epidemiology | [OPEN] TGIF

Entry tags:

oliver hampton (htgawm)

[OPEN] TGIF

CHARACTERS: Kagari, Maya, Oliver, and ANYONE ELSE
DATE: 19th May
WARNINGS: Possibly none. Will edit to add if necessary.
SUMMARY: Team Audentes needs a chance to unwind. Baseball, movies, and party games seem like the ideal solution.

Baseball: Training Room (Afternoon)

Peter Parker’s been kind enough to share the set of baseball equipment he’s gotten as a present for Oska. Currently, the training room resembles a massive field -- big enough for Audentes to comfortably play.

Maya, complete with coach outfit, blows her whistle at anyone in ear range to get started, and naturally, participants are more than welcome to form makeshift teams and compete, or just play one on one or throw the ball around. The more the merrier, right? Maya herself will be tagging people in and out so everyone has a chance to play, and encourages people to try it out if they haven’t already. The fake sky’s the limit!

Movies/Games: Rec Room (Evening)

There's a couple of hours between baseball ending and the official start time of the more relaxed set of activities. It allows chance to set up and for those who've been playing to freshen up. Of course anyone who wants to is welcome to show up early, especially if they're willing to help out with getting everything ready!

By the time it starts the majority of couches and chairs have been shifted to be either around Oliver's Xbox or the Magitek streaming movies, and a table next to the bar has been set up with a buffet. No one is monitoring the bar so everyone is free to grab what they like, but it will pull its usual trick of turning alcohol to juice should anyone 17 or under try.

Movies and games are taking place on opposite sides of the room so no one steps on each other's turf, but the open layout means anyone can choose whether they want to watch a movie or play a game at any time.

The evening kicks off with a showing of Steel Samurai, followed by a series of action and slapstick movies.

On the other side of the room Quiplash is underway. Oliver is happy to show any newcomers how to connect their Magitek so they can type in their answers or vote. Each round is short, and while participation isn't required it is encouraged for at least one round for anyone who takes part in voting.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. u don't say fore in baseball

[Kagari doesn't exactly get to play a lot of sports out of VR video games and the like, but he's not completely unfamiliar with the concept of baseball, and he picks it up pretty quickly. He's a decent pitcher and outfielder, but where he really shines is up at bat. Years of video games along with two years out on the field using the Dominator also means he's got hand-eye coordination like nobody's business, and the ball always flies out far enough that he's at least a couple bases in, if not through a full home run, by the time the ball is dead.

Of course, virtual reality physics aren't always 100% predictable, and one time, the ball flies off in an unintended direction when he hits it. It's an out, for sure, but it's also definitely about to slam right into someone.]

--Hey, heads up!!

ii. snacks

[Kagari promised to bring snacks for game/movie night, and snacks he has brought. Generally...Japanese snacks, since that's all he really knows, but they certainly look appetizing.

Maybe you'd care to be adventurous with the onigiri or the strawberry daifuku...? Or stick to something simpler, like pocky. Either way, if he sees you trying something he personally made, he'll probably make a point to ask you sometime during the evening how you liked it--other people enjoying his food is more or less his favorite part of making it, after all.]

iii. movies & games

[Or perhaps you ran into Kagari is his natural environment instead, in the land of movies and video games. Notably, he cheers every time there's a big explosion, especially if it comes as a result of some other manner of flashy and violent destruction like a car smashing through a window and then flipping over three times. The more gratuitous the better, with this one.

On the flip side of the coin, he's definitely not taking them particularly seriously, either. On one particularly cheesy B-horror type movie, he suggests taking bets on which of the foolish teenagers is going to get grabbed by the monster first, and other times he partakes in drinking games of how many times overused tropes happen.

Quiplash is especially fun for him, what with the objective to be as irreverently funny as possible. On rounds that he doesn't score a point, he might grin cheekily and sigh--]

Gosh, you guys have no sense of art.

( Peter has no idea what a strawberry daifuku is. doesn't matter. it is not obviously made of meat and he wants to eat it, which can be a heartbreaking rarity of late, so he helps himself to three of them, and seems delighted with his life choices, eating each of them in short order.

he's headed forward for a fourth when he indicates to a teammate next to him, ) Man, you have to try these. No idea what they're called, but they're killer. ...good kind of killer. ( because not all of his teammates have any experience with slang. little does Peter know, he's talking to the chef himself! )

[He can't help a short laugh, because really, only here would one need to make that kind of clarification.

But there's more important things at play here, such as--someone liking his food enough to recommend it! to him!!! You bet your butt that Kagari's beaming like nobody's business, because honestly, this is his favorite part of making food for people.

He can't even play coy with this tbh, it's just too obvious how pleased he is.]

Daifuku. [A beat] That's what it's called, I mean. And I can make you more later on if you want.

( look, it doesn't hurt to be careful. killing is a hot-button topic around here, even if he isn't talking about a morality so much as a snack... maybe Peter needs to work on his lingo just for the sake of teammates that might not understand modern slang.

it's an idea, but easier said than done. )

Daifuku. ( Peter repeats it with a distinct attempt not to mangle it, and for the record, he does okay. his expression shows distinct surprise at the offer, though he clicks together what it means fairly quickly. ) Wait, you made these? That's... well, I had trouble microwaving ramen back home, so to me, it's pretty unbelievable.

[In fairness to Peter, in Kagari's time, the large majority of people don't cook anymore, either; there are machines that make processed meals with the appropriate amount of nutrition for people in his time. With Japan's food self-sufficiency program, food that's not made out of Hyper Oats is uncommon.

