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

[memors]

[ It's the blind leading the blind here, because Ryoji has passing familiarity with alcohol, but he's never tried it before. All he knows is there is supposedly an age you're supposed to be to have it? But he doesn't know what that age is and he's not a narc. What could go wrong? ]

It's beer. I'll be honest, it doesn't smell great, from my experience...but people love to drink it. Want to give it a try?

[ They can experience it (and possibly be disappointed) for the first time together! ]

[peripheries]

Alright. I'm curious why people would drink such a thing.

[Sweet fruit juices and soda pop, sure. That can be explained by sugar. This stuff... less so. The other guy is right, it doesn't smell great but still.

Kaworu leans back, takes a big swallow... and then sputters and spits out whatever was left onto the ground. He coughs, wipes his mouth, and looks affronted.]

What is wrong with humans...?!

[memors]

[ In the spirit of companionship, Ryoji doesn't let Kaworu take a drink on his own, also cracking open his own can and tipping its contents past his lips. Oh, that's...

Foul, isn't it? He manages to swallow his mouthful, but not without his face scrunching up immediately afterward. ]

Eugh — I usually can understand them, but not with this...

[ He holds the can away from his body, but it's too late, the taste is lingering in his mouth and throat. ]

[peripheries]

I don't understand them at all. Why drink this when you could drink juice... or water? Or anything?

Are they choosing to suffer through drinking this for some purpose?

[He's just going to... drop the can and move away from it like it might jump up and try to start forcing him to keep consuming that bitter liquid.]

[memors]

Supposedly it's "fun". Once you drink enough of it, you forget your worries and are set free of your inhibitions. For better or for worse...

[ But it'd have to taste a lot better than this for him to be willing to try drinking enough to get to that point. Maybe some human experiences are better left untouched...

...Wait. ]

You're not human, either?

[peripheries]

I suppose that's what humans want: an escape from the painful reality they create for themselves, however they can find it.

[He stares at the can as it slowly leaks liquid into the earth. Shouldn't release at least taste good?]

No. I'm not. I was forced to assume this form by man but my soul is inhuman.

So what does that make you?

[memors]

[ How fascinating. It's no doubt thanks to mankind's intervention that Ryoji has this form as well, but he doesn't give credit to those who created him for his current self. ]

Someone like you, perhaps. In my world, I'm known as a Shadow, though more universally, it's easier to say I'm an incarnation of Death.

[ His soul is inhuman, but his heart, on the other hand...that's a bit more complicated. ]

It's only thanks to human intervention that I'm in this form as well.

[peripheries]

[Kaworu looks a little taken aback. He never expected an answer that resonated with him so strongly. Even those he had met who were not human were still in the form that they were meant to be.]

For what purpose did humans put you in that form? Did they seek to control your power?

[memors]

[ That question is enough to tell Ryoji the same — he understands what that's like, doesn't he? ]

...Not exactly. They didn't seek to control me, but rather to set me on the path to initiate the end of the world. I didn't have the awareness then that I do now, but that has always been my purpose.

[ So...being here is kind of strange, to put it lightly. ]

[peripheries]

That was also my purpose!

[He says, with the excitement of someone learning a new acquaintance came from their same hometown.

But he's never met anyone that he could relate to. It seemed so impossible he'd never even imagined what it would be like.]

Though I was aware of it from a young age. Did you do it?

[The tone is curious, eager, with no hint of judgement]

[memors]

[ The only other person that Ryoji has met that he could relate to was Ereshkigal, and even then, they only shared similarities over their ties to the struggle between humanity and death. This is something else entirely, a perspective that he never could have expected anyone else would understand. ]

...Not yet.

[ "Yet" being the key word. He still intends to. It's inescapable for him, just as it is for the rest of humanity, whenever he must return home. ]

It is only a matter of time. At least while I'm here, I have no bearing on this world's fate.

[ Beyond assisting LILITH, anyway. ]

[peripheries]

What's in it for you? Anything?

[Kaworu cocks his head and looks at the other boy. He understands the inevitability. He understands knowing what you must do since the moment you were born.

But now he's learned a little bit how to want things.]