus clearly uncultured. "Ha. Good catch. Luckily for me, there's no human laws saying you can't 3D print things you've seen with magic. Only laws of nature." The carrots are also now slid into the pot, as he moves on to the next item in his bag. Bamboo shoots...
Doctor Strange	Another Strange appears in front of Strawberry. "Hey, check this out," he says, then explodes into a shower of golden motes of light. Capitalizing on that distraction, the real Strange illusions her marshmallow to make it look like it's more burnt than it really is. He gives Lilian a trembling thumbs up. Maybe it will work to get her to try one that hasn't been absolutely annihilated. Oh, how naive to think that she hasn't already tried them the other way and just *prefers* them this way.      Hmm... the vibe is pretty good already. But it could use, just ever so slightly, the hint of music. A tape deck appears in Strange's hand. He turns the volume down, so as not to drown out conversation. A tape with a label that reads 'JAZZ/FUSION PARTY MIX' is inserted in. The battery powered thing is set near the logs by the fire, so everyone can hear it without being in danger of kicking it over. Uncultured, huh?      "It's true," says Strange, who appears near Archer in that irritating way of his. "He'd need an addadictomy to cure it."
Tony Stark	Tony Stark doesn't really have a part to play here. He's not as connected as closely to Strawberry - at least, to Tony - as some of the others. Arthur, especially, cavorting about with his HOT RODS and offers of wand-upgrades. The theory is good. The wish, one that Stark shares. The wish that was, almost a year ago, deflected. Sipping his Blue Machine, Stark nods to himself at the exchange, between Arthur and Strawberry. Last year wasn't that great, but the next one showed promise. SIDE JARVIS-- X, lingering at the fringe, isn't exactly 'snuck up on' by the form of the tigerstripe Iron Man that Jarvis wears, but he is approached. The Iron Man suit holds a soda can unopened, but motions as if drinking at regular ten second intervals. On the button. A VERY specific button. "Mister X, was it?" Jarvis asks, the cold open of many a dead fish in a conversation. The followup, however, veers a bit different. "Is the texture data interesting?" The can tinks against the faceplate as ten seconds pass.
Lilian Rook	'He's worked really hard.' 'Everybody needs him.' 'What he needs is privacy.' Lilian has to turn over those sequences of adjoined concepts in her head for a while. Fitting them together like test puzzle pieces. Spatial reasoning, for these relationships. In her own experience, she would never fail to maximize the effect of just how much everyone viscerally relies on her, never mind downplay it, so she has to try and compare it to the closest approximations she knows. She doesn't even hide the long and visible thought process.     "Not everyone's time, all the time, is a worthy use of yours. People cluster around. They want you not just on their side, but to be 'theirs'. You only have so much and they want it all. To the point it can be dangerous. I get it." she replies. She, in fact takes the time to gesticulate for Page's attention, looks him dead in the eye, and says "Thank you for the hard work you've put into taking care of my friend." in deadly sincerity, followed by a smirk that is only half-kidding. "Keep it up, because now I know your name."     She does indeed deliver on having promised, just now, a present. "Untwist your knickers for just a minute." she sighs in faux exasperation at Strawberry, making her wait through the process of sorting through sub-compartments of sub-compartments of her messenger bag, before withdrawing what definitely appears to be a piece of jewelry on a chain. A glittering icon in pastel pinks and yellows in a framework of matte white silver with a glassy red center, cheery and bold, and arguable over whether the shape is a strawberry or heart. It isn't dissimilar to her own pendant, save that this one only strongly, abstractly, calls her wand and costume to mind because it's designed to do so. It's large enough she could detach it and add it to a pin, and the chain is fine enough to use as a bracelet instead. The important part is the columns of extremely finely engraved runic calligraphy on the reverse side, done with a magnifying glass, and filled in with gold fine enough to be thread.     Outside of its intangible value, there is most certainly some amount of micro-circuitry involved, because pressing the red portion with her thumb causes it to project an AR window like Lilian's own designer smart devices, invisible from the reverse side and wirelessly compatible with her phone. Short of a real pro going at it, part of the runic inscriptions render it 'mere cheerful jewelry' to examination, including someone else pushing it. This might seem to be the intended primary feature of engraving it at all, but this is also wrong.     Most of the Old Geometry is used for a much simpler, subtler purpose. If Strawberry pushes the reverse side instead, the emitter projects a thoroughly unintelligible constellation of abstract forms and pathways, scattering wavelengths in just the right way that it's hard to 'pick a colour that it is'. The display's soft glow and slight movement distantly call to mind the visual equivalent of recorded rain noises, but the contours of the whole thing are only familiar to Strawberry, and Strawberry alone. Not even Lilian 'designed' it, in any real sense.     The relevancy is silent, left unstated as the Director comes over, and Lilian adds "For you." after showing Strawberry how to operate hers. The young lady withdraws a slim, padded, manilla package, with faraday lining on the inside, which contains an unmarked, slate hard drive, with a sticker on it containing a logo, address, number, and the name 'Allison Rook' on it, which has been very mildly pettily half-stickered over with Lilian's own name and number too.
