Book Party [ota]

[myblueskies]

Who: Romeo, Elfnein and literally everyone in the heavens. Even if you weren't personally invited every invite came with a +ALL YOUR FRIENDS and there's also a sign. Strangers are just friends these two haven't met yet.
When: 29th April. Afternoon onwards
Where: Temple Smol (Gegute's library)
What: Just the cutest book party the heavens has ever known! Bring your best book!



Arrival

You might have received an invitation, or perhaps you are just passing Gegute’s library but there is an brightly painted sign outside.

Book Party today!

Everyone welcome! Bring your best book or dress up!

Lots of tasty food!

The doors of the temple are open and once you arrive in the lobby there are more bright arrows pointing the way into the library. If you are still stuck mister Goat is at the help desk, he’ll direct any one who needs it!

Activities

The layout of the library hasn’t really changed at all, except a few tables being moved to accommodate activities and all the comfy reading cushions have been brought to a central location. All the shelves are decorated with colourful paper chains and streamers.

Romeo had really enjoyed Yuna’s birthday party with the activities to do so he had copied the idea for Elfnein’s book party! On one table there is material for making bookmarks. You might want to recut the card strips, they are a little wonky. There is ribbon and glitter and colouring pens and glue.

On another there is a cardboard box puppet theatre, painted in a riot of colours with colourful strips of material as curtains. There is some felt and other material, as well as scissors, glue and wool to make puppets with. A sign reads in childish Hirigana. Show your best book!

Food

The invitations had promised lots of tasty food and there sure was a lot! A whole table filled with tasty treats, Romeo had been very very busy! There was a whole tray of chopped fruit, another of vegetables like carrots and cucumber.

There was bread and cheese and two bowls of pasta with different sauces. Another bowl of noddles with meat and vegetables. There was a huge bowl of rice too with a tray of grilled fish and a bowl of broccoli and asparagus.

An entire part of the table was taken up by apples and things with apples in them, apple turnovers and even an attempt at an apple pie, it was a bit smushed but probably tasted fine.

There was a tray of very misshapen cookies with messy icing and another of even messier cupcakes with far too much buttercream. There were also churos and a chocolate Gateaux, these seemed to have been bought rather than made, Romeo hadn’t even known where to start it making them!

There was an attempt at making books and other shapes out of rice and vegetables packed in the two bento boxes Ebisu’s temple had given him for Christmas, but they were a bit crumbly, misshapen or just plain strange. In the centre of Romeo’s bento attempts was his magical bento box, every time it was opened there were different fancy bento creations, if the children’s attempts left a lot to be desired.

Have fun!

Comments

ota

[chibisu]

Ebisu and the two shinki he has accompanying him- Aomi and Kiwami- don't really have a lot of time to spare... but it's only right to respond to an invitation, isn't it? So he come trotting in, beaming brightly while Kiwami goes over to place a very expensive melon over near the rest of the food.

Honestly, Ebisu doesn't have a lot of favorite books... Not yet, beyond what he knows get on bestseller lists. He'll easily admit that this is perhaps not the best party for him to be at. That's not stopping him from trying his best, however, and he quickly makes his way over to where the crafts are.

Five minutes later, and he's spilled a bunch of glitter glue over both his bookmark and the table. He's left frowning down at it. "So much harder than I expected..."

[myblueskies]

"Glitter is tricky!" Romeo is glad to see Ebisu! He knew that his friend was a really really busy god so it was really nice of him to come to Romeo and Elfnein's book party! He's glad to see Aomi and Kiwami as well and smiles at them both.

"Do you want me to get you more card?"

[chibisu]

Aomi smiles back politely even as he and Kiwami are in the middle of cleaning up the mess that's been made. That it wasn't worse is a relief, because it could be... But, fortunately, it's been caught just early enough for everything to be fine.

That leaves Ebisu free to nod cheerfully. There's no point in giving up just yet, right? "I'm certain the next one will come out a little better. I think!" And if it doesn't, well.. Maybe that will be the time to give up. "Are you skilled with using glitter?"

[myblueskies]

"I'm sure it will come out better too!" He quickly found some more card, he had made sure there was lots in case people made mistakes!

Romeo nodded, "I wasn't at first! But I like it lots because it makes everything look so sparkly so I made sure to try really hard and practice lots so I got good at using it!"

Practice made perfect after all!

