lap eight // day 271 (open) // IT'S PARTY TIME

[amphibian]

Who: EVERYBODY
Open: Open
When: 271
Where: In the empty space around the monument!
What:

PARTY MINGLE GO
Format: DO AS YOU PLEASE AND FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Warnings: If anything comes up, put it in the subject lines!


[As everyone wakes up bright and early this morning, it isn't going to be hard to miss what's changed in the empty space around the monument Just in case, though, signs with indicating arrows line the campground where the Bastion's newest guests are staying, reading, in Ura, "This way to the party!"—wait, party?

Oh yes. Anyone Aoi had managed to grab the day before ought to be prepared for this. A great big banner stretched on two poles over the monument reads "Welcome to the Bastion!", written in Ura again; there's a little variation between the handwriting, since Zanya wrote some and Zahi wrote others.

Every last piece of the area that can have something hanging from it does: Zuko's lanterns hang off all the nearby trees, and her streamers, mostly red and sometimes gold, line absolutely everything, including but not limited to all the chairs and tables Ryu got together and helped arrange. Other things you're apt to find everywhere: flowers. Between the Psiioniic, the Disciple, Ghaleon, and Crona, there are more flowers than anyone could ever figure out what to do with. Aoi's best has been done, though: garlands are hung up around furniture, tied around tree trunks, woven through branches, strung between the branches of adjacent trees, wrapped 'round the monument, and so on and so on. A lot of care has been put into making sure they look good instead of just being thrown every which-way.

A few mismatched vases sitting on the tables have some flowers sticking out of them, too—perhaps exactly enough in each to make a flower crown, hmm? There are no party hats, so some improvising will have to be done.

There's all manner of tasty treats placed on all the tables, of course: a platter of picked donuts is to be expected, given Aoi's hand in all this (and thanks to Naegi, there are plenty to go around and they're arranged almost elaborately), but Rin, Zia, and Mirielle have provided all manner of homemade goodies that aren't just Aoi's favorite desserts. Bon's made a cake that Aoi has proudly placed in the center of one round table and surrounded with the rest of the desserts.

Instead of food, one table has a chalkboard propped up on it instead, with a box of colorful chalk beside it. Aoi's already written a small message in the corner—Thank you, everyone! with a smiley face beside it—and doodled a couple of flowers around the edges. The board's five feet long and there's plenty of chalk to go around, so there's certainly room for collaborating on something!

Not far from all the food sits the enormous stack of Legos Aoi purchased at Ibuki's suggestion. Legos. Please keep your shoes on, for the love of god. Some of them have already been arranged to form half the outside of a floor and a chunk of wall up to Aoi's chest so everyone has an idea of what's supposed to be done with things, but there are more than enough to start new projects. On the other side of the monument, closer to the collection of shop buildings than the gazebo, the soccer nets Otoha and Takamura built out of Skyway scraps have been set up (flowers have been woven in and out of the netting, of course). Aoi's brought out not one, but two of the soccer balls given to her during the festival, just in case of a soccer ball malfunction or if the game gets big enough that everyone decides rules are for losers and the only way to play soccer is with multiple things to kick. In the absence of paint, Aoi has decided to use more streamers as field markers.

At the gazebo not far off (naturally, it's covered in streamers and flowers as well), there's a set of speakers and an amplifier ready for use—Ibuki's, of course, and the little note Aoi's written that reads "For Ibuki-chan!" (with the wrong characters for her name, but points for effort) confirms it. Her equipment from Colin has all been set up, too: the spotlights on the top and bottom of the gazebo will shine in all sorts of colors when Ibuki turns them on, and there are some additional bits and pieces to the sound system to help make everything that much noisier. Aside from hanging decor, the space in front of the gazebo has been left empty so that there's enough room to dance!

To the side of the gazebo and just behind it is the unreasonably long rope Shing somehow managed to scrounge up. Like absolutely everything else, it has a chain of flowers wrapped around it. A streamer's been tied around the very center of it in a bow, and hopefully that makes its intended purpose as a tool of tug-of-war obvious enough.

If Aoi has anything to say about it, this is going to be the best goddamn welcome party ever.

Enjoy the festivities!]

Comments

[amphibian]

[And where oh where could our hostess be?

The answer "the snack table" shouldn't really surprise anyone at this point. What's different is that she's not eating anything, though: she's asleep.

Yep. A late night following a big Skyway trip, and then an all-nighter to set the party up overnight—she'd had a couple people stay up late and a couple more wake up early to help, but she'd been up all night taking care of the rest of the setup, and now poor Aoi's all tuckered out. As soon as she finished, "I'm gonna sit down for a minute" turned into folding her arms on the table and resting her head there, and that's now where she's taking her nap, snoring lightly every now and again and drooling on her sweatshirt sleeve.

The festivities around her aren't enough to wake her up, but someone coming over and trying would probably do the trick.]

[scary_music]

[Ibuki... pokes her head out from underneath the table, where she hadn't been visible because of the tablecloth]

Uwoah!

How long was Ibuki out?! She didn't miss the party, did she?!

[Yes, she had been napping under the table... but the festivities are just beginning, so fortunately nothing was missed]

[amphibian]

[Still too stuck in dreamland to be perturbed by Ibuki's romping about beneath the table, Aoi responds with a snore that cuts off with a small hfffff noise from her space on the table.

People are starting to leave their houses and trickle over, though, so the party hasn't been missed, at least!]

