⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Winter Breaks: Day 6 - Day 25
Where: THE MOON
What: The carnival journeys to one of its moons to celebrate the Lunar Solstice. More information here.
Warnings: Winter fun.

MOON WALKING↴ The journey to the moon only takes a blink of an eye, but it leaves the carnival far away beneath you. The second moon can be seen on the peripheral, massive compared to its usual view. At least when the holidays start out, there will be no notable wildlife on the moon, though this is something you can talk to the Ringmaster about if you think it needs a change. It sounds like this is the first time she's used it in quite a while - it probably needs some dusting off! Claim your cabins, and proceed to... well, do whatever you want! There is no rush and little obligation, besides to enjoy yourself. For real, this time. She promises there will be no vampires. Or, at least, none that don't already work for the carnival. ► CABINS: Living arrangements are character choice for this event, and there are a variety of cabins of various sizes, mostly built to house 2-6 people, though you can fit more in if you squish. They are all made of wood and of a rustic design - no fancy modern furniture, here! Each building is housed with a fireplace and the needed amenities. You can pick up materials to cook with the private kitchens if you like. Theoretically, you could spend the whole holiday sequestered away, watching the snow fall. Some of them also have outdoor hot tubs available! ► ACTIVITIES: Activities are mostly going to be character driven, though there will be some large group games like bingo and maybe a poker tournament happening at some point in one of the festival halls. Otherwise, there is a lot to offer: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ice sculpting, snowball fights - it goes on! If you'd like to run a winter activity, just let the mods know, and we will get the word out there for you. ► FEASTING: Every day isn't a full-out feast because that would get a bit unhealthy, but there will be a number of specific feast events over the holidays where everyone is encouraged to let out their inner hedonist and stuff themselves. There will be one big feast per week, with smaller but also delicious meals offered in between. The feast dates will be B12, B18, and B24. There's also plenty of alcohol available for anyone who wants it. ► SHOPPING: As mentioned in the planning post, there is a massive market being run by the World Walker Caravan! The Ringmaster has given everyone 1250 credits to spend on items, but there is a caveat - must spend at least 500 of those credits on gifts for other people. And it better be a good one, if you only buy one! (She will ask that you do not buy her presents, however. She appreciates the sentiment, but it seems sort of silly buying her things with her own money! If you'd like to gift her, please have it be something more personal or handmade, but you are not obligated to get her anything at all.) ► TREATMENTS: The beginning of the holidays will also be about the time that the emergency Medical Team will have finalized their treatments for the Prince's poisoning. Watch out for further information on that - and make sure to get treated if you are suffering from petrification or poison induced illness! The holidays will be a lot more fun that way.

Comments

[flashover]

Rin isn't affected nearly as much... probably because he isn't a person held together entirely by stress and is fairly relaxed anyway. But it sure does feel nice. His worries about how Yukio had acted the other day just sort of.... melt away into a golden haze.

Though he does laugh when Yukio offers his glass to Kuro, who immediately sticks his head all the way into it to lap up some of the golden ambrosia.

"I guess he kind of is like our brother! Our older brother."

Like Mephisto and Lucifer except not horrible.

[reflash]

“No, no,” says Yukio absently, petting Kuro in an absent, uncoordinated sort of way. “He’s our little brother. Little-big brother.”

When Kuro pulls his head out of the glass, Yukio points at him, getting right up in his face with an accusatory finger.

“I’ll only call you nii-san when you’re larger than me!”

[flashover]

Kuro has his fill and lets himself be pet on because HEY. It feels good. He may not be a cat but he can appreciate a good petting. Oops. But then Yukio is in his face with a finger.

He meows angrily and hisses before jumping off of Yukio's lap.

"Oh, he says you should respect your elders, Yukio!" Rin translates helpfully.

[reflash]

“I’ll respect him when he stops licking himself on the kitchen counters!” Yukio may be relaxed, but there’s something... silly about this whole thing that makes him want to yell and flail a little bit. He downs the rest of his glass in one gulp to emphasize his point.

[flashover]

More growling from Kuro, who turns his back on Yukio, tail straight up, and marches away to find SOMEWHERE ELSE to enjoy his drunken stupor! ... Which, judging by the way he sways as he walks, has already begun.

"He says that the kitchen counter is a perfectly good place to get clean and that he doesn't have to take your crap, Yukio." Rin says with a chuckle. "He likes to act all high and mighty like he's not a cat but then he does things like that!"

[reflash]

“You can still get toxoplasmosis from cat sídhe,” Yukio explains, sinking even further into his chair. “Demonic toxoplasmosis.”

Or something.