[chibisu]

"So it's that simple..." Just keep trying, huh? Ebisu frowns down at the mess that is being cleaned up. It sounds like an awful lot of work, and he's not great at such fine details like this. However, well...

"Can you show me? Perhaps it would help." Also, he suspects Aomi won't let him get away with not trying.

[myblueskies]

"Yep!" Just keep trying. It was how you did anything in life! Or death. Same thing really when you got to live in heaven with lots of friends!

"Of course I'll show you!" He reaches over for the tub of glitter glue. "So you gotta do it slowly or it will all try and escape all at once!" He demonstrated, concentrating as he squeezed the bottle slowly slowly until the glue began coming out of the nozzle.

[chibisu]

Well, if he's asked, Ebisu certainly isn't going to be so disrespectful as to not give it his all. Shifting upwards a little bit so that he has a better view, Ebisu leans in attentively. So going slow is the key, huh?

"Is it hard, figuring out how much force to give?"

[unlucky7]

Ginia approaches her temple with some degree of sheepishness, a roll of paper towels in hand. She's not skipping work! Not much! She's just using her break to visit a friend's party because if there's one thing she's not going to do it's hurt the feelings of a child. That it's also an excuse for her to dress up like a dashing fencer from one of her favorite visual novels is a bonus.

At least she comes bringing paper towels. Ginia quickly wipes up the glittery mess before it can spread too far. There's no saving the bookmark, but there are plenty of blanks to work with. She throws the wad of paper towels away and trades it for her phone.

"Glitter glue is tricky." With everyone using the glue, it's a few nozzles have clogged; even she's accidentally squirted out more glue than she intended.

Ginia is seconds away from suggesting he use a glue stick and dust glitter on top before remembering exactly who she's talking to. With his clumsiness, he will definitely spill the glitter. With his luck, he'd probably avoid getting any on himself while covering everyone else. Okay, new plan.

"I'll see if I can unclog the nozzle on the glue bottles, that might help."

[chibisu]

Honestly, Ginia is allowed to use her breaks however she likes. Ebisu understands and, anyway, he doesn't think any of his other shinki have any of their gods that are alive or in good contact with them, so she's a rather special case. He's always understood that there would be times when she wouldn't be available at the temple. Even with such thoughts, she's proven to be a hard worker who's done more than anyone would have expected. Honestly, he can't be disappointed with her.

...Especially not when she's coming up to help clean up the mess he's just made.

"Thank you, Jitsumi." Relieved that he wouldn't be making further of a mess that their hosts would have to clean up, he beams up at her. "You're so efficient! I'm certain that will help a little more." Probably. Maybe.

"Have you already made one of these?

[unlucky7]

Possibly. Ginia pulls over the bottles of glitter glue and draws her combat knife from its back holster. One day she'll carry a more reasonably sized pocket knife for casual tasks that might require a knife, but today isn't that day. She handles the knife expertly, carefully using the tip to work out any glue plugs stuck in the nozzles.

At Ebisu's question, she nods and pulls out a finished bookmark from inside her coat. There's a blue origami flower carefully folded and glued onto a white background, a few dots of glitter on the inside, and a folded green paper stem. A larger green bookmark glued to the back makes a nice frame.

[chibisu]

"Oh! How skillful. As expected." Ebisu clasps his hands together, delighted at how skilled it looks. "Perhaps I should bear your talent in mind if we ever receive prayers for matters of art businesses. It's not often, as one of the other Gods of Fortune handles it, but they do appear on occasion."

[unlucky7]

Ginia smiles at his praise, but as she takes out her phone, her immediate reaction is to type a response refuting his words. There are others better suited, like Aomi. It's only a hobby she's picked up to occupy her hands as she works. She stops herself before she presses play.

It's not like she's not bad at origami. It's not as if she couldn't help out and then rely on others for help if she needed. What's the point in cutting herself down if Ebisu believes in her?

Ginia deletes the message and types up a new one.

"Thank you, sir. I picked it up as a hobby as it's a little less involved than flower arranging, but still meditative. I don't know how well I'd do in other art matters, but I'll try my best if the occasion arises."

[chibisu]

"It can be a good learning experience as well," Ebisu says encouragingly, seeming to have a little more luck with his next round of the chopsticks. "Everyone has their own strengths, so they should work with the office that best utilizes that, ideally, but it's not a bad thing to understand other areas of business, I think."

Or, you know, other areas of life, but he's working on thinking in more that than his own domain.

