Guys' Night [OPEN]

[seafloor]

WHO: Dudes, dude. Bring all your dudely Outsiders, bro.
WHAT: Man I sure wish I could tell you Cracking a cold one open with the boys
WHERE: The Onsen
WHEN: 4/11
WARNINGS: Alcohol, nudity, dad jokes... This'll be updated accordingly

[ A few days after the girls have had their fun (cause girls just wanna have fun), another blanket text sweeps over the Outsiders' inboxes. This time, it's from Kaito: and he is proposing a very original idea that all the guys should come by the hot springs in a few days' time. Gossip and bathing are optional, but an empty stomach is mandatory.

Several pictures of newly purchased smokers, grills, and even a fucking pizza oven can be seen at various points throughout the message. There are also mountains of stacked beer and soda cases. Kaito's apparently going to be cooking enough to feed the whole base, or so he purports.

Where did he get all the money for this? Whatever, it's free!

He also adds in no uncertain terms that if any girls try to show up and sneak a snack, he will send them home with a stern warning and a bottle of water.

If you take him up on the invitation, welcome! It's a spring cookout and Pitmaster Kaito Nagano is going to be serving up enough barbeque to temporarily turn the onsen area into a Texan territory within Japan. Seriously, there's gonna be a metric fuckton of food and booze, and the hot springs will be right there when you're ready to get hot and hungover.

There are absolutely no plans after food. Feel free to stick around and socialize, but you will not be publicly shamed for just yoinking a plate and dip setting. Probably.

Aside from the barbeque, there are some horseshoes and cornhole boards set up (google it, it's safe, this is not a bit it's just a funny name for an american game) for dudes to try their hand-eye coordination at after having one too many drinks.

If you're feeling particularly brave, Kaito's got an ice box full of artificial fish (all the meat's artificial, let's be real) that you can try to attract a feral cat with. Good luck. ]

(( ooc: hello yes i didn't want The Boys™ to feel left out so feel free to make top levels and just get some general cookout social time in with your boyos. make it as friendly or awkward or awkwardly friendly as possible. go nuts. get naked. cause a ruckus. [ insert toxic masculinity here ] ilu ♥ ))

Comments

[yuwon]

[ a gift from the ocean...

why does this sound fake? the expression on yuwon's face shows clear disbelief, but he also doesn't think this is a lie he necessarily needs to see through, either. (it's probably not a lie). ] What's your relation with the ocean? [ maybe it's like poseidon, or so he's thinking. ]

A dragon may be useful. [ depending... but, he gets the feeling that may not be it. ] You talk about dragons as if they're commonplace. [ an observation... maybe his world isn't too different in that sense. at least not with the creatures within it. ]

[seafloor]

Depends on who you ask. I'm either a pest, an interloper, or the ocean itself.

[ Kaito throws his arms up in a shrug. ] Meh! I couldn't care less about the politics.

I talk about dragons like they're common because they're not particularly rare in my world. Elusive, yes. Legendary, sure.

But not rare. My world hides much from its people behind paper-thin Veils.

[yuwon]

[ the casual manner in which he says all of this...

but, yuwon could agree to not caring about politics. beyond crushing olympus, that is. though, that was less politics and more a means to an end. ] I could relate. [ to the politics or the dragons... ]

I see. From your experience, does this egg look like anything to you? [ he figures another perspective would help. speaking to the abyssal flame dragon the last time through sooyoung made him realize, it's probably not a dragon, though. but who knows. ]

[seafloor]

Hmm.

[ Kaito likes the hint of vagueness that Yuwon sprinkles on his replies. He also wants to know everything.

When asked about the egg, he reaches forward and hovers callused fingertips over the top of the shell. There's silence for a good five seconds, before... ]

It doesn't look like anything I know. And for the record, it doesn't feel like a dragon's egg from my world.

[ Kaito offers a shrug, followed by an apologetic smile. ]

But now I'm invested. I hope you tell me right away when it hatches.

...Though it would be hilarious and terrible if all you got out of this was a sword or something.

[yuwon]

[ his eyes follow kaito's fingers as they remain a careful distance from the surface of the egg, he also waits. though, he has absolutely no idea what he's waiting for. when kaito speaks, his head does tilt to turn back towards him.

it's not exactly an answer to all his questions, but it is still helpful to be able to rule it out, at the very least. considering the nature of the tower, where all lifeforms gather, it's not entirely hopeless to at least ascertain that much. ] No, I appreciate it.

It's good information to know moving forward, and... [ he gives a touch of humor at the idea of him alerting anyone to it hatching, but maybe. it's not like he'd normally share this much about him to begin with, so. ] Sure.

