Hamuko Arisato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wipingallout) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
personavelvetroomdr2025-04-11 07:47 pm
wipingallout) wrote in personavelvetroomdr2025-04-11 07:47 pm
Entry tags:
Cherry Blossom Evening Party
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!!
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Still staring her down the whole time—and promptly grabbed one of the eel pieces she hadn't touched yet.
Chomped right into it.
"Is that the kind of impression your Zenkichi gives you?"
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She nibbles at the tuna, staying out of Zenkichi's reach.
1/2
In another life. Maybe.
"He's..." He starts before stopping right away.
Can't learn his damn lesson, can he?Biting the hand that feeds him...he knows his day as an inspector. The sheer naviety of it all- thinking he would have everything under control one day.He finishes the last of the sushi as well, now considerably full. He has half a mind to still follow this woman around, just to get a read on her when she does slip but his thoughts are held off when he picks up on someone else walking in on them. Heavy, an adult man's footsteps and he knows only two of them. Inevitably, his head turns to the new comer as he jumps a little at the way the man suddenly turned to him. Alert.
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He wandered up to the sushi table with a plate in hand, blinking at the tension so thick you could slice it into sashimi. Zenkichi’s entire body was tight with leashed fury, still chewing on eel like it had insulted his ancestors, and Ichinose looked ready to either bolt or brain someone with a serving platter.
Maruki gave a bright, painfully earnest laugh.
"Ahaha, wow...!" he said, a little too loudly. "You two are getting really... into the food, huh?"
He edged closer, very much like someone trying to approach a feral animal.
His smile strained at the edges but held.
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Not that she really cares. She sneaked a few maki rolls and retreated to Maruki's side, putting him in between her and Zenkichi and enjoying some of her takoyaki.
"I shouldn't talk too much, since anything I say seems to just anger him."
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"I would theorize that the birds just stop singing whenever you speak, Ichinose. Speaking of which, its Wolf to you-? Keep my first name out of your mouth. The audacity you hold, I swear to god you are insufferable as is even when you aren't hovering in EMMA's belly."
"I didn't know you were such an avid fan of sushi, Zenkichi-san," he pointed at the plate. "Though its a shame...not much of it is left for the others."
"You'll live without it," he rolls his eyes as he finishes the last piece and sets the empty plate on the table next to them. Like hell he feels much sympathy for Ichinose or for the man who's harbouring her. Birds of a feather flock together, don't they?
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It didn't change that he didn't want her to say shit to him in the first place, let alone using his given name, but she didn't really care either way. It hadn't crossed her mind before, she just spoke of him the way Futaba would address him all the time in emails, and if that made him mad? Then good. Fuck him.
"Go easy on him, Maruki. He lives in a post apocalypse - once he's back home it will be a long time before things are rebuilt well enough that he can enjoy food like this."
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Didn’t even twitch.
He just stared at her with the unimpressed deadpan of a man who’d fought wars bigger than her ego—and didn’t have the time or patience to indulge petty needling anymore. Or so he thinks.
"Yeah, well," he rasped, voice low and even, "the Thieves probably got to call me that ‘cause they earned it. You?"
He gave a lazy, sardonic tilt of his head. "You’re just background noise."
Maruki blinked once, took stock of the tension crackling between them, and offered an easy, practiced smile—the kind you wore when you were two steps ahead of a workplace meltdown about to happen over the copy machine. Or even before your colleague and your boss.
"Background noise, huh?" he chuckled warmly as he turned his head to blink at her deliberately, like they were all in on the joke. Are you insane? "Well, background music’s what keeps a party lively, isn't it?"
He expertly held onto his plate with one hand as he picked up a few skewers of takoyaki with the other, pretending like Zenkichi's LED wasn't blaring red.
No panic, no stammering. Just smooth deflection.
"Speaking of lively..." he continued, gesturing with his chopsticks, "Now that I think about it you two are seriously putting the rest of us to shame. I’ve never seen sushi disappear this fast. You should be proud! True warriors of the buffet."
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"En garde!" she joked, brandishing her pick at Maruki like the world's wimpiest knife and laughing lightly, jovially. Like 'Wolf' wasn't even there.
