OPEN :: A golden bird was singing

[baedalites]

Who: Everyone!
What: St Kelley's evening
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Veerdi evening.
Notes:
(1) The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread.
(2) All mementos will appear overnight in some part of your character's apartment.
(3) Dance!

St Kelley's is one of the more sedate occasions in Baedal, at least as holidays go. It passes more or less unnoticed by the majority of the population as many of them feel it doesn't concern them. It's not their holiday; it's for the others. Those with severed ties and broken hearts. The temple and church preach that it's a time for reflection or for glorifying the generosity of the gods. It's one of the few days on which no one looks askance at first generation Citizens mourning their missing loved ones publicly.

As night rolls around and floating lanterns are set to sea, the Apache in Mog Hill prepares to accept guests from the newer cohorts. It's something that happens every year, making it a practical tradition. The alcohol will be cheaper for first timers, and the music will be kept at a reasonable level.

Comments

[boomvox]

As much as he loves clubbing, low-key gatherings are, believe it or not, Jae's favorite way to play. So he's very pleased to be at the Apache, despite being a bit out of place aesthetically. He's got a couple shots in him already and is pleasantly up to beer, mellow, chatting with anyone who's interested and generally enjoying himself. He moves in between the bar and the lounge area as needed, though at this very moment in time, he's back at the bar.

[controlledvariable]

Steph had spent a fair bit of time considering whether or not to go to the Apache after sending her boat out, but eventually she figured that she'd probably need some company instead of spending the night alone and sad in her house.

Spotting Jae in a crowd isn't tricky, but Steph is pleased to see him and heads over to him when he's gone to the bar, so she doesn't interrupt a conversation.

"Hey, you."

[boomvox]

Steph! Jae breaks out into a grin.

"Hey, shorty." Would she like a side hug? He raises his hand at the bar tender to indicate 'whatever the lady would like' in the universal language of people who drink too much. "Not bad for a boat thing holiday, right?"

[controlledvariable]

"If you try to make shorty a permanent nickname I will do horrible things to your hair while you sleep," she replies amicably as she hugs him.

"Just a sweet iced tea, please," it's directed at the bar tender's expectant look; she's sticking to non-alcoholic drinks tonight because she doesn't want to end up even more morose than she already is. But she huffs out a laugh at Jae's question, "It's been alright so far, if a little depressing."

[boomvox]

"My hair is insured for like a million pounds," he informs her, and pretends to smooth back a pure-platinum side of it as he does.

"You miss people from home?" Jae is pretending like he didn't go. Haaah.

[controlledvariable]

"Good luck getting that paid out in Baedal," she tries to look threatening, but her heart's not in it and she just ends up smiling.

She shrugs, and is grateful that her drink gets placed in front of her then, she can take a moment to inspect it rather before answering, "Yeah. It's kind of stupid." Wasting time sending out paper boats when she should be doing more important things.

[charismatic]

Since Will is behaving like a normal person today and not creeping around in an alley way in Flyside, it's kind of nice to see familiar faces in amongst all the strangers. At the moment, Jae is decidedly the most familiar, which is probably a good way to start off the night. He still hasn't decided what to do, so he can just set it aside for now and try to enjoy himself.

“Hey there,” he says, dropping down next to Jae at the bar. “This seems familiar.” Less loud music and drunk people than usual, but that suits Will fine.

[boomvox]

"Hey you. Happy whatever." Because he totally doesn't care, caring is for other people, who have no emotional attachments and Jae is way too cool for that!! (Ignore the fact that he sent a boat out.) "How's the dance business?"

[charismatic]

“I'd have to be getting paid for it to be a business.” Will leans his elbows on the bar, expression a study in spurious deep thought. “You think I could pick that up as a sideline?”

[boomvox]

"At a strip club? Definitely." Jae would put a dollar in your panties, Will. You'd be cute. He picks up his refilled beer mug after the bar tender sets it down and nods at the other man. "Do you want one? -A beer, not a career as an exotic dancer, though I'd support either."

[charismatic]

“I will definitely take a beer. The other thing, I'll take under advisement.” Though, honestly, Will would do it if he thought he could get through it without laughing. He thinks he's plenty sexy, but he's never been able to take the performative element very seriously. “I'm sure I'd make plenty of money, though.”

[fish]

Being out-of-place just makes Jae easier to locate. Witness the evidence of this as some black-haired guy with a sharp nose squeezes between the backs of two bigger guys, trying not to spill his drink during this apparent mission to intercept him.

"Jae? Dude, what the hell, you're so tall!" Hi.

[boomvox]

"Mister F!" He pities the fool! "What do- woah, somebody put you in the drier."

.. Hello, Fish.

[fish]

"Yeah, I fell asleep in there once and someone turned it on." Well, they're off to a good start. "What's up, though? This is weird, I feel like I'm meeting like a pen pal or something..."

His drink (which looks more or less like water) did splash on the way over, but only a little; switching cup hands and licking the spillage from his thumb knuckle requires the missing of nary a beat.

