synflux | 🎉 TANABATA FESTIVAL 🎊

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🎉 TANABATA FESTIVAL 🎊

WHO: Everyone in Neo Tokyo
WHAT: Tanabata festival! 🎉
WHERE: In the centre of the park
WHEN: 17/07 onwards
WARNINGS: N/A

NEO TOKYO TANABATA

aka operation festival funtime

As the middle of July opens, the streets outside of Neo Tokyo seem to get decorated almost overnight. Colourful origami banners hang from the trees, a mixture of tanzaku, kamigoromo, orizuru and toami.

For anyone who has been to the Sendai region in the midst of the Summer months, the decorations will look almost endearingly familiar; it's time for tanabata!

▶ 001. OPERATION: FESTIVAL FUNTIME.

The savvier of people might notice a particularly bright shock of pink hair running around in the early hours of the morning, taking part in setting up the decorations and putting together a basic layout of tables with tablecloths and various goods and prizes. Each decoration is hand made, and if you look closely you might see little golden traces throughout, giving a clue to who helped made these ones. There's something infectious about his enthusiasm and the delight, even as he gets a little more tired as the day goes on - there's nothing stopping him. Eventually, his section of the festival is set up; there are various stands, some for making decorations (bamboo branches with ornaments, more paper ornaments, origami, and various other cute and traditional arts and crafts), some space for you to take a break and have a fruity and always non-alcoholic drink and an area with a handsome backdrop for the taking of photos.

He's not alone, though!

Raidou's looking livelier than he has than in the last few weeks. He's helping the festival in an organizational capacity, while Yuji handles most other things. He sets up the stands, moves and directs supplies to the right place, picks out spots for decorations, and makes sure both vendors and visitors have everything they need. If you stop to ask him a question or ask for direction, you get a quick, polite answer before he flits off to the next task.

Once things are running smoothly, you'll find him working at one of the food booths, where he's frying up takoyaki and taiyaki. Raidou couldn't be more in his element - serving up fresh food and treats to the Outsiders and the community. You might even get your food handed to you from him with a smile.

At night, the festival is lit up with fireworks and sparklers throughout, lighting up the sky with explosions of little joy and happiness.

Throughout the festival, you can also get a free bento, delivered to you by a cute looking rabbit. The bentos come in many designs, cute, adorable or precious!

▶ 002. A DREAM IS A WISH.

One of the most exciting aspects of tanabata remains the wish-making. In the set-up for the festival, there are little posters left around near one particular booth (manned by local cryptid Choso) to explain the story of the festival and the meaning that it holds. Alongside it are an almost ridiculous amount of paper strips in various colours, left with some pens and calligraphy brushes for people to pick up and use. A big sign next to it declares the following:

Make a wish! If it's a good one, it might come true!
The directions are clear: write your wish on a strip of paper and hang it on one of the bamboo decorations. The harder you wish, the more likely it is to come true - and there are some prompts for the kind of wishes people could make, just in case you're strapped for ideas:

Academic or work successes
Prosperity or good health
Care and love for family and friends
Success in love or platonic relationships
Fulfilment of a personal goal or ambition

You might notice Yuji watching as you're tying your wishes up... Don't worry about that!

If you require further assistance in your wish-making (or even if you don't at all) Choso seems more than happy to lend a helping hand. When he isn't cutting up paper strips and sorting them out into strangely-organized piles (paper thickness instead of size or colour), he's preparing the calligraphy ink via manual inkstone grinding or offering an absurdly wide variety of coloured (and scented) markers for your convenience.

The strips of wishes can be as decorative or simple as you like, so don't stress about your artistic genius!

( ooc note: If you would like Yuji to take a shot at making your wish come true, please respond to this comment! There will be some RNG "granted wishes" that you can use in your top level and keep as a fond memory, but please note there is only one "granted wish" per character. )

▶ 003. AS THE POETS SAY.

In the centre of the festival, in the midst of a park with vibrant flowers, is a table where Yuji sits for a few hours at a time between breaks. He seems to be practically vibrating out of his seat, and when approached he launches into an explanation of this particular game:

THE SOULMATE GAME!

The aim of the game is simple: you are given a ribbon at random with a number on it. Your mission? Find the person with the matching ribbon within a time limit of an hour and win a special prize. Don't worry though... If you lose, there's a prize for not quite making it within the limit. The festival is meant to be a celebration, after all, and Yuji doesn't want anyone to miss out.

Here's the problem: Yuji isn't making it easy for people to find their soulmate. He's not left a boundary for how far you can go (in case you were tempted to hide...) nor has he done anything to make the festival less distracting. This area is set up with your traditional festival games, such as (fake) goldfish scooping, ring toss and some chairs and tables set out for food and conversation.

