[MINGLE, ESPECIALLY TO NEWCOMERS] ROOFTOP FESTIVITIES!!!

[icanfixer]

WHO: All!
WHAT: Rooftop festivities!
WHERE: On a rooftop of an office building in the second open district!
WHEN: 8/14, evening!
WARNINGS: alcohol, tba as it goes


Banner displayed inside the train station, outside city hall, and on the most used residence buildings.

Follow the arrows.
So you're unaware. Maybe new. Or maybe you just didn't care the first time you saw it. That's fine. Between the banners hanging around key areas, and the flyers quickly drawn up in a similar fashion scattered across the city, it's hard not to know something is going on -- and there's helpful arrows, chalked on building walls and the streets the day of the party, to let people know where to go.

The Rooftop

A splendid scene awaits those who travel heavensward. Fairy lights connect the corners of the roof access building to metal poles at the corners of the building itself, lifted by cylindrical supports where needed, each one held straight by pots filled with well-packed dirty and stone. There's multicolored stars hanging from some of the lights, while various painted flowers hang on others, and what greets the ears first is some royalty free party music played from a CD player off the the side.

There's a long folded out table in the center for those who'd like to share cuisine, just set and serve yourself! Nearby is a space for Daan to do some bartending as well, a man who can make a multitude of cocktails and mocktails for those who want something less alcoholic. Also, pints of various ice cream flavors in a cooler!

Don't worry -- they won't have any odd effects on them, Don verified the lack of them herself. Not all of them are normal. Think loaded baked potato weird.

For those who'd like a quieter space, there's beanbags and a swirly, fuzzy carpet to sit on more away from the center of the party area. This'll be a great time to play some games, such as truth or dare, spin the bottle, and... whatever else you play at parties. Get to know your fellow man and such. Play the violin.

Naturally, no party... hosted... by Don Quixote would be without a space to fight, if one wishes to show off a little! It's also taking place on a swirly fuzzy carpet, just so no one smashes their head in, and there's a neat little banner hanging down from a string of lights that says thus:

WIN THREE MATCHES AND A PRIZE AWAITS THEE!!!!!!!
- NO KILLING
- HANDS ONLY

What the prize is, no one knows. But come find Don Quixote with your battle scars and she'll grant it -- and stick around a while, 'cause this party's gonna end with a bang... that is, with homemade fireworks donated by "a friend" through Junpei.

Anyway, have fun!!! Share words about your worlds!!! The society your characters are from, the cuisine they've brought, how they're working out in the city -- help the new kids along, too. There's more vets here now than there were a few months ago, after all.

Navi: Truth or Dare - Two Truths and a Lie - Hydra Storytelling w/Junpei - Drink Up With Daan - Qixi Festivites

Comments

[gradenine]

[ nice. it'd be a lot better if they got drinks in hand like they're just making small talk, because the info that roland's gonna relay is nothing but small. so he moves closer to reno as he continues to look on at the faceless crowd before them. ]

First off, people have been killing each other around here. Mostly for personal reasons, but one of 'em actually offered herself up to killed to let everyone know of the effects. Said person is our dear organizer of this party, in fact. [ hey, don. ] Apparently, nobody can stay dead in this City. If you choose to murder, you'll be afflicted with some kinda eye thing where you can't see faces. That or your speech gets affected? Or even both. The victim will not only forget who'd killed them in the first place, but they'd apparently forget a different memory.

[ still with him, bud? ]

There are also cases of petty crime and shit around here, but they're only dealt with handcuffs around your wrists out of nowhere. We don't really know the laws of this place, so it's all been trial and error.

[ hold on, gonna take another longass drag. Man. ]

[astraphilia]

[ forgive Reno's eyebrows for lifting how they do—it's not that he doesn't believe you, Roland, it's just. what the fuck?

Reno's also a master of looking extremely casual while talking about extremely fucked up things, so his expression otherwise doesn't change, although he does lift his cigarette for perhaps a deeper drag than usual. his gaze travels over the partygoers, settling briefly on the young woman he thinks is most likely to be Don Quixote. of course, Reno doesn't look for long—no need to be caught staring as he wonders who the fuck volunteers to get killed. ]

Interesting. [ there's a whole lot loaded into that one word, but Reno needs a second to sort through the information. the people he's met thus far have mostly been newcomers like himself—this is the first time he's gotten a proper info dump. ] I ain't ever heard of punishing murder with prosopagnosia.

