22 - Harvest Moon Viewing

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Harvest Moon Viewing
When: September 10, 6 PM
Where: The Meeting Hall grounds
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a moon-viewing party!







Party Games

Children are dashing all over the moon-viewing grounds in the early evening, flying kites or playing tag and other games. Many of them are wearing cute seasonal rabbit masks made of paper, or sporting ink curlicues and scribbles drawn over their faces, if they've lost too many games.

Card games and spinning top battles, a few practice archery butts towards the edge of the park, poetry-composing competitions, and even badminton: there's something for everyone, and anyone who doesn't look too busy may find themselves offered a rabbit mask and a game to play. Or perhaps you'd like to try your hand at drawing people into your own game?

Moon Viewing

The moon rises not long after sunset, looming over the garden in hazy golden and red splendor thanks to the volcanic fumes in the atmosphere. The games are winding down as darkness falls, and the faint scent of burning incense fills the air as people settle to view the moon rise. Shinki in their festival best, adorned with Amaterasu's golden chrysanthemum, are serving the guests. They set out trays of fresh seasonal fruit (Japanese pears, persimmons, and chestnuts) and plates of mochi, serve sake, and light portable grills to cook sweet potatoes and skewers of meat.

Mazed & Confused

Part of the grounds have been rearranged into a hedge-maze made of tall, plumed grasses packed close together. A sign at the entrance reads, "Bring back my ribbon from the center of the maze,
and I'll give you a special prize!"

Unfortunately, that's harder than it sounds. The maze is full of dead ends, confusing turns, and twisty little passages, which all look alike. It's almost magical how easy it is to lose your way inside, and the tufted grass will prove to have painfully sharp edges if anyone tries to cheat by pushing their way through the "walls" of the maze.

Those who successfully find their way to the center will find a white ribbon fluttering from the top of a tall pole. If they can climb the pole, pull the ribbon free, and make it back to the entrance, they will hear the sound of a child's laughter, and the ribbon in their hand will disappear to be replaced by a round cake of mochi. Enjoy the prize!

Wild Moon

One of the children participating most energetically in the games of tag and dashing around the party is wearing an oversized gray hoodie with the hood pulled up right to the edges of his happy rabbit mask. He's not being very careful, either: he keeps bumping into other party attendees and barely taking the time to mutter an apology before he sprints away.

Although nothing noticeable happens at the time, anyone who's been tagged or bumped into by that particular child will begin to feel more emotional, quicker to react, and less self-controlled as the night wears on. Those who he only brushed by won't be too powerfully affected, but the more times that he has run into someone, the stronger the effect will grow.

(Note: This won't cause anyone to have emotions that they wouldn't feel otherwise, but both ongoing moods and temporary reactions could be amplified.)

In Summary:

• Play party games
• Relax with snacks
• Try to solve the hedge maze
• Go wild
• Have fun~

Comments

[lostinshadows]

You were blinded by your revenge to even consider the thoughts and feelings of others. [That.....sounds familiar.

The coil of anger inside tightens; he wants to punch Shun, yell at him, for listening to the words of others when he could have done something - anything - to prevent Yuto's death. Was he so blinded that he lost all rational thoughts?

Yes.

In a way, Shun had allowed Yuto to walk to his death, to be left to his fate.

But:]

Do you regret everything you've done?

[revolutionfalcon]

[There's not really much else Shun can say to that remark but nod. Obviously the intent to save Ruri had factored into it, but revenge had always been most of what it was about. That anger driving him, that carelessness...he wanted her back, but most of all, he wanted to rip apart the very foundations of who took her.

Lavi's question makes him hesitate slightly. Certainly, there are things he doesn't regret. Taking down Academia members was necessary, and Dennis deserved everything he got, as far as Shun was concerned. But everything he's mentioned here...those are the things he really does feel guilt about.]

Everything I've said here. I did what I had to. But these are the things that went beyond that.

[lostinshadows]

Then you do deserve to be worried about.

[Regardless of whether or not Shun may feel the same way.

Lavi stomps down the anger.]

You became blinded, and that happens to people, but if you feel remorse for what happened to your comrades - [To Yuto] - then that's fine. [You can still be worried about, to deserve to be worried about.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun knows he should be some kind of grateful for the gesture of support, he really can't be here. He'd thought raising something that personal would be sure to throw him off...and if that didn't work, is it really going to work with anyone?

With another bitter noise, he turns his head away again.] You're eager to die for someone who's already dead.

[Then again, Shun might be already dead himself. It's not like he can be absolutely sure he isn't until he returns to his world.]

[lostinshadows]

[Lavi laughs.]

Maybe dying a second time might give me a better perspective on these sort of things.

[No, not really, but he isgoing climb up that tree now.]

