OPEN💗 LATE VALENTINE'S DAY PARTY

[peoplewatch]

WHO: Newbies, oldbies, everyone is welcome!
WHAT: A Late Valentine’s Party mingle, since Valentines’ Day was over Kaiju month…
WHERE: “MANTRA”, an underground, alternative club in Neo Toyko
WHEN: March 10th
WARNINGS: Romance and shippy things, alcohol, hookah, suggestive things. Anything NSFW is to be appropriately labelled.

Around the 10th of March, Outsiders will receive a message in their ocular inbox from Kabru, the Outsider also known as @ rasgulla. The message reads:

“To my dearest friends and teammates,

If we haven’t met before, call me Kabru. When not on missions as an Outsider, I work as a freelance event planner for various businesses and private organizations within Neo Tokyo.

Valentines’ Day is a popular holiday in Japan that was sadly interrupted last month by the kaiju. My current client is holding a belated Valentines’ Day event and they would really like the Outsiders to come. There will be plenty of food and things to do. Even if you're not looking for a romantic time, I'd encourage you to come!

Please wear something comfortable. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Yours sincerely,

Kabru.”



A location pin comes attached with the invitation. It looks like Kabru’s become more adept at technology over the months.

Follow the location pin and you’ll find yourself in front of ‘Mantra’ in metro Tokyo, an underground, alternative club making waves for its uniqueness in the club scene. Outsiders will all be allowed in without much fuss. The owner of the club is a gentle woman who kindly requests that all guests take their shoes off and leave them at the side. There is a lingering scent of incense and the people hanging out in the club look remarkably calm as they relax; cuddling and enjoying each other’s company. What kind of Valentine’s day party is this? A New Age, alternative kind, apparently. The owner of the club wants to be promoting togetherness in a completely different way.

Thankfully, finger foods and alcohol appear to be abundant, even if Kabru would really like you to be mingling with the people! There is a bar with free flowing wines and spirits, and a table with hors d'oeuvres and small desserts as accompaniment. These can include sushi rolls, small sandwiches, crab cake bites, small skewers, chocolates, little cakes and tarts. Food aside, there is live music playing and guests are highly encouraged to dance.

Naturally, couples are also coupling up, but anything too raunchy is of course cordoned off to a private room. Also, ignore the people smoking electronic hookah at the side…

What can you do besides eat and drink?

1. DANCING 💗

The DJ mostly plays trance and synth pop music in the background but he’s happy to take requests. On the dancefloor,there’s always a group of tipsy guests dancing their hearts out, some dancing alone and others dancing as a couple. There’s no right or wrong way to dance and most people will not cast judgement. Give it a try? Better hurry, before some of the overeager guests try to drag you in.

2. CUDDLE PILE 💗
Numerous cushions are set out around the venue for guests to lounge in and cuddle. It’s highly encouraged, in fact! Especially after a vigorous dance session. There are people lying together in larger groups, and couples choosing to spend their time lounging and enjoying each other’s company. Finding it difficult to relax? The owner might give you a whiff of her special perfume that’s guaranteed to put you in a state of complete calm. It might even make you more open about lying together with someone else.

3. SPEED DATING 💗

There’s a speed dating round going on in one side of the club. Guests are numbered and paired up randomly, then given a short amount of time to get to know each other on a speedy little date. Don’t know what to say? A list of questions will flow in through the oculars to give you a prompt. (Please refer to here and here for some examples or make up your own!)

4. MAKE SWEET TREATS 💗

In the spirit of Valentines’ Day, the owner of the club is hosting a quick desserts-making workshop at the event. Guests will be provided with ingredients and taught to make chocolate or cupcakes, and they will get the chance to decorate it however they like. It’s highly encouraged to make something to give to your sweetheart or the person you admire. Do you really want to be the person eating their own chocolate on Valentines’ Day?

5. PARTY GAMES 💗

What’s a party without party games? Throughout the night, people will be getting drunk and playing local drinking games such as the King’s Game. Eventually, other games from the West get introduced by other people. These games include Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle and 7 Minutes in Heaven.

6. TAKE SOMEONE HOME 💗

If it looks like you're having a pretty good time with someone else, a helpful robot will approach you and provide you both with a key to a private room. Some of these private rooms are normal and some are themed, similar to a love hotel. There's no need to actually do anything raunchy of course. You could just cuddle up and enjoy the warmth of the digital fireplace! Everything one might need for a nice time together (condoms, lubricant etc) will be readily available.

As the event planner, Kabru will be buzzing around and making sure everything runs smoothly, but he can be stopped for questions or concerns (pls be nice to him he has anxiety). Characters can sit out of anything they want, but drunk and overeager guests might decide to drag them in.

[ OOC: I put this up so everyone can enjoy a chill mingle after the chaos of last month! And also because we didn’t get the opportunity to have do much for Valentines’ Day given the timing. Naturally, please label any NSFW, add your content warnings appropriately, and state your boundaries and preferences in terms of shipping/gen/being tagged by younger/older characters. ]

Comments

[followyourstar]

[They aren't used to having to hide their expressions. They aren't used to having expressions to hide--regardless of what Vergilius and Don Quixote may claim.

And so the distant look in those simulated eyes is plain to see, if only for a moment.]

We've got a purpose, but I wouldn't call it a movement. Can't really call a company that. But we all joined up for our own reasons.

[zauneyete]

A company shill, are you?

