starlogs | // HOLIDAY PARTY

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// HOLIDAY PARTY

WHO: EVERYONE!
WHERE: The Atrium
WHEN: December 24th
WHAT: Holiday party!
WARNINGS: None (but please mark if there is questionable content!)

// Jingle Mingle_

➣ Sparkles and Spirits
Late the night before, visitors will be asked to leave as the atrium is going to be closed for a few hours. It's completely blocked off from sight. In the morning, it will be open once again and the entire space is covered in a soft padding of snow. With more still falling! It's not entirely clear just where it's coming from or how they rigged it up to not even melt, but it's here. Throughout the day, the snow will keep falling though won't get any higher than one foot. Except for a designated area on the western side of the atrium. There characters will find copious amounts of snow to build forts or snowmen or wage an all out guerilla warfare snowball fight.

Stationed throughout the atrium in various places out of the way are buffets and bars to provide everyone with delicious delectables and delightful drinks. These stations are constantly manned and refreshed so that nothing is ever empty or anyone is left wanting. Don't see a food you're dying to have? Ask and one of the workers will be happy to seek it out for you!

Late morning to mid afternoon, there will be a gingerbread house contest. Everyone is encouraged to participate and show off their creative skill! All items needed will be provided to create your masterpiece. Various awards will be given out, including Best Use of Gumdrops.

Once the magic hour begins, all the lights in the atrium will begin to flicker on. Twinkling lights in the trees and candied garden lights will mark the path appropriately called Candy Cane Lane, which is little more than a means to encourage a more romantic atmosphere with a walk around the atrium itself.

➣ Flannel and Frost
Once night falls, the party is still going strong. More food is brought out and the drinks just don't stop flowing. Because what's a party without booze?

On the east side of the atrium a large canopy is stationed with a dance floor beneath it just waiting for everyone to cut loose. A DJ will be playing all night with pulsing, hypnotic beats that not one booty can say no to. Invite someone to cut that rug or dance by yourself like no one's watching. It's time to cut loose!

While walking through the atrium, be careful! There's enchanted mistletoe that will spring up anywhere at anytime and will trap anyone without restraint. (Did you think we wouldn't have this?) It hovers in the air with a soft green glow, encasing two passersby within an arm's length radius. Get those lips to puckering to get yourselves free! (A kiss anywhere counts, so don't fret!)

Tucked away on the north side of the atrium is a large maze. It boasts to be the best activity for the holiday party, but those in charge could be a little biased. It's a mystery as to what goes on beyond the entrance and the only way anyone can find out is to just march right in. The rules of the maze are: 1.) No one goes in alone (max. 2 at a time) and 2.) If you feel too trapped or lost, take off the visor and the experience will be over. Upon entering, everyone will be given a visor and set loose inside. Each group will experience something different should they choose to go into the maze, so please go HERE for a customized maze trip!

Everyone is free to stay as long as they wish, but around 3:00 in the morning, workers will begin dismantling things and ushering people out so they can clean. Once everyone is nestled all snug in their beds, they'll be visited by someone to get their holiday gifts! Happy Holidays!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Mio is already tired and she's only been here maybe an hour or two. The food is good, the shown is nice and pretty, but Mio can't help but feel bitter and depressed. Christmas? Already? And without her family--more importantly, without Mayu.

She's already debating if she's spent a socially acceptable length of time by now to bow out when Koumyou slips by. She recognizes him and turns almost instinctively towards him to follow and-- what? Say hello? Why? What did it matter? In the end it doesn't, really, because she's trapped in the barrier too now. She tries to step back only to find she's well and truly trapped as well and makes a face, melancholy replaced with irritation.]

Is your drink really the thing to worry about here? [She assumes it's either a drink or food he's talking about]

It's a very good drink. [It's an earnest assurance.

Cocoa and a particularly pleasant liquor along with a few other things added that he hadn't quite recognized. It was apparently a staple for certain cultures in the winter season. He gives it one last longing look before turning his attention more fully to Mio. ] How have you been?

[ Why not small talk? ]

Edited 2016-12-25 23:29 (UTC)

[God, why are you lie this, Koumyou.

