(( Sorry for not getting back to this sooner; I have been distracted. shakes fist at RL and the wiki

I hope you don't mind if I bend a rule a little to move through the group activity, since we all basically know how it goes. Fill in the details if you wish. {= ) ))

With just about everyone's eyes on her, Jenni hesitated. It wasn't as though she hadn't made speeches before, but usually when they happened it was the impassioned result of someone being an idiot and needing an immediate education in Jenni's School of Stop Being an Idiot. Deliberately stepping into the foreground like this was totally different.

Perhaps sensing his mother's discomfort, Henry provided a distraction by squirming and trying to pull his hat off.

"Whoops. Nope, no, not yet. Gotta wear the hat, kiddo." She fixed it and looked back up at everyone with a grin.

"Well, hi, everyone. Thanks for being here--I know how hard it is to get away. Um, as you all know, it's my son Henry's birthday. He's turning two, and this is his first party with friends, which I am very excited about. Dunno about him." She shrugged a bit sheepishly, as if to say "kids; what can you do?" Henry chewed on his toy and looked up at her curiously. The combination reminded her of something, and she turned to call up to the stands.

"Nume! Stop lurking and come participate for a bit. This is mandatory party behavior!"

"I'm not singing," he informed her flatly. However, he did set his book aside and come down to stand with crossed arms at the fringe of the group. Better to suffer a small dose of foolishness now than the subtle revenge the green-eyed woman would take later if he didn't.

"I'll take what I can get," Jenni said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, we've got a cake here, so I hear there's some sort of ceremony that goes with it. Uh..." Shifting Henry to sit on her hip, she freed up an arm to light the two candles. "So, here we go! If you don't know the song, make something up, I guess."

She took a breath and led off a round of "Happy Birthday." Notably, Ilraen's non-voice lent an odd psychic undertone, and Derik managed to carry it off with far less difficulty than he'd implied, though the crowd covered him for the most part. Not notably, Nume did not sing. He did, however, join the customary round of clapping at the end.

Jenni sat down in a chair in order to hold her son at a level with the cake. Fitting the event's theme, it was decorated with the Hogwarts crest. "Okay, Henry. Blow out the candles! Blow!"

Henry stared at the flames for a few seconds, then did his best and produced a slightly wet raspberry. Despite this, the candles winked out simultaneously.

Jenni blinked. "Well now. You are your fathers' son." She grinned and planted a kiss on the back of the boy's dark, fuzzy head.

"Okay, everybody, dig in! It's Convenient Cake, so I know you'll all enjoy it!"

Ilraen smiled at the question. He actually had some practice answering it. <We Andalites speak with telepathy. Do you know what that is? I understand that some worlds do not have people with the ability, but many do.>


Having won the race to the ball, Henry seemed to think that was prize enough and sat down contentedly. He watched Helen try to bite it for a little while, though it was too big to really get a good purchase on that way—he would know, he'd tried it before. But of course, one could never be too certain about these things. He left her to it. Artemis was causing a very interesting noise with the rattle, and Henry also noticed that he had dropped the toy apple. This was something New and Different, and therefore the most interesting.

"Ball?" he queried, starting toward it. It had certain ball-like attributes, to be certain. Further investigation was required.


"Oh, don't worry about it, Ben," Jenni said, waving off the man's concern. "You do enough every day. That's a great gift." Steering abruptly away from that line of talk before she could sound any more corny (although absolutely sincere), she indicated the large Warcraft Troll beside her. "By the way, this is my friend Barid, though I suspect he's here more because the invitation had the word "party" in it than anything else," she joked. "But, I should go around and act hostessy, so I hope you'll both excuse me."

Stepping back from them, she looked around for people she hadn't greeted yet, and decided to head for the food table.


"Complex," Derik agreed with a chuckle. "The records say I arrived in March, 2008, just before the lockdown, so technically it's been nearly three T—uh, years. It hardly feels like it, though. I remember fighting in the 'Sue invasion, but I don't think I've lived for three years since then. Some kind of odd time-dilation effect during missions, I suppose." He shrugged. "Anyway, I'm from Pern, though the fic I came from was a crossover with Potterverse. ... You probably don't want to know the details," he added, contemplating the likelihood that a 'verse native probably heard more than enough horrible things about it already.

"Hello, welcome!" Jenni called, grinning at the new arrivals. "Say hi, Henry!" She waved the boy's hand for him. He stared at the group for a moment, then buried his face in her shoulder.

"He'll come around." Jenni smiled. "Thanks for coming, and thank you for the nice present," she said to Stephanie, reaching down to lightly ruffle the girl's hair with her free hand. "Could you put that over there by the wall for me?" She gestured to a relatively visible but out-of-the-way spot.

"Help yourselves to snacks," she said to the adults. "I'm expecting a few more people before things really get going. Oh, and if you haven't met, this is Ilraen, and Derik, and the lurker up there is Nume. He's our designated party pooper."

<Hello,> Ilraen greeted. Derik stepped forward to shake hands. Nume ignored everyone.