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 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.

[lakebrat]

"On the contrary." He's torn inside. Should he tell her something he's barely even shared with Ren?

"Would you like to know a secret?"

[cybermask]

She glanced at him. "Sure," if anything she was willing to learn. It was the only thing that kept her brain active after all.

[lakebrat]

And his knowledge of her checks out: if anything would stir her from despair, it would be the promise of knowledge. He steels himself. "My mother has a Palace."

[cybermask]

hm, strange. A palace wasn't something she'd ever considered her having. The ratio of them having mothers to not, however that could have been the cause of most of the loss of life. "You can explore it here, maybe you will be able to deal with it home then."

[lakebrat]

"Well, that's the thing." It had seemed so immense, hadn't it, that first time he saw it? A tangle of silver, like a finely-spun birds' nest, or a fairy carriage. Except for the pale, sickly light it had glowed with. "It got smaller. I sat with it for months, watching it, and it got smaller and smaller, as she herself began to sound happier. Sometimes, before I got here, I almost felt I could hold it in the palm of my hand."

Unlike his father's Palace, of course, which had bloated over the year like some sort of poisonous toad. But he doesn't bring that up.

[cybermask]

She hummed. She didn't know what could cause that. "Palaces are distorted. If that distortion goes away, it's entirely possible the palace could as well. But the shadow inside probably never did. It would have just shifted to mementos where all the other's are."

[lakebrat]

"That would make sense. Everyone has a Shadow in Mementos, the way I hear it." Not that he likes the idea of his mother, any part of his mother, down in that place—much less after what he's learned since he came here, about Yaldabaoth and all.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? My mother's distortion was her despair, I believe. But it's passing. And her Palace is passing with it."

[cybermask]

"Your mother... she's a special case. You are one of the few lucky ones. Not just with her, but having a mother at all. Persona users don't get shadows. Not without the cost of their own personas. I have mine. The two are not equivalent."