[scary_music]

[She'll reach out, grab Aoi's leg and give it a shake. ... why she hasn't gotten up from under the table is anybody's guess]

[amphibian]

[That does the trick, only it startles Aoi badly enough that she jumps, yelps, bangs her knee on the top of the table, and reflexively kicks at the thing snatching at her.

She has swimmer leg muscles; Ibuki you've made a mistake.]

[scary_music]

[What she lets go pretty fast and ducks away further into the table]

[... while screaming-]

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

DON'T KICK IBUKI'S EVERYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!

[daughterofursa]

[Of course Zuko noticed Aoi napping, but she's not trying to wake her.

She did, however, fetch a pillow to try slipping under her head. She deserves a good nap after all that work.]

[amphibian]

[girlfriend of the year

The pillow-placing just kind of makes her roll over a little with a content little sighing sound, but she doesn't wake up! A+ job. Now she has something more comfortable to drool on. Thanks, Zuko.]

[daughterofursa]

[She's so cute when she's sleeping.

Not that that has anything to do with Zuko's decision to have a seat nearby and take a donut. She just didn't eat breakfast. She doesn't want to watch or anything.]

[cyan_maid]

[Wow. Okay? Suddenly party. Is this a thing that happens often in the Bastion? It definitely warrants investigating, and Jane is never one to turn her nose up at such things.

She's not particularly peckish, but she finds herself at the snack table anyway, curious about what's being offered and how she missed the memo - if she'd known, she would've been happy to bake a cake, no excuse is too small not to - and that's when she notices someone sleeping at the table.]

Oh - Um, hey, excuse me? Are you alright?

[There is a very gentle hand giving you a very gentle shake, Aoi, because it's a little awkward to get into the space of someone you hadn't met before, right?]

[amphibian]

[With a little hmmmph noise, Aoi shifts, and then slowly starts to sit up, blinking as she adjusts to this whole "sunlight" thing.]

Hmmm? Oh, yeah...I just—did I fall asleep?!

[And she leaps to her feet, rapidly glancing about the area—but everything's set up as it should have been, everyone's started to gather and it looks like everyone's having a good time—and she sighs, settling.]

Ehehe, guess I stayed up too late... Thanks!

[cyan_maid]

[Aoi's leap startles Jane, and she takes a step back as the other girl gets her bearings. Oh, geez...was it a good idea to wake her up? Jane doesn't want to think it wasn't.]

I-It seems that way, doesn't it...you're very welcome Miss, er...

[amphibian]

Aoi Asahina! Whatever you wanna call me's fine. Nice t'meet ya!

[cyan_maid]

N-Nice to meet you too, Aoi...my name's Jane Crocker.

I'm just going to go out on a limb here, but did you help set all this up?

[It's the only reason she could think for someone falling asleep in the middle of a party. It's quite a lot of work.]

[bakegarasu]

[... Otoha huffs in amusement, but he doesn't go to shake her to wake her up.]

[No, he just goes to try to pick her up in a princess carry to try to take her back towards the apartments to put her to bed. Or at least somewhere out of the flow of traffic.]

[amphibian]

[Somehow, she manages not to wake up right away—that happens a minute later, when she tries to roll over and finds that her entire sense of balance has been completely wrecked by the fact that she's been lifted off the ground.

Certain she's falling, she jolts awake with a shriek, flails, and accidentally knees Otoha in the chin.

Oops???]

[bakegarasu]

[Strangely, the smack to his chin doesn't seem to faze him at all. He just looks down at her and crouches so she can hop out of his arms.]

Thought I'd move you somewhere more comfortable.

[amphibian]

[And hop out of his arms she does, cheeks puffed out in indignance.] Away from the party?! No way! Don't you think it's weird to just pick girls up and carry 'em places?!

[wayofvoice]

[Paarthurnax has no intention of waking the Bastion's favorite donut lover up. However, that doesn't mean he might still not do it when he moves behind her, attempting to pick her up very very delicately by the scruff of her jacket.]

[amphibian]

[This is definitely the kind of thing that should wake her up, aaaand yet it doesn't. After all the other interruptions to her nap so far, including being picked up by someone else entirely, something in her brain has just kind of gone "naahhh" and decided to allow her some more unconscious tolerance for ridiculousness, because waking up has just been a pain in the butt and not actually helpful in keeping her aware of any real threats at all so far.

Up she goes and instead of waking up like a reasonable human being would, she just kinda yawns a little and covers her face with one of her sweatshirt sleeves.

Paarthurnax is now a giant cat and Aoi is now a kitten, apparently.]

[wayofvoice]

[Things have gone better than expected!]

[Carefully, he starts to take her away from the loudness of the festivities and ventures to the donut trees. Very carefully, he lays her down at the trunk of her favorite place and nods to a certain robotic spider which quickly scuttles over to lay down a certain amulet on her lap.]

[There, quest fulfilled.]

[blackblooded]

[Crona is clearly way tougher than Aoi. Because the meister isn't sleeping exhausted on the table, despite being up all night making flower crowns and garlands.

Crona tries to go over and just sit next to the girl quietly, but then Ragnarok decides to get involved. He lightly punches Aoi in the head.]

Hey! Don't sleep at your own party, idiot!

[amphibian]

[She jolts awake with a yelp, hands immediately flying to where she's been hit. The sting wears off quickly, which doesn't stop her from glaring as soon as she looks around and finds Ragnarok. Of course.]

Hey! That hurt!

[blackblooded]

Idiot! You're sleeping through your own party!

[That might be Ragnarok showing something like concern.]

[amphibian]

Hitting me's no— [wait] Oh! Oh no! [She jumps to her feet and glances rapidly around.] How long was I asleep for?! We got everything set up, right?!