voidtreckerexpress | Happy Birthday, Senku!

Entry tags:

Happy Birthday, Senku!

Who: OTA
Where: Dining Carriage
When: Jelly 4
What: Prompts are under the cut. Create your own top levels! Tag around! ~~Get more points!~~
Warnings: more cake than the recommended serving size

Birthday Prep! (OTA except Senku)

Setting up food!

Plenty of people have offered to bring a number of treats - cookies, savory dishes, snacks ... Gen was placing a half-sheet cake, decorated with planets and with 'Happy Birthday Senku' written in frosting on the table. He looked quite pleased with himself, and would help lend a hand with other food.

Setting up decorations!

There were roughly a hundred origami stars to fold, which Gen would spend most of his time doing, especially if he didn't have any help. But after, he'd be stringing them up all around the dining car, creating an effect like a starry sky from the ceiling.

Setting up party favors!

Then, of course, there were paper flower crowns to fold. Gen had no idea how many people would end up coming, so he wanted a fair number - any extras could sit in the Arms Band or up his sleeves as part of a surprise to spring on people later. You never knew when you needed a paper flower crown!

Setting up the escape room!

This is really what Gen hoped he'd get the most help with. He only had so many math tricks up his sleeve, and he was very certain that Senku knew them all already. At least Nita would be lending a hand! Otherwise, Gen was sure any room he'd make, Senku would solve in minutes.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Greetings!

Gen would greet the newcomer with a bright smile and an origami flower crown - placed right on their head! He'd direct them to the food, and let them know of the escape room upstairs. Have a lovely time!

Food!

Cake! Cookies! Popcorn! There's some spicy, savory food that's been made by other passengers, too. But hey, at least take a slice of cake. That's what this party's all about!

Escape Room!

Featuring math, puns, and clever little questions fellow Voidtrain passengers could come up with. Of course, anyone can enter and leave as they'd like, but perhaps if they look particularly stuck on a problem, another person could help them out?

Birthday Boy!

Somewhere in this mess, Senku would be available to chat with. Probably. He's not really expecting a party, or gifts, or even a kind thank you - but all would be appreciated.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's a Meat Bowl Challenge! (Food)

When Rich had seen Gen's post on the network, he'd been more than eager to throw himself into a new hobby, which means he's contributed a fair bit to the spread. There are a few thumbprint cookies and the like, but his main attraction is a big bowl of what looks to be a stew-like substance with meat, onion... and yeah, those are some big chili peppers. The label on it reads "Bicol Express," and Rich is happy to hand out a big bowl of it on top of rice to whoever walks too close.

"Hey! Try this! You're gonna love it, trust me."

All we need is an incinerator and a gas mask and we can call this a Nonary Game (Escape Room)

Rich has been pretty eager to try out the escape rooms! They've always seemed fun, but he never had the money for them, so this seems like a good chance.

Of course, he's not particularly at Senku's level, so he definitely can be found getting frustrated a few of the puzzles, trying to play Simon Says with a button puzzle and just mashing all the buttons relentlessly, or tearing his hair out over a math puzzle. Wasn't Sudoku supposed to be for middle aged moms?

When he decides he needs a break, though, he moves from active help to... well, some might call it trolling, as he points at an abstract picture that probably has some clues in the colours.

"Hey, this is totally funyarinpa, right? Right?"

He couldn't help but be drawn to a big pot of spicy looking food and he just looked interested.

"What've you go there?" Senku wasn't familiar with the dish on name, or sight alone, but it looked good.

"Ah, there's the man of the hour!" Rich beams proudly. It looks like Gen was right that spicy food was the way to go.

"It's called Bicol express! Or... it should be, if I made it right. I went off of what I remembered from my friend letting me try it, and from what we had on hand. It's a dish with meat and chiles, and that's really the important part."

He flushed slightly from the attention but he just grinned and peered at the dish.

"Meat and chiles, I'm in." Senku grinned. He didn't look like he was worried though, he didn't think it would be too hot for him.

"Well, what're you waiting for! Give it a try! Don't keep me in suspense the whole time!"

Rich has worries it won't be hot enough, but he keeps his fingers crossed that this is close enough to what he remembers. And he pours a glass of milk, just in case.

It was hotter than anything Senku had had the pleasure of having lately, considering this train had some kind of anti-flavour stance and when he takes a bite he grins. It's not hot enough to get much of a reaction out of him, aside from delight, but that's not Rich's fault.

"This is pretty good." He confirmed.

"You think so?" Rich still looks overjoyed to even get that much reaction from Senku. "I know I had to replace some of the ingredients, so I was worried that it wouldn't turn out as good. Michael's moms would probably kill me, but it's good enough for a party!"

"Yeah, I think it's good." Senku would've eaten anything, really, but he meant that. It was a real treat to get some properly spicy food anyway.

"Cooking is good for that. Humans have a ton of workarounds for when they don't have what they need on hand. Chemistry is interesting like that."

"Yeah! It is really cool that cooking opens up so many opportunities to experiment. I guess I shouldn't be surprised a science nerd like you likes it."

Rich doesn't get the chemistry aspect so much, but he at least gets it practically!