You'll probably see it anyway. [ hilarious... ] Thankfully, that shouldn't be the case. No matter what, the tower is fair. [ the reward always tended to match the achievement. ... though, is it worse that it actually hatches into a maplestory baby... thank god neither of them have to experience that. ]

[seafloor]

The tower, [ Kaito repeats, almost expectantly. ]

Is that some kind of gargantuan dungeon or holy palace in your world? Those are the first things my imagination spits out. Back home, we have some monuments like that, but almost all of them are hidden from human view.

Something, something, compensation for the imbalance of power between the races... [ His nonchalant tone suggests a lack of care—though it might just be because he's too far away to affect his world. ]

[yuwon]

[ the amount of psychic pain you put me through just now... ]

You could think of it as the world itself. [ not to state there wasn't much beyond that. but, from his little experience of having to explain it: ] Each floor of the tower could be quite expansive, even the size of a country. I'm not sure if I would call them a holy place, though there are lots of dungeons.

[ but, kaito's perception of them is fairly interesting. ] Was your towers similar to what I described?

[ if that's the case, it's unimaginable how vast his universe was. ]

[seafloor]

[ you want psychic pain you should look up all the lawsuits nexon got because of how they intentionally rigged the cube and potential system... ]

Whoa, that's wild... [ Kaito takes in the reply and paints a picture in his mind, then shakes his head. ] Nah, our "towers" vary greatly in size, shape, and composition. Some of can house entire countries' worth of people within their boundaries, while others are as small as plain old shrines you'd find anywhere in East Asia.

They all belong to various families of import in the world. Royalty, bureaucrats, business tycoons... And each one's primary function is to maintain the barrier that separates our single Earth into two planes of existence.

As for dungeons... I don't think our Earth's seen one in centuries. They basically stopped appearing after the treaty that ended the war between humans and non-humans.

[yuwon]

[ wHAT??? i lived in ignorance. i was truly boo boo the fool... ]

That's difficult to imagine. [ granted, probably not any harder to envision than his own tower. he presumes no one is really getting full insight to another's "world." ] So the important figures in your world build them? Just like that? [ but, he supposes civilizations tended to do whatever it took to ensure their survival. even LILITH had technology and capabilities beyond his comprehension. ]

When you say humans, do most people have any skills or abilities like yours?

[ not in terms of strength or proficiency obviously, but if they had them in general. ]

[seafloor]

Shit always looks weirder when you're looking from the other side of the fence. Or Veil. Gods from all the pantheons created the towers. They're the ones who made the Veil on the rest of the world's request.

[ Kaito shifts, lowering himself until the water's to his chin. ] Magic is still practiced, and people are born with innate gifts and skills, yes... But it's much rarer for all the races. The lack of interspecies war, and all that. Evolution dictated that it was no longer necessary for every generation to possess unique skills.

[yuwon]

You're not wrong.

[ it's true and real that things always seemed weirder...

but at the same time, give it a century or two and you think nothing of it. ] War seems to be a pretty common everywhere. Well, as long as no one is purposely... [ sprinkling the seeds of chaos, or so he seems to be implying. though, he cuts his words short. suddenly overly conscious of how much he's said, his lips even into a thin line momentarily, before he shakes it off. ]

About the Gods... do they often show themselves? [ while he comprehends every world is clearly different, the topic of a "god" is one that interests him. if just because of his personal insight to what waited for everyone at the top of the tower. ]

[seafloor]

It's unlikely, on my Earth. But we have our own troublemakers. The Great Tree comes first to mind. [ Kaito clocks that catch, but says nothing. He's also prone to a little bit of oversharing. What's the harm between friends, right? ]

Nah. They used to, but after creating the Veil and the towers, they vanished into their domains. Heaven, hell, everywhere in between... [ Kaito lists the sources off on his fingers. Golds flit to Yuwon. ] Many of them still live among mortals, just hidden away. Then there are all the demigods... Some of them have taken up positions of power, while—others are just trying to live normal human lives.

[ That was close. He'd almost slipped there and revealed himself as the latter demographic... ]

1/2

[yuwon]

[ friends... 🥺 even if yuwon is stubborn in not applying that label to anyone outright. comrades who share the same objectives (albeit, however disconnected it was from him personally) was relatively close, though, wasn't it? ] The Great Tree is not just a tree? [ simply going off of how it sounds. any sort of "world tree" or adjacent existences, however, always made him think of odin and asgard. ]

[yuwon]

[ as kaito lists off and explains, he listens carefully. it's difficult not be interested in another world, especially knowing all words tended to converge in a sense. whether in the tower, or in somewhere else completely. he seems to consider this briefly, looking back to kaito as if trying to assess where he fell in with what he's described so far.

others, huh... he just gives a small touch of an ironic smile. ] I can't envision that's very fun for them, but everyone needs a break. [ he guesses even people like hercules and hephaestus needed some reprieve from the tumultuous lives they lived before in a sense, too. ]