[WORLD ONE | DING DONG THE FISH IS DEAD]

[spellbindmods]

Who: Coven members and the Palai
Where: Celebrating the Uvi going boom-boom
When: Day 67
Open/Closed: Open to All
OOC Note:

The initial setting information found here should be utilized for threads here.

There's no official OOC account for the Palai people. You're free to roleplay their actions and reactions on your own, as in depth as you want -- asking questions, hand-waved interactions, becoming best friends. The new world is your oyster!

For decades, the Palai have had to deal with the threat of the Uvi invading their homes, killing their families and returning 30 days later. After the coven found their way to Aimintas, the Palai found that the threat wasn't so...threatening. After the last attack, with many more Palai lost as compared to previous Uvi instances, some Palai had lost hope. Now, after seeing their nemesis blown to bits and falling out of the ocean, their faith in safety is restored. While the Uvi are still committed (by and large) to learning more about barriers and other forms of safety, the time for focusing on serious things has passed. It will return, but tonight? They celebrate. Unlike their last, shrimpy festival, this party has a lot more going for it. The Palai have had time to process the events and prepare themselves for a grand celebration. The Palai know how to party, but you ain't seen nothin' like this. A ▢ As a birthday tradition, the Palai give the birthday lizard a special concoction. It contains Elto energy and a combination of found herbs that can easily be located in Aimintas. When these herbs are combined with the Elto energy, they create a sort of...hallucinogenic experience. It's supposed to feel extremely relaxing and give the Palai pleasant visions, but in human bodies it's essentially just getting high. There are vials of these being passed around like candy, so don't worry about anyone running out. B ▢ Despite the adults getting lit, there are obviously a lot of baby Palai on the lose. Responsible coven members who have their own babies will have the ability to let them run wild and play with their lizardy cousins. If you want to spend time with your baby, the nursery caretakers have platters of crackers with mushy foods adorning them -- these are essentially candy to a tiny Palai. They may also be tempted by other foods present at the festivities, but you can avoid them getting a tummy ache if you have a watchful eye. C ▢ Speaking of food, there certainly is a lot of it. There are large grills being heated by the newly found bone structures. These hold shrimp and fish, grilled vegetable skewers and other foods. Instead of the Palai doing the serving, the coven members and other Palai are instead encouraged to utilize their own raw ingredients (which includes several large sharks, dolphins, etc.) in whatever fashion they choose. It's essentially a "build-your-own-kabob" station with no limits. D ▢ Because the party is lasting on into the night, some Elto have decided to light the marketplace with some of the bone structures they found by powering them and inserting them into small cloth bags that they then magically levitate around. While they provide a powerful light source that can increase the party's longevity, they're also floating live wires. Bump into one of these and you'll get a nasty shock! This is doubly concerning since Palai babies are fascinated by following these floating "toys." E ▢ The Palai, feeling more familial and supportive of their ideals than ever, haven't let go of the whole family/romance pushing on the coven. Their newest attempt is a bit of a prank (probably due to high Palais) who have taken magic bone structures and tied thick strings to the spines that poke out of them. At the end of these strings are loops that they're quickly slipping around the wrists of coven members they find. You may find that you're suddenly magically connected to someone -- or two other people if you're lucky enough -- by a magical thread that's VERY hard to slip out of or break. F ▢ Wildcard Part 1: Other previous party prompts can also be considered here, from the rolls that make magic go haywire to the aged liquor that causes a bit more than a headache. G ▢ Wildcard Part 2: Any prompt you like!

Comments

[enflame]

( Lalli is probably crawling over a rock or sprinting up some craggy mountain thing somewhere, yeah. Emil still doesn't explicitly understand what goes on with scouting business except Lalli runs, Lalli remembers, Lalli sleeps.

..At least a not-high Emil might consider these things, but honestly he starts searching the ground for rocks immediately. They need to help him...! Except it's a joke, he learns, and a sigh of relief escapes his lips. )

So...you don't know where he is? ( Please reassure him, his mind feels like syrup right now. ) And of course, we're friends. Best friends!

