Cherry Blossom Evening Party

[wipingallout]

You have received a private message:

Throughout the week, Hamuko has messaged the vast majority of people she's met so far - and eagerly invited them to come meet at Inokashira Park starting at 5pm.

⋆🌸₊˚⊹♡❀˖°🌸⋆

You're invited to an evening sushi-party-turned-hanami-picnic-party! I've organized a bunch of cognitive chefs and performers to come to that park on the listed date/time.

I've sent this to you because you were part of one of the three teams that helped with fighting Fatalis or rescuing Falcon and Wolf (or are Falcon and Wolf themselves!!) - we've all busted our butts a lot lately, so I think we deserve to have something nice together too!

Of course, the party is open if you have any +1s or more. But before spring turns into summer, let's celebrate what we've all accomplished together!




.🌸˚𑁍.ೃ࿔*:･

The Venue...


Inokashira Park has a lovely river and trail and a phenomenal collection of cherry blossom trees. They're in the tail end of their season, filling the air with petals like snowfall.

In a large open area, Hamuko's arranged a ton of picnic blankets for people to claim and sit down on, though each blanket is HUGE to accommodate people sitting with as many people as they can handle! There are cozy pillows for sitting on too, stacked neatly to be borrowed.

There's a truly humongous row of tables laid out with an impressive amount of sushi presented. With a few trucks nearby, it seems there's a few sushi chefs making fresh platters of it to lay out through the night.

Similarly, there are food carts along the trails if you're not in the mood for sushi and would rather have some more traditional fare like dango, taiyaki, matcha, takoyaki... it's got the place lively and smelling fantastic! There's sake for the adults, and some cherry-blossomed themed mocktails for minors.

🌸𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖🎐

Activities

There's a few set out activities besides just chowing down and socializing or walking along the lantern-lit trails under the cherry blossoms! Inoshikara Park has always had cute little swan pedal boats or regular rowboats for 'rental' (not that money matters here).

The area is SO pretty, perfect for taking pictures to have as keepsakes. There's even a booth to claim a yukata and privately change into it, if you want to go the extra mile!

Finally, in lieu of a traditional band or modern concert, Hamuko has picked out a large set of speakers connected to a small karaoke stage and screen - menace the party with your sing-along! Get a little boost to your Guts!!

Comments

[cybermask]

She hummed. "Yeah, it is. Didn't know so many people arrived."

[lakebrat]

"I know. I feel like I don't even recognise half of them." But he does, of course; he knows them from the Fatalis team, or he just knows them.

He gives her another sideways glance, reading tension and shame. "I wasn't sure you'd come. I'm glad you did, though. Be a shame to miss all this sushi."

As if they can't get it any time they like. But that's not really the point.

[cybermask]

"I could go without it, I think both Goro and Ren would lock me out of my room if I didn't come." She was honest with her answer. It was the only thing that had been on her mind. She didn't have a reason to lie.

[lakebrat]

"I should hope so. I'd hide the key for them." But he's sitting here with her too, as if on guard. Like when they were back in Ren's Palace.

"Or maybe I wouldn't," he adds, more reflectively. "Maybe I'd break you back in. Phantom Thief stuff."

[cybermask]

She looked at him, for the first time. "I fully believe you'd hide the key, but you'd also take me to Le'blanc. Phantom thieves have a moral code."

[lakebrat]

He meets her eye; he knows Leblanc isn't the comforting place for her that it is for many of her alternates. "I'd take you to Leblanc if you wanted to come with me, sure. You're always more than welcome. But if you wanted to be in your room? I'd help you get back in."

[cybermask]

She hummed, "I appreciate it. I think your home life would be a mess though. Ren would make you sleep on the couch."

[lakebrat]

"He might. Or maybe we could come to some sort of agreement. You never know." Even if he wasn't so used to tiptoeing around his mother, he might have said the same. The thing about giving people choice, he thinks, is that sometimes you have to let them make bad choices.

"Besides," he adds, more lightly, "I've slept on worse places than that couch."

[cybermask]

She shrugged. "I guess, if you say so."

[lakebrat]

If he says so. Right. He looks around for Ren, who doesn't seem to have shown up yet. "I get the feeling you don't believe me."

[cybermask]

"No, I don't." When should she anymore? She doesn't know who to trust since she can't herself.

[lakebrat]

"You don't have to." It takes him right back to before Leblanc, before his mother abandoned him. Back to the long, dreary times when it seemed there was a wall between them, mother and son, that nothing could breach. "Words mean nothing at the end of the day. Like moral statements, claims to virtue. Sometimes all you can count on is what you see."

[cybermask]

She nodded. That was something she felt herself. She didn't know fully on what to say anymore. "I guess that's something that rings true."

[lakebrat]

Yeah. He looks down again at the little plate in her lap. "How's the sushi?"

[cybermask]

"Wouldn't know. Got it to stop people from asking questions." She shrugged.

[lakebrat]

He laughs a little, barely there but real enough. "Sounds like you're an old hand at this sort of thing."

But he takes the hint. Sometimes you just need to be with someone, and that's enough.

[cybermask]

"You go to enough parties, you learn what makes someone stay in the background. Plenty of people want to talk up the young girl who's at this random fancy party. Even when she came with a young man." She toyed with her plate.

[lakebrat]

He turns to look at her, again reminded forcefully of his mother. "Did that sort of thing happen a lot?"

[cybermask]

"Not too often, but enough. Goro had plenty of press events, I just tagged along for recon and making notes about who could be a target. Never get attached to someone."

[lakebrat]

"Pieces of shit," he mutters. "You deserve your vengeance, sooner or later. Whatever it looks like for you."

He'd told Ann the same, after all. He'd left the decision to her. Futaba deserves no less.

[cybermask]

She gave a laugh, one full of pain. "What is it even worth anymore? Just get used up one way or another."

[lakebrat]

His eyebrows arch, but he keeps his tone quiet. "That's not true."

[cybermask]

"In what way is it not true? People use you, personas use you, gods use you. Is there even a free will? People will do crazy thing."

[lakebrat]

"We have free will." He squints at her, warming to the topic. "The situations I've been in—I may have been manipulated, I may not necessarily have chosen them. But I made my own decisions, for better or worse. And I wouldn't change them. Most of them.

"I know what it's like, though," he adds, more softly. "For someone to feel like they have no way out."

[cybermask]

"Then you know it's hopeless." She sighed.