nysalogs | i saw lon cheney walking with the queen

Who: open to all!
What: The Aqours Spooky Get Yohane Magical Powers Halloween Extravaganza...which is a super extra way of saying a Halloween party. It's a Halloween party, y'all.
When: early October
Where: a local restaurant in Olympia
Warning(s): none!

The Halloween party is in the back room of a local, family style restaurant. What used to be a banquet hall is decorated with fake cobwebs, crepe paper, and garlands of pumpkins, ghosts, and cats. A lot of the decorations are hand-made, courtesy of Yoshiko and You. There's an open space in the middle for dancing and mingling, some food tables along one side of the room, and some games and entertainment on the other side. There's a table with various hats, animal ears, and crowns for people who didn't bring a costume. Most of them are made out of cardboard. There's a very beat-up boombox in the corner, obviously borrowed from somebody, playing the El Nysa version of hokey Halloween songs like "The Monster Mash" and "Flying Purple People Eater."

The food is fairly standard Halloween fair. There's a large bowl full of candy, as well as some pumpkin flavored breads and muffins. There's a large punch bowl of something that's green, but is really your bog-standard lime sherbet/lemon-lime soda combination. The oddest thing on the table is some jet black takoyaki, labeled "Tears of a Fallen Angel." The label does not tell you that these things are spicy as hell and flavored solely with Tabasco. There's enough space on the table to fit more food, should your character decide to contribute something that isn't 'way too much sugar' or 'something that will melt your tongue off.'

The Halloween games are simple enough. There's a 'pin the tail on the donkey' though you're pinning a broomstick to a witch. There's a large tub for bobbing for apples. There's also a table dedicated to touch and feel mystery boxes: you reach in blindly to touch what's inside. The labels say things like 'eyeballs' (they're really peeled grapes), 'worms' (they're really cold, cooked spaghetti), and 'hearts' (it's a peeled tomato). The party's going past the closing time of the restaurant, so enjoy some slightly spooky nonsense!

( ooc: feel free to make a starter and tag around! Even if your character didn't reply to Yoshiko's post, it's possible that they heard about the party from somewhere else or just came in from the street: Yoshiko isn't turning away anybody. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Same here, [ she muses, with a sigh. ] Every time I hear that someone's from Japan, we'll talk for a little while and then I'll mention Love Live and they'll look at me like I grew another head.

[ it's weird as heck and Yoshiko isn't a fan. ]

You'd think these things would be universal, but nope.

[Ren laughs at that, like he sympathises to some degree.] With me it's Vanguard, but I don't think I've talked to many of the people I've met here from Japan about that either...

[Still, it's as ubiquitous as any given spectator sport in his world, so to hear no mention of it at all is certainly a little bit weird.]

I guess there's a lot of things we might think are universal but turn out not to be.

[ Based on Yoshiko's expression, she has absolutely no idea what Vanguard is. Still, she gets the sentiment: it's something important from Ren's world that isn't important here. And that...well, something like that obviously sucks. She gives him a little nod before she continues talking. ]

I wonder what's the next universal but not thing we can find...watch some of these other Japans not have Tanabata or something like that.

[The idea of any version of Japan not having Tanabata makes Ren's expression immediately transform into a surprise that runs close to faux offended.]

What? But that would be no fun at all, how unfair... [He gets the point, though, because really, he feels like it's kind of unfair the other worlds don't have things like Vanguard.] Though I guess that goes for everything else they don't have too, doesn't it...?

[ And thus, with her 'no Tanabata world' idea, Yoshiko accidentally says the scariest thing that'll be said in the entire thread. ]

I suppose you're right. [ a pause, before. ] My world doesn't have Vanguard, by the way. Sorry.

[At that, Ren gives a slight half-smile and rubs the back of his hair as if trying to look apologetic.]

Mmm, well, mine doesn't have Love Live either, so I guess we're even. [At least they can commiserate in the absence of things that are important to them.] It's kind of a shame...it'd be a lot easier to introduce something like Tanabata here, honestly, but I'd only barely arrived when it would've been the right time...

[Nadril did not exactly seem like a nice place for a festival when they got there.]

If we're both still around and still in Olympia next year, we should have a Tanabata festival then. It'd be fun!

[ And, it's entirely possible that Yoshiko's gotten bit by the party planning bug thanks to this. ]

[It's a good way to distract Ren too, apparently, because he immediately looks enthusiastic as anything about the prospect.]

We really should, it'd be a great celebration to introduce everyone to~ [Even if it's based on a legend that doesn't exist in this world - they can still pass the story on.] Even people who don't know the story should be able to enjoy things like wishes and romance, right?

[ Yoshiko gives Ren an enthusiastic nod: she's buying what he's selling. ]

And the legend's simple enough that most people should be able to understand it. [ says the person who's had to explain Halloween to soooo many people by now. ] This'll definitely be great!

Right, right~ [He remains cheery about that for a moment or two longer, before he actually thinks about it for more than a second or two.] It's just a shame we'll have to wait so long, though...almost an entire year...

[He'd arrived around the time it would have been, so that's a little unfortunate.]

It's not like we can go anywhere, [ Yoshiko points out, with a small little frown. You know. Cause their worlds are destroyed. ]

Assuming neither of us go into stasis, we can have a Tanabata party every year.

[ haha she's depressing herself a little. ]

[That...sure is an abrupt turn into a conversation Ren doesn't really want to have, so instead of even remotely addressing the point of the possibility they'll go into stasis, he instead decides to leap on the subject of parties.]

Are there any other holidays that would be fun to bring here, do you think? I guess with what the culture here is like they'd have to have something like Valentines and White Day...

Christmas maybe? [ Yoshiko shrugs. She's trying to think of other holidays and is coming up a bit short at the moment. ]

Someone else's got to run the Christmas party, though. It's coming up way too soon!

People have been waking up here for a while, right? I'd be really surprised if nobody had done Christmas last year as well. [It's even more universally acceptable than Halloween, since it doesn't even involve the potential for being scared.]

A big present exchange kind of thing might be fun, though...

But people keep waking up and also going back into stasis. There might not be someone who did the Christmas party last year anymore.

[ Which is also something that Yoshiko doesn't want to dwell on, so she continues talking. ]

Anyway, I like the idea of a present exchange. We can do something like 'all the gifts go in the center, you pick a number, you take a box' just so we don't have to coordinate who gives who what.

Oh, I meant that there's people who probably would have celebrated it last year too. Even if the person who actually did the party is gone, there should still be some who went to it...

[But then, it's not a topic he entirely wants to linger on either, so he's happy to latch onto the subject of the present exchange instead, all bright and cheery again.]

That's a pretty good idea, as long as we don't get anyone who's really fussy about what they get~ [Then again, one would hope they wouldn't attend a present exchange if they were that fussy.]

[ Fortunately, Yoshiko and Ren are on the same wavelength. ]

We'll just have to make the rules super specific. That way, if anybody fussy shows up, then they can say that they didn't know what was going on, they didn't expect a gift like this, blah blah blah.

Oh, that's good, and I guess if anyone complains then we can make a rule about gifting things on...

[If they don't like it, maybe they have a friend who would. Everyone wins.]

There's probably people who'll complain, but at that point it'd just be people who'd be complaining regardless of what was going on, right?

Exactly. And you just can't please people who complain for the sake of complaining!

Right, right~ [That is a sentiment Ren can definitely agree with, but by now he's finished arranging his food as he likes it, and he straightens up, surveying the table before turning to her with a slight smile.]

We should talk about it more closer to the season. For now, let's just enjoy the party, right?

i saw lon cheney walking with the queen

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