[actus]

[ lalli offered to take him scouting, so he knows a little bit of what lalli does. does he understand it? not at all. will that stop him from hanging out with him? also no. ]

Best friends. [ he nods, and then he begins rubbing his longest curl between his fingers. back and forth. back and forth. it's not as soft as emil's hair. he frowns. ]

So sort of like me and Haru. [ except he's not sure that's an accurate assessment. ]

[enflame]

( That's essentially the Lalli experience. )

Yes. ( He confirms this by nodding more than he should because he keeps forgetting if he nodded or not...oops. )

Though I don't know what that means. What are you and Haru like?

[actus]

[ he'll start nodding too. it's a nodding party. ]

Best friends. We tell each other everything. It's nice having someone here to rely on.

[ a laugh and he smiles over at emil. the drugs, they're far too real. ]

...Ah. Well. Except I haven't touched her hair. It looks super soft, though. No secrets. Just fluff.

[enflame]

My hair doesn't have secrets in it. I just checked.

( This is what he cares about most, obviously. Except it's more like the other topic of conversation is suddenly sobering, or as sobering as it can be when you have no control over your mental acuity. )

Is that what best friends do? Tell each other everything?

[actus]

[ if akira was sober, he'd be feeling guilty because he's definitely not telling haru something pretty damn important. but high akira nods again. ]

Yeah, for the most part. [ hmmmmm. ]

At least, I told her when I liked someone. Things like that. They're secret-keepers.

[enflame]

( "For the most part,"...well, that seems to work out. Maybe he doesn't have anything to worry about.

More importantly, it looks like gossip has just landed in his lap. )

You liked someone? Do you still? Who are they? ( Emil likes to know about stuff like this and being high makes this twice as exciting. )

[actus]

[ oh my god???? you're a gossip queen, aren't you?? akira would be surprised but he's too high to really take mental note of this. ]

Ah? [ what's with the twenty questions, bro. he's just trying to live his life - ]

I do still, yeah. We're dating. [ it takes akira to be high as balls to finally tell someone that jesus christ. ]

[enflame]

( Despite being self-absorbed, Emil is also very nosy -- chalk it up to feeling like he's entitled to know everything about everybody. )

Oh? Congratulations! You're away from them then, are you? That's a pity...

( The thought of that kind of hits his high brain and he's suddenly spectacularly down in the dumps. Akira is torn away from his first and true love...how depressing. His buzz has been HARSHED. )

[actus]

Hm?

[ EMIL..... ]

Ah.... no, actually, they're here.

[ jesus christ don't harsh his buzz, man. akira chuckles, weakly, pressing his hand to the back of his neck and he shakes his head. ]

[enflame]

( why do you tangle with his emotions in such a way, he's just a soft boy in a hard world )

...Oh! That's incredible! ( He wouldn't normally be so invigorated by this news since he barely knows Akira from most of the people here, but god bless medicinal happy herbs. )

If they're here then who are they? ( Did he forget he already asked that and got side-stepped OR is he being extra push? It could be either. )

[actus]

[ such a soft boy. too pure for this world. too soft. ]

That's a secret.

[ he makes a show of winking, which is absurd coming from one usually deadpan akira kurusu. but he's making a show!!! and he's chuckling under his breath. ]

He's shorter than me. [ LIKE THAT??? HELPS???? ]

[enflame]

( Oh my god there's SO MUCH HERE. )

He's...? ( Hold on, Emil's melted ice cream brain has to do some counting. He went from knowing vaguely of like two non-straight people to....three non-straight people. That's like a 100% increase in non-straight people, wow. )

...You're tall, it's easier to be shorter than you. ( More like Emil is short so it's easier to be taller than him. Maybe that math was why he was counting on his fingers for a whole second or 30. )

[actus]

[ listen he's a nasty crime boy and doesn't care about gender. he likes boys and older women. it's a talent. ]

How mysterious.

[ he tosses emil another amused look, because that's the point. there's a lot of short people here. that, and even high he's not used to talking about himself this much. especially his relationships with other people. he isn't sure where to start???? ]

He's cute. [ shut up akira. shut him up. someone shut him up!! ]

[enflame]

( oh my god...these new deets are flustering him.......what the fuck. )

What do you find cute? His face, you mean? Like...his nose?

