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

maze

[blizzardrock]

[Trying to navigate the maze by himself makes Fubuki a bit tired and irritated, so when he sees not only someone but a familiar someone to boot, he hikes over without pause.] Ren!

[For that reason, it takes him a second to see the injury.]

...Are you alright?

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren freezes at the familiar voice and turns to look at him somewhat apprehensively. Fubuki is much too nice a person to have to deal with him right now, and he's definitely going to be on edge the entire time, which won't help.]

Oh, hello, Fubuki-kun. [Ren glances down at his hand, but the reminder that he lost that much control just irritates him again, so clenches his fist and drops it.] I'll be fine. How are you doing?

[He definitely doesn't sound as airheadedly light and casual as usual, but he is Trying.]

[blizzardrock]

Hm? I'm fine. You should wrap that, at least...

[Good thing Fubuki's carrying a handkerchief, having gotten it recently to replace the one he gave away a little while ago. He pulls it out.] Here.

[He doesn't not notice that Ren seems bothered, but since Fubuki was a little annoyed at the maze, himself, he assumes it's that kind of thing.] Looks like you want to get out of here as quickly as I do...

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren frowns at the handkerchief for several seconds before he finally takes it and starts wrapping it around his hand. He doesn't really want it, but he's not quite in a bad enough mood to just not take it. He isn't in the mood to thank him, though.

Being annoyed at the maze is certainly part of it, and he lets out a noisy puff of air through his nose at that.] I just want to feel like I've been making progress. I didn't think this was going to be easy, but I thought I'd at least feel like I was getting somewhere.

[blizzardrock]

[Honestly, he's just happy that Ren took it.]

...You're...not talking about the maze, are you?

[That was simultaneously too specific and too general to be talking about the maze... Although part of it might just be Fubuki's assumption that no one would walk into the maze unless they thought that it would be fun in some way, which it sounds like Ren didn't.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Nailed It. Granted, he was talking about the maze, but it had definitely taken a right turn into his own self-hatred somewhere in there too. He's not very happy Fubuki managed to pick up on it either, and he very nearly knocks into him as he brushes past and heads off in the direction Fubuki had come from.]

Of course I'm talking about the maze. Did you see any forks near here, Fubuki-kun?

[blizzardrock]

[Oop. He does a weird turn out of the way when Ren nearly knocks into him.]

I was trying to follow a wall...

[The left wall, to be precise, but that had required a lot more patience than he'd had earlier.]

Hey. [He reaches out with the intent to touch Ren on the arm.] Are you sure you're alright?

[shadowrevenger]

[That isn't a bad strategy, but it isn't one he finds very helpful right now, so right now it's just annoying. Fubuki also doesn't deserve to be snapped at for something like that, so he determinedly keeps his mouth shut and doesn't say anything at all.

He can't help but react to being touched, though, and he jerks away from it with a little more force than necessary. He also immediately looks sorry for it, and turns his head away to try to look like he's focusing on the maze when he really just doesn't want to look at Fubuki.]

...I didn't say that. I said I will be.

[blizzardrock]

[...This does explain the hand injury...]

Looks like neither of us can get out of here easily. [So! He sits down on the ground.] Effectively, we're trapped here...why don't you tell me what's wrong? Just a little bit.

[He can guess some of it, based on what Ren said about the maze, but it's not like vague mazy comments encompass everything.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren narrows his eyes when it sounds like Fubuki isn't following him, and then looks even more annoyed when he turns around and sees the shinki sitting on the ground. No matter how frustrated he's gotten with the maze, he was never planning on just stopping...especially if stopping means talking about his issues.]

We can talk and find a way through at the same time.

[blizzardrock]

Is that an admission that you will talk?

[Besides...he already went that way...]

If you keep going and the maze doesn't respond to you, you'll get even more irritated... And I don't have another handkerchief.

[shadowrevenger]

[Welp. If there's one thing he can tell for sure now, it's that Fubuki is an excellent shinki for Shun, if he's as quick to call Shun out on his BS as he's doing here. Which, you know, good for Shun, he needs that, and honestly Ren could use that quite a bit himself, but Fubuki's not the one he want to hear it from.

(But the person he wants isn't here and it's that thought that more than actually wanting to talk that makes him finally stop and slowly slump to the ground.)]

It's fine. I'm not going to do that again.

[blizzardrock]

[Ren...that wasn't the important part.]

The problem is that you did it in the first place, right?

[He gets up, but only to go over to sit by Ren.]

Wanna talk about it? You can be vague if you don't want me to know. I won't ask for specifics.

[shadowrevenger]

[No, he really doesn't, and he's already feeling restless to get moving again. His fingers claw painfully into his ankles at the thought of saying anything that he's thinking out loud even halfway seriously to someone who has no idea why he might be thinking it. Fubuki undoubtedly thinks he's a mostly happy and decent person, and even though that's wrong, it's how he wanted it.