"I like the chemistry and how it works, more than I enjoy cooking, or did anyway. I didn't cook that much way back when, but you know how it is, no take out means you have to cook yourself." That was a rather light way of describing an apocalypse.

"I like to think I'm getting pretty decent with practice, but like everything else it's been trial and error. I screw up everything when I try it at the outset."

"Yeah. It's a shame we can't really get take-out here. Means we can't just laze out and order pizza on a day." Rich will just... follow his light tone, and try not to think about how delivery would be the least of his worries in that scenario.

"Yeah, that's just the way it works. Unless you're a natural, you've got to screw up at least once or twice. I probably was making a mess in the kitchen when I was young, so I got all that error out of me then."

"Fair enough. I made a lot of instant things, and basic stuff, with appliances I no longer have." Senku admitted. "So it's been a bit of a learning curve. But we actually have a proper oven now too, so it's easier than open flame cooking."

Senku chuckled. "Mind you, I don't cook that much at home anymore. I'm way too busy."

Nita peeked over, having made a habit of checking up who was using the rooms - and if people were getting stuck.

If the puzzles weren't enjoyable, whether people were stuck on them or not, it just wouldn't be fair, y'know?

"... If you're asking if that's a dog," she began, trying to hide the smile on her face.

"Well, you're not wrong. I'll tell you that much for free."

The puzzle about Ponch's escapades had been one of her favorites to make.

Rich laughs a bit when Nita interrupts him. As much as he was stuck, he was having fun, at least, particularly when people were indulging him.

"Oh, okay. A dog. Yeah, I can see it. I'm not talented with accessing the morphogenetic field, so I'm glad you're around to clear that up."

He studies the picture a little closer. "So... what can I do with that info?"

"Yeaaah - maybe blue would have been a better contrast choice for this one."

And more thematic... no, that wasn't the theme she'd used for this part. Drat.

"And - you see the fake keypad? I think I wrote instructions on the paper underneath it, but it's asking for a palindrome."

With a mirror that, once the keypad was flipped around, could be used to reflect the dog...

Edited 2021-01-10 18:05 (UTC)

"A palindrome, huh? You mean... I think there was one in the book, right?"

A little more eager now that he has the hint, Rich flips open the book and hunts through it until he finds the tiny note at the bottom of one of the pages.

"This has gotta be it!" And he's rushing back to the keypad to type it in.

Nita leans back, grinning.

The keypad's indicator light goes green - then blue, if Rich happens to catch that.

"Okay! You look like you're back on track, there. You think you'll be fine going forward, or-"

She makes a show of considering.

"Would you mind an audience? Though I can't promise all the hints."

"Oh, uh, if you want to watch me struggle through this, I don't mind you watching!"

Though it will mean he needs to at least try to be impressive. He turns the keypad like she instructed, squinting at the painting across from him.

((It wouldn't be an EXACT copy, but it'd create an interesting alt universe!))

The next part of the 'room' isn't a long walk; just an assortment of tools on a table.

But they make a puzzle box, if assembled in the right order...

"That was your first tripping point in this, then? I know I could have made the whole deal longer, but when some worlds don't even know about aliens it makes some of the associations less 'obscure' and more 'nonsense.'

And that just wasn't fun.

"Yeah, I think so. But seriously, don't worry about it! I'm having fun, and I'm guessing most people are too. I'm just not the brightest bulb in the socket."

Either way, it's time to fiddle with the tools. Hmm... he can bet they make something, but how would he know the right order to put them in?

"I wouldn't say that."

Nita winks - though she lets up, subsiding again into silence as she watches.

Some of the pieces look like parts of a scorpion - the legs, the tail, parts of the carapace - but only if held at certain angles.

Whenever he figures out the right order, the parts will also light up green.

Rich does fiddle a bit before he manages to tilt one piece enough that he recognizes a scorpion's pincer. "Oh, shit!"

It gives him the idea to try to slot the pieces from the bottom to the top, building up the scorpion, which does cause it to light up.

"Nice! Okay, so do I... open this?"

"If this were an escape room that was, well, its own room," Nita begins,

"Then I'd have made a whole place in the wall for it to slot into. But here, ah - how are you with navigating invisible mazes?"

Because that was the next stage - moving the scorpion into its 'proper' place in the middle of the maze, again paying close attention to angle.

And the way the light was itself directed, as it could also make the walls stop being invisible...

Voidtrain is already nicknamed Train Siri, in his opinion.

firewalled - 2021-01-15 16:57 (UTC) - Expand

Heh.

unfavorableinstigation - 2021-01-15 18:37 (UTC) - Expand

OTA!

Spicy food, obviously, it's like a siren song

Even Senku's got a food weakness, really puts his whining about Gen in perspective :P

Well he can't be a robot, he has some human weaknesses.

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Escape Room!

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For a moment I thought he had Wizards at War with him. XD

LOL no he doesn't have his personal collection with him.

The results would be hilarious if he tried to order it, ngl.

RUDE train give him his damn books!

The most ironic part is, timeline-patching is basically the VTE's job, wrt 'Catastrophe' missions.

Rich should be labelled a catastrophe.

/snort/ Rich can call voidtrains whenever he wants, they have to do what he says.

Food teim!

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