somethingwithturquoise | MHA #8; Saturday Evening [01/13]

There had been a handful of oh-so-handwavey flyers popped into the most obvious spots, but Summer was relying heavily on the age-old method of massive group texting (and general word of mouth) to let everyone know about Stark's birthday party tonight at his apartment because it really was just going to be a super chill, lowkey, casual sort of fling this time around.

She'd spent the majority of her prep work in splashing the apartment with decorations (blue and gold and black again) and bmaking a variety of different jello shots in pie and cupcake and other dessert-like forms, so, needless to say, she definitely ordered out for the the cupcakes themselves.

Other snacks and drinks were also available and moddable, and there was also a very moddable but totally curated, for real, music playlist, and she'd even dusted off the karaoke machine from the GxG birthday party years ago and dragged that up, just in case anyone was feeling up to getting that going.

Definitely not exactly her best, most extravagant party, but, hey, not all parties could (or even should!) be epic. Sometimes, they could just be kind of quiet and cozy with a lot of cupcakes. Which just suited the birthday guy better anyway, really.

[[ open party is open! as always, feel free to mod having gotten a text, seen a flier, been told by Summers or squirrels or ghosts of parties past or just swing by to borrow a cup of sugar, i don't care, I'm not your boss ]]

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Margo waved it off. Quite literally. "Eh," she said. "So, how have you been?"

Smooth.

Stark was picturing all sorts of bath product carnage. He wasn't imagining the little googly eyes though.

"Good," he said with a little nod. "I've been good. The holidays were good and I think classes will be and now I get a birthday, again. So things are good."

Sometimes he was a little worried they were too good but tonight was for celebrating, not worrying.

"You know you get a birthday every year, right?"

Margo had to check.

"This is only the second one I've had," Stark reminded her. "So it's still new. But yes, I know. When is yours? Or do you not celebrate it?"

Margo eyed him dubiously. "Second birthday party," she said. "Birthdays are like trees in the woods, even if they fall over and there's no one there to hear it, it still happened. Anyway, mine's the 17th of July, and I gotta get back on my party game if you didn't know that."

Edited 2024-01-14 16:05 (UTC)

"I don't even know when mine really would be," Stark said. "It wasn't something that was kept track of, before."

There might have been paperwork, somewhere, that said, but that wasn't the sort of thing that would have been shared with him.

"So I think these two are the only ones that really count."

"If that's how you want to think about it," Margo said. "Sounds fucking depressing to me, and now I need a drink."

"That's fair," Stark said. "There's plenty of jello. But regular drinks, too."

Not everyone was as charmed by jello shots shaped like tiny desserts as Stark was, after all.

"I try not to think of it, too much, that I didn't have this before. I have it now. That's more important."

"Yeah, the not-having-it-before is depressing too," Margo said, and tossed him a look, "But not the reason why I need a drink right now."

And she began to walk towards the drinks.

Stark, with a sinking feeling that he'd somehow done something wrong without knowing exactly what, just nodded.

"All right. You should try the cupcakes, too."

To her credit, once she'd found a drink - a proper one, not a jello shot - she actually did come back.

"Look, I've been thinking about how much I wanna insert myself into something that is really not my business," Margo said, without any further niceties. "But you do know you need therapy, right? Not just a girlfriend who throws you birthday parties to stop you from putting on your saddest puppy face?"

"That's..."

Stark sighed.

"I'm better than I was. I am always trying to be better."

Did they even have therapists for aliens who were trauma onions?

"But I wouldn't even know how to start, with that."

"You really think you're better?" Margo asked. It wasn't unsympathetic. She liked Stark. She didn't want him to suffer. But this shit worried her. "'Cause you stopped bringing up Summer to me all the time when I asked and I'm grateful for it, but we're like a year on and you still sound like your self-esteem is like 75% chick-in-the-yolo-years-of-her-life, you know?"

Edited 2024-01-14 18:02 (UTC)

"You didn't know me before I was here," Stark said. "Or when I was first here, the first time. I am better. I promise."

"Just promise me something, Stark," Margo said, watching him. "Throw yourself a party before the next time someone else throws one for you? People will show up. I promise."

"If I think of a reason to have a party, I'll have a party," Stark said. "Or I'll try. I don't even really know where to start."

"You send people an invite, you make sure there's food and drinks and a place to be," Margo said. "Doesn't get more complicated than that."

"But you need a reason, don't you? Otherwise people won't come."

He wasn't certain people would come anyway but then he was certain of very few things.

"I guess I could make something up? I don't know."

"Nah," Margo said, snorting. "Just say 'party, free booze', that's all the reason you need."

MHA #8; Saturday Evening [01/13] - Stark's Birthday Party!

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