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

[daughterofursa]

Of course. She just said it's because we're friends.

[Because Zuko would say any differently.]

[hellpyre]

[... this really is a lost cause.]

Alright alright, I'll take your word for it...

[daughterofursa]

I can't believe you even got me talking about this.

[Rin might think it's a lost cause, but it hasn't gone at all like Zuko thought it might. And not just because Rin called her a walnut.]

[hellpyre]

[STILL A WALNUT.]

I can't believe how glib you're bein'.

[daughterofursa]

You think I'm being glib?

[hellpyre]

[Did she use that word right?

... okay Zuko reacted, so yeah. Probably.

Hopefully.]

... y... yeah! That's exactly what I think!

[daughterofursa]

Maybe it seems that way to you-- [Though she's really not sure how??] --but I've never... My sister was the only one who knew. I couldn't talk to her.

[hellpyre]

Then talk to some one else about it! Not everyone is your sister!

[daughterofursa]

I'm talking to you!

[Wow Rin she thought you were cool with it.]

[hellpyre]

[Dude of course she's cool with it.]

I mean--... th-that's not what I--

... talk to her

[daughterofursa]

I can't!

I can't just start telling everyone.

[hellpyre]

[You don't have to; everyone knows.]

I didn't say "everyone", I said her.

[daughterofursa]

If she... If she actually said yes, then what's the difference?

[Everyone would find out or at least those few people who don't already know. The idea of keeping the relationship secret never occurs to her. She can't see Aoi wanting to do that.]

[hellpyre]

What's the-- ... you really don't know the first thing about relationships, do you?

[daughterofursa]

Well, it's not like I've ever been in one.

[hellpyre]

Yeah but... you gotta have parents--

[Wait no that's a terrible example.]

... friends... who've been in relationships... ?

[daughterofursa]

I'm talking to her.

[There was Sokka and Suki but she's not sure if Sokka counts as a friend and also she didn't pay that much attention to their relationship stuff. Almost didn't notice it even.]

[hellpyre]

... oh.

[No pressure, Rin.]

[daughterofursa]

So, what's the "first thing"?

[hellpyre]

Usually gettin' past the whole "do you wanna date me" hurdle.

[daughterofursa]

Right. That.

[Why does the hardest part come first?]

[hellpyre]

[Because relationships aren't meant to be easy?]

I know you're gonna say "I already know her" but after you actually get past that part there is a whole different side of "gettin' to know some one" that comes with datin'.

[daughterofursa]

[An hour ago she wasn't even thinking about being in one.]

...what do you mean?

[hellpyre]

[An hour ago she wasn't talking to Rin.]

Wellll... bein' friends with some one isn't quite the same as bein' in a relationship with them. Even if they trust their friends, that doesn't mean they're gonna tell them everythin'. Plus there may be things about them, or things about you, that just haven't been shared yet.

Basically the two things I had to learn since I started datin' Ryuuji were that bein' honest and communicating even when it's hard are the two things that make it work.

[daughterofursa]

[Good job, Rin.]

Oh.

I don't know if I'm... any good at that.

[She may be a bad liar but that doesn't mean she's good at opening up.]