[revolutionfalcon]

If it didn't work the first time, it's not going to work the second. [Shun's not actually going to stop him climbing the tree, so that's something. However, he's also not going to move to make it any easier for Lavi to find somewhere to perch himself.]

Is whatever the hell this is happening to you as well? It's hard to tell with some people.

[lostinshadows]

You never know. Dying so many times may change a person. [Or break down their psyche.

And it's fine. Lavi is content with hanging off from a branch mostly. However, at the question, he grows silent, almost speculative as he considers it. Then he smiles, strained and absolutely pained.]

Maybe, probably. I want to say 'yes' considering how much I wanted to actually punch you in the face earlier.

[revolutionfalcon]

Or destroy them. [Looks like Shun had the same thought there. Dying multiple times really doesn't sound like anything anyone should be testing out for effect. Not even being sure if he'd died the once has been bad enough for him.

That expression is enough to tell him it's affecting Lavi, and while he offers a faint snort at the remark about punching him in the face, it's probably not the thing to focus on right now.] Then you might as well tell me what's bothering you, because after all that, I'm hardly going to let you get away being silent about it.

[lostinshadows]

Would you be willing to die so many times if you get something in return? [It's a mild question, asked as if he's asking about the weather.

Lavi laughs, hardly surprised by that.]

You ever think of a chance that anyone you grow close to - grow to love - they just leave you? [He swings on a branch briefly before he pulls himself up.] And then when they're gone, you can't take some words back or you wish there was more to tell them? Enough where it gnaws on you, festering until it forms into guilt and all you want to do is try to forget about it since they're not here anymore.

[He pauses, watching Shun for a moment.]

Or you grow into that much of a pessimist that you just let that guilt sit inside of you while wondering if their last words to you are true or not.

[revolutionfalcon]

Depends what it is. [If Shun had to die so many times to protect something important, then maybe. But it's not really something he's given too much thought to yet.

The way Lavi phrases his problem gets a bit of a critical eying from Shun, because grow to love is a strong term, especially in this place. He's lost some people close to him, certainly, but he hasn't yet lost anyone he'd apply that word to, unless he classified Yuto as familial love.

Still watching Lavi, he curls his fingers against his arms a little.] I've lost a lot of people who grew close to me here, so of course I know that risk. There are opportunities I wish I'd taken while I had the chance, and it's not something that can be forgotten so easily. But "love" is a strong word, and it sounds like you're thinking of some very specific last words.

[So he can't exactly judge the situation as a whole unless he knows them, though he wouldn't be surprised if Lavi refused to share.]

[lostinshadows]

[He's quiet, a soft hum escaping from him.

Then Lavi grins slightly.]

It is a strong word. Familial love comes close, but sometimes it's hard to ignore the ones on the romance spectrum. [He is taking extra care not to tell Shun about why he's so affected by Yuto's disappearance, but the god will eventually start connecting it together.]

Someone told me I didn't deserve my name after I made the reckless choice to reveal a memory personally tied to a god I had befriended. [And by doing so, he'd risk Cardia.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[...So Lavi was in romantic love with someone, who then vanished. Shun isn't quite focusing on that yet, but he doesn't know much about who disappeared around Lavi and when - there was Yuto, someone named "Allen" slightly before that if that slip-up with Hakkai had been any sign, and he doesn't know who else. It means the pool of options there is rather slim. But for now, he's going to pry about the latter point.]

Did that "Allen" guy have something to do with it? [Shun hadn't met him, but from Lavi's reaction at that time, he has to have been someone Lavi was close to who also disappeared. Not to mention not knowing him means Shun doesn't know his status as god or shinki either.] Either way, that's not their decision to make. That's between you and your god, and nobody else.

[lostinshadows]

[Shun remembered the name.

In a way, Lavi still curses Hakkai for letting that bit of information slip. At the same time, he also doesn't know how close Allen was to anyone else during his time here.

Either way, the mention of the lost god has Lavi tensing instinctively before he forces himself to relax. He grins at Shun ruefully.]

He was a god that I allowed myself to be named by other than my assigned god. [While he has no issues being a nora, Lavi did become reckless. He allowed that one memory to be what's left between them and that was the last time Lavi's seen Allen, too.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun has a habit of filing away information that might be useful later. While he definitely wasn't going to press for information at the time, he hadn't forgotten the name that had brought on that reaction.

That relationship explains a lot, though, and while Shun hadn't known previously Lavi was a nora for any length of time, he nods a little as if he's not surprised.]

If he was the one who said that to you, it's pretty pathetic to do that to someone he made a nora in the first place. Sounds like he was bitter. Or his other shinki was bitter, since that's the only other person I could imagine being that invested.

["You don't deserve your name" is a very bizarre and specific insult to choose of the variety that could be chosen. Clearly it hurt a lot, and there has to be a reason for that.]