X	X glances to his side as Jarvis appears in all of his tiger-stripe glory, taking 'sips' at every interval with all the precision a machine can afford. "Just X is fine. You're ... Jarvis, I believe?" Ten seconds pass. Tink. Jarvis asks his question. Ten seconds pass. Tink. X looks into the liquid fizzling and swirling in the bottle, before turning his gaze back towards the commotion, what with the true form of the presents finally being unveiled.     "Yes, it is. I like it."
Strawberry Princess	A FEW MOMENTS EARLIER: Strawberry laughs a little nervously at Dr. Strange's magic trick, glancing around to find the real one just to make sure that the one and only actual Dr. Strange hasn't just disintegrated himself in front of her for a laugh. After finding him to quell her dumb anxieties, she takes a bite of the illusioned-up marshmallow and chews it thoughtfully. She taps her chin in deep contemplation. A light glimmers in her eyes.      She swallows, and then immediately burns the rest of the marshmallow even more so it 'tastes' right. Then she does the same extra-burning to every marshmallow after that.      Arthur's Punchcard Alchemy Gear elicits the appropriate amount of awe from her, though she cam only express it through sparkly-enthralled eyes and a little clap of joy with her mouth so full of gooey charmellow. She glances over at Director Velt, who does some opaque calculation in her head and then returns the glance with a nod. Finally clearing her mouth, she points back behind the cabins. "Tell you what- let's start with stickers. They've gotta be special stickers, though- it gets really hot, so normal ones would burn off. Maybe some stars and hearts, if you have those?"      She pauses for a second, and then adds: "Oh, and make the SCRAM lever 'heavier'? I mean, if you could. I get- worried, sometimes, it'll get banged on accident. So if it's stiffer and bulkier, maybe it won't flip like that, you know?" She's still obviously cautious about the idea, but that's not a bad mod.
