Backdated to the weekend Beach Party and Birthday Log! \o/

[fierybluebird]

[Marco runs around setting everything up. There's platters of food laid out -- more than enough and some extra as a habit from dealing with Ace and 1600 pirates, a boombox with tons of music, beach volleyball set up, a campfire, and according to Selphie and Marco, fireworks for later. GO NUTS. There will be some threads set up, but you can make your own or do anything! Just remember if the thread gets wild, mark it as NSFW.]

Comments

[ascendit]

[Nate gestures at the offending breadstick with another breadstick.] Yeah, that's what I thought about my plate.

[windbreak]

[Yosuke almost drops it.] I told you that was an accident! And besides, didn't you say it yourself? At least it didn't cost you anything.

[ascendit]

Yeah, whatever. [We have just replaced Nate with a different game's hero. Let us see if anyone notices.

[He sideeyes Yosuke's translator again.] What language? [It's not unkind, out of curiosity more than anything, but some of his grudge for the stolen food remains in his voice.]

[windbreak]

[Yosuke does not because he's from entirely the wrong franchise, but he does blink and glance around for a moment before catching onto what Nate is referring to.] Huh? [He remembers what he's wearing when he moves his neck and it clinks off his headphones, though.] Oh, right, this thing. Yeah, it's for Japanese... uh, if that means anything to you. [The kid looks foreign to him.] Of all the languages they could speak here, guess it's a good thing it's one I already know I suck at, but it's still a little weird.

[And not really relevant here. He drops it and grins at Nate in what he hopes is a disarming way.] I should go ahead and introduce myself anyway, huh? Let's just start over. I'm Yosuke Hanamura. Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot. It's been one hell of a day. [So forgive him for one lousy breadstick! ...Pretty please?]

[ascendit]

[Nate is about to nerd out about languages when Yosuke changes the subject. Oddly, it's not the grin (which he finds merely creepy) that makes him relent, but the comment about it being a hell of a day.] Nathan Drake. [But he's not relenting hard enough to give his nickname. He brushes his hand off on his jeans and offers it forward to shake; the idea of handshakes not being a thing elsewhere not occurring to him.]

[windbreak]

[At least they're pretty much a thing where Yosuke is from - although, since he doesn't think to brush it off first, he ends up shaking Nate's hand with a hand full of breadcrumbs.] Nice to meet ya. [He lets go fairly quickly.] So, you a student too, or do you just know someone here?

[ascendit]

[Wrinkling his nose, Nate brushes the crumbs off himself.] I'm a student, yeah. It's my second trimester here.

[And saying that aloud, he blinks.] Damn, I didn't think I'd been here that long.

[windbreak]

[Wow, unfriendly. Then again, maybe he's just holding onto a grudge about the bread. Or shy. Yosuke has encountered considerably worse reactions before, and simply nods.] Yeah, time really flies when you move somewhere new. And then one day, you wake up a native and don't even notice it happened. I wouldn't worry about it.

[If this guy isn't wearing one of the translator things, he's probably from a little closer to here than Yosuke is...]

[ascendit]

I dunno if I want to be a native of anywhere. Even before this place, I haven't been back to where I grew up in years - I like not being tied to somewhere.

[Nathan Drake: Party philosopher.]

[windbreak]

[Yosuke appears to take the philosophising entirely in stride, although he looks mildly surprised for a different reason.] "Before this place"? Oh, so you're in the same boat as me?

[ascendit]

Yeah, I'm another off-worlder. [Slight amusement.] What, do I pass for a local?

[windbreak]

Uh, how should I know? [He's not entirely sure whether Nate is making fun of him or not, but he finds himself feeling a touch defensive either way.] I don't see anyone else here with one of these - [He gives the front of his translator a little tap, scattering a few more breadcrumbs down his shirt and over his headphones.]

[ascendit]

[Nate's smirking a bit now, but it's not entirely unfriendly.] No translator just means we speak English already - I'm American. [His tone is actually genuinely sympathetic now:] That's just bad luck, coming into a place where you don't speak the language.

[Nate doesn't at all envy him for that. He lucked out, speaking Spanish before he went to South America, though he's still not entirely sure how.]

[windbreak]

You'd say that's the unlucky part? [The smirk doesn't bother Yosuke - his own smile at this is distinctly self-mocking.] You've got a point, though. If I knew something like this would happen one day, I would've stayed awake in more of those classes. Hell, I was on spring break back home, too...

[He trails off.] Wait, does that mean I missed...!?

[ascendit]

[Nate laughs.] Yeah, you missed your spring break.

[windbreak]

[His face falls.] Spring break, and... the long holiday in May too, I bet... [...Hey, didn't some of the paperwork they threw at him earlier have a date on it?] And my birthd- [He stops.] Oh, you gotta be shitting me!

[He sounds far more despondent about this than he did about any language issues, or the rest of his situation.]

[ascendit]

[Nate is very proud of himself for not laughing more, but the urge is still pretty clear in his tone and expression.] Yeah, sorry [not sorry] - it's July. [He gives Yosuke a patronizing consoling pat on the shoulder.]

[windbreak]

[Yosuke attempts to bat Nate away with the half-eaten breadstick he just picked back up, but it's clear his heart isn't in it.] Ugh, what kind of joke is this? What did I ever do to the universe!?

[He heaves a long, theatrically world-weary sigh.] Dammit, and I already told them how old I was... I can't just march back up there and say I was kidding...

[ascendit]

I dunno, you probably could say there was some confusion... Say the translator malfunctioned when they asked you or something.

[windbreak]

[He shakes his head and casts a dejected look over at the shoreline, where a few people - specifically, people in swimsuits - are playing volleyball.] I should've known it was too good to be true. Urgh, I don't care any more... [Then he looks back at Nate.] But you, you didn't have to say it like that!

[ascendit]

[Half a shrug and a headtilt. Clearly his earlier 'sorry' was totally ineffective, so there's no point pretending much harder to be sympathetic, though he does manage to school his expression into less of a grin.]

[windbreak]

[It's enough to more or less mollify Yosuke, who never gets sympathy anyway. He finishes off the breadstick, which by now was looking almost as morose as he is, swallows, and sighs again, still looking out over the beach.] Well... if this is what I'm stuck with...

[All of a sudden, he slams a hand down on the side table, rattling the nearby platters alarmingly.]

Then I'll just have to make the best of it! You in!?

[ascendit]

[MY CABBAGES no that is actually another character in Uncharted whom tiny Nate hasn't yet met

[Nate is initially rather nonplussed, by both the table slam (which, yes, his non-cabbage food) and the inclusiveness, but after a moment he nods.] What the hell, why not.

[Noting Yosuke's lack of drink for toasting, he offers a fist to bump. He has seen this in the halls of Garden and it looks way easier than the complicated handshake he's seen from kids back home.]

[windbreak]

[Yosuke responds in kind, burning with enthusiasm -] All right!

[- before attempting to pretty much drag Nate away from the food by the front of his shirt, in the direction of the volleyball players.]

Okay, the first stage is making it look like we're just joining in! And then...!

[ascendit]

[Nate tries to grab one of his plates as he goes - his food - but only ends up dropping it on the sand. Today is not Nate's food day.

[He tries to make it his volleyball day, nodding in greeting to some people he recognizes from class, but eventually he darts a glance to Yosuke.] And then what? [In an undertone.]