[boomvox]

"Rude." Of whomever turned the drier on, obviously.

The remark about pen pals makes something uncomfortable whisper inside of him, a memory he's trying to squash, especially today. So he laughs instead. "Except you've totally seen me, because the network is like webcam Facebook. Happy Boat Day."

[fish]

This Boat Day thing is really depressing, Fish thinks, but he'll just keep that to himself. He has come here to stop thinking about his own little floating lantern, and by gum he's going to accomplish this somehow. (Likely via...lighter fluid or whatever the hell he's got in there.)

"Yeah, but that doesn't count. You don't get the whole..." Radiating warmth and heartbeats filling the room and he can basically smell your blood right now, Jae, isn't that a comfort? "...in-person vibe. And people can't spill their e-drinks on you or whatever. I'm gonna buy you one when you're ready, by the way."

[gwynn]

"Jeez, they just let anybody in here, don't they."

Megan is among the many people feeling pretty subdued tonight -- when they said memento from home, she was hoping for maybe something from one of her friends or her dad, not her mum, with whom she's always had a more troubled relationship, and it's dimmed her mood a little bit. But then she vanished to the bathroom and emerged up again, so...

Her hand hovers vaguely over Jae's hair, menacing him with ruffling it. (She would never, it's an idle threat.) This necessitates her hovering with her wings, she's slightly less than a foot shorter than him.

[boomvox]

"To be fair, I bribed the door guy." He's smiling, because it's good to see Megan out, subdued or not - blackout partying, in his opinion, doesn't count. Not that he's going to say so.

He looks up at her hand, faux-terrified. "That's cruel and unusual."

[gwynn]

"Oh, well, that makes sense, then," she says, beaming cheerfully and a little vaguely. She can't possibly be drunk yet, anyway.

"That's what you get for not coming to say hi!" She menaces him a bit more thoroughly, then lowers her hand. She'd never actually defile the sanctity of Jae's amazing hair. And she's not at all actually annoyed, or else she'd be off sulking somewhere, not here bothering him. "How's your Happy By The Way Just In Case You Forgot We Totally Fuckin' Kidnapped You People Day going, then? 'Cause so far mine is total balls."

[boomvox]

"I'm always saying hi, you're just too much of a celebrity to notice, Miss Megan." Don't make him leave yet MORE voicemails about her rap career. He'll do it, Hoface.

"I'm not sure how I feel yet," he admits. "I didn't send anything, so it's just kind of..." he shrugs. "It's not like I ever forgot I was kidnapped, I guess." He doesn't sound bitter, just resigned.

[gwynn]

"Maybe it's better for people who've been here longer. I dunno." She pauses for a few seconds, as if briefly introspective, then barrels right past that. "But like, whatever, if they're gonna offer cheap drinks then my ass is there like a simile in a sentence." She plops said ass down in a seat and starts on her whatever-enth beer of the night.

[yeouiju]

Currently, Sunny is trapped.

It's what happens when you're a nice person generally, but also when you're genuinely invested in the happenings of strangers... which doesn't mean you can't be recognisably cornered into conversation. He is sitting in the lounge area, balancing a beer on his knees, and listening with empathy to some guy who bought everyone a drink, including Sunny's, talk about how he wishes his job in public service hadn't torn him away from his teenage daughter like it has, and now that he's in Baedal, can't do anything about his loss.

Actually, it's moved beyond that, and he's in detail bitching about his former manager, which is getting increasingly uncomfortable. Sunny slooowly sips his beer and wishes he liked beer more, and glances around the room, finally spying Jae and his distinctive self.

Sunny immediately lights up in enthusiasm at seeing a face he recognises, raising a hand in a wave that goes ignored by his conversational partner.

[boomvox]

Well! If that's not a cry for help, what is?

Smoothly, Jae slides over to the circle of chairs that Sunny's trapped within, and leans over the back of the other man's. "Hey, you - hi!" To the man going on about his eternal woe. Which, Jae's sure, is totally valid; everybody's got a story, in Baedal. But. "Do you mind if I steal him? It's important."

Okay, Jae probably didn't need to make that faintly suggestive, but they're on a mission, here.

[yeouiju]

"I hope you get something nice," Sunny can't help but wish, even as he rises to stand; he's being dismissed easily, anyway. In the next second, he's picking his way around the gathered chairs, his drink held up, a hand drifted to Jae's elbow as if to make sure he doesn't get knocked loose in the stream of people.

Both hands go back around his glass once they're in the clear, and he mutters brightly in Korean, "Soon, I will rescue you from a falling vending machine, and we'll be even."

[boomvox]

"I'll make sure the next time I go vending machine dodging you're around," and he answers in kind, a little buzzed and thus a bit more animated for it, but still completely coherent. "Heroes are extremely charming to me, but I don't often get to play one. Thanks."

He raises his glass at Sunny's. Cheers?