Strawberry Princess	NOW: Strawberry takes the amulet reverently, both hands cupped as if she were receiving a great artifact- really, she probably believes she is. She rolls the fine chain between her fingers as if handling a gossamer spiderweb; turns the 'medallion' itself over and over, drinking in the colors and the symbol on the front. The reverse side, too, catches her eye, with the filigree circuits- but she's entranced by too many things to focus on it very hard. When Lilian shows her the AR display, she gasps softly with innocent amazement and delight.      When Lilian shows her the 'constellation', though, she forgets how to react altogether.      The rest of the world fades away from Strawberry's awareness for a moment. Expressions flicker across her face, a half-dozen emotions fighting for control of her facial muscles in the total absence of self-awareness or guarded restraint. Shock, disbelief, nostalgic pain mixed with shuddering joy, and a kind of blindsided validation each briefly prevail before blending together into an open-mouthed, teary-eyed smile. The shape itself is alien and meaningless to anyone else: an elaborate fractal branching-looping thing, bilaterally symmetrical in two-and-a-half dimensions, both expanding and feeding back on itself and flowering with bristling tendrils.      "Oh," she finally manages, her voice a little shaky. "That's... what I saw in my dream, when I was twelve. That's- that's what my magic looks like."      She wraps her arms around Lilian and hugs, still clutching the amulet tight in one hand. It's both a convenient vent for her overwhelming feelings and an excuse to hide her face for a few seconds; it turns out Lilian's shoulder isn't quite high enough to do that job, but the hair that falls down in front of her face as she tilts her head forward does it anyway.      When the hugging is over, Director Velt walks over- trying to hide her smile, for the sake of Strawberry's embarrassment- and takes the manila package, feeling the outline of the hard drive through the Faraday envelope. Her eyes flick down to register 'Allison Rook', and she instantly surmises its contents, tucking it under one arm without bothering to open it. "Strawberry's Martov sign," she says quietly. "A fine gift. And this information will do our Project a world of good as well. Thank you, Ms. Rook."      Limping back to the tree to lean against it once again, she cracks open a bottle of the soda- lemon-flavored- that she acquired at some point, and takes a little sip. She says to X, offhandedly: "It tastes wonderful. You did good. Trust me." Implied but not stated in that is the inference that he can't taste it himself.      And, to Jarvis, in the most patient and earnest tone conceivable: "You need to take your helmet off first."
Strawberry Princess	Spearmint Page, having been intimidated by Lilian Rook enough to go to ground after stammering out a quick "you're welcome", comforts himself with the continued company of someone much less scary- Archer. "Of course it's a good catch," he says, recouping some of his coolness and pride. "It's a cool Heart Ability, too! ... Is the genetic defect why your hair's all messed up?" Finding a spot to sit in companionable silence for a few moments, he gets nosy when the bamboo shoots come out. "Can you really eat that stuff? Don't they use it to make floors? Or is it, like, a garnish."      Addadictomy? "Oh, yeah," Spearmint says casually. "I had to have one of those. But they wouldn't let me take my appendix home." He soaks in the ambiance of JAZZ/FUSION PARTY MIX for a few moments more, before adding cheerfully: "I wanna know who gave you aux cord privileges."
Doctor Strange	Strange, watching Strawberry from his spot near Archer and Spearmint, blanches. ...Okay. No, that's fine. He'll remember her... preference for how marshmallows should be roasted for next year. If she likes them well done, he'll make sure to accomodate. Next year, he will bring some. And they will be only superficially different from charcoal.      His plotting is interrupted by Spearmint's question. "Me. I gave me those privileges. I have them, inaliably. Irrevocably. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme. But also, here." A cassette appears in his hand, in a flash of green light. It's labeled SPEARMINT PAGE. He hands it over to the magical boy. "Put that in whenever you want. Music is for sharing." Mysteriously, it has his favorites on it, should he choose to put it in the cassette player. Even if it's stuff that would've been released after the decline of the medium.      "Death metal, right?" How does he know? Because Spearmint will likely tell him, just now, with his reaction. Time loop complete. Strange will stay, for a while. Sharing stories, providing Archer with spot-picked ingredients, eating, engaging in deliberate irritation of his friends, listening to Spearmint's music. When it's time to go, he does, with a rare smile on his face.
X	X pauses, his eyes widening ever so slightly before his expression relaxes by the same measure. " ... I see. I'm glad." The night continues on. Music is played, drinks are had, food is eaten, and company is enjoyed. While he had always understood that he was supposed to be as close to a human being as a machine could be, at least as envisioned by Doctor Light, he'd never really grasped what that meant fundamentally. He'd reach out and touch on the fainter hems of the notion, every now and then. Bleakly he realized, at some point, that they were the worst moments of his life. But in between all the hate and violence he'd known in his life, there were also small glimpses into what it was he had proclaimed to fight for. And tonight, he was able to experience it for himself. It was worth fighting for. Giving his goodbyes, at the end of the night, X returns to his own life with his burdens feeling somewhat easier to bear.