...He can probably manage being vague. And Fubuki probably deserves an explanation for his behavior...]

...I should have better self-control than that. I shouldn't have been that angry in the first place. But ever since I came in here, I can't stop, and that just makes me more angry...

[blizzardrock]

Everyone gets angry sometimes, you know?

[The people he knows who get violent when angry has just increased... But, well, it's not like he doesn't understand that urge. He just never does it hard enough to start bleeding...]

[It's not "self-control," but he does know a thing or two about suppressing something inside of him. If that part of himself surfaced right now, he would...he's not sure. But it would be bad. ...Not to mention he has to suppress certain things as a shinki, anyway. Heh.]

[His most common go-to to avoid thinking about certain things is to distract himself, so—] Would a distraction work? [He pulls out a deck of playing cards from a pocket.]

[shadowrevenger]

I can't afford to.

[At least, not angry like that. Angry at some villain who has wronged his friends that he can just take down and wash his hands of? Sure, although he still doesn't get this angry. But this...this has no purpose, there's no villain to fight, and it has nothing to do with his friends. This is purely because of his own feelings, and that's dangerous.

He glances up when Fubuki pulls out the cards and his fingers dig into his ankles again, although it's more from excitement than anger this time. He's not sure how good of a distraction that's going to be, but he's rarely wanted to beat someone at something more in his entire life than he does right now.]

What did you have in mind?

[blizzardrock]

[The comment gets a look of surprise from Fubuki, but he did say he wouldn't ask for details. And, well—understandable or not, getting angry can be kind of unpleasant.]

[As for what he had in mind—] Mhm...poker? [Something with strategy, which requires a bit of thinking and concentration.]

Or...we tell scary stories based on the card we draw. [He'd played ghost stories with Tsuzuki once, albeit not with cards, when Fubuki had needed the distraction; it'd worked, pretty much.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Those are actually both interesting choices, and Ren frowns intently at the deck for a moment while he decides. Telling scary stories might be fun...except he thinks it would be pretty unfair to Fubuki, since he isn't really in the mood to tell them for fun and there's basically nothing Fubuki could come up with that would even make him nervous. Anything that might come close on a normal day is just going to piss him off right now.

Anyway, the prospect of some type of competition is more appealing right now. So it isn't actually that difficult a decision in the end.]

Poker is fine.

[blizzardrock]

Poker it is. [He starts shuffling.]

Want to introduce any rules? [On a normal day, he might suggest the one where they can only draw a single hand once, but he wants this game to foster more thinking, not less, so being able to discard and draw new cards is the better way to play for now.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren shakes his head, his gaze fixed firmly on the cards...mostly because he really doesn't want to look at anything else right now. He's already starting to feel restless, and looking at the maze again isn't going to help with that. He's also starting to feel seriously guilty about being in such a bad mood, and looking at Fubuki, who's being incredibly patient and trying so hard to make this even a tiny bit fun, is definitely going to make that worse.

...Turns out just thinking about it is enough to make him feel worse, too. After a good long moment of staring, Ren finally looks away to stare down at his lap instead.]

[blizzardrock]

[From Fubuki's viewpoint, Ren hasn't been that angry... What seems to him to be a sudden downturn alarms him.]

[But if the issue is self-control, there's nothing Fubuki can do externally. Except maybe—]

Want to shuffle? Move your hands a bit? [He holds out the deck.]

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren hasn't been that angry from anyone's viewpoint but Ren's, really.

Ren eyes the cards for a moment, and then darts a hand out to snatch the deck from Fubuki so he can start shuffling it himself. It might be a while before he does anything other than shuffling, though.]

...Shun's really lucky to have someone like you looking after him.

[blizzardrock]

[It...doesn't make a difference if Shun rejects it, but Fubuki doesn't say as much.]

[Instead, he watches Ren's hands, because that...is...a lot of...shuffling......]

While you're doing that...I'll try something.

[He hasn't tried his cutting borderline on anything that strong...but anything's worth a shot. He gets up and faces a wall of the maze, picks a random spot and draws a line at it. So far, so good. Unfortunately...it seems the line didn't make enough of an impact to be noticeable. He has to go right up to it to discover that his line did anything at all...]

[shadowrevenger]

[As soon as Fubuki starts getting up, Ren's gaze is following him, and he even stops shuffling for a moment to watch him attempt to cut through the hedge. It wasn't a power he had, so it's not like he could have tried it, even if he'd gotten frustrated enough to give up on trying to solve the maze honestly.

When it seemingly doesn't accomplish anything, though, he feels frustrated with it all over again and goes right back to shuffling.]

It's a magic maze. It can't be that easy.

[blizzardrock]

[It might have made a little more of a dent if Fubuki were stronger, but...he's not going to mention that for now.] Thought it might have been worth a shot...

[Something occurs to him while his hands are on the maze.] Ren...were you looking for a way out, or to finish the maze?

[He was looking for the way out, himself, so he just assumed.]