Bonfire Mingle Post || OTA

[sanguinescry]

Around the time the sun is starting to set in the early to mid-evening on Saturday, 11/12 as promised, Lydia will (hopefully with the help of Allison and a couple of others) have set up a bonfire on the beach. She's brought several bags of marshmallows, boxes of graham crackers, bars of chocolate, and s'more skewers so that s'mores can totally be a thing. There's also plenty of blankets and towels spread around, because she wants to be sure everyone is comfortable. Jill has offered to bring the alcohol.

Lydia can be found making her way around, greeting and mingling with anyone who arrives and throughout the night. She'll be doing her best to appear approachable so that anyone who maybe hasn't ever been to a bonfire and has questions will feel comfortable approaching her to do that.

[ ooc: please feel free to respond directly to this with your own top comments to play out stuff in here or you can use this as a prompt to make your own logs elsewhere, totally up to you. If you'd like to play with Lydia, please consider this her top comment. Mods, let me know if I need to make any changes to this.]

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Cam Scordato || OTA

[respinto]

With Sophie's arrival came a new appreciation for this place. Maybe Jill had been right. Maybe if he just wanted something bad enough, it would happen for him. Sophie feels like proof of the theory, so Cam comes to the bonfire in good spirits. He has everything he could ever want here, now, and Cam doesn't want much. All he really wants is friends, food, fun, and his baby sister. So far, he likes to think he's doing decently well with all of the former and with Sophie's arrival, the latter has completed it. He's just glad that now he can really enjoy Itinere without worrying so much about his sister.

As much as he'd like to be clingy with her because he missed her so much, Cam has to remind himself that Sophie is an adult now and she doesn't need him as much as she used to. She'd do better with some independence. So he lets her go off and do whatever it is she feels like doing and maybe he's side-eyeing any guys she might talk to or who might approach her, just in case, but he doesn't act for now. For now, he's just enjoying the liquor and a bonfire because he's never been to one before. Being landlocked does have its disadvantages and while Greenwich was near a beach, it wasn't really the kind of city where bonfires happened. Country clubs ruled. Bonfires would've gotten the cops called, to be sure.

[adamparrish]

Equally standing near the bonfire is this sepia photograph of a boy. His skin is tanned, his sandy blonde hair is the effortless kind of mess that most boys try hard to achieve these days, only Adam's is natural. Only his eyes are a pop of blue color in the light of the fire. Ronan has gone off to get them some beer while Adam stays near the fire. He looks at the boy across the way while the boy looks at...

Adam's gaze follows that line of sight to where another group is. Who in that group is the boy eyeing? Adam can't tell what kind of look that is, but it's intense. It's almost the way Adam watches Ronan across a room except, not quite. Maybe it isn't romantic. But it's something.

"Looking for someone?" Adam asks, knowing full well that he could switch out 'for' for 'at', but the alternative seems a little too intrusive.

[respinto]

Cam is so lost in his focus on Sophie that he doesn't actually notice the other boy there. So when he hears the other guy speak, it takes him a little off guard.

"Huh? Oh, no," he says, shaking his head a little and giving a sheepish smile. "I'm being an obnoxiously overprotective big brother."

Cam turns his attention to the other boy and holds a hand out to shake. It takes an actual effort not to stare; the guy is hot as hell. Everyone he's met here is beautiful, come to think of it. This guy is no exception. Cam thinks he looks like a California boy; wonders if he normally wears Hollister or if he's ever gone surfing. He doesn't ask. "I'm Cam." He nods over in Sophie's direction. "That's my little sister, Sophie."

[adamparrish]

Adam is an only child, so he's not sure he can relate, but he can understand it. There's also the family you choose, that Adam has three of them here, and he gets protective of them. He can want to get away from them and protect them in the same breath even. And maybe that's the same as Cam's sister.

"I bet she's okay." Adam says, realizing how dumb and callous that sounds and quickly amending the statement. "Cause of the people... here. They seem okay, I mean."

Yeah, that didn't make sense anywhere but in his head. He really is kind of out of it. "I'm Adam."

[fictor]

Ronan is over getting more whiskey. In fact, that might be a theme for the night. He gets more whiskey and wanders over to where Adam is talking to some really tall guy. He drapes his arm over Adam's shoulders, leaning against him then jerks his chin up in a hello.