To make it worse? Sometimes, Yuji might pop up and give you a hint to go in a particular direction, only for it to be a total red herring. This is definitely fun, isn't it? Who doesn't love a good chase? The problem is...

Will you find your soulmate in time...?

( ooc note: If you would like to win (or lose) at the soulmate game, please respond to this comment! Go ahead and OOCly decide who your character gets paired with and whether or not you win or lose - there are different prizes for each. You can play the soulmate game as many times as you want ICly, but you will only get one prize roll per character! )

▶ 004. TINY FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN.

NOTE: THIS PROMPT WILL REFER TO THINGS THAT ARE SPOILERS FOR JUJUTSU KAISEN CHAPTER 264 ( refering to Yuji's powers and how he uses them in a fight ).
Here's the thing: Yuji wants everyone to have fun. His dream is that people are able to find some joy and peace in the midst of the darkness of the last few weeks, and so he sinks into something that is familiar to him - cursed energy, and his domain expansion. In the early hours of the second day of his festival, you might catch him making a hand sign before a ripple of powers hits, collecting around the area of the festival like a literal bubble. Anyone on the edge of the bubble will see it like a flickering, semi-transparent void, but there's nothing to worry about... Right?

The power of Yuji's domain expansion is simple enough, in theory: it transports into the memories, digs into the heart of what people want to show. His intention is to share the tanabata of his childhood with the people of Neo Tokyo and spark some joy for the Outsiders who have been through so much. He wants to show them something sweet and nostalgic, but he doesn't quite anticipate the side effect.

Outsiders who end up stepping into Yuji's domain will find themselves able to come face-to-face with their childhood selves, and enjoy the festival together. If they're together with another Outsider, those childhood versions of themselves (shaped in the way they remember themselves rather than how they actually looked!) are visible and shared, like an extension of their thoughts come to life.

It's still tanabata, but this particular part of the festival is influenced by what Yuji remembers from his youth, and Outsiders can find themselves seeing and being able to take part in various activities:

Crayfish catching (try and get the biggest or rarest one!)
Archery (can you beat your friends and get the bullseye?)
Horse riding (and you might hear Yuji commenting on how big their faces are)
Parades (are you going to join in?)
And anything else you can dream up! It's your character's childhood too, right...?

As soon as Yuji realises his mistake (at the end of the day, lost in his own memories) he brings down the domain, but it might be too late for some Outsiders who have come face to face with their more adorable versions. Whoops.

EVENT BREAKDOWN (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. OPERATION: FESTIVAL FUNTIME: The festival is being set up by Yuji and Raidou, with support from other Outsiders to make decorations. Food and other entertainment is on offer for anyone who attends, but all drinks are non-alcoholic.

2. A DREAM IS A WISH: Outsiders are given the chance to take part in the tanabata tradition of wish making. They can decorate paper with their wish and hang it up in the hope it will come true. Yuji will be granting one wish per outsider.

3. AS THE POETS SAY: The "Soulmate Game" has characters being randomly assigned numbers and tasked with finding their matching pair to win a prize. They have an hour to find their partner and, win or lose, there is a prize for taking part.

4. TINY FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN: Yuji uses his domain expansion to bring Sendai tanabata to life, that has the accidental side effect of allowing Outsiders to meet and see their childhood selves. It also allows them to visit Sendai itself and take part in some other minigames that are not tanabata related if they want.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We were happy. All three of us.

( He keeps an eye on their younger selves, wincing a little when smaller Vash almost drops the faux gun. It's fine. He did that a lot in the beginning too. The form's all wrong, he's just not going to bother correcting it. He doubts young him will remember anything outside of this place. He's not even sure it's real,

So, a hum, turning to Bakugo. )

What did mini Bakuboom like to do for fun anyway? Beyond winning festival games.

Sounds like it.

[Bakugo watches his smaller self catch said gun and hand it back. No yelling, unlike his more adult self. What a change. Just encouraging Vash to hold it better and helps him find out where to place his hands for a better grip. He's a good teacher and pretty encouraging, even if his precocious pride remains in his happy smugness. Definitely gonna warn him of the recoil.]

Tch. Mostly played with the other kids in the neighborhood. Adventured in the forest, conquered the playground, games in the parking lots, everything hero related I could find.

[His gruff voice tries to stay clipped, but a grumpy fondness manages to sneak in.]

( The recoil still surprises the younger Vash, but instead of being startled he starts laughing, aim a mile wide. Okay, maybe I'm not good at that. Nai's right, I make a terrible cowboy. )

The forest, huh? I can see that. Did you look at bugs under rocks or were they not fun enough?

