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.

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Inigo is quiet for a moment, thinking about the words Senku is telling him here. Though when he does speak up again, he doesn't seem to be focusing on anything the other is directly telling him, as much as he focuses on something he can't help but be curious about after that explanation.

"Do you miss him? While we're here, I mean."

After all, no matter how weird Senku is when it comes to certain emotions or social situations, he seems plenty capable of caring when it matters.

Senku leaned back a bit and considered the question. They'd been apart a few months. They were apart here and there for various periods of time, but usually they could talk, if they needed to. He wasn't one for chatter, but he couldn't deny accepting the odd call from Taiju just so his friend could talk to him enthusiastically.

"It's not the longest we've been apart." Senku began softly. "But yeah, I guess. Yuzuriha too. Kohaku...all of them." He admitted. "There's a lot of people I miss, but it would be the same if I went back. I'd have a lot of people I'd miss from here."

Gen certainly seemed like his best friend these days, and in some ways he was, but it wasn't the same because their relationship was so much more than that.

"Ah.."

Something about Inigo's expression, especially the look in his eyes, says that he can very much understand it. Missing your friends from back home, but also being worried about missing people from here instead when you'd go back and see them again..

But rather than allowing the thought to make him sad, Inigo forces himself to smile instead.

"Don't worry about it! No matter where our paths may lead, I'm not going to forget you, Senku. If I can see whether the Outrealm Gate works properly once I'm back home, I could even try to come visit you sometime!"

"That's a real sappy thing to say." Senku complained. "But it's mutual. I pretty much can't forget things anyway." He tapped his temple.

"You could try, hopefully by then we'll have a nice bustling society for you to see." At the moment, there was not much but a lot of wildlife to see. There weren't even bears to hunt!

Wow, Senku, shouldn't you be used to hearing sappy things just by being friends with Inigo? Talking about sappy stuff comes just as easily to him as breathing does!

"Well, it might be a while, anyway." Even if Inigo does manage to make it over to his world at one point, which isn't exactly set in stone (pun unintended). "I first have some things I need to finish up back home, and I'm not exactly sure how long that'll take. But I am fairly sure it will keep me busy."

"That's true, but no matter how busy we are, we always make time for people to relax." Senku hummed. "My Captain's really insistent on it."

Not that he minded so much, but sometimes he forgot that other people needed things like rest.

"I'm sure we'll have something of interest to show you sometime in the future."

"Knowing you, I'm fully expecting to see a place filled with flying carts," look, Inigo is not quite used to the concept of cars yet, let him imagine some weird cyberpunk medieval future, "and streets that do all the walking for you. Surely you can invent that much in the time it'd take me to come over!"

Senku is so incredibly big-brained, after all. Inigo is mostly joking, sure, and that's shown by the smile on his face. But if Senku genuinely pulled it off, he wouldn't be surprised either. That sounds just like him.

"I could, if you give me enough time. The technology exists, but I've got a lot to go first." Senku hummed.

"When I go back I'm seriously going to miss the hot showers. That, I will admit, is a damn luxury." He grinned.

Wow, Senku, Inigo hadn't even considered that yet. He got so used to the showers that he didn't even think about having to miss them again later.. It's amazing how much you can get used to something in so short of a time.

"Can't you invent a way to have hot showers back home? Just.. Just use hot water!"

Yes, Inigo, just throw a bucket of straight up boiling water onto people. Great idea, my dude.

"I wish I could. The infrastructure to make a functional shower takes a lot more manpower than I have. It will probably take a couple of years to get running water, and then we'd need to find a way to heat it up. It's one of the projects that would be nice, and likely good in the future, but one I have to abandon for now." Senku huffed.

"As it is, our use of power is extremely limited too."

...

That's a pause. Where Inigo is staring. And something about the sheer look in his eyes indicates that some gears up there are really turning hard as he does so.

"Why.. would the water run?"

Yes, there's running water on the train, but no one ever introduced Inigo to that being the term for it, okay. So now he's just imagining water running away from Senku or something.

Senku blinked at Inigo a moment and hummed thoughtfully.

"You know how on in the kitchen, or in the shower, you turn the tap on and water comes out?" He asked.

"That's called having running water." He said by way of explanation. "As opposed to having to go to a stream, or cleaning yourself with a bucket. It's meant to signify the fact that the water is coming continuously. Anyway, we don't have that and the infrastructure is too much of a problem to build, that's what I mean."

"Oh." Well, he understands that concept, at least. Thanks to the train and the way water seems to just come out of all sorts of places automatically. Inigo was kind of assuming it was some sort of magic..

"That's an odd way to call it, but I understand. Is there no magic in your world that could just make water appear?"

"No." Senku shook his head. "My world is completely devoid of magic. Even the petrification isn't magic, it was scientific."

He sighed a little bit. "It's technology outside of our knowledge, but science all the same."

"As for the water on this particular train, it could be magic. I don't know."

Inigo gives him a bit of an 'aw, that sucks' sort of expression when Senku says his world is devoid of magic. Not that magic is as prevalent in Inigo's world as it is in certain others he's now seen or heard about, but they do at least have some magic.

.. then again, they don't have magic that could create running water either.. probably.

"Then it's a good thing they have you around in your world, huh? At least you can make some stuff that's almost like magic. Because you are just that good at the whole science thing."

Senku chuckled lightly. "Yeah, it could be. I mean, I'm good at science, but I'm not the only one." He waved his hand.

"Chrome is really intuitive and the more he learns, the more he's going to be able to do." He smiled.

"But science..." Senku looked like he was thinking. "It's for everyone. It's something I consider to be the equalizer. It doesn't matter how strong or fast you are, anyone who does science will be able to replicate the results."

For everyone, huh. Inigo isn't so sure he agrees with that. Sure, he's also willing to believe in the endless potential of people, to view everyone he comes across as optimistically as possible. To think the world of his friends, to believe they can do anything.

But everyone includes Inigo himself, and that's the thing he has a lot less faith in.

"But you have to be smart to do that sort of thing," he faintly protests.

That's the first requirement he's already missing, Senku!

"Not at all." Senku shook a head. "Any experiment, if you have the instructions whether you do it or I do it, it will turn out the same. That's what's great about science. It's for everyone no matter how smart they are." Senku smiled warmly.

"Look, I'll tell you a story. You know Taiju, I mentioned? He can't tell you how to make anything, but he listens. He has a limited undersatnding but he listens. Years ago I told him that you could use calcium carbonate, or rather, ground up seashsells to fertilize soil to make crops grow better."

He sighed but smiled fondly. "He remembered what I said. When they were planting the wheat fields, Taiju used ground up seashells on his soil and his wheat was the one that grew. I wasn't even there at the time. It worked because science works no matter who uses it."

Look, Senku, it's real cool that you're so passionate about science and all, and Inigo appreciates him, but he definitely feels very strongly about this not being something for him.

Hence why, despite him smiling in return at Senku - it's nice to see the other smiling so warmly, after all! - there's a hint of something awkward in it.

"Well, I'm glad you were able to help him out like that then." If not just by giving him the knowledge. But farming is yet another thing Inigo doesn't know much about, really. "I'm sure he appreciated it."

"Well we all appreciate it, because bread is something different from fish." Senku chuckled lightly at that. He wasn't offended by Inigo's lack of passion.

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Happy Birthday, Senku!

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