It takes an absolutely monumental effort to push himself back up so he’s sitting in his chair, but he manages. He’s been tired for months, but with the combination of the magic and the alcohol, it’s hitting him harder than usual. He just wants to sleep.

“I should go. I’ve taken up too much of your time.”

Standing... is more than he can handle right now. Give him a moment to gather his strength for that.

[flashover]

"Pfffftttttt," Rin says, flapping his hand dismissively. "Kuro's not poisonous! And he's definitely not demon poisonous or whatever! Geez, Yukio..."

... Definitely some sort of misunderstanding, there, but what can you expect from a boy like Okumura Rin, who thought squids have ears?

"Awww... you don't have to go. Why don't you come lay down on the couch, huh? It's real comfortable. There's a nice fuzzy blanket around here somewheres."

[reflash]

“Not toxic, nii-san. Toxoplasmosis.”

But that conversation is going to have to wait for the world to stop moving and for Yukio to stop feeling sort of like a disarticulated skeleton wrapped in warm mochi. Standing is... ... possible, just barely, though it takes all of his not-inconsiderable willpower and he stumbles slightly just rising from the chair. It just makes the vertigo worse, but the couch is close enough that he can make it without falling. As soon as he gets there, he gives in, sinking carefully down onto his side (even now, he’s found the position where he can most easily see Rin and the entrance to the room).

“I don’t want to impose,” he says, but at this point it’s just politeness.

[flashover]

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Same thing, right? Right!"

Disarticulated skeleton wrapped in warm mochi. Now THAT is a description. Not how Rin feels, by the by. Rin feels more like his whole body is a soft, warm sweater. Like laying out in the sun... yeah. It was definitely like basking in a ray of sunlight, but without getting too hot at all.

Rin smiles as Yukio collapses onto the couch and then laughs a bit. "You're not imposing. This cabin is huge for just Hinawa-san and I, and she's not even here right now! Chill out here for a bit."

To make it an even harder decision, Rin gets up and drapes a warm minky blanket over him.

[reflash]

Yukio's already lost, even before Rin introduces him to the additional warmth of the softest blanket he's ever felt. He practically melts into the couch, flushed from the alcohol and the magical heat and feeling too much and not enough and tired.

But before Rin can move away, Yukio reaches out, grabbing for fabric or tail or something that will make Rin stay.

"Nii-san, ca--" he cuts himself off, aware that he's being childish, not looking at Rin but not letting go either.

[flashover]

HaHA! Winner winner chicken dinner, it is RIN.

Yukio catches hold of the hem of the long-sleeved oversized shirt Rin is wearing, but it doesn't seem like he was going too far anyway.

"What, you want me to sit with you? Ok."

No questioning of it, no "why" or fun-making. Rin finds a spot on the huge plush couch that's unoccupied by his brother and takes a seat. He sinks in with a contented "ahhhhh".

"I love this couch, man."

[reflash]

Pathetic. He's pathetic, and weak, and when Rin's weight settles down onto the cushions and Rin says something stupid and pointless and completely harmless Yukio just laughs. It's all just... just...

"It's nice." The entirely wrong words. He says them like everything's fine, or maybe he says them with all the bottled up frustration he feels. It doesn't matter anymore.

[flashover]

"It is nice!" Rin says cheerfully, and maybe a bit sleepily, as he sinks further down in. He pats the couch with clawed and padded fingers. "I kinda want to steal it for my trailer, you know? But I don't think the Ringmaster would like that... and I also don't think it would fit!"

The idea of trying to fit the enormous couch in his and Sora's not-so-enormous trailer is extra entertaining to his buzzed mind, and he laughs at the mental image.

"Haaa... Yukio... you know. I'm glad."

[reflash]

Yukio is crashing hard, vision greying out with exhaustion as Rin rambles and Yukio considers the monumental amount of effort required to shift his position so his glasses don't dig into his face. Too much, especially with how uselessly relaxed his body feels right now.

His name gets his attention, and he makes a vague, possibly encouraging sound. If Rin keeps talking, Yukio doesn't have to think. He really doesn't want to think right now.

[flashover]

Then keep talking he will! Rin likes to talk. Rin likes to hear himself talk. Right now, more than ever! And he has a lot of feelings about this situation.

"I'm glad you're here, that is. I mean... I know it's a weird faerie-slash-demon carnival, and I have a weird face right now, and... you know... stuff...." he trails off a bit, then tries to get back on track. "But I'm still glad anyway. I miss you, when you're not around. Is that stupid? It's probably stupid."

[reflash]

"It's stupid," he says. "You're just... you think everything is a game. You think things are going to turn out well for anyone. You should have made a contract for something useful, but you don't have a reason for being here. You need to think more clearly."