[lostinshadows]

[It really is a bit dangerous to mention to Shun that Allen knew who he was before and that is reckless enough.

Their relationship was weird, but Lavi still adored him.]

She chose a very specific insult to say to me before she left. [And it hurt because Lux knew why Lavi had issues with his name. It brings a flare of pain, an ache in his chest that has a hand curling into a fist.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Other shinki, then. And a woman, from the sound of things. Maybe she was the one Lavi was in love with? ...But then, he probably should have heard about her before now if that's the case.

Gaze moving to Lavi's clenched fist for a moment, Shun then looks back up at his face.]

Did you have a close enough relationship with her that it hurt more, or did she pick that insult for another reason? [Romantic or not, it's a valid question. Some shinki would be more accepting of their god taking a nora than others would.]

[lostinshadows]

....Both.

[She was like a sister to him, but she also knew the truth, didn't she? The fact that he had struggled with his identity, the secrets he holds deep inside of him that not even Cardia knows about.

Ink on paper. Nothing more.

Lux will always be special to him. However, she was also a bane that he was often forced to overcome.] She knew something about me that no one else did and she used it against me in order to hurt.

[revolutionfalcon]

[That doesn't particularly sound like someone Lavi would have been in love with either, though he notes the acknowledgement of a close relationship there. However, that matter is one he can at least leave until a little later, whatever his current suspicions on it might be.]

So she betrayed your trust after you offered her something that important. It sounds like she was plenty bad enough herself. [Shun's moral compass may not exactly be the straightest thing around, but personal betrayal is something he holds as a particularly immoral thing to do. Partially because of how much it's affected him, but also just because abusing that kind of relationship just feels wrong to him.]

I don't know her, but there's probably two options there. Either she spoke without thinking and didn't have time to regret it, or she wanted you to hurt and didn't care what she used to do it.

[lostinshadows]

[A pause as Lavi thinks about it.

He doesn't let much thought of his own on the former relationship they shared. Lavi knows what Lux might have been aiming to get at, opting out the say that he heard her crying before she hung up on him. Then again, it has always been the people close to him who really ever knew how to hurt him.

Then he chuckles, the sound of it tired and strained.]

Possibly. It could be one or the other, or both even. She was a bit similar to Allen in that regard.

[revolutionfalcon]

I'm surprised you got that close to them if that's what it was like. [Shun puts it very bluntly. He's had friends try to kill him - and almost succeed, for that matter - but that hadn't been when he'd met them. Unless Lavi got in that deep before they started behaving that way, but he can't really say given the circumstances.]

I'm guessing they're better than you're making them sound if you allowed him to name you and missed him that much when he disappeared - and care this much about her opinion - but if she spoke without thinking, it's not worth dwelling on. If they did it to hurt, dwelling on it is letting them win.

[lostinshadows]

[He grins at him wryly.]

He was someone who knew me, Shun. Back when I was alive. [So, yeah, there's a connection that Lavi and risked himself over. The grin falls a bit and he eyes him for a moment. It does seem like he's about to say something, but opts not to.] Are you feeling any better, though?

[Because he originally came here to help Shun - not the other way around. He doesn't want to put his own problems on the god's shoulders, anyway.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That sure does explain some things, though Shun's jaw tightens a bit at Lavi knowing that for a fact. Lavi's attempt to turn the conversation back on him is transparent as hell, though, and Shun shoots him a sidelong look.]

Not really. [Which just means he needs something else to preoccupy his thoughts, a subject which Lavi has previously helpfully offered anyway.] I'm guessing it wasn't her or him you mentioned being in romantic love with.

[He feels like he would have heard something from Lavi about one or other of them before this point. And it can't be Lavi's goddess, either, since he saw her just earlier.]

[lostinshadows]

.....

[He really had to catch onto that, didn't he?

There's a bit of a look.]

You get one free punch when you figure it out. [Because he's already bracing himself for the hurt that will come.] Because the one I had [have] feelings for was Yuto.

[revolutionfalcon]

[There is a rather long pause at that, because Shun did definitely suspect that was going to be the case already. But it's the kind of silence that comes before someone gets attacked by a beast hiding just out of view.

Straightening up from his own branch, Shun hops deceptively delicately over to Lavi's, dropping off it to hang from one arm so he can actually reach Lavi to punch him. And when he does, he pulls his free arm back and throws his fist forward towards his face more than hard enough to punch someone entirely off the branch if they're not very prepared.]

[lostinshadows]

[Lavi is entirely prepared for that - mostly since he told Shun that he did get one free punch for the revelation. Still, it does make his head jerk back from the force, holding onto the branch tight enough where he doesn't fall down. The pain flares from where he's been hit, but it's nothing he can't handle.

He simply groans quietly, rubbing the area.]