[ but the people who die... it sounds like they come back the same. maybe with some fucked up eyes or tongue, maybe missing a memory or two, but more or less the same person, like the city is reluctant to let anyone go. Reno tilts his head briefly. ]

We definitely ain't the control, then. If we were the control they'd just replace 'em with someone else, not go to the trouble of bringin' the dead person back.

[gradenine]

[ if there's one thing roland's good at, it's giving exposition. he shrugs. this guy didn't react as outwardly like the rest of the people here, at least. small blessings -- the last thing he wants is to ruin the party mood with talks of crime and murder. maybe this guy's used to that sort of thing. ]

Right? If anything, it's such a weak-ass punishment. And I hear it lets up after a week or so anyway. Who's to say the perpetrator wouldn't wanna try again?

[ hahaha... hah.

then again, as far as he knows, no one here has yet to commit the same crime twice. there has to be some kinda limitation as to how many crimes one can commit. but that's going to be a topic for another time, as he needs to think more about this. ]

But yeah, good point. Someone on the network said that it ain't the first time people have committed crimes like that here either. The higher-ups are definitely running tests to see how humanity works in times of duress or somethin' like that. [ his gaze goes back to don again -- or at least he thinks that's don? there's actually a lot of blond people over here. ] You think they taking parties like this into account too?

[astraphilia]

[ for better or worse, crime and murder are basically Reno's bread and butter, and it takes quite a bit to make him flinch. it's really just the self-nominated aspect of it here that he finds alarming, not so much the fact that it happens at all. ]

Anybody ever done it twice? Maybe it's worse the second time. [ Reno's mind is on the same track—maybe you get off light once, but subsequent crimes earn harsher punishments? that would really be the only way for it to be effective, if the death itself doesn't last.

since Reno doesn't know Don, and also doesn't really know Roland, it's easy for him to miss the cue that Roland himself is suffering from exactly the face blindness they just discussed. he makes a thoughtful noise around his cigarette, then says, ] Figure they must. Pretty shitty experiment if they're not establishing baselines.

[ what does Reno know about unethical human experimentation ha ha ha... ]

Baseline boredom, when shit's quiet. Baseline positive emotion. Baseline negative emotion. Then stress testing.

[gradenine]

Probably. But it ain't like they're gonna announce it to everyone here on the network. You're gonna have to be lucky enough to stumble upon it somehow.

[ speaking from experience here...

interesting how reno's going off about experiments, though. sounds like he knows his stuff, and though roland can't make actual eye contact with the guy, his interest is definitely peaked. ]

You a scientist or something?

[astraphilia]

Nah, not me.

[ another pause. ostensibly it's for his cigarette, but really Reno is weighing his options when it comes to how much he gives away.

he's getting the distinct and somewhat relieving impression that most people here have never even heard of ShinRa or the Turks and therefore won't put together the likelihood of Reno's own complicity in their war crimes, but the part of him that's been drilled and drilled again never to give away company secrets is fairly hard to overcome.

what he ends up with is, ] Used to work for a guy who was, though. Sometimes I'd see bits of the process.

[ that feels like a good middle ground between prevaricating and admitting to what ShinRa keeps in the basement labs. ]

[gradenine]

Oh, yeah?

[ roland gives him a once-over, discreetly ignoring the face. he definitely doesn't look like scientist, that's for sure. and the fact that he mentioned wielding weapons prior to coming here... ]

You some kinda merc too? We got a lot of guys like that here. I'm one of them, even.

[astraphilia]

Something like that. [ "merc" makes Reno smile a little—not that Roland would notice, considering how conspicuously he's avoiding looking directly at Reno's face. (he files that observation away for later.)

it's hard not to want to play his cards close to his chest, but the fact is that Reno's already given away a little about his employment, here and there, bits and pieces. after a second he adds, ]

Officially I'm in Administrative Research. We do a lot of stuff—personal security, intelligence... Plus anything the company doesn't want their name on.