a roaring good time [open]

[particlebarrier]

Who: Lance (particlebarrier>), some reluctant paladins and YOU.
What: Party at the Treehouse of Lions. Mingling ensues.
When: End of November
Where: Keith’s treehouse in Wyver
Warning(s): TBD, none anticipated


[For those who decide to take the invite and head on over to Wyver for the night, they’ll find the address given leads to a certain treehouse in Wyver. It’s fairly obvious which one’s the party house because there are blue balloons and a welcome sigh posted at the foot of the ladder.

The following prompts are just laying out some flavor text for what’s around each area of the house, so feel free to come up with your own prompts! This is intended to be a mingle log, so let’s get mingling!]

i. living room
[The living room’s been cleared to make space for a dance floor! The fog machine that someone foolishly sold Lance is pumping out some fog for ~ambience~ and the lion pinata is hanging right at the center of it all where you’d expect to see a disco ball or something. For music… well, Lance doesn’t have music from home, so instead we have whatever Olympians and Wyvers consider “dance music” playing. some of it’s probably a little weird, oops. Alternatively there’s a couch here to sit and people watch on, too!]

ii. kitchen
[Need a break from the bloody fog machine and music? Yeah, can’t blame you. There’s some food laid out in the kitchen — things like pizza, finger foods. There’s also a cake. Most of the drinks provided are of the non-alcoholic variety, but you can find some wine and some of that liquor from the Wyver harvest season as well. The balloons have spilled over in here as well.]

iii. roof
[Man, so you’re really trying to escape the party, huh? Well there’s another ladder that leads up to the roof if you need some down time. It’s a treehouse so enjoy your view from above. It’s at least a nice night out, so hang out, stargaze, be your authentic recluse self.]

Comments

[thedarkbond]

[That gets a laugh out of Ren.] I guess that's fair...my house is a lot smaller than this, and I'd be pretty happy to get company too...

[The bigger the house, the lonelier it feels when empty, so Ren's almost grateful for his absurdly tiny apartment, in some way. It at least means he doesn't have to think too hard about not having anyone to live with, considering he barely has room.

That explains a few things about Lance's behaviour, though, and Ren gives a curious little hum.] How long ago was that, then...? You seem pretty close.

[quintessent]

[It was a sort of a mixed bag with her castle. Sometimes the emptiness of it felt unbearably lonely and a reminder of the way the halls had bustled when she was younger, then again, it was her home and one of the last things remaining of her people. As it was, she had been happy to share it with the paladins when they arrived that fateful day.

Speaking of-]

It is… a little hard to tell time, with everything that has happened, but I would estimate that it has been close to a phoebe since Lance and the others first arrived on my ship.

[Ah, right. Time-slices.] Which is close to a year, in your terms of measurement.

[Someday she will stop stubbornly clinging to her terms of time measurement, but today is not that day.]

[thedarkbond]

Oh, that's a cool word... [Even if he's not familiar with the time system, Ren is perfectly happy to appreciate Cool Words when he encounters them, which apparently includes right now.

The line of discussion is only making him more curious, though, and he taps his chin a little thoughtfully.] How did they find you...? Were they out looking for something else in space and found your ship? Or is this about all the galaxy-protecting stuff?

[Ren always get a little curious on the point of spacefaring humans, largely because he's had the less than fun experience of being connected to a distant planet in a time where humans can't even make it outside of their own galaxy. It makes him wonder if his own planet will ever get to the point of being able to send people out that far.]

[quintessent]

[Thank you, Ren. Allura agrees that all of her words are Cool Words. There's a reason the Altean language outlived it's people.

Allura laughs,] It is, indeed, about the “galaxy-protecting stuff”.

[It can't be said that humans don't have a way with words themselves, if for entirely different reasons. Another bite of the donut later and Allura folds her hands in her lap. Apparently it's story time.]

It is a little bit complicated, but one of my father's ships — The Blue Lion — was hidden on Earth to be kept safe from the war that was happening with the Galra. When Lance and the others found it, the Blue Lion brought them with it back to it's home- where they found me.

[thedarkbond]

[Ren hums curiously as he takes another sip of the fruit liquor. That sounds like a pretty serious situation, honestly...but then, he's not actually a stranger to hostile alien invasions himself.]

Are the Galra another group of aliens, then...? [He also notes the fact that Allura only mentions them finding her, and he taps his glass for a few moments in thought before he ultimately decides to bring it up in what he hopes isn't a horrendously intrusive way. He wants to know, but he doesn't really want to open what might turn out to be a wound. Not when he's not intending to, anyway.]

Was it just you alone?

[quintessent]

The Galra are a… [She has to measure her words here because, despite how far she’s come, there’s always that residual anger she still holds for the Galra.] …militaristic race. Over the last ten-thousand years they have been in a campaign to conquer planets from all over the universe.

[Which leads into the answer to his next question. Allura dips her head, closing her eyes,]

They destroyed my planet, and nearly all of the Alteans with it. When I woke up, it was only myself and my father’s loyal advisor who were left.

[Her voice is sad but steady. It’s not the entire story, but the situation regarding the rest of the surviving Alteans was complicated at best, and wasn’t nearly something she’d come to peace with yet.]

[thedarkbond]

[The pause is telling of itself, and Ren's curious expression falls slightly upon hearing that. While he may be familiar with that sort of thing from his experiences at home, he and his friends had also managed to succeed in saving their world from being wiped out prior to the Storm. Multiple times. Hearing about it going that way for Allura is more sobering than he lets show on his face, though he definitely can't (and wouldn't want to) entirely hide his downcast expression at hearing that.]

That sounds awful... [Especially for someone who hates being alone as much as he does. The Storm taking both Earth and Cray destroyed him in a way that nothing else in his life has, even with survivors, and he's been pushing back the recoil from it since he arrived, so he imagines it must have been even longer and rougher for her.] But I'm glad someone survived, at least. I think you're doing a good job of representing your people and how strong they must have been.

[It's hard to know what to say in these kinds of situations even when he's not acting innocent. In this case, it's almost a buffer to having to find the words to speak more deeply about it.

He does, at least, raise his arms a little in case she wants another hug.]

[quintessent]

[She was fine, it's a story she's had to tell more than once, and something that she'll never be over, but it's not such a wound as it used to be. But then he says that, that she was doing a good job. The sentiment stings at her nose and eyes and the line of her mouth presses together.

Leaning into the hug, she blinks a few times and the feeling fades enough to find her voice,]

Thank you.

[It was something she tried to do- she misses them so much, and hoped that if her father could see her somehow he would be proud of her, despite the mistakes she's made. Finally, she pulls away, absentmindedly touching her cheeks as if making sure no tears actually spilled out,]

There are others who survived, from being off planet. I hope someday that I will have a chance to meet them.

[thedarkbond]

[Ren gives her a little squeeze before she pulls away, since it just kind of feels like the natural thing to do here. Usually he doesn't really get the chance to do this when the people around him suffer losses.

It sounds like she's still hopeful even coming from a situation like that, so Ren gives a reassuring smile at it.] I'm sure you will, one day. Whether some of them end up here too or we can travel outside of here sometime.

[Honestly, he'd like to. To see a little of space...though it's a shame visiting Cray in person would no longer be an option. Still, surely there's other interesting planets that have survived.]