Lilian Rook	Though Lilian is of course proud to show the results of her hard work over the past several weeks to Strawberry, there is a certain nearly invisible tension to all of it. It feels almost as if she is experiencing the very mortal and relatable anxiety that the recipient of her gift may not like it, though that obviously isn't the case, and Lilian maintains that very faint edge of uncertainty all the way through Strawberry's excited exclamations. All the way up until the end. Right when Strawberry says those words. Like a comfirmation. A moment's relief washes over her. The last bit of guardedness bleeds from her shoulders.     It's exactly the wrong time to let her guard down. She has never, once, ever, no matter how hoarse and horrid Strawberry's voice has gotten in past, seen tears in her eyes. She didn't see them when she asked to see the Onslaught memorial, even. Lilian's hands come up in a paralyzed facsimile of expecting to be attacked, then remain frozen and useless when Strawberry wraps her arms around her, as in in some act of cosmic absurdity, she had been about to panic, and then stopped herself by accident while the world is still moving. It takes a few seconds for her hands to finally come back down and hesitantly pat Strawberry's back. Then a few more for an uncharacteristically awkward "I'm . . . glad you like it? . . . I am."     She has just the time to cough and straighten out an invisible misalignment of her jacket when Velt comes around, doing her best to sound unruffled when saying "If you want the rest, I expect your line to remain open." in a sort of 'president's office' tone and cadence, only to sigh a little and add "She's doing fine, though." without further elaboration at the end."     And then she has to turn around to the rest and say "What's with this bunch and flying anyways? Are we going to have to play a round of air tag or something to settle it?"
Archer EMIYA	"No. It's from trying to play hero in a nuclear power plant. Anyway, more questions are going to cost you. Tread carefully." Dry wit, and not an ounce of truth outside the threat of food prep inscription. The alternative of having to explain why one specific type of magecraft turns you into a gyaru is something he absolutely does not want to do. No one wants to hear it either. It's really stupid. Trust. The rest of his time is spent abusing the fact that Doctor Strange wants to be a human fridge and Lilian's convection setup to help fuel his desire to <s>grill</s> cook. The finished product is, predictably, a pot of cooked vegetables and tofu that taste vaguely of soy sauce. If one likes asian food, they'll probably like it. If not, tough dookie, friendo. This isn't a restaurant.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Obnoxiously interrupt touching, wholesome emotional moment     No. >Arthur: Come on, perfect chance to do the obnoxious coolkid shit     Yeah, exactly. >Arthur: Fine, fine >==>     Arthur dismisses the punchcard alchemy stations, though not before testing to make sure DEPLETED URANIUM STICKERS are a valid item for production (they, of course, are; he'll get back to Strawberry Princess about designs and such. He intends a startling array of stat-boosting stickers for her beloved reactor. It's when Lilian makes her suggestion that he immediately steps in. >Arthur: Okay, here it can be a wholesome emotional gear-change >Arthur: Can you be obnoxious *now*?     "F-F-F-FLIGHT TAG!!" A bitcrushed announcer declares as he immediately barges forward. A series of complex UI elements are already in place, declaring that all involved parties should set a TAG ALIGNMENT and IT-ADJACENCY on a complex CONTACT GRID, as well as offering several possible builds and buyables that interact with it.     "You think you gonna get away with ONE ROUND, homie, you better WISE UP! We 'boutta play BEST OF FIVE at BARE MINIMUM and I'm 'boutta KICK YO' ASS. Yo, STRAWBS! Let's PAIR UP, you got that DOGFIGHT POWER, I got that ENERGY POWER, let's run some DUO SHIT for real." He's immediately pushing forward to harass SP's hand with his usual pounds, now energized, and points at Lilian with a dramatic challenge and an obnoxious grin. Some silly games and an excuse for Strawberry Princess to get leisure time with the non-nuclear magic seems like a fun transitional bit for the party!