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Gaius poked his large head in the door, checking to see if anyone else had arrived yet. Spotting his good friend, Gaius's grin widened and he walked over to the birthday boy.

"Hey there, twerp! Looks like you've got quite the shindig here!" he said, his tone playful as he bopped Marshall lightly on the shoulder. The other arm was wrapped around a package wrapped in brown paper - too neatly for Gaius to have done. It was probably something ordered...

"Well what can I call you then?" Gaius asked, bopping him again. In honesty, Gaius had been apprehensive, remembering his own birthday. That'd been the start of his changes. But it was Marshall's birthday, how could he miss it?

Speaking of ages... "Just how old are you supposed to be, anyways?" The horse-man looked down at his beaked companion. It was good to see the guy so cheerful, though the tells were more in the upward turn of the corners of his mouth and his eyes. Penguins didn't have much teeth to flash, unlike horses. "Are you allowed to drink yet?"

"Twenty-two? Holy cow..." Gaius shook his head. "That's only three years younger than me! When'd you get to be so old?"

He smirked at Marshall's height comment and shrugged. "Well, you have to admit it's hard to tell from your appearance either way... You're a lot rounder than you were when I first met you, ya know."

Gaius frowned, patting his belly with a hoof-hand and looking down at himself worried. He'd not been as active lately, but he thought he'd been doing better about walks and fresh air than when he'd been in the city... Was the caf food getting to him? Too many eggs and stolen sugar cubes?

"Is it really that bad?" he asked in a worried tone. Just to make sure, he set down the package on the table nearby and set about flexing his stomach muscles. "Does it look like I'm getting fat?"

He was worried for a moment, at least until the penguin broke into a fit of laughter at his expense. Gaius's face darkened into a glower as his ears laid back flat. "Bah! I should know better than to listen to you," he grumbled, straightening his shirt back in place.

Following Marshall's gaze, Gaius picked up the box, turning around to the penguin as if to hand it over, but instead he lifted it back over his own head, or at least as far as he could reach considering the length of his neck and head placement...

"What, this?" Gaius asked innocently. "Oh, it's just a little something... buuut you did call me fat. I'm wondering if maybe I should return it..."

Gaius laughed, but he couldn't taunt his friend for long. Lowering his arm, Gaius handed over the brown-wrapped package.

"I couldn't really think of anything to make for you, so... well, I had to go through the labs. But still, I figured it was worth it for your birthday..." he shrugged sheepishly and grinned.

Gaius grinned. "Hey, you expected any differently from me?"

Inside the brown paper was a plain white box, which when opened revealed stylish hand motorized fan, all black and silver. It looked like the kind of thing you'd find in one of the magazines they have on airlines where everything's too expensive to actually buy. It could fold up for compact storage, and had multiple settings operated by a slider. AND it was chargeable, rather than running on batteries.