[Don't give up so quickly! You just started; everyone's bad at first. Except him, his little smug face beams. No, his first gun shot sent him back pretty far too. But he's not gonna let Vash talk himself down that easily!]

Beetles on trees. The ones under rocks were small and gross. [He wanted to huge powerful cool ones. You don't find those under rocks unless you're going for their pupae.]

( Okay, okay. I'll try again. Resilient, even then. Though Vash knows a lot of that is just a desperate desire to impress his new friend. He's terrible about validation. )

Only the best for Bakugo Jr., right? ( He can see it. It's very cute. ) Maybe we should go find some trees. I don't remember if I'm squeamish about things like that still.

( He'd seen bugs. In slides, and in stills, and in Rem's books. The ones on No Man's Land were different. The worms had overwhelmed him at first. )

Or no, wait. Ice-cream.

( Predictably little him looks over. The stuff Rem talks about? ) Yeah! They have all the flavours here. We should all go. My treat.

[Good! Now hold it like this and brace with this leg. There he goes again, coaching his new buddy how to properly prepare for recoil and still get his shot in. Even if he has to grab Vash's leg and tug it... or kick his foot a little. Move.]

Ugh, don't call me that! It's weird! [While he puts up with Kacchan from his childhood, Vash nearing "Bakugo-chan" rankles his hackles. Bleh.] You're scared of bugs?

[After all the shit Vash's been through, a creepy crawly gives him heebie jeebies? Did he even have bugs in his world? They don't do well in the desert outside of locusts and scorpions. Stereotypical.]

Oy! He's still trying to play the game! Don't distract him!

[Both Bakugo's yelling at Vash in tandem.]

( Double whammy!!!

He watches his younger self pout a little, the prospect of a treat too tempting. ) How about we win our new buddy a prize and then we get ice cream? The big triple scoops kind. With sprinkles.

( That satisfies himself, apparently. He lines up the next shot, but still stumbles a little with the recoil. )

Aw, you almost had it. ( To Bakugo himself. ) Remember I'm good at this, okay. Don't be fooled by mini me.

[No! Vash is gonna win himself a prize! Don't look down on him! And there goes his little self sticking up for other people in his own way. Bakugo puffs between his teeth and rolls his eyes. His younger self is a big friendly brat at this age.

Besides, BittyBaku already won a prize. He wants to see Vash-kun win one! Meaning he's turning around and focusing on helping Vash line his shot up. Even puts his hand on the blonde's back to brace him so the recoil won't mess him up.]

You weren't born a gunslinger, Undercut.

Still, it's embarrassing. ( In a whisper. ) I have a reputation.

( But with Bakugo helping him, the next go isn't half bad. Not enough for the big prizes, but Vash watches as his littler self cheers regardless, beaming at his new best friend in a way that surely hurts his cheeks. It's enough for one of the smaller plushies, and that too appears monumental for the tiny Plant. Uhhh, this one. Probably panicked, but he gets a tiny cuddly bee for his troubles which means Vash the elder immediately swings to give his Bakugo big wide baby eyes. )

Ice-cream? You're coming!

If you think that'll ruin it, you've got worse shit to deal with.

[Thinking someone would consider adult Vash's reputation a farce because his childhood self can't do the things he can now. Bakugo wouldn't want an idiot like that even looking at his reputation! Dumbass contamination.

The smaller blonde is fist-pumping and all grins as Vash hits prize targets. He wants that one! when the vendor makes a mistake locating where Vash's pointing finger is. There we go! Got the right one now. Bakugo's got a plushie bigger than his damn body, much to the older blonde's chagrin.]

You think I wanna listen to that little shit cry?

[So yes.]

Which little shit?

( Asked with his tongue cheekily between his teeth. Because Vash can and will weaponize his tears for food, and Bakugo probably knows that. )

You better get good toppings, Bakuboom. Both versions, I'll be judging your taste.

( Tiny Vash brings him the bee plushie, and Vash obediently croons over it. Now they're on the move again, his smaller self seems nervous. It means it's easy to hold his hand out, though he does huff a little breath of amusement as the mini version sneaks a glance to Bakugo Jr. Cute. He wanted to impress people so badly. Still does, probably. )

Shut up! [He's not giving you the satisfaction, dammit! Does he think little Vash will put on his pouty face with tears and puppy eyes? It's crossed his mind, but no, he's taking a pot shot at his own small self. Mostly because he'd NEVER cry even at that age, dammit! But Bakugo's a dick and not even his own tiny version's immune from picking.]

HAA?! DON'T JUDGE MY TOPPINGS!! You're the one who made a damn sludge mix!

[Their slushee experience. Told ya he'd be remembering.

Bakugo's scowl turns into a taunting grin when his child self comes marching over with his giant ass prize in hand.]