1/3
For a beat, it was clear he hadn't expected her to actually joke back.
He chuckled and gamely lifted his own pick in defense.
"Ah! A duel!" he declared in mock alarm, crossing his takoyaki skewer against hers with a half-hearted, clumsy parry. "Mercy, mercy!"
The skewers tapped together with the most pathetic little clack.
2/3 (think maruki will approach him seperately. don't think zenkichi would stick around for long)
It was...strange.
The way she laughed, easy and genuine, felt wrong on her.
Like it didn't belong to the same woman who’d twisted entire worlds into cages.
Huh.
Maybe Maruki was doing something to her. Or maybe this was just what happened when you let a monster steep in an echo chamber long enough.
Either way, he wanted nothing to do with it.
He adjusted the collar of his Yukata, muttering back, "Yeah, kiddo. All good. Just..." He exhaled through his nose, watching Maruki and Ichinose poke at each other like overgrown children. "...getting some air."
He shifted his weight, the faintest scrape of sandals against wood, about to make his quiet exit—
"You sure you don't want to stay a little longer, Zenkichi-san?" Maruki offered with a friendly smile. "Once you're done eating, there's plenty more to drink. Wouldn't want you missing out."
There was a beat of hesitation.
The invitation was gentle. Open. Like Maruki was used to pulling stubborn, hurting people back into the fold without making them feel trapped.
Zenkichi’s fingers twitched once, faintly remembering easier days—the clink of glasses, Maruki's grievances with the process of his surgery or discussing the developments of his Rumi's hospitalization. Both of which had met its tragic end.
He shut that door before it could even open.
"Nah," he said gruffly, giving a small, dismissive wave. "Forget about it. Just keep her in line."
It wasn't personal.
(Or maybe it was. Just a little.)
He turned on his heel, hands shoved into his sleeves, the edge of his yukata catching the breeze as he slipped away from the table.
3/3
"Well," he glanced back at her. "That was...something."
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She looked at Zenkichi's retreating form, seeing the fire leaving him. Chewing, a bit, in thought.
"If he's disheartened for the night, you don't have to rescue me again. You can catch up with Hamuko-chan, and I'll go check on Morning."
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It was so important for people to be kind. And just.
That said...he sympathised with Zenkichi. Who wouldn't be? If he came across that burglar in this world, regardless of how much good will he held, regardless of his motivations and passions; he couldn’t erase that imagery of how he lost everything that mattered to him.
And Zenkichi lost. More than anyone deserved to.
When Ichinose offered him the deal to seperate he answered a beat later, brows relaxing from their relentless furrowing like he was just pulled out from his deep thoughts.
"No, no, I didn't even do anything. You handled yourself really well." Quick not to take any credit, he waved his hand in dismissal. "That said I will...go ahead and do that." It was so obvious from his expression and the way he followed Zenkichi’s retreating form that he wanted to speak with him again. They did fight and drank alongside each other before all of this- maybe he could salvage a bridge?
So what was he waiting for? With the way his eyes turned to Ichinose like a puppy, he was still waiting for that slight confirmation.
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It was pitiable. She pitied him. But she also could relate, a little bit.
With a waving gesture, she nodded towards Zenkichi. "You better hurry, then, before he goes home."
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His plate...he will probably have to ask Azathoth to save up on it if he keeps wandering around with it.
"Thank you," he smiles softly as he pops in some of the dango into his mouth while stepping back. "I am sure it won't even take that long, I know he's a bit of a drinker and he can afford to put his guard down a little. As a treat. " And also just for the sake of making sure he and Ichinose can make it out safe and sound from the party (he can only ignore the slight cracks- hand prints??- on the plate that man just left behind for so long.)
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"Come get me later when it's time to go~"
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"Sure will. Say hi to Morning from me too- I just hope he's doing alright," Once he was done with his plate, he set it aside and simply let Azathoth’s tentacles do the talking, quickly peaking in through the gaps of his sleeves to fully save up on some of the food in its infinitesimal space.
"See you soon then-!"