It doesn't hold a candle to the real thing, though, in Kagari's opinion.]

Haha, yeah? I can show you sometime. It's not that bad once you've got the basics down, really.

Yeah. I'm not proud, my Aunt made my life way too easy. The few times I had to fend for myself were enough for her to outlaw me from the kitchen.

( for a smart kid, he's not great with cooking, though that could surely have to do with how little he'd done it. surely he could learn if he set his mind to it... and maybe if he started very small........ )

Seriously? Sure. I'd give it a shot. Though, full disclosure, my aunt outlawed me from the kitchen after I melted a pot. But in my defense, I wasn't cooking, I just wanted to know if I could melt a pot.

( Science had gotten him kicked out, not cooking... hard to say which was better, though. )

I mean, that's fucking awesome though?

[Kagari's lifestyle is largely dominated by Rule of Cool tbh. If it'll be epic, gnarly, kickass, sick, or otherwise amazing, it doesn't matter how ill-advised a course of action is. What is life for if not for poor life decisions, right.]

Maybe don't melt any pots that you're learning to cook with, but if I find a shitty useless pot at some point I'm gonna need to have you show me how to fuck that shit up.

[HE'LL NEED SOME SERIOUS DEET SPILLAGE OK, RUINING A POT WAS A LIFE EXPERIENCE HE NEVER KNEW HE NEEDED.]

Aunt May would not agree with you. She hardly forgave me for that one, I didn't know cookware could mean as much as your nephew but apparently it was pretty close.

( no that's a bit of an exaggeration, his aunt would still love him even if he intentionally melted all her pots. though it definitely had been just the one, he'd felt bad enough after that he'd barely touched her cookware again... which was sort of how he'd gotten to the conundrum he was currently in, whoops. )

Depends on the pot, but generally chemicals. They are pretty impressively destructive. I'll show you to melt metal if you can help me learn how to make daifuku. Honestly that might not even be a fair trade, considering.

[An uncomfortable flash briefly passes over his features, but he shoves through it, offering an exaggerated shrug that's obviously mostly for show.]

Hey, cookware is serious business.

[He grins, perhaps a bit too eagerly]

Tell you what, I'll show you how to make daifuku and how to make way better ramen than just by microwaving it.

( Peter can be a perceptive kid. perceptive enough that a part of him wonders at the slight moment of discomfort. he wants to inquire but then they push on pass it like it never happened. he can get wanting to leave things behind him, and doesn't want to push. so he doesn't. )

Thanks. I like to think I'm pretty smart. Maybe I can manage to cook without setting off smoke detectors. ( he's careful with his plate as he offers a hand in greeting, not wanting to drop anything, but even if there was a chance at something slipping he'd probably catch on and level things out before disaster struck. spider senses and all. ) I'm Peter. By the way.

[Ah, right, that's a western greeting, isn't it? Kagari reaches out his own hand for the shake, though he accidentally picks the wrong one...he's never actually done it before and couldn't remember from the movies, shhhh.]

I'm Kagari.

[Shuusei, if he was going to offer a given name for a given name, but it's a little weird to be that familiar with a stranger, even for him.]

Man, I wonder if Oska even uses smoke detectors. Maybe they have some kind of nifty magic that puts out fires on its own.

[Perhaps...not an experiment they should try, though.]

( it's not quite right, but hey. even socially awkward americans sometimes shook with the wrong hand. Peter notices, but is not particularly put out by it, just switching his own without worrying much about it. )

Kagari. Cool. ( for the record, Peter doesn't need both names; there's a reason he didn't offer both of his, after all. his secret is out these days, it's probably a moot point to skirt around admitting he's Peter Parker, synonymous with Spider-Man. still, now that he has so little anonymity left to his name, he's more overzealous on holding on to what little he has. )

Come to think of it, maybe the suits of armor will just come clanking in with a fire extinguisher? ( it's a hilarious mental image, even though Peter has little to no justification to believe it's accurate. )

[Ah, oops, he messed that up. But this guy isn't calling attention to it, so he won't either.]

Man, how awesome would that be? It'd be like a fantasy steampunk version of that one movie, Smart House? Except without the part where the castle goes all yandere and doesn't let us out, anyway.

( if it was something they needed to talk about, maybe he'd have tried to bring it up. as it is... seems best to let that particular dog lie. at least for now. )

Geez, with Katey Segal? It's been so long since I could make pop culture references, I was genuinely beginning to believe I just imagined it all. ( so many blank looks from people that had no idea what he was talking about... what a relief... ) So far we haven't gotten locked in. Fingers crossed it stays that way, because that sounds less like a Disney Channel movie and more like a horror movie.

[Oliver makes a point to try everything brought by other members of the team, including Kagari's onigiri and strawberry daifuku. He catches sight of him when he's at the snack table topping up his plate and sidles over.]

This is really good. You made everything you brought?

[He grins at the compliment, clearly pleased.]

Just about, yeah.

[Obviously, there's nothing to make when it comes to things like the pocky, but the ones that would've required any form of preparation are all his doing. He could've just poofed them into existence using the magic kitchen, of course, but there's something more rewarding about doing it by hand. Somehow, it tastes better.]

If you have any favorites, I can show you how to make 'em yourself.

Really?

[Oliver likes the convenience of the kitchen here as much as anyone, but he does enjoy cooking.]

The daifuku's taste great. I'd love to know how to make those.

[He nods.]

It's pretty easy and fun to do. All you need is water, sugar, and sweet rice flour for the base, and then you just have to choose a filling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[OPEN] TGIF

Shuusei Kagari | OTA

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