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

Open to All!

[icarusalsoflew]

[This one looks fine, all things considered. You'll usually see him with his family, eating, drinking, talking, quietly chuckling at this or that joke. He does, however, steal outside to join Alistair a little too often, or to just... be outside.

Those who know him best will know that this is Hikaru Shinta avoiding the crowd, because he actually can't people. He puts on a good show, but he has tells. They're only too easy to read into, with practice.]

[therealbrianna]

[ Hikaru's one of the people that Brianna approaches with no sense of urgency at all. Usually she'd rush to people's sides and chatter away, but she greets him softly and with a small smile. ]

Hi daddy.

[icarusalsoflew]

Hi.

[Have that sort of smile directed right back at you, Brianna.]

Saw the gift that you gave Kalika. That was sweet of you.

[therealbrianna]

Well, you know I love giving gifts. [ She clears her throat and says in a much lower voice: ]

So... Uhm... How much does he know about recent developments? [ And no Hikaru, she's not referring to Josh. She's also set to ask Alistair how he is, but this one wants to make sure she doesn't accidentally blurt out something that Hikaru wanted to keep secret. ]

[icarusalsoflew]

[...Internal sigh. He knows, though, that he shouldn't have any issue with talking straight to Brianna about. Well. Anything.]

He called me a few hours ago. I kind of broke down on him.

[And he really wishes that he could stop doing that. Being fucked up sucks.]

[therealbrianna]

Oh.

[ Pausing for a bit because she didn't really expect to tell Alistair right away just what had happened. But then again, this is probably how they operate: honesty and trust. ]

[ Reaching out to gently squeeze Hikaru's arm. ] How'd he react to that?

Setting this before Alistair's arrival, since he does turn up late!

[icarusalsoflew]

He just listened, mostly. I think I needed that.

[Even if it didn't quite feel right yet, leaning on Alistair Mordechai for something like this.]

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised that he's coming here.

[He may not be around just yet, but he did text ahead...]

[bostova]

[ Because she did say they would talk later, she'll approach him before he escapes to wherever he was going. ]

Distracting yourself?

[icarusalsoflew]

[Have a short, helpless laugh.]

I'm not sure how to answer that. I guess?

[bostova]

...I meant Ireland.

[icarusalsoflew]

Ah.

[Welp.]

Giving myself a bit of time to recover, more like. [Okay, cigarette time.] I need to pull myself together.

[bostova]

[ Ah. Well, that's understandable. ]

I... don't really have anything else to say about that. But if you need any of us in Ireland, we will be there. The Davao trip won't be until the end of the month, and... that's a lot of time in between.

[icarusalsoflew]

Thank you.

[He means it, and the look in his eyes is genuinely grateful.]

Really, I appreciate everything that the lot of you have been doing for me. It's good to know that you've got my back.

[bladeweaver]

[This one runs into Hikaru as he is heading out to have a quick smoke. Being at a party has always been tiring for him, given his natural introverted tendencies, and the fact that this is Sister Cat's birthday hasn't helped his stress levels at all. Though he does admit to himself that he is being much less obvious about it, possibly even appearing almost completely jovial.

Morticians training coming along swimmingly, yup.

As he heads out to breathe and recalibrate, he notes Hikaru just coming inside. He waves with a grin, legitimately happy to see someone who can't people like him right now and doing almost the same normal act.]

Hi, Hikaru-kun! How's outside?

[icarusalsoflew]

Hey. It's people free, which, at this moment, means that it's nice.

[He can feel that old awkward seeping from your bones, brother. And he also knows better than to bother being charmingly deflective/deflectively charming. You're familiar with his tells and you're smart, and you're also kind of family now.]

[bladeweaver]

[Okay, he'll match that show of trust. He grins, sheepishly, and shrugs a little as if to say "welp, you caught me!"]

Yeah, I kind of get what you mean, in the "I seem to be getting better at people, but they are still very tiring" kind of way. But family is family, and we do what we can for them, don't we brother?

[He pats Hikaru on the shoulder bracingly.]

But you're not an introvert like me, so I assume something else is up. Just forget I brought it up, if you don't feel like talking. You're a big boy, you can handle you.

[And he grins at him, meaning it. Josh tends to mother-hen, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, so does Yulia (that one mother-dragons, though) so out of the Hounds, he does believe he's the one willing to cut Hikaru the most slack, save maybe for Brig. It's one of the things he counts on when the time comes that Hikaru absolutely must listen to him.]

[icarusalsoflew]

[It's moments like this that remind Hikaru, yet again, how lucky he is to have someone like you close at hand, and to have you helping him watch over his family --

-- but you're not just watching over the Fukuzawas now, are you? You're one of them, at least in his eyes. He's pretty sure that his father feels the same way. And family is honest with each other.]

Come to think of it... I think I need another cigarette. Can I join you for a bit?

[bladeweaver]

Sure thing.

[He stuffs his hands in his pockets for the walk out, rummaging in there for his cigarettes, which are almost always crumpled by dint of being in his pockets. He finally fishes one out as they are outside and lights it with a thought.]

I'd offer you one, but yours are probably in a better state than mine.

[He'll wait.]

[icarusalsoflew]

Probably.

[Flashing you a crooked smile as he's lifting his cigarette case, then taking a fag out for himself. You'll note, interestingly enough, that when he lights up, it's with gray flame from his fingertips. The way he exhales the smoke from his first drag also seems more like a sigh of relief than it does anything else.

He should be able to handle a gathering like this, especially since this particular gathering is taking place to honor his younger sister. Operative words being 'should be'.]

[renascens]

[ He's been laying low for most of the night, and checking his watch because someone promised that she'd be home for this and that one's yet to show. He's also been employing "sniper-mode", sticking to the far corners to scan the crowd -- after, of course, he'd handed Aunt Kalika her gift.

When he spots Hikaru alone outside though, he's swiping a bottle of sake and two cups and making a beeline to join the Blade King. ]

My sister is late.

[ He's not going to be direct. He's his mother's son and even if he wasn't, he's got good eyes.

Sliding you a cup now, Uncle. ]

[icarusalsoflew]

[Noting your approach almost immediately, and his smile grows all the more pleased at your words.]

Oh, Maggie's coming? It'll be nice to see her.

[And taking that cup now, with murmured thanks. You may note that he's looking a little better than he was earlier. Thank you, Brianna. Thank you, Yulia. Thank you, Taning.]

[renascens]

[ And he's glad to see that. Still, this one's big on Root Cause Analysis. ]

Dad struck a bargain. You know how he is.

[ Sipping from his own cup now, biding his time. Patience is key -- his mentors taught him that. ]

Besides. It's Aunt Kalika. That and, [ he's leaning back a little to peer inside in the general direction of one Kaz Zobel de Ayala. ]

[icarusalsoflew]

[Chuckling at that first statement. Ah, Cen... ever reliable.

Then he's following your gaze from over his cigarette. Hum.]

He's doing surprisingly well, all things considered. Apparently, I'm one of his Social Links.

[You may or may not have heard about that.]

[renascens]

[ He didn't. And he's going still at that for two whole heartbeats before he tips his own cup back to his lips. ]

How.

[ You'll know him well enough to hear the emotion beneath the calm. ]

[icarusalsoflew]

I have no idea.

[And that's one Hikaru Shinta, your crazy Blade King/Wolf of Zangyaku uncle, saying that.]

Might want to ask your Uncle Jessie for more input, but I think he's still working the logic out for himself too.