[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

[petsthedog]

...The wolf thing seems too obvious, so I'll go with the second one. Definitely had more than scratches, I bet.

[He knows you're immortal back home so it's GOTTA be, right.]

[icanfixer]

Is it...? I had thought that it would seem the most unbelievable.

[ you guys have so much faith in her wolfhood. amazing. she screams furry, does she. ]

Aye, thou'rt correct. I have yet to take down a Syndicate, in fact, but I firmly believe that such villainous folk must uprooted for kinder flowers to grow. I shall one day, and it will be with many scratches!

[ and deaths. ]

[petsthedog]

That's what makes it obvious. Nobody says that kind of thing in a game like this if it ain't true.

[You gotta have some trap answers, after all. Like his mention of Aigis talking to dogs.

That second part, though. Shinjiro goes quiet for a moment, thinking about Strega, and how he'd turned a blind eye to knowing they were murderers because they had something he needed. He imagines she probably wouldn't like him much, if they met elsewhere. It's probably a mistake that he hasn't tried harder to discourage her from knowing him as it is.]

...You'll pull it off for sure. No doubt about it.

[icanfixer]

[ ooh... she is learning. and

the certainty of his words brings a bright smile to her face, sinking into her beanbag as she kicks her feet. ]

Thy faith is much appreciated, my friend, for it is an inevitability in my mind. As soon as I am free of this place, and as soon as our mission returns us to the Backstreets which they rule.

[petsthedog]

[...

SHINJIRO.exe has encountered a fatal error and must reboot.

Sorry for the bluescreen there, Don. give him a moment.]

...Friend?

[Maybe a couple moments.]

[icanfixer]

[ by the wings she keeps befriending people who don't know how to have friends ]

Aye! We are friends, are we not? I certainly think thee as one.

[ would you say no to this face. ]

[petsthedog]

[He nearly chokes on his own air. The face is Super Effective, but don't count out the power of Shinjiro's intense awkwardness just yet.]

I...y-you don't wanna be friends with someone like me, alright. Trust me. I ain't--good news.

[icanfixer]

No? I do believe that is my decision to make though, is it not? I find thee kind and companionable, and so I wish to call thee such.

[ besides... not that shinjiro will ever know this, but most of don's home friends -- and herself -- are far worse. simply because of the place they grew up in being what it is, and she sways from side to side a little. ]

It is alright if thee do not feel the same, though I would be saddened to hear it. Know that regardless, I consider thee such; if not friends with, then friend to.

[petsthedog]

[Oh god, don't be SAD about it. This is so much for his little depressed kokoro to take. His expression looks genuinely pained.]

I'm tellin' you, you're wrong about me. Someone who goes runnin' around fightin' for justice or whatever's got no business callin' me a friend.

[He swallows, hard.]

Like I said, I ain't a good person.

[icanfixer]

[ sternly: ]

I have met far worse.

[ ... and then less so. ]

I cannot judge thee on prior circumstances I do not know, but the Shinjiro before me is one I should like to call a friend. He is selfless enough to suffer the burden of burying another, he is kind enough to be angered on behalf of one he'd only recently met, and... [ she quiets, leaning in, only for his ears. ] To desire something so strongly that he would sign away his own life to bring back another, I cannot say that is the mindset of a bad person.

[ a regretful one. someone who wants to atone for something they couldn't prevent, or something they caused. he isn't running away from it, not like her and the other sinners. ]

Can we truly not be friends without first seeing one anothers' scars prior and deciding on only that? Is it not enough to see thee here and now, and wish to be more?

cw ... suicidal ideation .....

[petsthedog]

[It's not that he thinks that aren't worse people out there. Even his self-loathing isn't quite so far gone as all that, so the first part of her statement isn't hard to accept. The rest, though...the rest burns at him. Selfless feels like an unreasonable stretch, considering how he knew there were other factors at play in his decision to offer, and he's always denied kind. He's made too many mistakes and caused too much hurt to deserve a label like that.

The third, in particular, feels a little like a knife in his chest, because she doesn't know. He didn't tell her what happened, what he did, and she didn't ask, but it's left her with assumptions that are too charitable, he's pretty sure. He's tempted to tell her the whole sordid tale here and now, push her away like he did Aki, ruin her night and at least earn the fire scorching his veins.

It's her question that stops him short before he does any of it. His breaths feel shallow; his stomach hurts.]

Nobody oughta be friends with me, Don. I shouldn't even still be here.

[Alive, he means. He was finished, and then he wasn't, and he's so, so tired. Making connections here is condemning others to grieve for him -- likely sooner than later, and there's so much of that on his soul already. More than he ever wanted.]

[icanfixer]

But thou art.

[ she presses further on it, firm and earnest. he had said it wasn't for him, a man on death's door from her train of thought that followed, but that didn't matter. plenty of people are. every day in the city is someone's last day, as much as don quixote hates that truth and wishes to change it. ]

Do not waste this time, borrowed or not, thou hath been given. It will be sad when it is over, even those alive shall grieve the connections they leave behind once we have left this city, but that should not stop thee from reaching out anyway. I wish to be thy friend. Life is far, far more bearable when there is someone who understands, is it not?

[ even a bit, the desperation they share. ]

[petsthedog]

I don't want to be--

[He freezes, then, suddenly -- he hadn't meant to say it out loud, in those words. It's true, of course; he has never denied to himself that this time feels like a burden to him. But he hadn't wanted to come out with it like this. Especially not to someone who likes him, maybe even cares about him, much to his chagrin.

This is exactly why people shouldn't befriend him. He can't seem to stop hurting them, even though he never wants to.]

Shit. Look, that's just it--people're gonna be sad enough to leave behind friends who've got lives to get back to, let alone someone like me. I ain't a good person, but putting someone through that'd be shitty even for me.

[icanfixer]

[ ... don't want to be here? her friend? alive? all of them strike in different ways, don quietly watching him the way she does her fellows when they're working through themselves, when she hasn't an idea of the words to say even passingly, her actions worth more than a thousand of them. violence solves a lot of things. it doesn't solve this. ]

Wouldst thee consider me "shitty" for wanting to put others through it regardless, knowing of such an inevitable end? Though I should hurt just as much as they, wouldst thee consider me a fool--

[ a pause, and then don shakes her head. ]

Let us put this aside for now, Young Shinjiro. It will do neither of us good to be wound up, when this party seeks to relax.

[ even if she's got so, so much more to say, fire in her eyes and clenched in her fist. maybe if they were someplace a little more private it'd be better, but close words can only be so quiet before they're not. ]