Waking the Dead 2.0 || August 9, 2063 || Tuesday

[kalikat]

[Dinner is served late in the mess hall because it's a grand banquet in honor of the Magistrate of Kibo. It's a pretty modest celebration, all things considered: the people at Kibo are invited, along with her family, any Searing Wind members who feel like dropping in from wherever they've been as of late, and a few friends among the other Keepers of the Vigil. That's about it.

Still, Kalika looks like she's having fun. Her husband and her children are, of course, all in attendance, together with her husband's familiars and the entire division of the Strays from Seigi. The food, mind you, is excellent, and there is more than enough booze.

You're welcome to come and go as you please. Kalika's easy like that.]


OOC Notes:
+ Will have some threads for NPCs of note, but just to give you a general idea: many members of the three blades are in attendance, along with pretty much anyone whom Kalika views as family. If you want to request for somebody, lemme know!
+ Debby and Noey: feel free to put your NPCs in here. =w=
+ Feel free to start your own threads too. Just specify if it's open to all, or if you're going to thread something out with a particular PC.

Comments

earlier part of the party! a little after he speaks with aria

[larue]

[ You've caught him leaning by a wall nursing a can of Sapporo in hand. You will likely note, given the way one hand is lifted up, that the snake rings he usually wears is visibly absent from either pinky.

His eyes are also shuttering a little when he sees who it is that's come his way.

Sorry Stan, he's kind of unable to people tonight. ] Hey, man.

[bladeweaver]

You look... out of it. Are you alright?

[What Josh doesn't know is that Taning did pick up on his reaction when he saw Taning approach. He's seen him field other people; there was none of that. So Taning will assume that Josh has a problem with him, but he won't push.

Well, maybe he will. But not tonight.]

[larue]

Just tired.

[ He may have skirted the truth earlier, but this one's legit. His exchange with Brigade following his little side-trip to New Atlantis and the moment he'd taken to cry to Cindy on the phone has prompted him to crash; never you mind that it was the middle of the afternoon. ]

Fell asleep when I got home. Woke up feeling like a MAC truck had run me over.

[ A MAC truck in the compact form of a text message -- but you don't need to know that. Instead, he's trying for humor, even if he wants out of this conversation.

Lifting that bottle to his lips again, falling quiet as his gaze falls on Wiseman Tagabigay's current animal companion. There might be a smile there. Just the barest hint of one; but it's there and gone as soon as you blink. ]

[bladeweaver]

[Taning's not exactly dense, man. He gets the feeling that no one except Brig and, oddly enough, Yulia, truly truly gets that. Goofy, yes; dense, no.

You can't afford the luxury of being dense on a battlefield.

So he gets that you don't particularly want to talk to him. Piecing things together from what he observed, it also seems like you don't have this problem with certain people. So he'll back off. He'll know, for one reason or another, that he's not someone you want to talk to right now.

Careful, though, Larue. This one has feelings, too. And you don't know this tell, not yet, not when you almost never see it and would probably, without context, construe it differently, but when he logics at you instead of for you, he's beginning to be upset.]

Right. One of the toughest guys I know, just happening to wake up feeling more tired. I'd say you were sick, but you don't look sick, and I can tell. Soldiers can. So you're upset about something. Whatever that is, [He raises his hands in surrender.] I won't ask about it. Just know that I'm around to talk to, if you want.

[He pats you on the shoulder, like nothing is wrong. Which is true enough. Nothing is wrong. Yet.]

[larue]

[ There's a moment where this one has a really, really lost look on his face when you reply, as if he's not entirely sure what to make of what you just said -- nor does he actually have the energy to.

He is tired. He shouldn't be, he knows this, and maybe at the start of the party, right after he'd spoken to Kalika, there'd been a moment where he thought he could make it through the evening okay; but he's glimpsed Hikaru about half a dozen times, and they're not talking, he doesn't even know if approaching the Blade King is even a good idea right now -- and having you turn logic on him actually really stings.

( He doesn't want to think about the text you'd sent earlier. A part of him understands that it was well-meant, but he's got his threshold for being called stupid and dumb and being told it repeatedly by people he considers his family is just kind of the icing on a cake he didn't want in the first place. )

He won't flinch when you pat him on the shoulder, but he's not going to talk either when your invite doesn't exactly come off like an invite. ]

I'm just not feeling like myself tonight, man.

[ He really isn't. He feels exhausted. It's been a long, long day and it's far from over.

That old tic has come back, too: the brief touch at one eyebrow, before he runs his fingers through his hair. ]

sorry my muse is being a jerk

[bladeweaver]

[Of course you aren't feeling like yourself. You've been getting bombs dropped on you this past few months.

But that isn't an excuse. You need to be tougher, Streets. Much, much tougher. Is it really surprising that I'm the one that expects it of you? I'm the looker-upper, after all. I'll follow you down a kraken's gullet for no other reasons than you're my friend and my leader. But in exchange, I WILL reserve the right to call you out when you're being stupid. I won't embarrass you, or go behind your back. Or hold back.

Maybe this is Taning's fault, for acting so goofy all the time. People aren't used to him being stern. In any case, after looking steadily, passively, at Josh, he will just... nod, in a manner reserved for an underling looking up to his superior, and take his leave.]

I'll leave you to you, then. Let's drink, when you're able, boss.

[Have a curt smile, and have Stan casually walk off, as if nothing had happened.

Is it just you, or did it get a bit chilly, though?]

it is ic so this is okay! huhuhu

[larue]

[ And he's going to watch you go. Maybe if he had the spoons to shelve this, he might have been able to say something else, but as it is, he doesn't kniw what to feel, he doesn't know how to make things right between him and Hikaru and perhaps the text message was apt: What if you were dying of a terminal disease?

He plays football nit baseball, but that was batting a home run of the not-so-pleasant kind.

He doesn't even have it in him to be angry. He doesn't really think he has the right. As it is, he's falling short and the people he looks up to are walking off from him, utterly disappointed.

Yeah, he's just... going to retreat to ine of those tables now. Maybe try to get through that level he couldn't get through on the plane. ]

fading to white!

[bladeweaver]

[Taning walks away. He's definitely disappointed.

But it's not at Josh. It's at himself, because yet again, he hadn't managed to get through to his friend.

I'm looking out for you, man. In my own way, because this is who I am. And this is all I know how to care.

He'll be making his way outside, now. A smoke or two... yeah. That's the ticket.]