Don't get squashed under that this, brat.

[I'm not a brat, stupid old man! I can carry it easily!]

Who the hell are you calling an old man?!

[You! Don't throw your hip out while you yell.]

YOU LITTLE SHIT!!

( The bickering is cute. It's so cute that Vash merely pauses in the sidewalk to watch them for a minute, lips twitching as he badly restrains his smile. He wants to squeeze tiny Bakugo's cheeks. He's also sorely tempted to do it to the older one too. Instead he just laughs, looking at his own mini-me. )

Don't worry, they're just like that.

( Uhhh, okay? )

It's cute, right?

( But he is hustling the group to the ice-cream parlour, posthaste. )

[Don't call them cute, dammit! (Not even in your head undercut head!) Bakugo and his double end up facing off in a vicious scowling contest, with the older crouched down in front of the younger, brazenly flicking A CHILD off to his face! Which only gets more sass back from the smaller boy who easily stands his ground with his giant plush. God this brat's insufferable!]

Dammit, if you see a nerd with green hair anywhere, spit it out!

[To Vash. While the Bakugos follow behind, older refusing to let the younger get lost despite his face saying he wouldn't give a shit if he did!]

A nerd with green hair?

( Is he going to swivel his head around trying to figure out who he sees? Yes. )

What'd you go deaf?

[A nerd with green hair! Midoriya shouldn't be hard to spot! ... Unless Vash never saw him before the brief time he was with them.

So vague.]

Okay. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

( Ice-cream time! There's a nice little store nearby, outside seating. A bell jingles as they enter it, and both Vash's let their gazes swivel, equally awed. )

Oh, nice. It looks really cute here.

[Totally wanting to find Midoriya so he can dump this little shit off on him instead! But since he's currently stuck without Midoriya--!! Bakugo holds the door open with his forearm, nudging the smaller boy in with his knee when he tries to hesitate and read something on the window.]

Get in. Stop wasting air conditioning.

[Don't kick me! I can move!]

I DIDN'T KICK YOU!!

[Here we go again.]

Little Bakuboom!

( He's going to interject, briefly putting a hand on the younger versions shoulder - the flesh one, so as not to be alarming -, smiling brightly. )

How about you help pipsqueak over there pick flavours? He's never had ice cream before. And you seem like the kind of guy who knows what the good sprinkles are, right? So it can be a joint effort. You can both get whatever you like!

Haa?!

[It's in dual unison, Bakugo's flavor bloodshot eyes and snarls, his younger self childishly tough guy and curious. Which stops when a hand plops on his shoulder and he peers up at Vash with a question.]

Hey, he's not a pipsqueak! And I'm awesome at sprinkles! Hey Vash!

[Off like a shot, running over to the other blonde boy so he can take a look. He's definitely shorter than his new friend, so little Bakugo's gonna smack both hands on the counter and hoist himself up in a lean, red eyes wide as his grin as he scans over pans of multi-colored options.]

Sprinkles all taste the same, but the colors melt into your ice cream, so you gotta pick something cool! Or get your favorite color!

[Meanwhile, Bakugo's over here giving Vash the shit eye.]

( Vash watches them go with bemused fondness. Then he careens back towards Bakugo with sly amusement.

In a stage whisper -. )

Sprinkle sludge.

( See, someone else picking based on colour! )

[CONK!! Right upside Vash's cranium!]

Don't encourage him!

[Not with your atrocious mixture of coloring, Undercut!]

I'm getting orange and yellow, because they're the colors of my explosions. See?

[And proceeds to demonstrate with a few small ones right there in the store.]

OY!!

( He laughs, rubbing the back of his skull with a small pout forming. From the counter his younger self says I want red! That's Rem's favourite colour. And maybe ... orange too? Ah, sentimental. )

You were so little to have a power like that!

( He knows sometimes that the world doesn't care about things, but he wants to. )

How old were you when you went to the school? This old?

[Both boys are instantly diving into sprinkle distraction, his smaller self quickly trying to suss out his new friend's favorite flavor and whether red and orange go well with said flavor's coloring. At least he's not Bakugo's usual route and shoving his opinions or anything. Far nicer and more cheerful.]

Hmph. Most kids manifest their Quirks between four to six. I got mine when I was four.

[Firs one in his neighborhood to do so, making him the envy of the entire block + school. An amazing and powerful Quirk at that, adding to his rising ego.]

Kids start school at 6. I'd already started reading and writing by that time.

[He wasn't some freakishly advanced brainiac, but did enjoy a small advantage because he liked being first.]

( He'll join the queue while the kids press their hands to the glass, nobody better say anything to them, Vash is ready to helicopter parent. )

What was your favourite part of it? The school, I mean.

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