#bergen_county

She rolls her eyes. "Of course not. So what did you fight him over?"

"He looked like a human penis" A nod

She pauses. "You hit him for that?"

DIrk ponders "He was probably racist"

"No, I'm just stuck on the idea that you saw a guy who looked like a penis, and your first thought was, 'I'd hit that.'" She tries to keep a straight face.

"HEY! " He looks around "Don't say that shit... folks get ideas.. lots of homophobes out there who give the poor fa..fruits no sympathy you know?"

"Oh, okay, okay....Sorry, I'm just in a kind of good mood, maybe a little silly. Learned another level of Spring, and I got to feel what it's like to be a tree!"

"Why would you want to be a tree?" He says confused

"Well, I didn't want to, really. It was something Clem set up to teach me more about Spring. But I'll tell you something...trees just don't worry about anything! They just stretch and grow and grow and grow...." She stretches her arms up to emphasize, perhaps still caught up a bit in the afterglow of tree-life.

"Uhm.. If you're into wood, sure" He says with a confused shrug.

A little side-eye, then she shrugs. "Just saying...there's worse things to be."

"Until someone comes by with a chainsaw" He says "But okay."

"You, sir, are harshing my mellow!" she declares with amusement. "Hey, don't know if you're interested, but we're doing a little thing for Connor tonight. He gets overlooked sometimes, so I'm declaring it Connor Day, and we're going to have a cookout around the bonfire and a little party for him."

"It's guaranteed to be cute. Fair warning."

"Uh.. I ..oh." He says "I don't gotta gift or nothing"

"Well, some of us are making cards. I'm making a certificate for him. Hey...if you could make something he could wear as a medal? That'd be cool. Like, nothing too heavy or too sharp, but maybe an old gear on a chain or something like that?"

"Yeah.." He says "I.. I got an idea. Sure... be back later with it" And he heads towards Anne Marie's house.

Sylvi grins. It's a good day.

Indeed, and later a 'medal' of sorts, made the head of a Thing (Ben Grimm) Action figure is presented. Around it, imprinted plastic that declares in writing : It's Slobberin' Time!

Dagmar brings peanut butter cookies, which Tove helped her with.

Gerd brings a new childling sized Cape, so one can be a superhero or dashing rogue

Connor brings.... himself, and.... hats! Hats for everyone, just cones of construction paper, really, but they have everyone's names on them, and curls of colorful fabric taped gaily to the tops to drift on the breeze like streamers. ...where DID that fabric come from? It's Connor Day, please don't ask!

Gerd will quicksilver Connor so he can race around like a maniac... she's sure he'll like that

"I don't know how you all knew it was my birthday! I kept it a secret a'purpose because I hate parties." He DOES love that! ROUND ANDround and ROUND and round and ROUND and round and....

"Here we go" Siv grins and presents a potted plant, a lovely flower with a long maned dog's head surrounded by petals. Where she got it, hard to say? "It's a Collie Flower"

it barks

He jumps back, astonished, and yaps back at the flower in delight!

"Uh-oh...." Sylvi says. "I can see where this is going."

Siv grins

"I love it! I always tell everyone about how I love cauliflower and now it's not even a lie!"

"Ha! That's great!"

"Just don't give me a bro-collie because that's still GROSS." He grins

"Not the way mom makes it," Sylvi corrects almost automatically.

"I tried it fresh and there's no fixing that stuff." So that's why there was some missing from the garden. "Blech!"

"I had to eat SO MANY cookies to fix my mouth!"

There are hot dogs aplenty, though probably nowhere near as many as Dirk would appreciate. And, of course, marshmallows to roast.

"Marsh-a-lows! You remembered!" The way he bounces up and down is pure joy. "Can I catch 'em on fire?"

Dirk hangs back mostly, having given his gift.

"Yeah, but be careful...they'll burn people like that."

At some point Sylvi goes to Dirk. "Cool medal. Thanks for doing that."

((*rewinding sound)) Connor is a little shyer around Dirk than the girls, as he IS rather intimidating and not seen as often as the troll squad. He -squeaks- when he gets the necklace, and gives Dirk a huge grin. "It's... it's slobberin', like me! And the Thing! Because he's cool even though he looks weird an' people don't like him, and he still saves the day all the time! Thank you! Ummmm, it's terrible and I will never ever wear it."

((*post-flashback*)) "Cool medal...thanks for doing that."

"Huh...deja vu..."

"Uh... sure..." Dirk says "You ever have..deja vu??"

Connor sets up a post by the fire and caaaaarefully roasts marshmallow after marshmallow. Each reaches a perfect golden brown, and then - whoops- a dip into the flame, and it's engulfed. He has to be quick with puffs of breath to extinguish them all - as he repeats this process at least 6 times. Carefully juggling the collection of sticks each with a blackened sugar treat on the end, he takes them to Dirk. "I burnt these and can't eat them. Can you take them for me?"

"Sure... here... hyou throw it in my mouth and I'll eat it..anything" HE offers "But not poop"

He tosses the marshmallows to Dirk and cheers with each one that is caught. "No one eats POOP." His nose wrinkles up. "I don't even like chocolate because it looks like doo."

And Dirk will catch the food, pretty accurately (He does practice biting in battle) and chomps it.

Siv whispers to the other girls quietly "No one tell him he's acting like a trained seal"

A cheer for each one that hits the target giant maw.