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

[gorobo]

Falcon tenses a little when Magpie approaches, eyes flitting over, but... he also doesn't move, or snarl at him to leave. Magpie... was there to see it all. Him talking to his Shadows, his weakness. It leaves Falcon uncomfortable, which isn't to say anything of before, but...

"Yes," he says, clipped, and then, a little softer, "if you want."

[pancakeboy]

Shit. In a way, it would have been so much easier if Falcon had stayed true to form. Nothing for it, though; he drops into seiza on the blanket with infuriating grace, not too close by, folding his hands on his knees.

"Thank you," he says, softer than he meant to. If I'm a machine with a human soul, then that's the truth. He steels himself. "I wanted to apologise."

[gorobo]

Falcon doesn't quite relax. He doesn't move away- or change the way he's sitting, even if part of him itches to show Magpie I can sit just as respectfully and gracefully as you. Another part of him has its hackles raised, convinced there's an ulterior motive behind Magpie's actions.

Hereward tuts. Falcon... doesn't ignore it, but acknowledges it's irrational anxiety.

Magpie's apology is what makes him lift his head in surprise, though.

"I... why?" he huffs, letting his head drop back to his knees. "You only did what you thought was right."

But it did hurt. Hereward whispers, and Falcon's eyes narrow.

There's a pause, and Falcon's next words have to pry their way out of his mouth. "... You deserve one as well."

[pancakeboy]

Yet see how he doesn't offer one, Loki whispers in the back of Magpie's head, though his face is schooled to careful silence. Another voice pops up, though, not a Persona but by now as clear and bright. I believe in you, Magpie, says inner-Raven. I know you'll try.

Rather than throw a pillow at Raven-in-his-head, Magpie watches Falcon for a long moment. "You understand apologies as well as I do," he says. "Better, perhaps. I used to think of them as the oil that kept society working, as if it was some sort of complicated clock. Maybe you had a different image."

[gorobo]

"Something like that," Falcon murmurs, watching a petal drift by the two of them. "That's what they are, most of the time."

Words to placate another party so they'll continue to cooperate. Meaningless words that people expect, to soothe your own guilty consciousness, but ultimately don't change anything.

In the back of his mind, Hereward crosses his arms, expectant. And yet...?

"I was caught up in my own head," he says slowly, clipped, "and I lashed out at you. I... wanted to apologize as well. For whatever it's worth."

[pancakeboy]

It melts something inside him, as if he stood on solid ground and now he stands on quicksand. Or as if that oil he was talking about got under his feet, and he slipped.

He looks away to compose himself before he replies. "I don't regret involving myself in the mission. Too much was on the line. I had a duty to the team"—and its leader, he does not say—"to report any factor that might have endangered us.

"But what I do regret is the situation I placed you in." The words fight to stay inside him, barbed and burred. "Your situation was difficult enough. I had to choose between the mission and"—again, Raven watches him from the back of his head—"our friendship."

Well. There it is. He said it.

[gorobo]

It's like someone's pulled the rug out from Falcon. His only outward reaction is his eyes widening minutely, but inwardly...

... Friendship. Is that... can they call what they had before that? If he had a stomach, it might've done a flip, but he doesn't, so instead he's left with this strange, uncomfortable feeling.

But I didn't endanger anyone, he wants to bite out, but he doesn't, because that's not quite true, is it? Loki and Robin had felt faint, even back then, and what would have happened if they'd left him in the middle of the fight?

Hereward brushes against his soul, encouraging. Falcon realizes he's been quiet for far too long.

"... I appreciate it," he says. "I admit I reacted... poorly, to say the least." It felt like you were choosing Drake over me, and like you were telling me you didn't think I was capable of choosing my own path. "Even if I was"- ugh this feels like pulling teeth- "hurt, I do regret how I treated you." Magpie even extended an olive branch- one that Falcon immediately crushed beneath his heel. "That's no way to treat" -is he really going to say it- "a friend."

God. There. He said it, his eyes firmly on the cherry tree to his left. If he weren't a robot, he might've been blushing out of embarrassment.

[pancakeboy]

Yeah, Magpie's attention shoots sharply back to Falcon, before he catches himself and forces it onto one of the trees. The same tree, coincidentally. But no way in hell is he going to flap about what tree to stare at, thank you, Loki.

"I appreciate it," he eventually echoes, feeling each word on his tongue, still not looking at Falcon. "Two years ago I would have..." He shakes his head; time and distance have let him recall the nights he thought he would die of aloneness, as well as the scorn for sentimentality that he hid so well by day. "I would have wanted to laugh in the face of anyone who said such a thing. But when I broke what we had, small as it was, I found it hard to leave behind. I knew it would make matters worse, but it didn't make the fact of it any better."

Magpie had hung back, at the end of the fight. But the time hadn't been right then. And perhaps, too, he'd been a coward. Which he hates. He stares at the cherry tree as if he wants to shoot it with lasers from his eyes.

[gorobo]

"Indeed," Falcon murmurs, if only not to let the dead air hang too long. He feels horribly vulnerable- almost just as bad as he had back in the dungeon. It's stupid; Magpie won't be there when- if he ever returns to his own world. Whatever they have won't make a damn difference, and Falcon will still be just as lonely, just as isolated.

Hereward chides him gently, and Falcon huffs.