Mio turns in the cramped space to press her palms against the barrier opposite where he'd been pushing, searching for some kind of give. She finds none and frowns] Fine. [She answers automatically, distracted and pats her hands a few more times on the barrier before giving up.

Wait, had he asked a legitimate question? Mio turns and leans against the barrier, considering before she answers again.] I'm... settling. I guess. It still doesn't feel real sometimes, but it's not like I have a better choice than adapting. It's just-- ["lonely," she almost says before she decides that sounds pathetic and shrugs.]

What about you? I'm sure you've made lots of friends already.

[ For just a moment, a shadow crosses his expression, but then it turns patiently kind. He leans back, casually, and makes a slight helpless gesture with spread fingers. ]

I'm settling, too, but I'd like to be friends. [ The alternative is too lonely otherwise. ] It helps to have someone to count on sometimes.

What, with me? [Mio blurts it out in open surprise, then seems to realize a second later how terrible that might sound. It wasn't like she hadn't had friends before, she'd gone to school, she'd had people she'd known outside of Mayu, its just that Mayu had been so...central. The earth revolved around the sun, and Mio had revolved around Mayu.

Was he wanting to count on her, or offering to be someone to be counted on? Her eyes narrow, suspicious and wary, but that too only lasts a few moments before she realizes how ridiculous she's being. Her gaze lowers and she shifts her weight. That weird look on his face, for just the briefest of moments, makes her as uneasy as it makes her curious. What in the word had provoked that and why?]

--Sorry. [Mio blurts out the apology and then winces, peeking through her bangs at him again.] I think I end up being insulting somehow every time we talk. [Why are you like this, Mio.]

If you want to be friends, I don't mind. I guess if we're all in this together we should be friendly. And-- [She trails off, not certain where exactly she was going with the rest of that.] And I guess it'd be nice to rely on someone for once...

[ The insult only seems to cheer him all the more. He brightens up noticeably, clearly enjoying her missteps. ]

How cruel, Mio. [ His effort to whine is an utter failure. Despite being trapped, this is kind of fun from a certain perspective. ]

[She looks panicked a moment before she realizes he's teasing her. Her expression changes rapidly to bafflement, and then embarrassed mixed with offended.]

I take it back. I take everything back. You're just having a big laugh at me, aren't you. [It's not really a question]

[ Well, he had been, but it was a very good natured laugh. His expression falls when she scolds him, looking remarkably like a puppy that had just been yelled at. It's a ridiculous look on a grown man, but it comes to him too naturally to be feigned. ]

Aw, but...

[Her brow furrows slightly, trying to squash the guilt that begins to well up upon seeing that look. No! She had to remain strong!!]

But what? [no do go on, she wants to see how he explains this one. She gives his expression one last look-over before sighing and shaking her head] Seriously, how old are you supposed to be...?

Not so old that you should take it all back. Couldn't you take a tiny bit back first? As a warning?

Edited 2017-01-06 03:44 (UTC)

[Mio opens and closes her mouth a couple of times, starting and stopping several sentences before she finally just falls silent.

It's-- ridiculous. The entire situation has reached a pinnacle of absurdity to her that she can't help but boggle at it. Just a week or so ago she was trapped in almost-literal hell, and here she was on a spaceship trapped in a strange barrier with an even stranger guy who has no business being this nice and silly.

So she responds the only way she feels like she can: laughing. It starts small, just a soft 'heh' before she's soon pressing a hand to her mouth, as she tries to get control of herself. Maybe she's finally gone a little mad.]

It's impossible to win against yo, isn't it!

I'm not any good at competitions. I don't have the character for it.

[ But he's pouting just a bit less, apparently hopeful. ] We should both win instead.

[She's still smiling a little, folding her hands behind her back as she leans on the barrier] Yeah? I guess so.

[Both of them winning is better than her just straight up losing, anyhow.] How?

First, we should probably escape. My drink is still out there.

[She throws her hands up in exasperation, but there's laughter in her voice] Your drink isn't the important thing here!

