PARTY LOG: OPEN TO EVERYONE

[npc_kun]

Characters: OPEN
Date/Time: FORWARDdated to Friday, March 25th. All day!
Location: The Park
Rating: PG-13 for assumed general raucousness
Summary: Sniper decided to hold a birthday party for Cloud and Krile which means... holding just a huge party in the park whether they like it or not. Fireworks, food and drink within

Comments

Later on~!

[iattractmushi]

By the time Cloud saw Bellflower, he'd, ah, sampled several of the alcoholic beverages--mainly the different kinds of beer--and he was definitely feeling the sort of unique warmth that tended to come from drinking alcohol in large quantities. Normally he'd have stopped before it got to this point, but... somehow, with everything that had happened lately, he couldn't bring himself to care enough to stop. And the haze that was starting to interfere with his ability to think clearly was actually kind of nice. It meant his thoughts weren't revolving around the issue of whether they were all dead or not, for the first time since he woke up from his little 'nap.'

With another open bottle of beer in hand, he walked over to her. He could still walk straight, at least, so she might not immediately notice he was tipsy. "Hey, Bellflower-s*hic*san."

...okay, maybe she would notice right away.

[wayofflowers]

It was rather clear that Cloud had been imbibing, but Bellflower wasn't going to mention it - it would be impolite. And he didn't appear to have drunk enough to be sick, so - it was a party, after all. She gave him a warm smile in return. "Cloud-san. I believe happy birthday wishes are in order?" Not that birthdays meant a great deal, in this place - she had been born twice now, after all - but still, a reason to celebrate never went amiss.

[iattractmushi]

"Oh." Cloud blinked a little, having to mentally back track just a bit--he'd succeeded in forgetting (or at least ignoring) the supposed reason Sniper had put on this party for the past hour or so. "...right. Yeah." He offered her a hesitant smile. "Guess that makes me one year old, huh?"

[wayofflowers]

"One year older, I think," Bellflower corrected with a small smile. "I do not think we lose our previous years coming here, however many they might be." Which, in her case, was a great number. And it neatly avoided the question of how, exactly, one counted rebirths here - a question she was still not entirely comfortable discussing, doubly so at a party. But marking the passage of time... that was simple enough.

[iattractmushi]

Cloud shifted his weight a little, found that that left him feeling distinctly wobbly, and hastily leaned his free hand against a table. "No no, it was a joke. Bad joke, I guess..."

He paused. Well, now what? "...we haven't spoken much, lately." That was probably his fault, after their last conversation in the tea shop. "So, uhm... is there anything... new?" Awkward, but that didn't seem that important right now. He did want to remain friends with her, and hopefully she'd be willing to continue the conversation, however awkward it was.

[wayofflowers]

There was a quick, warm smile on Bellflower's face - the joke hadn't been lost on her, really, just... made her think. Perhaps too much.

The smile was quick to fade, though - 'anything new'. Well, there was what she learned in her memory, but... "Much - but I am not certain now is the time or place for it." She was fairly certain Cloud was still sober enough to remember the conversation, later, but while the memory hadn't been unhappy, what she had learned was still perhaps not quite fit for a light-hearted party.

[iattractmushi]

For his part, Cloud completely missed that she had gotten the joke. He did notice that her smile faded, which he took to mean that he was somehow making her unhappy. Maybe she didn't want to speak to him? Or maybe she just didn't have anything to talk about. No, she'd said 'much'... so maybe she just didn't want to talk to him about it.

"...alright." After another pause, he decided to sit. He wasn't sure what else to say; he hadn't exactly had a plan when he walked over here. So he turned his gaze to the rest of the party, taking another sip from his beer as he did.

[wayofflowers]

The silence that hung between them was almost palatable in it's awkwardness, and she felt guilty for being responsible for it. She smoothed her skirt, and took a seat next to Cloud, giving him a small smile. "I apologize for ruining the mood - I would like to talk to you, at some point, about what I have learned - but somewhere quiet and a little more private than this, I think." Time to change the topic... something neutral. "Did you visit the forest the Wilderness turned into last week? It was quite stunning."

[iattractmushi]

He was still sober enough to feel the awkward silence hanging in the air; he just wasn't sure what to do about it. So when she spoke he turned toward her, leaning one elbow back on the table, not bothering to hide the flash of relief that briefly flicked over his face. She did want to talk to him after all.

He nodded. "No, it's... you don't have anything to apologize for, Bellflower-san. And of course. Whenever you want." Hmm, that sounded a little... too eager? Perhaps. "I mean, just... you know where you can find me, most of the time." Slightly better.

At her referring to the Wilderness, he smiled, slightly lopsidedly. "Oooh, you saw it? Did you see the mushi, too?"

Hopefully he'd be able to talk about them without having the same kind of side effects he experienced in the Wilderness itself.

[wayofflowers]

There was a small, internal sigh of relief at that quick, relaxed flash. Things were still a little awkward between them, maybe. But they would work through this. Avoiding each other would only make it worse.

She was about to reply that she did in fact know where to find him - but the rest of what he had said took her by surprise, which was now very clearly written on her face. "Those were mushi?" The strange little creatures had been beautiful - elegant, even, in their own little ethereal way, and she had spent a fair bit of time simply watching them roam among the trees.

[iattractmushi]

His smile broadened at that reaction. She looked... actually really cute like that. "Yeah, the glowing things."

Cloud took another swallow of the beer--it was nearly gone, and he was idly considering getting another when it was--and grinned outright. "What'd you think of them? Pretty interesting, huh?"

[wayofflowers]

That was more like the Cloud-san she knew. Bellflower smiled back, a little wider than before. "They were beautiful - nothing like anything I'd ever seen before. Is that... what you're used to seeing?" She had to guess the creatures didn't exist within the Sphere itself - Cloud had said they sometimes caused problems for people, after all. But to live in a world like that...

[iattractmushi]

"Something like that." He pondered that for a moment. "I think there are normally less of them... probably." He actually hoped that was true, since so many of them in one area had felt... not wrong, not exactly, more... dangerous. Yes, that was what it had been. Dangerous.

"But they are beautiful." His grin softened to a smile. Now that he wasn't suffering from being forced to remember information about them, he could relish the memory of seeing them. It had felt 'right,' in a way few other things in Edensphere did.

[wayofflowers]

Bellflower nodded a silent agreement to that. "Do you ever see them here? I can't recall if I've asked." Given that their last conversation on the subject had been cut so unexpectedly short - but they could continue it at least. Here, or later, it didn't matter so much to her.

[iattractmushi]

"Nope." He popped the 'p' lazily. He couldn't remember if she'd asked either, but he didn't mind answering it again if she had. "There aren't any in Edensphere. I'd have seen 'em if there were."

Between his memories and that Wilderness, he was sure of it now. They would have been drawn to him long ago if there were. "It's a pretty rare ability to see them, y'know. Most of the people I ran into could only..." He made a vague gesture with his free hand. "...kinda sense them."

[wayofflowers]

"I see..." Bellflower replied thoughtfully. "Perhaps it depends on one's own power, as well. I know that I have some - that I can sense the power of people from my own world There was a quick, sudden grin. "And there's the matter of the mysterious flying manta ray." Even if that was marginally less mysterious, now - there were still more questions than answers. "But I could definitely see the creatures in the forest."