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako can't help but giggle when she hears Ebisu's comment and spots the spilled glitter around him.

Propping her chin in one palm, she grins at him from across the table. ]

You're gonna be sparkly for days now!

[chibisu]

For days...

[Cupping a hand to his chin- which spreads even more glitter to his face now, Ebisu no- he frowns a little bit before nodding.]

Well, so long as the glitter doesn't get onto anything important that might have to be scanned or copied, than it should be fine, I would think. Actually, even then, it should be fine. I don't think there's any glitter in production that would interfere to such a degree.

...Although everything is really sticky now. It... seems like it'll be hard to clean up...

[welcome_home]

[ She hides a giggle behind her hand before fixing him with a mock-serious expression, as if imparting him with a very important piece of knowledge.

...It's somewhat ruined by the fact that there's also glitter on her chin. And the tip of her nose. ]

I think glitter just likes getting everywhere. Especially places it's not supposed to be. It can't be stopped.

[chibisu]

But it's not a sentient thing, so it can't just make decisions like that!

[He sounds positively aghast. That's not allowed, glitter!!!]

[welcome_home]

[ She just gives him a very serious look and nods. ]

Are you sure? I mean, it's glitter. Just look at it! It goes wherever it wants!

[chibisu]

That's not allowed.

[Despite having a list of incarnations many centuries old, Ebisu manages to look like a proper child as he puffs out his cheeks. Glitter shouldn't be allowed to do that. It shouldn't.]

Who lets it do that? It needs better restraint.

Re: ota

[pure_radiantics]

[ Kairi arrives dressed in a flowing white dress and an ornate horned headdress, carrying a recurve bow that she managed to keep this whole time after Roxas bequeathed it to her when his temple disappeared.

Relevant to Ebisu and his two shinki, she spoke with Ginia 16 days ago and then promptly got very busy with Aymeric and Leo's wedding, which was now 8 days ago. So now she walks up to the small cadre to formally introduce herself to his two shinki. ]

Good afternoon to all of you! My name is Kairi, currently with Odin's temple.

[chibisu]

[With a look like that, Kairi would be mistaken as a goddess under normal circumstances... But Ebisu understands that this is partially a costume party. Not everyone here is wearing things they would wear in normal day occurrences. So he beams up at her as she approaches, doing his best to stay out of the way as Kiwami kneels down to help clean up the mess he's made.]

Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you! I've seen you around, but there's been no opportunity for a proper meeting. My name is Ebisu, God of Fishing and Commerce. These two are my shinki, Kiwami and Aomi.

[Kiwami gives a rather brisk nod of his head. Aomi makes a similar motion, but much smoother and almost more subtle in a way.]

[pure_radiantics]

[ Aomi is definitely the one who gets a stronger reaction when Kairi hears his name. She stands up a little straighter and nods back in a similar fashion. ]

It's so nice to meet you all - Ebisu, Kiwami, Aomi...

[ She tries to smile through her nerves. ]

Ah, Aomi-- Ginia... Jitsumi mentioned you. I was expecting I'd have to visit the temple in order to meet you first. I've been focusing more on my spellcasting lately.

[chibisu]

[That reaction doesn't go unnoticed, and Aomi doesn't seem surprised when he hears both of Ginia's names. Instead, he glances to Ebisu to a moment before gesturing to the seats that are around them.]

"Please, take a seat. Then, I assume you're interested in learning more spells, aren't you? I'd be interested to know in what you already have skill in. While I appreciate Jitsumi's recommendation, I do want to make sure there are things I can offer. Due to my circumstances, my experience is unfortunately limited."

[pure_radiantics]

I don't know what you mean by your circumstances... but it's alright, I'm interested in practicing as much as learning. Let's see...

[ Kairi does take a seat, then starts counting on her fingers as she recites the spells. ]

Bind, Silence, Truth... Umbra... Song for Warding Off Lightning, Song of Fire Fighting... and the Ablution ritual. Oh and I'm going to meet with Gi...tsumi to learn her new Mend spell.

[ Then she folds her hands in her lap with a smile and waits. ]

[chibisu]

"That's a very good range already. More than mine, if I'm being honest."

[A faint smile crosses his face.]

"But I am a nora, so learning magic isn't an opportunity I get very option."

[Hopefully that explains to her just what his circumstances are. This newer generation doesn't seem to be as bothered by the concept, not weighed down by the kind of old history that most of Heaven is... but that doesn't mean it's still not a restriction in many ways.]