"Horse fuck, you're tall, Dude."

Say hi to Ronan.

[respinto]

It's hard to explain to people without things sounding weird why it is that Cam's so protective of Sophie and why he obsesses so much about her well-being. The thing is that Cam pretty much raised her. Their mother and her father were too married to their work to be parents and Cam ended up being mom, dad, and older brother to Sophie. She's an adult now and Cam isn't needed the way he used to be, but it's really hard to turn it off after all those years.

"I'm sure she's fine, it's just reflex I guess. Nice to meet you, Adam," he replies with a smile as the other man approaches. A startled laugh escapes him at the comment. "I get that a lot. ...the 'you're tall' bit. Not so much with the 'horse fuck;' that's a new one," he says with a smile. "I'm Cam."

It doesn't register right away that the gesture of putting his arm around Adam is a romantic variation. For all Cam knows, the Horse Fuck Guy is drunk. It wouldn't be the first time Cam's seen a drunk guy get weirdly affectionate with a good friend. Cam's done it himself.

...which, in retrospect, should be a clue but isn't.

[adamparrish]

Reflex. Adam gets that. Something you've been doing for so long that you can't quit doing it without some effort. Yeah. Adam has a few of those things. He understands.

Then one of those reflex things drapes his arm around Adam's shoulders and Adam leans into Ronan's side just slightly. "He has a sister here." He tells Ronan, just to catch him up with the conversation. He even gestures over to the girl in question.

Adam doesn't even react to Ronan's cursing anymore aside from a barely there shake of his head. "How tall are you?" He asks Cam.

[fictor]

The startled laugh isn't exactly the response Ronan was going for. He generally likes to make people uncomfortable as opposed to making them laugh, but he'll take that response. It even gets a smirk out of him. He could be okay with this guy if that's his response to Ronan's creative cursing.

Ronan is slightly drunk, but he's not weirdly affectionate with anyone except Adam and it's not a 'just friends' situation. He follows Adam's gesture with his eyes, glance skating over the girl in question and back to Adam and Cam. He gives a little nod of acknowledgement to Adam for catching him up on the conversation.

"Ronan," he responds when Cam introduces himself.

[respinto]

Cam's quiet for a moment to let the new arrival to the conversation be caught up by Adam and then he smiles and nods, holding a hand out to shake. "Nice to meet you," he offers.

Adam's question isn't lost on him and he comes back to it after introductions have been made. Reaching up to rub the back of his neck with the hand not holding a beer, Cam ducks his head a little for a second and smiles. "Six five," he replies. "Sasquatch-sized, if you ask my sister," he jokes weakly.

It isn't a new thing to be asked how tall he is, but he never seems to be able to answer without sounding like kind of a dork. It's a habit he really should learn to break. "You guys been here a while?"

[mightbeconcussed]

Okay, so Lucy came here with Cam. She carried alcohol with Cam. She's also had a great deal of that alcohol and lest we forget, Lucy is tiny (with an incredible alcohol tolerance relatively, but still).

Which is all to say that when Lucy yells across the beach and waves at Cam then yells "Cam!" it's not because she doesn't remember that she came here with him. It's because she's very excited to see him. He's tall and pretty and he entertains Jill. Also, he helped carry the alcohol.

"Are you having fun?" she says as she comes a little closer, still very excited to see him.

[respinto]

The thing about Lucy is that she's super important to Jill. So, needless to say, that means impressing her needs to be important to Cam. He knows how best friends tend to work when it comes to guys and he's not looking to give Lucy a reason to talk Jill out of giving him a chance. It helps, of course, that Lucy's as bubbly and fun to be around as he perceives Jill to be, though, fortunately.

"Lucy!" he calls back, amused. Taking a sip from his bottle, Cam nods as she makes her way closer. "Yeah, this is awesome. I've never been to a bonfire before. I always secretly thought they were just a thing people do in the movies, but not in real life," he admits. "You look like you're having fun," he observes.

[mightbeconcussed]

She is super important to Jill, but Lucy's main concern is that Jill is happy. Anything more than that is icing on the cake, but Lucy does like icing.

Lucy still has a red solo cup with a mint julep in it. She's lost count of mint juleps and shots tonight, which is the point of tonight as far as she's concerned and just proof that she's doing it right.