[flashover]

"I'll make a contract for something useful when this one is up, I promise!" he says, only slightly defensive. "It's not my fault I got tricked..."

Yes, it is, Rin. It, by definition, is your fault. But he's still smiling, clearly not too angry about the whole thing.

"Maybe I should get more serious, huh? Mmmm... But I think if I get more serious, you need to lighten up some."

Just a tad! Consider that sometimes the glass is actually half full.

[reflash]

"It's serious," he tries to snap, but he's not up for an argument. "They're going to kill you. They might kill me too, I don't know."

Any of his usual ability to form intelligent, coherent sentences is buried under the haze in his skull right now, along with any ability to really care about the death sentences hanging over their heads. It's just obligation. He's obligated to be serious about this, to care, to keep going, to get stronger, to be better.

"I can't lighten up. Not yet."

[flashover]

"I won't let them kill you, idiot..." Rin says, grabbing the nearest part of Yukio available. It happens to be his foot. "And if I die, then... whatever. I lived a good life. I think I made dad proud. And it's not like I'll go down without a fight!"

He says that, but he probably would. In the end, he doesn't want to hurt anyone. And if the Order thinks him being dead was safer for more people than him being alive, even after Rin gives it everything he's got... well. Then they're probably right, aren't they?

"But they won't kill you. That'd be stupid... just stupid."

[reflash]

He laughs again, because this is stupid, this is just stupid, and it doesn't matter if they made anyone proud and it doesn't matter what they did or what they accomplished or who they are.

"He was always proud of you." And he does get the appropriate level of venom in his voice when he says it, anger not held in check because his usual distance has just dissolved completely under the influence of magical alcohol.

[flashover]

The venom doesn't go undetected. It would probably sting a lot more if he weren't inebriated. As a matter of fact, before doing or saying anything else, he reaches out for his forgotten glass and quickly downs the rest of the glowing golden beverage.

"He was proud of you, too. I know he was."

And why shouldn't he be? Yukio achieved so much for such a young person. In a mere 15 years he'd accomplished what some people never did in their entire lives!

"... I miss him," Rin admits, sadness now in his voice. "He was here, for a little while. Alive. From... before... everything... I warned him."

Rin looks up at the ceiling, hands folded on his now empty glass in his lap.

"... maybe, in his timeline, it mattered. Maybe, some other you and me won't have to go on without him."

[reflash]

Yukio manages to shake his head at that first thing, still stuck on it even as Rin talks about timelines and Fujimoto being alive somewhere, being here for a little bit.

"He wasn't. You didn't see that."

Yukio never would have accomplished so much, so young, without being pushed. A gun in small hands and the weight of protect on his shoulders and the Paladin constantly driving him forward. A long time ago, he wanted to be a doctor. A childish dream. That was never going to happen, not with who he was and what he came from and who he was raised by and demons pulling every single string.

And Fujimoto knew. The whole time, the whole time he played at being the priest and the father and the Paladin, he knew what was going on.

"He was supposed to be a vessel for a demon king. We were too. We're just... experiments." That's all. Just experiments. Just bodies.

"He was proud of you because you inherited the flames. I couldn't."

[flashover]

Rin smiles at Yukio as he listens to him berate himself, like he always does. He squeezes his brother's foot in a weird, but thoughtful, show of affection.

"Yukio... I don't really understand everything you're saying..." Vessels? Experiments? "But I know one thing. He loved us. He loved you." He says it with kind of certainty that only comes from being inebriated and not very smart. But his words ring honest.

"Maybe we started that way... just a couple of freaks, being raised as weapons for the Order. But you don't raise experiments in a church, right? You raise them in a lab. You don't let 'em have hopes and dreams and make mistakes and go to school and learn to cook and...." he shakes his head.

"... I want to believe he loved us like his own kids. Can't you just believe it too, Yukio?"

[reflash]

"That's worse," he says, turning his face closer to the couch. His throat is tight, suddenly, and there's too much heat under his skin.

He wants to be angry. Instead, Rin's words just hurt. Rin was the one with hopes and dreams and mistakes. Rin was the weapon and the vessel and the heir and the son. Yukio... he was always just the bodyguard.

[flashover]

Sorry, Yukio. Rin just has... a hard time understanding. He finds it so much easier to put himself in the shoes of those with whom he hasn't grown up. Oddly enough. Maybe he'll understand one day. But now he's leaning back and his eyes are closed.

"I dunno. If he were here... he'd tell you..." a large, gaping yawn, showing the slightly more dog or carnivore-like teeth Rin has in his mouth. "I'd beat him up until he did."