The Deck [Thursday, Evening]

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

So, apparently America had one major downfall (aside from the fluorescent cereal and shit tea), and that was showing itself tonight. Fifth of November, and she suspected that unless she did something about it, no bonfire night anything.

Not that she'd be putting in a huge amount of effort herself. A packet of sparklers, some toffee apples and a bonfire was all she needed to do her bit of celebration.

Oh, and an effigy to burn. Close enough to a guy for her, and so she was out on the deck by one of the fire pits, watching the flames as she turned it over in her hands.

[[I'm out for a chunk later on, because, zomg BONFIRE NIGHT. But the deck is ooopen, and I'll be back around after I've seen my share of fireworks!]]

Comments

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"This mean I get to call you a weird fucking Brit now?" Alex asked when he finally brought himself downstairs and followed the fire. Wasn't that hard to find.

"Feel like I should have s'mores," he added glibly.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Would defeat the point a bit," she said, smirking over at him as he walked up. Only way to get graham crackers was on import. So American.

She wasn't going to agree to let him to call her weird, even if it was a little true. Or a lot true.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I thought that was the thing to do around here when fires were involved," Alex replied, raising an eyebrow at what she was doing. He was not up on his international holidays. "Practically a rule here."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Keyword here." He'd learn, that was part of this little exchange of theirs after all. "But this isn't about here."

"Bonfire night, not really about the marshmallows."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"What's it about then?" he asked curiously. "And if you say fire, I'll go find some fucking s'mores just to piss you off."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy smirked held up her 'Guy', turning it between her fingers. "It's... like a reenactment. The burning of Guy Fawlkes, bloke who tried to blow up parliament."

"And toffee apples and sparkly shit." Yeah, it was also about that.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And here I thought the Americans were the aggressive ones," he said, raising an eyebrow. "The British celebrate someone going fucking boom."

Couldn't quite deny that most American holidays were kind of weak in comparison to that. They didn't celebrate people exploding.

"He didn't succeed, I'm guessing?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"He didn't." Probably wouldn't actually celebrate the successful bombing of their houses of parliament. "Took a tough line on terrorists back then. Think it was supposed to be a warning or something."

"More an excuse to party now."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And here I thought you didn't need one of those," he said, using the fire to warm up his hands since it was there and all. "Though, it does give you an nationally recognized excuse to play with fire. Right up your alley, isn't it?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Works for me." Yes, absolutely up her alley. "Never was as good at the Guy-making part." Which is why she'd ended up with this freaky-looking toy for it.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"So, what, your whole country just burns things and eats fruits every year?" he asked, tucking his hands in his pockets and smirking. "At least we get barbecues on our fireworks holiday."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Normally get chilli and a baked potato." But there was no way she was cooking for this, thanks. "You're just gonna have to deal with the fruit part."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I can deal with that, don't worry," he assured her. "Fruit's not so bad. I'm just used to eating it in oatmeal of Pop Tarts. This doesn't seem so hard."

It wasn't like it took that much focus and concentration to burn things. Couldn't say he hadn't done it with a lighter before.

"You a good teacher or this just an easy subject?"

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Ooh, political protest?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy raised her eyebrows briefly as she glanced over her shoulder. "Not exactly."

Well, mostly it was because she fucking loved this holiday.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"So, burning little dolls for the hell of it?" She could get behind that. "No pun intended."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much," she said, shrugging. "Tradition." Not that she held much stock in that, but-- "Remember, remember the fifth of November."

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

This was a human custom she was not familiar with. "What happened on the fifth of November?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Guy tried to blow up our parliament," Effy answered simply. "So we set fire to shit and celebrate that he failed." Or something. That was rather over-simplifying the whole thing, but she wasn't really one for in depth explanations.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Celebrating the failure of a terrorist act? Awesome. "That sounds like a good holiday. Are there any other dolls?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy reached down into her bag and produced a spare to toss Leda's way. "Normally just have the one big one." But she was not about to stuff tights with newspaper and sacrifice her clothes just for that.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"This might be more fun. You can get more people involved." She herself wasn't fond enough of fire to get her hand that close to it so she tied it to a stick to hold over the fire.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"True." But it kind of defeated the point of burning 'Guy' to be chucking hundreds of him on. Still...

"Usually fireworks too." But America apparently had a bunch of laws about that sort of thing. She suspected the school administration would feel the same if she tried anything like that.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Oooh, those are fun. We don't get many of them in Bordertown. The powder's a bit unpredictable there."

She pulled a small flask from the inside pocket of her jacket and took a sip.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Unpredictable. Huh. Curious as she might be about that, Effy just nodded slowly.

"Well, got sparklers instead." Which were kind of fireworks. If you squinted and kept a fairly vague grip on the term 'firework'.