( This might sound....stupid because he's high, but Emil's now just honestly curious. Also he's not asking for details with his wording, so your privacy is safe from invasion for now. )

[actus]

[ for now. ]

Him in general. It's not specific.

[ being high means he's laughing a lot more than usual, a lot more giddy about talking about people using addictions like cute. ]

Hm... but his hair isn't as soft. And it's not full of secrets.

[enflame]

( depending on whether or not he remembers this when the dank wears off, he may or may not try to figure out which random dude is dating akira )

Hmm. I guess that can be cute. ( He's trying to wrap his head around the entire aura and concept of a person being cute...yeah, maybe. He's only a baby, one day he'll understand.

It's the next part that's more confusing. ) Is that a good thing or a bad thing? ...Should my hair have secrets in it?

[actus]

Dunno. Do you use conditioner?

[ apparently that's where the secrets lie! that's where they breed! ... who actually knows. akira sits up some more and presses his hands flat down on the ground and leeaaaanssss closer, staring and scrutinizing emil. ]

Mm. Do you like anyone? [ please stop this train. ]

[enflame]

No. ( That's easy enough to answer -- honestly, his hair truly is a modern marvel. The eighth wonder of the world(s).

The next part...that's. Hmm. Emil thinks about it for a while. Previously it might have been easier to say no siree, not me! But the drug weaving its way through his brain makes it harder to answer without some level of vulnerable honesty. )

I don't know. I don't really know what that's supposed to feel like. ( When you've only had one friend ever and your relationship is questionably...questionable, you don't really know what lines exist for that kind of thing beyond vague notions of what other people do. )

[actus]

Ah.

[ what a safe answer. but still, there's a lot there and if akira's mind wasn't so fuzzy, he'd be latching on to that answer more than he does. ]

...Feelings are hard. [ just a general admission. even if he's more versed than some, he's by no means an expert. hell, he's still struggling with a lot of things. ]

I guess it's supposed to feel safe. Happy. Warm?

[enflame]

( Feelings are, indeed, hard.

Emil considers this list...it might just be the state of his brain, but it's a little confusing to him. )

Friends make you feel safe. And happy. And they can be warm.

...Sooooo I guess I don't know what the difference is.

[actus]

[ that is perplexing, yes. ]

It's complicated.

[ no shit. he begins chewing air again, wrinkling his nose. words words words. how does he explain this? he really wishes he was better with words. ]

It's just ... different? When I'm with my friends I'm all of those things but. But it's kind of ramped up? With feelings? I think about it a lot. Him, I mean.

[enflame]

So it's like friendship, but a lot of friendship at once. ( That's what you said and that's how he understands it, okay.

But then that's also making his brain churn with questions of how much friendship does normal friendship feel like? Do you have to divide friendship by fights and stuff and then that makes it less friendship? Are there friendship multipliers for other relationship things??

Oh my god fuck math. What more information can he weasle out of Akira, oblivious to any discomfort or lack of knowledge depth, hmmm. )

How did you know? When you started to like him instead of just the regular friendship stuff? ( This drug is unlocking some really weird subconscious part of his brain that he likely won't remember all that well come tomorrow. )

[actus]

Yeah. Maximum overdrive friendship.

[ these are the modifiers he chooses when drugs are pulsing through him. either way, he's going to give that last question some more thought. he falls silent, fiddling with his bangs again. how did it start? well, he knows vaguely when he started floundering around like the teenager he was, but that was extremely circumstantial.

so. hm. akira wiggles his nose again and just. hums. ]

We were talking and I was stupidly happy. Like, waiting for his responses. And then when we met up again it felt different. I was excited? Kinda like you get when you're waiting for something to happen? I also started teasing him a lot more.

[ akira you aren't helping???? ]

[enflame]

( THAT DOESN'T HELP, HE CAN'T TELL IF HE'S GAY OR NOT )

Friends do that kind of thing to... Not that it matters, but it's good info for the future. One day.

( Maybe his vial is wearing off but the topic is suddenly making him feel more squeamish. You can't catch me, gay thoughts I don't even understand that I may or may not have. )

At the very least, I'm glad that you're happy. Very happy, it seems.