[ He says it like it's half a joke, half an insult. He'll let Dante make their decision as to whether or not they take it as such. ]

I won't ask your reason. [ But there's still curiosity in that look. Silco enjoyed knowing more than people gave him credit for, having the cards stacked, his hand ready to drop the winning hand when he so chose. ] I won't waste my time asking for what I know you won't tell me.

[ Hey! They don't like each other! He knows it! That's fine and normal! ]

What's the purpose? I can't imagine it is noble, if a company is involved.

[followyourstar]

I wouldn't say that... Just have a job to do.

[Truthfully, they'd say they're more loyal to the team itself than the company. It just so happens that's the umbrella they're all under.]

...I was promised my memory back.

[One bit of information, and only because they believe he was honest about his goals. It's not like the whole of LILITH can't just look up their amnesiac status now anyway.]

The easiest way to explain it is that our company deals with monsters. Not quite like the kaiju--they're usually a lot smaller--but it's the best comparison I've got.

[zauneyete]

Hah, fighting monsters. No wonder LILITH picked you.

[ Silco, on the other hand, is in the business of making monsters. He sees it as justified, righteous, but he knows he is making them all the same. It's the only way to fight them, after all. He wonders if the lot of their "people" were moving down that path, too. Of the people he knew from the City, they had each had a hell of a violent streak.

Now that the profiles have neatly slotted a few facts into place, it makes him more curious.

He's watching closely, it's clear in the way he stares. That eye is unblinking, and normally they've not had his full attention on them. It's eerie, to say the least. ]

In my experience, from companies — [ He says it with bite. Silco may be an industrialist, making his own little capitalist pit right underneath topside's noses, but he still holds some anger towards them, those with all the cards. He'd become them, but he loathes them all the same. ] — any payment they give will be to their advantage.

I assume you have weighed that price, of course, and decided that it was worth it. You do not seem the type that makes decisions foolishly.

[ Which is... a compliment??? kinda??????? ]

[followyourstar]

[That stare is just the sort of thing they were afraid of. It's the kind of look they imagine someone would give easy prey. The sort of thing they were trying to avoid by keeping their lack of memory so close to their chest for so long.

How much of that compliment is genuine, they wonder? And how much is empty flattery?]

...Sort of. I didn't have much of a choice at the time.

[It was either that or die in the middle of a forest in D Corp's district. While they can guess how the Bus Team knew where they were going to be in order to intervene before they were killed, Dante still can't help but wonder what is was they were doing that dark night they gained a new head.

A whole year and a half and they still don't know what an "Aspect" is and why it's so important to them.]

That's not the reason I'm still there though. Uh, sort of. I'm pretty sure I'd be killed if I tried to quit, but I also... don't want to quit.

[zauneyete]

[ Unfortunately, they are right. Silco does look on them like they're easy prey. To be fair, it is less the memories, and more that it is coupled with everything else that he knows about them. It isn't much, but it is more than he'd thought, given that there were two people he was looking at. Or he thought there had been. ]

Well, how fortunate for you that you don't want to. Makes everything all nice and neat, doesn't it?

[ He knows that he would be a different man without his memories. He's lost some before, the —— static —— that had once infected parts of his life as it was ripped from him; if there had been more, would he have lost himself? He could imagine, being the man he once was, and being given this rotted mind in return.

He wondered if it would be welcome in the end, to get them back.

Ah, well. Perhaps it would. It would be a shame, that he never got to see if he was right or not. ]

What's the reason, then?

[followyourstar]

Neater maybe.

[Nothing's ever "neat" back home. At least not for their group. They came to accept that fact awhile ago.

As for their reason...]

Them.

[How could it be anything else? Who or what else did they have?]

[zauneyete]

Hm.

[ Is all he says.

It's all for a lot longer than appropriate, while he stares, calculating. Perhaps they don't have anything bigger than their people. It's what he can guess at, because he has an idea(ish) of what the City is like. He's been given some details. Sometimes, he wonders if it is even worse than Zaun, which always makes his skin itch, that there are places worse than his own. He thinks of him and his as having it the worst, but...

Well. Maybe that's all they can grasp. Their people. ]

What an illuminating little conversation we've had today, don't you think?

[ He learned something else, at least, he files it away with everything else. Silco was an artifice of calculation, after all. ]

Ah, but perhaps our time is over.

[ It isn't, but Silco doesn't play by anyone's rules. ]

Any last questions, before I leave you to asking... all the rest of these people questions from their list, that won't teach you anything?

[followyourstar]

[They don't like the way he's looking at them. But they can't figure out what it is he's thinking, either.

Both pieces of information given are things that can be used against them, they know, but one there was no point in hiding, and for the other, well... The Sinners can handle themselves well enough, and Vergilius--who isn't even a Sinner at all and who they can't imagine being taken by surprise by anyone--is the only one left here besides them anyway.

Only time will tell if this decision of theirs, this truth-for-a-truth, purpose-for-a-purpose will be nothing but a mistake. At least they have a better idea of who it is they're dealing with.]

I'm learning plenty, thanks. But no, I don't have any more right now.

[He's free to go mock/interrogate the next table as much as his hater heart desires]

[zauneyete]

[ Well, Dante, don't ask about Verg's vampirism if you don't want a bad surprise about that thought. Anyway!

Silco stood, brushing off his vest as if there's something on it. There isn't. He picks up his drink next. ]

Hm, well. Pleasure as always, hm?

[ As he strides off, he'll offer a dismissive wave over his shoulder, as he goes to harass the next person on his list at this event. ]