[OPEN] apple pie is officially banned from this party, aka Steve Rogers' birthday

[anotheroldsoldier]

who: ANYONE
what: 616 Bucky, Peggy, and 616 Tony throw a birthday party for Steve.
when: July 4th, afternoon into the evening
where: A nice park
warnings: Birthday fun. :v


Steve Rogers, former (and still) Captain America, was born on the Fourth. It was pretty much fated. That said, he deserves a party that has nothing to do with Independence Day, and that's what Bucky, Tony, and Peggy set out to do. They rented a nice little park with some good open, grassy space perfect for a pick-up game of football (American, of course). On one end of the park, in the relative shade of a couple of large trees, they've set up two long tables - one for food, and one to deposit presents for the birthday boy on. The picnic tables already in the park have nice blue tablecloths to eat on. A banner hung between the trees proclaims, "Happy Birthday, Steve!", in blue letters on white.

The decor tries to stay away from Fourth of July colors - there isn't a speck of red, just shades of blue and white, and it's all very put-together and classy looking (thank you, Peggy and Tony). It's the sort of party they thought Steve would want, outdoorsy and casual, just a gathering of friends and whoever else wants to come by to wish the birthday boy a happy one.

Invites
Invitations have mostly been word of mouth and texts sent to people Steve is friends with, nothing too fancy. They just say to drop by and wish Steve a happy birthday, have some food, and spend some time hanging out; Rogers wouldn't want anything fancy anyway. That said, they won't turn anybody away from the barbecue if someone decides to just crash the party, as long the behavior stays respectful.

Food
The food is mostly standard American barbecue fare. Two large grills have been set up near the tables and someone (often Bucky) is usually cooking on them - an array of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, even some ribs and chicken. Side dishes are laid out on the food table, the usual simple things. Here and around the picnic tables are a good place to mingle; there's plenty of food for everyone, and metal tubs full of ice and bottled soft drinks. There isn't much alcohol present at this party, though, just one of the tubs set aside with beers in it.

There's also a massive cake for Steve, with close to a hundred candles dotting its layers - Bucky's idea, payback for the time he couldn't see his own cake for all the candles.

Tossin' the Old Pigskin
They're all (mostly) adults here, so there aren't 'party games' necessarily, but there are a couple of footballs and some frisbees in the grass for anyone who wants to play a game in the lush field. Just be careful if the heavy hitters decide to arrange a game, it could get pretty out of hand.

Comments

[ikols]

[ Why isn't Sam the ruler of his Earth, really.

Under the flattery Loki's insides twist, craving more of the same. Sam has a wonderful habit of making him feel like he doesn't have to just be Loki, he can be ... himself. Whoever he would be if he weren't always a god stuck in a cycle of rebirth to one hated name. ]

I take request orders.

[ From as of now. ]

[wingedman]

[This is a question many people have asked before - well, okay, it isn't, but it should probably be considered.

And, really, that's how Sam sees Loki (after that initial rebuke from her). That it doesn't matter who he's been or what his name is, all that matters is who he is now. Of course, that's probably easier to do when you haven't been as involved in previous Lokis' shenanigans as the rest of the Avengers here have.]

No requests right now. But I'll just casually mention that my birthday's September 23.

[You know. In case Loki feels like baking something. Certainly Sam doesn't intend to have a party on this scale - and probably not a party at all. But he'll happily accept offerings of baked goods.

(So will the talking mice he lives with.)]

[ikols]

I won't forget.

[ To make sure he starts putting the date in his StarkPhone's calendar. He pauses to look over curiously. ]

You think you'll still be around here in September?

[wingedman]

[Sam just shrugs helplessly at the question.]

No real way of telling, is there? Either I'm stuck here for the next five years, or I just randomly disappear back to Wakanda.

[ikols]

You were hanging out with Black Panther?

[ AUDIBLE ENVY. ]

[wingedman]

Steve did most of the hanging out, I was just kinda there because we needed some place safe to stay after becoming wanted criminals in most of the world.

...also I might've pissed off T'Challa a bit when I asked him if he liked cats.

[SHRUG]

[ikols]

... Okay, that's cool, but no offence, I'm surprised and deeply impressed that your face isn't a mess of claw-marks.

[ Because even Loki doesn't tease that guy unnecessarily. T'Challa is a bit too cool-yet-terrifying for the sort of nonsense the Avengers put up with. Also hot, but that's neither here nor there when it comes to ruining any sort of far-fetched shot Loki could feasibly have. ]

[wingedman]

Look, I'd literally just met the guy, okay? All I knew was that there was some guy in a cat suit trying to kill Bucky, and then we all got arrested for breaking the Accords.

[He gets it, though. T'Challa is kinda intimidating. By which he means actually a little scary. And the Dora Milaje- don't even get him started on those ladies. Seriously hot but waaaay off limits.]

[ikols]

The Accords?

[ People probably try and kill Barnes all the time, best to focus on the important deets. ]

[wingedman]

The Sokovia Accords. You know, the whole "let's control the Avengers and place restrictions on superpowers" thing. Which, might I add, is pretty shitty for those of us who don't even have superpowers.

[Sure, he could've just hung up the wings and not had any trouble whatsoever, but giving up isn't in Sam's nature.]

[ikols]

That's the Superhero Registration Act on Earth-616, it went down badly from what I read of it. The Accords were quite a recent thing for your lot, then?

