Birthday Plans (Ghost/Streak/Shin)

"Yeah, Tex. What's the vex?" Shin slipped in after Ghost. He wore a red sweatshirt and red sweats again today, and had Thor in toe. After a long run, the dog was starting to calm down. His muscles were relaxing, his tongue lolling out, and on a hot day like today, the best thing a dog could do was yawn. Still, at the sound of Sam's sonar, Thor's ears perked up. Shin eyed the dog with apprehension, then looked at Luke. "Maybe I'll take him back to my room... save me a seat, Ghost. Be right back!"

He lead Thor out the door and back to his room. He shoved a few of the comics off the floor, back onto the shelves, and made a place for Thor on a pillow in the center of the room. That was Thor's pillow now. Shin made sure to let him know. Everything from the pillowcase with the Norse God and Comic Book Super Hero, down to the way he set it out by the food, led Thor to one conclusion: Sit your buns here. And so he did. Shin ran his hands through Thor's fur and scratched behind the dog's ears. A dull thump of the tail against the carpet showed Thor was enjoying the attention.

"Sorry, Thor. I've gotta go back to the meeting. Take care of my room while I'm out, though! And make sure you eat all your food. Yup. If you do, you get a treat." Which was more food at dinnertime. Always a good incentive. Shin was such a pushover. Thor barked like a laugh.

With a smirk, Shin slipped back out the door, walked the halls back to the living room, and plopped down on a recliner, kicking it out.

"As I was saying, Luke... are we giving him a fountain of cherry cola, or a moon bounce?"

"You require that much notice to set something like that up?" Luke asked in surprise on the phone as Ghost walked in. Waving idly to her and Shin, Luke did his best to wrap up the conversation before they both felt like he was ignoring them. Shin walked off to do something with his dog apparently while Luke continued to talk. "There's no way to do it faster? Ok. Yeah, I understand. Special orders and all that. Alright. Thanks."

Luke disconnected the call as Shin made his way back into the room followed moments later by Streak. "So far we don't have a lot set in stone." Luke answered with a smile, "I only found out that it was Sam's birthday a couple of hours ago and then Dominic recruited me to help set things up. Most of the tent rental places want more notice than a few hours so we can't set up any sort of cover outside. So either this is an open air party or we have here in the mansion. Dom and Koga are planning on making the cake so... maybe we should order a cake just as back-up."

Lifting one hand, the blind man tapped his chin thoughtfully as he tried to think of what else he had covered. He really didn't want to let them know he had just been talking to a fireworks company that had informed him there was no way they could set up anything in under a week.

"We need to make sure all of Sam's friends know when and where the parties gonna be. Ghost, if you can handle that part of things once we make our decisions that would be great. Shin we need to get lots of snacks and food for the party. You can use my credit card. If you can handle ordering and then picking up if need be, that'd be awesome."

It was right then that Luke's mind returned to the bit of brilliance he had been considering earlier. The Danger Room was really the perfect place for a surprise party. They could have the party anywhere without anything seeming suspicious because of decorations that were appearing. "Streak, I know that you're really good at the danger room programing. Would it be possible to set up an environment in there that would work for the party? That would be especially awesome if any of you know where his favorite place is. Any thoughts?"

The brainstorming session was going well and Luke was listening to them carefully when he thought he heard some rather loud noises coming from the upstairs bedrooms. Turning his head ever so slightly, Luke concentrated just in time to hear one more blast of sound. "Sam, no!" It was doubtful that anyone else had heard it since Luke was the one with enhanced hearing but there was no way he could just ignore it either.

"Uh... you three carry on talking. I gotta make a quick pit stop. Be right back." Luke said as he rose to his feet, leaving the cell phone and credit card sitting on the table. As soon as he was clear of the living room Luke broke into a jog that carried him upstairs and into the bedroom area.

(OOC: Luke is momentarily popping over to join CS & Circe for just a moment per their request. He will be returning but feel free to skip him for a round or two.)

Already, Shin’s mind was dreaming up indelible ideas. Luke was lending him his credit card and putting him in charge of food. Shin had to come up with something original, right? Right!? But where would they get a cement mixer big enough for the Cheetos dust? And wouldn’t the fountain bubbling motion take all the fizz out of the cherry Coke? There were so many things to ponder, so many problems to hammer out. Then there was the matter of the extra cake, in case Dominic and Koga made an abomination that was an affront to the senses. “Will chocolate be alright for cake?” Shin turned to ask Ghost.

As for the places… wait, Venus? “Could we even program the danger room to simulate the sulfur-rich environment?” Or was she talking about Venice, and he’d heard wrong. “Oh, wait. Yeah. Don’t mind me. If we went with a Venice theme, we could do something with pasta… or would he prefer finger food? I know he has a Siberian Husky… Maybe Siberia. I dunno. My mind’s kind of a mess here right now, thinking of all the options for foods. What kinds does Sam like? I mean, we could do burgers and fries, but that might not go well with Italian cuisine. Or we could do pizza… that isn’t traditional, but it’s the life-blood of humanity. Then again, calzones are portable and delicious. Maybe calzones…? I know we’re giving him some sort of fountain drink for the party, like grape soda or cherry coke…” And then there was the décor. Would Sam really care if they got ice sculptures for his big day? Maybe they’d want something a bit more fantastical for the party…?

“Hrm… and I think ice sculptures are less fantastical, more fanatical…” Shin went off on a tangent. Everything seemed to be coming together now, but it was still a jumbled mess. He held his chin, then tapped his eyebrows in fervent concentration. Think think think. “Maybe he’d like honeyed cake.”

Poor Shawn was stuck with two of the most fantastical and non-grounded thinkers for a meeting that needed some real thoughts, not air puffed ones. There was just something about living in Japan that made one lose touch with reality about certain things. If prompted, Ghost would readily blame Japanese television and all the ADD inspiring doodads that always danced across the screen.

"Chocolate cake sounds great." Shawn was making entirely too much sense, it was such a downer. "And, yeah, I guess we can't move forward on things until we have a location." She folded her stick arms and thought for a moment. The feeling was different from their brainstorming session as if it were coming from a different part of the brain. "Even though he has a Siberian Husky, I think ice sculptures and cold weather would be a little redundant. He could make an ice sculpture faster and better than any of us could, though maybe that is part of the draw to have something where we obviously tried to imitate his power. Or maybe that'd be an insult, who knows?"

Ghost rocked forward and back in her seat for another short stint of thinking. "My vote for location, if we can't get a favorite out of Dominic, is some place Romantic. Sam is a romancer, right? Put him in a place that would be his natural hit-on-anything-that-moves habitat." She nodded at the wisdom of her words. "But don't make the cake shaped like boobs or anything." Though... the embarrassment would almost be worth it...