"Sentimentality on its own doesn't save anyone," Falcon says lowly, "but... losing our- bond," because that's what it is, just the same as what Phoenix showed him, "I can't deny that it accelerated my mental deterioration."

One less thing to keep him going. His grip on his legs tightens.

"... I don't know how to fix this," he admits, practically feeling every word clawing at his tongue. "It's broken, and I-" Go on, say it, Hereward encourages, "-miss it."

[pancakeboy]

The words weigh heavy in his heart. They're what he was skirting around, almost word for word: It's broken, and I miss it. As much as he'll miss Crow, when he's gone for good. Almost as much as he'll one day miss Raven, which doesn't even bear thinking about. As much as he misses....

But he shuts that thought off fast. And, because he's slowly learned what a comfort touch can be, and because he wants to offer something as great as what Falcon has offered, he carefully offers his hand, across the distance between them. Idiot, he chides himself. He'll laugh in your face. He probably has as little use for touch as he does for eating.

He does it anyway.

[gorobo]

The moment Magpie moves, Falcon's hackles raise, briefly. He hates this new, anxious part of himself, far more prominent than it has ever been now that he's acknowledged its existence, but it's... it's Magpie. It's just Magpie, reaching out to him, offering him his hand.

Falcon eyes it, tilting his head. He's gloved, of course, hiding what he knows are human fingers, human skin underneath them. It's... a sentimental gesture. Something meant to comfort, perhaps, but Falcon doesn't feel nearly as well as a human does, mostly enough so he knows when to stop squeezing when he holds something.

It's pointless. Neither of them are getting much out of it. Falcon, because he can't feel properly anyway, and Magpie, because the glove impedes sensation.

Yet...

Before he can change his mind, Falcon wordlessly places his hand into Magpie's, once again looking at the tree. His sensors register the warmth of Magpie's skin, even through the glove.

... Maybe he's imagining it, but it feels like something has mended itself, even if just a little.

[pancakeboy]

It does feel that way—as if something that was in pieces has begun to hold together, veined with gold. A voice Magpie can't hear sounds elsewhere: Seeker, rank 9. And it's resumed its upright position....

He doesn't drag the moment out. Instead, he squeezes, firmer than his usual handshake but not much more so. Falcon's hand feels almost like Crow's, the same soft sense of give with a suggestion of bones beneath; perhaps a bit more rigid, but it's hard to tell. Then he lets go, folding his hands back on his knees, in their gloves.

"If you wanted," he murmurs, across the space between them that feels so much less wide than it did, "I'd be glad to try again. To rebuild what we had. I—" Fuck. He really is going to blush. "I missed you, too. I was concerned for you."

[gorobo]

God. God. this is so- he doesn't know how to handle this at all.

Hereward brushes encouragingly against his soul, and Magpie's presence feels too close, suddenly, even as he pulls his own hand back, tucking it under his knee, shrinking a little into himself. He's seriously glad he can't blush, right about now.

"I- yeah. Yes, I-" he says, rather awkwardly, "-would be amenable to that. I mean-" god, he feels stupid, "-that would be nice, yes."

There's a small pause, and then:

"Thank you. Magpie."

[pancakeboy]

"Thank you." Used to affection as he is, overused by Akechi standards, he draws away in turn to allow both of them space. They walked through the fire and came out the other side, and he offers the tiniest genuine smile. More than anything, Falcon is himself; Magpie values him for what he is, rather than the strange accuracy of his reflection.

"I suppose we owe Crow," he adds, rather more acerbically. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have known where to begin. Probably I'd have killed you," he adds, almost cheerily.

[gorobo]

It's a relief, when Magpie draws away, and Falcon relaxes despite himself. Part of him is angry, craves more affection, but- this allows him to think. He feels better, he thinks.

For multiple reasons. A small smile makes its way onto his face- before he lets out a sharp laugh.

"That would've put a damper on things, now wouldn't it?," he hums, vaguely amused. "I probably would've killed you as well, for that."

The words are sharp, but the tone is light. What's a few jokes about murder between- well, friends?

[pancakeboy]

It's one of the things they get about each other, that Magpie can never really indulge back at the Dojima house. "I'm sure it would have been fun. There's no knowing who'd have won. Perhaps it would have spread to take in the whole of the community—which would just about serve Igor right."

Or would it? Where would Magpie be now, without Igor? Dead, probably, with an outside chance of Ren being dead alongside him. Where would Falcon be? Still a slave to Shido's programming inside his skull?

Though he frowns, he's still reserving audible judgement on whether you ever have to hand it to Igor.

[gorobo]

"Wouldn't it?" Falcon chuckles, "perhaps we should, after all."

He is clearly not serious about that.

Though, Igor... Falcon doesn't like thinking of it, because it implies Igor did something good for him, but where would he even be, if he hadn't been taken here? Still Shido's slave, his perfect weapon. Or perhaps the Phantom Thieves would've found a way, regardless. Perhaps he would've been free after all, without any of the baggage that being here has left him with.

But that's rather optimistic. Most likely, he would've been scrap in some kind of facility already, if Shido's plans had gone through. Go through. He still needs to stop that man. Kill him. Take him down alongside Falcon.

... but where would that leave Magpie, and their newly reformed bond? Where would that leave Raven, or Phoenix, or Lyssi, or his own world's Ama-

He'll think about it later. For now, he'll simply enjoy viewing the cherry blossoms, and making dark jokes with someone he... likes being around.

Wanderer, Rank 9