"I am having so much fun," Lucy confesses. She wore flat tennis shoes tonight and she's having a hard time walking in them mostly because she's used to four inch heels. She's a pro at walking drunk in heels, not so much in tennis shoes, but heels and beaches aren't things that mix. "We actually haven't had a bonfire here yet. Jill and I had a boat party, but no bonfire."

[respinto]

Normally at a party of any kind, Cam would be well on his way to drunken stupor by now. It's been a while since he's been to an actual party; those kind of ended with college, but he does admittedly miss that a little. He's not, however, going to let himself get wasted when Sophie is here. If she needs him, he needs to be able to actually respond to said need. Having a gigantic older brother is pretty useless when said older brother is drunk off his ass. Never mind that he's also been kind of keeping an eye out for Lucy and Jill.

At her proclamation, Cam laughs a little. "I can see that," he says, looking amused. "This is cool, I feel like this should be a more than one time thing," he points out. Not that he's going to approach anyone to continue to plan them nor is he all that interested in taking up the reins of host for something like this, but Lucy seems like the type that might, in a pinch, so he feels like it merits mentioning.

"Wait," he says, realizing belatedly what she'd just said. "A boat party?"

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy tries not to approach the drunken stupor stage simply because the morning after is never pretty. She likes to go home pleasantly numb and fuzzy. She figures that she and Jill together can stumble home. In any case, she's not particularly worried about getting home tonight.

"I feel this way too. Strongly," she agrees with a nod of her head. Lucy might do some planning. She likes throwing a good party. He's not wrong about that.

She beams a smile at his amazement. "Yup. We had rain for like...forty hours and forty minutes. Actually, a week or so. I was afraid it was going to be a Noah's ark situation so Jill and I wished up a house boat slash party boat, invited everyone and threw a Flood Party. It was actually pretty awesome. I wore a sailor suit and everything."

[respinto]

Cam being Cam means that he'll make it his responsibility to ensure that all three of them — his friends and his sister — get back home safely. That's just the kind of guy he is.

"I can't believe nobody thought of one of these before," he comments. "Since they're apparently an actual thing people do outside the movies and TV," he adds with an amused little smirk.

Hearing about the rain, Cam's eyebrows lift. "It didn't, though, right? Turn into a Noah's ark sort of situation?" He really hopes not. Worrying about monsters is bad enough and he's hoping that if weird shit keeps happening, then it'll at least be manageable weird shit… The explanation of the party doesn't keep his interest as much as it ought to, given that line of thought.

[mightbeconcussed]

That's very sweet of him and wins him brownie points. If he's going to date Jill (and not her as well) he'll need them because Lucy is very casual about who she dates. She is less casual about who Jill dates.

"Me either, honestly. We do this back home in Alabama a lot. It's kind of a summer tradition, but we've never done it on the beach since there isn't a beach near my part."

"Flood, no. Well, there was some water damage to some of the lower floors of the buildings here, but the city fixed itself a few days after it stopped raining and everything drained away." Certainly a manageable weird sort of shit.

[respinto]

"Did you?" Cam asks, looking pleasantly surprised. So it's not even just in this place. Because, honestly, some part of him is still sort of secretly wondering if whoever organized this is just...from the movies where he comes from, because that would make sense. But he doesn't feel like Lucy is; he thinks he would've remembered she and Jill if she was.

"I like this, it's like a chill kind of way to hang out. There's a focal point, you know, with the s'mores and stuff, but also it's just hanging out. I guess maybe that's why the idea always appealed to me but there's never been anywhere to do it. Back in Greenwich, we lived near the beach but the rules were like ridiculous. We probably would've gotten banned and arrested or something if we tried to have a bonfire there."

So, he thinks as he listens to her response, manageable weird. That's something of a relief. "The city literally fixes itself? That's a thing?" He pauses to consider that and then grins a little to himself. "Cool..."

[protetta]

Sophie is still getting used to this place, but she's not going to say no to a bonfire. Honestly, Sophie isn't that fussed about being here. She's a little worried that she'll get kicked out of college, but if they're never going back then there's no reason to worry. Besides, she's an artist. She doesn't need college for that. She's got Cam here and she's not worried about making friends. As far as she's concerned, staying here is absolutely okay.