[Throwing her hands up like that also has her looking towards the ceiling, where she spies the mistletoe. There's a moment of surprise, and then embarrassment as she points it out] Why didn't you tell me we were under mistletoe?

Huh? Is that important?

[ Yes, it is, and he does know this. It's just easier to let her work through it herself. She would do just fine in figuring out how to save them. ]

Yes!

[She looks between him, the mistletoe, and the barrier. Say it ain't so. Her expression grows a little pained.] Oh no.

I. Um. [Mio fidgets and shifts her weight from one leg to the other] I think... we have to-- Uh. Probably, maybe... [Mumble mumble] Kiss...? [End her.]

Don't they know I'm a monk? That seems unfair.

[ Like that's ever stopped him from partaking in any other religious prohibiitons. He frowns at the mistletoe briefly. ] Ah well, shall we, then?

Are monks not allowed to kiss? [She raises her eyebrows skeptically, and also glances around him in the direction she assumes his abandoned drink might be.] I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to drink either.

[Okay so it could be non-alcoholic, but she can't help but rib at him for it anyhow.

Mio takes a deep breath and tries to ignore how hot her face feels as she closes her eyes and tilts up towards him, expectant. After a moment she opens one eye as if to say 'well? get on with it.']

It's a very good drink. [ Koumyou insists plaintively before he laughs under his breath, leaning in. He reaches up, touching her chin lightly in a soft gesture to get her to tilt her head back down. He gives her a light peck on the forehead, a perfectly chaste gesture that satisfies the requirements of the plant holding them hostage. ]

[She opens both eyes when he guides her head down, brow furrowed in confusion--um hello, did he not understand what a kiss meant--

Oh.

Well.

That worked too. She'd be more embarrassed if the contact hadn't sparked something like a shock against her skin, her mind whirling with a sudden dizzying display of images. Since she hadn't even been trying, the images are blurred and jumbled, impressions more than clear-cut. An idea of darkness, of light-- the sun, maybe, that seems overlayed over her own memory of the sun rising for the first time to chase away the never-ending night of the cursed village.

Mio's not sure if she's relieved or not that it's all hazy, even if it means no answers and just more confusion. She pulls back, pressing a hand over the spot where he kissed, too bewildered to even blush. The marking on her throat feels alive with energy, aching and making her voice a little hoarse.]

Just who are you...? [Nailed it.]

[ Koumyou cants his head slightly to one side, seeming to weigh her question. It's brief, and he rocks back as they're freed in order to give her more space. ]

Koumyou Sanzo. I thought we'd already gotten this far once before. [ His words are mild and light in tone, but there's something else there that he can't conceal. ]

There's more to it than that. [She sounds a bit frustrated and lowers her hand, frowning at him.]

I saw-- [And then she hesitates because 1. She's really not sure of what she saw and 2. that's kind of a weird thing to go blurting out to people. Mio eyes him a moment and then glances away, equal parts ashamed at her power and frustrated that it did nothing to help here.]

...You're so weird... [But it's not said in a way that suggests it's a bad thing, just a fact. Water is wet, the sky is blue, and Koumyou is Very Strange.]

[ He stills.

'What did you see?'

But it's only for a heartbeat, and then he's bouncing on the balls of his feet as he rescues his drink. It looks like hot cocoa, but there's a strong scent of liquor that is incredibly easy to discern. It'll be a miracle of Koumyou is not particularly flammable by the end of the night if he keeps up with these. ]

And happy. Look, I got my drink back.

[Mio watches him for a long moment, not saying anything, not sure where to begin. In the end, there isn't really much to say except that the mystery of Koumyou has just become much more interesting.] ...Well... I'll figure you out one day. [It's said more to herself than to him, a promise. Or, well, a hope, at least.

She lowers her hand to her side and instead eyes his drink, wrinkling her nose slightly at the scent of alcohol, moving the subject along now.] I hope you have someone to help you get home if you keep drinking those. You're going to end up having to crawl back... [Mio at least wants to make sure he won't be sleeping on a bench in the atrium somewhere before she takes her leave.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

// HOLIDAY PARTY

Mistletoe shenanigans

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