[ That explains a few tensions floating around. ]

[wingedman]

Most of us, anyway. Not Bucky. And Thor was...off doing Thor things. And I don't know about Stephen. But the rest of us are all from around then, more or less.

[Well. He's not sure about Loki, either, but they can probably hash that one out between themselves.]

[ikols]

You're all-in, then. Totally on the Captain's side? Ah, so, everyone's still hashing it out.

[wingedman]

Timeline differences here. Tony and I are the ones from after everything's all said and done, Steve's from close to the beginning, Wanda's somewhere in the middle.

[He knows exactly where in the middle, of course.]

I like to think I'm on the side of trying to keep Steve from being a complete goddamn idiot. Which I actually failed at, so maybe I shouldn't make that claim.

[ikols]

Can't you lock Rogers and Stark in a room and see which one comes out less bruised? Seems legit.

[wingedman]

Yeah, uh, they kinda did that, if by room, you mean Soviet missile silo. I'm pretty sure nobody won that fight. Steve gave up the shield and the rest of us went into hiding.

[Which makes it sound a lot like Tony won the fight. But Sam knows better, because Bucky's still alive.]

[ikols]

So, he lost.

[wingedman]

He kept Stark from killing Bucky - and, from what I've been told, wrecked the hell out of one of his suits.

Trust me, they both lost. Zemo won.

[ikols]

Baron Zemo? Why was he involved? Hold up, [ raising a hand, ] start from what these Accords have to do with Sokovia, wherever that is.

[wingedman]

Different Zemo, Bucky mentioned the crazy Nazi one. Maybe a different different Zemo.

[Oh boy. Well, at least Sam's probably the one from his world most informed about the differences between worlds, although that's a pretty fucking low bar, all things considered.]

Sokovia's the small European country Wanda's from. Ultron - made by Tony, not Hank Pym, nobody even knows who Pym is except Scott - had this crazy-ass plan to lift the capital city up about a mile into the air and then use it to kill everyone on earth. In spite of the Avengers saving the day, some brilliant assholes, led by Secretary of State Ross, devised the Sokovia Accords to limit the actions the Avengers and other so-called powered individuals could take.

[ikols]

Cool, got it.

[ Deja vu whenever this weird Rogers vs. Stark family fall-out is discussed and Loki wasn't even there, it just seems to be a Huge Step in their relationship.

Airily, as he serves himself some potato salad, he waves a spoon for emphasis. ]

I wasn't around at the time, as I said, so this is all one big popcorn.gif for me. As far as I recall on the superhero wiki, Rogers eventually turned himself in.

[wingedman]

Of course he did. [Sam rolls his eyes.] Nobody's gonna put Captain America in jail.

So this Zemo's family died in the battle of Sokovia, and he went on some big revenge plot to break up the Avengers. Bombed the signing of the Accords, killing King T'Chaka, and blamed it on Bucky. Bucky was flushed out of hiding by that, and Steve and I went to go save him, T'Challa went to go kill him, and all of us got arrested and taken to Berlin. Zemo posed as the interrogator sent to question Bucky, set off the Winter Soldier and knocked out the power, shit went downhill, we all broke out. Big fight at the airport in Leipzig where Tony brought in some pre-pubescent spider kid, we all got stuck in the Raft, Steve and Bucky flew to Siberia because they thought Zemo wanted to activate the other Winter Soldiers.

[Hold on, cake break.]

Turns out that Zemo wanted to show Tony the footage of Bucky killing his parents. Steve had known about it and didn't tell him, Tony lost his shit and tried to kill Bucky, hence the fight. Tony told Steve he didn't deserve the shield his dad made him, Steve dropped the shield and took Bucky instead, busted the rest of us out, and we all went for a nice vacation in Wakanda. By the way, it's totally hilarious watching everyone be the only white guys in a room. Best thing about being a fugitive from justice.

[ikols]

I'm from Asgard and even we're not as dramatic as that.

[ He's fascinated though, munching away as Sam recounts the adventures of Earth-199999's Avengers. ]

The way I know it is this; there was a band of young supers filming a show of them capturing some bad guys, the tougher kind that would spike their ratings ... like one of those reality cop shows. Anywho, one of the villains had atomic powers and he blew up the immediate borough, including a school. In the middle of a weekday.

[ Squinting because, yeah, it was apparently that awful. ]

Stark agreed with SHIELD that supers needed regulating in order to know where they were, what they were up to, so that no other kids would need to die, while Rogers refused to compromise his ... I don't know what. Freedom of choice. Eagle-based reasons, maybe.

And so, they fought, and no one was entirely right.

[wingedman]

[Sam pauses with a forkful of cake halfway to his mouth, slightly horrified.]

That is fucked up.

-Although ours kicked off with accidentally blowing up a hotel in Lagos, so I guess I don't have much room to talk.

[He just shrugs helplessly.] Steve was a fucking mess, okay? And I don't think Stark was much better. Everyone's still relatively new to this whole superhero business in our world, and nobody knows how to cope. Tony wanted to protect the world - hence Ultron - and Steve wanted freedom to do what needed to be done, and they just. They were losing everyone who was important to them, and coping with it in all the wrong ways.

Also, Ross is an asshole and the Accords were shit.

[ikols]

You need to chill a fraction, I don't really care all that much.

[ Don't break his hand for placing it on your shoulder, Sam. Okay. Pls breathe. ]

Shall we talk about something else? My, your facial hair is en pointe today.

[ Breathe but also laugh. ]