Shortly after arriving at the bonfire, Sophie went her own way, grabbing a drink and mingling. She also does some dancing on the sand, roasts some marshmallows and eventually makes her way back over to Cam. She loops one arm through his and leans against him.

"Have fun, Big Brother?"

[respinto]

It takes a conscious effort to let Sophie explore the people and new place in which she finds herself. He's not used to giving her space, but he feels like it's almost equal parts his job to hover and back the hell off. He'd had a chance to get used to this place and meet people on his own, now he needs to let Sophie do the same so that she's comfortable here, because quite frankly, Cam's kind of okay with not going home if she is. Which...is something they're going to need to talk about sooner than later, but...for now, it's just an idea in the back of his mind. He wants to let Sophie settle in before he brings that up with her.

So he occupies himself socializing with others between watching her like a hawk to make sure everything's okay, but Cam makes a concerted effort to leave her alone and let her come to him unless he sees something that requires a big brother intervention. She's too young to be drinking, but bitching about it will make him slip from brother to dad mode and that's about the last thing he wants to do.

...it still slips a little by reflex.

"Yeah, hey," he says with a smile. "You look like you're having fun. What's that, anything good?" he asks nodding to the cup.

Subtle. Nailed it.

[protetta]

Yes, talking will be necessary. Later. Later is better. He's right to think that he needs to let her settle a little, let her make some friends and get a taste of what life would be like here before they have that talk. Also, it's a very good big brother to let her wander around on her own. She's hardly out of his sight, so at least there's that.

Everything is okay. Seriously. Don't be dad!Cam. He's too young for that. Plus, she prefers big brother!Cam.

Reflex, huh?

"I didn't even know real people had bonfires," she tells him. As for what's in her cup, she sticks her tongue out at him. "it's just beer and I haven't had very much. Besides, I'm in college now and you can't tell me you waited until you were twenty-one to have a beer."

[respinto]

"I know, right?" he laughs. Sometimes they're so much on the same page that it's kind of scary. Her response gets her a look of feigned surprise and offense. "Hey, whoa, take it easy, chief," he replies, stepping away to hold both of his hands up defensively. "I didn't say you couldn't have it, now, did I?"

Yet. He didn't say it yet.

Truthfully, he probably won't, but if she gets drunk and winds up sick, you can bet your ass he'll be holding her hair back all night and laughing at her all morning the next day. He's not gonna leave her high and dry but he's definitely going to savor the schadenfreude like any brother would.

[protetta]

Well, they are abnormally close. Sophie knows that even if she doesn't care that they are. She winces a little at his reaction, realizing she kind of over reacted. She mumbles a sorry.

No, he didn't say it yet, and if she were to start going overboard, she would totally expect him to put a stop to it.

She would expect nothing less.

"So, I talked to Jill. She's sweet and hot."

[respinto]

Cam's expression drops into something akin to abject horror when Sophie says she's talked to Jill. "...you...oh God, what did you do?" he asks.

Because, really, she's his little sister and he knows it's sort of unofficially a part of the job description to embarrass him at every opportunity, just like it's in his job description to do very much the same thing to her. It's always funny when he's the one doing the embarrassing. A lot less so when Sophie's the one with the upper hand.

[protetta]

Oh, she knows that look. It usually makes her squirm with delight. Right now is absolutely no exception. The smile on her face looks like Christmas morning.

"Nothing. I talked to her. I like her aaaaaaand," she pauses and takes a sip of her beer to give Cam a chance to squirm a bit longer. "I told her what you said about her being hot and liking beer."

She'll reserve the part where Jill took it well until after Cam has reacted.

[respinto]

His little sister has always been especially good at pushing his buttons, so Cam has gotten very good at being patient to wait through any intentional and unnecessary suspense. ...mostly. His expression still shows the exasperation he's trying to otherwise hide.

"Sophie! Come on," he complains, raising a hand to run over his face as it turns red. "Seriously, why do you hate me so much?" he asks, dropping his hand again. Now comes the obligatory guilt trip. "I changed your diapers, I raise you, I make sure you get to all of your after school activities, I help you with your homework...I move to New York City and this is how you repay me? Really, Soph? Really?"

Two can play at this game and she knows it.